Editor’s Note: Help is available if you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters.
In the US: Call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
Globally: The International Association for Suicide Prevention and Befrienders Worldwide have contact information for crisis centers around the world.

Japan has executed a man dubbed the “Twitter killer,” who was convicted of murdering and dismembering nine people, mostly women, in the country’s first use of capital punishment in nearly three years.

Takahiro Shiraishi, 34, was hanged Friday at the Tokyo Detention House. He was sentenced to death in 2020 after pleading guilty to killing the nine people – eight women and one man.

Shiraishi was arrested in October 2017 after police searched his home in the city of Zama in Kanagawa prefecture, on the outskirts of Tokyo, to investigate the disappearance of a 23-year-old woman who had expressed suicidal thoughts on social media, including Twitter, now known as X.

The high-profile mass murder case had gripped the nation for years and raised concerns over the use of social media.

The nine victims were aged between 15 and 26, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK and TV Asahi, which both cited court proceedings. The victims had posted online that they wanted to kill themselves, and were subsequently contacted by Shiraishi through social media platforms, NHK and TV Asahi reported.

Using a handle which loosely translates as “hangman,” Shiraishi invited them to his apartment in Zama, promising to help them die, the Jiji news agency reported, citing the indictment.

Shiraishi pleaded guilty to murdering the victims, saying in court that he had killed them to satisfy his own sexual desires, NHK and TV Asahi reported.

He was found guilty in December 2020 of murdering, raping and dismembering the nine victims, and storing their bodies in his apartment.

Shiraishi’s lawyer appealed the ruling to the Tokyo High Court, but he later withdrew the appeal and the sentence was finalized, NHK reported.

“This case, driven by selfish motives such as sexual and financial gratification, resulted in the deaths of nine individuals over two months – a deeply serious incident that has caused shock and anxiety across society. I understand it is an especially heartbreaking case for both the victims and their families,” Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki told reporters Friday at a press conference.

Shiraishi’s execution is the first the country has seen since July 2022, NHK reported.

In Japan, the death penalty is delivered by hanging, with execution dates not made public until after the penalty is carried out. Executions are shrouded in secrecy with little to no warning, and families and lawyers are usually notified only after the execution has taken place.

“The death sentence was finalized following a thorough trial process. After careful and deliberate consideration of all factors, I issued the execution order,” Suzuki said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

More than a third of the population of Tuvalu has applied to move to Australia, under a landmark visa scheme designed to help people escape rising sea levels.

The island nation – roughly halfway between Hawaii and Australia – is home to about 10,000 people, according to the latest government statistics, living across a clutch of tiny islets and atolls in the South Pacific.

With no part of its territory above six meters, it is one of the most at-risk places in the world to rising seas caused by climate change.

On June 16, Australia opened a roughly one-month application window for what it says is a one-of-a-kind visa offering necessitated by climate change. Under the new scheme, Australia will accept 280 visa winners from a random ballot between July and January 2026. The Tuvaluans will get permanent residency on arrival in Australia, with the right to work and access public healthcare and education.

“The opening of the Falepili Mobility Pathway delivers on our shared vision for mobility with dignity, by providing Tuvaluans the opportunity to live, study and work in Australia as climate impacts worsen,” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement.

According to Tuvalu’s Prime Minister Feleti Teo, more than half of Tuvalu will be regularly inundated by tidal surges by 2050. By 2100, 90% of his nation will be regularly under water, he says.

Fongafale, the nation’s capital, is the largest and most populated islet in Tuvalu’s main atoll, Funafuti. It has a runway-like strip of land just 65 feet (20 meters) wide in some places.

“You can put yourself in my situation, as the prime minister of Tuvalu, contemplating development, contemplating services for the basic needs of our people, and at the same time being presented with a very confronting and disturbing forecast,” Teo told the United Nations Oceans Conference this month in Nice, France.

“Internal relocation in Tuvalu is not an option, we are totally flat,” the prime minister said on June 12. “There is no option to move inland or move to higher ground, because there is no higher ground.”

The visa scheme is part of a broader pact signed between Australia and Tuvalu in 2023, which binds Australia to defending Tuvalu both militarily and against rising seas.

Tuvalu, which claims 900,000 square kilometers of the South Pacific, is considered by Canberra as a crucial player in its ongoing struggle with China for regional influence.

Recognition is something Australia has said it will guarantee for Tuvalu, even if nobody can live there in the future. “The statehood and sovereignty of Tuvalu will continue, and the rights and duties inherent thereto will be maintained, notwithstanding the impact of climate change-related sea-level rise,” their treaty reads.

In 2022, at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, Tuvalu announced that it sought to become the first nation in the world to move entirely online. The government has since developed a plan to “digitally recreate its land, archive its rich history and culture and move all government functions into a digital space.” Australia now recognizes Tuvalu’s “digital sovereignty,” which the country hopes will allow it to “retain its identity and continue to function as a state, even after its physical land is gone.”

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said last year his country shared a vision for a “peaceful, stable, prosperous and unified region.”

“It shows our Pacific partners that they can rely on Australia as a trusted and genuine partner.”

Australia’s support for the Pacific island nation has stood in stark contrast in recent months to US President Donald Trump’s administration, which has imposed sweeping crackdowns on climate policies and immigration.

Tuvalu is among a group of 36 countries that the Trump administration is looking to add to the current travel ban list, according to the Associated Press.

The ban fully restricts entry of nationals from 12 countries: Afghanistan; Myanmar, also known as Burma; Chad; Republic of the Congo; Equatorial Guinea; Eritrea; Haiti; Iran; Libya; Somalia; Sudan; and Yemen. People from seven countries also face partial restrictions: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

The 36 countries, including Tuvalu’s Pacific neighbors Tonga and Vanuatu, had been told to commit to improving vetting of travelers and take steps to address the status of their nationals who are in the United States illegally or face similar restrictions, the AP reported, citing a diplomatic cable sent by the State Department.

The “Manu Regia” – a formal invitation signed by the British monarch – was hand delivered to the White House by representatives of the British embassy in Washington last week.

Charles, 76, had initially suggested in a letter delivered to Trump in the Oval Office in February by the UK prime minister that the pair could first meet in Scotland at Dumfries House or Balmoral ahead of the grand official visit. However, it would seem that scheduling challenges have taken that option off the table.

It has been said that the logistical reasons preventing the private meeting from taking place before the state visit were entirely understood and appreciated by all parties.

The palace’s confirmation of the upcoming trip means that formal planning for Trump’s state visit is now underway.

The exact dates have not yet been announced but September is being touted by many as most likely.

The late Queen Elizabeth II previously hosted Trump for a three-day state visit to the UK in 2019 during his first term in office.

Generally, second-term presidents are offered lunch or tea with the monarch at Windsor Castle. That was the case for Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. But the offer of an “unprecedented” second state visit was extended on the king’s behalf by Keir Starmer during a visit to DC four months ago, which Trump enthusiastically accepted.

Kenyan police have fired teargas and water cannon to disperse protesters as thousands took to the streets to mark the one-year anniversary of anti-government demonstrations that left dozens dead.

The government regulator, the Communications Authority of Kenya, has ordered all television and radio stations in the country to stop broadcasting live coverage of protests of the youth-led march, which began Wednesday.

Thousands of people demonstrated in the capital, Nairobi, the coastal city of Mombasa, and other towns to mark the protest anniversary.

In Nairobi, roads leading to the Kenyan Parliament building and the president’s office were barricaded ahead of the demonstrations.

Last June, many were killed by security forces outside Parliament, drawing nationwide outrage.

The demonstrations in 2024 forced the withdrawal of a controversial finance bill that raised taxes.

However, many of Kenya’s youth are still enraged over several cases of alleged police brutality, including the death of a teacher in police custody and the shooting of an unarmed street vendor.

Demonstrators were also repelled with teargas and water cannon trucks in the capital – reminiscent of last year’s dramatic scenes.

Citizen TV posted a video on X showing injured individuals being wheeled into a Nairobi hospital.

In Mombasa, some protesters were arrested and hauled into police trucks, another video showed.

One person is reported to have been killed during demonstrations in eastern Kenya’s Machakos County on Wednesday morning, according to Citizen TV.

A former jewelry store manager in the United Kingdom was sentenced to 28 months in prison after posting selfies wearing stolen merchandise and sending them to her coworkers, Humberside Police said in a statement.

Lucy Roberts, 39, frequently took jewelry home with her during the year she worked at a high-end shop, police said, telling suspicious coworkers she “was conducting work at home and sorting stock for the workshop.” The police statement does not name the store.

It was only when Roberts quit and went on vacation that her colleagues realized where the jewelry went, the statement says. She began sending her former coworkers selfies from a cruise, decked out in items taken from the shop.

“Without a care in the world, dripping in diamonds, thinking she had deceived everybody,” Detective Sgt. Krista Wilkinson said in the police news release.

Police found “thousands of pounds worth of jewelry strewn around in boxes beneath the bed and in cupboards,” after searching her home, the statement says.

In total, Roberts stole more than $170,000 in diamonds, gold, silver, “bespoke jewelry” and cash from her employer, according to Wilkinson.

Police said Roberts initially denied she had stolen any stock from her employer, insisting she had borrowed the some of the jewelry from a coworker and that they planted the other items in her bags, but she later entered a guilty plea for theft by an employee, receiving 28 months in prison.

Roberts was arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport, according to police. They took her into custody after finding her “wearing a substantial amount of stolen jewelry” with more pilfered merchandise in her suitcase, according to the statement.

Body camera footage from the arrest shows Roberts removing more jewelry “as she was escorted through Heathrow Airport … in an attempt to dispose of it,” police added.

The store where Roberts formerly worked said it is “pleased to finally have closure on the matter after several years,” according to the news release.

Ecuador’s most wanted man and leader of the Los Choneros gang, Jose Adolfo Macias, was captured on Wednesday, according to the country’s President Daniel Noboa.

Macias, known as “Fito,” escaped from a prison in Guayaquil in January 2024 while serving a 34-year sentence for homicide and narcotics trafficking.

His escape unleashed a wave of violence in Ecuador, prompting Noboa to declare an internal armed conflict and designate Los Choneros and 21 other criminal groups operating in the country as terror organizations.

In February 2024, the US Department of the Treasury sanctioned Los Choneros and Macias over their drug trafficking and violent activities in Ecuador and across the continent.

Noboa said Ecuador is working to extradite him to the US and is awaiting a response from American officials.

This is a developing story and will be updated.