The remains of a famous sycamore tree, which stood on Britain’s Roman-built Hadrian’s Wall in northern England for more than 200 years, has found a new home nearly two years after it was illegally felled.

The removal of the tree from its spot known as “Sycamore Gap,” a pronounced dip in Hadrian’s Wall, in September 2023 sparked global outrage. Sycamore Gap was considered one of the most photographed trees in England and was made famous to millions when it appeared in Kevin Costner’s 1991 blockbuster film “Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.”

In May, two men were found guilty of criminal damage for felling the landmark tree.

Now, a section of it will be put on permanent display at The Sill: National Landscape Discovery Centre, about two miles (three kilometers) from where it once stood.

The UK’s National Trust gave the largest remaining piece of the salvaged trunk to the Northumberland National Park, where the tree was located.

“In the days and months after the tree was felled, The Sill became a place of celebration and memory. Visitors left post-it notes, letters, drawings and messages expressing grief, love, and hope,” the park said in a press release Thursday.

A public consultation was held in the aftermath of the felling on the future of the tree trunk. “The resulting exhibit honours the tree’s natural form while inviting people to engage with it in a deeply personal way,” The Sill said in a press release Thursday.

Tree trunk ‘is huggable’

The trunk is positioned upright, as it once was, and is surrounded by tree oak benches and streams of wood bent to form a canopy in the shape of a huge leaf – recreating the shelter the tree once offered for people to sit and reflect.

Some tributes from the local community have been carved into the wood.

“The original tree may be gone in the form we knew it, but its legacy remains, and what has come since has been endlessly positive, affirming our belief that people nature and place cannot be separated and are interdependent,” said Tony Gates, chief executive of Northumberland National Park Authority, in the release.

“This commission has been the biggest honour of my career,” said Charlie Whinney, the artist behind the new exhibition, in the release.

“I really hope what we’ve done in some small way allows the people of Northumberland and those who held this tree close to their hearts to process the loss they still feel from that day in September 2023, when the tree was illegally cut down,” he added.

“The work looks forward with hope, the tree is regrowing, and Sycamore Gap will always be a magical place to visit,” Whinney continued.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen survived a no-confidence vote in the European Parliament on Thursday, brought by mainly far-right lawmakers who alleged she and her team undermined trust in the EU through unlawful actions.

As expected, the motion failed to get the two-thirds majority it needed to pass. Only 175 members of parliament backed the motion, while 360 voted against and 18 abstained.

Romanian nationalist Gheorghe Piperea, the lead sponsor of the motion, had criticized among other things the Commission’s refusal to disclose text messages between von der Leyen and the chief executive of vaccine maker Pfizer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The decision-making has become opaque and discretionary, and raises fears of abuse and corruption. The cost of obsessive bureaucracy of the European Union such as (tackling) climate change has been a huge one,” Piperea told the parliament on Monday.

During the debate on her leadership, von der Leyen defended her record in parliament, rejecting criticism of her management of the pandemic and asserting that her approach ensured equal vaccine access across the EU.

Although the censure motion had little chance of success, it was a political headache for von der Leyen as her Commission negotiates with US President Donald Trump’s administration to try to prevent steep US tariffs on EU goods.

It was the first time since 2014 that a Commission president has faced such a motion. Then President Jean-Claude Juncker also survived the vote.

The words “Get out of Mexico” are still visible on one shop window as protestors violently kicked in the glass pane. In another clip, “Kill a gringo” is spray-painted on a wall in Mexico City as demonstrators carried placards demanding western foreigners “stop stealing our home.”

These were some of the striking scenes at a mass protest last week against gentrification and the rising cost of living in the Mexican capital city, which some have blamed on an influx of foreigners from the United States and Europe.

While the demonstration was largely peaceful and reflected growing anger about inequality in the Mexican capital, those who vandalized stores in the city’s wealthier neighborhoods and used anti-immigration language were criticized by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum as being xenophobic.

“No to discrimination, no to racism, no to classism, no to xenophobia, no to machismo, no to discrimination. All human beings, men and women, are equal, and we cannot treat anyone as less,” Sheinbaum said at a Monday press conference.

The US Department of Homeland Security, which has been carrying out an immigration crackdown in the US, reacted to Friday’s protests with an ironic post on X: “If you are in the United States illegally and wish to join the next protest in Mexico City, use the CBP Home app to facilitate your departure.”

The rallies in Mexico City mirror protests that have erupted in cities like Barcelona and Paris against skyrocketing costs, which have been blamed on overtourism, short-term home rentals, and an influx of people and businesses with higher purchasing power.

Frente Anti Gentrificación Mx, one of several groups that helped organize the protest on Friday, compared gentrification on its social media to a new form of colonization in which “the state, institutions, and companies, both foreign and local, provide differential treatment to those with greater purchasing power.”

Anti-gentrification activists say thousands of people in the Mexican capital have been forced out of their homes in recent years as tourists and remote workers, many of whom are believed to be American, take over popular neighborhoods like Roma and Condesa.

But a spokesperson for Frente Anti Gentrificación Mx pushed back against Sheinbaum’s suggestion that their campaign was xenophobic, saying the demonstration was meant to highlight the plight of those priced out of their homes and to demand reforms from the government.

“In Mexico, housing costs have risen 286% since 2005 … while real wages have decreased by 33%,” said Morales, citing data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography and the Federal Mortgage Society.

She acknowledged that many people have been moving to Mexico for a variety of reasons, from the appeal of its culture to the relative affordability of its houses. At the same time, she urged potential newcomers to consider how such a move could affect the local community.

Not a new phenomenon

Immigration is not the sole cause of Mexico City’s gentrification, which is a phenomenon that has happened for decades, say experts.

“In the debates, there’s a confusion about gentrification being when foreigners arrive. And that’s not true,” activist and lawyer Carla Escoffié said, noting that other causes include inequality, deficiencies in housing policy and land privatization.

“Not all foreigners gentrify, nor are only those who gentrify foreigners, nor is a significant migration process necessary for gentrification to occur. Gentrification is based on inequalities in such a way that it’s not the same thing,” she added.

But the arrival of short-term rentals like Airbnb, and remote work policies during the pandemic, have turbo-charged the gentrification debate in recent years.

“Since 2020, a new phase of gentrification has begun, one that has worsened,” said Escoffié. “It’s been driven by digital nomads and short-term rental platforms like Airbnb.”

Airbnb defended its activities in Mexico City on Tuesday, saying it helped generate more than $1 billion in the local economy last year, and arguing that guests who booked accommodations also spent money on shops and services in the capital.

Mexico City’s government signed an agreement with Airbnb and UNESCO in 2022 to promote the capital as “a global hub for digital nomads and creative tourism.” Sheinbaum, who was the mayor of Mexico City at the time, presented the initiative as a way to boost the local economy.

The appeal was especially attractive for US citizens, who can stay in Mexico without a tourist visa for less than six months before requiring a special temporary residency permit, according to experts. In 2022, 122,758 temporary residency permits were granted to foreigners for Mexico, according to the National Institute of Migration, up from 97,825 in 2019.

But for many residents, the Mexico City initiative was another sign of the displacement happening around them.

A global trend

Anger about gentrification is not unique to Mexico City. Local governments from tourist destinations in Europe, such as Spain’s Canary Islands, Lisbon and Berlin, have announced restrictions on short-term rentals in the past decade.

Barcelona’s leftist mayor, Jaume Collboni, said that by November 2028, the government will scrap the licenses of the 10,101 apartments currently approved as short-term rentals in the popular tourist destination.

Residents in the Catalan capital have documented how renting by the day is more profitable for landlords than renting by the month, which has triggered evictions and the transformation of homes into short-term tourist accommodations.

In Mexico City, Airbnb has over 26,500 listings, according to the rental platform, many of which are concentrated in the areas most affected by gentrification. These listings are concentrated in the central neighborhoods of Condesa, Roma, Juárez and Polanco, according to Inside Airbnb, a project that provides data about Airbnb’s impact on residential communities.

In response to mounting criticism and the protests of 2022, the local government introduced new regulations, but experts argue they fall far short.

Airbnb, meanwhile, says the city needs regulations that support home sharing, not prohibition. It argues that many people in Mexico City rely on the platform as a financial lifeline, with 53% of its hosts saying the service helped them stay in their homes and 74% of hosts saying it helped cover essential expenses.

Activists are now bracing for when Mexico opens its doors to soccer fans for the next World Cup in 2026, which Morales fears could result in the state prioritizing business dealings over residents. “Given the critical state we’re in, who would come up with this?” she asked.

Doctors in Gaza say they were forced to cram multiple babies into one incubator as hospitals warned that fuel shortages are forcing them to shut off vital services, putting patients’ lives at risk.

The UN has warned that the fuel crisis is at a critical point, with the little supplies that are available running short and “virtually no additional accessible stocks left.”

“Hospitals are rationing. Ambulances are stalling. Water systems are on the brink. And the deaths this is likely causing could soon rise sharply unless the Israeli authorities allow new fuel in – urgently, regularly and in sufficient quantities,” the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

An 11-week Israeli blockade on humanitarian aid earlier in the year pushed the enclave’s population of more than 2 million Palestinians towards famine and into a deepening humanitarian crisis. Limited aid deliveries resumed into the besieged enclave in May but aid groups have said it is not nearly enough to meet the scale of the needs.

The director of the Al-Ahli Hospital, south of Gaza City posted a photo on social media Wednesday of multiple newborn babies sharing a single incubator which was taken at another facility, Al-Helou.

“This tragic overcrowding is not just a matter of missing equipment — it’s a direct consequence of the relentless war on Gaza and the suffocating blockade that has crippled the entire healthcare system,” Dr. Fadel Naim wrote in a post on X.

“The siege has turned routine care for premature babies into a life-or-death struggle. No child should be born into a world where bombs and blockades decide whether they live or die.”

The director of Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza said the shortages were forcing them to close kidney dialysis sections so they could focus on intensive care and operating theatres.

Footage from inside the hospital showed doctors using flashlights as they treated patients.

Another facility, the Nasser Medical Complex, said it had 24 hours of fuel left and was concentrating on vital departments such as maternity and intensive care.

Fuel vital for basic services

In addition to fuel shortages, difficulty finding replacement parts for the generators that power Gaza’s hospitals risks is forcing more to shut down.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza issued an urgent statement that the facility’s main generator had broken down due to a lack of spare parts, forcing it to rely on a smaller backup unit.

“Fuel will run out within the coming hours, and the lives of hundreds of patients are at risk inside the hospital wards,” the statement said.

“The hospital’s shutdown threatens to disrupt healthcare services for half a million people in the Central Governorate.”

Beyond hospitals, fuel is essential to keep basic services running in Gaza. The territory relies heavily on imports for cooking, desalination and wastewater plants, and to power the vehicles used in rescue efforts.

Israel has restricted the entry of fuel throughout the conflict, and has previously claimed Hamas could use it to launch weapons.

The aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned of what it called “an unprecedented humanitarian crisis” unfolding in Gaza, in a statement Tuesday and called for a ceasefire and the entry of far greater levels of humanitarian aid.

“Our teams have worked to treat the wounded and supply overwhelmed hospitals as indiscriminate attacks and a state of siege threaten millions of men, women and children,” MSF said.

“We urge Israeli authorities and the complicit governments that enable these atrocities, including the UK Government, to end the siege now and take action to prevent the erasure of Palestinians from Gaza.”

Is there a direct link between what US President Donald Trump says and what Russian President Vladimir Putin does?

Certainly, the harsh words and bitter violence of recent days in Ukraine suggest the answer is maybe.

First, President Trump vented his frustrations at the lack of commitment from his Russian counterpart to engage in a serious peace process.

“We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” Trump blustered in a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. “He’s very nice all of the time, but it turns out to be meaningless,” he complained.

The very next day, as if infuriated by the remarks, Russia launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine, sending 728 drones and 13 missiles to strike cities around the country in multiple waves.

It was a “telling attack,” observed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who condemned the strikes as timed to rebuff peace efforts.

There are apparent signs of a pattern.

Last week, after Trump publicly bemoaned that he had made “no progress” towards a ceasefire after a lengthy telephone call with the Kremlin leader, Russia unleashed yet another massive barrage on Ukraine. It rained down 539 drones and 11 missiles in what Ukrainian officials described as one of the worst attacks of the conflict.

You might be forgiven for thinking that every time President Trump expresses anger, frustration or even negativity about his Kremlin counterpart, the immediate response from Russia is to step up the ruthless punishment it metes out to its Ukrainian neighbor.

But it’s not as straightforward as that.

The problem is, Russia also carries out devastating strikes on Ukraine during periods when the US president is relatively silent about the conflict he notoriously vowed to end in a single day.

On June 29, for example, Moscow launched 477 drones and 60 missiles against Ukraine – at the time, the biggest Russian aerial assault of the war. Yet President Trump had made few significant public comments about Russia in the days before.

Furthermore, when President Trump told fellow G7 leaders of industrialized democracies that he essentially regretted the absence of Putin at the June summit, and criticized previous leaders for kicking Russia out of what was then the G8. Moscow went on to ratchet up attacks on Kyiv, killing at least 28 people in a single night of drone and missile strikes on the Ukrainian capital days later.

Even positive remarks from the US president, which you might reasonably expect to temper any simmering Russian anger at how it is spoken about in the White House, do not appear to act as a brake on the Kremlin’s excesses.

For its part, the Kremlin has played down any suggestion that President Trump’s recent critical outburst has had much impact.

“We are taking it quite calmly,” the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on a daily conference call, adding that “Trump, in general, tends to use a fairly tough style and expressions.”

In reality, Russian military tactics are much more likely to be driven by its own unrelenting military objective of seizing as much territory as possible before the grinding conflict in Ukraine, now in its fourth year, ultimately comes to a halt.

Likewise, the terrifying increase in the use of Russian drones in recent weeks is more likely to be a reflection of missile shortages and increased drone production in Russia than any angry Putin retort to one of President Trump’s off-hand comments.

US President Donald Trump praised Liberian President Joseph Boakai for his strong grasp of the English language on Wednesday. But the African leader was educated in Liberia, where English is the official language.

As he hosted five African leaders at the White House, Trump asked Boakai: “Such good English, it’s beautiful. Where did you learn to speak so beautifully?”

Boakai informed Trump of his place of education, prompting Trump to express his curiosity. “That’s very interesting,” he said, “I have people at this table who can’t speak nearly as well.”

Liberia was founded in 1822 by the American Colonization Society whose goal was to resettle freed slaves in Africa. The country declared independence from the American Colonization Society in 1847, and a variety of languages are spoken in the country today, with English being the official language.

Several Liberians voiced their offense over Trump’s comment to Boakai, given the US president’s past remarks on African countries and the colonial legacy left by the US organization in Liberia.

“For him to ask that question, I don’t see it as a compliment. I feel that the US president and people in the west still see Africans as people in villages who are not educated.”

Veronica Mente, a South African politician, questioned on X: “what stops [Boakai] from standing up and leav[ing]?”

The White House Press Office defended Trump’s statement on Wednesday.

White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said that Trump’s comment was a “heartfelt compliment” and that “reporters should recognize that President Trump has already done more to restore global stability and uplift countries in Africa and around the world than Joe Biden did in four years.”

“What President Trump heard distinctly was the American influence on our English in Liberia, and the Liberian president is not offended by that,” Nyanti said.

“We know that English has different accents and forms, and so him picking up the distinct intonation that has its roots in American English for us was just recognizing a familiar English version,” she continued.

Trump has previously applauded the English language abilities of other leaders during diplomatic meetings. During a press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump complimented his “good English” and asked if it was as good as his German.

Merz laughed and noted that he tries to “understand almost everything” and said he makes an effort “to speak as good as I can.”

The US president has centered the English language as part of this “America First” platform. During a 2015 presidential debate, Trump asserted that the US is “a country where we speak English.” In March, he signed an executive order making English the official language of the US.

Trump has previously landed in hot water for things he has said about the African nations. In 2018, the president referred to migrants from African countries and other nations as coming from “shithole countries.”

In May, he lectured South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on false claims that White South African farmers are the victims of a genocide.

Trump struck a different tone on Wednesday as he met with the leaders of Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal, praising their countries as “all very vibrant places with very valuable land, great minerals, great oil deposits, and wonderful people.”

In turn, he was met with approval from the African leaders, who heaped praise on the president as they urged him to invest in their countries and develop their plentiful natural resources.

Boakai even remarked that Liberia “(believes) in the policy of making America great again.”

Russia launched a large-scale aerial assault on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv in the early hours of Thursday, marking a second consecutive night of ferocious attacks on the country, as Russia ramps up its bombardment more than three years into the war.

At least two people were killed and more than a dozen were wounded in Thursday’s attacks, which involved multiple drones and cruise missiles, according to Kyiv authorities.

The offensive comes one night after Russia conducted its largest drone assault since the start of its full-scale invasion, launching 728 drones and 13 missiles in strikes that killed at least one person, according to Ukrainian officials.

The damage on Thursday morning appeared to be substantial. Residential buildings, cars, warehouse facilities, offices and other buildings were on fire across the city, Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said.

Tkachenko urged residents to stay in shelters and avoid windows and balconies, as Ukraine’s air defense systems worked to repel the attack.

“Property can be restored, but human life cannot,” Tkachenko said.

Russia has significantly scaled up its air attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks, launching near-nightly assaults involving hundreds of drones and missiles.

Work towards a peace deal has simultaneously slowed down, triggering frustration in the White House, where US President Trump on Tuesday took aim at Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin.

“We get a lot of bullsh*t thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said in a Cabinet meeting. “He’s very nice all of the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”

Russia’s sustained assault in recent days has injected new urgency into questions surrounding Washington’s commitment to defending Ukraine, as the Trump administration pledged to send additional defensive weaponry to Kyiv in an apparent policy reversion.

Moscow downplayed Trump’s harsh words in a press briefing Wednesday. A Kremlin spokesperson said it is reacting “calmly” to Trump’s criticism of Putin. “Trump in general tends to use a fairly tough style and expressions,” Dmitry Peskov said, adding Moscow hopes to continue dialogue with Washington.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to meet his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Malaysia on Thursday.

Following Wednesday’s record drone attack, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said there had been “so many attempts to achieve peace and cease fire, but Russia rejects everything.”

International law violations

Thursday’s attack on Kyiv follows a landmark ruling by Europe’s top human rights court Wednesday, which found that Russia committed major international law violations in Ukraine.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on four cases concerning Russian military operations in Ukraine since 2022, as well as the conflict in eastern Ukraine which began in 2014 and includes the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

It found that Russia had committed a pattern of human rights violations in Ukraine since the start of its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The ECHR also ruled Russia was responsible for the downing of flight MH17 in 2014. Moscow has repeatedly denied responsibility for MH17’s destruction, which killed 298 people.