The bodies of at least 17 migrants and asylum seekers have been found in a partially deflated boat off the Greek island of Crete, according to the country’s coastguard.
The victims, as well as two survivors, were discovered on Saturday, some 26 nautical miles (48km) southwest of Crete.
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A spokeswoman for the Greek coastguard told the AFP news agency that all of the victims were men.
“Two survivors in critical condition have been hospitalised,” the spokeswoman added. “Autopsies have to be carried out as the circumstances of the sinking are not known.”
The Athens News Agency reported that the boat was spotted by a Turkish cargo ship, which alerted the authorities. The Greek coastguard rushed two vessels to the scene, while the European Union’s border agency Frontex sent a boat, an aircraft and a Super Puma helicopter to help in the rescue effort.
The coastguard said that the two survivors had said their vessel had become unstable because of bad weather, and they had no way to cover up, nor to eat or drink anything.
The boat had also been taking on water when it was discovered.
Manolis Frangoulis, the mayor of Cretan port Ierapetra, told reporters that all the victims had been young.
“The vessel the migrants were on was deflated on two sides, which forced the passengers into a reduced space,” he added.
Coroners are looking at the possibility that the migrants died of dehydration, Greek state television channel ERT reported.
Over the last year, migrants and asylum seekers have turned their attention to the Greek island of Crete, in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, as a way of reaching EU territory from Libya, in North Africa.
According to the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, more than 16,770 people seeking asylum in the EU have arrived there since the start of the year.
In July, Greece’s conservative government, led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, suspended asylum hearings for migrants, particularly targeting those arriving on Crete from Libya.
The One Direction star died at the age of 31 after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina, following his death Simon Cowell faced criticism for his TV talent shows
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Simon Cowell has been reflecting on Liam Payne’s tragic passing(Image: BANG Showbiz)
Simon Cowell has dismissed any feelings of “guilt” over the tragic death of One Direction’s Liam Payne.
The pop star, who was just 31, tragically lost his life last year after a fall from a hotel balcony in Argentina. In the aftermath, Cowell faced criticism for his TV talent shows, but he has defended himself in an interview with the Daily Mail.
Simon shared: “Not guilty. When I eventually met with his parents a few months afterwards, obviously we talked about this. Both his mum and dad said to me that music was Liam’s passion. His proudest moment was getting through The X Factor the second time.
READ MORE: Mum dies after plunging from 10th-floor with three-year-old twins in her arms
READ MORE: Woman found dead in car outside police station went undiscovered for three days
“The fact he came back said a lot about him. So I don’t know what the answer to that question is.
“I don’t feel guilt, because you can’t guess somebody’s destiny. You just can’t. All I know is he was immensely proud about what he’d achieved. It meant a lot to him. He really wanted to be well-known and successful. And I think being in the band was the best thing for him.”
Cowell also revealed the heart-wrenching moment he discovered the news of Liam’s passing while working on Britain’s Got Talent.
The 66 year old star remembered: “I was in Blackpool filming Britain’s Got Talent. Somebody who works with me came into my room. As soon as I saw her face, I could see she was upset. Nothing has affected me like that since I lost my mum and dad. I remember how that felt and this was not far off.
“I couldn’t believe it. All I remember was saying, ‘I’ve got to speak to his parents.’ I managed to speak to them, thank God. Immediately.”
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Cowell shared: “(It was) just horrific. I put myself in their position. They were in pieces. I was in pieces. I just said, ‘Look, we’ve just got to be there for each other.'”. Simon revealed that he sought solace in a “private place”, away from his fiancée Lauren Silverman and their 11 year old son Eric, after Liam’s tragic demise.
He expressed: “I’ve got to just go away somewhere on my own for a few days. A private place. Like a retreat, where I was able to switch off. I just sort of meditated and thought about things, because I was so upset. Then you have to come back to your life again.”
The One Direction star died at the age of 31 after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina, following his death Simon Cowell faced criticism for his TV talent shows
View 3 Images
Simon Cowell has been reflecting on Liam Payne’s tragic passing(Image: BANG Showbiz)
Simon Cowell has dismissed any feelings of “guilt” over the tragic death of One Direction’s Liam Payne.
The pop star, who was just 31, tragically lost his life last year after a fall from a hotel balcony in Argentina. In the aftermath, Cowell faced criticism for his TV talent shows, but he has defended himself in an interview with the Daily Mail.
Simon shared: “Not guilty. When I eventually met with his parents a few months afterwards, obviously we talked about this. Both his mum and dad said to me that music was Liam’s passion. His proudest moment was getting through The X Factor the second time.
READ MORE: Mum dies after plunging from 10th-floor with three-year-old twins in her arms
READ MORE: Woman found dead in car outside police station went undiscovered for three days
“The fact he came back said a lot about him. So I don’t know what the answer to that question is.
“I don’t feel guilt, because you can’t guess somebody’s destiny. You just can’t. All I know is he was immensely proud about what he’d achieved. It meant a lot to him. He really wanted to be well-known and successful. And I think being in the band was the best thing for him.”
Cowell also revealed the heart-wrenching moment he discovered the news of Liam’s passing while working on Britain’s Got Talent.
The 66 year old star remembered: “I was in Blackpool filming Britain’s Got Talent. Somebody who works with me came into my room. As soon as I saw her face, I could see she was upset. Nothing has affected me like that since I lost my mum and dad. I remember how that felt and this was not far off.
“I couldn’t believe it. All I remember was saying, ‘I’ve got to speak to his parents.’ I managed to speak to them, thank God. Immediately.”
Article continues below
Cowell shared: “(It was) just horrific. I put myself in their position. They were in pieces. I was in pieces. I just said, ‘Look, we’ve just got to be there for each other.'”. Simon revealed that he sought solace in a “private place”, away from his fiancée Lauren Silverman and their 11 year old son Eric, after Liam’s tragic demise.
He expressed: “I’ve got to just go away somewhere on my own for a few days. A private place. Like a retreat, where I was able to switch off. I just sort of meditated and thought about things, because I was so upset. Then you have to come back to your life again.”
Russian forces launched a “large-scale” attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk overnight on Sunday, the Kyiv Independent reported, citing local officials. The extent of the damage was not immediately clear, it said.
A large-scale Russian drone and missile attack damaged power facilities in eight Ukrainian regions, causing blackouts and forcing nuclear power plants to cut power output, officials and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.
The Ukrainian military said Russia had launched 653 drones and 51 missiles on Ukraine in the overnight attack, adding that its forces downed 585 drones and 30 missiles.
Power and heat generation facilities in the Chernihiv, Zaporizhia, Lviv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions were targeted in the attack, while port facilities in the Black Sea city of Odesa were also damaged, according to the Ukrainian government.
The Ukrainian state railway company, Ukrzaliznytsia, a railway hub near the capital, Kyiv, was also hit, with damage caused to the depot and railway carriages. The were no reports on casualties from the attack in the town of Fastiv.
The IAEA said Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under Russian control, temporarily lost all off-site power overnight due to the widespread military activities. It said the plant reconnected to a 330 kilowatt power line after a half hour outage, but that a 750 kilowatt line is still disconnected.
The Russian Ministry of Defence confirmed the attack on Saturday, saying its forces launched a “massive strike” in response to what it called Ukrainian assaults on civilian targets in Russia. The ministry said the strike used high-precision, long-range air- and ground-based weapons, including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and long-range drones.
The ministry also said its air defences had shot down 116 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight into Saturday.
Poland also announced scrambling jets due to the Russian attacks on Ukraine on Saturday, but the Operational Command of the Armed Forces said there were no airspace violations.
Ukraine’s military, meanwhile, said that its forces had hit the Russian Ryazan oil refinery, as well as a shell-casing manufacturing plant located in Alchevsk, in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region.
Ukraine’s military also denied Russian claims that it had encircled the embattled towns of Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad in the Donetsk region, according to the Kyiv Independent. The military said that its defence units were expanding logistics routes and maintaining control over key positions in the area.
Firefighters extinguish a fire at a site of a Russian air attack in the Volyn region [State Emergency Service of Ukraine via AFP]
Chornobyl
A protective shield at Ukraine’s Chornobyl nuclear plant, built to contain radioactive material from the 1986 disaster, can no longer perform its main safety function due to drone damage, the IAEA said after a strike that Kyiv blamed on Moscow.
Politics and diplomacy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had a long and “substantive” phone call with United States President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, on the push to end Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace. We agreed on the next steps and formats for talks with the United States,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
The call followed talks between Witkoff, Kushner and Ukraine’s negotiator, Rustem Umerov, in the US city of Miami. Ukraine’s envoy to the US, Olha Stefanishyna, told the Axios news website that “the main challenging issues concern territorial matters and security guarantees”.
Zelenskyy is set to meet British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in London on Monday, according to media reports.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he would also travel to London for Monday’s meeting to discuss the situation in Ukraine and the ongoing negotiations with Russia under US mediation.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced dispatching a business delegation to Russia in the coming days in preparation for the end of the Ukraine war. Orban addressed the situation during a rally in the central city of Kecskemet, ahead of legislative elections in the spring.
Who: Real Madrid vs Celta Vigo What: Spain’s La Liga Where: Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid, Spain When: Sunday, December 7, at 9pm (20:00 GMT) How to follow: We’ll have all the buildup on Al Jazeera Sport from 17:00 GMT in advance of our text commentary stream.
Real Madrid will seek only a second top-flight win in five matches when they entertain Celta Vigo in La Liga on Saturday, an achievement that would see them close the gap on league leaders Barcelona to one point.
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It should be a match that sees the record Spanish domestic league winners enter as heavy favourites, but their form of late has allowed Barcelona to leap to the top of the table, while opening up questions about their coach, Xabi Alonso.
Al Jazeera Sport takes a look at a game where Celta’s impressive away record this season could see them cause an upset, but much of the focus will also be on Real’s free-scoring forward, Kylian Mbappe.
Why has Mbappe been compared with Real Madrid legend Cristiano Ronaldo?
French superstar Mbappe is close to making history at Real Madrid, like his idol Cristiano Ronaldo, said his coach, Xabi Alonso, on Saturday.
After finishing last season in top form and starting the current campaign superbly, Mbappe has netted 55 goals with Real Madrid in 2025, and is just four away from matching the record of 59 set in 2013 by Ronaldo, as the club’s top scorer in a calendar year.
Mbappe has been increasingly compared with the all-time top Madrid goalscorer, Ronaldo, by the Spanish press for his growing influence and ability to rack up goals.
“Kylian is on his way to making history at Real Madrid like Cristiano did. Not just because of the importance he has in the team, but also because of the ambition he conveys and the number of goals he scores,” Alonso told a news conference.
“Kylian is one of the chosen ones. He has this desire within him not just to do things well, but also to have a positive influence on others. This is something he shares with Cristiano – this contagious ambition that inspires the rest of the team.”
What are Mbappe’s stats at Real Madrid?
Winning the European Golden Shoe and La Liga’s top scorer award last season with 31 goals, Mbappe is currently operating at an even higher level, with 16 goals scored in 15 matches played, and nine in five Champions League games.
Real Madrid face Erling Haaland’s Manchester City in the Champions League on December 10, before league games against Alaves and Sevilla, giving Mbappe four matches to catch Ronaldo, who Mbappe admits he had posters of on his wall as a child.
Portugal international Ronaldo scored 450 goals in 438 matches for Real Madrid, with Mbappe on 69 goals in 79 games since joining from Paris Saint-Germain in 2024.
What happened in Real Madrid’s last match?
Real’s 3-0 win in La Liga at Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday was seen as one of their most impressive displays this season.
Mbappe scored twice, either side of Eduardo Camavinga’s header, to give Real a much-needed win, along with a morale-boosting performance.
The win handed Real their first La Liga win in four games.
Kylian Mbappe of Real Madrid scores his team’s third goal during the La Liga match against Athletic Bilbao [Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images]
How have Real Madrid fared in La Liga this season?
Having won 13 of the opening 14 games of the season, Real have since won only twice in their last six matches – one of those wins coming in Europe.
How have Celta Vigo fared in La Liga this season?
Celta had been on an eight-match unbeaten run, with six wins in that time, but it came crashing to an end with three defeats in their last four games.
Despite their respectable mid-table position, Celta were eight games into the season – of which they lost three – before they finally secured a win. That victory came in the Europa League against PAOK Salonika.
In total, there were nine La Liga games – seven of which were drawn – before Celta registered their first league win of the season, with a 3-2 win at Osasuna.
What happened the last time Real Madrid played Celta Vigo?
Real beat Celta Vigo 3-2 in La Liga at Santiago Bernabeu in May, in the last meeting between the sides.
Los Blancos, then under the management of Carlos Ancelotti, stormed into a three-goal lead, thanks to Arda Guler and Kylian Mbappe’s braces.
Javi Rodriguez pulled one back in the 69th minute, with Williot Swedberg’s 76th-minute strike setting up a nervy finish.
Real’s clean sweep against Celta Vigo last season
Real also won the La Liga meeting at Celta Vigo last season, with Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior scoring either side of Swedberg’s strike for the home side.
Real also won a January meeting between the sides in the Copa del Rey in January. Mbappe and Vinicius Junior appeared to have set Los Blancos on their way to a comfortable win by Jonathan Bamba’s 83rd-minute strike, and Marcos Alonso’s 90th-minute penalty sent the tie to extra time.
Second-half sub Endrick Federico bagged a brace either side of a Federico Valverde goal to secure the 5-2 win and avoid penalties.
When did Celta Vigo last beat Real Madrid?
Celta last overcame Real in 2017, with a 2-1 win at Santiago Bernabeu in the first leg of their Copa del Rey quarterfinal. A 2-2 draw in the return fixture was enough to see Celta progress, but their run was ended in the semifinals by Alaves.
When did Celta Vigo last beat Real Madrid in La Liga?
Celta have not beaten Real in the league since 2014, when Brazilian forward Charles scored both goals in a 2-0 win that ended any chance of Los Blancos catching cross-city rivals Atletico for the league title that season.
Stat attack: Real Madrid
Real’s home record in La Liga this season has seen them win all six matches, netting 14 and conceding only three.
Stat attack: Celta Vigo
Celta’s recent eight-match unbeaten run, with six wins in that time, came crashing to an end with three defeats in their last four games.
Celta’s away record in the league has seen them win three, draw two and lose one, which far outweighs their home return, where they are yet to win in this La Liga campaign.
Head-to-head: Real Madrid vs Celta Vigo
This is the 58th meeting between the sides, with Real winning 39 of the matches and Celta winning 12.
Real are unbeaten in the last 19 meetings between the sides, winning 16.
Real Madrid team news
Dani Carvajal, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ferland Mendy are all absent due to injury. Dean Huijsen and David Alaba are also missing for the visit of Celta.
Eduardo Camavinga is a doubt with a knock to the ankle, but has been named in the squad.
Celta Vigo team news
Joseph Aidoo and Mihailo Ristic are doubts due to injury.
Leading scorer Borja Iglesias, with eight goals to his name this season, will lead a host of players returning to the side, following the midweek win on penalties against lower league Sant Andreu in the Copa del Rey.
Strictly Come Dancing pro Dianne Buswell has shared a cheeky video of her pranking partner Joe Sugg to test if he’s ready for the arrival of their baby boy
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Dianne and Joe are expecting their first child together
Strictly Come Dancing’s Diane Buswell has shared a hilarious video to her Instagram pranking her partner Joe Sugg. Fans were left ‘howling’ and ‘in stitches’ as Diane tested Joe on whether he is ready for their baby.
In September, Dianne and Joe shared their baby news in a sweet video posted to Instagram . In it, they painted a picture and then turned the paper around to show the couple as stick people, along with a stick baby in the middle. They captioned the post: “Our little baby boy, we cannot wait to meet you.”
Dianne fell head over heels for YouTuber Joe Sugg when they were paired on the 2017 series of the BBC One competition, and since then, their love story has continued to blossom.
Taking to Instagram, Diane posted a reel of herself cuddling up to Joe but to test his daddy instincts, she spat out milk on his jumper to get his reaction on whether he is ready for when their baby does the same to him.
Captioning the video, Diane put: “Some will say it’s mean others will say it’s character building ….. just prepping him for all those little milk burps Do we think he passed the test? @Joe_sugg”.
Joe humoured Diane and laughed it off but fans were already in stitches at his reaction and Diane’s prank.
The comments poured in, with one fan admitting: “I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that I flinched more than he did!” Another observed, “you trying not to laugh has me HOWLING”, while a third teased that Joe had spotted the camera mid-prank: “joe spotting the camera he lowkey knew you were up to something”. A fourth chimed in with reassurance: “We’ve all been there with babies He definitely passed the test!”
The pair revealed that they’ve already picked the name for their unborn baby boy. The pair announced earlier this year that Dianne is pregnant with their first child – making her the first pregnant dancer on Strictly Come Dancing .
In a recent video, the Aussie dancer shared that announcing her pregnancy made her the “most nervous” she’d ever been. The couple, who have been together since they met on the hit BBC show in 2018, now regularly post videos to YouTube about their lives.
In a video posted on 27 October, they shared that they were the most nervous to share the news with their families, and that sharing it with their fans caused less anxiety. Answering fans questions, Dianne opened up about telling her parents. She said: “It was the most nervous I’d ever been. I was so nervous to tell people, I don’t know why. I almost put it off.”
Joe agreed that telling family was nerve-wracking. “I think it was because it was such a big life moment,” he said. Talking to the camera, he continued: “I was way more nervous to tell friends and family than I was to tell you lot.” Dianne added that her father thought they were joking and that Joe cried every time they told someone new.
The couple also shared in the video that they’ve already picked out a name for the baby boy, with Joe saying: “The name that we’ve come up with, we’re not going to share it. We can’t really give any clues to it other than I don’t really see this name really anywhere.
“I know some people who have it as their surname but it’s also the sort of name that can be shortened. I’d say it’s quite a unique name but it’s not unique as in-,” he said, with Dianne adding: “Apple or pear. It’s kind of like Joe, isn’t it? Cute when you’re little, you can call yourself Joseph when you’re older.”
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Joe continued: “Or it could be a good sportsperson name. I’ve purposefully not said it out lout at all whereas Diane keeps calling him by that name. I do feel like between now and our due date, which is another thing I don’t think we’re going to share, I worry that we might end up revealing it by accident. From now on, he’s called Derek.”
Dianne had continued to be a pro dancer on the show and was partnered with fellow Aussie Stefan Dennis this year, but unfortunately, Stefan had to pull out of the show following an injury, marking the end for Dianne’s Strictly journey this series as well. Though she continues to be seen dancing in pro numbers during the results show, those dances were filmed prior to the series beginning.
