​ Whale swims off sandbank after big German rescue effort on Baltic coast. 31 minutes ago. Paul KirbyEurope digital editor. EPA. A humpback whale has freed itself from a sandbank near the German coastal city of Lübeck, after a series of rescue attempts.. Rescue teams now hope the whale will swim out of the shallow waters of Lübeck Bay and into the wider sea.. Reports at first light that the whale had swum off the sandbank were confirmed by Stephanie Gross from the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research, who said a colleague was in an inflatable boat alongside the mammal.. The whale, which is 10-12m (32-40ft) in length, was first spotted stranded near the resort of Timmendorfer Strand last Monday. Several attempts were made to free the humpback during the week.. Eventually, two diggers were deployed on Thursday to dredge a channel for the whale to swim into deeper water.. Biologist Robert Marc Lehmann, who had tried to coax the whale into the channel on Thursday, said the mammal was not yet safe and it was crucial that it remained in open water and eventually swam out into the wider Baltic Sea.. Stephanie Gross said early on Friday that the whale was being escorted by several boats about 300m off the coast.. Rescuers attempt to save stranded humpback whale off German coast. Germany  

​ South Africa’s exclusion from G7 summit no surprise, says Ramaphosa. 1 hour ago. Nobuhle Simelane,Johannesburgand. Wycliffe Muia. Reuters. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has downplayed reports that his invitation to the forthcoming G7 summit in France has been withdrawn, saying non-attendance by a country outside the bloc should surprise no-one.. Reports on Thursday claimed the US had put huge pressure on France to rescind Ramaphosa’s invitation to the summit scheduled for June. They claimed US President Donald Trump had threatened to boycott the summit if the South African leader attended.. “The invitation to the G7 does not mean that you’re being snubbed if you’re not invited or you’re being ignored,” said Ramaphosa.. France has, however, denied yielding to any US pressure, saying it had decided to invite Kenya this time.. France, which holds the presidency of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialised nations, said on Thursday it would host leaders from South Korea and three other non-member countries – India, Brazil and Kenya – at its annual summit in Évian-les-Bains.. It said the invitations were part of efforts to “correct global economic imbalances”.. A South African official said on Thursday it had been excluded from the summit after initially being invited, citing “sustained pressure from the US”.. “They couldn’t risk missing a key member of the G7, hence the withdrawal of their invitation, which President [Emmanuel] Macron personally extended to President Ramaphosa last year during the G20 summit here in Johannesburg,” said Vincent Magwenya, the presidency spokesperson.. But a few hours later, Ramaphosa said that according to “his information” there had been “no pressure from any country”.. “So many countries around the world don’t get invited to the G7, and we are not a member. When we do go, we are invited, and we take a message there,” said Ramaphosa, who has previously attended several G7 summits as a guest of the host nation.. He added that South Africa had not attended every G7 summit and that if they do not attend the June summit, “it should come as no surprise to anyone”.. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told the AFP news agency that his country had “not yielded to any pressure” but had opted for a “streamlined G7,” inviting Kenya instead to help prepare the France-Africa summit in Nairobi in May.. “We have not asked the French to exclude South Africa from the G7 Summit,” a State Department official told the agency.. A White House official told Reuters that the decision to invite ​Kenya came after talks among G7 members.. Macron is due to visit Kenya in May for the two-day Africa-France summit.. Relations between the US and South Africa have deteriorated since Trump took office last year, with the two sides clashing over trade, diplomacy and South Africa’s strategic partnerships.. Trump has been openly critical of Ramaphosa’s government, accusing it of failing to protect the country’s white minority and criticis  

​ Nepal swears in ex-rapper as new prime minister. 1 hour ago. Kelly Ngand. Koh Ewe. AFP via Getty Images. Rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shahhas been sworn in as Nepal’s prime minister after a landslide victory in the country’s first election since last year’s youth-led protests.. The 35-year-old’s rise marks an important shift in Nepali politics. His promise of change resonated with an electorate that was angry at corruption, nepotism and elite rule.. Before taking office on Friday, Shah, popularly known as Balen, released a song filled with optimism about Nepal’s future.. “Undivided Nepali, this time history is being made,” he rapped in a track that garnered more than two million views within hours of its release.. The song harks back to his roots in the underground rap scene, where he used musicto call out corruption and other social problems in Nepal.. After just three years as mayor of the capital Kathmandu, Shah teamed up with the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) as its prime-ministerial candidate, scoring a decisive victory in general elections this month.. His supporters see him as a symbol of change and a break from the failings of Nepal’s old guard. But some question whether the four-year-old RSP is capable of making good on its bold pledges.. The rebellious rapper. Shah was born in 1990 in Naradevi, Kathmandu, and is his parents’ youngest son. His father is an Ayurvedic practitioner and his mother stayed at home to bring up the family. Shah is married and lives with his wife and daughter.. After leaving school he graduated with engineering degrees in Kathmandu and later in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.. In 2013, he shot to fame after winning a popular rap battle in Nepal, with sharp verses that carried the frustration of a generation that felt suppressed and abandoned.. Shah went on to release several popular songs which criticised corruption and social inequality in the Himalayan nation. He cut a distinctive figure in the music videos with his trademark square black sunglasses, a black blazer and black trousers.. One of his best-known hits, Balidan, has amassed 14m views on YouTube.. The song title means sacrifice, and part of its lyrics go: “While we sell our identity abroad government employees get 30k salary and have properties in 30 different places. Who will pay the debt of people working seven seas away?”. In 2022, the political newbie won Kathmandu’s mayoral race by a landslide as an independent candidate, triumphing over parties which had dominated elections for decades.. His tenure as mayor was marked by efforts to clean up the city, preserve indigenous heritage, and a crackdown on corruption. He also started a controversial campaign to bulldoze illegal buildings – which helped ease traffic but also drew criticism from street vendors and residents in informal settlements.. The rise to power. Shah’s message continued to resonate with the country’s youth during last September’s protests, in which 77 people died –  

​ Panic buying prompts PM to reassure Australians over fuel supply. 11 minutes ago. Helen LivingstoneSydney. Simon AtkinsonCairns. Getty. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has sought to reassure Australians that the country’s fuel supply remains “secure” as prices soar and following reports of panic buying and petrol stations running dry since the start of the Iran war.. “The longer this war goes on, the greater the impact will be. But we continue to act to prepare and shield Australians from the worst of it,” Albanese told reporters on Friday.. There have been reports of truck drivers and other motorists stranded, while businesses say rising costs are affecting their viability.. The government says demand and distribution issues have caused shortages rather than supply, which it says remains at the same level as before the war began.. “For the next few weeks, Australia’s supply of petrol and diesel and oil will be the same, if not higher, than it normally would be,” Energy Minister Chris Bowen said alongside Albanese.. In Cairns, Queensland, the BBC found a small independent garage that tells a pretty typical story in Australia. It has run out of unleaded petrol and the price of diesel is 85% higher than it was before the war in Iran started.. In New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, one in seven retailers say they are out of at least one type of fuel.. Australia has experienced steep price rises since the US and Israel attacked Iran and the Strait of Hormuz was closed, causing the price of oil to jump.. The average retail price of petrol reached 238 Australian cents ($1.64; £1.23) a litre as of Sunday compared to 171 cents four weeks earlier, according to the Australian Institute of Petroleum.. The price of diesel in Sydney has meanwhile risen to the 314.5 cents a litre as of Thursday, according to the National Roads and Motorists’ Association (NRMA), its highest ever price.. Hundreds of petrol stations across the country have reported running out of at least one type of fuel this week.. But shortages are due to people changing their buying habits, NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury told the BBC. “People are filling up jerry cans of fuel and storing it in their garages,” he said.. “We’re hearing increasingly of transport companies telling their drivers that if you’re half full and you see diesel, buy it.”. Independent petrol stations were struggling to get fuel because they do not buy on long-term contracts which are prioritised by the oil companies, he added.. Albanese is expected to hold an emergency national cabinet meeting on Monday to work out a response to manage the fuel crisis.. The government, which has so far ruled out any form of rationing, has also sought to alleviate shortages by releasing oil from the national stockpile and lowering fuel standards.. Friday’s statements came a day after a cyclone in western Australia triggered outages at two of the world’s largest LNG plants, adding further pressure to the global market.. The  

​ Two Cuba-bound aid ships missing after leaving Mexico. 3 hours ago. Will Grant,BBC’s Mexico, Central America and Cuba correspondentand. Harry Sekulich. Reuters. A search and rescue operation isunder way in the Caribbean for two missing sailboats filled with humanitarian supplies travelling from Mexico to Cuba.. Mexico has deployed naval teams and military search aircraft to locate the Friendship and Tigger Moth, which were carrying at least nine crew members, the Mexican navy said in a statement.. The vessels had been expected to arrive in Havana on Tuesday or Wednesday, but there has been no communication from them and no confirmation of their arrival, the navy said.. The Mexican navy said it was committed to using all of the resources at its disposal to locate the boats and ensure the safety of the crews.. The two missing ships departed Isla Mujeres, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo on 20 March.. The nine crew members are from Poland, France, Cuba and the US. Mexico said it has established contact with maritime rescue coordination centres from each country along with their diplomatic representatives.. “The captains and crews are experienced sailors, and both vessels are equipped with appropriate safety systems and signalling equipment,” the convoy’s spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters.. “We are co-operating fully with the authorities and remain confident in the crews’ ability to reach Havana safely.”. There has been no comment on the missing boats by the Cuban government.. Earlier in the week, the Cuban government widely celebrated and warmly received another boat that had carried 14 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the island.. The vessel, dubbed “Granma 2.0” after the boat in which Fidel Castro returned to Cuba to launch the Cuban Revolution in the 1950s, delivered solar panels, medicines, baby formula, bicycles and food.. Volunteers and NGOs have largely spearheaded efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to Cuba since January, when US President Donald Trump’s fuel embargo on the Communist-run country began.. The United Nation has since warned of “dire” supply shortages, with more than 50,000 surgeries cancelled in Cuba amid electricity supply constraints.. Cuba has relied heavily on Mexico’s humanitarian shipments over recent weeks, as the country struggles through multiple nationwide blackouts under the US energy blockade.. Trump has increased pressure on Cuba since US forces seized former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January.. Venezuela had previously provided large quantities of oil to Cuba, its regional ally.. Last week, Trump mulled the possibility of a “friendly takeover’ of Cuba later saying it would be an “honour”. In response, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio insisted that “the political system of Cuba is not up for negotiation”.. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel announced early stages of US-Cuba negotiations had begun although their progress is unclear.. BBC in Cuba as island plunged into