Men in military fatigues claimed to have taken power in Niger after President Mohamed Bazoum was reportedly seized by members of the presidential guard on Wednesday, sparking international condemnation and renewed uncertainty in a volatile part of Africa beset by coups and militant extremism.

In a video communique, a man identified as Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane and flanked by several apparent soldiers, announced, “We have decided to put an end to the regime that you know,” citing a deteriorating security situation in the country and “poor economic and social governance.”

National institutions have been suspended and the country’s land borders are temporarily closed, he also said, appearing to read from a text on the table before him.

Foreign Minister Hassoumi Massoudou called the soldiers’ actions “an attempted coup d’etat” but said “the totality of the army was not behind the coup.”

He called on “mutinous officers to return to their ranks” in an interview with French television station France 24, adding that mediation efforts are under way, including those by the president of Nigeria who is “dialoguing with the military.”

He said he had spoken to the president, who is “in good health” and has not been harmed.

Niger’s presidential office said on Thursday that “hard-won achievements will be safeguarded.” The statement, which was posted on Twitter and is being rebranded as X, made no mention whether Bazoum is still being detained.

Niger has a long history of military coups since its independence from France in 1960 however in recent years it had been less politically unstable. When Bazoum came to office in 2021, it was the country’s first democratic transfer of power.

Much of Africa’s Sahel region has found itself confronting Islamist insurgencies, including Niger which has received support from the United States and France in tackling extremists.

But the region has also seen multiple coups in recent years, including in Niger’s neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso.

Cameron Hudson, a senior associate at the Center for the Strategic and International Studies, said there had been indications that Niger’s military leadership were not pleased with the level of support they were given to fight militants and that a coup could impact that campaign.

“If the military is more concerned with domestic politics, then there is a risk that they are no longer going to be fighting the fight against these terrorist groups that are now encroaching on Niger and on the capital,” he added.

Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries, has “endemic problems, poverty, and terrorism, so there are many factors contributing to instability in the country,” he added.

In 2017, four US special forces soldiers were killed in an ambush by more than 100 ISIS fighters in Niger.

International alarm

While events inside Niger remained murky, including the precise whereabouts of Bazoum, international criticism of the attempted coup grew overnight.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said on Thursday he is “shocked and distressed” by the attempted military takeover in Niger, urging “all actors to refrain from violence.”

“It is in the interests of all the people of Niger that the important democratic gains made in recent years are safeguarded and preserved,” he added.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said that there had been an “attempt to seize power by force” in the West African country.

“ECOWAS condemns in the strongest terms the attempt to seize power by force and calls on the coup plotters to free the democratically-elected President of the Republic immediately and without any condition,” the bloc added.

White House officials said they “strongly condemn any effort to detain or subvert the functioning of Niger’s democratically elected government.”

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the partnership between Washington and the West African country is contingent on its “continued commitment to democratic standards.”

France also described the unfolding events as an attempted power grab.

“(France) strongly condemns any attempt to seize power by force and joins the calls of the African Union and ECOWAS to restore the integrity of Nigerien democratic institutions,” Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.

Germany said it is following events in Niger with “very great concern.”

“Violence is not a means to enforce political or personal interests,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Presidential palace sealed off

Niger’s presidential complex was sealed off Wednesday, with heavily armed members of the Presidential Guard assembling outside the Presidential Palace early that morning. Roughly twenty members of the Presidential Guard could be seen outside the palace complex later in the day.

The country’s interior minister, Hamadou Souley, was also arrested by the presidential guard on Wednesday morning local time and is being held in the presidential palace in the capital Niamey along with Bazoum.

Up to 400 protesters were seen later on Wednesday, some holding photos of Bazoum and signs saying: “No to the destabilization of the republic’s institutions.”

Niger’s presidential office said in a tweet on Wednesday that “spontaneous protests by democracy advocates broke out all over the (capital) city of Niamey, (around) the country and in front of Niger’s embassies abroad after the announcement this morning that President (Mohamed) Bazoum is being held in his palace by his guard.”

The presidential guards are holding Bazoum inside the palace, which has been blocked off by military vehicles since Wednesday morning, Reuters and the Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Wednesday. Reuters cited security sources and AFP referenced sources close to Bazoum.

The US Embassy in Niger said it had received reports of political instability within the capital Niamey.

“At this time the city is calm. We advise everyone to limit unnecessary movements, and avoid all travel along Rue de la Republique until further notice,” the embassy said.

Agency footage from the capital Niamey shows the rest of the city appearing calm.

It was meant to be an inclusive gesture to New Zealand’s indigenous Maori community. But plans to introduce bilingual road signs featuring both the English and te reo Maori languages have sparked a divisive, racially charged debate ahead of the country’s looming general election.

New Zealand – or Aotearoa as it is known to the Maori – recently hosted a public consultation on whether to include te reo Maori on 94 types of road signs, including for place names, speed limits, warnings and expressway advisories.

The idea, according to the national Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (whose name means “traveling together as one”), is to promote “cultural understanding and social cohesion” with the Maori community, which makes up almost a fifth of New Zealand’s population of 5.15 million.

But the idea hasn’t gone down well with right-wing opposition parties, who have attacked the signs claiming they will jeopardize road safety. An extra language will mean less space for the English words, the theory goes, and smaller type will be harder for motorists to read.

“Signs need to be clear. We all speak English, and they should be in English,” the main opposition National Party’s spokesman Simeon Brown told reporters, insisting the signs could confuse people “traveling at speed.”

That claim prompted criticism from the ruling Labour Party government, with Prime Minister Chris Hipkins accusing the opposition of thinly disguised racial politics. “I’m not entirely sure where they are going with this unless it’s just an outright dog whistle,” he said.

While the National Party has since insisted it is not opposed to bilingual signs “per se” – rather, it says, it wants the government to prioritize other things like fixing potholes and improving traffic networks – the issues has sparked heated debate in the run up to the vote in October where Labour are facing a tough fight to hold onto power.

New life for a once dying language

For many in the Maori community, the plan is as much about signposting and preserving their cultural heritage as it is about understanding road directions.

Slightly less than a quarter of New Zealand’s 892,200 Maori speak te reo Maori as one of their first languages, according to the latest government data.

While opponents use this as an argument against the signs – pointing out that 95% of New Zealanders speak English according to the most recent census in 2018 – supporters use the same data as an argument in favor.

Part of the reason that te reo Maori is not so widely spoken is that back in New Zealand’s colonial era there were active efforts to stamp it out. The Native Schools Act 1867 required schools to teach in English where possible and children were often physically punished for speaking te reo Maori.

That led to a decline in the language that the New Zealand government of today is trying to reverse. It wants to preserve the language as part of the country’s cultural heritage and sees bilingual signs as one way of encouraging its use.

As Maori language expert Awanui Te Huia, from the Victoria University of Wellington, put it: “Having bicultural signage allows us to see our language as part of our daily surroundings and contributes to the development of a bilingual national identity.”

To this end the government in 2018 launched a five-year plan aimed at revitalizing the language. Five years ago just 24% of New Zealanders were able to speak “more than a few words or phrases” of te reo Maori; by 2021 that had risen to 30%.

Over the same period, support for bilingual signs rose from 51% to 56%.

The longer term vision is that by 2040, 85% of New Zealanders will value te reo Maori as a key part of their nationality; 1 million people will be able to speak the basics, and that 150,000 Maori ages 15 or above will use it as much as English.

For Professor Tania Ka’ai, director of The International Centre for Language Revitalisation at Auckland University of Technology, bilingual signs are at least a move in the right direction.

“I would describe it as a ‘work in progress’ because the language is still at risk of dying and it does not deserve to die – no language does,” Ka’ai said.

Are bilingual signs safe?

While the transport agency acknowledges some people have “safety concerns” over the plan, it points to the example of Wales in the United Kingdom, where it says signs featuring both English and Welsh have managed to “improve safety” by catering to speakers of the two most common local languages.

It also says the parallel between New Zealand and Wales will be “particularly salient if te reo Maori becomes understood more widely in the future” – as the government is hoping.

Several other experts have downplayed the suggestion bilingual signs pose a hazard. Even so, the issue is not entirely clear cut.

However, design and placement of road signs, as well as the languages and the context in which they are used, have to be treated with care, said Kasem, associate dean of the engineering faculty of Chulalongkorn University in Thailand.

Research by the University of Leeds suggests road signs consisting of four lines, or more, are likely to slow drivers’ response time significantly.

Kasem said that in cases where signs featured multiple languages all based on the same alphabet – for instance, both Welsh and English are based on the Latin alphabet – greater care was needed to differentiate them, such as by using different colors or font sizes.

“The primary objective of these standards is to guarantee that all road signs are unambiguous, uniform, and legible to all,” he said.

Essentially, poor design can be dangerous, not multiple languages, if done badly.

A tale of two languages

The example of Wales – situated more than 10,000 miles away from New Zealand – isn’t as random as it may seem.

Commentators say there are a host of uncomfortable parallels between the fortunes of te reo Maori and Welsh, which was also once in danger of dying out but has since witnessed a resurgence.

At the same time as 19th century European settlers in New Zealand were punishing students for speaking te reo Maori, the British government was actively discouraging the use of the Welsh language, or Cymraeg, in the wake of widespread social unrest.

In 1847 (20 years before New Zealand’s Native Schools Act) a British government report into Welsh linked the language to stupidity, sexual promiscuity and unruly behavior, prompting a drive to remove the language from local schools.

This led to the notorious punishment known as the Welsh Nots. These were planks of wood with the initials W.N. on them that would be hung around the necks of students caught speaking the language in school.

The turning point for Welsh came a century later, following a series of civil disobedience campaigns by the Welsh Language Society in the 1960s. One of these campaigns involved activists defacing and removing English-only signs on streets and roads. Bilingual road signs began to spring up.

Three decades later, and the British Parliament was actively encouraging the use of Welsh.

In 1993, it passed the Welsh Language Act to ensure the language shares the same status as English during day-to-day business in Wales. The language is now spoken by more than 900,000 people in Wales, out of a population of more than 3 million.

“I think for a lot of people, if they speak the language of the majority, they don’t appreciate the type of recognition and representation of having it on road signs,” he said.

Across the Irish Sea, bilingual signs bearing both Irish Gaelic and English have existed in the Republic of Ireland dating back to the start of the 20th century.

The Hawaii comparison

Other commentators draw parallels to how the US state of Hawaii has used road signs to encourage use of Olelo Hawai’i which, like te reo Maori, is a Polynesian language.

Before the passing of the Hawaii State Constitutional Convention in 1978, which made Hawaiian an official language of the the state, there had been concerns it might go extinct.

In the 1980s, teaching of Hawaiian in schools began to pick up momentum and parents began making greater efforts to pass the language on to later generations, said Puakea Nogelmeier, professor emeritus of Hawaiian Language at the University of Hawaii.

This momentum continues to build to this day, with Hawaii’s Department of Transportation last year moving to introduce diacritical markings such as the okina and kahako – dots and lines that indicate glottal stops or longer vowels – to its road signs to help non-native Hawaiian speakers grasp correct pronunciations.

According to a local government survey in 2016, about 18,000 residents now speak Hawaiian at home in a state with a population of more than 1.4 million.

But Nogelmeier says that while it has become more common to hear conversations conducted in Olelo Hawai’i, the battle to revive the language is far from over.

Unlike in New Zealand, where the Maori people reached an agreement with the New Zealand government to preserve te reo Maori under the Maori Language Act 2016, he says the movement in Hawaii is driven primarily by the community, making the cause “more decorative than functional” and akin to “a bit of a hobby.”

Nogelmeier also says that efforts in Hawaii are largely limited to using Olelo Hawai’i for place names, rather than more complicated linguistic uses.

He should know: On Hawaiian buses, it is Nogelmeier’s voice that calls out the names of stops in the local language.

Lost in translation

Using indigenous place names also allows outsiders to have a better understanding of how to pronounce words and boost tourism.

Both Wales and New Zealand have some famous tongue-twisters for those unfamiliar with the local language.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyll – or to give it its full title Llanfair-pwllgwyngyll-gogery-chwyrn-drobwll-llan-tysilio-gogo-goch – is a little village on the Welsh island of Anglesey and lays claim to being the longest town name in Europe.

That however it is dwarfed by New Zealand’s own Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, a hill near Hawke’s Bay which prides itself as the world’s longest place name.

With New Zealand having wrapped up its public consultation on the signs at the end of June, one other challenge remains should the plan go ahead: ensuring there aren’t any translation bloopers.

One road sign in Wales made national headlines in 2008 when local council officials sought a translation for a road sign that was meant to say: “No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only.”

Their mistake was to email the in-house translation service and not scrutinize its reply too closely.

Officials requested a sign that read: “Nid wyf yn y swyddfa ar hyn o bryd. Anfonwch unrhyw waith i’w gyfieithy.”

Only later did they realize that is the Welsh for: “I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated.”

As the Northern Hemisphere swelters under a record-breaking summer heat wave, much further south, in the depths of winter, another terrifying climate record is being broken. Antarctic sea ice has fallen to unprecedented lows for this time of year.

Every year, Antarctic sea ice shrinks to its lowest levels towards the end of February, during the continent’s summer. The sea ice then builds back up over the winter.

But this year scientists have observed something different.

The sea ice has not returned to anywhere near expected levels. In fact it is at the lowest levels for this time of year since records began 45 years ago. The ice is around 1.6 million square kilometers (0.6 million square miles) below the previous winter record low set in 2022, according to data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

In mid-July, Antarctica’s sea ice was 2.6 million square kilometers (1 million square miles) below the 1981 to 2010 average. That is an area nearly as large as Argentina or the combined areas of Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado

‘The game has changed’

The phenomenon has been described by some scientists as off-the-charts exceptional – something that is so rare, the odds are that it only happens once in millions of years.

But Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, said that speaking in these terms may not be that helpful.

Scientists are now scrambling to figure out why.

The Antarctic is a remote, complex continent. Unlike the Arctic, where sea ice has been on a consistently downwards trajectory as the climate crisis accelerates, sea ice in the Antarctic has swung from record highs to record lows in the last few decades, making it harder for scientists to understand how it is responding to global heating.

But since 2016, scientists have begun to observe a steep downwards trend. While natural climate variability affects the sea ice, many scientists say climate change may be a major driver for the disappearing ice.

“The Antarctic system has always been highly variable,” Scambos said. “This [current] level of variation, though, is so extreme that something radical has changed in the past two years, but especially this year, relative to all previous years going back at least 45 years.”

Several factors feed into sea ice loss, Scambos said, including the strength of the westerly winds around Antarctica, which have been linked to the increase of planet-heating pollution.

“Warmer ocean temperatures north of the Antarctic Ocean boundary mixing into the water that’s typically somewhat isolated from the rest of the world’s oceans is also part of this idea as to how to explain this,” Scambos said.

In late February of this year, Antarctic sea ice reached its lowest extent since records began, at 691,000 square miles.

This winter’s unprecedented occurrence may indicate a long-term change for the isolated continent, Scambos said. “It is more likely than not that we won’t see the Antarctic system recover the way it did, say, 15 years ago, for a very long period into the future, and possibly ‘ever.’”

Cascading effects

Sea ice plays a vital role. While it doesn’t directly affect sea level rise, as it’s already floating in the ocean, it does have indirect effects. Its disappearance leaves coastal ice sheets and glaciers exposed to waves and warm ocean waters, making them more vulnerable to melting and breaking off.

A lack of sea ice could also have significant impacts on its wildlife, including krill on which many of the region’s whales feed, and penguins and seals that rely on sea ice for feeding and resting.

More broadly, Antarctica’s sea ice contributes to the regulation of the planet’s temperature, meaning its disappearance could have cascading effects far beyond the continent.

The sea ice reflects incoming solar energy back to space, when it melts, it exposes the darker ocean waters beneath which absorb the sun’s energy.

Parts of Antarctica have been seeing alarming changes for a while. The Antarctic Peninsula, a spindly chain of icy mountains which sticks off the west side of the continent, is one of the fastest warming places in the Southern Hemisphere.

Last year, scientists said West Antarctica’s vast Thwaites Glacier – also known as the “Doomsday Glacier” – was “hanging on by its fingernails” as the planet warms.

Scientists have estimated global sea level rise could increase by around 10 feet if Thwaites collapsed completely, devastating coastal communities around the world.

Scambos said that this winter’s record low level of sea ice is a very alarming signal.

“In 2016, [Antarctic sea ice] took the first big down-turn. Since 2016, it’s remained low, and now the bottom has fallen out. Something major in a huge part of the planet is suddenly behaving differently from what we saw for the past 45 years.”

At a secret makeshift military base a nondescript van and pickup truck tow two gray objects covered by tarpaulin mounted on trailers.

In the driving rain, they resemble something more akin to a Boston Whaler, rather than hiding one of Ukraine’s most closely guarded secrets.

As the tarps are drawn back, a gun-gray, sleek hull appears. Just over five meters (16 feet) in length, its narrow shape resembles a wide canoe.

These naval drones, never before shown to journalists, are increasingly allowing the Ukrainians to attack and surveil the Russians in the Black Sea and on the Crimean Peninsula. A country with no real fleet to speak of is outmanned and outgunned off their own coastline, but these sea drones are proving a vital tool in countering the Russians.

A government-linked Ukrainian fundraising organization called United24 has sourced money from companies and individuals all around the world, pooling the funds to disperse it to a variety of developers and initiatives from defense to soccer matches.

On a creaky wooden jetty, a camouflaged sea drone pilot says he wants to go by “Shark.” In front of him is a long black hardshell briefcase. He unveils a bespoke, multi-screened mission control – essentially an elaborate gaming center, complete with levers, joysticks, a monitor and buttons that have covers over switches that shouldn’t be accidentally knocked, with labels like “blast.”

The developer of the drone, who asked to remain anonymous, said their work on the sea drones only began once the war started. It was “very important, because we did not have very many forces to resist the maritime state – Russia. And we needed to develop something of our own, because we didn’t have the existing capabilities”.

Battles in the Black Sea

Ukraine is now starting to show those capabilities, even if missions are have varying degrees of success.

Multiple sea drone attack carried out on Russian assets in Crimea and the Black Sea have grabbed recent headlines, with dramatic videos posted online. Some, but by no means all, have been claimed by the security services themselves.

On 14 July the Ukrainian security services, alongside the navy, claimed joint responsibility for the second attack in nine months on the much-derided Kerch Bridge.

The vital artery, a nearly $4 billion project by Russia and personally opened by President Putin, is a key target to disrupt and sever the resupply route for Russian forces in the illegally annexed peninsula and in occupied areas of the southern front.

The pre-dawn attack left a section of the bridge unpassable and out of service until September.

The developer, watching his brainchild churn water, says the “these drones are a completely Ukrainian production. They are designed, drawn and tested here. It’s our own production of hulls, electronics and software. More than 50% of the production of equipment is here (in Ukraine).”

The Russians have yet to adjust to Ukraine’s newest capabilities, they claim.

“It is very difficult for them to get into such a small drone, it is very difficult to find it,” the developer says. “The speed of these drones exceeds any sea craft in the Black Sea region at the moment.”

The speed and difficulties in detection may go some way to explaining how the drones that attacked the bridge traveled undetected in the dark across the Black Sea to the bridge.

Targeting flagships

Ukraine has also been aiming their new equipment at Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which has cruised menacingly off the coast and become a recipient of many vicious volleys of missile attacks.

Before the recent attack left a key piece of Russian infrastructure bruised, other attempted attacks had already put the Russians on notice.

There was never any real proof given to the damage caused to the vessel, and it later reappeared without any major damage, but the fact that the Ukrainians were able to get within striking distance of the Admiral Makarov reinforces the success rate of the Ukrainians.

The brazen attack also gave Kyiv’s forces a boost and some propaganda for the public. Especially since the Admiral Makarov was newly installed as the Black Sea flagship after the Moskva was famously sunk by Ukrainian forces in April 2022.

“Shark,” languidly guiding the sea-drone from his control station, says :”these drones are designed to destroy ships and the fleet… such things that are used quite successfully and terrify the Russians.”

The damage sustained to the Admiral Makarov was unclear, but the intentions for Kyiv were on show.

The developer argues their work in against Russian naval targets forces them further into the Black Sea, therefore making deeper missile strikes into Ukraine harder. “300, 400, 600 kilometers is a long distance that makes some operations impossible and makes other operations more difficult.”

He said that makes cities like Odesa “safer.” But after the bridge strike, the city came under days of intense air attacks from drones and cruise missiles launched from the Russian Black sea fleet. Twenty-five UNESCO World Heritage sites across the city were hit. Russia claimed it was responding to an area it says was housing sea drones.

The drones’ capabilities and successes have given the developer some bravado though

“I think it will be five to 10 years or more before they (Russians) can effectively counter this type of equipment,” he says. “Their equipment is from the 20th century, ours is from the 21st. There are 100 years between us.”

Russia says Ukraine targeted Moscow with drones on Sunday, the latest in a series of attacks that have brought the Ukraine war to Russia’s capital.

The Russian Defense Ministry said three drones were intercepted but a business and shopping development in the west of the capital was hit. The fifth and sixth floor of a 50-story building were damaged, and no casualties were reported, state news agency TASS reported.

Videos showed debris as well as emergency services at the scene.

A spokesman for Ukraine’s Air Force said the latest drone attacks on Moscow were aimed at impacting Russians who, since the Kremlin invaded Ukraine in February 2022, felt the war was distant.

“There’s always something flying in Russia, as well as in Moscow. Now the war is affecting those who were not concerned,” the spokesman, Yurii Ihnat, said on Ukrainian television.

“No matter how the Russian authorities would like to turn a blind eye on this by saying they have intercepted everything … something does hit.”

Ukraine’s military has increasingly been deploying unmanned aerial vehicles for more than just reconnaissance.

Ukrainian Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, whose Digital Transformation Ministry oversees the country’s “Army of Drones” procurement plan, had said there would be more drone strikes to come as Kyiv ramps up a summer counteroffensive aimed at pushing Russian troops out of Ukrainian territory.

Moscow was targeted earlier this week. Ukraine claimed responsibility for a strike on Monday that hit two non-residential buildings, including one near the Ministry of Defense headquarter. Russia called that incident a “terrorist attack,” although the Kremlin’s military actions in Ukraine have regularly caused civilian casualties.

A Russian missile attack in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy late on Saturday killed one civilian and injured another five, while a rocket strike on Zaporizhzhia left another two people dead.

Both areas had been subject to lengthy bombardments over the weekend. Ukrainian authorities in Sumy said there had been 25 instances of shelling in a single day, while a military leader in Zaporizhzhia said Russian forces had carried out 77 attacks on 20 settlements across the Zaporizhzhia, hitting 31 residential buildings and other pieces of infrastructure.

Though the strikes in Moscow did not reportedly cause any injuries or fatalities, they have unsettled residents of the Russian capital.

One witness to Sunday’s attack explained how the incident upended some planned down time.

“My friends and I rented an apartment to come here and unwind, and at some point, we heard an explosion – it was like a wave, everyone jumped,” she told Reuters. “There was a lot of smoke, and you couldn’t see anything. From above, you could see fire.”

Ukrainian drones also targeted the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula on Sunday.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it intercepted 25 unmanned aerial vehicles over the territory, which Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, shooting down 16 of them with air defense systems.

The son of Colombia’s president has been arrested as part of an investigation into money laundering and illicit enrichment, the Colombian attorney general’s office said in a statement.

Petro has previously denied the accusations against him saying they were nothing more than political and personal attacks that seek to destroy the work he had achieved his career, he said in a March 2 statement.

Responding to the news of his son’s arrest, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said he was “hurt,” but guaranteed the prosecution procedures would be in accordance with the law.

“As a person and a father, so much self-destruction and the fact that one of my children goes to jail hurts me a lot. As President of the Republic, I assure that the prosecution has all the guarantees on my part to proceed in accordance with the law,” Petro wrote in his official Twitter account on Saturday.

Petro went on to wish his son “luck and strength” and reiterated his intention to not intervene or pressure the attorney general in this case.

Back then, the president welcomed the investigation, inviting the attorney general to get to the bottom of the allegations surrounding his son.

An arrest warrant was also issued against Nicolas Petro’s former wife, Daysuris del Carmen Vásquez Castro, “for the crimes of money laundering and violation of personal data for events that occurred from 2022 to date,” the attorney general’s office said in the statement on Saturday.

“Those captured will be placed at the disposal of a Municipal Criminal Judge with the Function of Guarantee Control, who will be asked to impart legality to the search, capture and seizure procedures of material elements of evidence. In the same way, charges will be made for the aforementioned crimes and a measure restricting freedom will be requested,” the statement said.

NBA star LeBron James shared a video Saturday on Instagram of his son Bronny playing piano after the young athlete’s cardiac arrest this week.

LeBron James wrote in the video’s caption, “Grand rising! God Is Great! @Bronny, you are amazing! Simple as that!”

It is unclear when the video was taken of the 18-year-old, who suffered the emergency Monday during basketball practice.

The incoming freshman for the University of Southern California’s basketball team has been released from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

“Keep going young (king)! We’re here right with you every step of the way!” LeBron James wrote on Instagram.

The four-time NBA champion tweeted about his son on Thursday for the first time since the incident, thanking well wishers for sending his family “love and prayers.”

“We feel you and I’m so grateful. Everyone doing great,” the Lakers star wrote. “We have our family together, safe and healthy, and we feel your love. Will have more to say when we’re ready but I wanted to tell everyone how much your support has meant to all of us! #JamesGang.”

A source familiar with the matter said Bronny James underwent a cardiac screening several months prior for prospective NBA athletes.

The results of that screening came back normal, according to the source.

With some Women’s World Cup groups balancing on a knife edge, working out which team needs to get what result to still qualify can be a tricky process.

Group A

Norway vs. the Philippines, Switzerland vs. New Zealand

Group leader Switzerland knows a win will secure top spot in Group A, but even a draw against co-host New Zealand will guarantee the Swiss a place in the last 16.

The pressure is on New Zealand to avoid an unwanted piece of history by becoming the first host nation to go out of the group stages of a Women’s World Cup.

Only a victory against Switzerland will guarantee that, but the team can still qualify with a draw if Norway and the Philippines also finishes level in the group’s other match.

Victory for the Philippines will secure the team a spot in the knockout stages and so will a draw if New Zealand and Switzerland also finishes in a tie. Lose and the team is going home.

Lastly, Norway has been one of the surprise disappointments of this World Cup and only a win over the Philippines will give the team a chance of reaching the last 16.

The Norwegians need to win and hope either Switzerland or New Zealand win and they themselves earn a three-goal swing over Switzerland or New Zealand. Or, another favorable scenario for the Norwegians would be Switzerland to draw and Norway to beat the Philippines by two goals.

Group B

Canada vs. Australia, Republic of Ireland vs. Nigeria

Leader Nigeria will qualify with a win or a draw, but is currently only topping the group on goals scored over Canada.

If second place Canada also wins, it will come down to goal difference then goals scored to determine the group winner. Canada can also qualify with a draw.

Only a win will guarantee Australia avoids the same potential fate as its co-host and goes out in the group stage, but a draw will also be enough if the Republic of Ireland beat Nigeria by two goals.

The Republic of Ireland is already eliminated.

Group C

Costa Rica vs. Zambia, Japan vs. Spain

Japan and Spain are already through to the last 16 after winning their opening two matches, but Spain leads the group on goal difference. A draw will qualify Spain in first, but Japan needs to win to top the group.

Costa Rica and Zambia are both already eliminated.

Group D

China vs. England, Haiti vs. Denmark

England needs just a point against China to finish top of Group D.

Denmark, level on points with China but ahead on head-to-head after beating the Chinese, just needs to better China’s result to qualify.

If China and Denmark win or England and Haiti win, three teams will be level on points. Qualification would be decided by goal difference, then goals scored, then head-to-head.

Group E

Portugal vs. United States, Vietnam vs. Netherlands

The US Women’s National Team will qualify with a win or a draw and need to either match or better the Netherlands’ result to guarantee top spot.

The Netherlands can also qualify with a win or draw, but need to win and hope the US either loses or draws – or wins but scores two or more goals fewer than the Dutch – to finish top.

Portugal can still qualify, but the odds are heavily stacked against it. The team either needs to beat the US or draw and hope for another miracle in the form of a Vietnam victory over the Netherlands.

Vietnam is already eliminated.

Group F

Jamaica vs. Brazil, Panama vs. France

France will qualify for the last 16 with a win or a draw against Panama and victory will guarantee top spot as long as it matches or betters Jamaica’s result.

Jamaica will qualify if it can cause a huge upset and win or draw against Brazil.

Brazil needs a win to guarantee a place in the last 16, but will also qualify in the unlikely event of a Brazil draw and Panama beat France.

Group G

Argentina vs. Sweden, South Africa vs. Italy

Sweden is already through to the last 16 and only needs a draw against Argentina to guarantee top spot.

Italy will qualify if it beats South Africa or if it draws and Argentina draws or loses against Sweden.

Argentina and South Africa both need to win to stand any chance of reaching the knockout stages.

If they both win, three teams will be on four points and it will again come down to goal difference, then goals scored, then head-to-head.

Phoenix Mercury superstar Brittney Griner will not travel with the team on its two-game road trip to focus on her mental health, the team announced on Saturday.

“The Mercury fully support Brittney and we will continue to work together on a timeline for her return,” the team said in a statement.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist spent nearly 300 days in Russian custody following her detention in February 2022 and was sentenced to nine years in prison under drug-smuggling charges after authorities in the country found cannabis oil in her luggage.

She was released in December in a prisoner exchange with Russia.

The 32-year-old Griner has played in 20 games for Phoenix this season and is averaging 18.2 points 6.7 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.7 blocks per game. Earlier this month, Griner participated in her ninth career WNBA All-Star game.

The Mercury’s record is 6-17 and currently sits in 10th place in the standings. Phoenix plays at the Chicago Sky on Sunday and the Indiana Fever on Tuesday.

Severe thunderstorms caused damage across the Washington, DC, region Saturday, with downed trees and power lines and suspended service on parts of the Metro train system.

DC Fire EMS said on its Twitter account it is responding to multiple emergency calls for trees and wires down, and is prioritizing calls for trees on vehicles or structural damage.

The agency also said crews are responding to a vessel taking on water in the Potomac River, and boats adrift in the Georgetown area.

Across the country, more than 100 million people are under heat alerts, according to the National Weather Service. Most are set to expire Saturday night.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Agency has suspended service on a portion of the Red Line due to a downed tree, while other stations are being bypassed due to power outages, according to its Twitter feed.

The area’s utility provider, Pepco, reports some 64,000 power outages on its website.

In nearby Arlington County in Virginia, the fire department said on Twitter it is experiencing “significant increase in call volume” and responses would be delayed.

The National Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm warning for portions of the area and warned of 80 mph winds.