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Bobi Wine ‘forcibly taken’ from home as Uganda’s Museveni nears landslide re-election

The Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine was taken from his house and brought to an unknown location on Friday, his party said as President Yoweri Museveni closed in on a landslide re-election. Wine’s National Unity Platform party said on Friday evening in a post on X that an army helicopter had landed in his compound in the capital, Kampala, and “forcibly taken him away to an unknown destination”. The claim could not be immediately verified, and some senior party officials said they did not have confirmation. Spokespeople for Uganda’s government and military did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters. Wine has alleged mass fraud during Thursday’s election, which was held under an internet blackout, and called on supporters to protest. His party said on Thursday he had been placed under effective house arrest. A senior member of the Ugandan opposition earlier said security forces stormed his house early on Friday morning and shot dead 10 members of his campaign team. The NUP’s Muwanga Kivumbi told Reuters the incident happened at about 3am local time when security forces “broke the front door and began shooting” inside a garage where the people were waiting for the results of the election for his parliamentary seat to be announced. “It was a massacre,” he said. Lydia Tumushabe, a local police spokesperson, said she was unaware of an incident at Kivumbi’s house, which she said was close to the police station. She said machete-wielding opposition “goons” organised by Kivumbi had attacked a police station and vote-tallying centre, forcing security personnel to shoot in self-defence. Tumushabe told Agence France-Presse that “an unspecified number” of people had been “put out of action” and that 25 others had been arrested. Kivumbi said security forces had earlier dispersed crowds outside but disputed the police’s assertion that the deaths occurred during clashes between the two sides. He said he was “emotionally broken” by the attack, which occurred after hundreds of his supporters had gathered at his house after voting ended. Many fled as security forces stormed the compound, but officers fired through the door of the garage, where 10 campaign agents were hiding, his wife, Zahara Nampewo, a law professor, said. “I was very shaken personally,” she said. “Seeing fresh bodies. I mean, that is something that cannot easily go away.” The army later came to take away the bodies, the couple said. Wine condemned the incident and called on Ugandans to respond. “The criminal regime in its evening, has gone insane. This insanity will have to be met with RESISTANCE,” he posted on X. Wine has alleged mass fraud during the election, which was held under an internet blackout that authorities said was needed to prevent “misinformation”, and he called on supporters to protest. Late on Thursday, his party wrote on X that the military and police had surrounded his house in Kampala, “effectively placing him under house arrest”. Kituuma Rusoke, a national police spokesperson, said he was not aware of Wine being placed under house arrest. Wine, 43, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, has emerged as the main challenger to Museveni in recent years. The former singer styles himself the “ghetto president” after the informal settlements of Kampala where he grew up. After a campaign marred by clashes at opposition rallies and what the UN said was widespread repression and intimidation, voting passed peacefully on Thursday. Analysts have long viewed the election’s outcome as a formality. Museveni, a former guerrilla fighter who seized power in 1986, has total control over the state and security apparatus and has ruthlessly crushed any challenger during his rule. He told reporters after casting his ballot on Thursday that he expected to win with 80% of the vote if there was “no cheating”. As of Friday evening, Museveni held a commanding lead with nearly 74% of the vote, the electoral commission said. Wine trailed with 23% and the remaining votes were split among six other candidates. Final results are due by 0200 GMT on Saturday. Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Son of former shah says he is ‘uniquely positioned’ to lead Iran as he predicts end of regime

Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s former pro-western monarch, has predicted the country’s Islamic regime will fall and claimed he is “uniquely” placed to head a successor government. His bid to assume the leadership of a possible new Iran follows weeks of mass protests that have left thousands dead after being brutally suppressed by security forces. His credentials are certain to be challenged by other opponents of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime, given Pahlavi has not been in Iran since his family fled the country at the beginning of the 1979 Islamic revolution. Many question his level of popular support, even though his name has been chanted at some protests. Calling on the west to help unseat Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, Pahlavi said on Friday that the regime was nevertheless doomed to collapse with or without such assistance. “The Iranian people are taking decisive actions on the ground, it is now time for the international community to join them fully,” he told reporters at a news conference in Washington. He said foreign involvement did not require “boots on the ground” but instead “targeted intervention” that could weaken the regime’s repressive apparatus, such as targeting the leadership of the Revolutionary Guards. “What they need from the world is resolute, targeted support to protect lives, amplify their voices and hasten the collapse that is already on the way,” he said. “But let me be clear, with or without the world’s help, the regime will fall. It will fall sooner, and more lives will be saved if the world turns its words into action.” Pahlavi said 12,000 protesters had been killed over 48 hours as security forces conducted a bloody crackdown against demonstrations that have swept the country since 28 December. Human rights groups have confirmed lower figures but still put the death toll in thousands. Donald Trump had vowed that “help is on the way” if the regime continued to kill protesters, or carried out executions of those detained. But he retreated after warnings from the US’s Middle East allies that military intervention could trigger regional instability. Posting on his Truth Social network on Friday, Trump thanked the regime for allegedly cancelling a wave of scheduled executions. “I greatly respect the fact that all scheduled hangings, which were to take place yesterday (Over 800 of them), have been cancelled by the leadership of Iran. Thank you!” he wrote. Pahlavi spoke out after protesters chanted his name and “long live the shah” at recent protests – an ironic development given that the monarchical regime of his father, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was overthrown after months of similar mass demonstrations and complaints of torture and human rights abuses. He avoided giving a clear answer when asked by the Guardian if he intended to re-establish a monarchy, but said he had a “comprehensive plan for an orderly transition, which is ready to be implemented immediately”. It would include referendums to establish the form of a successor government, but he refused to rule out a monarchical restoration. “I am uniquely positioned to ensure a stable transition,” he said “That’s the verdict delivered loudly and clearly by the people in the face of bullets.” He claimed “large segments” of the security forces had already refused to fire on the population and “whispered their loyalty to me”. He referred to “the bond between me and the Iranian people” – a phrase redolent of his father’s rhetoric – and said: “It’s been with me since birth, and it cannot be broken, even in exile.”

CIA chief visits Maduro successor as Machado vows to become Venezuela’s president

The CIA chief whose agents reputedly played a key role in abducting Nicolás Maduro has flown to Venezuela to meet his successor as the sidelined opposition leader, María Corina Machado, vowed she would become the country’s first elected female president. Machado’s comments were broadcast on Friday, a day after she handed her Nobel peace prize medal to Donald Trump in recognition of what she called a principled and decisive move against Maduro, whom US special forces snatched on 3 January. The conservative politician predicted freedom was coming to her South American homeland after years of economic mayhem and authoritarianism under Maduro. “And I believe I will be elected, when the right time comes, as president of Venezuela – the first woman president of Venezuela,” she told Fox News. Despite Machado’s bullishness, experts say Trump has marginalised her opposition movement since his pre-dawn assault on Caracas momentarily ignited hopes of imminent democratic change. Rather than seeking to install Machado, whose opposition movement is widely believed to have beaten Maduro in the 2024 presidential election, Trump gave his blessing to Maduro’s vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, calling her a “terrific person”. Rodríguez is governing as acting president with support from other key Maduro allies, including the feared interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, and has vowed to improve ties with the US. “I’m sure the opposition is biting their tongue because this is just brutal for them,” said Eva Golinger, a US lawyer who advised Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez. “They’re sidelined … They have no role in what’s going on. They’re out of the game for now.” Trump’s decision to back Rodríguez was reportedly based partly on personal animosity towards Machado and partly on CIA advice that she would be incapable of preventing a dangerous security breakdown by bringing the military and armed pro-regime paramilitary groups under control. Trump officials have been open about their decision to strike a deal with Maduro’s closest allies, many of whom have been implicated in serious human rights violations. “We need to work with the people that have the guns today to ultimately move the country to a representative government and a better station. But what you’ve got to prevent in the meantime is a collapse of the nation,” the US energy secretary, Chris Wright, told CBS News on Sunday. Golinger believed Machado hoped to squeeze her way back into Trump’s plans by offering her 18-carat medal in a golden picture frame to a man obsessed with “everything gilded and golden”. But she doubted the move would work, noting how Rodríguez’s administration was already complying with one of Trump’s key demands – opening up Venezuela’s vast oil reserves to US companies. The first US deportation flight since Maduro’s capture landed in Caracas on Friday carrying 199 Venezuelans. “Delcy is giving him everything he wants. He has no reason to disrupt the situation – and he’s certainly not going to let María Corina Machado come in and try to shake things up,” Golinger said. “I’m sure he sees her as weak. She’s come [to Washington] and grovelled and handed over her Nobel peace prize … and she went out the back door … I would put money on the fact that should Delcy come to the White House, she will get a formal reception.” Imdat Oner, a former Turkish diplomat in Venezuela who is a fellow at Florida International University’s Jack D Gordon institute for public policy, also doubted Machado’s gift would change Trump’s mind. “They bet fully on the Trump administration … [that] Trump would remove the whole regime from power and open a path for the opposition. But this didn’t happen,” he said. “Machado’s hands are tied … she definitely understands that she has already been sidelined and she will not be part of the game,” he said, calling the idea of her becoming president “completely out of the question” for now. If Machado’s visit to the White House was widely viewed as a humiliation for the Nobel laureate, the arrival of the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, in Caracas on Thursday was also seen as a mortifying moment for Rodríguez and members of her “interim administration”. Less than two weeks earlier, Ratcliffe’s agents had played a key role in infiltrating Maduro’s inner-circle to pinpoint his location so he could be seized from what should have been Venezuela’s most fortified address. Their information was reportedly so strong that they even knew what food Maduro was eating and which pets he had. One US official told the New York Times Ratcliffe had gone to Caracas to “to deliver the message that the United States looks forward to an improved working relationship” with the embattled remnant’s of Maduro’s regime led by Rodríguez. Speaking during a state of the union address that Maduro had expected to be giving himself, Rodríguez said their country “had the right” to good relations with the US and that she was willing to travel to Washington to hold talks with representatives of the “lethal nuclear power”. “The pretext of any kind of anti-imperialist socialist movement [has] really just been stripped away. It’s ridiculous,” said Golinger. “You can’t claim in the morning … that you’re an anti-imperialist sovereign movement and then receive the director of the CIA … after 10 days earlier they bombed Caracas and executed an extraordinary rendition of the sitting head of state. “It’s just farcical … what we’re witnessing is a clear betrayal of everything that [the Chavismo] movement stood for.”

Starring role for ‘Kardashian jetty’ as Venice visitors seek peeks of Bezos wedding sites

For the residents of Venice who travel daily through the city’s waterways, the small wooden floating jetty outside the Gritti Palace hotel is nothing special, “no different to a London underground stop”, as Igor Scomparin, a tour guide, puts it. But for a certain type of tourist it is a must-see spot. In June last year, Kim Kardashian disembarked from a water taxi here and navigated its planks during the five-day wedding of the billionaire Amazon boss, Jeff Bezos, and Lauren Sánchez, a former TV journalist. The reality TV star was among the scores of celebrities and members of the world’s super-rich who had descended on the city to celebrate the nuptials, which included everything from pyjama parties to elegant dinners, and provoked widespread protests by anti-Bezos campaigners who threatened to disrupt the festivities by letting loose a convoy of inflatable crocodiles into the city’s canals. The event, which the Italian press called “the wedding of the century”, brought in about €957.3m to the local economy, according to estimates from Italy’s tourism ministry, the bulk of which is believed to have been derived from the huge hubbub created by the world’s media as it captured all the friction and frivolity. More than six months on, the fascination with the Bezos shindig shows no signs of waning as rising numbers of visitors seek peeks of the various places frequented by the bride, groom and their glitterati guests. Gone are the days when the top requests for Scomparin – a guide esteemed for his insight and intimate knowledge of Venice’s history, culture and traditions – involved visits to St Mark’s Square, the Doge’s Palace or the Rialto Bridge. Now his customers want to be taken off the beaten track, away from the crowds and, increasingly so since June, “they want to see where the Bezoses got married and where the celebrities ended up”, he said. “They saw all the media attention and now they are curious to see what these places are really like.” A recent Bezos wedding tour began with a stroll along a street filled with designer boutiques where Ivanka Trump shopped, before the group stopped opposite the seven-star Aman hotel, famous for its frescoes by the Venetian master Giambattista Tiepolo, where the bride and groom stayed. “This whole area was full of paparazzi,” Scomparin said as he pointed towards the hotel. “People mostly want to know how much it costs. When I tell them prices start from about €3,500 a night for a basic room, they are not so much shocked, just interested to know about that kind of lifestyle.” Scomparin’s clients, mostly from the US, want to see San Giorgio island, where the couple exchanged vows, and the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, the majestic 16th-century building in the city centre where they had hoped to wed before the plan was scuppered by the threatened crocodile stunt. Then there is the Arsenale, a former medieval shipyard in an eastern district of the city where the afterparty was held. Alongside the key wedding locations there is high demand for rides on the wooden taxi boats that transported celebrities, among them Oprah Winfrey, Orlando Bloom and Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as for visits to the piazzas where celebrities were spotted or where they took selfies, not to mention the now famous “Kardashian jetty”. “Teenagers especially tell me they saw the photos on Instagram of her arriving and want to go to that spot,” Scomparin said. “But when they see it they are a little disappointed because it’s not as chic as it looked. It’s just a regular, everyday jetty that locals use to get on and off boats.” People have been snapping up the two main gifts received by the wedding guests: Friuliane, the velvet shoes typically worn by gondoliers, and goti de fornasa drinking glasses, traditionally made on the island of Murano. An often impromptu bonus to Scomparin’s tours is if his customers get to see packages emblazoned with the Amazon brand whizzing along Venice’s canals as they are being delivered to their recipients. George and Amal Clooney got married in Venice in 2014, and three years before that elephants were brought to the city for a lavish Bollywood wedding. But neither attracted as much intrigue – or indignation – as the Bezos one. The protests were organised by various groups, from those fighting overtourism who accused local authorities of being hellbent on turning Venice into a playground for the rich, to climate activists and people appalled by Bezos’s support for Donald Trump. The protests were noisy but marginal to the occasion, which took place without any issues, according to Michael Zennaro, a wedding photographer. “It was an opportunity to show off Venice across the world and to show that weddings can take place here – away from the crowds, in more private settings,” he said. Marigiulia Sella, a wedding planner, said there had been an increase in enquiries for high-end weddings. “Very often they want experiences that span multiple days. One of the beautiful things about Venice is that you are in a unique city with high-end historic venues that offer so much, as well as a lot of privacy.” During his Bezos tours, Scomparin provides plenty of interesting snippets about other aspects of Venice, including an abandoned building that nobody wants to buy because it is believed to be cursed. But one thing he does not know is what became of the designer dress – one of 27 that Sánchez packed for the event – that was later reported missing. “That one is still a mystery,” he said.

Trump pushes for disarmament of Hamas as second stage of Gaza ceasefire begins

Donald Trump has issued a fresh ultimatum to Hamas, adding to calls for the group’s disarmament as the second phase of the US-brokered ceasefire with Israel begins, even as key elements of the first phase remain unfulfilled. In a late-night post on social media on Thursday, Trump vowed to push for what he described as the “comprehensive” demilitarisation of Hamas, warning of severe consequences should the group refuse to comply. He also demanded the return of the remains of the final Israeli captive still believed to be held by the group, sharpening tensions at a fragile moment in the truce process. “Hamas must IMMEDIATELY honor its commitments, including the return of the final body to Israel, and proceed without delay to full Demilitarization,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “As I have said before, they can do this the easy way, or the hard way.” No agreement has yet been reached on the disarmament of Hamas, which remains one of the most contentious elements of the second phase of the ceasefire, alongside the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces and the easing of restrictions to allow significantly more humanitarian aid into Gaza – measures that Israel has yet to fully implement. Hamas has so far refused to give up its arms. Trump has said that Hamas would be stripped of its weapons and its vast tunnel network would be dismantled with the backing of Egypt, Turkey and Qatar. However, it is unclear how such an objective could realistically be enforced. According to the plan, Hamas would give up its heavy weapons completely. As for smaller weapons, the US is considering launching a “buy-back” programme where rifles, pistols and machine guns will be handed over by the owners in exchange for money. The focus of the second phase has shifted from simply stopping the fighting to establishing transitional governance, demilitarisation, and reconstruction in the territory – a dramatic escalation of diplomatic ambition amid persistent violence from the Israeli military. At least 451 Palestinians have been reportedly killed since the ceasefire took effect in October last year. Trump has announced he will chair what is being called a “board of peace” to govern Gaza, tasked with supervising reconstruction, economic recovery, and the broader transition process across Gaza. The former UK prime minister Tony Blair is reportedly expected to join a separate executive board alongside Trump’s advisers Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, with Nickolay Mladenov, a former UN Middle East envoy, playing a central on-the-ground role. The board will oversee a 15-member Palestinian committee that has been formed to supervise Gaza’s civil administration during the transition. Formally known as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), it is meant to be apolitical and staffed by technocrats and experts rather than political factions. Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister in the Palestinian Authority, has been appointed to lead the group. Israel’s war in Gaza has created a “human-made abyss”, and reconstruction is likely to cost more than $70bn (£53bn) over several decades, the UN has said. After visiting Gaza on Thursday, Jorge Moreira da Silva, a UN undersecretary general and executive director of its office for project services, said “the level of destruction is overwhelming”. “Homes, schools, clinics, roads, water, and electricity systems have been levelled or severely damaged,” he added. “Gaza has more than 60m tonnes of rubble: the capacity of nearly 3,000 container ships. On average every person in Gaza today is surrounded by 30 tonnes of rubble. It is likely to take over seven years to clear this rubble. I welcome the announcement of the second phase of the plan, this must finally mean the beginning of reconstruction. But meanwhile, early recovery must start right away including to restore access to basic services.” On Thursday, medical sources at al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah said six Palestinians were killed and others wounded in two Israeli airstrikes. Life in the territory remains precarious. While airstrikes and gunfire have slowed, they have not ceased. At the same time, recent storms have compounded the crisis, causing deaths and flooding in displacement camps already stretched beyond their limits. Strong winter winds caused walls to collapse on to flimsy tents housing displaced Palestinians on Tuesday, killing at least four people. The UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) said on Tuesday that 100 children had been killed since the beginning of the ceasefire in October, including six who died of hypothermia.

Giving Trump the Nobel peace prize medal is ‘absurd’, say Norwegian politicians

Political leaders in Norway have condemned the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado’s “absurd” decision to present her Nobel peace prize medal to Donald Trump, accusing the US president of being a “classic showoff” who takes credit for other people’s work. The Nobel laureate gave her medal to Trump at the White House on Thursday “in recognition [of] his unique commitment [to] our freedom”. Several hours later, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Machado “presented me with her Nobel peace prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect.” The Nobel Peace Center said on social media that “a medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel peace prize laureate cannot”. The organisers of the prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Norwegian Nobel Institute, had already said that the prize “cannot be revoked, shared or transferred” when Machado first revealed her plan – a sentiment reiterated by the institute on Friday. When Machado was awarded the prize in Oslo last month after making a dramatic, secret journey from Venezuela, the Nobel committee celebrated her long struggle for democracy against Nicolás Maduro’s “brutal, authoritarian state”. Since then, Trump has invaded Venezuela and removed Maduro, handing power to Venezuela’s vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez. Kirsti Bergstø, the leader of Norway’s Socialist Left party and its foreign policy spokesperson, said: “This is, above all, absurd. The peace prize cannot be given away.” Trump’s recent threats to invade Greenland, she said, demonstrated why he was not a worthy recipient. “Trump will no doubt claim that he has now received it, but it cannot be transferred, and Trump’s repeated threats toward Greenland clearly demonstrate why it would have been madness to award him the prize,” Bergstø said. Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, the leader of the Centre party, said: “Whoever has received the prize has received the prize. The fact that Trump accepted the medal says something about him as a type of person: a classic showoff who wants to adorn himself with other people’s honours and work.” Raymond Johansen, the Labour former governing mayor of Oslo who is now secretary general of Norwegian People’s Aid, said the situation was “unbelievably embarrassing and damaging”. He said Machado’s actions could damage the reputation of the Nobel peace prize and the Nobel committee. “This is unbelievably embarrassing and damaging to one of the world’s most recognised and important prizes. The awarding of the prize is now so politicised and potentially dangerous that it could easily legitimise an anti-peace prize development,” he wrote on Facebook. “I can’t believe she actually gave the prize to Trump. What on earth is the Nobel committee going to say?” The Norwegian foreign ministry declined to comment, saying the prize was independent of the Norwegian government and referred instead to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A photograph shared by the White House showed the US president with the gift displayed in a large gold frame alongside a text that read: “Presented as a personal symbol of gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan people in recognition of President Trump’s principled and decisive action to secure a free Venezuela.”