Tuesday marks 100 days since 68-year-old Laila Soueif started a hunger strike in a plea to the UK government to free her son from imprisonment in Egypt, according to her family.

Alaa Abd El-Fattah was a leading activist in the country’s 2011 uprising. He has been imprisoned for much of the past decade, and in 2019 was sentenced to a further five years in prison for allegedly spreading false news after sharing a Facebook post highlighting human rights abuses in Egyptian jails.

Both Soueif and Abd El-Fattah hold dual Egyptian and British citizenship.

Soueif began her hunger strike in September, standing in front of the British Foreign Affairs office in protest at the lack of progress in freeing her son. She has been surviving on black coffee, herbal tea and three packets of rehydration salts a day, according to a statement from her family.

She is currently in Cairo, in hopes of meeting her son for a 20-minute visit on January 8. The visit is expected to take place through a glass barrier at a prison located an hour outside the Egyptian capital, the statement said.

“Unfortunately, the government seems to be waiting for me to be hospitalized before they act decisively to secure my son’s freedom. We have been lucky that my body has been resilient, but we will soon run out of time,” Soueif said in the statement.

The British government has previously said it is working to secure Abd El Fattah’s release. In 2022, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak raised the imprisoned activist’s case during a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the sidelines of the COP27, a Downing Street spokesperson said at the time.

Lake Naivasha, northwest of Nairobi, Kenya is becoming increasingly unnavigable. Water hyacinth, the world’s most widespread invasive species, is blanketing the lake, choking its fish and leaving people stranded.

“Sometimes it becomes very serious,” says Simon Macharia, a local fisherman, about the weed problem. “There was this incident where fishermen were trapped by hyacinth inside the lake for three days. We had to seek help from the government (who) used a helicopter to rescue them.”

Macharia says that some days he’s simply unable to fish on the lake because of the plant. When he does, he can lose his nets underneath the floating weed, incurring costs while preventing him from earning that day. Water hyacinths also cover the surface, cutting off sunlight, outcompeting other plant species and starving water of oxygen. That means there are fewer fish for Macharia to catch in the first place.

The problem is so vast it can be seen from space. It also threatens the cut off the flower industry in the wetlands surrounding the 150 square kilometer (58 square mile) lake.

What’s happening in Lake Naivasha is a story repeated all over the world. Water hyacinths are native to South America, but were introduced as an exotic ornamental to many other countries. They’ve since taken over freshwater environments and are labeled an alien invasive species on every other continent aside from Antarctica.

As well as their impact on biodiversity and livelihoods, the floating plant can clog hydroelectric and irrigation systems, meaning that one does not need to live in their proximity to be affected. It’s the highest-profile example of an invasive aquatic plant crisis that has cost the global economy tens of billions of dollars historically, and now more than $700 million annually.

The problem with water hyacinths is particularly acute in Africa. A 2024 report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), a body founded by the UN Environment Programme, described the plant’s “exponential expansion,” with land use changes and climate change adding potential fuel to the fire.

Taskforces from multiple organizations have attempted to find solutions. Introducing weevils that attack the plant can restrict its spread and even cause it to lose buoyancy. There are also proposals to harvest the water hyacinth and combine it with municipal waste and cow dung to produce biofuel. Now a Kenyan company is addressing the problem as well as the country’s plastic pollution issue by turning the invasive plant into a bioplastic.

HyaPak Ecotech Limited, founded by Joseph Nguthiru, began life as a final year project by the former Egerton University civil and environmental engineering student. Nguthiru and his classmates experienced the problem of water hyacinths firsthand on a field trip to Lake Naivasha in 2021, when their boat became trapped for five hours. They returned determined to do something about it.

Nguthiru’s bioplastic is made from dried water hyacinth combined with binders and additives, which is then mixed and shaped.

The product, which biodegrades over a few months, was first used as an alternative for plastic packaging. In 2017, Kenya introduced a law banning single-use plastic bags, and in 2020 all single-use plastics were banned from protected areas. The results have been mixed; with homegrown manufacturing banned, there have been reports that single-use plastic bags have been smuggled into Kenya from neighboring countries. “The problem behind (the ban) is that there were no proper alternatives that were produced,” argued Nguthiru.

His product is “killing two birds with one stone,” he believes. “Most single-use plastic products tend to have a lifespan of about 10 minutes after they come out of supermarket shelves. So why not make them biodegradable?”

HyaPak has gained widespread attention, winning the Youth category at the East Africa Climate Action Awards, a prize at UNESCO’s World Engineering Day Hackathon, and a Prototype for Humanity Award 2023 announced at the COP28 climate conference. Nguthiru was also named a 2023 Obama Foundation Africa Leader.

Fishermen including Macharia are now harvesting the invasive plant on Lake Naivasha, then drying and selling it to HyaPak. It’s a useful alternative income, he said, especially on days when the plant has covered his net, preventing it from catching fish.

Macharia said he hopes HyaPak will soon be able to scale up its activities, allowing the lake’s surrounding community to harvest greater quantities of water hyacinth. “If Joseph could get funding, I think he can buy larger quantities and at least many people will get work,” he said.

One project that could help HyaPak grow is its partnership with the Kenyan government to use its products as part of a flagship reforestation scheme.

According to Global Forest Watch, Kenya lost 14% of its tree cover between 2001 and 2023. In late 2022, Kenya’s Forestry and Land Restoration Acceleration program committed to planting 15 billion seedlings by 2032 on degraded forest and rangeland. Doing so would bring the nation’s tree coverage to over 30 percent, said the government.

All those seedlings need bags in which to grow and be transported, and HyaPak’s seedling bags are part of the plan, said Nguthiru.

A plastic-based seedling bag has a carbon footprint of 1.6-1.7 kilograms, according to Nguthiru, and it is disposed of when the seedling is planted. HyaPak’s alternative is planted with the seedling and biodegrades, releasing nutrients including nitrogen. What’s more, during the seedling’s first months, the bioplastic slows water seeping into the surrounding soil, reducing the amount of watering required.

“You offset the carbon emissions that are going to be produced, you’ve used less water, you’ve added more nutrients … it’s a win-win situation for communities, for the planet and for yourself as a farmer,” Nguthiru argued.

HyaPak is already exporting to the US and Germany and plans to establish franchises in India and El Salvador – two countries with freshwater blighted by water hyacinth.

Nguthiru wants to create the quickest route for the world to benefit from his innovation, “Even if that means open-sourcing some of this, so that the product and development and advancement of biodegradable plastic can go really fast, so be it.”

Beyond water hyacinth, he thinks urgent action is needed to tackle the climate crisis: “Previous generations have failed us, and the ones that are coming afterwards are looking up to us. We are the ones who are going to live with a planet that’s beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius (global temperature rise),” he said.

“It’s up to my generation to come up with solutions for the climate crisis, because if we don’t do it, we are not going to do it at all.”

Nearly a week after Shamsud-din Jabbar rammed a pickup truck into a busy crowd celebrating New Year’s in New Orleans, killing 14, details of how he planned the attack are becoming clearer.

As investigators piece together his movements and motivations, it appears Jabbar – whom officials have said acted alone and was radicalized – was preparing the Bourbon Street attack for months. He visited the city multiple times in the months prior. He brought firearms and homemade explosive devices with him. He rented a home on Airbnb and attempted to burn it down in what officials believe was an attempt to hide criminal evidence.

Here’s what we know about how Jabbar planned his attack.

He scouted the city months before the attack

Jabbar visited New Orleans at least twice in the months prior to his attack, in October and November, FBI New Orleans Special Agent in Charge Lyonel Myrthil said at a Sunday news conference.

The attacker stayed at an Airbnb in New Orleans beginning October 30 for at least two days, Myrthil said.

During that trip, to scout the scene, Jabbar used Meta smart glasses, according to the FBI. The smart glasses can take photos and video, and they use artificial intelligence to answer user questions about their surroundings.

Jabbar wore the glasses to record video while bicycling through the French Quarter, Myrthil said, adding he wore them again during the New Year’s attack but didn’t activate them.

Jabbar also visited New Orleans on November 10, Myrthil said, “but we are still piecing together the details of that trip.”

He rented an Airbnb, and set fire to it

Jabbar rented an Airbnb in New Orleans’ St. Roch neighborhood about 1.5 miles away from the scene of the Bourbon Street attack, officials have said.

He set fire to the rental about 15 minutes after midnight on New Year’s Day, just before leaving to carry out the attack, officials said.

Officials were able to pinpoint the moment Jabbar set the house fire by using the home’s thermostat, said Joshua Jackson, the special agent in charge of the New Orleans field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Throughout Jabbar’s stay at the Airbnb, New Orleans had been experiencing cold winter temperatures, and heat was running in the home. But at 12:17 a.m. on New Year’s Day, Jackson said, the “thermostat converted over from heat to cool.”

“It changed roughly two minutes after he left, because the thermostat indicated that the temperature was rising inside the residence and it tried to keep up with the fire that was growing inside,” Jackson said.

Officials believe Jabbar was hoping to burn the entire house down, hiding the evidence of his crimes.

He used an open flame in the home’s linen closet area next to the washer and dryer, setting half gallons of gasoline in the hallway and pouring accelerant in different rooms throughout the house, according to Jackson.

But the fire ran out of oxygen and fuel, smothering itself before it was able to reach the accelerant in the other rooms.

Neighbors smelled smoke at 5:18 a.m., Jackson said, and contacted 911. The fire department responded to put out the “smoldering fire,” he said.

In the house, they found a type of silencer for a firearm, along with explosive material, Jackson said.

He constructed IEDs

After Jabbar departed the Airbnb shortly after midnight, he placed two improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, in coolers on Bourbon Street. He placed one in a rolling cooler and the other in a bucket cooler and left them in the street.

Ultimately, neither of them detonated.

Officials believe Jabbar constructed the IEDs using commonly found explosives in the United States, Jackson said. But there was something somewhat “unique” about the IEDs Jabbar constructed – and it speaks to his inexperience, Jackson said.

The materials need a detonator to be set off, but because Jabbar didn’t have access to one, “he used an electric match in its place to try to set off the explosive material,” Jackson said. It didn’t work, and the devices never exploded.

“That is just indicative of his inexperience and lack of understanding how that material might be set off,” Jackson said.

He brought supplies, including coolers and firearms, with him

On December 31, before entering Louisiana, Jabbar visited a gun store in Texas, then another business where he bought one of the ice chests he would use later to hide the IEDs he constructed, the FBI’s Myrthil said.

A neighbor of Jabbar in Texas said he saw the man load a white truck in front of his home with “light stuff” on New Year’s Eve morning and that Jabbar said he was moving to Louisiana to start a new job.

Mumtaz Bashir, who lives with his wife and five children next door to Jabbar’s residence in North Houston, told reporters he believes the truck had been there for one night.

“I asked him if he needs hands for moving, help him out, as a neighbor, do you need any help for moving things around? He said, ‘I’m OK,’” Bashir said, describing the items he was loading as light and “hand-held.”

Bashir said Jabbar told him he had gotten an IT-related job in Louisiana.

Among the items recovered in the investigation is a .308 caliber semi-automatic rifle that Jabbar bought through a private, legal sale November 19 in Texas, Jackson said Sunday. The person who sold the rifle didn’t know Jabbar or that he was planning the attack, Jackson added.

Officials have also recovered a 9mm semi-automatic pistol, he said.

Investigators also located “privately-made silencers,” Jackson said, but he explained technicians are still trying to determine whether they can reduce sound enough to be officially classified as silencers.

One of these devices was on the rifle Jabbar used “in an attempt to muffle the sound of that rifle as he fired it,” Jackson said. The other was found inside the Airbnb along with the explosive material, he said.

He rented a 6,000-pound truck

The attacker rented an electric Ford F-150 pickup truck in Houston using the private vehicle rental website Turo and picked it up December 30.

FBI officials estimated he entered Louisiana on New Year’s Eve around 2:30 p.m.

The rented vehicle was seen in Gonzalez, Louisiana – about 55 miles northwest of New Orleans – around 9 p.m., Myrthil said.

Within an hour, home camera footage showed him unloading the white truck outside the Airbnb in New Orleans. He had driven from Houston to New Orleans by himself, and was the only person seen entering and leaving the Airbnb, officials said.

Shortly after the clock struck midnight, marking the first hours of 2025, Jabbar set fire to the house, drove to the French Quarter, and placed the coolers containing his homemade IEDs on the street.

Around 3:15 a.m., he drove up Canal Street, took a sharp right onto Bourbon Street, and rammed the 6,000-pound truck into a crowd celebrating the new year. Fourteen people were killed and dozens were injured.

Venezuela’s exiled opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia has urged the Venezuelan military to recognize him as their commander-in-chief and “put an end to the leadership” of President Nicolás Maduro, whose government is resisting calls to give up power.

González’s message, relayed in a video posted on social media Sunday, was his clearest appeal yet for the military to support his intention to take the presidency, which he insists he won in the disputed July election against incumbent Maduro.

Maduro is due to be sworn in for his third term in power on January 10, but various countries including the United States have questioned the validity of the official election result and the US has said it recognizes González as the rightful president-elect.

With that date looming ever nearer, and the Venezuelan opposition calling for street protests, tensions appear to be coming to a head. On Monday, Maduro’s minister of internal affairs claimed Venezuela had arrested over 100 people from several countries including the US who he alleged were linked to “acts of destabilization.” Without detailing or offering evidence for his claims, Cabello suggested some of those in custody were linked to the Venezuelan opposition. In a separate move, Venezuela announced it would cut diplomatic ties with Paraguay, after its President Santiago Peña reiterated his recognition of González.

The Venezuelan opposition leader fled to Spain in September to seek asylum after Maduro’s government issued a warrant for his arrest. He is currently visiting the US and on Monday visited the White House.

In his video message Sunday, González said Maduro had “distorted the principles” of the military and called for the armed forces to recognize his authority from January 10.

“Our National Armed Forces is called to be a guarantor of sovereignty and respect for the popular will. It is our duty to act with honor, merit and conscience,” González said.

Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López rejected the call and said Monday that the Bolivarian National Armed Forces of Venezuela (FANB) would recognize Maduro as president.

“Mr. González Urrutia does not understand that the FANB is a pristine institution, which owes itself to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and does not obey the designs or mandates of other imperial powers,” Padrino said in a message on national television surrounded by the high military command.

On Sunday, the president of the National Assembly of Venezuela Jorge Rodríguez reiterated the Venezuelan government’s position that González would face arrest if he returns to the country.

The arrest warrant issued against the opposition leader in September accuses him of terrorism, conspiracy and other crimes related to the election – charges González denies.

On January 2, the Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigations Corps of Venezuela offered a reward of $100,000 for information leading to his arrest.

Support for González, protests against Maduro

González is currently embarked on an international tour across the Americas, where he has been gathering support from allies in a show of defiance against Maduro.

At the weekend, González met with the presidents of Argentina and Uruguay in South America.

On Monday, he met with US President Joe Biden in Washington, telling reporters he had a fruitful and long conversation with him at the White House.

“Both leaders agreed there is nothing more essential to the success of democracy than respecting the will of the people, as expressed through a transparent and accountable electoral process, and that Gonzalez Urrutia’s campaign victory should be honored through a peaceful transfer back to democratic rule,” the White House said.

González said he has also been in contact with the team of President-elect Donald Trump but did not expand on their conversations. He declined to comment on remarks from Sen. Bernie Moreno suggesting that Trump planned to negotiate with Maduro.

González said on X he had met in Washington with Trump’s pick for US National Security adviser, Mike Waltz, saying he “assured us that the United States, and the world, will be alert about what happens in our country.”

González’s fellow opposition leader María Corina Machado – who is also in hiding – has called for supporters to demonstrate in the streets of Venezuela and other parts of the world on January 9, one day before Maduro is set to be sworn in to install a new government.

Both Maduro and González have previously pledged to inaugurate their own governments on January 10.

In calling for the January 9 protests, Corina Machado said Maduro would not give up power on his own and that Venezuelans “must make him leave.”

She asked those attending the demonstrations to wear clothing with the three colors of the Venezuelan flag: yellow, blue and red.

“This January 9th, EVERYONE in the streets, in Venezuela and around the world,” she tweeted. González echoed the call, writing on X: “Everyone in the streets of our beloved country!”

Minister claims ‘mercenaries’ arrested

González’s appeal to the military came as Venezuelan authorities announced they had arrested at least 125 people – among them foreigners from several countries including the United States – who were accused of being “mercenaries” involved in “destabilization actions.”

The Minister of Internal Affairs, Justice and Peace Diosdado Cabello made the claim at a press conference on Monday, during which he alleged some of those in custody had ties to opposition leaders. He also said weapons had been seized during the arrests.

However, he did not present evidence for either of those claims and did not offer further detail on what those arrested are accused of.

It is not clear when the arrests were made.

Cabello said that in addition to Venezuelan citizens the 125 included people from Colombia, the US, Peru, Spain, Italy, Uruguay, Ukraine, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Lebanon, Albania, the Netherlands, Israel, Germany, Argentina, Guyana and Yemen.

Last year, Venezuela claimed it had arrested six foreigners, including a US Navy SEAL, who it alleged were involved in a plot to kill the country’s President Nicolas Maduro. It is not clear whether these arrests are included in the 125 figure. In his briefing Monday, Cabello warned the Venezuelan government would have a “forceful” response against anyone involved in “destabilizing actions” against it.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has criticized those “spreading lies and misinformation” about child sex grooming gangs in the United Kingdom, responding to an online storm whipped up by Elon Musk.

“Those that are spreading lies and misinformation, as far and as wide as possible – they’re not interested in victims, they’re interested in themselves,” Starmer told reporters Monday.

For days, Musk – the world’s richest man and the owner of X – has used his social media platform to dredge up a years-long scandal over historic child sex abuse in parts of England.

In one post, Musk called on King Charles III to dissolve parliament and order new elections in Britain. In another, he called for Starmer’s safeguarding minister, Jess Philips, to be imprisoned, calling her “pure evil” and “a wicked creature.” On Monday, he also said Starmer should be in prison.

“We’ve seen this playbook many times, whipping up of intimidation and threats of violence, hoping that the media will amplify it,” Starmer said.

“When the poison of the far right leads to serious threats to Jess Phillips and others, then in my book, a line has been crossed,” he added.

Starmer said he enjoys “the cut-and-thrust of politics,” but said these debates must “be based on facts and truth, not on lies.”

He also criticized Conservative politicians – some of whom were in government during the grooming scandal – for “jumping on the bandwagon” and being “so desperate for attention that they’re prepared to debase themselves and their country.”

British lawmaker Ed Davey urged the UK government on Monday to summon the US ambassador over Musk’s comments.

“People have had enough of Elon Musk interfering with our country’s democracy when he clearly knows nothing about Britain. It’s time to summon the US ambassador to ask why an incoming US official is suggesting the UK government should be overthrown,” Davey, who serves as the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the third largest party in the UK, said in a post on X.

Davey stated that the American ambassador should convey to the US government that those at a senior level need to be “very careful about how they comment on UK affairs, whether they’re the richest man in the world or anyone else.”

Musk has accused Starmer of being “complicit in the rape of Britain” for failing to thwart grooming gangs while he was director of public prosecutions (DPP). Starmer staunchly defended his record as head of the DPP on Monday, saying he changed “the entire approach” that had stopped victims from being heard, and had “the highest number of child sexual abuse cases being prosecuted on record.”

In a 2014 report, it was revealed that about 1,400 children had been abused by gangs of men in the northern English town of Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. The far-right has long capitalized on the scandal, pointing to the South Asian ethnicities of the majority of the gangs’ perpetrators.

Starmer’s government recently rejected a national inquiry into the gangs, citing a string of existing inquiries into the issue and a 2022 report, the findings of which are still being implemented.

Following his success in helping to re-elect Donald Trump in the United States, Musk has increasingly inserted himself into the political discourse of other countries.

Last month, Musk endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, ahead of federal elections to be held in February. As well as a string of posts on social media, Musk penned a weekend op-ed for a major German newspaper, explaining his support for the party, which has been accused of resurrecting Nazi-era ideology and slogans.

In response, the German government accused Musk of “trying to influence” the election. Asked how to respond to Musk’s posts, Olaf Scholz, the embattled German chancellor, told German media: “Don’t feed the troll.”

Musk has also called insistently for new elections in the UK, despite the fact the last election was held just six months ago. He has backed the populist party Reform UK and on Sunday called for its leader Nigel Farage to step down, saying he “does not have what it takes” to lead.

Although Musk did not immediately endorse another candidate, he has previously pushed for the release of Tommy Robinson, an imprisoned far-right agitator. Robinson has previously led far-right parties in the UK and has a swelling social media following.

Speaking Monday, Starmer slammed those “cheerleading” Robinson, who was jailed for 18 months in October after he admitted to being in contempt of court by repeating false accusations about a Syrian refugee.

“They’re supporting a man who went to prison for nearly collapsing a grooming case,” Starmer said of Robinson’s supporters. He said this showed that “they’re not interested in victims, they’re interested in themselves.”

Other European leaders have become increasingly troubled by Musk’s meddling in the politics of other countries. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store on Monday called this a “worrying” development.

French President Emmanuel Macron also expressed disbelief at Musk’s conduct.

“If we had been told the owner of the largest social media network would support an international reactionary movement and directly intervene in elections, including Germany, who would have believed it? This is the world we live in and in which we have to conduct diplomacy,” Macron told French ambassadors in Paris on Monday.