Who: Barcelona vs Real Madrid What: Spanish Copa del Rey Where: Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain When: Sunday at 4:15pm local time (14:15 GMT)
LaLiga leaders Barcelona will look to extend their lead over second-placed Real Madrid to seven points when the teams meet in the Spanish top flight on Sunday.
With only four games to play of the domestic season in Spain, victory for Barca would put one hand on the title that Real won last season.
It would also cap a season of dominance for the Catalan club over their fierce rivals.
Al Jazeera looks through all the talking points and news before the final El Clasico of the season.
What has happened to Real’s Champions League and LaLiga defence?
Real Madrid’s season appeared disastrous a few weeks ago, but if Carlo Ancelotti’s side can finally beat rivals Barcelona in Sunday’s Clasico, their title defence will be resuscitated.
A victory for Real would narrow the gap to one point with three games to play.
Madrid were left licking their wounds after a Champions League quarterfinal thrashing by Arsenal, and coach Ancelotti is poised to depart at the end of the season, but it could yet be with a major trophy in his hands.
What happened to Barcelona’s quadruple hopes?
Barcelona’s European dream ended at the hands of Inter Milan on Tuesday, no doubt brightening spirits in the Spanish capital.
With Barcelona’s quadruple dream crushed by Inter, should Madrid defend their title, they could even classify their season as a success.
What have Barcelona won this season?
The Catalans have already secured the Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup, both of which they won by beating Real Madrid in the final.
“We will have a great opportunity, we have to prepare well – it’s an almost decisive match,” said Ancelotti.
Reflecting on the Copa del Rey final, which went to extra time, Ancelotti added, “The last match was competitive, we were very close to winning and I don’t think we have to invent a lot of new things [tactically],” said Ancelotti.
“We have to try and play a serious game, and we will do so with all the confidence in the world.
“Despite all our problems, the fact we are here and we can fight in this match is something beautiful.”
Will Ancelotti give Guler another go?
Last weekend against Celta Vigo Ancelotti also afforded Turkish 20-year-old Arda Guler a rare start, and he impressed in midfield, providing impetus which the retired Toni Kroos gave last season, as Madrid won a LaLiga and Champions League double.
Guler also impressed as a substitute in the Copa final and Ancelotti may start him at the Olympic stadium this weekend.
“At Madrid, you have to suck it up on the bench before you become an indisputable start in this team – Arda has the profile of a player who could be a starter at Madrid,” said Ancelotti.
“He sucked it up on the bench, he didn’t get annoyed and he has evolved … he’s not the same Guler from last September.”
What has Flick said before the match?
A home defeat on Sunday would not be the death knell for their title bid but would ramp up the pressure on Flick’s young, relatively inexperienced charges.
“[We] have to go on, we have five days to prepare and we want to win it,” said the German coach after the loss in Milan in one of the all-time classic Champions League semifinals.
“[This defeat] must wake up the hunger to win the title, this is important for me.”
What are Barcelona’s remaining fixtures?
Barcelona make the short trip to cross-city rivals Espanyol on Thursday before entertaining Villareal next Sunday in their final home fixture of the campaign.
The season finale sees Barca head to Bilbao on May 25, to face Athletic Club, who were knocked out of the Europa League by Manchester United on Thursday.
What are Real Madrid’s remaining fixtures?
Real entertain Mallorca on Wednesday before travelling to Seville next Sunday.
Their final game of the season is home to Real Sociedad.
Barcelona team news
Barcelona defender Jules Kounde is absent with a hamstring injury on Thursday.
Striker Robert Lewandowski returned to the bench against Inter following a leg injury.
Goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny will be challenged for a starting place by first-choice keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, who is back after a long injury layoff.
Predicted Barcelona XI: Szczesny; Eric, Cubarsi, Martinez, Martin; Pedri, de Jong; Yamal, Olmo, Raphinha; Lewandowski
Real Madrid team news
Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao have been ruled out for the remainder of the season and have been joined on the sidelines by, Eduardo Camavinga, Antonio Rudiger, Ferland Mendy and David Alaba.
Brazilian forward Rodrygo, however, is set to return from illness.
Predicted Real Madrid XI: Courtois; Vazquez, Tchouameni, Asencio, Garcia; Valverde, Modric; Rodrygo, Bellingham, Vinicius; Mbappe
Mexico has called on Google to not change the name of the Gulf of Mexico for US users, despite Trump’s executive order.
Mexico has sued the technology company Google for adopting United States President Donald Trump’s labelling of the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America”.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced the lawsuit on Friday, without providing further details. Mexico’s foreign relations ministry had previously sent letters to the tech giant asking it not to use “Gulf of America” to refer to waters within its territory.
Currently, the Gulf of Mexico appears as the “Gulf of America” on Google Maps for users within the US. It appears as “Gulf of Mexico” for users outside of the US.
On January 20, his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order changing the body of water’s name in all references by the federal government. A few weeks later, on February 9, he flew over the gulf and declared it to be “Gulf of America Day” in a separate proclamation.
Critics have said the move is in line with Trump’s expansionist goals, which include threatening to take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, and pushing for Canada to become the “51st state”.
The body of water in question, an oceanic basin cradled between the southern US and Mexico, has carried the name “Gulf of Mexico” for more than 400 years.
Mexico has argued that, if the US is to adopt the term “Gulf of America”, the new name should only apply to the part of the gulf that sits over the US continental shelf. That boundary generally aligns with the US-Mexico maritime border.
In February, Cris Turner, Google’s vice president of government affairs and public policy, told Mexico it would not change its naming convention, according to a letter shared by Sheinbaum at the time.
Turner said the company was following its “longstanding maps policies impartially and consistently across all regions”.
Google, part of the Alphabet conglomerate, has said it updates its region names according to the US Geographic Names System.
Since taking office, Trump has also moved to change federal documents referring to the tallest peak in North America as Denali, its traditional Alaskan name. He has reverted its name to Mount McKinley, a more recent name adopted by gold miners to honour a slain president.
The controversy over the “Gulf of Mexico”, however, has galvanised politicians in Trump’s Republican Party.
On Thursday, the US House of Representatives voted along party lines, 211 to 206, to formalise “Gulf of America” as the official name, with only one Republican joining the Democrats in opposition. The bill is likely to face steeper odds in the Senate, should it be taken up for a vote.
The Mexico-Google standoff has not been the only tussle related to Trump’s renaming of the gulf.
A month after taking office, the White House sought to block The Associated Press news agency from reporting from the Oval Office and on board Air Force One, in retaliation for the organisation’s insistence on referring to the body of water as the Gulf of Mexico.
A federal judge ordered the White House last month to restore the agency’s full access to cover presidential events, citing First Amendment rights that bar the administration from punishing news outlets for the content of their speech.
Pope Leo XIV has supported his predecessor – and attention will focus on his early actions
Even before his name was announced from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, the crowds below were chanting “Viva il Papa” – Long live the Pope.
Robert Francis Prevost, 69, has become the 267th occupant of the throne of St Peter and he will be known as Leo XIV.
He is the first American to fill the role of pope, although he is considered as much a cardinal from Latin America because of the many years he spent as a missionary in Peru.
Born in Chicago in 1955 to parents of Spanish and Franco-Italian descent, Leo served as an altar boy and was ordained in 1982.
Although he moved to Peru three years later, he returned regularly to the US to serve as a pastor and a prior in his home city.
He has Peruvian nationality and is fondly remembered as a figure who worked with marginalised communities and helped build bridges.
He spent 10 years as a local parish pastor and as a teacher at a seminary in Trujillo in north-western Peru.
In his first words as Pope, Leo spoke fondly of his predecessor Francis.
“We still hear in our ears the weak but always courageous voice of Pope Francis who blessed us,” he said.
“United and hand-in-hand with God, let us advance together,” he told cheering crowds.
Getty Images
Cardinal Prevost shares a quiet moment with Pope Francis (R) in February 2025
The Pope also spoke of his role in the Augustinian Order.
In 2014, Francis made him Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru.
He is well known to cardinals because of his high-profile role as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in Latin America which has the important task of selecting and supervising bishops.
He became archbishop in January 2023 and within a few months, Francis made him a cardinal.
From white smoke to balcony speech, watch Pope Leo XIV unveiled as new pontiff
What is his background?
The new pontiff was born in Chicago in 1955, and served as an altar boy and was ordained in 1982.
Before becoming the new leader of the Catholic Church, Leo told Italian network Rai that he grew up in a family of immigrants.
“I was born in the United States… But my grandparents were all immigrants, French, Spanish… I was raised in a very Catholic family, both of my parents were very engaged in the parish,” he said.
Although Leo was born in the US, the Vatican described him as the second pope from the Americas (Francis was from Argentina).
Jari Honora, a genealogist and historian in the US state of Louisiana, said Leo has strong ties to New Orleans’ black community.
He told the BBC that the new pontiff’s maternal grandparents lived in a now-demolished home in the city’s seventh ward, and she also rented a place in the iconic Pontalba building in New Orleans’ French Quarter.
Mr Honora said Pope Leo’s grandparents are described as black or mulatto in historical records, but that the family’s identity was listed as white when they moved to Chicago – a common practice among black families looking to escape racial segregation.
The Pope’s background “indicates that [American] stories, the experiences of our ancestors are more tightly woven than we could have ever imagined,” he said.
“It shrinks that gap between Rome and New Orleans or New Orleans and Chicago.”
What are Pope Leo’s views?
Early attention will focus on Leo XIV’s pronouncements to see whether he will continue his predecessor’s reforms in the Roman Catholic Church.
In choosing his papal name, Leo has signified a commitment to dynamic social issues, according to experts.
The first pontiff to use the name Leo, whose papacy ended in 461, met Attila the Hun and persuaded him not to attack Rome.
The last Pope Leo led the Church from 1878 to 1903 and wrote an influential treatise on workers’ rights.
Former Archbishop of Boston Seán Patrick O’Malley wrote on his blog that the new pontiff “has chosen a name widely associated with the social justice legacy of Pope Leo XIII, who was pontiff at a time of epic upheaval in the world, the time of the industrial revolution, the beginning of Marxism, and widespread immigration”.
The new Pope’s LGBT views are unclear, but some groups, including the conservative College of Cardinals, believe he may be less supportive than Francis.
Leo XIV has shown support for a declaration from Francis to permit blessings for same-sex couples and others in “irregular situations”, although he has added that bishops must interpret such directives in accordance with local contexts and cultures.
Speaking last year about climate change, Cardinal Prevost said that it was time to move “from words to action”.
He called on mankind to build a “relationship of reciprocity” with the environment.
And he has spoken about concrete measures at the Vatican, including the installation of solar panels and the adoption of electric vehicles.
Pope Leo XIV has supported Pope Francis’ decision to allow women for the first time to join the Dicastery for Bishops, an administrative body that identifies and recommends future bishops to the Holy See.
“On several occasions we have seen that their point of view is an enrichment,” he told Vatican News in 2023.
In 2024, he told the Catholic News Service that women’s presence “contributes significantly to the process of discernment in looking for who we hope are the best candidates to serve the Church in episcopal ministry”.
Disagreements with the Trump administration?
The new pontiff is believed to have shared Francis’ views on migrants, the poor and the environment.
A former roommate of his, Reverend John Lydon, described Leo to the BBC as “outgoing”, “down to earth” and “very concerned with the poor”.
In recent months, he appears to have challenged the views of US Vice-President JD Vance.
A social media account in his name shared a social media post on X that was critical of the Trump administration’s deportation of a US resident to El Salvador.
The account also shared a critical comment piece written about a TV interview by Vance.
“JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others,” read the post, repeating the headline from the commentary on the National Catholic Reporter website.
Shortly after, the account shared another article, published by The Jesuit Review, and commented that Catholics “cannot support a rhetoric that demonizes immigrants as dangerously criminal simply because they have crossed the border in search of a better life for themselves and their families”.
The BBC has contacted the Vatican but has not independently confirmed the account, which was created in 2011, belongs to the new pontiff.
Pride and concern over his time in Peru
Leo moved to Peru as a missionary in 1985 to work in various rural communities.
He was known for working with marginalised people, and immersed himself in learning Spanish.
After a stint back in the United States, he returned to Peru again in 1988 to the city of Trujillo on the north coast where he trained young men to be priests and taught canon law.
In late 2014, when he was back in the US, he was put forward by Pope Francis to return to Peru as the Apostolic Administrator of Chiclayo, a diocese on Peru’s north coast and the following year he was appointed the Bishop of Chiclayo. He served in this role for nearly a decade.
In 2015, he obtained Peruvian citizenship. He reportedly often referred to Peru as “mi segunda patria”, my second homeland.
He championed various charities such as supporting soup kitchens and childcare for struggling families, and advocated for better housing on the north coast, which is prone to floods.
But not all in the country are proud of his record.
Accusations have been made about his handling of sexual abuse cases during his time as Bishop of Chiclayo. Three Peruvian women are among those who went public with claims that – as bishop – he failed to investigate and punish a priest accused of sexually abusing them, with claims dating back to 2007.
They said that when they raised their allegations with the diocese in 2022, no substantial or serious inquiry was opened.
Church officials denied this and said an investigation was opened, but was closed in 2023 by the ecclesiastical district and the Vatican after a local prosecutor said there was not enough evidence to support the civil claim.
An investigation by the prosecutor was reopened after media reports about the case and the BBC understands it is ongoing.
The BBC spoke in Chiclayo to Jesus Leon Angeles, who supports the parish where the accused priest works.
She said while the parish was “in defence of women”, it was also “in defence of the truth” and claimed the allegations were part of a “campaign” against Leo when he became a cardinal in Rome.
These allegations and the continued fallout from sexual abuse scandals within the Church are one of the challenges he will face as he now leads Catholics worldwide.
South America correspondent Ione Wells and Ali Abbas Ahmadi contributed reporting.
Crypto adoption will ramp up in 2025, and Best Wallet Token ($BEST) might just be the top new crypto launch to capitalize.
The project is currently undergoing a presale and has recently hit the $12 million raised mark. This shows substantial market appeal, which indicates that $BEST could see big gains once it is listed on exchanges.
But scratch beneath the surface and you’ll see exactly why investors are rushing to buy this project. It isn’t just hype; there’s real technological innovation happening.
Best Wallet is a next-generation Web3 wallet with robust security, advanced features, and a seamless user interface. It has all the tools to help users thrive in the crypto market.
And prospective investors still have an opportunity to buy $BEST at an early stage. The presale is ongoing and currently priced at $0.024985, but this will rise throughout the campaign, with the next uptick in under one day.
Best Wallet tackles rising crypto scams
Hackers and bad actors have upped their game and are deploying the latest technology to steal users’ funds.
Americans reportedly lost $9.3 billion in crypto-related scams in 2024, a 66% increase from one year earlier.
Phishing attacks are the most common, accounting for approximately $1 billion of losses across 300 incidents.
Meanwhile, rug pulls have also become more prevalent, with the most high-profile being the so-called “Argentina coin,” which exploded to a market capitalization of almost $1 billion before crashing to its current value of $5 million.
There was also a recent infamous case where fake TradingView YouTube channels used deep fakes and hijacked verified accounts to defraud victims and steal sensitive data.
Crypto scams are becoming more advanced, and modern problems require modern solutions. MetaMask or Phantom wallet may not protect you from these tech-savvy fraudsters, but the next-generation Web3 wallet Best Wallet can.
The project employs advanced security protection to ensure users’ funds remain safe.
It starts by integrating Fireblocks’ MPC-CMP technology. This feature splits private keys into multiple encrypted sections, meaning no single entity controls the entire private key. It eliminates any central point of failure and means that even if a device is compromised, the hacker will not gain access to the crypto wallet.
It also features built-in spam filters and automatic suspicious token detection, so users see only legitimate digital assets in their wallets.
Another core feature is Best Wallet’s smartphone two-factor authentication and biometric logins, providing a secure and seamless way to access your crypto wallet.
With that, the project is drawing serious attention from analysts. Crypto Gains said it’s “like investing in MetaMask if that had a token,” and forecasts that Best Wallet Token could see 10x gains this year.
A multichain crypto super app
Best Wallet isn’t just about securely storing digital assets; it’s building a blockchain super app that helps users to get the most out of their on-chain experience.
At its core, Best Wallet is a cross-chain ecosystem that enables seamless execution of almost every on-chain task.
The app supports 60 different blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, XRP, and more. The project boasts a cross-chain DEX that is connected to over 300 other exchanges and 30 blockchain bridges to always offer users the best token swap prices.
It also has features such as a presale aggregator, a staking aggregator, and derivatives trading, which provide users with additional ways to generate profits.
Holding the Best Wallet Token provides users with even more value. It unlocks trading-free discounts, higher staking yields, governance rights, and access to promotions on partner projects.
Last day to buy $BEST before price increase
With the $BEST presale price set to increase throughout the campaign, potential investors shouldn’t wait around it to get involved.
To join the Best Wallet Token presale, visit the project’s website, connect your crypto wallet, choose the amount of tokens you want to buy, and the crypto you want to pay with.
Prospective investors can rest assured that the $BEST token is safe and secure. It received a third-party audit from blockchain security firm Coinsult, which found no issues with its code.
You can also stay updated on the latest news by following the Best Wallet X account or joining its Telegram community. Alternatively, visit its website to buy tokens.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not provide financial advice. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile, and the market can be unpredictable. Always perform thorough research before making any cryptocurrency-related decisions.
India and Pakistan have been trading drone and artillery attacks in some of the most intense fighting in nearly 30 years. India claims it brought down some of the more than 300 drones launched by Pakistan. Pakistan denies sending the drones but said it shot down 77 Indian drones.
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University doctoral student detained as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestine visa holders, has been ordered to be released from immigration custody.
On Friday, Vermont-based US District Judge William Sessions ruled that Ozturk’s “detention cannot stand”.
“The court finds that she does not pose a danger to the community, nor does she present a risk of flight. The court orders the government to release Ms Ozturk from custody immediately,” Sessions said.
Lawyers for Ozturk, a Turkish citizen in the US on a student visa, had argued that the Trump administration’s efforts to detain and deport her violated her constitutional rights, including to free speech and due process.
Sessions appeared to side with the legal team’s argument, saying Ozturk’s “continued detention potentially chills the speech of the millions and millions of individuals in this country who are not citizens”.
Ozturk’s lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai, said in a statement she was “relieved and ecstatic” about the judge’s order but that it came far too late.
“When did speaking up against oppression become a crime? When did speaking up against genocide become something to be imprisoned for?” she said.
The 30-year-old Ozturk had appeared at the Vermont hearing via video from a detention centre in Louisiana, wearing an orange jumpsuit and a hijab.
During her testimony, she recounted being surrounded and detained by plain-clothed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents near her student housing in Somerville, Massachusetts, on March 25. Surveillance video of that incident later spread online, sparking outrage.
She said she suffered a series of asthma attacks, 12 in total, as she was being transferred to Louisiana. The first came at the airport in Atlanta, she said, and she did not have all of the medication she needed.
“I was afraid, and I was crying,” she said.
The doctoral student told the judge her studies related to community engagement in children in warzones. She was among dozens of student visa holders and permanent residents targeted by the Trump administration for pro-Palestine advocacy.
The administration has relied on an obscure provision of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the secretary of state to deport someone deemed to “adversely affect US foreign policy interests”.
Officials have broadly portrayed pro-Palestinian protests and other forms of advocacy as “anti-Semitic”, despite providing scant evidence in individual cases.
Still, Ozturk’s detention has been notable given her relatively low public profile, with her only public advocacy coming in the form of an article she co-wrote with three other students for the campus newspaper. The piece criticised the university’s response to student-led calls for administrators to acknowledge “Palestinian genocide” and “disclose its investments and divest from companies” with links to Israel.
Speaking at Friday’s hearings, Ozturk said Tufts would provide her housing if she is released, and her friends and lawyers would drive her to future court hearings.
She added that she remained committed to finishing her PhD degree.
Crackdown on pro-Palestine advocacy
The judge’s order on Friday came just over a week after Mohsen Mahdawi, a US permanent resident and pro-Palestine protest leader at Columbia University, was released from immigration detention by another federal judge in Vermont.
On Thursday, Mahdawi, who still faces an ongoing deportation case, announced the creation of the Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund, to help immigrants facing deportation hearings.
Speaking to Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey, Mahdawi recounted being detained by immigration officials as he attended a citizenship hearing in Vermont in April.
He said ICE agents had sought to transfer him to the more conservative jurisdiction in Louisiana, as they had done with Ozturk and Mahmoud Khalil, another Columbia University protest leader targeted for deportation.
Mahdawi added that the move was meant to isolate him from his community and legal support.
“They had the aeroplane ticket, commercial flight printed with my name on it, but I was lucky enough that we missed the flight by nine minutes,” Mahdawi said.
That brief window, he explained, gave his lawyers time to intervene. They sought and received a temporary restraining order preventing Mahdawi from being transferred out of the state.
Mahdawi credits remaining in Vermont with paving the way to his release.
“I mean, if the plan worked out as they have laid it down, we would not be having this interview,” he said.
Prior to Ozturk’s hearing on Friday, Judge Sessions had ordered her to be transferred to Vermont no later than May 14, as that is where she was held at the time her lawyers filed an initial petition for her release.
Sessions, however, decided to continue with her bail hearing even before Ozturk was physically moved. The Trump administration had previously appealed an earlier deadline for her transfer to Vermont, set for May 1.
Ozturk has not been accused of any crime. The Trump administration has offered little justification for its decision to revoke Ozturk’s student visa, pointing only to the article she co-authored and claiming she was “creating a hostile environment for Jewish students”.
The administration has broadly claimed that visa holders are not afforded the same constitutional rights protections as US citizens, a question that could eventually be decided by the Supreme Court.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt briefly weighed in on Friday’s decision during her daily news briefing, where she reiterated the administration’s position that such rulings are tantamount to judicial interference.
“We’ve made quite clear that lower-level judges should not be dictating the foreign policy of the United States, and we absolutely believe that the president and the Department of Homeland Security are well within their legal rights to deport illegal immigrants,” she said.
“It is a privilege, not a right, to come to this country on a visa,” she added.
South Africa has criticised the US amid reports it could receive white Afrikaners as refugees as early as next week.
A document seen by the BBC’s US partner, CBS, describes the potential resettlement as a “priority” for President Donald Trump’s government, however the timing has not been publicly confirmed by the White House.
In a statement published on Friday, South Africa’s foreign ministry described the purported move as “politically motivated” and designed to undermine South Africa’s “constitutional democracy”.
In February President Trump described Afrikaners as victims of “racial discrimination” in an executive order, opening up the prospect for them to resettle in the US.
The South African authorities said they would not block the departures of those chosen for resettlement, but that the government had sought assurances from its American counterpart that those selected had been fully vetted and did not have pending criminal charges.
South Africa reiterated that allegations of discrimination against the country’s white minority are unfounded, adding that crime statistics do not indicate that any racial group has been targeted in violent crimes on farms.
Some groups representing the rights of white farmers have said they are being deliberately killed because of their race.
A spokesperson for the US state department told the BBC they were interviewing individuals interested in resettling in the US, and prioritising “Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination”, but would not confirm when the resettlement would begin.
The Trump administration has also accused South Africa of seizing land from white farmers without compensation, something Pretoria has repeatedly denied.
Bitcoin has surged 2.3% today to hit the $97,000 mark, stoking massive excitement in the market.
This move pushed the total crypto industry market cap back above $3 trillion, which is close to its 30-day high.
But Bitcoin’s strength also allows altcoins to rally at a higher rate due to their lower market capitalizations. As such, traders seeking to maximize their gains may be better served investing in altcoins rather than directly in Bitcoin.
With that in mind, what is the best crypto to buy now? Read on to discover our top four picks.
Litecoin
Litecoin is a Bitcoin fork that offers faster and lower-cost transactions. As Bitcoin shows strength today, Litecoin is gaining real pace.
It’s the biggest gainer in the top 100 cryptos, with a whopping 11% gain in the past 24 hours. This is also helped by progress with its spot ETF applications.
While Litecoin is built using the same blockchain framework and underlying verification method as Bitcoin, there are some key differences. Mainly, it comes down to decentralization and scalability.
Litecoin uses a hashing function called Scrypt to verify transactions. It uses the same SHA-256 framework as Bitcoin but requires much more memory, which makes it less vulnerable to certain types of ASIC attacks.
Meanwhile, Litecoin also reduced the block time from Bitcoin’s 10 minutes to 2.5 minutes, which makes the network faster.
The project currently has a market cap of $6.9 billion, which is substantially lower than Bitcoin’s.
With what appears to be major technological upgrades and a much lower market cap than Bitcoin, Litecoin is well-positioned to continue rising alongside Bitcoin this year.
BTC Bull Token
BTC Bull Token is a Bitcoin-themed meme coin on the Ethereum blockchain. But that’s not why it could be the best crypto to buy. The real reason is that it’s the first-ever cryptocurrency to pay its holders Bitcoin rewards.
Picture this: you’re holding a Bitcoin-themed meme coin and Bitcoin begins to break key price targets, $100K, $150K, $200K, and so on. Naturally, your meme coin is going parabolic. Bitcoin holders are getting rich and looking for ways to compound their gains, so they’re investing.
But at the same time, you’re also receiving $BTC airdrops to your crypto wallet. That’s precisely what BTC Bull Token offers.
It will run $BTC and $BTCBULL airdrops at key Bitcoin price milestones, starting when Bitcoin hits $100K. These airdrops will continue with every $50K price increase until Bitcoin hits $1 million.
The project is undergoing a presale and has raised $5.3 million so far.
But with Bitcoin currently trading above $97K, those seeking to catch the $100K airdrop should not wait around to buy $BTCBULL.
Kaito
Kaito is an AI-powered platform that pulls data from thousands of sources, allowing users to research specific cryptocurrencies, topics, and narratives.
The crypto industry moves fast, and real-time market intelligence is the only way to remain competitive, making Kaito a crucial tool.
It offers a variety of features, including MetaSearch, Sentiment Tracking, Smart Alerts, narrative rotations, and more.
This allows users to identify emerging trends and protect their capital by understanding whether any positions they hold are fading out.
The $KAITO token is used for governance, market incentives, and value exchange within the ecosystem. And right now, it’s in huge demand.
It has gained 29% in the last day, making it the biggest gainer in the top 200 cryptos by market cap.
With a strong use case and real momentum, Kaito appears primed for serious gains in the coming months.
Alpaca Finance
Alpaca Finance increased fivefold earlier this week, but it crashed as quickly as it rose.
However, bulls have once again taken control of the market, and now $ALPACA is at a 104% premium from this time 24 hours ago. Granted, the project is seeing wild volatility right now, but after hitting highs of $1 earlier this week, it has room for massive upside from its current $0.37 price tag.
While not without risk, there’s every chance that $ALPACA rockets back to its weekly high and potentially beyond, providing investors with over a 2x gain from its current price.
Alpaca Finance is a BNB Chain DeFi project that enables “leveraged yield farming.” It allows users to lend crypto and earn leveraged yields, making it more profitable than the leading lending platforms like Aave.
Something else that makes Alpaca Finance unique is that it offers undercollateralized loans, which was previously a far-off dream for the blockchain industry.
Despite its volatile price performance, Alpaca Finance appears to have a solid, long-term use case.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not provide financial advice. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile, and the market can be unpredictable. Always perform thorough research before making any cryptocurrency-related decisions.
The UK and the US have reached a deal over tariffs on some goods traded between the countries.
President Donald Trump’s blanket 10% tariffs on imports from countries around the world still applies to most UK goods entering the US.
But the deal has reduced or removed tariffs on some of the UK’s exports, including cars, steel and aluminium.
Here’s an at-a-glance look at what’s in the deal.
This isn’t a trade deal
Trump declared on social media this announcement would be a “major trade deal” – it’s not.
He does not have the authority to sign the type of free-trade agreement India and the UK finalised earlier this week – this lies with Congress.
Congress would need to approve a trade agreement, which would take longer than the 90-day pause in place on some of Trump’s tariffs.
This is an agreement which has reversed or cut some of those tariffs on specific goods.
It is only the bare bones of a narrow agreement, there will be months of negotiations and legal paperwork to follow.
Car tariffs cut to 10%
Trump had placed import taxes of 25% on cars and car parts coming into the US on top of the existing 2.5%.
This has been cut to 10% for a maximum of 100,000 UK cars, which matches the number of cars the UK exported last year.
But any cars exported above that quota will be subject to a 27.5% import tax.
Cars are the UK’s biggest export to the US – worth about £9bn last year.
Jaguar Land Rover, which exports almost a quarter of its cars to the US, said the deal “secures greater certainty for our sector”.
But car industry leaders have told the BBC the quota could effectively put a ceiling on the number they can export competitively.
The UK currently imposes a 10% levy on US car imports, but it is not clear if there is any change to this.
The US has previously demanded the tax be cut to 2.5%, and Chancellor Rachel Reeves had indicated she is open to such a cut.
Trump also announced that Rolls-Royce engines and plane parts will be able to be exported from the UK to the US tariff-free.
No tariffs on steel and aluminium
A 25% tariff on steel and aluminium imports into the US that came into effect in March has been scrapped.
This is good news for firms such as British Steel which was brought under government control as it struggled to stay operational.
However, the White House said it would impose a quota on the “most favoured nation rates for UK steel and aluminium and certain derivative steel and aluminium products.”
It is currently unclear how much of these products the UK will be able to export to the US under this quota system without paying more.
It is also unclear whether the scrapping of tariffs will apply to steel derivative products and whether only steel melted and poured in the UK will benefit.
The UK exports a relatively small amount of steel and aluminium to the US, about £700m in total.
However, the tariffs also cover products made with steel and aluminium, including things such as gym equipment, furniture and machinery.
These are worth much more, about £2.2bn, or about 5% of UK exports to the US last year.
Industry body Steel UK said there were “a number hoops to jump through before the UK steel sector can see the benefits of this deal”.
It said firms needed to know what supply chain conditions need to be met, what the quotas are and when they take effect.
Pharmaceuticals still the big unknown
What will be agreed on pharmaceuticals is still unknown with the UK saying work would continue on this and the remaining reciprocal tariffs.
The US said both countries would “promptly negotiate significantly preferential treatment outcomes on pharmaceuticals”.
Pharmaceuticals are a major export for the UK when it comes to US trade – last year sales of these products were worth £6.6bn making it the UK’s second-biggest export to the US.
It’s also America’s fourth biggest export to the UK, valued at £4bn last year.
Most countries, including the US, imposed few or no tariffs on finished drugs, as part of an agreement aimed at keeping medicines affordable.
The president has not announced any trade restrictions on medicines yet.
No change on digital services tax
There was no change to the UK’s 2% digital services tax in this deal and it appears to be a sticking point.
Businesses that run social media, search engines or online marketplaces have to pay it if they receive more than £500m in global revenues and £25m from UK users annually.
But this threshold is easily met by US tech giants like Meta, Google, Apple.
The UK reportedly netted nearly £360m from American tech firms via the tax in its first year.
The UK government said it had “agreed to work on a digital trade deal”.
But the US government said it was “disappointed that the UK was unwilling to agree to fully address the tax.
“It is discriminatory, unjustified, and should be removed promptly,” it said.
No drop to food standards
US beef exports to the UK had been subject to a 20% tariff within a quota of 1,000 metric tons. The UK has scrapped this tariff and raised the quota to 13,000 metric tonnes, according to the White House document.
In return, the UK has been given a tariff-free quota for 13,000 metric tonnes of exports, which trade ministers said was the “first time” British farmers had been given this kind of deal.
Crucially, there will be no weakening of UK food standards on imports as part of this deal, the UK government statement said.
Many American farmers use growth hormones as a standard part of their beef production, something that was banned in the UK and the European Union in the 1980s.
The US has previously pushed for a relaxation of rules for its agricultural products, including beef from cattle that have been given growth hormones.
This is an area where the UK has chosen alignment with EU – and the forthcoming “Brexit reset” with the EU – over the US.
The tariff on ethanol coming into the UK from the US has also been scrapped.
The National Farmers Union said the inclusion of “a significant volume of bioethanol [a renewable fuel made from crops] in the deal raises concerns for British arable farmers”.
US-backed Gaza foundation proposal to keep aid from Hamas, but critics slam bypass of UN, Israeli threat to besieged Palestinian civilians.
The United States has said a new foundation is being established to coordinate aid deliveries to Gaza amid Israel’s two-month blockade.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told reporters on Friday that Israel would not be involved in distributing aid in the enclave but would provide security for the operations of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The plan for the “charitable” and “non-governmental” initiative was announced on Thursday by State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce. Although few details were revealed, it appears part of a US-Israeli push to take over the distribution of aid to prevent it from being diverted by Hamas and other groups.
The AP news agency reported that the newly created GHF had issued a proposal to implement a new aid distribution system, supplanting the current one run by the United Nations and other international aid agencies.
Reports claim that under the proposal, private contractors will be used to secure hubs where Palestinians will be required to gather to collect supplies.
Mike Huckabee said Israel would provide security for the US foundation (File: Reuters]
Israel, which has halted the entry of all aid to Gaza since March 2, deepening the humanitarian crisis, has previously said it will not relax the blockade until a system is in place that gives it control over the distribution, insisting that supplies are used to support Hamas.
The intention to sideline the United Nations has drawn sharp criticism from humanitarian organisations, and it is unclear if the GHF proposal will ease those concerns.
Bruce promised further announcements regarding the proposal would follow soon. “I was hoping to introduce it today, but the foundation will be announcing this shortly,” she said.
The former executive director of the UN World Food Programme David Beasley is in talks with the US, Israel and other key players to head the GHF, reported US outlet Axis, quoting unnamed sources.
Israel’s blockade, implemented about two weeks before it resumed its bombardment of the enclave, has left Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians, most of whom have been displaced multiple times, desperately short of food, fuel, and medicine.
Israeli ‘aid plan’
The US plan appears to be designed along similar lines to a proposal approved by Israel’s security cabinet on Sunday.
Under the scheme, four “Secure Distribution Sites” would be constructed, each intended to serve 300,000 people. Palestinians expelled from northern Gaza would be forced to relocate to reach the centres.
The plan was met by sharp criticism from the UN and other aid groups, who noted that Palestinians have regularly come under attack from Israeli forces while collecting aid.
Addressing those concerns, Huckabee on Friday said “the most significant danger is not doing anything” and “people dying from hunger”.
The aid would be “distributed effectively, but also safely”, the US official insisted, according to Israeli daily Haaretz.
The decision to bypass international aid agencies comes amid growing alarm over famine-like conditions in the besieged territory, where Israel’s near-total blockade has cut off all essential supplies for almost three months.
At least 57 Palestinians have starved to death in Gaza, with most of the victims being children, as well as the sick and elderly.
UN humanitarian agency spokesperson Jens Laerke condemned the effort to dismantle existing aid structures on Tuesday.
“This appears to be a deliberate attempt to weaponise the aid,” he said. “It should be based solely on humanitarian need.”
China’s Xi Jinping stood alongside Putin, an indication of his significance in Friday’s parade
Vladimir Putin has led Russia’s Victory Day commemorations with a parade in Red Square and heightened security after days of Ukrainian strikes targeting the capital.
China’s Xi Jinping joined Putin as he told thousands of soldiers and more than 20 international leaders that Russia remembered the lessons of World War Two.
Putin used his speech to tie the war to today’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and said all of Russia was behind what he called the “special military operation” – now well into its fourth year.
For the first time, a column of trucks carrying various combat drones took part in the Victory Day parade, apparently because of their widescale use in Ukraine.
A unilateral, three-day ceasefire was announced by Russia to coincide with the lavish 80th anniversary event, which Ukraine rejected as a “theatrical show”.
Kyiv has labelled the truce as a farce, accusing Russia of launching thousands of attacks since it came into force at midnight on Wednesday. Russia says it has observed the ceasefire and accuses Ukraine of hundreds of violations.
In the hours before the ceasefire, Ukrainian drone strikes prompted airport closures and disruption for thousands of air passengers in Russia.
Heavy security and restrictions were in place in the centre of Moscow on Friday as Russia marked the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany.
Reuters
Before Putin’s address and a one-minute silence, the commander of ground troops, Oleg Salyukov, led 11,000 troops into Red Square, including some 1,500 who had fought in Ukraine. They were then inspected by Defence Minister Andrei Belousov.
Putin insisted that Russia “was and will be an indestructible barrier against Nazism, Russophobia, antisemitism”. The Russian leader has repeatedly and falsely referred to Ukraine’s leadership as Nazis.
“Truth and justice are on our side,” he said, insisting that “the “entire country, society and people support the participants” of the Ukraine war.
Russia said 27 world leaders were attending the event, but it was the presence of China’s leader, alongside Putin and more than 100 Chinese soldiers marching on Red Square, that stood out.
China’s Xi Jinping had pride of place, sporting an orange and black St George ribbon, which Russia sees as a symbol of military glory but which has been banned by several neighbouring countries.
Russian state TV spoke of relations between the two countries as being at their highest-ever level, united against the “collective West”.
Russia’s pivot to the east was underlined by military contingents from North Korea, Vietnam and Mongolia.
Thousands of North Koreans have fought against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region and Putin made a point of personally greeting some of the soldiers on Red Square, hugging one highly decorated officer.
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un visited the Russian embassy in Pyongyang to highlight his country’s increasing ties with Moscow.
Ria Novosti
Putin hugs a North Korean officer on Red Square
Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro were among the assembled guests, along with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Robert Fico, Slovakia’s prime minister who is the only European Union leader to travel to Moscow.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas had earlier made clear that leaders of EU member states and countries aspiring to join the union should not take part in the event because of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Serbia is an EU candidate country and Vucic said he expected he would face consequences because of his decision to go.
Ria Novosti/Handout
Members of the Chinese army took part in the parade
For Putin, the attendance of China’s Xi on Victory Day is seen as a significant achievement, and he praised the “courageous people of China” as he paid tribute to Russia’s allies in World War Two.
Although Chinese forces played a prominent role in fighting against Japan, the government in Taiwan said Beijing and Moscow had distorted history. Taiwan said Chinese communist forces had made “no substantial contribution” in the war, unlike China’s then republican government, which later fled to Taiwan.
Putin and Xi held two rounds of talks before the parade as well as an informal chat on the war in Ukraine, Chinese reports said.
Joining the parade was a wide variety of Russian military hardware, including Yars missile systems, tanks and armoured personnel carriers. Six Su-25 military jets then flew over Red Square to complete the parade.
Watch: Behind the smiles – three things to watch as Xi meets Putin
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky had earlier warned that he could not guarantee the safety of anyone attending the event and has urged heads of state not to travel to Moscow.
Mykhailo Samus, a Ukrainian military analyst and director of the New Geopolitics Research Network, told the BBC he believed that Ukraine would forego attacking the parade, largely because of the presence of foreign leaders.
But should Ukraine choose to do so, it would constitute a legitimate military target, Samus said.
During his evening address on Thursday, Zelensky said that Ukraine was “ready for a full ceasefire starting right now”.
“But it must be real,” he said in a video on X. “No missile or drone strikes, no hundreds of assaults on the front.”
He called on Russia to support the ceasefire and “prove their willingness to end the war”.
Ukraine has accused Russia of violating its own truce thousands of times since it was supposed to come into effect on Wednesday night.
On the second day of the truce, Ukraine said there had been nearly 200 clashes along the front line, eighteen Russian air strikes and almost four thousand instances of shelling by Russian troops.
In Prymorske, a village in the Zaporizhzhia region, a woman was reportedly killed after a Russian drone struck her car.
Russia’s defence ministry has said that all groups of Russian forces in Ukraine “completely ceased combat operations and remained on the previously occupied lines and positions”. However, they were reacting in a “mirror-like manner” to violations by Ukrainian forces.
Zelensky has repeatedly dismissed Putin’s proposal as a “game” and called for a longer truce of at least 30 days, something that is supported by Ukraine’s allies in Europe and the US.
He said he had spoken with US President Donald Trump to reiterate his readiness for a “long and lasting peace” and talks “in any format”. He said he had told Trump that a 30-day ceasefire was a “real indicator” of moving towards peace.
Writing on Truth Social on Thursday, the US president reiterated the call for an unconditional ceasefire and warned of further sanctions for any party failing to sign up to it.
One of the hardest parts of living with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) for Emily Audu* is becoming emotionally tethered to a ‘favourite person’. Her world revolves around that one person; their words, presence, and approval. The fixation becomes a distraction from the internal chaos she faces daily. Even the smallest disappointment can unravel her, triggering a downward spiral that takes months to escape.
BPD is a mental health condition marked by intense, unstable relationship patterns, impulsiveness, and unhealthy self-perception, which affects the quality of their lives and relationships. People with BPD often experience emotional splits; intense shifts in their emotions and perceptions, leading to mood swings, swinging between idealising people and devaluing them, struggling with ambiguity, and impulsive behaviour.
These emotional extremes can make maintaining a more balanced perspective and relationships hard, leading to significant internal distress.
For Emily, some of the symptoms manifest as panic attacks, imagined scenarios she begins to believe and live out, and severe difficulty regulating her emotions. Her emotional pain is so intense, it sometimes feels physical, occasionally leading to short-term paralysis—a state where anxiety and anguish can leave her unable to move.
“It is a painful condition,” she said.
“It’s often misunderstood and confused with bipolar disorder, but they are not the same. With BPD, there’s usually no middle ground; my day is either amazing or horrible. My emotions are heightened to extremes,” Emily told HumAngle. “Sometimes, to cope, I jokingly refer to myself as a vampire. Living with BPD is unpredictable. I can go from being really happy to having a panic attack and feeling intense emotional pain within minutes. Anything can trigger me.”
Even before the 21-year-old based in Abuja, North-central Nigeria, was diagnosed with the condition, she always sensed she was different. There was a clear distinction between how her brain worked and how others processed things.
She struggles to handle emotions or situations like others around her. People often accuse her of overreacting and jumping to conclusions, and she is swift to believe someone hates her, leading to feelings of betrayal and defensiveness. She is also prone to pushing people away while simultaneously craving their closeness.
In relationships, she often self-sabotages. When things fall apart, she blames others, even when she knows she contributed to the breakdown.
“Right now, I am at a point where I feel like giving up on relationships. It’s hard for people to be with me because I recognise that I chase them away,” she lamented. “[The condition] makes it hard for me to live like others. Sometimes, I wish I knew what it felt like to be ‘normal.’ I wear a mask just to get through the day. I would wear makeup to feel like I was hiding from the world.”
The impact on her education has been massive. She struggled for an entire year in university. Even though she was attending classes, she was absent mentally, feeling trapped in her head. Some days, she couldn’t leave her bed, even when she struggled with sleep.
“I remember going weeks without sleep, not even a nap. It was during my final year that I managed to pull myself together. I realised how much I had missed, and I was grateful I could catch up and hit my target. But it was a rough, bumpy road,” she recalled.
Her secondary school years were clouded by depression and anger. She had a lot happening then and didn’t have the time or space to process them. She was wrapped in a bubble of defensiveness and depression, leading to intense and uncontrollable emotional splits.
A long-awaited diagnosis
For years, Emily didn’t know what was wrong. It wasn’t until a seizure-like panic attack in 2023 that she was finally diagnosed. The episode, later identified as a Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizure (PNES), lasted several minutes and left those around her frightened and confused.
“That was a wake-up call for me. After that experience, I knew I needed help,” she said.
She began taking various medications, including antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs, but continued to struggle. Her parents failed to understand the depth of her suffering. Often called “lazy”, her reactions were mislabelled as disrespectful.
“My mum tried to be supportive, but not in the way I needed. I never said anything because I knew she was trying her best,” Emily recounted.
As the eldest child, she felt the need to conceal her struggles. She also experienced abuse at different points in her life, which may be a factor that contributed to her condition. Her family dynamic, she believes, has played a role. Her relationship with her father remains strained. While she shares a stronger bond with her mother, the older woman still doesn’t understand why professional help is necessary for her daughter’s condition. Emily’s mother believes prayer alone should suffice.
Emily, a person of faith, believes in the power of prayer but also knows that her condition cannot be prayed away.
A study by Covenant University, a leading Nigerian private institution, links adverse childhood experiences, including dysfunctional family dynamics, abuse, and neglect, to BPD amongst young people in the country.
‘I still feel alone’
Emily says another difficult part of living with BPD is how others perceive her. People may see her as “evil” or “toxic” when she struggles with emotional regulation, making her feel like she’s too much to handle. Despite this, she has close friends who understand and support her.
She has paused her medication due to side effects, such as hormonal imbalances and emotional numbness. Though she was meant to revisit her prescription, she never followed through. Therapy, too, is currently on hold. It no longer feels helpful.
Illustration: Akila Jibrin/HumAngle
“It’s like I have given up on myself,” she said. “My best friend is trying to get me back on track, but when you have tried so many times, you just want to stop trying. From 2020 to 2025, I have attempted suicide seven different times.”
Studies show that women are 50 to 75 per cent more likely to experience adverse side effects from medications, largely due to the historical underrepresentation of women in clinical trials and biomedical research.
Still, receiving a diagnosis has been life-changing for Emily.
For a long time, she just wanted to understand what was going on with her instead of feeling like an ‘insane’ person, like she had most of her life. It made her know that even though she had a mental illness, she wasn’t alone in her pain, and that brought her a lot of comfort.
“I started learning about it and connecting with creators who also had it online. It felt like I had finally found where I belonged, because for the longest time, I didn’t fit in anywhere. I felt alone. I still feel alone sometimes, but now, with a name for what I am experiencing and the knowledge that there are others like me,” Emily told HumAngle.
Today, Emily is channelling her energy into things she loves, painting, writing, and exercise. She still hopes to find the strength to give therapy and medication another chance, and to believe, truly, that she can heal.
Living with comorbidity
For Erica Michael*, alongside BPD, she has been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), avoidant personality disorder, and severe depression—a case of comorbidity, where multiple chronic conditions coexist and often complicate each other.
“One of the most noticeable symptoms I experience is intense restlessness,” she said. “On some days, I wake up feeling like my brain can’t stay still. I become extremely fidgety and unable to focus or sit calmly, even in places like church, where I usually seek peace. It’s like my mind is constantly racing, and I feel the need to twitch or move.”
In those moments, Erica realised that physical pain brings a strange sense of calm, and she would seek out pain just to quiet the chaos inside her.
Her depression began after experiencing abuse when she was much younger.
“Survivors of violence have a great risk of experiencing PTSD, substance abuse, depression, anxiety and other mental health issues,” said Chioma Onyemaobi, a clinical psychologist at HumAngle Foundation.
Over time, she sank deeper into it, thinking about everything that had happened and feeling overwhelmed.
Then came the OCD. She couldn’t leave the house without checking multiple times to see if her mother’s shop was locked or if the gas was turned off. Exhausted by the repetition, she started writing down in a book that she had turned off her gas, closed her windows, and put out her lights to focus on work.
“When I eventually went to the clinic, I had to undergo some assessments. That was when everything started making sense. I’ve always hesitated to label things I don’t understand, but finally, getting a name for what I was experiencing helped me begin to process it all,” Erica told HumAngle.
A series of challenges
Before Erica’s BPD diagnosis, there was Avoidant Personality Disorder. She underwent psychological treatment in Lagos State, southwestern Nigeria, where she is based, during which some symptoms began to align more closely with Bipolar Disorder and OCD. She was treated for these conditions with antidepressants and other medications.
However, as the treatment progressed, more symptoms surfaced—ones that pointed towards BPD.
“I began seeking help in April 2023. That was when I had a moment of clarity and realised I needed to start taking care of my mental health,” she recounted. “I began therapy then, and while I am not fully where I want to be yet, I can say I am doing better than I was before.”
Illustration: Akila Jibrin/HumAngle
Experiencing abuse at a young age made her feel like there was always something wrong with her. She became very introverted, always deep in thought, but never speaking up. Her mind was constantly filled with thoughts as a teenager, but she kept everything inside.
This silence affected the 29-year-old deeply. “I didn’t speak up when I should have, and that carried on into adulthood. One significant moment that really affected me was when I had a panic attack and slumped in front of eight important people. That experience reminded me of how much I hold in, and how it still affects me,” she said.
This silence slowed her down a lot in her career. She would attend bootcamps and workshops, and even when she knew the answers or had something valuable to say, she kept quiet. She was afraid of judgment, and being wrong, she also struggled with impostor syndrome, making her doubt her worth, even when she had proven skills.
Chioma said that social stigma often prevents survivors from speaking out, especially when they are going through psychological issues and trauma.
As someone with an invisible disability, she gets easily prone to overstimulation and panic attacks due to a lack of proper accommodations, which made her passionate about inclusion and understanding the lack of it in the society she lives in.
Later on, she was told she had pseudo-dementia, which helped explain some of the memory issues she was dealing with.
“It’s not the same as actual dementia; it’s more like memory loss or cognitive problems that come from severe depression. For me, it wasn’t just normal forgetfulness. It felt like my mind would just go blank, and even when I tried to remember things, they wouldn’t come. It added another layer to everything I was already feeling, such as confusion, frustration, and the fear that I was losing parts of myself,” she explained.
Erica struggles with forgetfulness, which sometimes affects her performance at work. It often feels like she can’t think clearly, and while her body craves rest, sometimes for days, she simply can’t afford that luxury. Expressing herself, particularly in writing, remains a challenge. However, she has found a helpful workaround through AI tools, which assist her in navigating these difficulties and organising her thoughts more effectively.
Amidst these challenging experiences, Erica said it opened her eyes to a different view on life. She has met people who inspired her, and has discovered that she can also help others. Her career has also begun to grow after many years of struggle, and while it’s been tough, she has learned much from it.
“It has made me more empathetic towards myself and others who may also be struggling in their own ways,” she said. “I’ve learned the importance of understanding, and I hope to keep using that empathy to help others.”.
The reality of OCD
Erica is not alone. For Angela Emmanuel*, life is shaped by an obsession with counting, symmetry, and structure. Everything, from volume levels to the number of tiles on the floor or letters in a word, has to be even or aligned.
“I don’t realise when it’s happening most times, but I catch myself in moments of boredom or distraction,” she explained. Most of her symptoms lead to obsessions and mental compulsion, though she experiences physical compulsions occasionally.
Compulsions in OCD are repetitive movements or behaviours done to relieve stress, often disrupting daily life. Obsessive symptoms, on the other hand, are unwanted and intrusive thoughts that lead to intense anxiety. Sometimes, compulsions develop as a coping mechanism to reduce the impact of these obsessions.
A major part of OCD is intrusive thoughts. While the term has become common in pop psychology, especially on social media, often misused to describe fleeting, impulsive ideas, true intrusive thoughts are far more intense and distressing. They are recurring, involuntary, and often involve disturbing images or ideas that can cause shame or fear.
For this 28-year-old, these persistent thoughts about terrible events, imagining her family dying, swerving her car off the road, or harming herself. These thoughts spiral into guilt and self-questioning.
The first time she realised something was wrong was in primary school.
“I don’t remember my age, but I remember exactly where I was. I had come home from school, and there was an American show on TV, probably a documentary or a health segment on a talk show. They began to talk about this condition and how it manifests, and I could not believe my ears because it matched exactly with what I had been experiencing for years, especially when they talked about pointless compulsive counting and the need to have equal feelings or sensations on different sides of the body. They had a reenactment of something I had just done that afternoon,” she recounted.
Angela recalls a water filter tap at home. If water accidentally splashed on one hand, she would intentionally splash the other to ‘balance’ the sensation.
It wasn’t until 2020 that she received a proper diagnosis.
“I have other mental health issues that had been ignored and had piled up since childhood, and it got to a point where I could not ignore them anymore,” said Angela, who works as a research assistant and operations lead.
Her treatment involved medication and psychotherapy. Her first prescription addressed OCD, anxiety, insomnia, and panic disorder, but side effects forced her to stop. Fortunately, a new treatment plan provided relief.
“For that short while, I felt the positive effects and a vast improvement,” she told HumAngle. “Eventually, I would get back on a different set of medication, which I believe really helped to balance out the chemical state of my brain.”
Angela praises the attentiveness of her doctor, who took time to understand her experience and involved her in the treatment process.
However, when she visited a different hospital in Kaduna State, northwestern Nigeria, her suspected Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) was dismissed, due to the misconception that it primarily affects young boys. ADHD symptoms in women often differ, leading to underdiagnosis. She eventually returned to her previous doctor and received an ADHD diagnosis in 2022.
Chioma explained that apart from underdiagnosis, many women face barriers in accessing mental healthcare due to permission requirements, dependence on male family members, or fear of judgment.
‘It shouldn’t be trivialised’
“OCD affects me mentally because it leads to a general state of unease and unrest,” Angela lamented. “It consumes my time and interferes with my daily life. It is exhausting to be in thought spirals. My brain latches onto a thought and won’t let it go, especially things that most people aren’t tormented or bothered by.”
At its worst, the condition leads her to chase symmetry to painful extremes; if she accidentally burned one hand, she would burn the other to feel ‘balanced’. Treatment has helped reduce this compulsion, though it still resurfaces occasionally.
“My wish is to be completely cured,” she said. “I’m managing the OCD fairly well, but ADHD is another story. I haven’t undergone serious treatment or taken medication for it, and it currently affects my life even more.”
Angela is concerned about how OCD is often trivialised in popular culture, frequently reduced to a quirky obsession with cleanliness. In reality, her experience is far more complex; her physical environment may appear ‘messy’, but everything is meticulously organised in her mind.
“The trivialising of OCD doesn’t help with creating awareness and understanding in the general public,” she told HumAngle. “The misconceptions downplay the seriousness of the disorder, and the experience of people with OCD is then invalidated by others due to this.” She urges greater public awareness and curiosity about mental health conditions, so people can learn how to support better those affected.
Angela welcomes the growing awareness of mental health in Nigeria, a shift from the silence of her youth. But she believes much work remains.
“There are still jokes and derogatory comments, even from those who should know better. Thankfully, it’s happening far less than before,” she said.
*The asterisked names are pseudonyms we have used at the request of the sources to protect them from stigma.
This is the last part of the ‘Beyond The Masks’ series. Read the first part here.
Traders are taking big bets on meme coins right now as market conditions point toward an upcoming bullish rally.
Bitcoin is back above $96K, and Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and Pepe are all in the green today. However, these tokens have been substantially outpaced by some other meme coins.
This article looks at the best meme coins to buy now based on what traders are betting on.
Popcat
Popcat is a cat-themed meme on the Solana blockchain. It gained a staggering 200% this month, reflecting its immense support among traders.
But despite its recent strength, Popcat is currently 80% below its $2.07 all-time high, leaving plenty of upside potential for the coming weeks.
The current price is $0.4 and analyst TPN believes that if it holds this level, then it will soon rally to $1.
While Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and Pepe are in the green today, they’re red this week. Meanwhile, Popcat has gained 10%.
Its strength across this week indicates that this is where the market’s attention lies right now. That could have bullish implications in the weeks ahead.
MIND of Pepe
Pepe is the third-largest meme coin and even stands above US President Donald Trump’s official meme coin, OFFICIAL TRUMP. It’s also the largest meme coin to emerge this cycle, and it continues to generate strong community support.
But investing directly in Pepe mightn’t yield the biggest returns; MIND of Pepe could be one of the best ways to capitalize on Pepe’s star power.
MIND of Pepe is a Pepe-themed AI agent that can scan the market to identify trading opportunities and even launch it on tokens.
$MIND holders will get exclusive access to the agent’s trend analysis, and also insider information on token launches.
The MIND of Pepe team will launch a social media agent on 10 May, marking the first crucial development in the project’s journey.
It’s currently undergoing a presale and has raised $8.8 million so far. However, this will end on 30 May.
Given its early stage, real utility, and ties to Pepe, MIND of Pepe could certainly be one of the best cryptos to buy now.
Turbo
Turbo is another AI meme coin showing massive strength right now.
The project markets itself as the first-ever AI meme coin, having been ideated by a generative AI model.
For most of its life cycle, Turbo lacked any real utility, it was more focused on pure memetics. But that changed recently.
The project is launching TurboChain, a Near Protocol-based blockchain that supports AI applications. This marks a shift from an entertainment-focused meme coin to a value-focused ecosystem.
It helps separate Turbo from all peers, and that’s causing its price to soar. Turbo currently trades at $0.0055, up 16% this week and 271% this month.
Like Popcat and MIND of Pepe, this strength indicates that more gains could be on the horizon.
Just a chill guy
Just a Chill Guy is a meme coin based on a viral meme that spread on TikTok and other social media applications in late 2024.
The $CHILLGUY meme coin exploded after launching on the open market, reaching a valuation of over $500 million.
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New Delhi, India — Aqib Parray was standing at a local shop near his home in Jammu, in Indian-administered Kashmir, when all the lights went out late in the evening on Thursday, May 8. Loud bangs followed.
Panicked, everyone on the streets started rushing home, 24-year-old Parray said. From the terrace of his home, he said, “I saw that the missiles were scattered in the skies.” Then his internet also went off. “We have never seen Jammu like this.”
Two generations of Indians and Pakistanis have not witnessed a fully fledged war, with blackouts and the threat of missiles raining on them even if they are far from any battlefield. In 1999, the nations fought a war over the icy heights of Kargil, but the conflict was contained.
Now, as India and Pakistan edge closer to a fully fledged war, millions of people on both sides are witnessing scenes unprecedented in their lifetimes. They include the 750,000 people of Jammu, and millions more in Indian cities that on Thursday evening came under attack, according to the Indian government.
Eight missiles were fired from Pakistan-origin drones towards Jammu and nearby areas of Satwari and Samba, also targeting military stations in Udhampur and Indian Punjab’s Pathankot, said India’s Ministry of Defence. India says they were all brought down with no casualties.
Shortly after, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar denied that the country had targeted any locations in Indian-administered Kashmir or across the international border.
Yet the mounting anxiety across cities in India and Indian-administered Kashmir close to the frontier with Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir is real. Seventeen days after gunmen killed 26 civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam, and two days after India hit at least six Pakistani cities with missiles, the prospect of a war looms over communities close to the border.
‘Sleepless nights’
Soon after dusk, authorities in Indian Punjab issued complete blackout orders in several districts, including its capital city of Chandigarh, and Jalandhar, Pathankot and Mohali.
Sabarpreet Singh, a 46-year-old businessman from Amritsar, Punjab’s second-largest city, said he is learning to react during sudden blackouts. “Things are changing very quickly. I have not been able to sleep at night,” he said. “I’m thinking of leaving the city with my children [and wife]; they are scared when sirens go off.”
Late on Wednesday, a blackout was imposed in parts of Kutch, in Gujarat; and in bordering areas of Rajasthan, where the border with Pakistan goes through the Thar Desert.
The situation is much more dire along the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides disputed Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Both armies traded heavy artillery as civilian injuries and deaths continued to rise. Amid gunfire, India has moved to evacuate thousands of people, who now sleep in shelters overnight.
“There were attempts to target military sites in Jammu, including the defence airport,” a local intelligence official told Al Jazeera, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to speak with the media. “We have confidence in [Indian] defence systems, however, the security situation is deteriorating. We are monitoring every moment closely.”
That India should be on edge is understandable, said Praveen Donthi, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group.
After India struck deep inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir on May 7, killing at least 31 people – “terrorists” according to India, civilians (including two children) according to Pakistan – Islamabad and its military are under immense pressure to respond forcefully, he said.
“Pakistan was bound to retaliate. Neither the government nor the civil society in Pakistan was willing to de-escalate without a response,” Donthi said.
‘Senseless belligerence’
In a media briefing on Thursday, New Delhi said that Pakistan had earlier that day attempted to “engage military targets” in several cities in India and Indian-administered Kashmir, including Srinagar and Amritsar, using drones and missiles.
While Indian officials said that forces “neutralised” these attempts, New Delhi said it responded by targeting Pakistan’s air defence systems at several locations, including in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-biggest city.
Islamabad said its air defence system brought down 25 Indian drones overnight in several cities, including Lahore and Karachi. At least one civilian has died, and five people were wounded, the Pakistani military said.
India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri reiterated on Thursday that any forthcoming Pakistani attack would be responded to by New Delhi. He insisted that India was merely responding to escalation by Pakistan, also referring to the Pahalgam attack as “the original escalation point”.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded by denying any attacks on India or Indian-administered Kashmir, noting, “Any escalation based on false pretences will be met with full resolve and determination.”
Referring to global calls for restraint and de-escalation, Sumantra Bose, a political scientist focusing on the intersection of nationalism and conflict in South Asia, said, “The situation needs an urgent intervention by the international community, with effective diplomatic efforts to de-escalate.”
“There is no support in the world for this senseless conflict,” said Bose, which he said, “has been rather mismanaged – and should never have been allowed to get to this point.”
“Things have gotten out of hand very quickly and it is looking to get worse,” he said, reacting to the drone warfare and the alleged attacks on Jammu. “In the escalatory spiral, it is just retaliations; an endless loop of retaliations from both sides.”
Later on Thursday, US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said, “We are remaining engaged with both governments at multiple levels.”
Acknowledging that Pakistan wants an “independent investigation” into the Pahalgam attack, Bruce said that the United States wants “the perpetrators to be held accountable and are supportive of any efforts to that end.”
However, Indian Foreign Secretary Misri had already rejected the calls for an independent investigation earlier in a media briefing, citing “no confidence in the Pakistani establishment for cooperation”.
The Trump administration, Donthi said, had, at least until May 7, “appeared willing to let the situation unfold between India and Pakistan”.
“Unless the US and other international powers intervene more proactively to defuse the situation, it could lead to a full-blown war,” Donthi told Al Jazeera.
Bose, the political scientist, argued that “it is already a state of war.”
“It would be much worse unless there is urgent, and effective, diplomatic intervention that makes the key decision makers, namely the Indian government and Pakistan’s military, to end this senseless belligerence and the spiral of escalation.”
These are the key events on day 1,170 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Here is where things stand on Friday, May 9:
Fighting
Ukraine says Russia violated its own three-day ceasefire, which was called by Russian leader Vladimir Putin to coincide with celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described the ceasefire as a “farce”.
“Russian forces continue to attack across the entire front line,” Sybiha wrote on his X account. “From midnight to midday, Russia committed 734 ceasefire violations and 63 assault operations, 23 of which are still ongoing,” he said.
The Ukrainian military reported 154 clashes, 15 air strikes, and one missile attack in the first 24 hours of Russia’s ceasefire.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said Ukraine carried out 488 attacks on Russian targets and tried to cross the border into Kursk two separate times.
Politics and diplomacy
US President Donald Trump again pushed Russia for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire in a post on Truth Social. Trump’s post followed a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
It appears the relationship between Trump and Zelenskyy has improved since a disastrous meeting earlier this year. Zelenskyy described his call with the United States president as “good”.
Ukrainian legislators voted unanimously to ratify a minerals deal with the US in the hope of securing military assistance to deter future Russian aggression.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin met in Moscow this week, where the two leaders said the war in Ukraine could only be solved by addressing its “root causes” or Ukraine’s desire to join NATO.
Moscow believes the White House is beginning to understand Russia’s position on the war in Ukraine, according to a longtime Russian diplomat. Yuri Ushakov, the former ambassador to Washington, told Russian media that it was “clear… that there is an understanding of what we are trying to achieve as a result of this situation”.
Economy
The United Kingdom will sanction up to 100 oil tankers that are suspected members of Russia’s “shadow fleet”, which has been used to evade international sanctions.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the UK will “do everything in our power to destroy [Russia’s] shadow fleet operation”. Starmer said it was necessary to “starve” the Russian “war machine of oil revenues and protect the subsea infrastructure that we rely on for our everyday lives”.
The former Microsoft CEO slams Elon Musk for his efforts to slash funding for US assistance to poor countries.
Tech billionaire Bill Gates has said that he will give away 99 percent of his wealth in the next two decades, funding his philanthropy the Gates Foundation long enough for it to close in 2045.
In a statement published on Thursday, Gates also firmly criticised the way his fellow centibillionaire – Elon Musk, an adviser to US President Donald Trump – is pushing to slash United States funds for essential things like food and medical assistance in poor countries.
“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” Gates told the Financial Times, referring to Musk’s work with the Trump administration to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Gates, who has a current estimated net worth of about $108bn, has long been among the most recognisable figures in the field of philanthropy, with an emphasis on medical assistance in poor countries.
He has also become a symbol of the enormous influence that such wealth can have on everything from politics to global health.
Pandemic vaccine criticism
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Gates was a vocal opponent of loosening patent protections around COVID-19 vaccines in order to allow poorer countries to manufacture their own versions and distribute them to their populations more quickly, arguing that doing so would harm innovation and intellectual property rights.
Critics accused him of promoting a vision of “vaccine apartheid”. They have also questioned whether Gates, through his substantial funding of groups such as the vaccine group Gavi and the World Health Organization, wields disproportionate influence in the field of global health without the same oversight and accountability that a public institution would face.
Over the years, Gates has stated that he is determined to give away most of his enormous fortune. While he is currently worth about $108bn, he expects the foundation to spend a total of around $200bn by 2045, depending on inflation and markets.
“People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them,” the 69-year-old co-founder of Microsoft said in a post on his website.
“There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people,” he added.
Gates also lamented that the US has pulled back from involvement in global health and humanitarian assistance around the world, offering a subtle rebuke of the Trump administration.
“It’s unclear whether the world’s richest countries will continue to stand up for its poorest people,” he said.
The fact that the conclave was over quickly suggests that from the outset, a significant number of the voting cardinals felt Robert Prevost was the one amongst them best equipped to take on the challenges a pope faces.
In the lead up to the election – during the formal meetings of cardinals, and the informal dinners and coffees they had to discuss the type of person they were looking for – it was apparent that two words kept coming up, “continuity” and “unity”.
There was a recognition among many that Pope Francis had started something hugely impactful, through reaching out to the those living on the margins of society, to those on the peripheries of the Catholic world and also to those outside the faith.
There was appreciation for his endeavour to become a voice for the voiceless and focus on the poor and those whose destinies were not in their own hands.
But there was also a sense that work had to be done to resolve the (sometimes very public) splits between those of different schools of thought within the Church hierarchy, often characterised as traditionalist and progressive.
It was in that context that Robert Prevost’s name started to be talked of as a serious contender. As someone who supported Pope Francis behind the scenes, but who different factions could still think of as one of their own.
But the voting cardinals had been tasked by the Church with considering not just what the institution and Catholic believers needed, but also what humanity needed at a difficult juncture, with war and division the backdrop.
Again, Cardinal Prevost – the US-Peruvian dual national, who was talked of as feeling as at home with his North American peers as he was with Latin American colleagues – was seen as someone who, as pope, could connect different worlds.
Pope Francis was sometimes criticised for lacking an ability to win more allies in the US on the big issues of migration and climate change and inequality, because of a disconnect in understanding the most effective ways of communicating his arguments to them.
For those who had in their minds that the primary requirement being sought of a new pope was an ability to bring “continuity” and “unity”, during his speech on St Peter’s balcony, Leo XIV gave strong clues as to why the cardinals chose him.
In his talk of “building bridges” and people globally being “one people” he evoked echoes of Pope Francis and also talked of unity at its fullest.
In these early days, his past will be heavily scrutinised. His political views examined, his track record on dealing with abuse dissected, and his comments over the years on social issues charted.
Much of this is already in the public domain so it can only be assumed that the cardinal electors felt there was nothing of enough consequence to impair his ability to lead the Catholic Church and be the global moral voice they were looking for.
Huge challenges lie ahead. But with resolution after just four conclave votes, he starts out with a strong mandate from the men he will need the most through his papacy.
The deal will mean existing members can pick up the Shark styler for £52.65 after cashback.
Beauty fans have a limited amount of time to save though, as the deal is only running until midnight tonight.
Shark’s SmoothStyle is designed to be used on a wet and dry hair to create voluminous blow-outs and sleek styles.
It features a built-in heated smoothing comb for taming frizz and flyaways, and it’s suitable for all hair types.
The hot brush has racked up hundreds of five-star ratings on the Shark website.
One shopper wrote: “I bought this to replace my BaByliss hot brush, and it’s fantastic!
It curls your hair so nicely, I don’t normally do reviews but this one is definitely worth buying.”
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The SmoothStyle can be used on wet and dry hair
Another added: “Great hair tool for drying hair after washing quickly (as long as it’s not soaking wet) and brilliant for refreshing hair on days I’m not washing.
I find it better to use this than straighteners to refresh because it gives some volume.
I have quite fine naturally wavy hair and it does a really good job for me – so glad I took the chance on it.”
The SmoothStyle isn’t the only Shark product that shoppers can save on with the TopCashback deal.
The brand’s Classic Handheld Pet Vacuum is available to new members for just £32.49 instead of £47.50, while existing members can snap it up for £47.49.
Shark’s Anti-Wrap Cordless Vacuum is also available with the TopCashback trick, taking it down from £249.99 to £115.62 after cashback.
Search for Shark Clean and click ‘Get Cashback Now’.
Shop and checkout as usual.
Cashback will then track and appear in your TopCashback account within 7 working days of your purchase. The cashback will become payable (and available to withdraw and spend) after Shark Clean has paid TopCashback the commission for your purchase.
