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A devastating boat sinking incident has occurred off the coast of Djibouti, claiming the lives of at least nine people and leaving 45 others missing. The boat, carrying over 300 migrants and refugees, sank near Guehere in the north of the country on Tuesday.The Djiboutian coastguard launched an emergency operation, rescuing 266 survivors, all of whom were identified as Ethiopian nationals. They are currently receiving support at the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) Migrant Response Centre in Obock.The incident is a grim reminder of the risks faced by migrants attempting to cross the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a notorious migration route that separates Djibouti and Yemen. Tens of thousands of people from the Horn of Africa region attempt to make this perilous journey each year, often facing arbitrary arrest, trafficking, violence, and detention.According to IOM data, 506,000 people moved along this route in 2025, an 18% increase from the previous year. The agency also reported that 922 people died or went missing on this route in 2025, nearly double the number recorded the year before.The IOM has expressed concern that the hot season in Djibouti, which brings rougher seas and strong winds, will place migrants at even greater risk. The agency's chief of mission in Djibouti, Tanja Pacifico, warned that this tragic shipwreck may sadly mark the first of many incidents this year.

According to a report by IQAir, a Swiss air quality monitoring firm, Pakistan was the world's smoggiest country in 2025 with concentrations of hazardous fine particles known as PM2.5 up to 13 times higher than the World Health Organization's (WHO's) recommended level.The report, which sourced data from 9,446 cities in 143 countries, regions and territories, found that only 13 countries and territories managed to keep their average fine particulate levels below the WHO guideline, an increase from seven in 2024.Pakistan's PM2.5 level was 67.3 microgrammes per cubic metre, significantly exceeding the WHO standard of 5 microgrammes per cubic metre. In comparison, Pakistan's average PM2.5 concentration in 2024 was 73.7 microgrammes.Prolonged exposure to PM2.5 has been linked to higher likelihoods of neurodegenerative conditions, including dementia, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.Bangladesh and Tajikistan ranked second and third on IQAir's list of the most polluted countries while Chad, statistically the smoggiest country in 2024, was in fourth place in 2025.The report also noted that Loni, a city in northern India, was identified as the world's most polluted city in 2025 with average PM2.5 levels of 112.5 microgrammes per cubic metre.Globally, only 14 percent of cities met the WHO air quality standard in 2025, down from 17 percent a year earlier. The report highlighted that wildfires, driven by climate change, were a key factor behind worsening global air quality in 2025 as record levels of biomass burning in Europe and Canada released about 1,380 megatonnes of carbon.

The innaugural Hilary Mantel Prize for Fiction has been awarded to Anna Dempsey and Uduak-Abasi Ekong, two emerging writers from the UK and Ireland. The prize, established in memory of the late Booker Prize-winning novelist Hilary Mantel, aims to support unpublished and un-agented writers.Anna Dempsey, a Florida-born writer and teacher who now lives in London, won the prize for her unpublished novel This Is About an Alligator and Nothing Else, taking home £7,500. Her novel is a coming-of-age story set on the edge of the Florida Everglades, where a small town faces a water contamination crisis linked to corporate negligence.Uduak-Abasi Ekong, a Manchester-based Nigerian writer, was named runner-up for her novel A Kind of Resurrection, receiving £2,500. Her novel is a work of psychological horror drawing on West African folklore, in which supernatural elements are intertwined with emotional trauma.The judging panel was chaired by the bestselling author Maggie O’Farrell and featured Nicholas Pearson, Ben Miles, Chetna Maroo, and Chigozie Obioma. The prize is open biennially to unpublished and un-agented writers in the UK and Ireland, who submit an extract of 15,000 words.