Sierra Leone officially banned child marriage on Tuesday with President Julius Maada Bio signing into law a bill to end the practice that remains widespread.

Advocates hope the new legislation will better protect girls in Sierra Leone, around a third of whom are married before they turn 18, increasing the maternal death rate due to the physical risks they face from pregnancy, according to the health ministry.

Under the law, any man who marries a girl under the age of 18 could face at least 15 years in prison and a fine of around $4,000.

Parents or those attending such marriage ceremonies could also face fines.

The U.S. Bureau of African Affairs welcomed the passage of the bill as a “significant milestone (that) not only protects girls but promotes robust human rights protections.”

West and Central Africa has the highest prevalence of child marriage in the world and is home to nearly 60 million child brides, according to the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF.

A 21-year-old Sierra Leonean former child bride, who requested anonymity, told Reuters that she was forced into marriage at the age of 14 and was considering going to court since the new law would allow her to file for an annulment.

The legislation should “break the cycle of early marriage and its devastating consequences,” said Human Rights Watch researcher Betty Kabari. “It also sets a pathway forward for other African nations, such as Tanzania and Zambia, to revoke laws that permit child marriage.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the idea of starting a ceasefire in Gaza while Hamas remains in power, after The New York Times published an article citing six current and former security officials who said a truce would give Israeli troops time to prepare for a potential land war with Hezbollah.

The officials, most of whom spoke anonymously to “discuss sensitive security matters,” also said a truce would be the most effective way to secure the release of the Israeli hostages.

Former Israeli National Security Advisor Eyal Hulata, who according to the Times maintains regular communication with “senior miliary officials,” spoke on the record, saying, “The military is in full support of a hostage deal and a ceasefire … They believe that they can always go back and engage Hamas militarily in the future.”

Faced with a “forever war” scenario, four of the officials interviewed by the Times agreed with Hulata that “keeping Hamas in power for now in exchange for getting the hostages back seems like the least worst option for Israel.”

But in a statement, Netanyahu said, “I do not know who these anonymous sources are, but I am here to make it unequivocally clear: This will not happen. The war will end once Israel achieves all of its objectives, including the destruction of Hamas and the release of all of our hostages.”

“The government directed the IDF to achieve these war objectives and the IDF has all the means to achieve them. We will not capitulate to the winds of defeatism, neither in The New York Times nor anywhere else. We are inspired by the spirit of victory.”

The report was published as the situation in Israel’s north remains extremely tense, with the Israeli military and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah ramping up cross-border attacks, which risk boiling over into a full-scale war.

“They (the IDF) understand that a pause in Gaza makes de-escalation more likely in Lebanon,” Hulata told the Times.

“And they have less munitions, less spare parts, less energy than they did before — so they also think a pause in Gaza gives us more time to prepare in case a bigger war does break out with Hezbollah,” he is quoted as saying.

When asked by the Times if it supported a truce, the IDF released a statement that didn’t answer the question directly.

“The IDF is determined to continue fighting to achieve the goals of the war to destroy the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas, the return of the hostages and the safe return of the residents in the north and south to their homes.”

“So far, significant achievements have been made in fighting in Gaza, the IDF will continue to fight Hamas everywhere in the Gaza Strip, along with continuing to promote war readiness in the north and a defense effort at all borders,” it added.

As French citizens get set to vote in runoff parliamentary elections on Sunday hundreds of contenders have bowed out in an effort to block the far-right party from the gates of power.

Over 200 candidates from President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist camp and the left-wing alliance have stepped down in a bid to avoid splitting the vote. They’ve put aside their differences with one goal in mind: to keep the far right firmly away from the 289 seats required for an absolute majority currently within their reach.

Last Sunday the French people placed the anti-immigration National Rally (RN) and its allies in first place while Macron’s centrist camp came third, behind the left-wing bloc.

After the first round in constituencies where no candidate won outright, an unprecedented number of seats – over 300 – went to a three-way run-off favoring the RN. By Tuesday, as the deadline to drop out closed, fewer than 100 remain, after centrist and left-wing candidates strategically dropped out in individual seats.

This tactic could stop some RN candidates from winning, according to analyst Antoine Bristielle.

“The main probability was an absolute majority for the National Rally, but now with all of the withdrawals, I think that’s unlikely,” Bristielle said.

In an attempt to deny the RN a majority, the NFP – a left-wing coalition that wants to lower the retirement age and tax the rich – promised to withdraw all of its candidates who came in third place in the first round.

Leslie Mortreux, an NFP qualifier and the only publicly out transgender runner, stepped aside to give right-wing Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin a better chance of defeating the RN rival in a constituency in the north.

Macron’s Ensemble allies also called on their supporters to prevent the far right taking office, but some warned against lending their votes to the hard-left France Unbowed, a party inside the NFP.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire drew the ire of the left on Tuesday when he said no vote should go to the far right but added that he personally would not vote for the far left either.

In one constituency in the south, a government minister initially refused to help an NFP candidate, reasoning that she didn’t want her voters to have to choose between two extremes.

The following day she tweeted that she was bowing out following pressure from the president and prime minister.

In over 80 three-way races, Macron’s centrist candidates dropped out in favor of candidates from the left-wing NFP. But many stopped short of encouraging their supporters to vote for a left-wing opponent.

“I’ve taken the difficult decision to withdraw … leaving it up to my voters to position themselves against the far right or far left,” Samuel Deguara, a candidate from Macron’s camp said after withdrawing.

Meanwhile, far-right doyenne Marine Le Pen condemned the political bargaining.

“The act of withdrawing and giving voting instructions shows the worst contempt for voters,” Le Pen said Tuesday.

Even before the candidate withdrawals, projections had suggested that after the second round of voting next Sunday, the RN was likely to fall short of an absolute majority and win between 230 and 280 seats in the 577-seat lower house.

In speeches before the first round, National Rally leader Jordan Bardella said he would refuse to govern a minority government, in which the RN would require the votes of allies to pass laws.

If the RN falls short of an absolute majority and Bardella stays true to his word, Macron might then have to search for a prime minister on the left, or somewhere else entirely.

And if the unthinkable for Macron happens and the RN does get an absolute majority, then it will become the first far-right party to enter the French government since World War II.

Voters in Britain are primed to end a 14-year era of Conservative rule, in a momentous general election that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is almost universally expected to lose.

Sunak took the biggest gamble of his troubled premiership by calling the early vote, but he has struggled to turn around dire polling and appears on the cusp of defeat.

If, as current polls indicate, the opposition Labour party triumph, it will finally bring down the curtain of a 14-year era of Conservative rule, ushering in a center-left government led by former barrister Keir Starmer.

Any other outcome would mean Sunak has orchestrated a shocking victory that even many in his own party believe is beyond reach – and would result in the Conservatives extending a political dynasty towards a third decade.

Here are some key questions answered.

When and how is Britain voting?

After a weeks-long campaign, polls will open at 7 a.m. local time on Thursday (2 a.m. ET), and they’ll stay open until 10 p.m.

Britons can cast a ballot in each of the country’s 650 constituencies, selecting the MP to represent the area.

The leader of the party that wins a majority of those constituencies becomes prime minister, and can form a government. That means 326 is the magic number for an overall majority.

If there’s no majority, they need to look for help elsewhere, ruling as a minority government – as Theresa May did after a close 2017 result – or forming a coalition, as David Cameron did after 2010.

The monarch has an important, albeit symbolic, role; King Charles III must approve the formation of a government, the decision to hold an election and the dissolution of parliament. The King won’t ever contradict his prime minister or overrule the results of an election.

Why did Sunak call an election?

Sunak was required to call a vote by January 2025, but the decision of when to do so was his alone.

His problem was that no good options existed. He was 20 points behind in the polls, and that deficit hadn’t budged for months. Some in his ear urged him to wait until later in the year, when poor economic news could improve.

But on the other hand, Sunak has placed much of his political capital into his pledge to stop small boat crossings to the UK by asylum seekers. He has recently passed a controversial law to process some claims in Rwanda, though nobody has yet been deported and further legal challenges may await the plan.

The warmer summer months are expected to see a huge number of such journeys across the English Channel, hurting a major pillar of his campaign message.

Ultimately, hours after some rare good economic news – a healthy month-on-month reduction in the rate of inflation – Sunak decided that this was the least bad time to pull the trigger.

But his speech, which took place in a downpour outside Downing Street, set the tone for a miserable campaign.

Who’s expected to win?

The near-universal expectation is that Sunak’s Conservative Party will lose the election.

Labour have been leading in general election opinion polls since late 2021, and that lead has been huge throughout the campaign. They are around 20 points up on average, with the Tories closer to third party challengers Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats than they are to Labour.

When converted to a projection of seats in parliament, those figures indicate either a comfortable Labour win or a Labour win so huge it would spell a near-wipeout for the Conservatives.

The Conservative brand was damaged by Partygate and a number of other scandals that led to the demise of Boris Johnson’s premiership, and then the shambolic six-week tenure of his successor Liz Truss, whose fiscal agenda sent markets into turmoil.

Sunak’s campaign has even shifted its message in recent weeks, encouraging supporters instead to prevent a massive Labour majority than to send Sunak back to Downing Street.

It’s essentially an admission of defeat, and underlines what polling has said for some time: Labour is firmly on course for victory.

But the Labour party is concerned about people taking the result for granted, and have stressed in recent days that nothing is decided until the votes are counted.

How has the campaign gone?

Starmer and Sunak have faced off in two head-to-head TV debates, which were at times ill-tempered and featured contentious claims – particularly an assertion by Sunak that Labour would cost Britons thousands in new taxes, which Labour have ruled out.

Labour’s campaign has been otherwise focused, hammering home a promise of “change” while pledging prudence with the nation’s finances.

Sunak has meanwhile struggled to stay on track; in particular a decision to leave D-Day anniversary commemorations early caused fury back home and prompted an apology.

Two head-to-head TV debates have been organized; in the first, Sunak and Starmer scrapped in a tense and occasionally personal tie. The second will air in late June.

Then on Thursday, July 4, Britons will vote between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. local time, and as soon as polls close, votes will be counted. A winner is usually declared in the early hours of Friday morning.

Who is Keir Starmer?

Rishi Sunak’s rival for power is Labour leader Keir Starmer, who is heavily favored to become Britain’s new prime minister in July.

A former, well-respected human rights lawyer who then served as Britain’s most senior prosecutor, Starmer came into politics late in life. He became a Labour MP in 2015 and less than five years later was the party’s leader, following a stint as shadow Brexit Secretary during Britain’s protracted exit from the European Union.

Starmer inherited a party reeling from its worst electoral defeat in generations, but he prioritized an overhaul of its culture – staring down left-wing supporters of former leader Jeremy Corbyn, and apologizing publicly for a long-running antisemitism scandal that had tainted the group’s standing with the public.

He has attempted to lay claim to Britain’s political center ground, and is described by his supporters as a principled, serious leader with a focus on tackling the systemic issues facing Britain. But his opponents, on both the left of his own party and the right of the political spectrum, say he lacks charisma and ideas, and charge that he has failed to set out an ambitious and broad vision for the nation.

Who else is standing?

Only Sunak or Starmer have a realistic chance of becoming prime minister, but their plans could be disrupted by a number of smaller parties.

Nigel Farage, the populist right-wing figurehead who leads Reform UK, announced he would stand for election early in the campaign – he previously declined to do so, in order to help former President Donald Trump campaign in the US election this fall – and his entry has helped the group peel away Tory support.

Farage has criticized Sunak’s record on migration, and his group has pulled close to the Tories in many polls. Holding on to that level of support come election day could cause a once-in-a-lifetime decimation of the Tories at the ballot box.

Meanwhile, as Farage attacks Sunak from the right, the Liberal Democrats, a centrist, pro-European group, have chipped away at Conservative support in affluent, southern parts of England.

Given Labour’s standing in the polls, Starmer is more equipped to take the fight to other groups. North of the border, he will look to end the Scottish National Party (SNP)’s generation-long dominance at the ballot box, capitalizing on a rocky period in the party’s recent history that has seen them replace two leaders in just over a year.

But he will need to be mindful of the Green Party, which has challenged him from the left and has attracted some younger liberal votes as a result.

In recent local elections, there was evidence too that Labour’s stance on Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza had harmed the party in majority-Muslim areas.

What issues will decide the election?

The answer to that question will go some way in deciding the night’s winner.

Labour has been dogged in trying to define the election as a referendum on 14 years of Conservative rule, seizing on public fatigue with a party that has produced five prime ministers in that span and overseen Brexit, a stuttering economy and a series of sleaze scandals.

In particular, Starmer has spoken plenty about the cost of living hitting British families, and the state of the country’s overstaffed and stretched National Health Service (NHS).

Sunak, by contrast, has tried to focus on migration – his pledge to “Stop the Boats” hasn’t yet worked, but his flagship Rwanda policy has at least become law. And he has attempted to convince voters that the economy has turned a corner, and can’t risk a change in governance.

When will we know the results?

Once polls open on Thursday, the media in Britain is barred from discussing anything that could affect voting.

But the second voting stops, an exit poll will drop that sets the course for the night. The poll, done by Ipsos for the BBC, ITV and Sky, projects the seat breakdown of the new parliament, and it’s historically been very accurate.

The real results are counted throughout the night; the shape of the evening is usually clear by about 3 a.m. local time (10 p.m. ET on Thursday), and the new prime minister – if there is one – is often in post by noon.

But things can take longer if the result is close, or if key seats go down to the wire.

Either way, the infamously sudden handover in power will take place by the weekend, leaving the new government a few weeks to work on key legislation before parliament breaks for the summer.

Allegations of sexual abuse against a child by a Syrian man in Kayseri, Turkey, have sparked overnight riots that targeted Syrian businesses and cars in the city.

According to Turkish state news agency Anadolu, a Syrian man was arrested on allegations that he sexually abused his seven-year-old female cousin, who is also Syrian, in a public bathroom at a market.

Reports of the purported abuse quickly spread across social media, prompting outraged local residents to riot — setting fire to cars and Syrian-run businesses in the central Anatolian city.

“An investigation was immediately launched on the issue. However, later our citizens gathered in this region, acted illegally in an attitude that does not suit our human values, and damaged houses, workplaces, and vehicles belonging to Syrian nationals,” Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said. He said that dozens of people were detained, and the crowd was only dispersed in the early morning hours.

The local governor of Kayseri called on people “to act calmly, with moderation and common sense.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed opposition parties, some of which have taken a hard line on removing the estimated 3.6 million Syrians from the country, for stoking “hatred politics.”

Erdogan himself has pledged to create the conditions for large numbers of Syrians to voluntarily return to Syria.

“Xenophobia and hatred towards refugees in our country should not be ignited because this does not give any positive results,” he said in a speech on Monday.

At the “Bab al-Salama” border crossing with Turkey, the Turkish flag was removed, burned and replaced with a Free Syrian Army flag, according to a local resident and images circulating on social media.

Several internet providers in northern Syria appeared to be disconnected late Monday. Only satellite internet was still working.

The largest umbrella group representing the Syrian opposition, the “National Coalition for Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces” released a statement urging Syrians on both sides of the border to “exercise self-restraint.”

“The sole beneficiaries of this chaos, violations, and disorder are the regime and terrorist organizations,” the statement read.

Yerlikaya blamed bots and provocateurs for sowing discord on social media. He said that more than a third of accounts sharing content about the events in Kayseri on X were bots and that 10 accounts had been referred to prosecutors.

“We will not tolerate those who threaten the peace and security of our country, make provocative posts, or engage in hate speech,” he wrote on X.

Turkey hosts more Syrian refugees than any other country, but Turkey has often struggled to integrate Syrian refugees fully into society. That, combined with a struggling economy, has turned Syrians into a political lightning rod in Turkey. Many Syrians accuse Turks of racist treatment. Countless Syrian children are not in schools because of a requirement that Syrians remain in the districts they were registered in originally — even after events such as last year’s deadly earthquake in southern Turkey forced many of them to relocate.

All of this comes just days after Erdogan said he was open to meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to restore ties between the two countries — though last year Assad made clear the meeting could not take place so long as Turkish troops remained in Syria. Assad and Erdogan were once close and even vacationed together, but Erdogan eventually backed the Free Syrian Army that sought to oust Assad from power in Syria’s civil war.

More than a hundred people were killed in a crush at a religious gathering in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, according to local police and administration officials.

The incident happened at a prayer meeting, known as a satsang, in the Mughal Garhi village in the Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh, officials said. The village in India’s most populous state is around 200 kilometers (124 miles) southeast of the capital, New Delhi.

Local police said at least 116 people had been killed, though that number may rise.

The bodies of at least 27 of the dead were taken to Etah district mortuary, according to Inspector General Shalabh Mathur, of the neighboring district Ambala Range, while the rest of the bodies are in Hathras, he said.

A video distributed by Reuters showed crowds gathering outside a local hospital in Etah, where distraught families cried for the victims. Medical personnel could be seen carrying people on stretchers.

It is unclear what caused the crush of people, but survivors spoke of the harrowing incident in its aftermath. “People started falling one upon another, one upon another. Those who were crushed died. People there pulled them out,” Shakuntala Devi told the Press Trust of India news agency, according to Associated Press.

Efforts are underway to provide the injured with medical care and arrangements are being made for post-mortem examinations at various locations, Inspector General Mathur added.

Mathur said that a police report will be filed against event organizers for allegedly exceeding permitted attendance levels. A high-level inquiry has been launched to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident, he said.

Aligarh Commissioner Chaitra V said, “As of now, 116 deaths have been confirmed, with 18 injuries reported. Initial investigations are ongoing, and appropriate actions will be taken based on the findings.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences in an address in the lower house of India’s bicameral parliament known as the Lok Sabha.

Modi said the government is engaged in “relief and rescue work” and is coordinating with the state government. “The victims will be helped in every way,” he said.

Speaking to reporters, Ashish Kumar, the district magistrate of Hathras, said the stampede happened as people were leaving the event, which was held to celebrate the Hindu deity Shiva.

The district magistrate said police had given permission for the private event and officials were “put on duty for maintenance of law and order and security,” but arrangements inside were handled by the organizers.

An investigation into the incident will be conducted by a newly formed high-level committee, he added.

A new year’s crush in January 2022 at one of India’s holiest shrines in Jammu, in the north of the country, killed at least a dozen people.

This story has been updated with additional information.

The head of Gaza’s largest hospital has claimed he was repeatedly tortured during his seven months in Israeli detention, following his sudden release Monday, in a move that highlighted growing rifts in the Israeli establishment.

Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the director of the Al-Shifa medical complex, who was arrested in late November during the first of two Israeli raids on the facility in Gaza City, was released along with 50 other Palestinian detainees.

Their release has sparked outcry in Israel and was criticized across the political spectrum, as well as by families of the Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas during its deadly October 7 attack.

At a news conference Monday, Abu Salmiya alleged Palestinian detainees suffered “severe torture” and had medical treatment denied.

“My little finger was broken. I was repeatedly subjected to hitting on the head, causing bleeding multiple times. There was almost daily torture in the Israeli prisons,” he told reporters.

“The doctor there beats the detainees, and the nurse beats the detainees. This is in violation of all international laws.”

Abu Salmiya said fellow prisoners lost a significant amount of weight and were “completely denied treatment.”

“They amputated the feet of several prisoners, those who are suffering from diabetes symptoms due to the lack of medical treatment for them,” he said.

A prison service spokesperson said, “prisoners and detainees have the right to file a complaint that will be fully examined and addressed by official authorities.”

Abu Salmiya was reportedly detained while evacuating the hospital with a World Health Organization convoy. The Israeli military said at the time the director was “apprehended and transferred for … questioning following evidence showing that the Shifa Hospital, under his direct management, served as a Hamas command and control center.”

Al-Shifa became a flashpoint in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and now lies in ruins following a 14-day Israeli siege in March. Israel repeatedly claimed that a Hamas command center sat underneath the medical complex and that the militant group has used it to hold hostages. Hamas has denied the claims, as have health officials working there.

Other Palestinian detainees released on Monday described overcrowded detention centers where prisoners were abused, diseases were rife, and food was scarce.

“They would show us photos of our relatives’ bodies, pictures of our families and children … and say: ‘Look at your children, we killed them.’ They would show us pictures of our wives, our sisters, and tell us that they had taken them and done this and that to them,” Faraj said.

Israeli outcry

The release has created tensions within Israel as its war with Hamas stretches into its ninth month, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordering an “immediate inquiry into the matter,” according to his office.

Netanyahu said the decision followed discussions at the High Court, and the identity of the released prisoners was determined independently by security officials “based on their professional considerations.”

Israel’s domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet said in a statement that detainees who posed a “lesser danger” were released to “free up places of confinement.”

Shin Bet said it had been warning for about a year of the need to increase the number of spaces in detention centers “given the need to arrest terrorists” in the West Bank and Gaza.

“Without a choice, without an immediate solution to the prison shortage, arrests will continue to be canceled and detainees will continue to be released,” the agency said.

But far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was among those outraged by the decision, calling the release of Abu Salmiya and other prisoners “security negligence.”

Former defense minister Benny Gantz, who resigned from Israel’s War Cabinet last month, said “whoever made this decision lacked judgment and should be fired today.”

The decision to release the detainees comes as families of Israelis taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 attacks continue to wait for news of their loved ones. As many as 120 hostages remain captive in Gaza.

In a statement Monday, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum headquarters said it hoped the Israeli government would be “determined to release our family members, with the same determination as it releases the director of Shifa Hospital.”

The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders on Monday for areas in southern Gaza including eastern Khan Younis and Rafah, forcing residents – many of whom were already displaced – to seek shelter elsewhere in what signals the possibility of another ground operation.

The Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis, one of the territory’s last standing hospitals and which falls within the evacuation zone, has transferred patients, including those in intensive care and babies in incubators, and medical equipment to other hospitals in “fear of a bloodshed,” according to the hospital’s deputy director and doctors.

On Monday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said the emergency room at Al Amal hospital in Khan Younis was overcrowded with injuries after patients had been transferred from the European Hospital, following an Israeli military order to evacuate the Al Fukhari area. It said it also received some patients from Nasser Hospital, which it said had also become overcrowded with patients from the European Hospital.

In a separate statement, hours after the initial evacuation orders, the Israel Defense Forces said the order “does not apply to the patients in the European Hospital or the medical staff working there.”

“There is no intention to evacuate the European Hospital,” the statement said.

Videos posted to social media showed hospital patients on stretchers being moved through the streets near the hospital following the orders.

The Israeli military withdrew its ground forces from Khan Younis in April after months of fierce fighting that left much of the city in ruins.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, Louise Wateridge, who is currently in Gaza, said the agency is seeing a “massive” movement of people from the evacuation zones after the Israeli military’s latest order was issued. The agency said it expects around 250,000 people in the evacuation zones to leave the area.

Meanwhile, Israeli strikes and shelling on Khan Younis continued, with at least eight people killed and 32 injured overnight, according to Nasser hospital.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is paying his first visit to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale war began in February 2022, according to a Hungarian government spokesperson.

“Viktor Orban arrived in Kyiv this morning to discuss European peace with President Volodymyr Zelensky,” spokesperson Zoltan Kovacs posted on X on Tuesday.

Talks between the two leaders will focus on “possibilities for achieving peace, as well as current issues in Hungarian-Ukrainian bilateral relations,” Kovacs added.

Orban has been a divisive figure regarding European support for Ukraine. The authoritarian Hungarian leader has regularly attempted to steamroll European Union initiatives offering further military and financial support to Kyiv during the conflict.

Hungary’s prime minister also has a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which has frequently come under scrutiny. Their bond is underpinned by both economic cooperation and some shared values.

Both leaders have also enacted anti-LGBTQ policies and clamped down on freedom of speech in their countries. Hungary has supported Russia at a United Nations level and rejected EU sanctions following Putin’s aggression in Ukraine as early as 2014, after Russia illegally annexed Crimea.

Tuesday’s meeting comes as Orban and Hungary take control of the EU Council’s rotating presidency, which changes every six months. During each six-month period, the country controlling the presidency does not take control of the EU’s overall agenda, but does have a platform through which they can hammer home their own priorities.

On the EU Council’s website, it likens holding the presidency “to someone hosting a dinner, making sure their guests all gather in harmony,” adding that to “guarantee effectiveness, the presidency acts as an ‘honest broker,’ rising above the holder’s own national interest.”

Orban took control of the presidency on Monday with a call to “Make Europe Great Again,” a reference to Donald Trump’s political slogan that will alarm many of his European counterparts who are braced for the former US president’s potential return to the White House, concerned about what it will mean for the EU.

Other key European diplomatic meetings are planned for July. NATO will celebrate 75 years of the alliance in Washington, DC on July 9-11. The agenda for that event is expected to be dominated by long-term plans to support Ukraine and conversations about its eventual accession to the alliance.

The European Political Community (EPC), a forum for 47 European countries, inside and outside the EU, to discuss the continent’s strategic challenges, will also meet on July 18 in the United Kingdom. Ukraine and Hungary are both members of the EPC.

It is expected that Ukraine will dominate that agenda and Zelensky may attend the meeting in person. Orban may have had this in mind when timing this trip to Kyiv, ensuring that his first meeting with Ukraine’s president since the start of the war was not in such a public and high-stakes diplomatic setting.

Kathmandu, Nepal — A Nepali court sentenced a man who thousands believed was a reincarnation of the Buddha to 10 years in jail on Monday for child sexual abuse, a court official said.

As a teenager, Ram Bahadur Bamjon had drawn international attention when in 2005 tens of thousands of people turned up to see the “Buddha Boy” sitting cross-legged under a tree in a dense forest in southeastern Nepal for nearly 10 months.

Court official Sikinder Kaapar of the Sarlahi district court in southern Nepal said a judge had also ordered Bamjon, 33, to pay $3,750 in compensation to the victim.

Bamjon could not be reached for comment by Reuters, but his lawyer, Dilip Kumar Jha, said he would appeal in a higher court.

Bamjon was arrested at a house on the outskirts of Kathmandu in January.

The ruling comes nearly two decades after he first gained international attention after he retreated into the jungle at age 15 to pray for 10 months, local media reported at the time. His followers once claimed that he did so without food, sleep or water.

Those claims were never independently verified, but it led some to laud him as the reincarnation of Siddhartha Gautama, who was born in Nepal some 2,500 years ago, and later became known simply as Buddha, meaning “enlightened one.”