Republican presidential candidate's comments latest bid to present a moderate image on reproductive issues.

Tributes pour in after the king's death in hospital where he was recovering from heart surgery.

The crash is the first involving in an F-16 since they began arriving in Ukraine late last month.

The Democratic nominee and her running mate sat down with CNN's Dana Bash to discuss their plans for the presidency.

Fumio Kishida promised reform when he said he was stepping down as prime minister after a term marred by controversy.

French leader denies inviting tech founder to France or having prior knowledge of his visit.

As the war enters its 917th day, these are the main developments.

The arrest in France last Saturday of Pavel Durov, the billionaire boss of the social media platform Telegram, is reverberating around the world as Russia urges France not to turn the investigation into 'political persecution.' Durov is under formal investigation over alleged illegal activities on Telegram, as Henry Ridgwell reports.

A pupil who says she was repeatedly restrained took her independent special school to court.

De Moraes's ruling is response to lack of legal representatives in Brazil for X social network, Reuters reports.

The rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata reignites debates over sexual violence against women.

Sale comes as European nations try to coax Serbia away from traditional ally and weapons supplier Moscow.

Migrants and refugees are using their political might abroad to pressure Venezuela to release complete election results.

The UN’s health agency says Israel has agreed to at least three days of “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza.

Gaborone, Botswana — The entry of Elon Musk’s Starlink into the Botswana market this week has been hailed as a "game-changer." Analysts concur the introduction of the satellite internet service provider will improve internet access but there is concern over subscription costs and the service potentially pushing local internet providers out of business.  Starlink this week announced it had begun operations in Botswana, three months after the company received approval from the Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority, known as BOCRA.  The Space-X operated broadband service enters a market dominated by Botswana’s major mobile network operators. Tavonga Muchuchuti, president of the industry group Fintech Association Botswana, says the introduction of Starlink will make the internet more widely accessible. "It is a very big step for our market, especially when it comes to improving digital access across the country as well as it coming in to help us with bridging the digital divide that we have seen over the years,” he said. “By leveraging these constellations of low earth orbit satellites, Starlink can actually deliver high speed internet to even some of the most remote areas across the country, where the traditional ISPs have generally struggled with connectivity.”  Ewetse Khama, the country manager for Zamlim, a foreign direct investment consulting firm, says Starlink’s launch heralds a new era in the local internet market. He says local ISPs have to change strategy to remain competitive.  “They have to figure out another way of battling this coming reality,” he said. “ISPs in Botswana do have the advantage at the moment on the cost element because setting up an infrastructure like Starlinks is incredibly cash heavy and they need to recoup the costs. So ISPs for the short term, are not going to be struggling as much as assumed.” Starlink is rapidly expanding across Africa. Zimbabwe-based digital expert Sean Ndlovu says this is a positive “shake up.”  “The advent of Starlink on the continent is a big game changer,” he said. “It gives [internet] access to the underserved populations in the rural areas and even in high density areas. It is going to bring about innovation. The more access our people have to the internet, they can learn.”  Ndlovu also says Starlink’s satellite service will lead to better, more reliable internet connections.  Concerns, however, remain over Starlink’s pricing structure, with fears it could be expensive for rural dwellers and low-income earners.  For domestic use, Starlink users in Botswana pay $363 for the hardware and a monthly subscription fee of $52. Muchuchuti says the impact of Starlink in Botswana will depend on the balance between innovation and inclusiveness. “This would mean that the kind of people that we will be targeting for in these rural areas and low-income areas, that pricing might be out of reach for them because they have got to invest in that initial purchase,” he said. “To be truly transformative, there will be a need to really have efforts to make that technology more and more affordable.” Starlink faced initial licensing challenges but Botswana’s regulatory body granted permission after President Mokgweetsi Masisi met with the company’s directors in the United States in May.

Video appears to show a series of explosions on the vessel, amid fears of a potential major oil spill.

Agreement consists of temporary pauses in separate areas of Gaza with goal of vaccinating 640,000 children under 10.

London — Russia on Thursday warned France not to turn the investigation of Pavel Durov, the boss of Telegram, into a “political persecution” after the billionaire 39-year-old CEO was put under formal investigation relating to activities on his social media platform. Moscow has implied there are political motivations behind the arrest of Durov, who was detained Saturday as he disembarked his private jet at Paris-Le Bourget airport, near the French capital. “The main thing is for what is happening in France not to run into political persecution,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday. “Of course, we consider him a Russian citizen and, as much as possible, we will be ready to provide assistance. We will be watching what happens next,” Peskov said. France strongly denies there are any political objectives behind his arrest and maintains the investigation is being conducted according to the rule of law. Durov holds joint Russian, French and United Arab Emirates citizenship. He was released from police custody Wednesday evening on $5.6 million bail. He is banned from leaving France and must report to a police station twice a week. TJ McIntyre, an associate professor at University College Dublin’s School of Law and an expert on technology law and cybercrime, said Durov faces a range of preliminary charges, “ranging from failure to take action on the sale of drugs on Telegram, failure to prevent the distribution of child sexual abuse material on Telegram, failure to provide information on users when requested as part of criminal investigations, going so far as to include accusations of money laundering.” McIntyre added that it was unusual for the CEO of a social media website to be held liable for the content it hosts. “Now, he has, himself, been indicted, which takes the investigation to the next level.” The preliminary charges, which were outlined Wednesday in a statement by Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau, also appear to concern allegations involving organized crime, including “complicity in the administration of an online platform to enable an illicit transaction.” Speaking outside the courthouse in Paris on Wednesday, Pavel Durov’s lawyer rejected the allegations. “Firstly, Telegram complies in every respect with European digital regulations and is moderated to the same standards as other social networks,” lawyer David-Olivier Kaminski told reporters. “I'd like to add that it's totally absurd to think that the head of a social network could be involved in criminal acts that don't concern him either directly or indirectly,” Kaminski said. Durov founded Telegram a decade ago. After reportedly facing regulatory pressures in his native Russia, Durov chose Dubai as the company’s headquarters, gaining UAE citizenship in 2021. Local media report that he was given French citizenship later the same year. His wealth is estimated by Forbes at upwards of $15 billion. While other social media platforms have frequently been accused of harboring illegal content, French investigators say Telegram repeatedly failed to engage with regulators or to comply with laws on moderation. “They are widely perceived as being a scofflaw when it comes to taking down illegal content posted by users. And if that's true, if they were notified of specific content by users that violated the law and they didn't take it down, then they've forfeited immunity under the big EU law on this, the Digital Services Act,” said Daphne Keller, director of the Program on Platform Regulation at Stanford Law School’s Cyber Policy Center. Telegram made a point of refusing to comply with laws on content moderation, said McIntyre. “You have a lot of aggressive rhetoric from the owner saying in essence that this is a service which is dedicated to freedom of expression, [and] it will set out to refuse a lot of state requests. And that I think has come back to bite him now.” Other social media platforms will be watching closely, according to Keller. “I think we should assume that most ordinary big platforms, the Facebooks, the YouTubes, etc., are not endangered by this. They have massive teams operating content moderation systems and ... removing illegal content if they're notified about it. I don't think they could be subject to charges like this. “Now it may be that X, Elon Musk's platform, actually has been dropping the ball on doing these things. Certainly, that's something that EU Commissioner [for Internal Market and Services] Thierry Breton has alleged.” Elon Musk, the owner of X — formerly Twitter — posted online in support of Durov this week, reposting comments he made in a March interview that moderation was “a propaganda word for censorship.” Musk is likely worried about the implications of Durov’s arrest, said McIntyre. “I think Mr. Musk shares a lot of his views with this particular defendant, and I think he would be rightly worried as to the implications of this for him and for his service in Europe in general. But it might not be as extreme a case as Telegram. “Certainly, there are issues with Twitter [X] failing to respond to government requests, failing to take proper steps to moderate its content. And it's not impossible that you'd see a similar action taken against him personally,” McIntyre told VOA. Telegram has more than 900 million global users, including in Russia and Iran. It is widely used by the Russian and Ukrainian militaries in Moscow’s war on Ukraine. The platform does not use end-to-end encryption. “To some extent, it gives this defendant a good deal of leverage — in that if he were to promise cooperation on some of these fronts, there would be a lot of very valuable information that he would have that could be made available to, for example, the French authorities. As a lawyer, I can only speak to the judicial procedure, but what happens behind the scenes may be as influential as the judicial procedure itself,” McIntyre said. French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X that the arrest of Durov was in no way a political decision. “France is deeply committed to freedom of expression and communication, to innovation, and to the spirit of entrepreneurship.” Russia has in the past blocked access to Telegram after it refused to give state security services access to private conversations, and that move prompted large street protests in Moscow in 2018. Additionally, some Russian lawmakers are now accusing France of censorship.

Yemen’s Houthis have released video showing the armed group detonating explosives on the Greek-flagged Sounion tanker.

Israel is “trying to get rid of as many Palestinians as possible” after launching a major raid.