Israeli Air Force: “As part of the air defense effort, hundreds of drones launched and approaching the territory of the State of Israel have so far been intercepted by the Air Force and Navy. “So far, over 95% of the targets that posed a threat and approached the country’s territory have been successfully intercepted.”

The BBC is threatening to take legal action against an artificial intelligence (AI) firm whose chatbot the corporation says is reproducing BBC content “verbatim” without its permission. The BBC has written to Perplexity, which is based in the US, demanding it immediately stops using BBC content, deletes any it holds, and proposes financial compensation for the material it has already used. It is the first time that the BBC – one of the world’s largest news organisations – has taken such action against an AI company. Perplexity has been approached for comment. The BBC’s legal threat has been made in...

A training camp for the Senegalese women’s basketball team in the US has been scrapped, with the West African nation’s prime minister saying he cancelled it because some of the squad were denied US visas. Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko said the team would now train in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, “in a sovereign and conducive setting”. It comes amid reports that the US plans to impose fresh travel restrictions on 25 more African countries, including Senegal. Earlier this month the US announced a ban on citizens from 12 countries, including seven from Africa. There were also partial travel restrictions on nationals from a...

Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema has abruptly ended the national mourning period of former President Edgar Lungu in an escalating stand-off between the family and the authorities about his burial plans. It follows the last-minute cancellation of the return of Lungu’s body from South Africa by his family on Wednesday, leaving the country uncertain about when and where the former leader will be buried. In his address on Thursday evening, President Hakainde Hichilema announced an immediate end to the mourning period, saying the country needed to “resume normal life”. “The government has done everything possible to engage with the family of...

India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is yet to decide whether flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the Air India flight that crashed last Thursday will be sent overseas for decoding and analysis. At least 270 people, most of them passengers, were killed when the London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed less than a minute after taking off from Ahmedabad airport in western India. Some media outlets reported that the black boxes are being sent abroad, but the ministry of civil aviation clarified that no final decision has been made. The ministry said the AAIB will determine the location for analysis after...

“Where I Started Donating Sperm Fifteen Years Ago, Told Me More Than 100 Babies Had Been Conceived”— Telegram Boss To Leave Fortune To Over 100 Children The founder of instant messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, says the more than 100 children he has fathered will share his estimated $13.9bn (£10.3bn) fortune. “They are all my children and will all have the same rights! I don’t want them to tear each other apart after my death,” Mr Durov told French political magazine Le Point. Mr Durov claimed he is the “official father” of six children with three different partners, but the clinic...

Israeli forces have killed 23 Palestinians after opening fire on crowds who had gathered near an aid distribution site, witnesses and medics say. Tanks and drones fired at thousands of people near an aid distribution centre in central Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the witnesses and medics said. A spokesperson for al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat confirmed that 23 bodies and more than 100 wounded people had been brought there. Images from the hospital showed bodies on the floor. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The Hamas-run health ministry says more than...