British police have found human remains in a west London apartment which they believe are connected to body parts found earlier this week in another city, officers said Friday.

Authorities are now on the hunt for a Colombian man thought to be linked to the case.

Investigations have been underway since two suitcases were found on Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of the capital, on Wednesday. They contained the remains of two men, police previously said.

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that officers believed the newly discovered body parts “are connected to the human remains found in Bristol.”

It added that a 36-year-old man arrested in London over the grisly find has been released without charge.

They are now on the hunt for another man believed to be linked to the case. Officers said their priority is to find Yostin Andres Mosquera, a 24-year-old Colombian national, naming him for the first time.

They released a photo of Mosquera clad in a black Adidas baseball cap, black jeans, a black jacket, black trainers with thick white soles, with a black backpack.

Officers also believe they know the identity of the two male victims, but “formal identification is yet to take place,” they said. Police are trying to locate and inform their next of kin.

“Both victims are thought to have been known to Mosquera and the Met is appealing for information on his whereabouts,” the statement added.

“This is a fast-moving enquiry with detectives in London and Bristol actively pursuing a number of lines of enquiry,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner Andy Valentine said.

The investigation began when Avon and Somerset Police received a call late on Wednesday about a man with a suitcase “acting suspiciously” on the bridge in Bristol. The suitcases were later found in the area, the force said on Thursday.

Authorities later said a “man wanted in connection with the incident had traveled to Bristol from London earlier the same day.” Police previously did not identify the individual, despite a large-scale search involving a police helicopter and coastguard.

They arrested the unnamed 36-year-old early Friday but said the person was not the same individual as the one police were initially looking for.

Vicks Hayward-Melen, acting Bristol commander of Avon and Somerset Police, told the BBC’s Today program Friday that officers and initial attendants at the scene are being supported after the “really horrendous discovery.”

The police have said that it is “not aware of any current risk to the wider public,” adding that high-visibility patrols are being carried out in the area.

It is the second grisly case to have shocked Britain this week, after Tuesday’s triple killing of the wife and two daughters of a BBC sport commentator.

Carol Hunt, 61, the wife of horse racing commentator John Hunt, and their daughters, Hannah Hunt, 28, and Louise Hunt, 25, were named as the victims of the attack.

Kyle Clifford, 26, was found by officers in Enfield, north London, on Wednesday following an extensive manhunt, and arrested on Thursday in connection with the killing.

The devotees rushed to collect soil from the ground the man had just walked on, thousands thronging to the front of a venue densely crammed with a quarter of a million people, under stifling heat.

But one by one, many began falling onto the muddy field and into a sewer nearby, crushing each other as panicked screams pierced the air.

They had arrived to receive spiritual enlightenment, but 121 people – mostly women – were killed by the crowd crush in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state last week. Those who survived were left scarred and traumatized.

The man they had come to see was known to his disciples as Bhole Baba, a self-styled Hindu spiritual leader worshipped by many as a living god.

And he is among dozens of spiritual gurus in the country who inspire devotion in millions of followers, have the ear of the Indian elite, and rake in colossal sums of money.

While the world’s most populous nation has long produced self-styled “godmen”, the tradition has, over the last few decades, evolved into a multimillion-dollar industry, whose biggest stars control vast philanthropic and business empires. A large chunk of their money comes from their followers’ donations.

They are widely revered in a country where religion and faith dictate much of society – with some even winning endorsement from the highest echelons of society.

But that industry occasionally finds itself mired in controversy, with several holy men either convicted or accused of a range of crimes – from financial fraud to murder and rape – alarming those who cast doubt on their divine personas.

“It’s a question we’ve long asked,” said Meera Nanda, author of “The God Market: How Globalization is Making India More Hindu.”

“What brings literally millions of poor, desperate people to these godmen?”

A sense of belonging

Subhash Lal was working as a security guard nearly 200 kilometers (124 miles) from Mughal Garhi village, where Bhole Baba was delivering his sermon, when the news flashed across his TV screen.

Lal’s mother, a devout follower of the guru, was among the crowd, and he was desperate for answers. Lal and his family rushed to the hospital that was treating the survivors, when his son learned of the devastating news.

“He told me, Dad, your mother is no more,” the 48-year-old said. “My mother believed in (Bhole Baba). I couldn’t tell her anything. She would attend these functions… she believed in him. What could I do?”

People like Lal’s mother – poor and on the lower rungs of India’s hierarchical caste system – make up the bulk of Bhole Baba’s following. They are predominantly Dalit women from India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, where religion holds particular sway. And for them, a sense of devotion to these godmen is a way to be seen and heard within the Hindu religion.

Despite being outlawed in 1950, the caste system, which categorizes Hindus at birth and once forced the so-called “untouchables” or Dalits to the margins of society, is still omnipresent in the daily lives of millions across the nation.

Policeman turned preacher

Reportedly born Narayan Sakar to a low-caste family, Bhole Baba used to be a constable with the Uttar Pradesh Police before becoming a preacher and establishing an ashram – or place of worship – in the state.

Sitting on an ornately decorated chair, he often delivers impassioned sermons exhorting his followers to maintain their devotion.

“If, through the medium of truth, you remove old trash from within you, and today if you let truth into your heart, devotion for the god into your heart, humanity into your heart… then know that even if the world abuses you, you will not get affected by it at all,” he can be heard saying in one of his speeches.

The “rigidity of caste structure” is an important reason for the proliferation of godmen, said K. Kalyani, an assistant professor of Sociology at Azim Premji University, Bangalore.

“The low-caste community are particularly debarred within Hindu religion to have respectable position within religious institutions,” she said. “Their presence in the sanctum sanctorum as priest or their proximity to deity is seen as an act of defilement due to practices of ‘untouchability’.”

In the absence of religious and spiritual gratification for low-caste Hindus, Kalyani said, an “alternative form of religiosity becomes inevitable.”

Sheetal Jatav, a survivor of last week’s Bhole Baba event, said her community – the lower-caste Jatavs – “believe in him immensely,” hanging his pictures on their walls or even placing it inside small temples at home.

Miracle workers

The gurus India has produced range from men who claim they can perform miracles, like the revered Sathya Sai Baba, to the yoga guru and founder of the widely popular Art of Living foundation, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

Claiming to possess mystical knowledge and the ability to cure illness and solve problems, godmen inspire remarkable fervor in their millions of followers.

But with their rise has come a slew of criticism over the true intentions behind this perceived divinity, fueled in recent decades by their grandiose lifestyles and immense wealth.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, head of the spiritual organization Dera Sacha Sauda, is another self-styled spiritual guru revered by millions. His group has ashrams across 10 states and union territories in India and claims to have 60 million followers worldwide.

He is also a convicted killer and rapist. In 2017 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping two of his followers. Two years later, he received a life term for the murder of a journalist who exposed the sexual abuse of women within his group.

Despite the severity of his crimes, Singh maintains a cult-like following. The rape conviction even sparked riots by his supporters that left 36 people dead and hundreds injured across northern India.

Since then, Singh has been granted parole multiple times, once even walking out of prison to attend his own birthday party, raising allegations of impunity for these holy men.

“They have deep connections with the political machine… and it’s deeply problematic,” Nanda, the author, said.

The furor over Singh’s case was reminiscent of violent skirmishes that broke out in 2013 after the arrest of guru Asaram Bapu for raping a 16-year-old girl. He was convicted five years later and given a life sentence for the crime.

Famous followers

Many godmen are also known for their philanthropy, praised for building schools for the impoverished and developing infrastructure in small villages – and they also attract millions of people to small towns across the country.

Sathya Sai Baba’s followers, for example, included the US actor Goldie Hawn and Hard Rock Cafe founder Isaac Tigrett. When the guru died in 2011, Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar openly wept at his funeral, which was also attended by India’s prime minister at the time, Manmohan Singh.

More often than not, the most devout of their followers come from the lower middle classes, but millions in donations also stream in from foreigners, Indians living abroad, and the richest of society.

While Sathya Sai Baba’s appeal was – in large part – due to a certain level of mystique, other godmen, including Singh, are more outspoken, carefully using the media to fuel their rise.

“There is an entire media structure that supports and promotes them,” said Kalyani, the sociologist. “There are dedicated channels like Astha or Sanskar TV which have dedicated time to show their preachings.”

As authorities investigate the organizers of last week’s event for alleged negligence, Bhole Baba, who left the event in an armored vehicle, is not being pursued by authorities.

Many of those affected by the tragedy are angry.

“This is not a real (godman),” said Surendra Singh, whose wife was a devout follower of the guru, and died in the tragic crowd crush.

Speaking to India’s largest news agency, ANI, Bhole Baba, appearing forlorn, said: “This incident has left me distraught.”

“Mischief makers and anti-social elements responsible for the stampede will not be spared.”

Referring to himself by his birth name, he added: “May the praise of Narayan Sakar Hari resound forever throughout the universe.”

Aishwarya S. Iyer contributed reporting

Israel had previously agreed to allow Palestinians fully unrestricted access to northern Gaza during an eventual ceasefire, but the Israeli Prime Minister told his negotiating team this week to demand that armed men be barred from northern Gaza as part of any ceasefire and hostage deal, the source said.

The new demand could potentially upend progress in hostage negotiations and raises further questions about Netanyahu’s commitment to Israel’s own proposal for a deal that has become the basis for detailed negotiations.

But a statement by the Israeli prime minister’s office on Sunday cast doubt on whether the deal would progress, laying out several “principles” Israel is not prepared to abandon, including resumed fighting in Gaza “until all of objectives of the war have been achieved.”

Israel launched its war on Gaza nine months ago, in response to Hamas’ October 7 attack that killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 others hostage, according to Israeli authorities. The war has left swathes of the enclave unrecognizable, displaced almost the entire population and killed more than 38,000 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry there. Israel had said it wouldn’t end the war until all hostages are freed and Hamas is eliminated.

Six decomposing female bodies were found in a quarry in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Friday, according to police, sparking a protest at a nearby police station.

“The alarm was raised following the discovery of six severely mutilated bodies, all female, in various stages of decomposition” in the quarry, which was being used as a dumpsite, according to a statement by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.

The area has been cordoned off as a crime scene, and “preliminary investigations suggest a similar mode of killing of the deceased,” the statement said. The bodies were found wrapped in “nylon papers and reinforced with nylon ropes” and have been transported to a mortuary where “they await postmortem examinations,” police added.

The identities of the dead or how long the bodies had been at the quarry were not immediately clear.

The horrifying scene comes after weeks of anti-government protests over a since-scrapped finance bill. The protests resulted in scores of civilian deaths amid a heavy-handed response from Kenyan police. Human rights groups have also accused security forces of abducting Kenyans during the protests.

The discovery of the bodies on Friday has sparked fresh public anger and brought a new spotlight to Kenya’s femicide crisis, just months after thousands of women marched on the streets with banners reading: “Stop killing us.”

Fallout from protests

Dozens of people were killed in police shootings across the country in just one day of the anti-government protests in June, according to Kenya’s Police Reforms Working Group (PRWG).

Kenya’s presidency announced that Japheth Koome, the country’s police chief, resigned on Friday. His deputy, Douglas Kanja, has been named acting police chief.

Friday’s move comes after nearly all of President William Ruto’s cabinet was fired, with the exceptions of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi.

The decision was taken “upon reflection, and a holistic appraisal” of his cabinet, he told reporters from State House Nairobi.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

At least 50 Palestinians were found killed on Friday, local authorities said, after the Israeli military pulled back from several areas in central and northern Gaza, leaving entire neighborhoods razed and residents reeling from a spate of heavy attacks.

More than nine months of fighting in Gaza has turned swathes of the territory into rubble-filled wasteland. The Israeli military offensive following the Hamas-led October 7 attacks has triggered a sprawling humanitarian crisis, crushed the health system and depleted food and water supplies. The UN warned Tuesday of widespread famine across the strip, and relief workers say Israeli aid restrictions mean they are unable to support Palestinians trying to survive the war. Human rights agencies reiterated calls for a ceasefire, as negotiations between Israel and Hamas this week hit yet another roadblock.

Israel launched its military offensive on October 7 after the militant group Hamas, which governs Gaza, attacked southern Israel. At least 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 others abducted, according to Israeli authorities.

Israeli strikes in Gaza have since killed 38,345 Palestinians and injured another 88,295 people, according to the Ministry of Health there.

‘We want a total ceasefire’

Palestinian residents surveyed the desolate landscape in Tal al-Hawa neighborhood on Friday, as the sound of Israeli drones buzzed overhead.

“We want a total ceasefire,” she said. “We don’t want to be displaced from one place to another. The fear is in the eyes of the young ones.”

The UN warned that Israeli evacuation orders for people to leave Gaza City on Wednesday “will only fuel mass suffering for Palestinian families,” adding that many have already been displaced multiple times.

Winston Churchill, often considered Britain’s greatest leader, resigned at 80 in the face of mounting health problems. Keir Starmer, Britain’s newest leader, wants to force lawmakers in the country’s upper chamber to step down at the same age. Does this mean he thinks octogenarians like President Joe Biden should step back from politics?

Despite growing questions about Biden’s mental acuity and fitness for a second term, Starmer said the 81-year-old president had been “in good form” when the two met for talks, but “of course” he would say if he was concerned about him.

Starmer, 61, is the latest in a series of world leaders who have been asked whether Biden is too old to campaign and govern effectively. But he spoke positively about their discussions at the summit on Wednesday.

“We were billed for 45 minutes. We probably went on for the best part of an hour, covered a lot of ground – and he was in good form,” Starmer told Tapper.

Starmer said the talks were “a really good opportunity” for him to “speak to the president about the special relationship” between their two countries. He said Biden “deserves credit” for presiding over a summit that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called a success.

Zelensky’s comments were made before Biden mistakenly introduced the Ukrainian leader as “President Putin,” having to correct himself hastily. In a press conference later Thursday evening, Biden also mistakenly called his Vice President, Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump” when discussing if she could beat the former president.

On his plan to force lawmakers in the House of Lords – which scrutinizes the government and makes recommendations on laws – to step down after turning 80, Starmer said the policy was “more to do with the size” of the unelected upper chamber than the fitness of elderly politicians.

“Our second chamber is the biggest second chamber in the world. We’ve got over 800 members. We’ve got to get the size down,” he said.

Starmer is not alone in trying to downplay concerns about Biden’s age. French President Emmanuel Macron, attending the summit in a weakened position with his country in political limbo after a snap parliamentary election, said Biden remained “in charge” and “clear on the issues he knows well.”

Starmer was also asked by Tapper to clarify comments made by David Lammy, a longstanding Labour politician who became Britain’s foreign secretary last week.

In 2018, Lammy called then-President Donald Trump – who will also turn 80 in office if re-elected to a second term in November – a “woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathizing sociopath” and a “profound threat to the international order.”

Starmer said his government will “work with whoever is elected” in November, but stressed “I’m a progressive and we’re sister parties with the Democrats.”

Starmer’s comments echoed his previous remarks on a potential Trump presidency; he told the BBC last year he would “have to make it work,” though that doesn’t mean “we would agree on everything.”

Asked about Trump’s threats to leave NATO and cut a deal with Putin, likely ending the war in Ukraine on terms favorable to Russia, Starmer praised the “clarity of purpose” that other members have shown in the alliance during the summit. He also said Britain remains “absolutely committed” to raising its defense spending to 2.5% – above the NATO guideline of 2% – but did not provide a timeline for this.

“My position as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom could not be clearer, which is an unshakable support for NATO,” he said. “We were proudly one of the countries that was there at the founding of NATO… We’re proud of that history.”

Tacking to the center

A week ago, Starmer guided the Labour Party to a historic victory, winning a majority of 172 seats in the House of Commons and bringing to an end 14 years of Conservative rule.

But, almost immediately, Starmer’s victory was described as hollow and his mandate fragile, with critics pointing out Labour’s relatively low share of the popular vote, despite its commanding victory under Britain’s first-past-the-post electoral system.

Asked if his victory was fueled more by anger towards the Conservatives than enthusiasm for Labour, Starmer hit back, saying his team deserved praise for turning the party around after it slumped to a dismal defeat in 2019 under the left-wing leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

“I took over the Labour Party four and a half years ago. We’d just had the worst general election result since 1935. The pessimists were saying, ‘The Labour Party will never win a general election again.’ The optimists said, ‘Well you might, but it will take you 10 years,’” Starmer said.

“I said, ‘No, we’re going to do it in one parliamentary term. But we’ve got to be ruthless, we’ve got to be steely, we’re going to change the Labour Party, we’re going to turn it inside out and make sure it’s a party that always says: Country first, party second.’”

He said he had managed to pull his party back to the center ground, shunning the extremes.

“Brits are reasonable, tolerant – they don’t much like the extreme left, they don’t much like the extreme right. And we underestimate that,” he said. “One of the phrases I used in the election was we need a politics that trod more lightly on people’s lives. And that’s very important in Britain.”

Although he ruled out trying to rejoin the European Union, Starmer said he wanted to “reset” Britain’s relationship with the bloc. Starmer’s “number one mission,” he said, is to restore Britain to economic growth, which has virtually flatlined since the 2008 financial crisis

Starmer has softened his view on the British monarchy, having once talked about abolishing it, and said he was looking forward to his weekly audience with King Charles III, now he’s become prime minister.

“It is always valuable to listen to what he has to say. He’s incredibly interested in politics, in the affairs across the United Kingdom, and global affairs,” said Starmer. “They’re a really good frank exchange of views and long may they continue.”