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Who is Mahmoud Khalil, Palestinian student activist facing US deportation? Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent figure during the Gaza war protests at Columbia University in the spring of 2024, has drawn global attention after the Trump administration arrested and moved to deport him. The case has raised questions about free speech on college campuses and the legal process that would allow for the deportation of a US permanent resident. Mr Khalil was held in an immigration facility in Louisiana for three months before a federal judge ruled that President Donald Trump could no longer detain or deport him. On 20 June, a judge ruled Mr Khalil must be released. Born in Syria, the Columbia graduate's arrest by immigration agents was linked to Trump's promise to crack down on student demonstrators he accuses of "un-American activity". Trump has repeatedly alleged that pro-Palestinian activists, including Mr Khalil, support Hamas, a group designated a terrorist organisation by the US...

Meet the Apple Girls from Charli XCX's Belsonic gig Thousands of fans who attended Charli XCX's Belsonic gig on Wednesday night will have been waking up to watch clips of her performance back on their phones. But two fans have been replaying their own performances again and again. Anna Lawther and Maisie Smith were picked to be Belfast's 'Apple Girls' at the gig, selected from the crowd to perform a viral dance, projected on the big screens, during Charli's song Apple. Maisie was originally going to make a sign that said "Hello from Bishop's Stortford" - her hometown, which is also where Charli went to school. In the end, they did not get round to that and she said they were just "genuinely enjoying [themselves]" and not even trying to attract attention when they were spotted by a crew member. He came over and typed on his phone: "Do you know the Apple Dance?" "We just looked at each other and went: 'Oh my word, no way...

Trump to extend US TikTok ban deadline, White House says TikTok will live on for at least another three months in the United States, as President Donald Trump is poised to extend a sale or ban deadline for the third time since taking office this year. "President Trump will sign an additional Executive Order this week to keep TikTok up and running," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday. The popular video sharing app was supposed to be banned in the US after its Chinese owner, ByteDance, refused to sell it to a US buyer by a January deadline. When asked if he has the legal basis to extend the deadline, he responded: "We do." Trump's extension is at odds with the will of Congress, which passed the sale-or-ban measure last year. His predecessor, former President Joe Biden, immediately signed the bill into law. The law was aimed to address concerns that TikTok, which has 170 million American users, could be used by China as a tool for spying a...

Sudan in danger of self-destructing as conflict and famine reign Sudan's war is in strategic stalemate. Each side stakes its hopes on a new offensive, a new delivery of weapons, a new political alliance, but neither can gain a decisive advantage. The losers are the Sudanese people. Every month there are more who are hungry, displaced, despairing. The Sudan armed forces triumphantly announced the recapture of central Khartoum in March. It broadcast pictures of its leader, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, walking through the ruins of the capital's Republican Palace, which had been controlled by the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), since the earliest days of the war in April 2023. The army deployed weapons newly acquired from Egypt, Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries including Qatar and Iran. But its offensive quickly stalled. On this occasion, as before, progress was blocked because Saudi Arabia and the UAE could not agree. Diplomats acknowledge that Sudan'...

School killings leave stunned Austria and France searching for answers Two shocking attacks within two hours of each other, in France and Austria, have left parents and governments reeling and at a loss how to protect school students from random, deadly violence. At about 08:15 on Tuesday, a 14-year-old boy from an ordinary family in Nogent, eastern France, drew out a kitchen knife during a school bag check and fatally stabbed a school assistant. Not long afterwards in south-east Austria, a 21-year-old who had dropped out of school three years earlier, walked into Dreierschützengasse high school in Graz at 09:43, and shot dead nine students and a teacher with a Glock 19 handgun and a sawn-off shotgun. In both countries there is a demand for solutions and for a greater focus on young people who resort to such violence. Austria has never seen a school attack on this scale, but the French stabbing took place during a government programme aimed at tackling the growth in knife crime That is...

Gaza now worse than hell on earth, humanitarian chief Gaza has become worse than hell on earth, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross has told the BBC. In an interview at the ICRC's headquarters in Geneva, the organisation's president Mirjana Spoljaric said "humanity is failing" as it watched the horrors of the Gaza war. Speaking in a room close to a case displaying the ICRC's three Nobel Peace Prizes, I asked Ms Spoljaric about remarks she made in April, that Gaza was "hell on earth", and if anything had happened since to change her mind. "It has become worse… We cannot continue to watch what is happening. It's surpassing any acceptable, legal, moral, and humane standard. The level of destruction, the level of suffering.. Ms Spoljaric said the ICRC was deeply concerned about talk of victory at all costs, total war and dehumanisation. "We are seeing things happening that will make the world an unhappier place far beyond t...

Blake Lively drops two claims against Justin Baldoni The actress Blake Lively has attempted to withdraw two of the claims she made about director Justin Baldoni. Both have been engaged in a legal dispute since Lively sued Baldoni in December 2024 after they worked together on the film It Ends With Us, accusing him of sexual harassment and a smear campaign. Baldoni's legal team asked Lively to release her medical records, including therapy notes, as part of its defence against her claims she suffered "severe emotional distress and pain, humiliation, embarrassment",  Variety said . Lively is trying to drop claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress, the publication added. In January this year, Baldoni counter-sued Lively and her husband, the actor Ryan Reynolds, on claims of civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy. Lively and Baldoni have been locked in a dispute since It Ends With Us, which is an adapti...

UK's spring was warmest on record, Met Office says The UK has recorded its warmest spring on record and its driest in more than 50 years, provisional Met Office figures show. It was also the sunniest spring on record for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and the second sunniest in England since the amount of hours of sunshine began to be recorded in 1910. Spring is the fastest-warming season in the UK, with the average temperature having increased by 1.8C since 1970. Eight of the ten warmest UK springs have occurred since 2000, and the three warmest springs have all occurred since 2017, which the Met Office said is a sign of our changing climate. All four UK nations recorded their warmest spring for mean temperature since it first began to be recorded in 1884, surpassing the previous record in 2024. Even with the severe storms that battered a few parts of England, it was also the  driest March on record , with most of the UK - minus the north of Scotland - experiencing sunnier ...