An Italian scientist has been found dead in Colombia, according to local authorities, after several pieces of a human body were discovered lying on a path in the coastal city of Santa Marta on Sunday.

City police said their investigation showed that a bracelet found on the remains belonged to Alessandro Coatti, a biologist who had recently embarked on a trip through South America. More remains were later found at two other locations around the city.

Coatti had been staying at an establishment in the city and had presumably been visiting the scenic shoreline Tayrona area on April 5, police said. But what happened to him remains the subject of an urgent investigation by local authorities.

“At present there is no further detail about what happened; it is under investigation,” read information provided by the Colombian prosecutor’s office on Thursday. “It is not yet known what occurred or where.”

Only three pieces of his body have been recovered, it also said.

Santa Marta mayor Carlos Pinedo Cuello has vowed to find those responsible; in a public notice on Monday, the city described Coatti’s death as a homicide and announced a 50 million peso (approximately US$11,300) reward for information that would help Colombian authorities.

Coatti had worked in London for the Royal Society of Biology (RSB) for eight years before leaving the organization in 2024 to travel South America, the organization said.

“Ale was funny, warm, intelligent, loved by everyone he worked with, and will be deeply missed by all who knew and worked with him. Our thoughts and best wishes go out to his friends and family at this truly awful time,” the RSB said in a statement, calling him a “passionate and dedicated” scientist who led the group’s animal science work.

Rome’s chief prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi said Coatti had visited Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador before travelling through Colombia, alone, according to Italian state broadcaster RAI.

Prince Harry met with war victims on Thursday in an unannounced visit to Ukraine as part of his ongoing work with wounded veterans, a spokesperson said.

Harry visited the Superhumans Center, an orthopedic clinic in Lviv that treats and rehabilitates wounded military personnel and civilians, to see top-notch services provided in a country in the midst of war. The center provides prosthetics, reconstructive surgery and psychological help free of charge.

The Duke of Sussex, who served 10 years in the British Army, has made helping injured soldiers one of his most prominent causes. He founded the Invictus Games in 2014 to offer wounded veterans the challenge of competing in sports events similar to the Paralympics.

Harry was accompanied by a contingent from the Invictus Games Foundation, including four veterans who have been through similar rehabilitation experiences.

The visit to the area in western Ukraine that has frequently been targeted with Russian missiles was not announced until after he was out of the country.

He traveled to Ukraine after spending two days in a London court where he is appealing the British government’s decision to strip him of his government-funded protection after he quit working as a member of the royal family in 2020 and moved his family to California.

The prince is no stranger to war, having served two tours in Afghanistan, where he flew missions as an Apache helicopter copilot gunner.

Harry, 40, the younger son of King Charles III, is the second member of the royal family to visit Ukraine. His aunt, Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, became the first British royal to travel to the country since Russia’s 2022 invasion when she made an unannounced visit to Kyiv last year.

The royal family has been outspoken in their support for Ukraine. King Charles warmly greeted President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a show of support at his estate on the North Sea coast just two days after his extraordinary dressing down by US President Donald Trump at the White House.

Harry’s older brother, Prince William, met with Ukrainian refugees during a two day visit to Estonia last month.

When discussions began over releasing Israeli hostages shortly after the October 7 attack by Hamas, the negotiators tasked to strike a deal were mostly intelligence and security professionals. But in February, Israel made an important change that those now involved say has had a profound slowing effect on the discussions to resurrect the broken ceasefire: The file was taken over by the prime minister’s closest political aide, Ron Dermer.

With Dermer, says a source involved in the negotiations, there’s a “significant difference in momentum,” from when Israel’s team was led by intelligence chiefs David Barnea and Ronen Bar.

“There is a clear shift in [Israeli] priorities,” the source said. “Negotiations are seemingly being politicized from the Israeli team.”

Now, Barnea, who directs the Mossad, has been sidelined and Bar, who ran the internal security service Shin Bet, has been fired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, causing an uproar in Israel.

The decision to push aside career national security professionals in favor of Netanyahu’s closest adviser was intended to give Netanyahu more control over the negotiation process, an Israeli source familiar with the negotiations said.

An Israeli official pushed back on claims that Dermer’s position at the helm of negotiations has hampered progress or politicized the negotiations, saying, “Negotiations need to be judged by results, not process.”

An Israeli official pushed back on claims that Dermer’s position at the helm of negotiations has hampered progress or politicized the negotiations, saying “negotiations need to be judged by results, not process.”

“To reach a deal, you need someone who actually represents the will of the government that will authorize said deal, not ‘dissent,’ which only served to undermine negotiations,” the official said.

The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that started as President Donald Trump took office collapsed last month when Israel re-launched its military operations and US and Israeli officials accused Hamas of rejecting a deal to extend it, which Hamas denied.

There had long been indications Israel planned to resume its war against Hamas after the first phase of the ceasefire deal, when 38 Israeli and Thai hostages were released over six weeks.

Netanyahu regularly cites freeing the hostages as a top priority. But so is the destruction of Hamas, and critics have accused him of prioritizing the latter at the expense of the former, namely because that is also where the prime minister’s political interests lie.

Destroying Hamas has long been the priority of key right-wing members of Netanyahu’s governing coalition, who have invariably threatened and followed through on threats to quit the government.

With Dermer in charge of the negotiations, Netanyahu can more deftly manage the delicate political balancing act that has influenced Israeli decision-making at every critical turn of the ceasefire negotiations.

During the many months of ceasefire negotiations last year that ultimately led to a ceasefire deal in January, Israeli security officials balked at Netanyahu’s shifting positions and stall tactics that they believed were influenced by political considerations and delayed the brokering of a deal. But with Dermer now in charge and intelligence leaders marginalized, those dissenting views have featured less prominently in Israeli security discussions and in Israeli press reports.

While in the US to meet Trump earlier this week, Netanyahu rejected accusations that freeing the hostages isn’t a top priority.

“The president looked at me and told the journalists who were present: ‘This man is working constantly to free the hostages.’ I hope that this shatters the lie that is being circulated to the effect that I am not working for them, that I don’t care. I do care, and I am doing it and we will be successful,” Netanyahu said.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel recently made a direct appeal to Dermer, whose title is the Minister of Strategic Affairs, accusing him of leaving them “in complete darkness.”

“When you were appointed as head of the negotiating team, we were promised that this would help reach a breakthrough on a new agreement,” the letter said. “In reality, more than a month has passed and there is no progress in sight.”

Barnea and Bar had regularly shuttled to Egypt and Qatar, as well as other countries, for ceasefire talks that included the heads of the CIA, Egyptian intelligence and the prime minister of Qatar.

Now Dermer speaks less with mediators from Egypt and Qatar, which maintain direct relationships with Hamas, according to the source involved in the negotiations.

The US point person has also shifted from the former CIA director to the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who has accused Hamas of intransigence that caused the recent ceasefire to break down.

“If you’re the Trump team, you blame Hamas but behind the scenes I believe they are trying to push both sides,” the American who works with the hostage families said.

A spokesperson for Witkoff didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ongoing negotiations to release hostages

Witkoff and US hostage envoy Adam Boehler have tried to figure out formulas to get Hamas to release the remaining Americans – one living and four dead – and get the truce extended enough to try to negotiate the next phase.

“The US is doing everything possible to release alive and deceased US hostages, which necessitates the deal,” said an Egyptian official. While Israel “doesn’t see hostages superseding breaking Hamas.”

Most recently, Hamas agreed to an Egypt- and Qatar-backed proposal that mirrored one Witkoff presented last month to release the lone living American hostage, Edan Alexander, along with four others and extend the peace through Ramadan and Passover.

Israel quickly countered, demanding 11 living hostages, almost half of the 24 remaining. That would more dramatically cut into what Hamas views as their greatest leverage over Israel.

“We’re still working on the Witkoff plan for an extension,” said a diplomat familiar with the discussions. “I think we have some wiggle room that we can work on.”

Israel had early in the ceasefire delayed launching negotiations for the second phase whose terms stipulated the release of all remaining hostages, a permanent ceasefire and a withdrawal by Israel’s military from Gaza.

That could have meant the survival of Hamas – even if not in power – and flown in the face of Netanyahu’s goal of “total victory.” It would also have threatened Netanyahu’s government.

Those second phase talks never began.

“There’s no clarity on the [Israeli] objective,” the first source involved in the talks said, adding: “Americans are getting impatient.”

As Israel’s latest operations have taken the death toll in Gaza over 50,000, there has been promising movement to resurrect the truce, those involved say.

Hamas is feeling the pressure, both from Israel’s military and widescale protests by Palestinians in Gaza, said a US official familiar with the negotiations.

“Hamas is struggling for oxygen,” said the official who accused Hamas of missing American opportunities last month to keep the ceasefire going. “They’re not very quick to move.”

The American working with the hostage families has felt “some air being breathed back into the process.”

“There’s a real sense of urgency and push on the part of the Americans and the [Egyptian and Qatari] mediators,” the source involved in the negotiations said.

To try to salvage the ceasefire, hostage envoy Boehler made an unprecedented move: meeting directly with officials from Hamas, which the US considers a terrorist organization.

With much of Hamas’ leadership inside Gaza decimated, it’s not clear if the military leaders still fighting Israel are on the same page as the political leadership engaging with mediators, including Boehler, the source involved in the negotiations said.

“Stubbornness in Hamas also unhelpful. They need to account for the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza,” the source said.

Meanwhile, the discussions continue with the Israeli team led by Dermer, but which still includes security professionals working on the technical details.

“The Israeli team is putting a lot of effort, but the way it’s being managed tactically from the top,” the source said, “the current structure of the negotiation team is not as helpful as needed for progress.”

Israel has released a Palestinian man who was controversially arrested at the age of 13, after he spent nearly a decade in jail.

“Ahmad has completed his 10-year sentence and he is a free person now,” Zabarqa said. “The Israeli authorities have imposed restriction on the family as far as holding a welcome ceremony for Ahmad or talking to the media. “

Ahmad Manasra was arrested and imprisoned in 2015 after being caught with his cousin Hassan who stabbed two Israelis in East Jerusalem.

Hassan was shot dead at the scene while Manasra was run over by a car.

Manasra’s case gained international attention after a video emerged of crowds shouting abuse at him after the incident while he lies motionless, seriously injured and crying out. Other footage allegedly shows Israeli officials interrogating Manasra under duress as he is visibly shaken and vulnerable, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

He was sentenced to 12 years for attempted murder in 2016, despite Israeli courts’ recognizing he had not been involved in the stabbings, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society added. His sentence was revised down to nine and a half years following an appeal in 2017

International groups have repeatedly called on Israeli authorities for his release over the years over concerns of his treatment and extended stays in solitary confinement, coupled with mental health issues and a schizophrenia diagnosis.

“His physical and medical condition is very difficult as he suffers from head injuries and physiological mental health as he was in solitary confinement and was subjected to harsh interrogation when he was a child,” his lawyer said.

Israel’s prison authorities confirmed Manasra was being released on Thursday, adding “Israel is a state of law, we don’t torture people here.”

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has said his nation is “not afraid,” in his first public comments on the escalating trade war with the United States that has tanked international markets and fueled fears of a global recession.

“There are no winners in a trade war, and going against the world will only lead to self-isolation,” Xi told Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Beijing on Friday, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

“For over 70 years, China’s development has relied on self-reliance and hard work — never on handouts from others, and it is not afraid of any unjust suppression,” Xi added. “Regardless of how the external environment changes, China will remain confident, stay focused, and concentrate on managing its own affairs well.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.