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World’s oldest person dies

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The world’s oldest person, French nun Lucile Randon, has died aged 118.

Ms Randon – who assumed the name Sister André when she became a nun in 1944 – died in her sleep at her nursing home in Toulon, France.

Born in 1904 in southern France, she lived through two world wars and dedicated much of her life to Catholicism.

“Only the good Lord knows” the secret of her longevity, she told reporters.

Born when Tour de France had only been staged once, Sister André also saw 27 French heads of state.

A spokesman from her nursing home, David Tavella, shared news of her death with reporters on Tuesday.

“There is great sadness but… it was her desire to join her beloved brother. For her, it’s a liberation,” Mr Tavella said.

Sister André was said to have a close relationship with her brothers. She once told reporters one of her fondest memories was their safe return from fighting at the end of World War One.

“It was rare,” she recalled. “In families there were usually two dead rather than two alive”.

Despite being blind and reliant on a wheelchair, Sister André cared for other elderly people – some of whom were much younger than herself.

In an interview last April with the AFP news agency, Sister André said: “People say that work kills, for me work kept me alive, I kept working until I was 108.”

During the same interview, she said she would be better off in heaven, but continued to enjoy earthly pleasures like eating chocolate and drinking a glass of wine every day.

She had been Europe’s eldest for some time, but she entered the Guinness Book of Records last April as the world’s oldest person following the death of Kane Tanaka, a Japanese woman who lived until she was 119 years old.

It was not her first time in the record books. In 2021 she became the oldest person to recover from Covid-19.

Sister André was born into a Protestant family, but later converted to Catholicism, before being baptised when she was 26 years old.

Driven by her desire to “go further”, she joined an order of nuns known as the Daughters of Charity about 15 years after her decision to join the Catholic Church.

She was assigned to a hospital in Vichy, where she spent most of her working life, about 31 years.

In one of her last interviews, she told reporters: “People should help each other and love each other instead of hating. If we shared all that, things would be a lot better.”

(BBC News)

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Last hospital in North Gaza governorate evacuated after Israeli order

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The last hospital providing health services in the North Gaza governorate is out of service after the Israeli military ordered its immediate evacuation, the facility’s director has said.

Dr Mohammed Salha told the BBC patients were evacuated from al-Awda hospital in Jabalia on Thursday evening after “two weeks of siege”, and there was now “no health facility working in the north”.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is yet to respond to enquiries.

It comes as efforts continue to secure a ceasefire. Hamas says it is “thoroughly reviewing” a US plan, which the White House has said has been “signed off” by Israel.US President Donald Trump said on Friday he believed a deal was “very close”. But Hamas has said the plan does not satisfy its core demands including Israel’s commitment to ending the war.

The deal would reportedly involve a 60-day pause in fighting, with Hamas releasing 28 hostages – alive and dead – in the first week, with the remaining 30 hostages freed once a permanent ceasefire is in place. More than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners would be released, while humanitarian aid would be sent to Gaza via the United Nations and other agencies.

Israel has continued its military operation in the territory – at least 72 people were killed in strikes over the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said on Friday.

On Thursday evening, the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of areas including the al-Awda hospital, saying there was terrorist activity in the region which warranted the IDF to “expand its offensive activity”.

(BBC News)

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India says over 1,000 nationals deported by US since January

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More than a thousand Indians have “come back or [been] deported” from the United States since January, India’s foreign ministry has said.

Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that around 62% of them came on commercial flights, without providing more details.

This comes in the wake of President Donald Trump’s campaign against undocumented migrants to the US. Trump had earlier said that India “will do what’s right” on the deportation of illegal migrants.

In February, the US had deported more than hundred Indians on a US military flight, with reports saying some of them were brought back shackled.

“We have close cooperation between India and the United States on migration issues,” Mr Jaiswal said during the ministry’s weekly briefing, adding that India verifies nationalities before “we take them back”.

In total, the US is said to have identified about 18,000 Indian nationals it believes entered the country illegally.

Earlier this month, the US Embassy in India issued a warning that overstaying in the US could lead to deportation or a permanent ban on entry in the country, even for those who entered legally.

Mr Jaiswal also spoke about the Trump administration’s updated policy on student visas which is likely to impact Indian students planning to enrol in US universities.

The US had announced on Thursday that it had halted the scheduling of new visa interviews for foreign students as it considered expanding the screening of their social media activities.

“While we note that issuance of a visa is a sovereign function, we hope that the application of Indian students will be considered on merit, and they will be able to join their academic programs on time,” Mr Jaiswal said.

Mr Jaiswal also said that 330,000 Indians students had gone to the US for studies in 2023-24 – which makes India the largest source of international students in the country.

On Thursday, expanding its new visa policy, the US further announced that it was working to “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields”.

(BBC News)

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US trade court blocks Trump tariffs

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A US federal court has blocked President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, in a major blow to a key part of his economic policies.

The Court of International Trade rules that the emergency law invoked by the White House does not give the president unilateral authority to impose tariffs on nearly every country.

It also blocks the separate levies the US imposed on China, Mexico and Canada.

Within minutes the Trump administration lodged an appeal, saying: “It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency”.

So there will be no change at the border just yet, business reporter Katie Silver writes – as the decision goes through the appeals process.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of five small businesses that import goods from abroad.

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