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‘Multiple crises’

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 Growing up between Ogun State and Lagos State, southwestern Nigeria, Suhayla Yusuf* still remembers the exact moment her Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD) symptoms started. It was in her first year at the University in 2013- she had just performed the Muslim pre-prayer ablution and was heading to the mosque when a blasphemous thought came to her head.  

Shocked and jilted, she desperately tried to brush it away. But every attempt just increased its intensity, leaving her feeling like a mess. As it persisted, she tried to use sleep to escape those thoughts, but they would be waiting the minute she woke up. For a while, she believed she had been cursed by God.

“I was going through a very mentally stressful period at school. I had failed a course, and it wasn’t my fault. I was ill and admitted for a week at the hospital because of the stress. I wasn’t used to academic failure at all, I had always been a straight-A student,” she explained.

Suhayla had always been a lover of words and learning, occasionally dabbling in poetry and spoken words. The thoughts grew more intense after she dropped out of school by choice after failing a pre-med course. She chose to study another course at the university, but she couldn’t go for two reasons: the intense shame of failure and a family member who was a lecturer at that same school. 

 “This family member was abusive, and I lived with them.  I was under a lot of verbal abuse from them, and they confirmed that God was angry with me and that was why I failed,” she told HumAngle.

OCD is a mental disorder that is accompanied by intrusive thoughts known as obsessions. It can lead to repetitive behaviours causing distress and interfering with their everyday lives. OCD has different sub-types, and in Islam, Suhayla’s religious OCD is known as ‘Waswas’, which translates to ‘whisperings of the devil.’ Muslims who experience this version of OCD suffer from repetitive and compulsive behaviour in relation to acts of worship and cleanliness. 

It affects an estimated two per cent to three per cent of people globally, with women having a 1.6 per cent higher prevalence rate than men. Hormonal differences and higher treatment-seeking rates in women contribute to this, leading to social isolation, physical health problems, emotional distress, and damage to relationships.

Those vicious thoughts then led to what she would later learn were compulsions. She would perform ablution multiple times before praying and would even pause in the middle of praying to do so again because she was unsure if she had done it right the first time.  She would also do a cleansing bath every day for up to an hour in the bathroom, repeating the steps she believed she got wrong.

Suhayla would take pills that would force her to sleep because she constantly felt exhausted. Some days, she would wash buckets, bathroom slippers, door handles, and her hands in the bathroom over and over again to purify them. Her mother noticed something was amiss after she discovered that the soap she was buying kept disappearing rapidly because Suhayla had to ‘wash the impurities’ off the soap before washing her hands. It got so intense that during the harmattan season, her skin would become flaky and dry.

“Daily prayers were hard for me. I would be praying and then would imagine bowing to something else. I would get so afraid that I’ve ruined my religion. I avoided watching movies a whole lot, especially Yoruba movies with idols, because my brain would capture them and use them to torture me. Sometimes my thoughts were sexual and very random. I would shut my eyes so tight at how disgusting they were, and would feel shame for having them,” she told HumAngle.

OCD subtypes include contamination obsessions, violent or sexual obsessions, relationship obsessions, sensorimotor obsessions, and sexual orientation obsessions. These subtypes can overlap for some people. 

The 29-year-old Quality Analyst’s days are filled with intense, disturbing thoughts, many of which she can’t bring herself to speak out loud. The thoughts sometimes slip into her dreams, evoking nightmares leading to insomnia.

There are moments when she believes she can “see” germs moving on surfaces, her brain constantly creates these vivid images like a film. Though this symptom has eased up over the years, if something she deemed “impure” isn’t “purified,” she can’t bring herself to stop thinking about it. She would even find herself dreaming about cleaning it.

“I spend a long time in the bathroom just cleaning up after peeing, and I don’t touch things in the fridge or freezer without washing my hands after. I sometimes have to count the number of times I clean something before it’s “pure.” People have to ask my permission before touching my things because I need to see their hands most of the time.”

Suhayla believes she is getting better over the years, and her symptoms have eased up in severity. It can still sometimes be very hard for her to distinguish between what is true and what is not.

Seeking help

Concerned about her situation, she asked her mother to accompany her to the Yaba Neuropsychiatric Hospital, where she was diagnosed with OCD, BPD, anxiety, and severe depression. The psychologist who attended to her started by shooting intense, uncomfortable questions at her, asking if she had experienced sexual abuse, especially by a close family member. 

The psychologist insisted that he believed she might not have been telling the truth, even though she was. He later told her that if she used the little blue and yellow pills he would prescribe for her, it would work instantaneously.

With time, Suhayla was forced to learn that the pills did not perform magic, and that realisation made things worse for her. “I was self-harming at that point. I feel I didn’t have real therapy work done and was just downed with anxiolytics and anti-depressants. He [the psychologist] kept asking me to bring that abusive family member to one of these sessions, but I was not comfortable. So I decided to end therapy when I felt it wasn’t helping. He told me to resume sessions at school, but I didn’t, and just sought help through Islamic platforms and clerics,” she told HumAngle.

Suhayla focused on seeking help through the Islamic way since her  OCD was majorly religious.  She messaged an Islamic platform and told them about her condition. Instead of offering the help she needed, they insisted that her thoughts were from the devil. 

According to Chioma Onyemaobi, a clinical psychologist, mental health issues are highly stigmatised. “Many people will view those having these problems as having spiritual problems, being weak, and more. This leads to shame and people being forced to keep things to themselves- due to this stigma, mental health professionals may not have the liberty to reach out to them,” the psychologist said.

Suhayla’s OCD tends to flare up during the muslim fasting period, and it was one of those intense periods that she dropped out of the university again. She could not get out of bed or cook and would only sleep. It was torturous to be unable to function even when she had examinations. She could only cry and curl into a ball on her bed, plagued by horrible nightmares.  

When it persisted, one of her mother’s friends, a psychiatrist, put her on some medications for nine months. The side effect was very severe depression, so she eventually stopped that, too. Suhayla eventually dropped out of school and was later forced to go for what she described as a spiritual exorcism. 

“I still have OCD, but it isn’t as bad as it used to be. Mentally, I feel altered, like there is a bit of fog that never goes away. I wouldn’t even know it’s there, but there are some days I feel a ‘light breeze’ in my head, like how my head used to feel before it all started. 

“The fog clears, and I settle into the feeling because it’s so rare…I still feel like my failures are a reflection of God’s anger, but I’m trying to police my thoughts better,” she said.

Also, stress is a huge trigger for her sometimes, especially if the “nightmare period” starts. She currently sees an online therapist as a result of her workplace’s mental health benefits.

While the therapist had repeatedly advised Suhayla to file for leave at work, she is sceptical about opening up about her condition to anyone. The stigma for people with mental health struggles she witnesses prevents her from speaking up, and she believes that is one of the many reasons she hasn’t met anyone with her condition yet.

 A similar story

For Rumi Wutoh*, her symptoms have always been lurking in the corners of her life for as long as she could remember. When she was in primary three, she couldn’t eat for a day and a half after a classmate, about four desks away, vomited in class. The smell stayed with her, causing her to spit continuously all day.  

Now 36, she still can’t stand anything dirty. “I get very uncomfortable when I sweat, I hardly hug or shake people because I don’t like being that close to people, but the few people I love. I abhor public transportation, touching door handles or people’s phones, and shaking hands. I don’t share utensils, even when I was a child,” Rumi told HumAngle.

Genes, personality types, the structure of the brain, as well as dysfunctional environments, can increase the risk of developing OCD. 

The biggest impact Rumi’s life has is on how it impacts her relationships and interactions with her family, friends, and the world in general. She has to try not to nitpick and overanalyse people. Many situations also seem to leave deeper impacts on her life than is normal, and she is also working on getting less bothered by situations outside her control.

“I  came across the story on Instagram about three years ago about a dog being fed illicit drugs, and I still feel a profound sadness and sometimes an almost unbearable urge to know what happened after, because then I can sleep better knowing the dog is now in safe hands. I would pull out my hair, not only because I am empathising with the dog, but also because I hate that I can’t fix it.” 

Rumi had always been interested in people and scientifically dissecting things. Sometimes, she would find herself mentally dissecting the people around her, fixing their eyes, noses, or aspects of their behaviour. Her memory is also incredibly sharp, making it hard to forget anything. 

“I can still say word for word what certain people said around me when I was as young as 3 years old, and it has been proven to be accurate.” This has caused her to drift away from people over the years, as she can’t stand when people talk ignorantly. She believed this created distance in her relationships with those around her. So, she learnt to stop calling them out.

Rumi finds herself to be a walking contradiction. On one hand, she can’t stand being touched by others, but she may willingly hug her loved ones. Even though she can’t stand anything filthy, her room can be left unswept for a week when she is having intense moments of sadness, which she suspects may be depressive episodes.

Studies show that 25 per cent to 50 per cent of people with OCD can also experience severe depression. For some, the two conditions begin simultaneously, with more people showing up with symptoms of OCD first. 

“I have never been diagnosed medically. I am not so keen on having people understand me as long as my loved ones do. Because would the world stop my pet peeves even if they understand how it makes me feel?” she explained.

Though depression can be an accompanying illness to conditions like OCD and BPD, depression itself is a mental health disorder that is very common in Nigeria. A study in Kano State shows a 70 per cent to 90 per cent depression prevalence in two specialist hospitals, with many left undiagnosed and untreated. This condition causes persistent feelings of emptiness, sadness, loss of pleasure in activities and feelings of worthlessness. 

Speaking with HumAngle, Janet Peter*,  said her diagnosis for chronic depression happened accidentally in November 2024, when she went to a psychiatrist for an Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) analysis. Prior to that, she had struggled with a lack of energy, a lack of motivation, a lack of self-worth, constant sadness and the nagging feeling that she had nothing to live for.

The Fashion Design Intern assumed she had ADHD because she seemed to resonate with many of the symptoms she came across on social media and wanted to confirm that for herself. 

“I’m not exactly sure when the symptoms started for me,  but I believe my first major episode was in 2014. I was in my final year at the university, and I pretty much skipped school for most of the year. I would lock myself in, numb myself with binge eating and binge watching movies,” she recalled. 

It led to her failing her finals woefully, and she had to make up for it for a year and a half. Her future looked very bleak for a long time, and she struggled to find her footing for 8 years after that. 

Her diagnosis came at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, southwestern Nigeria, where she was based. She found the appointment days very stressful and struggled with the lack of order and nonchalance of the staff, making her feel like they had forgotten the patients were humans like them.  

Another issue she had was with the length of the therapy sessions. Sometimes, a session can be as short as 5 minutes, and she always leaves feeling that more could have been done. In addition to the fact that there are only eight Federal  Neuropsychiatric hospitals in Nigeria, only 3.3 per cent of the country’s budget is allocated to mental health services. Beyond the inadequate facilities, mentally ill patients are also treated badly in hospitals, and societal stigma makes it harder for people to seek help. 

Janet finds the general situation of the country to be very triggering. Her medication helps her not to dwell too much on them.  “I hope that one day I will be able to function without having to rely on medication. My doctor says I may have to use them for at least 5 years. That’s such a long time to be popping pills every morning, but what choice do I have?”

She added that if she knew 11 years ago what she now knows, she would have sought help much earlier and not tried to “pray” her troubles away.

In the same vein, 21-year-old Miracle Jacob* has struggled with numbness, dissociation from people and low self-esteem since she was 12 years old. Sometimes, she feels she has no real reaction to things, even when something very traumatic happens to her.

Her current financial situation is why she never sought help in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, southern Nigeria, where she is currently based. She does not have the privilege to spend money on mental health support, she said.

Studies show that Nigeria does not have a free psychiatric treatment program, causing a huge barrier in seeking help for many people.

“Mental health practitioners are also being cut out of health insurance, and because of that, people can’t really afford the services, and the high cost of mental health services makes it harder for people to access care. Mental health policies are also not being implemented as they should be,” Chioma, the clinical psychologist, says. 

“Mentally, my condition puts me on a delayed reaction and makes me react to something months or years later. It makes me feel dead sometimes, and I have low self-esteem. Physically, I don’t really get to take care of myself,” Miracle explained.

Miracle constantly neglects herself, struggles to clean, do her laundry, repeats underwater because she is unable to wash them, and sometimes, goes days without being able to brush her teeth. This impacts her relationship with those around her. 

“My mum and sister always complain, and I tend to attract people who just don’t have knowledge about proper  hygiene or people who look down on me for it and shout at me all the time, especially male partners.” Sometimes, she is able to deep clean when things get very bad, allowing her to feel clean and refreshed for a little while. 

Data shows that 1 in 4 Nigerians struggles with a mental illness and 15 million Nigerians die from suicide annually, ranking Nigeria as the most depressed country in Africa. But despite these, understanding and social acceptance of the condition remain poor. 

Miracle currently copes by watching psychology videos and reading about depression online, and in her interpersonal relationships, she tries to be someone she is not in order to accommodate the people around her.

Chioma believes that updating and implementing the policies will go a long way in making mental health accessible. She also believes cultural norms and values in communities, shortage of mental health professionals, high cost of mental health services, domestic violence, political instability, and poor mental health policies in the country also affect access to mental health in Nigeria.

“Inflation, high cost of living crisis, unstable political crisis, lack of access to healthcare, emotional distress, and poverty contribute to the mental health crisis in Nigeria. Due to the high rate of unemployment, people are stressed, anxious, hopeless and are slipping into depression, which can lead to a high rate of substance abuse, crime and suicide,” she argued.

*The asterisked names are pseudonyms we have used at the request of the sources to protect them from stigma.

New York Knicks upset the reigning champions Boston Celtics in Game 1 of their NBA Eastern Conference playoff series.

Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby each scored 29 points as the visiting New York Knicks earned a 108-105 overtime victory against the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinals playoff series.

The Knicks overcame a 20-point deficit in the third quarter on Monday night and sealed the win when Mikal Bridges stole the ball from Jaylen Brown after Boston inbounded the ball with three seconds to play.

“This team has fought all year, and been a pretty good road team,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “It’s one game. There’s a lot of emotional highs and lows in the playoffs, but no matter what happens you have to keep moving forward.”

During the fourth quarter, Brunson tied the game at 89 with a 3-pointer, and at 91 on two free throws, before giving the Knicks their first lead since the second. His 3-pointer put them up 94-91 with 4:07 to play, and his third triple of the period extended New York’s advantage to six points, but Boston responded with a 7-0 run to take a 98-97 lead.

It was 100-100 when Brunson missed a layup with two seconds left. After a timeout, Jayson Tatum missed a 21-footer at the buzzer. The game went to overtime, where Anunoby’s dunk and foul shot and Bridges’ 3-pointer gave the Knicks the cushion they needed to finish the comeback.

“Your defence, your toughness, your teamwork – I think that’s paramount in a playoff game,” Thibodeau said.

Karl-Anthony Towns was in foul trouble for much of the game but had 14 points and 13 rebounds in 31 minutes. Josh Hart had 14 points and 11 boards, and Bridges recorded eight points, seven assists, six rebounds and three steals while playing 51 of the possible 53 minutes.

Brown and Tatum each tossed in a team-high 23 points for Boston. Tatum also had 16 rebounds, and Derrick White put up 19 points and 11 rebounds.

Kristaps Porzingis was scoreless in 13 minutes during the first half and didn’t play in the final two quarters with what the Celtics called an “illness”. Boston’s Sam Hauser also went to the locker room with an ankle injury with 28.5 seconds remaining in the third quarter and didn’t return to the game.

“Obviously it impacts the game with (Porzingis’) ability at both ends of the floor … Hopefully he’s ready for Game 2,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said.

Boston led 26-25 after one quarter and outscored New York by 15 in the second quarter to take a 61-45 halftime lead. The Celtics scored the final eight points in the first half. The Knicks were 8-of-19 from the free-throw line in the half.

Towns was called for his fourth foul and went to the bench with 7:07 left in the third quarter, but the Knicks made a strong run without him. New York was within six points before Al Horford made a 3-pointer with 6.2 seconds remaining in the quarter that gave the Celtics an 84-75 lead entering the fourth.

“We left some of their good shooters open, so some personnel stuff, and they were able to get out in transition after some of our misses,” Mazzulla said of the Knicks’ comeback. “Detail stuff that we need to be better at.”

Game 2 in the best-of-seven series will be played on Wednesday in Boston.

“The biggest challenge in the playoffs (is) dealing with the emotions of the playoffs,” Thibodeau cautioned. “If you feel too good about yourself, you won’t be ready for Game 2.”

EXPLAINER

Behind the closed doors of the Sistine Chapel, cardinals from around the world will convene to elect the 267th pontiff.

As the formal mourning period for Pope Francis has ended, attention now shifts to the papal conclave in Vatican City, where powerful members of the Catholic Church are converging to elect the next pontiff.

Cardinals from around the world will choose the 267th pope, leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, at an event of spiritual, political and global relevance. Francis died on April 21 at the age of 88 after 12 years in the papacy.

The conclave, which will kick off on Wednesday, will be held behind the closed doors of the Sistine Chapel. It generally lasts several days and, in some cases, weeks.

Here is what we know:

What is a papal conclave?

• The term conclave comes from the Latin term “con clavis”, meaning “with a key”, a reference to the tradition of locking the cardinals away until a new pope is elected.
• In the Roman Catholic Church, a papal conclave is a solemn, closed-door gathering of the College of Cardinals held to elect a new pope.
• Known as the “princes of the church,” the cardinals follow an intricate and centuries-old process rooted in the Middle Ages.
• While the traditions have evolved, the current procedures are largely based on the 1996 apostolic constitution Universi Dominici Gregis, issued by Pope John Paul II with later amendments made by Pope Benedict XVI.
• Cardinals below the age of 80 vote although all cardinals may attend the meetings irrespective of age. There are currently 133 eligible voters.

What is a pope?

• In the Roman Catholic Church, the pope is regarded as the successor of St Peter, the chief of Jesus’s apostles and the first leader of the early Christian church.
• As such, the pope holds supreme authority over the worldwide Catholic Church in matters of faith, morals, governance and discipline.
• The pope is the spiritual leader of Catholics around the globe, supported today by 252 cardinals.
• “While Pope Francis emphasised that true power comes from Jesus Christ and that he is merely a disciple, the pope is undeniably a powerful global figure,” Father Francis Lucas, a Catholic priest and executive director of the Catholic Media Network, told Al Jazeera.
• The pope typically presides over major church celebrations held at St Peter’s Basilica throughout the year. He is expected to meet with more than 5,000 bishops from around the world at least once every five years. As the bishop of Rome, he is also in charge of governing and managing the Vatican.

When will the conclave start?

• The papal conclave is scheduled to begin on Wednesday in the Sistine Chapel, located in the Apostolic Palace, or Papal Palace, at the Vatican.
• This follows the traditional nine-day mourning period for Francis.

What happens on the first day of the conclave?

10am (08:00 GMT): Mass for the election of a pope

• The day begins with “Pro Eligendo Pontifice”, which means “For the Election of the Roman Pontiff”, a public Mass in St Peter’s Basilica led by the dean of the College of Cardinals.
• It’s a solemn liturgy asking the Holy Spirit to guide the church in selecting a new pope.

4:30pm (14:30 GMT): Procession into the Sistine Chapel

• In the afternoon, the 133 cardinal electors gather in the Pauline Chapel near the Sistine Chapel and chant the Litany of the Saints.
• “This is an ancient prayer of the Catholic Church that names the saints in a sort of a roll call, one by one by one,” said Steven P Millies, professor of public theology at the Catholic Theological Union, a Catholic graduate school of theology in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States.
• “‘St Peter, pray for us. St James, pray for us,’ … seeking the intercession of all the holy men and women who have gone before us to pray for the success of the conclave,” Millies explained.
• They then chant Veni Creator Spiritus and process into the Sistine Chapel.
• “There’s also a prayer to call down the Holy Spirit, … fully God as much as the Father and the Son, but the Spirit that guides the church,” Millies added.

“Extra Omnes”: Locking the conclave

• After taking an oath of secrecy, the phrase “Extra omnes!” (“Everyone out!”) is declared, and the chapel is sealed. Only the electors and essential staff remain, cut off from the outside world.

First vote

• The cardinals may choose to hold a single vote on the first day.

Return to residence

• They return to the Domus Sanctae Marthae (House of St Martha), their secured Vatican residence, where they remain in isolation for the duration of the conclave.
• “This is somewhat different today from what it used to be,” Millies said.
• “In the old days, what they did was they converted the salons of the Apostolic Palace with very uncomfortable cots and pitchers of water. … It was very uncomfortable for a room full of very old men to have to bunk in conditions like that, and so they built this hotel,” he added.

How does the balloting take place?

• Voting after the first day occurs a maximum of four times: twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon.
• Each cardinal receives a ballot marked “Eligo in Summum Pontificem” (“I elect as Supreme Pontiff”) and writes in their chosen candidate.
• One by one, they approach the altar before Michelangelo’s Last Judgement, swear an oath and place their votes in a chalice.

• If a pope is not chosen in the first four days of the conclave, voting is suspended on the fifth day to allow time for prayer, quiet reflection and informal discussions.
• A two-thirds majority is required to elect a pope. If no one reaches that threshold, another vote is held. After each round, ballots are burned.
• If black smoke appears from a chimney on top of the Sistine Chapel, it means no pope has been chosen. White smoke signals the Catholic Church has a new pontiff.
• Black smoke is produced by burning a mixture of potassium perchlorate, anthracene and sulphur while white smoke results from a blend of potassium chlorate, lactose and a conifer resin known as rosin.
• The last two conclaves, held in 2005 and 2013, wrapped up by the end of the second day of voting.

What challenges does the conclave face?

• Francis significantly reshaped the College of Cardinals during his papacy, emphasising global representation and pastoral focus. That comes with its own set of challenges.
• “[The Catholic Church] is a church that has to understand how to be one church globally which is united on fundamental things but has to do things differently in different contexts,” said Massimo Faggioli, a professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University.
• “That’s the most difficult thing for Catholicism because there’s one canon law for the entire church whether it’s in Alaska or Indonesia, and so that’s something that in the long run is the problem,” he added.

• According to experts, each cardinal brings a distinct vision. Those from the Global South are likely to prioritise globalisation and poverty while cardinals from Asia may seek a pope who understands Islam and supports interfaith dialogue.
• “I think what Francis was doing very much on purpose was inviting those different concerns from different places to come into dialogue with one another,” Mills said.
• “And one thing, I think, that was very much on his mind was the church in parts of the world where Catholicism is a minority – where there are Muslim majorities or other majorities too. The experience of Catholics in those places, I think, was very much on his mind when he made these decisions,” he added.

What are the main challenges the church faces?

• The Catholic Church today faces multiple challenges. Some of them include, in the West, declining attendance, growing secularism and rising numbers of people who say they are religiously unaffiliated.
• Widespread sexual abuse scandals continue to damage trust in the church leadership, according to The Washington Post, which cited the Vatican in reporting: “The Holy See is receiving a steady 800 cases per year from places such as Poland, Italy, Latin America and Asia.”
• Internally, tensions between modernising reforms (on issues like LGBTQ+ rights and women’s roles) and traditionalist values are growing.
• But according to experts perhaps one of the biggest challenges is creating a global church.
• “The Roman Catholic Church of the 21st century is coming to grips with what it means to be a global church,” Mills said.
• “And what it means to be a global church in the end is that the archbishop of New York City is every bit as much a Roman Catholic as the poor baptised worker in East Timor,” he added.

What happens after the pope is elected?

• After a new pope is elected, he first accepts the role and chooses a papal name that reflects his vision or inspiration. The previous pope, whose real name was Jorge Mario Bergoglio, chose Francis as his papal name to honor St Francis of Assisi.
• The new pope then changes into white papal vestments in the “Room of Tears.” According to reports, The Room of Tears is so named because many newly elected popes are overcome with emotion as they put on the white cassock for the first time and fully grasp the weight of their new responsibility.
• Shortly after, the senior cardinal announces “Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum; HabemusPapam!” (“I announce to you a great joy; we have a pope!), from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, and the new pope steps out to give his first public blessing.
• “The installation of the new pope will complete that cycle of events. And then we will get into the business of seeing what appointments a new pope continues inside the Vatican bureaucracy,” Mills explained.
• “What new appointments the pope makes, who he sacks and who he keeps. That will be very interesting to watch, as will the statements the new pope gives,” he added.

These are the key events on day 1,167 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Tuesday, May 6:

Fighting

• Russian attacks on the Donetsk and Sumy regions of eastern Ukraine killed at least three people on Monday, Ukrainian authorities said.
• A Ukrainian drone attack on a car in Russia’s Kursk region killed two women, Governor Alexander Khinstein said in a post on Telegram.
  He said a 53-year-old man was also killed when an explosive device was dropped onto his car.
• Russian forces destroyed 105 Ukrainian drones overnight, the RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing the Russian Ministry of Defence.
• Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said at least 19 Ukrainian drones were destroyed as the capital was targeted for a second night in a row, prompting the closure of all airports for several hours. There were no reports of casualties.
• Russian forces also destroyed at least 18 drones in the southwestern Voronezh region and 10 drones over the southern Pena region, regional authorities said.
• Ukrainian forces attacked a power substation in Russia’s Kursk, the region’s governor said.
• Russian state television war correspondent Alexander Sladkov and a number of Russian war bloggers reported a new Ukrainian land-based incursion into Kursk backed by armoured vehicles. Kyiv did not comment on the reported advance.

Politics and diplomacy

• The European Union is set to publish a “roadmap” on Tuesday on how to end its reliance on Russian fossil fuels by 2027.
• Outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that his country would continue to support Ukraine in its war against Russia. Scholz “reaffirmed Germany’s continued and unwavering solidarity with Ukraine”, spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement.
• Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting, Friedrich Merz, will take office on Tuesday with a long to-do list that includes maintaining support for Kyiv. He said last month that there should be no doubt that Germany would stand with Ukraine “without any ifs or buts”.

Russia says Ukraine has launched an overnight drone attack targeting Moscow for the second night in a row.

All four of the capital’s major airports were closed for several hours to ensure safety but later reopened, Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said on Telegram.

Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said on social media at least 19 Ukrainian drones had been destroyed before they reached the city “from different directions”. He said some of the debris had landed on one of the key highways into the city, but there were no casualties.

Ukraine has not yet commented. But the mayor of Kharkiv said Russia had also carried out drone strikes in the city overnight, as well as in the Kyiv area.

The governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, said one person was killed in a drone strike.

It is the second night in a row that Russia has reported a drone attack by Ukraine – on Monday, Russia’s defence ministry said it had destroyed 26 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Unconfirmed reports by Russian military bloggers suggested windows of an apartment in the south of Moscow were smashed.

As well as in Moscow, the governors of other Russian cities, including Penza and Voronezh, also said they had been targeted by drones overnight into Tuesday.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago, Kyiv has launched several drone attacks on Moscow. Its biggest attack in March killed three people.

It comes after reports on Monday of fresh attempts by Ukraine to cross into Russia’s Kursk region.

Kyiv said it had hit a drone command unit in the Kursk region on Sunday near the Russian village of Tyotkino, according to the Ukrainian general staff.

In April, Moscow said it had regained control of the entire region, nine months after a Ukrainian forces launched a surprise invasion. Kyiv insists it still has soldiers operating across the border.

Also in Kursk, Russian officials reported an electrical substation in the town of Rylsk lost power on Monday after being damaged in an attack by Ukraine.

Two transformers at the substation in Rylsk had been damaged, according to acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexander Khinshtein, in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

He added two teenagers had been injured by shrapnel from the blast.

Multiple Russian military bloggers also reported that Ukrainian forces had attempted to cross into the village, posting images – as yet unverified by the BBC – of vehicles breaking through tank traps on the border.

On Monday, Ukrainian forces fired missiles over the border and crossed minefields in special vehicles, according to the bloggers.

“The enemy blew up bridges with rockets at night and launched an attack with armoured groups in the morning,” blogger RVvoenkor said according to Reuters news agency.

“The mine clearance vehicles began to make passages in the minefields, followed by armoured vehicles with troops. There is a heavy battle going on at the border.”

In a statement on Monday, Ukraine said: “Nine months after the start of the Kursk operation, Ukraine’s Defence Forces maintain a military presence on the territory of Russia’s Kursk region.”

While there has been no official response from Moscow, some military bloggers have also published maps showing opposing forces attempting to cross the border in two places towards Tyotkino – near where the drone command unit that was hit.

Meanwhile, in Sumy – around 12km across the border from Tyotkino in north-eastern Ukraine – local authorities urged people to evacuate from two settlements, Reuters reported.

Ukraine originally made its surprise incursion into Kursk in August 2024 to create a buffer zone and protect Sumy and surrounding areas, while also hoping to use it as a bargaining chip in future negotiations.

US Education Department Secretary Linda McMahon halts funding in escalation of dispute centred around anti-Semitism claims.

The administration of United States President Donald Trump has announced that Harvard University will no longer receive public funding for research in a sharp escalation of its dispute with the top university.

In a letter to Harvard on Monday, US Education Department Secretary Linda McMahon said the elite university had made a “mockery” of higher education and should no longer seek federal grants, “since no will be provided”.

“Harvard will cease to be a publicly funded institution, and can instead operate as a privately-funded institution, drawing on its colossal endowment, and raising money from its large base of wealthy alumni,” McMahon wrote in the letter.

The move comes after the Trump administration last month froze nearly $2.3bn in federal funding to Harvard over what it claimed was its failure to tackle rampant anti-Semitism on campus.

The administration announced the freeze after Harvard rejected a series of demands that it said would subject the university to undue government control, including that it accede to external audits of faculty and students to ensure “viewpoint diversity”.

In her letter, McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, outlined a series of grievances often made by conservatives against the university, including that it had fostered lax academic standards and admitted foreign students who “engage in violent behaviour and show contempt toward the United States of America”.

“Where do many of these ‘students’ come from, who are they, and how do they get into Harvard, or even into our country – and why is there so much HATE?” McMahon wrote in the letter, emulating Trump’s use of all-capital letters to emphasise certain words.

“These are questions that must be answered, among many more, but the biggest question of all is, why will Harvard not give straightforward answers to the American public?”

Harvard, which is fighting the Trump administration’s earlier funding freeze in court, said in a statement that McMahon’s latest demands would have “chilling implications for higher education”.

“Today’s letter makes new threats to illegally withhold funding for lifesaving research and innovation in retaliation against Harvard for filing its lawsuit on April 21,” a university spokesperson said.

“Harvard will continue to comply with the law, promote and encourage respect for viewpoint diversity, and combat antisemitism in our community. Harvard will also continue to defend against illegal government overreach aimed at stifling research and innovation that make Americans safer and more secure.”

US universities have faced controversy over alleged anti-Semitism on their campuses since the eruption last year of nationwide student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.

In two reports released last month, separate Harvard task forces said that students and staff had faced both anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim bias on campus.

In response to the reports, Harvard President Alan Garber expressed concern that some students had been pushed “to the periphery of campus life because of who they are or what they believe”, and pledged to redouble efforts to ensure the university was a place where “mutual respect is the norm”.

Trump and prominent conservatives in the US have also long accused Harvard and other universities of propagating extreme left-wing views and stifling right-wing perspectives.

Protesters in Togo are speaking out against constitutional changes that could keep Faure Gnassingbe in power indefinitely. He’s been sworn in as ‘President of the Council of Ministers’, a newly-created role with no term limits.

Who: Inter Milan vs Barcelona
What: UEFA Champions League semifinal, second leg
Where: San Siro stadium, Milan, Italy
When: Tuesday at 9pm (19:00 GMT)

Follow Al Jazeera Sport’s live text and photo commentary stream.

Five-time UEFA Champions League winners Barcelona travel to northern Italy to play three-time title holders Inter Milan in a tantalising second and deciding leg of their semifinal on Tuesday night.

The Catalan Giants remain on track for a rare treble – LaLiga, Copa del Rey and Champions League titles – but walked away from the opening leg of their Champions League semifinal at the Barcelona Olympic Stadium with just a draw against Inter, leaving them with it all to do on the road in Milan.

Inter, who are bidding to make a second Champions League final in three seasons, will like their chances of getting past the flamboyant LaLiga leaders on home soil. But the Nerazzurri were far from their best on Saturday, forging a slender 1-0 home win against 15th-placed Verona in a domestic Serie A league fixture at the San Siro.

Here is all to know before the semifinal decider between two of Europe’s football superclubs:

What happened in the semifinal’s first leg?

Barcelona twice battled back to share a compelling 3-3 draw at home against Inter Milan on April 30.

The Italian side raced to a two-goal lead with superb strikes from Marcus Thuram and Denzel Dumfries before the unstoppable Lamine Yamal pulled Barca back into it with a sublime solo effort.

Ferran Torres levelled for the five-time champions, and although Inter nosed ahead through Dumfries again, a Yann Sommer own goal left the tie on a knife-edge heading into the second leg.

Why is everyone talking about Yamal?

Playing his 100th game at just 17 years and 291 days old, Yamal became the youngest player to score in a UEFA Champions League semifinal against Inter on Wednesday, eclipsing the record set by Kylian Mbappe, who was 18 when he achieved the feat in 2017.

Inter manager Simone Inzaghi said talents like the Barcelona teenager come around only once in a half-century.

“He’s the kind of talent who is born every 50 years, I had never seen him live, and he really impressed me today,” the Inter coach said after Yamal helped Barcelona rally in the action-packed first leg.

Barcelona coach Hansi Flick described his attacking winger as “a genius” after the match.

Before the first leg, Yamal himself was forced to dismiss comparisons to the great Lionel Messi, who played the same position at Barcelona.

“I don’t compare myself to him because I don’t compare myself to anyone – and much less with Messi,” Yamal told reporters.

“So I don’t think the comparison makes sense – with Messi even less. I’m going to enjoy myself, and be myself.”

Yamal said he thought the Argentinian forward was the greatest player of all time.

“I admire him obviously as the best player in history, but I don’t compare myself to him,” he reiterated.

Team news: Barcelona

Barcelona starting defender Jules Kounde is set to miss the Champions League semifinal second leg clash with Inter after he was diagnosed with a hamstring injury on Thursday.

Unexpectedly, Flick may be able to call on star striker Robert Lewandowski, who is ahead of schedule on what was expected to be a three-week recovery period from a leg injury. Lewandowski was included in the squad on Monday after being sidelined for about two weeks.

Goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny is tipped to start against Inter despite first-choice keeper Marc-Andre ter Steg’s return to the first XI in a LaLiga fixture at the weekend after a long injury layoff.

Team news: Inter Milan

Inter head into their second leg showdown at the San Siro with the availability of top scorer Lautaro Martinez highly questionable after the Argentina star suffered a leg injury against Barcelona last Wednesday. Inzaghi will have Mehdi Taremi or Marko Arnautovic on standby to replace Martinez in the starting lineup. 

But confidence is growing in the Inter camp that Martinez will play, according to Italian media reports on Monday. Lautaro himself posted a cryptic message on Instagram: a photo of him doing exercises in the gym, captioned with emojis of an hourglass and a battery.

In a separate positive development for Inter, key defender Benjamin Pavard, who missed the first leg of the semifinal against Barca, is set to return to the starting XI, according to reporting from the Italian media outlet Gazzetta.it.

Star midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu is available for selection after sitting out Inter’s 1-0 victory over Verona with a suspension.

Possible starting lineups:

Barcelona possible XI: Szczesny; Eric, Araujo, Cubarsi, Inigo; de Jong, Pedri; Yamal, Olmo, Raphinha; Ferran

Inter Milan possible XI: Sommer; Acerbi, Pavard, Bastoni; Dumfries, Barella, Calhanoglu, Mkhitaryan, Dimarco; Arnautovic, Thuram

Head-to-head:

The teams have played on 13 prior occasions:

• Barcelona wins: 6
• Inter Milan wins: 2
• Draws: 5

What the managers had to say:

Hansi Flick, Barcelona manager: “[In the second leg] Inter can’t just defend. They have to try and score too. It’s the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League and the four best teams in Europe are there. We play with style and confidence, and we know what we can do. We have 90 minutes next week, and hopefully that’s enough to get to the final. That’s our goal, and we will fight for it.”

Simone Inzaghi, Inter Milan manager: “We saw a fantastic match [in the first leg] and we knew that semifinals are difficult. We could even have won. I really liked the impact that our subs had. Our fans know that we’ve been giving our utmost in difficult times and we know that Tuesday will be a ‘final’.”

When did Barcelona and Inter Milan last win the UEFA Champions League?

Barcelona most recently won in 2015 while Inter Milan last tasted victory in 2010.

When and where is the 2025 UEFA Champions League final?

The winner of this semifinal heads to Germany on May 31 for the Champions League final.

European football’s largest annual showpiece will be played at the 75,000-capacity Allianz Arena in Munich.

‘We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped,’ Germany’s foreign ministry says.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has launched a legal challenge against Germany’s domestic intelligence agency for designating the far-right party an “extremist” organisation.

A spokesperson for the administrative court in Cologne confirmed on Monday that the AfD had submitted both a lawsuit and an emergency petition in response to the decision by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).

Germany, meanwhile, hit back at President Donald Trump’s administration in the United States over its criticism of the classification, suggesting officials in Washington should study history.

The Cologne court will begin reviewing the case once the BfV confirms that it has been notified of the filings.

The AfD had earlier denounced the designation as a politically driven attempt to marginalise the party.

“With our lawsuit, we are sending a clear signal against the abuse of state power to combat and exclude the opposition,” party co-leaders Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel said on Monday, alleging that the classification was an effort to “distort democratic competition and delegitimise millions of votes”.

Pivotal moment

The classification, announced on Friday, gives Germany’s intelligence agency the power to surveil the AfD, the largest opposition party in parliament.

These powers include deploying informants and intercepting internal party communications.

A 1,100-page report compiled by the agency – that will not be made public – concluded that the AfD is a racist and anti-Muslim organisation.

The move came at a pivotal moment in German politics as the mainstream grapples with the continued rise of the far right.

Centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz is expected to be sworn in as chancellor on Tuesday after his party struck a coalition deal with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).

The agreement was driven by a longstanding understanding among mainstream parties to sideline far-right political forces. The AfD came second to the CDU in February’s snap elections. The SPD finished third.

SPD leader Lars Klingbeil said last week that the coalition would review the situation to decide whether to revive efforts to ban the AfD.

History lessons

The new government will also have to deal with criticism from abroad over Germany’s approach to the AfD, in particular from the governments of the US and Russia, both of which are swift to condemn any “foreign interference” in their own affairs.

US Vice President JD Vance, who met with Weidel after the elections in February, insisted on Friday that the AfD was “by far the most representative” party in the formerly communist eastern Germany, adding: “Now the bureaucrats try to destroy it.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio branded the designation of the party “tyranny in disguise”.

In response, Germany’s Federal Foreign Office posted on Monday, “This is democracy,” and said the decision was “the result of a thorough & independent investigation to protect our Constitution & the rule of law”.

The ministry said independent courts will have the final say, adding: “We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped.”

The Kremlin also weighed in to criticise the action against the AfD, which regularly repeats Russian narratives regarding the war in Ukraine, and what it called a broader trend of “restrictive measures” against political movements in Europe.

Air traffic controllers at Newark Liberty International Airport briefly lost communications with planes under their control, “unable to see, hear, or talk to them” last week, a union spokesman has said.

The 28 April incident led to multiple employees being placed on trauma leave, contributing to hundreds of delayed or diverted flights. More than 150 flights have been cancelled so far on Monday alone, according to tracking website FlightAware.

The airport, one of New York’s busiest hubs, has been grappling with staff shortages for more than a week.

The Federal Aviation Administration acknowledged in a statement that “our antiquated air traffic control system is affecting our work force”.

Confirming the controllers had taken leave following the incident, the FAA said it could “not quickly replace them”.

“We continue to train controllers who will eventually be assigned to this busy airspace,” the statement said.

Air traffic control operations at the airport have come under sustained criticism recently.

Last week, United Airlines announced it was cancelling 35 flights per day from its Newark schedule because the airport “cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there”.

“In the past few days, on more than one occasion, technology that FAA air traffic controllers rely on to manage the airplanes coming in and out of Newark airport failed – resulting in dozens of diverted flights, hundreds of delayed and cancelled flights,” United CEO Scott Kirby said.

He also said the issues were “compounded” because over 20% of FAA controllers “walked off the job”.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association said the employees took leave under provisions for workers that experience a traumatic event at work.

The union would not say how many controllers had taken leave, or how long they lost contact with planes for.

The Newark incident comes as the US Department of Transport last week unveiled a package designed to boost the numbers of FAA air traffic controllers.

“The package will allow more of the best and brightest candidates to get into air traffic facilities and on the job faster, as well as increase retention of experienced controllers,” the FAA said.

The transport department said it was on track to hire at least 2,000 controllers this year.

In February, the Trump administration began firing hundreds of FAA employees, weeks after a fatal mid-air plane collision in Washington DC.

The agency said it would continue to hire and onboard air traffic controllers and safety professionals.

French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are hosting a conference in Paris to attract United States-based academics and researchers in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s targeting of universities.

European Union commissioners on Monday announced half a billion euros ($568m) in incentives to lure international academics to the continent at the Choose Europe for Science conference.

The meeting at Paris’s Sorbonne University is targeted at academics and researchers who fear their work will be threatened by billions of dollars of US government spending cuts for universities and research bodies as well as attacks on higher education institutions over diversity policies and pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

Pro-Palestinian foreign students in the US have been arrested and sent to detention centres, often without following due process, while universities have been pressured to punish professors speaking out against the Gaza war. Campaigners said the Trump administration’s actions, including revocations of permanent resident status of students, have a chilling effect on academic freedom – a cornerstone of the American education system.

Trump’s campaign against universities has given Europe’s political leaders hope they could reap an intellectual windfall. Macron’s office said the EU is targeting researchers working in the fields of health, climate, biodiversity, artificial intelligence and space.

For her part, von der Leyen said she wanted EU member states to invest 3 percent of their gross domestic products in research and development by 2030.

What we know about Trump’s attacks on educational institutions

US universities and research facilities have come under increasing political pressure under Trump, including threats of federal funding cuts. Trump has pushed universities to punish pro-Palestine protesters and ordered them to drop diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) measures aimed at providing better representation for minority and poorly served communities.

Trump and his voter base have accused US universities of promoting progressive ideology over conservative values. They say the universities have failed to protect the civil rights of conservative and Jewish students.

On April 14, Harvard University rejected a series of demands from the Trump administration. Within hours, the US Department of Education froze nearly $2.3bn in federal funding for the Ivy League institution.

Last week, Trump renewed his threat to strip Harvard of its tax-exempt status, a move that could cost the university billions of dollars if implemented. Harvard has described the president’s move as “leverage to gain control of academic decision-making”. The university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has sued the administration.

On March 10, the Department of Education announced it had sent letters to 60 higher education institutions, warning them of “enforcement actions” if they did not protect Jewish students on campus as stipulated in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

In February, the Trump administration froze $400m in funds for Columbia University in New York City, which emerged as the epicentre of last year’s protests against Israel’s war on Gaza. Some universities have also received “stop work” orders – calls to suspend research projects funded by the government.

Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, said it had received more than 75 “stop work” orders from the US Department of Defense, according to a statement released by Cornell President Michael I Kotlikoff on April 8.

Elsewhere, hundreds of international students and recent graduates have had their US visas revoked – some have even been arrested – for participating in pro-Palestine demonstrations.

The Trump administration is also sharpening its attacks on the National Science Foundation, the government agency that funds basic science, maths and engineering research, especially at colleges and universities.

On May 2, the White House made a preliminary budget request to cut $4.7bn, or more than half of the agency’s $9bn budget. It follows two previous waves of grant cancellations in April as well as funding cuts to other public bodies.

What is Europe proposing?

In the wake of Trump’s moves, the EU is hoping to offer a political safe haven for US scientists and academics and also to “defend our [the EU’s] strategic interests and promote a universalist vision”, an official in Macron’s office told the AFP news agency.

Monday’s conference in Paris is the latest push to open Europe’s doors to US-based researchers. In April, Macron appealed to US university staff to “choose France” and unveiled plans for a funding programme to cover the costs of bringing foreign scientists to the country.

“We were quite indignant about what was happening, and we felt that our colleagues in the US were going through a catastrophe. … We wanted to offer some sort of scientific asylum to those whose research is being hindered,” Eric Berton, the president of France’s Aix-Marseille University, told the UK-based Guardian newspaper.

The European Research Council, an EU body that finances scientific work, told the Reuters news agency that it would double its relocation budget to fund researchers moving to the EU to 2 million euros ($2.16m) per applicant.

The UK government is preparing a similar initiative. Backed by about 50 million pounds ($66m) in state funding, the scheme is designed to support research grants and cover relocation expenses for select teams of scientists, mainly from the US.

In Germany, as part of coalition talks for a new government, conservatives and Social Democrats have drawn up plans to lure up to 1,000 researchers, according to negotiation documents from March seen by Reuters that allude to the upheaval in US higher learning.

“The American government is currently using brute force against the universities in the USA, so that researchers from America are now contacting Europe,” Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting, Friedrich Merz, said in April. “This is a huge opportunity for us.”

Is Europe in a position to poach US scientists?

For decades, Europe has lagged behind the US when it comes to investment in higher education.

According to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, total expenditures on research and development in the EU among businesses, governments and universities was 381 billion euros ($411bn) in 2023.

That same year, total research and development in the US was estimated at $940bn, according to the National Centre for Science and Engineering Statistics, a federal data agency.

And the wealthiest US university, Harvard, has an endowment worth $53.2bn while that of Britain’s (and Europe’s) wealthiest, the University of Oxford, is $10.74bn.

“I don’t foresee a rapid build-up of additional scientific capability that could match what the US now has … for several decades,” Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University in New Jersey, recently told Reuters.

Some US scientists have pointed to what they see as another drawback – European language barriers and unfamiliar laws and employment practices. In addition, research funding and researchers’ remuneration both lag far behind US levels.

The Choose Europe for Science event is expected to counter those concerns by arguing that university pay gaps will seem less significant when the lower cost of education, healthcare and more generous social benefits are taken into account.

What has been the response so far?

Aix-Marseille University in the south of France said it has received interest from 120 researchers at institutions across the US, including NASA and Stanford University in California, in the 15-million-euro ($17m) “safe space for science” programme it launched on March 7.

The initiative aims to attract US researchers from fields including health, medicine, epidemiology and climate change.

In a letter to French universities in March, Philippe Baptiste, France’s minister for higher education and research, wrote: “Many well-known researchers are already questioning their future in the United States. We would naturally wish to welcome a certain number of them.”

Elsewhere, the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London, which specialises in climate change research, has created two fellowships for early career climate researchers from the US and has already seen an uptick in applications.

An official from Macron’s office said Monday’s conference is being held “at a time when academic freedoms are retreating and under threat in a number of cases and Europe is a continent of attractiveness”.

Still, Europe is not immune from controversy. Germany has been accused of silencing pro-Palestinian voices, having recently ordered the deportations of three European nationals and a US citizen over “anti-Semitic” actions.

Israel has launched 50 air strikes on Yemen’s Hodeidah region and a cement factory to the east. Houthi-linked media report two people were killed and 42 injured. The strikes follow a missile attack from Yemen that hit Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Sunday.

Move comes after Marcel Ciolacu’s pro-EU coalition candidate fails to advance to the presidential run-off.

Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu has resigned, a day after a far-right opposition leader won the first round of the presidential election rerun and his own candidate crashed out of the race.

Ciolacu said on Monday that his centre-left Social Democratic Party (PSD) would withdraw from the pro-Western coalition – effectively ending it – while cabinet ministers will stay on in an interim capacity until a new majority emerges after the presidential run-off.

Hard-right eurosceptic George Simion decisively swept the ballot on Sunday, with some 41 percent of votes, and will face Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, an independent centrist, in a May 18 run-off. Coalition candidate Crin Antonescu came third.

“Rather than let the future president replace me, I decided to resign myself,” Ciolacu said.

Although Ciolacu’s leftist PSD won the most seats in a December 1 parliamentary election, Simion’s Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) and two other far-right groupings, one with overt pro-Russian sympathies, won more than a third of the seats to become a clear political force.

The Social Democrats had formed a coalition government with the centrist Liberals and ethnic Hungarian UDMR to help keep the European Union and NATO state on a pro-Western course. A governing majority that cordons off the far-right in the legislature cannot be formed without it.

“This coalition is no longer legitimate,” Ciolacu told reporters after a party meeting.

Before the meeting, Ciolacu stated that one of the conditions of forming the coalition was to field a common candidate to win the presidency.

Romania already has an interim president until the May 18 run-off. The country has the EU’s largest budget deficit and risks a ratings downgrade to below investment level unless it enforces a decisive fiscal correction.

Sunday’s vote came five months after a first attempt to hold the election was cancelled because of alleged Russian interference in favour of far-right frontrunner Calin Georgescu, since banned from standing again.

Simion has said he could appoint Georgescu prime minister should he win. The vote underscores simmering anger among vast parts of the Romanian electorate over high living costs and worries over security.

Some analysts think a Simion victory could isolate Romania, erode private investment and destabilise NATO’s eastern flank, where Bucharest plays a key role in providing logistical support to Ukraine as it fights a three-year-old Russian invasion, political observers say.

It would also expand a cohort of eurosceptic leaders in the EU that already includes the Hungarian and Slovak prime ministers at a time when Europe is struggling to formulate its response to United States President Donald Trump.

Simion said in a prerecorded speech aired after polls closed Sunday that, “I am here to restore constitutional order.”

“I want democracy, I want normalcy, and I have a single objective: to give back to the Romanian people what was taken from them and to place at the centre of decision-making the ordinary, honest, dignified people,” he said.

Simion said his hard-right nationalist AUR party is “perfectly aligned with the MAGA movement”, referring to Trump’s
“Make America Great Again” campaign and capitalising on a growing wave of populism in Europe after the US president’s political comeback.

AUR, which proclaims to stand for “family, nation, faith, and freedom”, rose to prominence in a 2020 parliamentary election and has doubled its support since then.

US President Donald Trump says he wants to work with his Turkish counterpart to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

United States President Donald Trump says he has had a “very good and productive” telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and they have discussed a wide range of topics, including how to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, Syria and Israel’s war on Gaza.

During the call on Monday, Trump said Erdogan had invited him to visit Turkiye and he had extended an invitation for the Turkish leader to visit Washington, DC. No dates were announced.

A readout of the call from the Turkish presidency confirmed Erdogan invited Trump for a visit.

The Republican president, who described his relationship with Erdogan as “excellent” during his first tenure at the White House, said the two countries would cooperate on ending the war in Ukraine.

“I look forward to working with President Erdogan on getting the ridiculous but deadly, War between Russia and Ukraine ended – NOW!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform.

NATO member Turkiye has sought to maintain good relations with both of its Black Sea neighbours since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has twice hosted talks aimed at ending the war.

“Noting that he supports President Trump’s approach toward ending wars, President Erdogan expressed appreciation for the efforts exerted to maintain the negotiation process with Iran and stop the war between Russia and Ukraine,” Turkiye’s Directorate of Communications said in a statement posted on X.

Erdogan also raised the urgent need for a ceasefire in Gaza, warning that its humanitarian crisis had reached a “grave level”, the directorate said.

The Turkish president also stressed the importance of the “uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid and the urgent end to this tragic situation”.

On neighbouring Syria, Erdogan reaffirmed Turkiye’s commitment to preserving its territorial integrity and restoring lasting stability.

He said US efforts to ease sanctions on Syria and its new government would help move that process forward and contribute to regional peace.

Regarding bilateral ties, Erdogan said Ankara remained committed to strengthening cooperation with Washington, particularly in the defence sector.

Trump is due to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates next week.

TikToks claiming luxury brand goods are manufactured in Chinese factories have gone viral in shoppers’ feeds. This comes after the closure of a major import loophole and 145% tariffs on Chinese goods. What do these videos reveal about American consumer culture and the course of this trade war?

The Royal Family were at the heart of commemorations to mark 80 years since the end of World War Two in Europe.

Prince Louis helped keep his father William looking smart for the parade while the King encouraged his family to wave to onlooking crowds during the traditional balcony moment, before the flypast.

Watch this and more unseen royal video from the VE Day celebrations.