Alexei Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of concealing the truth about how her husband died, officially attributed to natural causes, in an Arctic penal colony last February. Supporters of the late Kremlin critic are commemorating the one-year anniversary of his death by visiting his grave in Moscow.
Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo has become the first person to break the 57-minute barrier for the half-marathon, clocking a stunning new world record time of 56 minutes, 42 seconds in Barcelona.
The 24-year-old set the record at the World Athletics Gold Label road race on Sunday.
Kiplimo is a two-time world cross-country champion who held the half-marathon record from 2021 to 2024. He reclaimed it by slashing 48 seconds off the previous record of 57:30, set by Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha in Valencia in October.
It is the greatest single improvement on the men’s world half-marathon record.
Racing in ideal weather conditions of 13 degrees Celsius (55 degrees Fahrenheit) with no wind, Kiplimo also set a world best of 39:47 for 15km (9.3 miles) en route to the half-marathon record.
“I am very excited about what I did today,” said Kiplimo, who made his Olympic debut in the 5,000m race in Rio de Janeiro when he was just 15.
“I started strong, I wanted to have a great race, but I didn’t expect to break the world record.
“As the kilometres passed and I saw that I was going at record pace, I told myself that I had to maintain that pace no matter what it took.”
What just happened? ????
????????’s Jacob Kiplimo smashes the half marathon world record, flying to 56:42 at the Barcelona Half Marathon ????
????Daniel Meumann for https://t.co/eAHK0L0xXB
*Subject to usual ratification procedures pic.twitter.com/rNfhQxjOJc
Taiwan has detected 24 Chinese military aircraft near the island as a Canadian warship passed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence says.
The Chinese aircraft included fighter jets and drones and were spotted on Sunday carrying out “joint combat readiness patrols” with military vessels around Taiwan, the ministry said in a statement.
China’s military radioed the Canadian frigate transiting through the Taiwan Strait and warned it to change course, Taiwan media reported.
The Halifax-class frigate HMCS Ottawa was the first Canadian naval vessel to transit the waterway this year, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Its transit came days after two United States ships, a naval destroyer and survey ship, made the passage.
The US and its allies regularly pass through the 180km (112-mile) Taiwan Strait to reinforce its status as an international waterway, angering China.
The US destroyer and ocean survey ship travelled through the strait starting on Monday, drawing criticism from China’s military, which said it sent the “wrong signal and increased security risks”.
Data published by the Taiwan Defence Ministry showed 62 Chinese military aircraft were detected near the island in the 48 hours until 6am on Wednesday (22:00 GMT on Tuesday), coinciding with the US ships’ transit.
Washington’s latest passage through the Taiwan Strait was the first time since US President Donald Trump took office in January.
It came after Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said they “opposed any attempts to unilaterally change the status quo [in the Taiwan Strait] by force or coercion”.
The US, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan but is its strongest international backer and provides military aid to the island to help it maintain its defence capabilities.
While Trump has unnerved Taiwan since taking office with criticism of Taiwan’s dominance in making semiconductors, his administration has also offered strong words of support.
Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s claims of sovereignty over the island and says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future. Taiwan says it is an independent country called the Republic of China.
Beijing describes Taiwan as its “core of core interests”, regularly denouncing any show of support for Taipei from Washington.
On Thursday, the US Department of State removed a statement on its website that said it does not support Taiwan’s independence.
A reference was also added to the webpage about Taiwan’s cooperation with a Pentagon technology and semiconductor development project, and it says the US will support Taiwan’s membership in international organisations “where applicable”.
“We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side,” the updated State Department site reads.
“We expect cross-Strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides of the [Taiwan] Strait.”
Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung “welcomed the support and positive stance on US-Taiwan relations demonstrated in the relevant content” of the website, his ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
The changes in language were first reported by Taiwan’s official Central News Agency on Sunday.
Tens of thousands of students in Serbia are demanding accountability, in the latest wave of anti-government protests over a train station roof collapse that killed 15 people in Novi Sad last November. The disaster fueled outrage over corruption, which morphed into a nationwide student-led movement, as Al Jazeera’s Katarina Vojnovic explains.
Thousands of Serbians blocked the main boulevard of the central city Kragujevac, the latest in a series of student-led protests over last November’s deadly collapse of a train station roof.
The increasing pressure being applied by the university student-led movement has already forced the resignation of several high-ranking officials, including Prime Minister Milos Vucevic, at the end of January.
Crowds gathered in the city centre at the start of Serbia’s statehood holiday, calling for greater government accountability and reforms.
Protesters filled the streets well into the afternoon on Saturday, waving flags marked with bloody handprints – the protests’ logo.
The Kragujevac blockade is the third daylong city demonstration after Belgrade and Novi Sad a few weeks ago.
The collapse of the station roof in Novi Sad in November last year, which killed 15 people, followed extensive renovations to the building in the northern city.
The deaths fuelled longstanding anger over corruption and demands for accountability.
At 10:52 GMT, the time of the tragedy, protesters observed 15 minutes of silence to honour the victims.
The blockade was planned to last past midnight, marking the anniversary of the enactment of the Serbian Constitution in 1835, making it one of the most progressive in Europe at the time.
President Aleksandar Vucic, at a rally in the northern town of Sremska Mitrovica, told thousands of supporters the country was being attacked from the outside, “helped by many inside who manipulate our children”.
He urged the protesters to engage in dialogue and to listen to him.
“Declare victory, you have had all your demands met, return to your benches,” he said.
The government has already tried to meet some of the students’ demands in a bid to quell the months-long protests.
The students in Kragujevac however are continuing to call for greater transparency.
Rwandan-backed M23 rebels have entered Bukavu, the second-largest city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), after advancing rapidly in the country.
A local official, a security source, and five witnesses reported seeing the rebels there on Sunday, while a spokesperson for the militia told the Reuters news agency: “We are there.”
The armed group had been advancing on the capital of South Kivu province since seizing the city of Goma in late January. The fall of Bukavu, if confirmed, would represent the most significant expansion of territory under the M23’s control since the latest armed rebellion started in 2022.
M23 spokesperson Willy Ngoma said in a telephone message that the group was in the city.
The Congolese army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“I’m at home, and I can see with my own eyes the M23 entering our town,” a local official said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
Claude Bisimwa, a Bukavu resident, was transporting the bodies of two slain men who were hit by bullets “inside … their house”.
“They were in their room. We are taking their bodies to the morgue. These were not stray bullets – the soldier did this out of his own will,” Bisimwa told Al Jazeera.
As panic swept through the city, there were reports of widespread looting, including at a World Food Programme depot, while thousands of civilians fled.
A day earlier, the rebels took control of Kavumu airport serving Bukavu. They reportedly faced minimal resistance as they advanced through the town.
The airport was the last significant military barrier for the rebel forces before reaching Bukavu, a city of more than one million people.
The development comes as the African Union (AU) summit continues in Ethiopia. The conflict in the DRC has been a key topic of discussion at the annual two-day meeting.
Addressing the summit, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said a “regional escalation must be avoided at all costs” and the DRC’s “territorial integrity” must be preserved.
The AU has been criticised for its timid approach, and observers have demanded more decisive action towards the conflict.