As part of president’s end to foreign aid, destruction of the long-acting contraceptives will cost US taxpayers $167,000

The Trump administration has decided to destroy $9.7m worth of contraceptives rather than send them abroad to women in need.

A state department spokesperson confirmed that the decision had been made – a move that will cost US taxpayers $167,000. The contraceptives are primarily long-acting, such as IUDs and birth control implants, and were almost certainly intended for women in Africa, according to two senior congressional aides, one of whom visited a warehouse in Belgium that housed the contraceptives. It is not clear to the aides whether the destruction has already been carried out, but said they had been told that it was set to occur by the end of July.

The country, beset by war, has the world’s lowest rates of vaccination, says the World Health Organization, as global immunisation drive also stalls

Children in Sudan, caught up in what aid organisations have called the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and threatened by rising levels of violence, are increasingly vulnerable to deadly infectious diseases as vaccinations in the country plummet.

In 2022, more than 90% of young children in Sudan received their routine vaccinations. But that figure has nearly halved to 48%, the lowest in the world, according to the World Health Organization.

Rights group says targets of Rapid Support Forces in North Kordofan were ‘empty of military objectives’

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have killed nearly 300 people in attacks in North Kordofan state that began on Saturday, according to Sudanese activists.

The RSF has been fighting the Sudanese army in the area, one of the key frontlines of a civil war in Sudan that has raged since April 2023.

Exclusive: French government says it is open to dialogue but does not acknowledge responsibility in letter seen by the Guardian

More than a century after its troops burned villages and looted cultural artefacts in the quest to include Niger in its west African colonial portfolio, France has signalled willingness over possible restitution, but is yet to acknowledge responsibility.

“France remains open to bilateral dialogue with the Nigerien authorities, as well as to any collaboration concerning provenance research or patrimonial cooperation,” the office of France’s permanent representative to the UN wrote in a document seen by the Guardian.

Leader who ousted Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 three decades after brief stint as military ruler dies after ‘prolonged illness’

Nigeria’s former president Muhammadu Buhari, who led Africa’s most populous country from 2015 to 2023 and was the first Nigerian president to oust an incumbent through the ballot box, died in London on Sunday, a presidential spokesperson has said.

President Bola Tinubu’s spokesperson said in a post on X: “President Buhari died today in London at about 4.30pm [1530 GMT], following a prolonged illness.”

Scores of Venezuelans deported by US to El Salvador repatriated as Marco Rubio hails return of Americans

Venezuela released 10 jailed Americans on Friday in exchange for getting home scores of migrants deported by the United States to El Salvador months ago under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

The resolution represents a diplomatic achievement for the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, helps Donald Trump in his goal of bringing home Americans jailed abroad and lands El Salvador a swap that it had proposed months ago.

Police commissioner says there has been intelligence of formation of organised crime syndicate intent on havoc

Trinidad and Tobago has declared its second state of emergency this year amid “grave concerns” about a coordinated threat from organised crime gangs inside and outside the country’s prisons.

Announcing the decision on Friday, the commissioner of police, Allister Guevarro, said his force had received intelligence the day before that the gangs had “formed themselves into … an organised crime syndicate” and were intent on wreaking havoc and planning assassinations, robberies and kidnappings.

Guilty verdict widely expected for Brazil’s ex-president accused of plot to seize power after losing 2022 election

Federal police have raided Jair Bolsonaro’s Brasília mansion, banned him from communicating with foreign diplomats and ordered him to wear an electronic ankle tag amid fears Brazil’s ex-president may abscond to avoid punishment over an alleged coup attempt.

A supreme court trial examining claims that Bolsonaro masterminded a murderous plot to seize power after losing the 2022 election is expected to reach its conclusion in the coming weeks.

Indigenous groups had offered to rehome grizzly nicknamed Tex who was killed without authorization

The journey of Tex, a young grizzly bear that gripped public attention in Canada after swimming to a populated island near Vancouver, came to a violent end this week after he was shot and killed without authorization, despite plans by Indigenous groups to relocate him.

The four-year-old bear’s landfall on 25 May on the 300 sq km (115 sq mile) Texada island, in the Strait of Georgia, set off a controversy between differing interpretations of how to treat wild predators. Its shooting on Tuesday has advocates calling for the British Columbia government to act faster when it comes to working with First Nations on environmental stewardship.

President has 15 days to approve or veto legislation that critics say will lead to vast deforestation and destruction of Indigenous communities

Brazilian lawmakers have passed a bill that drastically weakens the country’s environmental safeguards and is seen by many activists as the most significant setback for the country’s environmental legislation in the past 40 years.

The new law – widely referred to as the “devastation bill” and already approved by the senate in May – passed in congress in the early hours of Thursday by 267 votes to 116, despite opposition from more than 350 organisations and social movements.