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Khamenei regime will not be able to keep control of Iran, says dissenting film-maker

The Khamenei regime will not be able to maintain control over Iranian society after the violent suppression of the latest wave of protests, one of the country’s leading film-makers has predicted. “It is impossible for this government to sustain itself in this situation,” the director Jafar Panahi told the Guardian. “They know it too. They know that it will be impossible to rule over people. Perhaps their only goal right now is to bring the country to the verge of complete collapse and try to destroy it.” Protests caused by an ailing economy have swept through Iran since late December and were met with deadly crackdowns by the security forces over the weekend, with reports of more than 2,500 people killed. A internet blackout imposed last Friday, which blocked 95-99% of the country’s communication network, was a “sign that there would be a very big massacre on the way”, Panahi said. “But we never predicted that the crackdown would have such dimensions and numbers.” Panahi, 65, spoke to the Guardian from the US, where he is promoting his latest film, It Was Just an Accident. The film won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival last year and is a leading contender for the 2026 Oscars in the international feature category. Part revenge thriller, part black comedy, the French entry for the Academy award follows a group of Iranian former political prisoners who try to decide on whether to exact revenge on a man they believe to have tortured them in prison. “What I have been depicting in this film is when the cycle of violence continues, then it becomes very difficult to stop it,” Panahi said. “Unfortunately, because of the savagery that is being carried out by the state, the fear is that this cycle of violence will continue.” In December the director was handed a one-year prison sentence in absentia on charges of creating propaganda against the political system, but he has stated his intention to return to the country. He has been jailed twice, for protesting against the detention of two fellow film-makers who had been critical of the authorities in 2022, and for supporting anti-government protests in 2010. Panahi said while the collapse of the government led by the clerical leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was inevitable after the latest bloody suppressions, its timing was impossible to predict. “The regime will collapse, 100%,” Panahi said. “It is what has happened to dictatorship governments throughout history. When it will collapse, no one knows. We want it to be as soon as possible, in the next few minutes, but there are many factors that have to come together for it to happen.” He warned western governments about engaging with the clerical regime as rational actors. “In other dictatorships around the world, you will see that there will be at least a few people who will act based on rationality and who will not let it get to this point,” he said, speaking via his interpreter Sheida Dayani. “But unfortunately in this system there is no rationality. All they can think of is crackdown and how they can stay in power even just one more day. The last thing they’re thinking about is the people.” Some anti-regime protests, in Iran and among the Iranian diaspora in Europe and the US, have called for the return of Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah. The Washington-based Pahlavi, whose late father ruled Iran as an autocratic monarch from 1941 to 1979, has called for people to take to the streets. Panahi recognised that calls for the son of the shah’s return were “the voice that is coming out [of the protests] indeed”. However, he added: “As Reza Pahlavi as said himself, after the transition there must be a referendum in Iran, and that is when people will decide what type of government they want and whom they want to rule over them. During this period of transition, we should all be united.” Asked whether Pahlavi could be trusted to oversee a post-regime transition, he said this would be for the people of Iran to conclude. “Whether we agree with Pahlavi or not, we know that the overwhelming majority of the population of Iran want the current regime to go.”

Julio Iglesias denies sexual abuse claims of two former female employees

The Spanish singer Julio Iglesias has broken his silence over allegations that he sexually abused two women who worked in his Caribbean mansions, saying he has never “abused, coerced or disrespected any woman”. The 82-year-old entertainer, whose career spans six decades, had been accused by two female former employees who allege they had been sexually assaulted and subjected “to inappropriate touching, insults and humiliation … in an atmosphere of control and constant harassment”. The alleged assaults, which are said to have taken place in 2021, came to light on Tuesday after a three-year joint investigation by the Spanish news site elDiario.es and the Spanish-language TV network Univision Noticias. “With great regret, I am responding to the allegations from two people who used to work in my house,” Iglesias wrote in a post on Instagram early on Friday morning. “I have never abused, coerced or disrespected any woman. These accusations are absolutely false and pain me deeply.” The singer said he would “defend my dignity against this serious affront” and thanked “so very many dear people for their messages of love and support”. The two women – a domestic worker and a physical therapist known by the pseudonyms Rebeca and Laura – have filed a complaint against Iglesias at Spain’s highest criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional, accusing him of sexual assault and human trafficking. The allegations are the subject of a preliminary investigation by prosecutors at the court. Rebeca has alleged that Iglesias, who was 77 at the time, would often call her to his room at the end of the working day. She claimed he would then penetrate her anally and vaginally with his fingers without her consent. “He used me almost every night,” she said. “I felt like an object, like a slave.” Laura alleged to elDiario.es and Univision Noticias that Iglesias had kissed her on the mouth and touched her breasts without her permission and against her will. “We were at the beach and he came up to me and touched my nipples,” she said, adding that a similar incident took place by the pool at the singer’s villa in Punta Cana, a luxury resort in the Dominican Republic. On Wednesday, elDiario.es published testimony from Rebeca and another former worker, Carolina, in which they alleged being required to have medical tests to check for sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV and chlamydia. The women said they were then asked to send the results to one of Iglesias’s housekeepers. ElDiario.es also obtained medical documents apparently showing that five women employed at Iglesias’s villa in the Dominican Republic in 2021 underwent gynaecological examinations. In an interview with elDiario.es, Laura said she and Rebeca had decided to file a complaint against Iglesias to encourage other women to come forward. “I think by taking legal action we’re sending a message to all the victims of this person – Julio Iglesias – so that they can speak out and believe in justice,” she said. “It’s so they can understand that this wasn’t something that just happened to them.”

Friday briefing: How the Robert Jenrick saga exposes a hollowed out Tory party

Good morning. Kemi Badenoch said she had seen “clear, irrefutable evidence”, Keir Starmer said she should have acted months ago, and Nigel Farage insisted – “hand on heart, honestly, look you in the eye” – that Reform had nothing to do with it. Nevertheless, by Thursday afternoon Robert Jenrick was on stage with Farage as the highest-profile Tory defection to Reform UK so far. Earlier, Jenrick – the former Conservative leadership candidate and shadow justice secretary – had been sacked from the shadow cabinet, stripped of the whip and suspended by Badenoch, and accused of plotting to defect “in a way designed to be as damaging as possible” to his colleagues and the wider party. He, in turn, described the Conservatives as “rotten” and “failed”. For today’s newsletter I spoke to Kiran Stacey, the Guardian’s policy editor, about how the move blindsided political journalists – and what it tells us about Farage’s strategy for turning Reform into a credible election-winning machine, and Badenoch’s strategy for surviving as Conservative leader. First, the headlines. Five big stories Iran | Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Oman urged Donald Trump not to launch airstrikes against Iran in a last-minute lobbying campaign prompted by fears that an attack by Washington would lead to a major and intractable conflict across the Middle East. Greenland | The Danish prime minister said Greenland’s defence was a “common concern” for the whole of Nato, as a result of Donald Trump’s threats to take the Arctic island by force. Venezuela | The Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado, said she “presented” her Nobel peace prize medal to Donald Trump after meeting him in the White House. Space | Four astronauts from the International Space Station have returned to Earth a month earlier than planned after one developed a serious medical condition onboard the orbiting outpost. UK news | Campaigners have accused BP of having an insidious influence over the teaching of science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) in the UK through its relationship with the Science Museum. In depth: ‘We haven’t had a marmalade-dropper like this for a long time’ If Reform UK’s standing in the polls continues, a steady stream of low-level Tory defections has seemed inevitable – and recent events suggest it is already under way, with the former Tory chancellor Nadhim Zahawi defecting on Monday. But the defection of Robert Jenrick is something else: a high-profile scalp, and the kind of moment designed to make Reform look less like a protest movement and more like a government-in-waiting. *** The lobby has been blindsided Jenrick has been MP for Newark since 2014, having launched a bid to be leader of the party in 2024, coming second to Badenoch. What most struck Kiran – and a lot of other political journalists – was how suddenly this news landed. “It’s very rare that you get completely blindsided,” Kiran tells me. “It used to be much more the case during the Brexit years and then towards the end of the Conservative time in government that you would get hit by a surprise.” Keir Starmer promised to “bring back politics as normal”, Kiran says, and while we haven’t quite got to normal, we also haven’t had many genuine Westminster “bombshells” of the old kind lately. That’s why it felt so startling, he says, to get news of a video Badenoch posted on social media, announcing Jenrick’s dismissal. The news broke so abruptly that it blew up a recording session for the Politics Weekly podcast that Kiran was set to do. “Just as we hit record I saw the message. We haven’t had a marmalade-dropper like this for a long time.” *** How did the day unfold? There had been speculation that Jenrick was at least flirting with Reform UK. But within the Conservative party, it was still business as usual. A few days ago Jenrick had spoken at length with Badenoch about party strategy. The previous week, he had attended a shadow cabinet awayday, taking copious notes. There was no public sign a rupture was imminent. That changed when senior figures in Badenoch’s office were sent what they were told was Jenrick’s entire draft resignation speech, along with an accompanying media plan. According to party sources, the document urged other Conservatives to defect alongside him, accused the party of having “lost its way”, and singled out senior shadow cabinet colleagues for criticism including Priti Patel and Mel Stride. For Badenoch’s team, that was the end. Shortly after 11am on Thursday, Badenoch released a video statement announcing that Jenrick had been dismissed from the shadow cabinet, stripped of the whip and suspended from the party. The message was also emailed directly to party members, framing the move as an effort to end years of internal psychodrama. The timing was deliberate. Badenoch’s statement landed just as Farage was facing journalists at a previously scheduled press conference in Scotland, forcing the Reform leader to respond in real time. Farage insisted there was no deal in place and accused Badenoch of panicking, saying she had “added up two and two and made five”. But by mid-afternoon what had begun as a pre-emptive strike by Badenoch ended as a chaotic, public crossing of the floor, with Farage presenting the former Tory – a man he once described as “a fraud” – to the press as a member of Reform. *** What did Jenrick say about the Tories? When Jenrick eventually appeared at the press conference – delayed after getting lost in the corridors of Millbank Tower and stuck one floor below the room where journalists were waiting – he did not mince his words about his former party. The Conservatives in Westminster, he said, “aren’t sorry, they don’t get it, they haven’t changed, they won’t change, they can’t change”. “In opposition, it is easy to paper over these cracks,” he went on, “but the divisions and delusions are still there. I can’t in good conscience stick with a party that has failed so badly. “What’s the truth?” asked a man who had served as a minister under Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. “Both Labour and the Conservatives broke Britain. Both parties are committed to a set of ideas that have failed Britain.” Jenrick insisted his move was not about personal advancement, denying any leadership ambitions in his new party. “No one joins Reform unless they believe Nigel Farage is the best person to lead this country,” he said. “That’s why I’ve put aside my personal ambition.” *** Where does this leave Badenoch? Initially, with the abrupt sacking, Kiran suggests it looked like Badenoch might have done well. “She looked pretty decisive,” Kiran tells me. “She looked like she was taking control of her party. She looked like she was kind of daring anybody else who is going to challenge her to come out with it right now. “This is one of those one of the few moments I think in the last few months really where Kemi Badenoch has done anything to tackle Reform head on, to try and get ahead of them.” That good feeling may not have lasted the day in the Badenoch camp, which must now be braced for potentially more defections. Kiran profiled some of the likely candidates – Jacob Rees-Mogg, Brandon Lewis, Suella Braverman, Katie Lam – although one potential Reform target, Nick Timothy, has stepped straight into Jenrick’s old shadow cabinet job, which would seem to rule him out of the equation for now. Badenoch subsequently denied this was “a very bad day” for her. She said defections to Reform were evidence that “a lot of people have gone into politics for the wrong reasons”. “People who go into politics because they think it’s a gravy train, or because they think it’s a way to get on TV, are finding out that the Conservative party is not the party for them,” she said. “And they’re going to the party that is for people like that. Robert Jenrick is not my problem any more. He’s Nigel Farage’s problem now.” *** Why does Farage want so many ex-Tories? Labour’s line is simple to see: Starmer’s critique is that Badenoch tolerated Jenrick’s “toxic” politics for months – Jenrick was heavily criticised in October for complaining about visiting an area of Birmingham where he “didn’t see another white face” and said it was not the kind of country he wanted to live in – and that Farage is welcoming a “flood” of failed Tories into his ranks. The Reform leader doesn’t see that as a problem though. “I don’t think Farage needs to prove to Reform voters that they are the change party, or that he’s different,” Kiran tells me. “I think he’s already done that.” The bigger target for him is the set of voters Reform needs to win an election. Kiran characterises them as “voters who might agree with Reform on a lot of things – particularly immigration – but worry that they’re not to be trusted, that they can’t do what they say, and they’ll mess up the economy.” For that group, Kiran argues, established former ministers are a feature, not a bug: they make Reform look less like a pressure group who inherited the Brexit party and Ukip members who David Cameron once famously described as “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists mostly”, and more like a serious operation capable of governing. He may have drawn a line though. Farage said that after the 7 May local elections there would be no more Tory defections, and Reform would reject more seeking to join. He also promised that, on that date, the Conservative party would cease to become a national party. *** What now for Jenrick? It wasn’t a surprise that Jenrick wasn’t loyal to his party leader – he’d already once resigned as immigration minister, flouncing out of Sunak’s government to make a point that he didn’t think the doomed and costly Rwanda scheme went far enough. He will now hope for a nice job on the Reform front benches. Farage said over the course of the next few weeks his party would begin to allocate jobs and responsibilities to key people. Jenrick is understood to have discussed the party’s economic policies with Farage, but any appointment as its economic spokesperson could cause tensions with the party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, and Zia Yusuf, the head of policy, who are also potential contenders. In the end, Thursday’s events showed just how unsettled the politics of the right has become. Badenoch moved to protect her party, Farage took a prize he hadn’t quite planned for, and Jenrick leapt in a way that made his ambition impossible to ignore – however much he protested. What happens next will matter less for one man’s career than for whether Reform can turn defections into credibility – and whether the Conservatives can stop the slow hollowing-out that made this day possible in the first place. What else we’ve been reading Today’s mood of national crisis echoes the 1980s, Martin Kettle writes in his final column. But those moods did not last then, and will not last now. Better times will come. We could all do with remembering that. Aamna I was a ZX Spectrum kid, but Keith Stuart’s review of the new Commodore 64 Ultimate is tempting me to relive the nostalgia of going round a mate’s house to play Uridium and Spy vs Spy. Martin I’m loving the Guardian’s new series The Pub That Changed Me. Tim Jonze writes here on the (just about) functioning toilets at the Park Tavern. Aamna Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt has picked his 13 favourite records for the Quietus, and inadvertently explained how time works in middle age by describing a 10-year-old album as “new”. Martin My colleagues in Australia have put together this informative visual guide illustrating the speed, scale and destruction of Victoria’s bushfires this year. Martin Sport Tennis | Emma Raducanu ended her preparations for the Australian Open with a miserable 6-2, 6-4 defeat by Taylah Preston, a 20-year-old Australian wildcard, in the quarter-finals of the Hobart international. Rugby union | Scott Robertson has stepped down as New Zealand coach after an internal review of the All Blacks’ performance. Piracy | The number of illegal streams of sports events in Britain has more than doubled to 3.6 billion in the past three years according to a new report, which provides a stark illustration of the challenge facing broadcasters. Something for the weekend Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read, play and listen to right now TV Hijack season two | ★★★★☆ Idris Elba is back as Sam Nelson, the business negotiator who saved a hijacked plane in 2023’s Hijack. That seven-hour thriller saw the non-policeman-or-pilot Sam use his extreme negotiating skills to foil a crime syndicate plotting a short-selling scheme, securing the landing of Kingdom Flight 29 despite boring family scenes. Now, Sam Nelson is on an underground train in the Berlin metro, heading to a meeting with a German government official, and “shenanigans” ensue. Lucy Mangan Music Robbie Williams: Britpop | ★★★★☆ Robbie Williams’ new album initially revisits his ex-boyband sound, now with confidence, featuring Tony Iommi on “Rocket”, while the swaggering “Spies” echoes 90s hedonism. But just as you think you’ve got the general idea of the album, it unravels, and shifts to incorporate synth-pop (“Morrissey”), 60s/70s bubblegum pop (“It’s OK Until the Drugs Stop Working”), and the beautiful electronic ballad “Human” featuring Chris Martin. Despite the conceptual disconnect from the Britpop theme, the album remains engaging. Alexis Petridis Film 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple | ★★★★☆ It’s very rare for a fourquel to be the best film in a franchise, but that’s how things stand with the chequered 28 Days Later series. In this one, which follows immediately on from the previous episode, 28 Years Later, Ralph Fiennes and Jack O’Connell bring pure death-metal craziness. There is real energy and drama in this latest iteration of the post-apocalyptic zombie horror-thriller saga, created by director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland back in 2003, with Nia DaCosta taking over directing duties for this film. Fiennes’s dance to Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast is basically one of the most extraordinary moments of his career. Peter Bradshaw Theatre The Storm Whale | ★★★☆ The Storm Whale, an adaptation of Benji Davies’s 2013 picture book and its sequel, depicts Noi and his fishing-father’s cozy, seaside home, opening with a romantic tribute to the ocean setting. Despite the idyllic designs, the story focuses on Noi’s loneliness while his father is away. Noi befriends a washed-up whale before realising he must free it. Director Matt Aston’s adaptation, aimed at ages four to eight, sensitively explores how solitude can be overcome, expanding the backstory to include lessons from Noi’s deceased mother. While the script is touching, its earnest messages and solemn dialogue occasionally become repetitive. Chris Wiegand The front pages “Sacked Jenrick defects to Reform with fiery attack on ‘failed’ Tories” is the Guardian splash. Elsewhere, it’s all Robert Jenrick. “Jenrick: Tories broke Britain” is top story at the Telegraph, the Mirror has “Farage’s party of Tory failures” and i paper runs “Day of poison and betrayal as UK’s right-wing feud deepens”. “Jenrick joins Reform after Badenoch gives him sack for plotting to defect” is the FT lead, the Mail has “Stop fighting each other and end the Labour nightmare” and the Sun splashes with “TraiTories”. The Times says “Jenrick defects to Reform after sacking by Badenoch”. Today in Focus Is ICE out of control? Its agents outnumber police on the streets of Minneapolis, are detaining US citizens and clashing violently with protesters. Caitlin Dickerson and Maanvi Singh report. Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad Laura Hall spent a year swimming in the Nordic countries. As a journalist covering Scandinavia, the travel side was easy; all she had to do was pack her kit wherever she went on assignment. As the year went on, her swimming confidence grew. She met dippers dressed as mermaids, whirlpool swimmers, lighthouse swimmers and a lot of naked swimmers. She met people setting themselves big swimming challenges, and those who make a daily practice of submerging themselves in the water for their health and for fun. After a year of swimming in some of the world’s coldest seas, Hall learned a lot about her ability to do hard things. She learned that doing things that make you feel alive, with other people who feel the same, is intoxicating. Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply

Canada PM hails new partnership with China in wake of ‘new global realities’

Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China as he held talks in Beijing with president Xi Jinping on Friday, the first visit there by a Canadian leader in eight years. Addressing Xi in the Great Hall of the People, Carney said that “together we can build on the best of what this relationship has been in the past to create a new one adapted to new global realities”. Engagement and cooperation would be “the foundation of our new strategic partnership”, he said. “Agriculture, energy, finance, that’s where we can make the most immediate progress.” The two countries had been locked in years of diplomatic spats after the retaliatory arrests of each others’ citizens and a series of tit-for-tat trade disputes. But Carney has sought to turn the page in a bid to reduce reliance on the US, its key economic partner, as president Donald Trump aggressively raised tariffs on Canadian products. Carney’s state visit, the result of methodical diplomatic calculations, speaks to the pain of a trade war with the US and an urgent need to expand Canada’s exports in order to offset mounting economic punishment inflicted by its neighbour and largest trading partner. Welcoming Carney, Xi said China-Canada relations reached a turning point at their last meeting on the sidelines of the Apec summit in October 2025. “It can be said that our meeting last year opened a new chapter in turning China-Canada relations toward improvement,” Xi told the Canadian prime minister. “The healthy and stable development of China-Canada relations serves the common interests of our two countries,” he said, adding he was “glad” to see discussions over the last few months to restore cooperation. Ties between the two nations withered in 2018 over Canada’s arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei’s founder on a US warrant, and China’s retaliatory detention of two Canadians on espionage charges. The two countries imposed tariffs on each other’s exports in the years that ensued, with China also being accused of interfering in Canada’s elections. But Carney has sought a pivot, and Beijing has also said it is willing to get relations back on “the right track”. The Canadian prime minister, who on Thursday met premier Li Qiang, is also scheduled to hold talks with business leaders to discuss trade. Canada, traditionally a staunch US ally, has been hit especially hard by Trump’s steep tariffs on steel, aluminium, vehicles and lumber. In October, Carney said Canada should double its non-US exports by 2035 to reduce reliance on the US. However, the US remains far and away its largest market, buying around 75% of Canadian goods in 2024, according to Canadian government statistics. While Ottawa has stressed that China is Canada’s second-largest market, it lags far behind, buying less than 4% of Canadian exports in 2024. Officials from both countries have been in talks to lower tariffs and boost bilateral trade, though an agreement has yet to be reached. With Agence France-Presse

BTS named their new album Arirang. What is so striking about their choice?

BTS announced their long-awaited comeback and world tour this week, with their first full-length album in nearly four years set for release on 20 March. On Friday, the K-pop group revealed its title – Arirang – a choice that carries profound emotional weight for Koreans. So what does it mean, what is its significance for the Koreas, and why did BTS choose it? What is Arirang? Arirang is the title of the Korean peninsula’s most beloved folk song, an unofficial and sentimental national anthem that has resonated across generations. Its origins are believed to stretch back centuries. There is no single agreed-upon definition for what Arirang specifically means. Some scholars suggest “ari” derives from an old Korean word meaning “beautiful” or “aching”, paired with “rang” meaning “beloved”, though this remains contested folk etymology. The imagery of crossing the Arirang ridge or mountain pass alludes to moving from despair to hope, or a journey from hardship towards something better. The song exists in more than 60 versions with more than 3,600 recorded lyrical variations, with the most famous version using the refrain “Arirang, arirang, arariyo”, where “arariyo” likely functions more as an emotional refrain than a literal word. The melody is simple and flexible, easy to learn and easy to adapt. Anyone can sing Arirang, and anyone can add verses to reflect their own experiences. Across generations, Koreans have poured their joys, sorrows, longings and resilience into its lines. Arirang has been sung in rice paddies and at protests, at family gatherings and national ceremonies. Why does Arirang matter to Koreans? Arirang became a symbol of resistance during Japan’s colonial rule of Korea from 1910 to 1945, particularly after the 1926 silent film of the same name. The film told the story of a Korean man driven mad after being tortured by Japanese authorities. When its theme song played, audiences reportedly wept. The colonial government later banned the song. Yet Arirang’s significance extends far beyond resistance or politics. It’s one of the few cultural elements that has historically transcended the division of the Korean peninsula, even as political relations have deteriorated. Both North and South Korea have registered it with Unesco as intangible cultural heritage. When athletes from the two Koreas marched together at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, Arirang played instead of either national anthem. The song has become a kind of cultural ambassador for Korea, and what it means to be Korean. Why is this significant for BTS? At a time when many mainstream K-pop groups adopt international images and aesthetics to appeal to global audiences, BTS’s choice to name their new album Arirang is already signalling a clear affirmation of their identity. The group has consistently embraced their Korean roots, from incorporating traditional attire known as hanbok in music videos and addressing Korean social issues in lyrics to previously performing an Arirang medley on stage. By choosing this title, BTS frames its comeback not as reinvention but as return. Their label, BigHit Music, says the album captures “the longing and deep love” at the heart of BTS’s story, with Arirang serving as a symbolic expression of those emotions. For millions of fans worldwide encountering or rediscovering the charm of Arirang through BTS, the album is set to offer an entry point into the cultural foundation that has shaped the world’s biggest pop group.

Death of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s son prompts calls for overhaul of Nigeria’s healthcare sector

Nigerians have called for urgent reforms to the healthcare sector after the death of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 21-month-old son prompted an outpouring of grief and accounts of negligence and inadequate care. In a leaked WhatsApp message, the bestselling author said she had been told by a doctor that the resident anaesthesiologist at the Lagos hospital treating her son Nkanu Nnamdi had administered an overdose of the sedative propofol. Adichie and her husband, Dr Ivara Esege, have begun legal action against the hospital, accusing it of medical negligence. For decades, the state of Nigeria’s public health sector has made national headlines with accounts of underpaid doctors carrying out surgeries by candlelight in the absence of power supply, patients paying for gloves and other missing basics, dilapidated facilities and nonexistent research departments. Those who can afford to seek care abroad typically do so. There is also a dearth of emergency response services. When the former world heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua survived a car accident in Nigeria in December, he was helped at the scene by bystanders, with no ambulance in sight. Adichie’s sister-in-law Dr Anthea Esege Nwandu, a physician with decades of experience, has called for change. She told Agence France-Presse: “This is a wake-up call, for we, the public, to demand accountability and transparency and consequences of negligence in our healthcare system.” An exodus of medical personnel has exacerbated the situation, resulting in a doctor-to-patient ratio at the last count of 1:9,801. According to the health ministry, an estimated 16,000 doctors have left Nigeria in the last seven years. ‘The will of God’ As Nigerians at home and abroad mourned Adichie’s son this week and the Lagos state government ordered an inquiry, stories flooded social media about a crisis of errors by medical personnel. In Kano state, authorities said they were investigating the case of a woman who died four months after doctors left a pair of scissors in her stomach during surgery. The woman repeatedly visited the hospital complaining of abdominal pain, but was only prescribed painkillers. Scans revealed the scissors just two days before she died. For Ijoma Ugboma, who lost his wife in 2021, the tragedy felt painfully familiar. Peju Ugboma, a 41-year-old chef, had gone into hospital for fibroid surgery and died due to complications exacerbated by staff putting “the wrong setting of the ventilator [on] for 12 hours”, her husband said. “Surgery on Friday, ICU on Saturday, dead on Sunday. I asked for the death certificate … but at that point I knew that I wasn’t going to let this thing go like that,” he told the Guardian. Almost two years after Peju’s death, after a battle Ugboma said had tested him “mentally, emotionally and financially”, three of the four doctors in the operating theatre were indicted for professional misconduct. The law firm of Olisa Agbakoba, a medical negligence lawyer with two decades’ experience, was one of two that represented the Ugboma family in court. He said in Nigeria there was no rigorous regulatory structure in place in the health sector. “There is no requirement for routine submission of reports, no systematic inspections, and no effective enforcement of professional standards,” he said. Agbakoba said his brother had undergone surgery by a physician who was not suitably qualified, resulting in sepsis that required a month-long treatment. “That was absolute incompetence,” he said. Despite the abundance of medical malpractice claims, formal complaints and lawsuits remain remarkably low, partly because negligence is hard to prove. But many say there is also a cultural and spiritual dimension involved. “People say it’s the will of God,” said Agbakoba. “They just go home and don’t talk about it … It’s underreported because many people don’t really do anything about it.” Finding justice Even when issues are escalated legally, medical personnel are reluctant to give professional opinions in court. Two of the three expert witnesses that testified for the Ugbomas live outside Nigeria. “People told us they’d read through the case notes, they’d seen all the fault lines … but nobody wanted to talk and that is part of the rot in the system because there’s an unwritten oath of secrecy,” Ugboma said. Some people are cautiously optimistic that the high-profile death of Adichie’s’s son will trigger an overhaul of the health regulatory framework. For Ugboma, his long fight for accountability was worth it. “Right now, I can talk to my children and tell them I fought for their mother even in death,’ he said. “There’s justice out there if only one can persevere. It’s a marathon. But we can only have a better system if more people begin to challenge them.”

Rightwing leaders endorse Viktor Orbán in Hungarian election campaign video

Rightwing leaders from around the world have come together to endorse Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, hinting at the symbolism that the country’s elections hold for global far-right movements even as the populist leader lags in the polls. A campaign video published online by Orbán this week includes endorsements from nearly a dozen leaders including Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini, France’s Marine Le Pen and Germany’s Alice Weidel. “Europe needs Viktor Orbán,” Weidel, a co-leader of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), tells viewers. Le Pen, the former leader of France’s far-right National Rally party, piles praise on the leader who once described Hungary as a “petri dish for illiberalism”. “Thanks to leaders like Viktor Orbán, the camp of patriots and defenders of nations and sovereign peoples is achieving ever greater success in Europe,” she says. Meloni, in turn, seeks to highlight the similarities she shares with Orbán: “Together we stand for a Europe that respects national sovereignty [and] is proud of its cultural and religious roots.” The show of support before the Hungarian elections on 12 April follows a year in which Orbán, the European Union’s longest-serving leader, made headlines over his government’s attempt to ban Pride events and clamp down further on independent media and NGOs. Orbán, who has long faced criticism for weakening democratic institutions, eroding media freedom and undermining the rule of law, is facing an unprecedented challenge from a former top member of his own party, Péter Magyar. As Hungarians grapple with economic stagnation, the rising cost of living and fraying social services, polls have suggested Orbán and his Fidesz party are trailing behind Magyar’s opposition Tisza party. In response, Fidesz has sought to stress Orbán’s international connections, casting them as an asset for Hungary amid volatile and turbulent international conditions, according to Márton Bene, a political analyst at the TK Institute for Political Science in Budapest. “Something his opponent – as a political newcomer – simply does not have,” he said. Magyar’s campaign, in contrast, has focused on domestic affairs, with pledges to stimulate the Hungarian economy by tackling corruption and unlocking billions of euros in frozen EU funds. The election result is likely to hinge on how voters see these competing narratives and “whether they treat international challenges, or domestic governmental performance, as the election’s primary stake,” Bene said. The campaign video includes a handful of references to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Orbán, the EU leader closest to Vladimir Putin, has repeatedly blocked efforts by Brussels to present a united front in support of Ukraine, leading some critics to refer to him as Putin’s Trojan horse in the EU. The video shows leaders seemingly lauding these efforts, with Weidel noting that Orbán is “fighting for peace in Ukraine”, while Salvini says: “If you want peace, vote for Fidesz.” Other leaders featured in the video include Herbert Kickl, the leader of Austria’s Freedom party (FPÖ); the Czech prime minister, Andrej Babiš; as well as the presidents of Serbia and Argentina, Aleksandar Vučić and Javier Milei. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, also makes an appearance, saying that “security cannot be taken for granted, it must be won” and describing Orbán as someone who has the qualities needed to protect his country. Netanyahu’s appearance comes despite Israel’s official boycott of two of the far-right parties represented in the video, Germany’s AfD and Austria’s FPÖ, due to their antisemitic roots, noted the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. While US officials are conspicuously absent from the video, Orbán recently published a December letter in which Donald Trump wished him the “best of luck” in the election campaign. “You have always stood firm to defend the principles that make Hungary such a tremendous place – faith, family, and sovereignty,” the letter read. Bene said the video was telling. “For this ideological camp, a potential collapse of the Orbán regime would be significant primarily in symbolic terms,” he said. He pointed to last year’s global political discourse that centred on the advance of the “illiberal-populist right” in some countries. “One of the prototypes and early models of this wave – and, due to its perceived stability, a frequent point of reference – has been Viktor Orbán’s Hungary,” he said. “Its downfall would therefore constitute a powerful symbolic counterpoint to this broader trend: it would become harder to frame the phenomenon as uniform and global, and the often-cited ‘success story’ underpinning it would be called into question.”

María Corina Machado presents Trump with her Nobel peace prize medal

The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has presented her gold Nobel peace prize medal to Donald Trump after meeting him in the White House, nearly a fortnight after he ordered the abduction of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro. Machado, who received the award last year for her struggle against Maduro’s “brutal, authoritarian state”, told reporters on Thursday she had done so “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.” A photograph circulated later by the White House showed the US president with the gift displayed in a large frame. Inside the gold frame beneath the medal, a text 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.” Earlier in the day the Nobel organizers posted on X: “A medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel peace prize laureate cannot.” Machado, whose movement is widely believed to have beaten Maduro in Venezuela’s 2024 election, was unexpectedly sidelined by Trump after US special forces troops captured her political rival in the early hours of 3 January. Opposition supporters hoped Trump would recognise the 58-year-old conservative politician as Venezuela’s new leader after Maduro’s downfall but instead he gave the nod to the dictator’s second-in-command, the vice-president Delcy Rodríguez, who was subsequently sworn in as acting president. On Thursday, in an apparent attempt to win back Trump’s favour, Machado told reporters she had “presented” her Norwegian medal to the US president during a private meeting. Earlier this week, the organisers of the Nobel peace prize announced the award could not be “shared or transferred” after Machado told Fox News she wished to “share” it with Trump. “The decision is final and stands for all time,” they said. Even so, Machado went ahead with her symbolic gesture – a move analysts saw as an attempt to salvage her movement’s waning hopes of taking power now that Maduro was out of the picture and behind bars in New York. Speaking to reporters, Machado compared handing her medal to Trump to how, in 1825, the Marquis de Lafayette sent a gold medal featuring an image of George Washington to the South American independence hero Simón Bolívar. Machado called Lafayette’s gift “a sign of the brotherhood between the people of the US and the people of Venezuela in their fight for freedom against tyranny”. Trump’s decision not to back Machado after removing Maduro was reportedly the consequence of curdling relations between her and members of Trump’s team, as well as concerns her movement would be unable to control the security situation in Venezuela. The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday: “The president’s assessment was based on realities on the ground. It was a realistic assessment based on what the president was reading and hearing from his national security team. At this moment in time his opinion on that matter has not changed.” Machado is not the first Nobel laureate to divest themselves of the award. After winning the 1954 Nobel prize in literature, Ernest Hemingway entrusted his medal to the Catholic Church in Cuba – where it was briefly stolen from a sanctuary in 1986 before Raúl Castro ordered its return. In 2022, the Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov auctioned his medal to raise money for Ukrainian child refugees. Leon Lederman, who won the 1988 Nobel prize for physics, sold his after it had spent 20 years “sitting on a shelf somewhere”. But the Venezuelan politician appears to be the first person to give away her medal for such explicitly political reasons. Just hours after Trump announced Maduro’s rendition, he threw a bucket of ice cold water on opposition hopes that its leaders would immediately fill his shoes, calling Machado “a very nice woman [who] … doesn’t have the support or the respect within the country” to take power. Trump had kinder words for Maduro’s vice-president, Rodríguez, declaring: “She’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.” Trump subsequently sought to lower expectations that a fresh election could be held in the near future. “We have to fix the country first. You can’t have an election. There’s no way the people could even vote,” he told NBC News two days after Maduro was captured. Speaking before Thursday’s high-stakes meeting, Leavitt told reporters Trump was looking forward to “a good and positive discussion” with Machado, who she called “a remarkable and brave voice for many of the people of Venezuela”. Trump hoped to discuss “the realities on the ground” in Venezuela. Leavitt said Rodríguez and other key members of her “interim administration” were in constant communication with their US counterparts and were being “extremely cooperative”. “They have thus far met all the demands and the requests of the United States and of the president,” she said, pointing to the release of five US citizens from Venezuelan jails this week. Leavitt said Trump was committed to “hopefully” seeing fresh elections in Venezuela “one day”. “But I don’t have an updated timetable for you today,” she added. Rodríguez indicated she was keen to reboot US-Venezuela ties on Thursday, during the annual state of the union address in Caracas, which she delivered on Maduro’s behalf. Addressing an audience including Maduro’s son and three sisters, Rodríguez called Trump’s invasion “the greatest ever stain on US-Venezuela relations” and said Washington had “crossed a red line” by invading the South American country, killing Venezuelans and “kidnapping” the president. However, Rodríguez said she was prepared to travel to Washington to engage in a “diplomatic battle” with the US. “Venezuela has the right to relations with China, with Russia, with Cuba, with Iran … and with the United States too,” she told lawmakers and military chiefs who had gathered in the national assembly. “If it one days falls to me, as acting president, to go to Washington, I’ll do it standing tall, not crawling,” Rodríguez added despite Trump’s recent claim to be “running” Venezuela.