Russian President Vladimir Putin said he shares a “very close” worldview with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian, as the sanctioned leaders held a friendly inaugural meeting just as the Middle East braces for Israel’s response to Tehran’s largest-ever missile attack last week.

The meeting at a regional summit in Ashgabat, the capital of the Central Asian country Turkmenistan, also comes against a backdrop of closer military ties between Iran and Russia’s military in recent years, particularly since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“We are actively working together in the international arena and our assessments of events taking place in the world are often very close,” Putin said during the landmark meeting, according to Russian state media outlet TASS.

“Since Ukraine, the two countries have been more equal in terms of both needing each other and relying each other on specific issues. And that, I think, has been seen as beneficial from the Iranian side,” said Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi, senior analyst and associate fellow, at UK think tank Chatham House.

Moscow and Tehran have a de facto military alliance in the region to support the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Analysts say the countries have found further common ground as they are increasingly isolated by global sanctions.

There is a perception in Moscow that Iran can teach Russia about the tools to evade sanctions, Bassiri Tabrizi noted, adding, “I think it’s overall a goal from the Iranian side, so that has been part of the broader conversation about being part of the BRICS,” the bloc of major emerging economies that Iran formally joined early this year.

Pezeshkian, a reformist who won Iran’s election in July following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, has already emphasized his desire to strengthen bilateral cooperation with Russia to counter the “cruel” sanctions of the West.

In a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Tehran last week, the Iranian leader called for accelerating joint projects. Meanwhile, Russia expressed interest in expanding trade and economic cooperation as well as diversifying its bilateral trade with Iran.

The Russian prime minister also invited Pezeshkian to attend the October BRICS summit in Russia, where the two countries are expected to sign a comprehensive strategic agreement.

The Russian foreign ministry has touted these meetings as evidence that Russia-Iran relations are at an “all-time high,” according to TASS.

Ahead of the meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the agenda will focus on “primarily bilateral Russian-Iranian relations,” according to TASS. “But, of course, the situation in the Middle East will not be ignored, it will also be on the agenda. In any case, there will be a serious conversation.”

There have also been reports of Russian involvement in arms transfers to the Iran-backed Houthis. Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer who was exchanged in a prisoner swap for American basketball star Brittney Griner, has allegedly reentered the arms trade to broker the sale of $10 million worth of automatic weapons to the Yemen-based rebels, The Wall Street Journal and other Western media outlets reported this week, citing unnamed Western officials. Bout has denied that.

However, developments in the Middle East have not necessarily strengthened Iran-Russia relations, Bassiri Tabrizi noted, and some analysts argue that Russia stands to benefit from the conflicts involving Iranian proxies distracting from the war in Ukraine on the international stage.

Nobuyo Oyama, the voice of beloved Japanese anime “Doraemon” for a generation of children across Asia, has died at age 90, her agency confirmed on Friday.

Oyama died on September 29 due to old age, according to the Actors 7 agency. It apologized for the delay in its statement, adding: “We would like to express our sincere gratitude for the kindness you extended to the deceased during her lifetime.”

A private funeral attended by relatives was held for Oyama, the agency said.

Oyama was best known for voicing the eponymous character in the “Doraemon” television show, which aired from 1979 through 2005 – just one of three shows in the larger Doraemon franchise, which became globally popular, especially in regional markets like Hong Kong and Vietnam.

The franchise includes dozens of animated films, video games, music albums and manga series.

They follow the adventures of Doraemon, a robotic cat from the 22nd century who arrives in the present day to help a young boy called Nobita “who’s terrible at everything,” according to the franchise’s official website. The friendly-looking blue-and-white character often rescues Nobita by pulling secret gadgets from the future out of the pocket in his stomach.

Oyama was born in Tokyo, according to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK. Before voicing Doraemon, she also played a role in NHK’s puppet show “Boo Foo Woo,” which ran from 1960 to 1967, the broadcaster said.

But it was the animated show that launched her to worldwide fame – so much so that the 1979 show is also known as the “Oyama edition” to distinguish it from other Doraemon adaptations.

The news of Oyama’s death spurred a wave of tributes on social media, with fans from across the world expressing condolences and remembering her as an iconic voice of their childhoods.

“Ms. Nobuyo Ōyama… She was someone who supported me from the very beginning of my career. Thank you so much for all your hard work over the years. I truly appreciate it,” tweeted Kazuhiko Inoue, who voiced fan favorite character Kakashi in the global manga hit “Naruto,” and had parts in other popular series including “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” and “Demon Slayer.”

“When I think of Doraemon, Nobuyo Oyama’s voice plays in my mind,” one user wrote on social platform X. Another wrote: “Doraemon, I’ve loved you ever since I can remember, thanks to Nobuyo Oyama.”

Others expressed grief that Oyama had died so shortly after the death in July of Noriko Ohara, the voice of Nobita.

Concerns are mounting for the safety of United Nations peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon amid Israel’s ground incursion, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix warned on Thursday, after Israeli fire resulted in the injury of two UN troops.

Briefing the UN Security Council on Thursday, UN Under-Secretary General for Peace Operations Lacroix described hostilities between Israeli forces and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon as “increasingly alarming,” and putting “peacekeepers at serious risk.”

“The safety and security of peacekeepers is now increasingly in jeopardy,” Lacroix said.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reported early Thursday that the peacekeepers were injured after an Israeli tank fired toward an observation tower at its headquarters in the southern Lebanese city Naqoura.

The Israeli tank fire directly hit the tower, causing the peacekeepers to fall, UNIFIL said, adding that other “nearby positions have been repeatedly hit.”

UNFIL said that “any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have accused Hezbollah of operating in areas near UNIFIL posts, and said in a statement that it had asked UNIFIL forces to “remain in protected spaces” during the incident.

“The IDF is operating in southern Lebanon and maintains routine communication with UNIFIL,” the IDF said in a statement after Thursday’s incident.

“This morning (Thursday), IDF troops operated in the area of Naqoura, next to a UNIFIL base. Accordingly, the IDF instructed the UN forces in the area to remain in protected spaces, following which the forces opened fire in the area,” the statement added.

UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said the two peacekeepers – both Indonesian – were hospitalized. Their injuries are not serious, he said.

UN peacekeepers have been stationed in southern Lebanon since 2006, per a mandate by the United Nations Security Council. UN peacekeepers were drawn from armies of several nations to monitor the situation along the roughly 120-kilometer (74-mile) Blue Line which separates the two states.

The incident came as Israel expands its strikes across Lebanon. On Thursday, Israeli strikes on a densely populated Beirut neighborhood killed at least 22 people and wounded 117, the Lebanese health ministry said.

International outcry

The injury of the UN peacekeepers drew condemnation from several countries including Italy, France, and Ireland, who all have contingents in the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni summoned the Israeli ambassador in Rome on Thursday after what she described as “unacceptable” behavior by the Israeli forces.

Meloni’s office said two Italian bases of UNIFIL were “hit by gunfire from the Israeli army” on Thursday and added that the prime minister spoke to the Commander of the Western Sector of the UNIFIL mission, Gen. Stefano Messina, for an update on the safety of the Italian troops.

The Italian leader also contacted Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to “firmly remind” him that “what is happening near the Italian UNIFIL bases in southern Lebanon” is “unacceptable,” according to an Italian government statement.

Indonesia’s mission to the UN blasted Israel over what it called “deliberate attacks,” saying Friday that Israel’s actions “represent a blatant attempt to spread terror on the ground to intimidate both the peacekeeping mission and international community.”

France also expressed “deep concern” after the attack, saying it was “awaiting explanations from the Israeli authorities.”

“The protection of peacekeepers is an obligation imposed on all parties to a conflict. France calls on the parties to respect this obligation, and to allow UNIFIL to continue to implement its mandate, including by respecting its freedom of movement,” a spokesperson for the French foreign ministry said.

Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin described the IDF’s “targeting & firing on UNIFIL positions” as “reprehensible” and “unacceptable.”

Earlier this week, Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris also expressed concern after Israeli tanks were stationed close to an UN outpost manned by Irish peacekeepers.

The European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell condemned what he called an “inadmissible act,” posting to X: “Another line has been dangerously crossed in Lebanon: IDF shelling of UN peacekeepers whose positions are known. We condemn this inadmissible act, for which there is no justification.”

The EU foreign policy chief reiterated his support for UNIFIL and called for full accountability regarding the incident.

Britain’s Prince and Princess of Wales made a surprise visit to Southport, northwest England, on Thursday, where they met the bereaved families of three children killed in a knife attack in July.

The visit was the first public appearance for Catherine, known as Kate, since she finished her chemotherapy treatment.

Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, were fatally stabbed while attending a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the town on July 29.

The royal couple met privately with the families of the three young girls, as well as with their dance teacher who was present during the attack.

William and Kate – who has only carried out a handful of public appearances this year – also met with emergency services personnel who responded to the scene in July, as well as mental health practitioners who have been supporting the “blue light” community in the months since.

“I can’t underestimate how grateful they [the families] all are for the support you provided on the day,” Kate told the responders, according to Britain’s PA Media news agency, during the deeply emotional sit-down. She then thanked the frontline staff on behalf of the families.

Meanwhile, William, the heir to the British throne, told the group that they were “heroes” and urged them to “make sure you look after yourselves.”

“Please take your time, don’t rush back to work,” he added.

Following the unexpected appearance in Southport, William and Kate spoke of their “powerful” visit on social media.

“We continue to stand with everyone in Southport. Meeting the community today has been a powerful reminder of the importance of supporting one another in the wake of unimaginable tragedy. You will remain in our thoughts and prayers,” the couple wrote in a post on X.

At the time of the knife attack, the Waleses released a statement on social media from their perspective as parents. “We cannot begin to imagine what the families, friends and loved ones of those killed and injured in Southport today are going through,” they said in July, before sending their “love, thoughts and prayers” and gratitude to emergency responders.

The pair also made a donation through their royal foundation to a fundraiser set up to provide psychological and physical rehab for police and ambulance personnel involved in the attack and the subsequent riots.

Kate, 42, has been easing her way back into public life following her announcement that she had completed chemotherapy and was cancer free in a video last month. She has not revealed the type of cancer she was being treated for.

The princess said the past nine months had been challenging but that “I am, however, looking forward to being back at work and undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months when I can.”

In recent weeks, she has been holding a number of meetings primarily focused on her early years work and her upcoming annual Christmas carol concert.

She also made a private visit to the English National Ballet a few weeks ago for a matinee show, posting about the “moving and inspiring” performance on social media afterwards.

The Wales aren’t the only royals to show their support for the bereaved families and Southport community. King Charles III made a similar visit to the area in August to meet those affected by the attack and thank frontline emergency workers.

This story has been updated.

Sixty-five more women have come forward with abuse allegations against the late billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed, according to the BBC, following the network’s documentary that detailed testimonies of women who said he sexually assaulted and raped them.

The allegations date as far back as 1977, in Dubai – eight years before Al Fayed purchased the high-end London department store Harrods, making him widely known in the United Kingdom.

Among the dozens of women who contacted the BBC with new accounts of abuse, 37 said they had worked at Harrods, the British broadcaster reported.

As part of the BBC investigation published last month, more than 20 female ex-Harrods employees had already accused Al Fayed, who died last year at age 94, of sexually assaulting them. One said she was assaulted when she was 15 and Al Fayed was 79.

Harrods acknowledged that Al Fayed was “intent on abusing his power wherever he operated” and apologized to victims in a statement released at the time. “We are utterly appalled by the allegations of abuse perpetrated by Mohamed Al Fayed,” the company said.

The latest allegations involve a range of abuse tactics, including multiple women who said they were recruited under false pretenses to work at Al Fayed’s private residences as nannies, chefs and maids and then sexually exploited, the BBC reported.

“The job just didn’t exist. He didn’t need a nanny. He didn’t want a nanny,” one woman told the BBC regarding her work at Al Fayed’s mansion in Surrey, England, where she says she was kept against her will and repeatedly sexually assaulted over several days.

In the statement issued last month, Harrods said that “new information came to light” last year about historic allegations of sexual abuse perpetrated by Al Fayed. Since then, it said, “it has been our priority to settle claims in the quickest way possible, avoiding lengthy legal proceedings for the women involved. This process is still available for any current or former Harrods employees.”

The company issued another statement Thursday in relation to the latest allegations, saying: “Since 2023, Harrods settled a number of claims with women who alleged historic sexual misconduct by Fayed. Since the airing of the documentary, so far there are 200+ individuals who are now in the Harrods process to settle claims directly with the business.”

For visually impaired sports fans at stadiums around the world, following a match often means relying on commentators or those around them to describe the action. Now, an Irish startup is looking to create a more level playing field.

Dublin-based Field of Vision has produced a handheld, haptic feedback device that it says can help blind and partially sighted fans not just hear, but “feel” the action, enhancing the live experience.

Custom-built cameras positioned in each corner of the stadium use artificial intelligence (AI) to track key details from a match. Within roughly half a second, this information is transmitted to a white, tablet-sized device embossed with the shape of a sports pitch, which weighs under a kilogram and rests on the user’s lap.

A small magnetic ring guides the user’s finger around the tablet – not unlike the movement on a Ouija board – based on where the ball is, and vibrates to convey various match events, such as a tackle or a change in possession.

The device is designed to enhance audio-descriptive commentary as opposed to replacing it entirely, with a built-in headphone jack allowing users to access audio commentary if the stadium provides a feed.

“Game changer”

Deneher launched the business alongside two friends – fellow Trinity College Dublin student Tim Farrelly, and Queen’s University Belfast student Omar Salem – in 2020, as they looked for something to fill their time during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Aerospace engineering graduate Salem first envisioned the idea after seeing social media footage of partially sighted Liverpool supporter Mike Kearny. On the terraces of the English Premier League giant’s Anfield stadium, Kearny’s cousin Stephen Garcia stood next to him and talked him through the action.

With 320,000 people registered blind or partially sighted in the UK alone, according to the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), and an estimated 43 million blind people worldwide, Field of Vision’s technology could potentially improve the live sports experience for a swathe of fans.

Declan Meenagh, a supporter of Dublin football club Bohemians, was born with a genetic eye condition that limits him to 5% vision. Meenagh cannot see beyond the crossbar even if sat in the front row behind the goal at the team’s Dalymount Park stadium.

Club volunteers who describe matches for visually impaired spectators allow him to follow along via an earphone, but he can miss key lines when the crowd gets loud.

He said that a test run with the Field Of Vision tablet added new levels of context to proceedings on the pitch.

“It helps out a lot because you have a two-dimensional understanding of where it (the ball) is on the pitch and how it moves, and you actually feel things move really quickly – it’s really good.”

Kick off

Field of Vision was a runner-up for the James Dyson award – an international student design prize – in 2021, and included on Time’s list of best inventions for 2022. This June, it won Best Initiative to Promote Inclusivity and Physical Activity at the Irish Sport Industry Awards.

The company has raised roughly €250,000 in funding, most of which has come from business accelerator programs, with grants and prize money won from various competitions also injecting cash.

The founders were mentored by sports industry executive Tom Sears, and after the technology had been tested at Bohemian, whose ground has a capacity of under 5,000 spectators, he last year helped arrange early prototype testing at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium, which can seat more than 50,000 fans. As part of a trial, the device was used by three season ticket holders across seven of the club’s home matches.

It served as the ideal preparation for a full rollout at the roughly 53,000-seater Marvel Stadium, in Melbourne, Australia, which is home to five Australian Rules Football teams – a completely different sport to soccer.

After the 2024 season ended in September, cameras were installed at the stadium and the AI retrained to record match details on the oval shaped pitch. Marvel Stadium will offer 40 devices at every game played there during next year’s Australian Football League (AFL) season.

The capacity of the device to be reprogrammed for a sport wildly different from soccer hints at a future for the business that could expand far beyond the soccer field.

“Long-term we want to expand to all the major sports in the world and to have it so that this is just a standard for stadiums and live venues to have within their infrastructure,” said Deneher.

Field of Vision is currently in the process of selling the product to football teams across Europe’s top five leagues (England, Spain, France, Germany and Italy), and Deneher said that “immediate plans” are also in place to start selling to US markets and expand further in the AFL.

Clubs would pay a yearly subscription for the AI model, cameras and match delivery service and another to annually lease the tablets.

A subscription-based model was chosen over selling the system outright to account for the likely fluctuating number of visually impaired fans each season, as well as to allow devices to be swapped out for potential repairs, Deneher explained.

Prices are still being finalized but will be dependent on the respective demands and stadium sizes of each club. He added that while the technology might be perceived as a luxury at the moment, it could one day become as commonplace as wheelchair ramps.

“We just want football and live sports to be more accessible for everyone,” Deneher said. “So the plan is to expand to more stadiums, more countries, and more sports for the future.”

A pilot who died when he crashed a helicopter into a hotel in Australia had “significant blood alcohol content” during the unauthorized flight, according to an official report into the incident.

Hundreds of guests and staff were evacuated from the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Cairns in Far North Queensland on August 12, when the aircraft hit the top floor and burst into flames.

At the time, charter company Nautilus Aviation said the pilot was a member of its ground crew who had attended a party the night before the crash to celebrate a promotion.

He wasn’t authorized to fly the aircraft but had access to the helicopter, the keys to which were routinely left inside the aircraft when it was parked inside the hangar.

The report released by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) Thursday found that the pilot “was affected by a significant amount of alcohol” and flew “well below the 1,000 ft (304 meters) allowed for flight over a built-up area.”

Investigators did not reach a conclusion as to why the pilot took the helicopter, or if he did so with the intention of crashing it into a hotel.

“For reasons unknown, pilot actions resulted in a collision with a building while conducting an unauthorised and unnecessary flight, while affected by alcohol, late at night and at low heights over a built-up area, and without night flying endorsements,” the report concluded.

The pilot had been out with friends at various venues around Cairns and was seen consuming alcohol, according to witnesses and security camera footage, the report said.

Cameras also caught the moment he positioned one of Nautilus Aviation’s Robinson R44 Raven II helicopters onto a helipad at Cairns Airport at around 1:30 a.m. local time.

For several minutes, the pilot turned off the helicopter’s cockpit and strobe lights before taking off and heading in the direction of Cairns city center, the report said.

Australian Federal Police and airport safety officers were on duty that night but were not near the hangar. The report found they wouldn’t have seen a helicopter that was operating at night with no lights.

“It was apparent that the pilot was wanting to conceal the departure from the airport from air traffic control and airport staff,” the report said.

There was no cockpit recorder or flight data recorder, but investigators pieced together the aircraft’s movements from its GPS tracker and ground radar data.

The report said the pilot was not authorized to fly the plane and while he had flown a Robinson R44 before, he hadn’t done so at night.

It found the helicopter wasn’t upright when it hit the hotel, but there was also no sign of mechanical failure.

Fay Manners and Michelle Dvorak were perched high on the snowy face of a Himalayan mountain when disaster struck their quest to become the first to summit its peak.

At more than 6,000 meters (about 20,000 feet) above sea level, a falling rock sliced through the rope carrying Manners’ bag, leaving the climbers stranded in the inhospitable wilderness without vital supplies including their tent, stove, food, crampons and ice axes.

“All I can really remember is just seeing the bag go down the mountain and being really shocked, thinking, ‘How has this happened? Like, what’s going on?’”

But for both climbers, their immediate reaction wasn’t fear for their safety or survival – it was devastation that their mission, which required painstaking preparation, training, and altitude acclimatization, was being cut short when they were so close to their goal.

Manners, a Briton living in France, and Dvorak, an American, had been “absolutely desperate” to reach the summit of the unclimbed peak in India’s northern Uttarakhand state.

Their attempt to climb the nearly 7,000-meter Chaukhamba III began on September 27, as they clambered across ice and rock and slept on narrow ledges. The approach to the mountain alone was incredibly tough, Manners said – they had chosen a maze-like route that navigated endless deep crevasses and precarious snow bridges that risked collapsing in warmer weather. It took three attempts before they could even reach the base of the mountain, she said.

“We were near the end of all the difficulties … (we) maybe had one more day to get to the summit, and then we would have been the first to reach this summit,” Manners said. Instead, “our dreams were just falling down the mountain.”

Without their gear, climbing back down and across the crevasses was near-impossible, so they contacted emergency services for help. But the severity of their situation soon became clear when helicopters failed to spot them on the vast mountain face the next morning – and again the following day.

“We searched all day at the coordinates provided to us by the tour company but did not find anything,” he said.

All the while, the climbers had no food besides two energy bars that they “nibbled on,” and no water, since their stove to melt snow had been lost, Manners said.

Even their dehydrated food was no use without the stove. At one point, desperate and dehydrated, they abseiled to a spot with dripping ice and collected a tiny amount of water during the few hours when the sun was out.

And the conditions steadily deteriorated as they faced a snowstorm, hail and even an avalanche. They huddled together in their wet sleeping bag, hair frozen solid, with nighttime temperatures reaching –15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit).

“I was close to hypothermia, I think, and I was shaking so violently through the night that Michelle had to hold my legs to just try and keep me warm,” Manners said. “That sleeping bag saved our lives.”

That’s when they knew they had to act, even if they were weak and disoriented, she said. The next morning, they began abseiling down the mountain through thick fog, knowing the journey back to base camp could be “incredibly dangerous” with high chances of serious injury or falling down a crevasse.

But as they reached the bottom, they glimpsed a group of French mountaineers – a rival team that had also been hoping to reach the summit first. Negi, the information officer, said Indian authorities had reached out to the French team for assistance after being unable to locate Manners and Dvorak.

When Manners realized the French team had been sent to rescue them, “all my emotions came out at once, and I had some tears in my eyes,” she said.

With their help, she and Dvorak trekked to the French base camp, munching on cheese their rescuers had brought from France, she said. The Indian Air Force then airlifted them to a nearby hospital on Sunday, three long days after they were stranded.

Both climbers are uninjured and eager to fly home. And their brush with death hasn’t deterred them from following their dreams, said Manners, who encourages women and girls to pursue the sport. She wants to try the summit again next year – perhaps with the French team who rescued them.

When people look at their experience, she hopes they see two strong women who “got really close to the top,” she said. And when things went awry, they were “still able to survive and manage themselves through that really adverse and terrible situation.”

The Italian government is facing a new set of challenges as it prepares to open two migrant processing centers in Albania in October where men rescued at sea en route to Italy will be processed for asylum.

It’s a move which the hard-right administration says will combat human trafficking and allow in only those who have a genuine right to enter the European Union, but which has drawn scorn from human rights groups.

On Friday, the European Court of Justice ruled that the plan to offshore migrants from countries Italy deems “safe” but which the European Union does not, is not legal.

However, the court’s decision is non-binding and Italy and Albania are not prohibited by the ruling from going forward with the plans. The centers – one in the Albanian port city of Shengjin and the other further inland in Gjader – were supposed to open on May 1 after the two nations signed a bilateral agreement last November, but “unforeseen circumstances” including building delays and bureaucracy have repeatedly pushed back the opening.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said last month: “We will start in October. There’s definitely been a few months of delay, there were some normal checks, in which we discovered, for example, that the ground needed to be reinforced. That’s all, very normal variations during construction.”

In August, the Italian government opened a trial detention center near Agrigento, Sicily, intended to mirror those in Albania by housing men from “safe” countries for fast repatriation. A court in Catania ruled the measure illegal under Italian law, but that ruling was overturned and two Tunisian men were deported without having their asylum requests processed on September 11, Piantedosi said in a post on X.

Seaborne migration on the central Mediterranean route, to Italy and Malta, is down by more than 60% on this time last year, according to Italy’s Interior Ministry and Europe’s Frontex agency. The decrease in the central Mediterranean has meant an increase in migrants trying to make it to Greece and Spain, according to Frontex statistics, and is largely due to clampdowns on NGO rescue ships and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s frequent trips to both Libya and Tunisia to apply pressure to keep migrants from leaving.

The drop in numbers notwithstanding, the Italian government is continuing to pursue an anti-immigration platform, which is widely supported by voters with Meloni enjoying a 44% approval rating, according to an Ipsos poll in September 2024.

Meloni’s so-called “Rome Process,” which she says aims to deter illegal migration and to tackle its root causes, has been of great interest to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who visited the Italian capital in September and pledged €4.75 million to the initiative, her office said.

“We talked about the Italy-Albania agreement, which is a solution that the British government is showing a lot of interest in, and clearly we have offered them all the elements to better understand this mechanism,” Meloni said during a press conference after the bilateral visit.

Meloni said Starmer had expressed interest in using the Albanian centers for migrants crossing the English Channel, but Albanian President Edi Rama told the European Parliament on September 19 that the centers were only open to Italy-bound migrants. “This is an exclusive agreement with Italy because we love everyone, but with Italy we have unconditional love,” Rama said.

Albania lies just across the Adriatic Sea from Italy but is not an EU member state.

In 2023, more than 157,000 people arrived illegally in Italy by boat from Libya and Tunisia, with hundreds known to have died trying, making the issue of sea migration one that all sides of the political spectrum agree must be better managed.

The asylum process is lengthy, meaning many would-be asylum seekers give up and slip into the periphery of Italian society or travel to countries in the north of Europe.

Amnesty International has called the Italy-Albania plan “shameful,” saying intercepted migrants will face a lengthier journey by sea to Albania, a potentially prolonged detention once there, and a likely curtailment of their right to seek asylum.

‘Don’t court the local women’

The centers will house up to 3,800 adult men at a time, who will be guided through the application process for requesting asylum in Italy, the Italian authorities say. If they do not qualify for asylum, they will be deported to “safe” countries, according to the agreement between Italy and Albania.

“We have been told not to be ‘too Italian,’” said the officer, who asked not to give his name since he is not authorized to speak for the unit. “We were given a handbook that outlines how to behave: no nudity, don’t court the local women, and drink coffee sitting down, not standing up at the counter.”

The handbook also describes Albanians as “modest people” and guides the incoming officers on how not to act “superior” to them. Flirting is a no-no. “Avoid courting Albanian women in various contexts and in an extemporaneous manner. It is a conservative society. The man who sees his woman being courted by another man can react badly,” the handbook also warns.

In all, Italy will provide 500 personnel, including police and military officers, health workers, and staff from the Justice Ministry, at an estimated cost of €252 million (about $278 million), according to Meloni. A local restaurateur in Shengjin has even opened the “Trattoria Meloni” to pay homage to the Italian prime minister for the investment in Albania, which has and will continue to benefit the local areas financially.

Additionally, Italy will pay €670 million (about $738 million) over the initial five-year contract for the centers’ operation and also pay for a second perimeter of security to be manned by Albanian guards to make sure none of the asylum seekers can escape. The cost comes to around 7.5% of what Italy currently spends on its migrant reception centers, Meloni said in June, speaking alongside Rama.

‘Clear risk’

The Shengjin port center will at first have just 880 places and is where all arrivals will be processed. Those who qualify to have their asylum claim heard will then move to the center in Gjader, which will open with 144 beds and then be expanded to hold 3,000 people while they await a response to their application from Italy. The complex also has a maximum-security 20-bed prison and emergency medical services.

The agreement states that only migrants from 22 nations considered by Rome to be “safe countries” will be sent to Albania, including men from Bangladesh, currently the fastest growing demographic arriving in Italy by sea, according to Italy’s Interior Ministry.

Other listed “safe countries” include Egypt, Tunisia and the Ivory Coast, citizens of which make up a large portion of arrivals. The European Court of Justice does not consider Tunisia and Egypt completely safe, which is at the crux of last week’s ruling.

Those who are from countries not deemed safe by Rome, such as Afghanistan and Syria, will initially be taken to Albania but later transferred to Italy for processing once their country of origin is confirmed.

The policy of “offshoring” asylum seekers has been heavily criticized by human rights groups.

“There is a clear risk that the operation intends to hide a strategy to create inaccessible reception centers, far from prying eyes and journalistic investigations, and from the nightmare of having to find a place for them in Italy, where no administrator, of any political stripe, can find them,” said Schiavone.

Piantedosi insists the opening of the Albanian centers is meant to act as a deterrent for migrants seeking to be smuggled into Italy. Meloni, who campaigned on a promise to “stop the boats,” has credited her government’s policies on investments in North African countries and punishing NGO migrant rescue vessels for this year’s decrease in arrival numbers.

The United Nations’ International Organization for Migration says that an increase in deaths of migrants at sea and a rise in migrant boats known to have departed from Libya and Tunisia going missing, presumed sunk, have also contributed to a drop in arrivals.

Questions over how to handle the many thousands of migrants who seek to enter Europe each year, often fleeing war, persecution and poverty and traveling in boats that are barely seaworthy, may be focused on border nations like Italy, Greece and Spain, but the ramifications extend beyond these frontline countries.

A group of 15 European countries, led by Denmark and including Italy, has petitioned the European Union to consider finding “new solutions,” like the Italy-Albania agreement, to help deal with irregular migration and “create a fairer, more humane, sustainable and efficient asylum system worldwide.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has apologized after using an ableist slur to taunt political opponents in parliament.

Albanese was speaking during question time on Tuesday when opposition lawmakers repeatedly interrupted him.

“Have you got Tourette’s or something? You know, you just sit there, babble, babble, babble,” he said, before immediately adding: “I withdraw and apologize.”

Albanese later returned to the chamber to make a more formal apology.

“I made comments that were unkind and hurtful. I knew it was wrong as soon as I made the comment,” he said.

“I apologized and I withdrew as soon as I said it, but it shouldn’t have happened and I also want to apologize to all Australians who suffer from this disability.”

Albanese’s apology came after strong criticism from figures including shadow minister for health and aged care Anne Ruston.

Tourette’s syndrome is a neurological disorder that involves tics that present themselves in various ways, described by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke as “repetitive, stereotyped, involuntary movements and vocalizations.”

“Mocking a disability is no laughing matter,” Ruston wrote in post on X, adding that the comment was “absolutely despicable behaviour” from Albanese.

“Australians living with Tourette’s deserve the PM’s respect, not his ridicule,” she added.

“I’m incredibly disappointed and just gobsmacked somebody that has the national stage would use that platform and Tourette syndrome to make an insult,” she said.

Maysey, who has three children with Tourette’s, said the disability can be socially isolating.

“This shows we have a very long way to go until Tourette syndrome is taken seriously as a condition,” she added.

Singers Lewis Capaldi and Billie Eilish have both spoken about their experiences of living with Tourette’s.

“The worst thing about it is when I’m excited I get it, when I’m stressed I get it, when I’m happy I get it. It happens all the time,” Capaldi said in February 2023.

A few months later, Capaldi announced that he was taking a break from touring due to the impact of Tourette’s

In 2022, Eilish told David Letterman that the condition can be “exhausting.”