Demands for answers are mounting over the fate of 6-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who became trapped in a car with her dead relatives after it came under Israeli fire in Gaza more than a week ago.

Mystery also surrounds the whereabouts of two ambulance staff from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), who were dispatched to find her on January 29.

“We need to know what has happened to Hind and the PRCS ambulance team,” the PRCS said in their latest statement on X early Tuesday.

“So many wonderful things can happen in a week, but for those waiting for news or for information a week is anguish. Each moment is marked by worry and sadness.”

Hind was traveling in a car with her uncle, his wife and their four children, fleeing fighting in northern Gaza, when they came under Israeli fire, according to the PRCS.

Hind’s cousin, 15-year-old Layan Hamadeh, made a harrowing call for help to emergency services that was recorded by the PRCS and shared on social media.

In the clip, the teenager can be heard speaking to a paramedic, crying for help and describing a tank close by.

“They are shooting at us. The tank is right next to me. We’re in the car, the tank is right next to us,” Layan screams, amid intense gunfire in the background.

Layan then goes quiet, and the rounds of fire stop.

The paramedic on the phone tries to speak to her, repeatedly saying, “Hello? Hello?” but there is no response.

The PRCS believe that the six other people in the car with Hind, including Layan, were killed when the car was shot at.

Alone, terrified and trapped in the car with the bodies of her relatives around her, Hind made a desperate call for help.

“Come take me. Will you come and take me? I’m so scared, please come!” Hind can be heard saying in a recording of the call to responders, released by the PRCS.

PRCS said its responders stayed on the phone with Hind for more than three hours as they scrambled to dispatch an ambulance team – paramedics Yousef Zieno and Ahmed Almadhoun – to find her.

At the time, the group said that ambulances had been unable to reach the area as the Israeli military considered it a closed military zone and was targeting anyone attempting to move in the vicinity.

Rana Al-Faqueh, a PRCS response coordinator who stayed on the call with the girl, said Hind asked for the time because it was getting dark. “I’m afraid of the dark,” she said, according to Al-Faqueh.

“Is there gunfire around you?” she asked. “Yes. Come get me,” replied Hind.

In a statement, the PRCS said their rescue team arrived in the area where the young girl was trapped in the car, close to a Fares gas station, at 6 p.m. local time.

They then lost contact with the team and with Hind. It’s unclear whether the team managed to reach the little girl.

They have not been heard from in eight days.

Health Ministry holds Israel responsible

On Saturday, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates (PMOFA) said it holds the Israeli government “fully and directly responsible” for the lives of Hind, and the two paramedics,  Zieno and Almadhoun, who went to rescue her.

“Their fate remains unknown,” the foreign ministry said.

“The troops were assisted by tank fire under the direction of field observers and infantry soldiers. In addition, the troops located large quantities of weapons in the area,” the IDF said last Monday.

The PRCS has stepped up its appeal for answers, issuing more than two dozen statements and posts on social media site X demanding to know what happened to them.

“Where is Hind? Where are Yousef and Ahmed? Are they still alive? We want to know their fate,” the humanitarian group said on Monday.

The PRCS said the case was “representative of all the suffering and brutality of the past few months,” where Israel’s intense bombing campaign of Gaza has killed 27,478 people, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, and triggered a catastrophic humanitarian crisis throughout the Palestinian territory, forcing close to two million people from their homes.

The lack of information about the missing paramedics and little girl was “really affecting the mental health of the PRCS staff and volunteers,” the group said.

Hind’s mother waits for answers outside hospital

No one is more desperate for answers than Hind’s distraught mother, who had been waiting outside a Gaza hospital hoping her daughter would arrive “at any minute.”

“She is a little girl, her only dream is to be a doctor and treat people.”

The girl’s grandmother, Hind Hamada, said she was “hopeful” that her granddaughter would be returned “without delay.”

She said Hind had called them from the car saying, “Come and get me, I want to go home, and I want my family.”

“We want to take Hind to a hospital to treat her because she was injured,” the grandmother said.

Although the family hope that the PRCS rescue crew are taking “care of her” daughter, they couldn’t say so with any certainty.

“Every time I hear the sound of any strike, any shell, or a bullet my heart hurts because I think of this bullet being so close to my daughter. Any hit, I feel it’s coming to my daughter.”

Kenyan Christian cult leader Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and 29 other suspects were charged with the murder of 191 children on Tuesday morning by the Malindi High Court.

The children’s bodies were exhumed from Shakahola forest in eastern Kenya last year where Mackenzie and his associates are accused of running a death cult. Authorities exhumed over 400 bodies from the sprawling forest after months of search efforts.

Mackenzie and the 29 others pleaded not guilty to the charges. One suspect was found mentally unfit to stand trial.

This is a developing story. More to come.

Two attackers have been killed in an attempted assault at the main courthouse in Istanbul on Tuesday, the Turkish interior minister said on X.

The deceased attackers were a man and a woman, according to Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya. He said they were members of the Marxist-Leninist armed group the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front.

Six people, including three police officers were injured in the attack, the minister said.

The assault took place at the Caglayan Courthouse just before midday Istanbul time.

The Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, known as the DHKP-C, has previously carried out attacks in Turkey, including in 2015 when armed members took hostage and killed a prosecutor at the same courthouse.

This is a developing story. More details to come.

El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele is headed for what appears to be a landslide victory in the presidential election, with more than 70% of the votes counted as of Monday, according to preliminary results from the country’s Supreme Electoral Court (TSE).

His party is enjoying a wide lead over the opposition. Preliminary results showed Bukele’s Nueva Ideas securing 1,662,313 votes compared to runner-up FMLN’s 139,025 votes as of Monday afternoon.

The results were widely expected in a country where Bukele enjoys immense popularity over a crackdown on gangs that drove down El Salvador’s once-sky-high levels of violence.

Bukele had already declared himself the winner in the race late Sunday, saying: “Today, El Salvador has broken all the records of all the democracies in the world. Since democracies have existed, never has a project won with the quantity of votes that we have won today.”

Earlier on Monday, the federal election authority said it asked polling stations across the country to manually record the results of Sunday’s presidential election after electronic transmission of results stopped updating overnight.

The court said it took its decision based on the country’s electoral code and after actions that “hindered” the transmission of primary results and “other factors beyond the control of the (court),” without elaborating further.

Polling stations are now manually report voting records, with both election officials and party representatives taking “photographic or scanned evidence” of the records before sending them to the court.

Bukele, 42, faced little in the way of organized opposition and enjoys one of the highest favorability ratings in the region, regularly polling above 70% in independent surveys.

His supporters laud Bukele’s crackdown on criminal gangs under an extended state of emergency that reversed the country’s murder rate, once the highest in the world.

However, mass arrests have also triggered outcry from human rights groups, who allege Bukele’s government has detained innocent people and subjected prisoners to dehumanizing conditions behind bars, including torture. El Salvador now has the world’s highest incarceration rate.

The debate between the two sides has elevated an election in a small Central American state into a broader referendum on the extent that voters are willing to relinquish basic liberties in exchange for relative peace and safety.

An overwhelming win for Bukele would likely give the young leader more leeway to reform El Salvador in his heavy-handed vision. Bukele has not shied away from comparisons to autocrats – once setting his Twitter biography to read “world’s coolest dictator” – and his government has said they are “eliminating” democracy in the country.

Bukele’s ability to run for a second term is a clear example of the effort: with El Salvador’s constitution barring presidents from seeking re-election, the country’s Congress in 2021 replaced the top judges on the Supreme Court with a new class willing to grant him the power. Bukele stepped down from the presidency late last year to focus on his reelection. He is set to be sworn in for his second term in June.

In at least 13 countries in Latin America, most of the population “wouldn’t mind an undemocratic government rising to power if it resolved problems,” according to a 2023 poll by Latinobarometro.

Still, under Bukele, the country’s economy has stagnated, with low growth rates and an unmet demand for jobs. Foreign direct investment in the country has also not risen in line with the country’s newfound security, with polls indicating that companies are reluctant to invest in El Salvador given the “decreasing legal certainty” and autocratic lurch in the government, Freeman said.

“It’s notable Bukele said nothing about the economy in his victory speech, and very little about the economy on the campaign trail, probably because it’s a very weak issue for him,” he said.

Spiders spin silken webs to capture flies and other tiny prey. They’re also trapping a wealth of DNA from the surrounding environment, a hidden resource that Australian scientists said could be used to track endangered animals and monitor ecosystems.

Spiderwebs collected from two locations around Western Australia’s Perth — Perth Zoo and the Karakamia woodland sanctuary — revealed the genetic signature of 93 animals, including native kangaroos and koalas and captive elephants and zebras, according to a study published last week in the journal iScience.

Spiderwebs might be a useful way to keep an eye on what animals are around us, according to study coauthor Joshua Newton, a doctoral student at Curtin University’s School of Molecular and Life Sciences near Perth.

“These webs, often overlooked in biodiversity studies, proved to be reservoirs of genetic information,” Newton said in a press release.

“With only trace amounts of DNA needed to identify animals, this cheap and non-invasive method could be a game-changer in how we explore and protect our terrestrial biodiversity.”

All organisms leave behind fragments of DNA in the form of skin cells, hair or bodily fluids, and this genetic material is known as environmental DNA or eDNA.

Scientists have been able to detect animal DNA in the air. Two proof-of-concept studies published in 2022 recovered the DNA of multiple animals from air samples collected from Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark and Hamerton Zoo Park in the United Kingdom.

The Australian study takes the idea a step further, removing the need for any equipment, such as a fan or air filter, to collect the sample.

Webs, the authors said, “are ubiquitous in many natural and anthropogenic environments, found in an array of microhabitats worldwide, and naturally selected to act as sticky traps.”

What’s more, spiderwebs are really easy to collect, Newton said. “I liken it to when Princess Fiona in Shrek makes a spiderweb fairy floss for Shrek. She just grabs a stick and wraps it all up. That’s basically what I do,” he explained. “I bring it back into the lab and then we take the DNA off of it using pretty standard extraction methods.”

Techniques involving eDNA already have made a significant impact across different fields of scientific research. Archaeologists are using eDNA found in cave dirt to understand ancient human populations, while eDNA from cores of Arctic earth has revealed where mammoths and other ice age animals used to roam.

It’s being used in conservation, and the technique was deployed in the rediscovery of the blind golden mole, which was found using eDNA 87 years after wildlife experts feared the species had gone extinct.

Similar techniques are used to sample eDNA in sewage to detect and track diseases such as Covid-19 in human populations.

Elizabeth Clare, a professor in the department of biology at York University in Ontario, Canada, who led one of the 2022 studies on sampling eDNA but wasn’t involved in this research, said she loved the idea of using spiderwebs.

“It’s wonderfully non-invasive (unless you are the spider!). It does not surprise me at all that it works,” she said via email.

“We have continued to pursue eDNA from air sources and I think, once we sort out the methods, airborne eDNA is going to be extremely successful,” she added.

Creatures great and small

At Perth Zoo, species that were detected spanned in size from the pygmy marmoset to the Asian elephant. At both sites, the zoo and the Karakamia woodland sanctuary, they were able to detect animals of varying behavior and lifestyle, including the arboreal common brushtail possum, ground-dwelling animals such as the giraffe, nocturnal species and animals with fur, feathers, scales and naked skin.

Almost double the species were detected at the zoo (61) compared with the woodland (32). The authors said this difference was likely because the greater density of animals at the zoo increased the chances of detection.

The different types of spiderweb collected may also affect the types and quantity of DNA collected, the study noted.

In the Karakamia woodland area, 50 kilometers (31 miles) away from the zoo, the team collected more two-dimensional orb webs from Araneidae and Phonognathidae spider families.

By contrast, the majority of webs collected at Perth Zoo were from the Desidae and Theridiidae families, both with tangled, irregular web arrangements.

Newton said that different types of webs might suit particular types of analysis.

“A lot of the orb spiders will take down their web in the morning and then rebuild them at night,” he said, allowing scientists to gather DNA over a specific period.

Next, the team are going to see how spiderwebs compare with other materials that absorb or collect eDNA, including soil and water.

“I think the big unknown for a lot of (this) is how far the DNA is traveling.”

Devastating wildfires tearing through swaths of Chile have killed more than 120 people, authorities said Monday, as they warned that the death toll was set to rise.

At least 122 people have died so far, the Legal Medical Services of the city of Valparaiso said Monday. Officials also said that 32 bodies have been identified, 40 autopsies have been conducted, and 10 bodies are ready to be delivered to relatives.

There are currently 161 active fires burning across the country, the Chilean National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (SENAPRED) said.

President Gabriel Boric declared a state of emergency as coastal cities like Viña del Mar and Valparaiso choked in smoke. Residents living in central regions were also forced to evacuate their homes. Speaking at a press conference held after visiting affected areas on Sunday, Boric raised fears that the death toll would “increase significantly.”

In a televised statement on Saturday, Boric said that the defense ministry would deploy more military units to affected areas, with all necessary resources made available.

He declared Monday and Tuesday as days of national mourning for fire victims.

The human-caused climate crisis is making heat waves and droughts, which fuel wildfires, more frequent and intense. The world is also currently experiencing the El Niño phenomenon, boosting temperatures even further.

Wildfires have intensified around the globe, providing a stark reminder of how the climate crisis is upending lives and inflicting billions of dollars a year in damage. And it will only get worse, according to experts. “Uncontrollable and devastating wildfires are becoming an expected part of the seasonal calendars in many parts of the world,” the UN Environment Programme said in a report published in 2022.

The number of extreme wildfire events will increase up to 14% by 2030, according to the UN report. By 2050, the increase will climb to 30%.

In Chile, the fires come as the country battles a summer heatwave. The capital Santiago has been sweltering through consecutive days of hot and dry temperatures climbing above 33 degrees Celsius (91.4°F).

Neighboring Colombia battled recent wildfires, declaring a disaster and also calling for international help to fight the flames.

Emergency crews on the ground in Chile are prioritizing the fires in the port city of Valparaíso because of its proximity to urban areas. Local officials said 372 residents were reported missing.

Located about 70 miles (113 kilometers) northwest of the capital Santiago on Chile’s coast, Valparaiso is a popular tourist destination known for its colorful houses, idyllic hills and its historic old town.

Chile’s Finance Minister Mario Marcel told reporters on Sunday that preliminary estimates for damages in the Valaparaíso region was expected to reach “hundreds of millions of dollars.”

While evacuation efforts had been efficient, some living in affected areas did not want to vacate their homes, local search and rescue officials said.

Rodrigo Mundaca, the governor of Valparaiso, said curfews were in place in the towns of Viña del Mar, Quilpué, Villa Alemana and Limache to allow authorities to focus on battling the blazes.

Pope Francis, who hails from nearby Argentina, called upon people to “pray for the deceased and injured victims of the devastating fires that have affected central Chile.”

According to police, the man was at his home in the city of Talca in central Chile doing welding work when a fire accidentally started and spread to nearby grasslands.

The suspect will be arraigned on Sunday in Talca, according to the Maule Prosecutor’s Office.

Desperate search for survivors

“I think she could be disoriented,” Ariel Orellana said. “I believe with all my faith and with all my heart that she is going to appear, eventually, to put an end to this nightmare.”

Orellana said his sister, Anastasia, was last seen when fleeing the wildfire in the Pompeya community in Viña del Mar, located in central Chile.

The girl had been living with her mother and her mother’s partner, who also died in the fires, according to Orellana.

On Saturday, after not being able to communicate with his mother, Orellana rushed to Pompeya to search for the couple and discovered their bodies near their vehicle.

“They did not have time to escape,” Orellana said. “They had a van, they tried to flee on it and the van was engulfed by the fire.”

Orellana said he is continuing to search nearby areas ravaged by the fires and is using social media to spread the word about his sister disappearance.

“I only found two bodies, not three. So I’m still looking for my sister,” he said.

Britain’s King Charles III has been diagnosed with cancer and will step back from public-facing duties while he undergoes treatment, Buckingham Palace announced Monday.

The update came after Charles, 75, attended a London hospital for a corrective procedure for an enlarged prostate last month.

“His Majesty has today commenced a schedule of regular treatments, during which time he has been advised by doctors to postpone public-facing duties,” the palace said.

“Throughout this period, His Majesty will continue to undertake State business
and official paperwork as usual,” it added.

The King spent three nights at the London Clinic, a private hospital near Regent’s Park, for his recent procedure and was previously said to be “doing well” following the stint.

He was seen for the first time since his treatment on Sunday, appearing in good spirits as he waved to the public on his way to a Sunday morning church service in Sandringham, Norfolk. His wife, Queen Camilla, accompanied him.

The royal source added that the King returned from Sandringham on Monday morning to begin outpatient treatment in London.

“The King is grateful to his medical team for their swift intervention, which was made possible thanks to his recent hospital procedure,” Buckingham Palace’s statement said. “He remains wholly positive about his treatment and looks forward to returning to full public duty as soon as possible.”

“His Majesty has chosen to share his diagnosis to prevent speculation and in the hope it may assist public understanding for all those around the world who are affected by cancer,” the palace concluded.

“It sounds like in the course of the routine evaluation part for his prostate surgery, they discovered something else was amiss,” Reiner said.

Charles became monarch on the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in September 2022.

Prince William, the next in line to the throne, will be returning to public duties later this week, after taking time off to support his wife in her own recovery from abdominal surgery, Kensington Palace announced in a press statement earlier Monday.

William is in regular contact with his father, according to a source close to the Prince of Wales.

Prince Harry spoke to his father about the diagnosis and will be traveling to the UK to see the King in the coming days, the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said.

Harry and Charles have been involved in a long-running, public falling out in the years since the prince and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, stepped back from royal duties, though the duke did make a brief visit to the UK for Charles’ coronation last year.

Britain’s political leaders quickly reacted to the news. Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, wrote on social media that he was “wishing His Majesty a full and speedy recovery.”

“I have no doubt he’ll be back to full strength in no time and I know the whole country will be wishing him well,” Sunak said.

US President Joe Biden meanwhile said he is “concerned” about King Charles.

“I’m concerned about him. Just heard about his diagnosis,” Biden said in Las Vegas when asked about the development. Biden said he expected to speak soon with the King, “God willing.”

The leaders of Commonwealth nations, like Canada and Australia, as well as French President Emmanuel Macron, also offered their support to the King.

“Wishing His Majesty King Charles III a speedy recovery. Our thoughts are with the British people,” Macron wrote in a post on X.

Health drama worsens for royals

Monday’s announcement from Buckingham Palace – made in the early evening in London – marked a major and unwelcome milestone in Charles’ reign as Britain’s monarch.

It exacerbated an already challenging period for the royal family, whose new year has been marked by health-related issues that had left three of their most senior members sidelined.

Charles’ prostate operation required a three-day hospital visit, during which the tests that revealed cancer were conducted. Queen Camilla, who had visited her husband daily, was by his side as he left last Monday.

Camilla previously said her husband was “fine” and “looking forward to getting back to work” while on recent engagements.

Catherine, Princess of Wales, had simultaneously been dealing with abdominal issues and left the same hospital hours earlier after her operation.

Since then, Kate and her husband, Prince William, have been removed from public view while they focused on her recovery.

William and Kate both cleared their diaries of public duties until at least Easter, but on Monday afternoon – hours before Charles’ diagnosis was made public – Kensington Palace announced that William would return to such duties later this week.

Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, was also diagnosed with malignant melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer, last month.

Charles had generally enjoyed good health and is known for enjoying long walks in the countryside; he contracted Covid-19 twice, in 2020 and 2022, but recovered in good time on each occasion.

If the King were to become so ill that he is unable to carry out his full duties on a temporary basis, he would be able to delegate some of them to two or more Counsellors of State.

The current Counsellors of State are Camilla, William, Harry, Princess Anne, Prince Edward, Prince Andrew, and Princess Beatrice.

If the King became completely unable to carry out his constitutional duties, to the point where the state could no longer function properly, his powers can be withdrawn and assumed by a regent. Under a 1937 law, that would be the next in line to the throne, which is Prince William.

King Charles III has been diagnosed with cancer and has started treatment in London.

The shock diagnosis comes a week after the 75-year-old British monarch left hospital following a separate procedure for an enlarged prostate.

Here’s what we know.

How was the cancer identified?

Charles’ recent health problems started last month when Buckingham Palace announced on January 17 that the King would attend hospital to undergo a “corrective procedure” for a benign enlarged prostate.

He had been diagnosed after experiencing symptoms and receiving a check-up while at his Birkhall residence in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

He was discharged from the London Clinic on January 29 and was previously said to have been “doing well” after spending three nights at the private hospital near Regent’s Park. He was released hours after Catherine, Princess of Wales, left the same facility where she had been resting following a successful abdominal operation.

However, while the King was undergoing that treatment, a separate issue of concern was noted, according to the palace on Monday, and subsequent tests identified “a form of cancer.”

Specific medical conditions of members of the royal family are rarely divulged publicly. The palace’s perspective is that they are entitled to some level of medical privacy despite their positions as public servants. That was the case with the initial diagnosis of an enlarged prostate. But Charles opted to share his diagnosis as he wanted to encourage other men who may be experiencing symptoms to get checked.

The situation is different when a condition could affect public duties. At that point, the palace has a duty to reveal what is going on, which is why a statement was issued on Monday evening.

How is King Charles doing?

King Charles was seen for the first time since leaving hospital on Sunday. With Queen Camilla by his side, he appeared to be in good spirits, waving to the public as the pair made their way to St. Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, Norfolk, for a Sunday morning church service.

He has now returned to London and begun outpatient treatment.

On the advice of his doctors, the King is postponing his public-facing engagements as he receives treatment but will continue with state business and official paperwork, the palace said.

He “remains wholly positive about his treatment and looks forward to returning to full public duty as soon as possible,” it added.

It is also understood that he will continue to be available for state duties like Privy Council meetings. However, details of how that will occur are still being worked out.

Who fronts the family now?

The announcement that William would be resuming some royal engagements came just hours before the King’s cancer diagnosis. William is in regular contact with his father, according to a source close to the Prince of Wales.

Prince William is set to attend a charity gala for the London Air Ambulance Charity, where he’ll meet with crew members, supporters of the charity, and former patients of the charity, Kensington Palace said earlier Monday.

The number of public-facing “working royals” has dwindled in recent years as “the Firm” sought to rebrand in step with the times. Only working royals carry out engagements on behalf of the King, splitting the 2,710 visits and events of last year between them.

That group was supposed to consist of 14 family members: King Charles, Queen Camilla, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, the Waleses, the Sussexes, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, and the Duke and Duchess of Kent. That is, until Prince Harry and Meghan chose to step down and Andrew was forced to, in the light of his relationship with the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Now, 11 members of the clan conduct royal duties – more than half of whom are over the age of 70.

Harry, who has spoken with his father since his cancer diagnosis, will be returning to the United Kingdom in the days ahead, according to the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The duke – who stepped back from royal duties in 2020 – is flying from California to see the King, who it is thought he hasn’t seen since the coronation in May.

What could happen if the King becomes too ill to work?

While all the signals coming from the palace are positive, there are constitutional provisions in place if the King is unable to temporarily carry out his official duties. In that instance, “counsellors of state” can be called upon to step in for him.

The list of royals who can step in include Queen Camilla, Princes William, Harry and Andrew, and Princess Beatrice. In 2022, the King expanded this pool of family members to include his siblings, Princess Anne and Prince Edward. If this option was enacted over the coming weeks or months, it is unlikely the Dukes of Sussex or York would be directed to step up as they are no longer working royals.

If the King becomes completely unable to carry out his constitutional duties and the state can no longer function properly, his powers can be withdrawn and assumed by a regent. Under the Regency Act 1937, that would be the next in line to the throne, which is Prince William.

For that to happen, there has to be medical evidence “that the Sovereign is by reason of infirmity of mind or body incapable for the time being of performing the royal functions” or “is for some definite cause not available for the performance of those functions.”

A panel of four needs to be satisfied with the evidence by a majority vote. That panel consists of the Lord Chancellor, the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Lord Chief Justice of England, the Master of the Rolls, and The Queen. They would need to declare their decision in writing and would also declare if or when the King is ready to resume his duties. In the meantime, Prince William would act in his name.

What is the current line of succession?

The changes to the number of working royals in recent years has not changed the line of succession.

The King’s elder son, Prince William, is the first-in-line to the British throne. He is followed by his three children: 10-year-old Prince George, then Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5.

All it took was six sea drones, powered by jet skis, to fell a Russian guided missile ship last week, according to a rare interview with the secretive Ukrainian unit behind the attack.

Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence said at the time that the small Russian warship, the Ivanovets, suffered multiple hits to its hull before it was sunk by drones in an inlet on the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula.

The “MAGURA” drones are only a few meters long and powered by jet skis, the pilot said, but they have a large range of around 800 kilometers (nearly 500 miles), giving his unit freedom to launch their drones from across large swathes of Ukraine’s coastline for missions against Crimean targets.

The pilot, identified as call sign “13,” is a member of a special unit in Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency (GUR), which has been linked to a number of attacks on Crimea and into Russia itself, often using drones to hit far beyond the range of conventional weapons of Ukraine’s arsenal.

Night-time footage released by the Ukrainians showed Russians firing at the drones as they raced towards the Ivanovets, before at least two drones struck the side of the ship, disabling it and causing massive explosions.

The footage includes a striking scene of what appears to be the bow of the Ivanovets sticking out of the water as it sinks to the bottom of Lake Donuzlav.

Calls for more drones

Kyiv is increasingly turning to drones to level the playing field with Russia, with a string of drone attacks hitting strategic targets in Russia in recent weeks.

Moscow’s oil and gas infrastructure has come under threat, with a drone attack on a Russian oil terminal about 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of Saint Petersburg.

On the battlefield too, Ukraine’s top general has called for more widespread use of drones, both to save the lives of Ukrainian troops and to negate Russia’s material advantage in arms and ammunition.

“In short, this means nothing less than the wholesale redesign of battlefield operations – and the abandoning of outdated, stereotypical thinking,” he added.

Since Russia’s takeover of Crimea in 2014 – and following further losses after Russia’s 2022 invasion – Ukraine no longer has a functioning navy in the Black Sea. But the sinking of the Ivanovets is another victory in Ukraine’s campaign against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

The most notable of its strikes was the attack on the Moskva in April 2022, which forced Russia to change the way it operates close to areas controlled by Ukraine.

‘Jeweler’s work’

The impact of the drones is impressive but it’s delicate work, said the pilot.

Controlled from afar via a Starlink connection, the drones can also be pre-programmed for the long journeys across the Black Sea.

A pilot is constantly monitoring the drone’s passage, he said, with the final run into the targets often controlled manually.

The drone’s 250kg (551lb) payload can be increased to 300kg, he added, “but there is no need to do so.” Even against some of the toughest ships of Moscow’s Black Sea fleet, the drones have proved their effectiveness.

At almost six meters long, the drones are imposing out of the water. But once afloat, they make a hard target for defending Russians.

“They are quite difficult to see, especially in the open sea. This size makes it difficult to control it because the sea is choppy but it also makes it much harder for the enemy to hit us,” he said.

The weaponry aboard Russia’s warships wasn’t designed with drones in mind, forcing targets like the IVAN to use cannons better suited to duels with other ships, the pilot said.

Video of the attack shows rounds hitting the water as the drones home in on the Ivanovets. The ammunition is unable to stop the incoming bombs.

“No warship can be as manoeuvrable as these drones,” he added.

New information uncovered during a reopened investigation led to sexual assault charges being brought last week against five professional hockey players, four of whom are playing in the NHL, Canadian police said Monday, six years after the offense was allegedly committed.

The case against the players, who were members of the Canada world junior hockey team at the time of the alleged incident, was closed in early 2019 and reopened in July 2022 after an outcry from the Canadian public.

The charges relate to an unnamed woman’s accusation that multiple members of Canada’s world junior hockey team sexually assaulted her in London, Ontario, in 2018. The five men facing charges were members of that team.

The players, New Jersey Devils center Mike McLeod; Devils defenseman Cal Foote; Philadelphia Flyers goalie Carter Hart; Calgary Flames center Dillon Dube; and former Ottawa Senator forward Alex Formenton are each charged with one count of sexual assault, according to an official police charge sheet released by Hockey Canada.

McLeod is charged with an additional count of sexual assault for “being a party to the offence,” which relates to “aiding the behaviour of someone else,” Detective Sgt. Katherine Dann said during a news conference in London on Monday. The players have all been released with undertakings, which are used when police feel confident the conditions placed on the accused will sufficiently protect the safety of the victim and witnesses, according to Dann.

London Police Chief Thai Truong apologized to the victim for the length of time it has taken to file charges. “I want to extend on behalf of the London Police Service to the victim and her family for the amount of time that it has taken to reach this point,” he told reporters.

In previous statements by their lawyers, the players have all denied any wrongdoing and said they plan to defend their innocence in court.

CTV News reported the prosecution presented its case and said a “significant” amount of “disclosure,” which refers to forms of evidence, would be sent to defense attorneys in the coming days. The next court date is set for April 30, CTV reported.

The current NHL players have been told to surrender to authorities, London police have said.

How the case came to light

The case garnered widespread attention in May 2022 when Canadian broadcaster TSN reported the woman had settled a lawsuit she’d filed against Hockey Canada – the nation’s governing body for the sport – and members of the junior team over the assault allegations.

A cascade of developments followed, including parliamentary hearings in June 2022 over Hockey Canada’s handling of the case and announcements in July 2022 that London police and Hockey Canada would reopen their investigations.

Formenton, who was playing professionally in Switzerland, “will vigorously defend his innocence and asks that people not rush to judgment without hearing all of the evidence,” his attorneys Daniel Brown and Lindsay Board said in a statement. Formenton, who played for the Senators in 2017, has taken an indefinite leave of absence from Swiss hockey club Ambri-Piotta.

McLeod “denies any criminal wrongdoing,” his attorneys David Humphrey and Seth Weinstein said in a statement. “He will be pleading not guilty and will vigorously defend the case.”

Foote “is innocent of the charge and will defend himself against this allegation to clear his name,” his attorney said. “What is most critical at this time is the presumption of innocence, and the right to a fair trial that everyone in Canada is entitled to.”

Hart “is innocent and will provide a full response to this false allegation in the proper forum, a court of law,” his attorneys Riaz Sayani and Megan Savard said in a joint release.

Dube “will plead not guilty and maintains his innocence,” and “will defend the allegations in court,” his attorneys Louis P. Strezos and Kaleigh Davidson said in a statement.

The Flames are “aware of the charge of sexual assault that has been laid against Dillon Dube,” the club said. “We take this matter very seriously. Because the matter is now pending legal proceedings, we will have no further comment at this time.”

The Flames had said January 21 that Dube was “granted an indefinite leave of absence from the team while he attends to his mental health.” Last week, the club said it had “no knowledge of pending charges at the time Dillon’s request for a leave of absence was granted.”

Hockey Canada apologized for its handing of the case

A month after the TSN report, the Canadian government announced in June 2022 that it was freezing federal, public funding for Hockey Canada until the organization had submitted the complete results of its original, two-year investigation and plans for implementing change within Hockey Canada.

During parliamentary hearings in June 2022, executives for Hockey Canada disclosed that it was notified of the incident the day after it was alleged to have taken place in 2018.

“We immediately initiated a process to investigate, beginning by contacting police.
We commissioned an independent investigation and appointed an independent adjudication panel of judges to review the findings of that investigation,” testified Tom Renney, Hockey Canada’s former CEO.

Renney confirmed during the hearings that Hockey Canada had settled a civil lawsuit that the woman filed in April 2022, but he did not reveal the settlement amount.

In July 2022, Hockey Canada published a letter apologizing for it said was inadequate action regarding the assault allegations, and said it was reopening an internal investigation. Three months later, the organization announced its CEO and board of directors were being replaced.