Two tourists have died from suspected pesticide poisoning after their hostel in Sri Lanka was fumigated for bedbugs, Britain’s PA Media news agency has reported.

Ebony McIntosh, a 24-year-old digital marketing and social media manager from the English city of Derby, and 26-year-old Nadine Raguse from Germany were both staying in the Miracle Colombo City hostel in the Sri Lankan capital, PA reported Sri Lanka Police as saying on Thursday.

They both fell ill after a room at the hostel was fumigated to treat bedbugs, Sri Lanka Police spokesman Buddhika Manatunga told PA, and McIntosh was hospitalized on Saturday.

Officers are investigating whether the two women were poisoned by pesticides, the Manatunga said.

He added that an autopsy to determine McIntosh’s cause of death will take place after her family arrives in Sri Lanka on Monday.

Manatunga said the hostel, which is currently closed, will remain shut until then, according to PA.

A spokesperson for the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) told PA: “We are supporting the family of a British woman who died in Sri Lanka, and are in contact with the local authorities.”

McIntosh’s family have launched a GoFundMe page to raise money for their travel to Sri Lanka.

“We are absolutely heartbroken to share that our beautiful baby girl and big sister Ebony has passed away unexpectedly on the Saturday 1st February 2025, thousands of miles away from home,” McIntosh’s family wrote on the page.

“Words cannot begin to express how broken we are, it’s been like a nightmare since we found out on Sunday morning, we have prayed and prayed that this can’t be true. It couldn’t possibly happen to our lovely Ebs,” they continued.

The family wrote that McIntosh flew from London to Sri Lanka on Tuesday, January 28, to “follow her dreams of travelling all over South Asia,” and that she was “full of excitement,” having spent months planning.

They added that McIntosh and “several others” were rushed to hospital on Saturday after suffering from vomiting and nausea, and that McIntosh also had difficulty breathing.

The family said she died within a few hours of arriving at the hospital.

The UK government on Friday announced plans to dismantle the remains of London’s Grenfell Tower, almost eight years after the deadliest fire in Britain since World War II swept through the high-rise apartment building, killing 72 people.

Some of those who lost loved ones in the fire that broke out in the early morning hours of June 14, 2017, have criticized the decision because they wanted to preserve the building’s charred skeleton as a monument to those who died.

But the government said that redeveloping the site would help the community heal by removing the remains of the 24-story building, which looms over the North Kensington neighborhood in west London, providing a constant reminder of the tragedy.

“Grenfell Tower will be carefully taken down to the ground,″ the government said in a statement.

A public inquiry into the disaster concluded that decades of failures by government, regulators and industry turned the building into a “death trap.”

The investigation found no “single cause” of the tragedy, but said a combination of dishonest companies, weak regulation and complacent government authorities resulted in the building being remodeled with combustible exterior cladding that that allowed a small refrigerator fire to spread rapidly, trapping dozens of residents in their homes.

Hamas has released the names of three Israeli men it said it would free from Gaza on Saturday, in what will be the fifth round of exchanges under the ongoing ceasefire.

Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi, and Or Levy are expected to be released on the 491st day of their captivity, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office confirmed. Scores of Palestinian prisoners are due to be released in return.

Ben Ami, 56, was kidnapped on October 7, 2023, from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri. His wife Raz Ben Ami was also taken captive and was freed during a ceasefire in November 2023.

Sharabi, age 52, was also taken from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri. His wife and daughters were murdered on October 7, according to the kibbutz. His brother Yossi Sharabi, who was taken captive, died in Gaza, where his body remains, according to the Israeli military.

Or Levy, age 34, was attending the Nova music festival on October 7 when he was kidnapped. His wife Eynav was murdered in the attack.

Under the ceasefire deal agreed in Qatar last month, Hamas was to prioritize releasing women, children, the elderly, and those who are sick.

Since the ceasefire went into effect on January 19, Hamas and its allies have released 18 hostages held in Gaza – including five Thai citizens released outside the parameters of the agreement. In exchange, the Israeli government has released 583 Palestinians held in detention – some serving life sentences for serious offenses – but also a significant number of children held without public charge or trial.

Friday’s announcement came nearly three hours after it was expected, after Hamas on Friday accused the Israeli government of “continued procrastination and hesitation in implementing the humanitarian protocol of the agreement.”

In a statement, group said that “the pledges stipulated in the agreement have not been implemented in the specified manner, which exacerbates the suffering” of Palestinians in Gaza.

The United Nations says that “challenges continue in bringing into Gaza some critical humanitarian supplies,” though noted that prices have declined and the distribution of humanitarian supplies within Gaza has become easier, following the withdrawal of the Israeli military from urban areas.

Hamas said Friday that it expects Israel on Saturday to release 183 Palestinians held in prison in exchange for the three Israelis.

Eighteen of the prisoners are serving life sentences, 54 have lesser sentences, and 111 were detained in the Gaza Strip after October 7, 2023, the group said in a statement. The charges against the 111 were not clear.

Israel is yet to confirm the numbers and names of Palestinian prisoners who are expected to be released on Saturday.

Ukraine has launched new attacks in Russia’s southern Kursk region as US President Donald Trump pushes for ceasefire talks.

The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based conflict monitor, said that Ukrainian forces launched a new series of assaults in the Kursk region on Thursday, advancing up to five kilometres (three miles) behind Russian lines southeast of Sudzha.

While it is not clear whether the attacks are aimed at seizing more territory or reinforcing Ukraine’s defensive positions, ISW analyst Angelica Evans said advances of such scale were impressive.

Kyiv surprised even its allies with its attack on Russian territory and keeps fighting in Kursk even as it faces extremely difficult situations elsewhere along the frontline.

Russia claimed on Friday that it has now taken over Toretsk, an industrial town in eastern Ukraine that has been one of the epicenters of the fight for the past six months. Ukraine has not commented on the claim, but if confirmed, the fall of Toretsk would be another strategic win for Moscow as it would bring Russian troops closer to important Ukrainian defensive positions.

At the same time, Russian troops have been inching towards Pokrovsk, a logistic hub in eastern Ukraine that has been in Russia’s sight since the summer, and Kupiansk in the north.

Some in Ukraine, including some troops fighting in Kursk and elsewhere, are questioning Kyiv spending precious resources in Russia when it is struggling to defend its own territory.

The answer likely comes down to the expectation that Trump might start pressuring Ukraine to agree to talks with Russia soon.

“There’s nothing inherently valuable about the actual land that the Ukrainians are holding in Kursk. It’s fields and settlements, they’re not threatening Kursk city or making a run on Moscow,” Evans said.

“But when we’re thinking about peace negotiation, holding Russian territory could be a critical asset for the Ukrainians when they’re thinking about bargaining for their own territory back or for other things that they might want from the Russians in future peace negotiation,” she added.

Ukraine’s military and political leaders have repeatedly said that the Kursk operation was aimed at preventing a new Russian offensive in northern Ukraine and forcing Moscow to redeploy some of its troops from elsewhere in Ukraine.

The incursion was Ukraine’s biggest strategic gain since the liberation of Kherson in November 2022 and it gave the country a major morale boost.

But this week, as Trump continued his calls for negotiations to end the war, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky made it clear Kyiv sees Kursk as a potential bargaining chip.

Speaking on Wednesday, he called the incursion “a very important operation.”

”You will see later, when we reach a diplomatic settlement to end the war, what conditions the Russians will face with regard to the Kursk direction,” he said in his nightly address to the nation.

Trump has made it clear he wants talks between Russia and Ukraine to start “as quickly as possible.” He said that his administration is in direct contact with both Russia and Ukraine.

“We made a lot of progress on Russia, Ukraine,” Trump said. “We’ll see what happens. We’re going to stop that ridiculous war,” Trump said on Monday.

Rare strategic gain for Ukraine

It’s been six months since Kyiv launched its surprise incursion into the Kursk region and while Russia has managed to reclaim more than half of the territory initially ceased by Kyiv, this came at a huge cost to Moscow.

The Ukrainian General Staff said Thursday that Russia lost 40,000 troops over the six months of fighting in Kursk – 16,100 of whom were killed.

“Ukrainian forces captured 909 Russian military personnel, significantly replenishing the exchange fund. This allowed hundreds of Ukrainian defenders who were in Russian prisons to return home,” the General Staff added.

The incursion marked the first time foreign troops took control of Russia’s territory since World War II – a huge embarrassment for the Russian President Vladimir Putin who has largely framed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as means to “defend” the country.

The Ukrainian military has estimated that Russia deployed some 78,000 troops into Kursk, several times as many as Ukraine has. “These Russian forces, which include elements of elite units, are tied up and really distracted in Kursk. [Otherwise] they would more than likely be fighting on the frontlines in eastern Ukraine where they could do a lot of damage,” Evans said.

Yet despite the numerical advantage, the Russian military struggled to push the Ukrainians out of its territory and so Moscow eventually called in foreign reinforcements, deploying some 12,000 North Korean soldiers into the Kursk region.

By doing so, Putin became the first Russian leader ever to have to rely of foreign troops to liberate Russian soil, according to Evans.

She said that the strategic impact of the gains made by the Ukrainian troops deployed into Kursk were “significantly greater than these forces could have achieved defending within Ukraine.”

“The military activity isn’t going to collapse the Russian state, but the pressures that they’re putting on the Russians are things that could,” she added, saying that discontent is growing within Russia over the fact that Ukraine has been able to hold onto Russian territory for six months. “That is something that really hurts Putin’s credibility within Russia, and this vision that he’s created for himself as a defender and stabilizer.”

Speaking to the acting governor of Kursk region Alexander Khinshtein on Wednesday, Putin admitted the situation in Kursk was “very difficult.”

Yet the North Korean troops did little to help Russia regain its territory, with Russia using them mostly as foot soldiers who carry out brutal mass ground assaults that lead to huge casualties.

Ukrainian officials and Western intelligence said around 4,000 of those North Korean troops have been killed or injured. The South Korean intelligence service said earlier this week that the North Korean troops deployed to Kursk have not engaged in combat since mid-January, according to local media, confirming earlier reports by the Ukrainian military.

Evans said that Russia is struggling to repel Ukrainian forces because of Kyiv’s superior use of technology, mostly drones and electronic warfare interference technology.

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order sanctioning the International Criminal Court (ICC), accusing the organization of engaging in “illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting the United States and its ally, Israel.

The ICC, which prosecutes individuals for grave international crimes, has faced backlash from the US and Israel over its decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

It also issued a warrant for Hamas official Mohammed Deif, whom Israel accused of being one of the masterminds of the October 7 attack. Hamas confirmed last month that Israel had killed him in an airstrike last year.

So, what is the court, why has Trump sanctioned it and what effect will his decision have?

What did Trump say?

Trump signed an executive order on Thursday placing economic and travel sanctions on people working on ICC investigations into citizens of the US and its allies.

The US president said the court had “abused its power by issuing baseless arrest warrants” targeting Netanyahu and Gallant. Its actions, he claimed, “set a dangerous precedent, directly endangering current and former US personnel” and posed an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to national security.

The ICC condemned Trump’s decision and said it stands firmly behind its “personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world.”

The names of the sanctioned ICC personnel are not yet public, but those targeted – and their families – will not be able to enter the US. Their assets could also be frozen and their power to purchase property blocked.

Trump also said he “expects our allies to oppose” any ICC actions against the US and Israel, without giving further details.

What is the ICC?

Located in The Hague in the Netherlands, the ICC investigates and prosecutes individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and crimes of aggression against the territory of its member states, of which there are 125. Neither the US nor Israel are members.

Just as a central bank is a lender of last resort, the ICC is a court of last resort, stepping in to prosecute crimes when national authorities are unable or unwilling to do so.

Countries that have ratified the court’s Rome Statute are obliged to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if they set foot on their soil. Because the US – along with China, Russia and others – has not approved the statute, Netanyahu could travel freely to Washington, DC, this week, becoming the first foreign leader invited to the White House during Trump’s second term.

The ICC accepted Palestine as a member in 2015, giving it jurisdiction over international crimes that take place in Gaza.

The ICC, which prosecutes individuals, is distinct from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which prosecutes states. Last year, the ICJ ruled that Palestinians in Gaza have “plausible rights to protection from genocide” – rights to which Israel’s offensive in the strip risked causing irreparable damage. The court also ordered Israel to immediately halt its offensive in the southern city of Rafah, which Israel ignored.

Hasn’t Trump done this before?

Yes. In June 2020, towards the end of his first term, Trump sanctioned Fatou Bensouda, then the ICC’s chief prosecutor, and another top court official, for pursuing an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Afghanistan by US armed forces, the CIA and the Taliban.

The Trump administration then lambasted the “kangaroo court,” calling it “an unaccountable political institution masquerading as a legal body.”

Thursday’s sanctions, however, are more broad-based, both in their justification and potential effects, experts have warned.

As well as undermining the ICC symbolically, the practical implications of the new measures “have the potential to cripple the court’s work,” she said.

“The court, in order to undertake its investigations, needs funding. It needs the cooperation of banks, of travel agents, of various businesses and third parties. If they have to fear sanctions from the US, that will have a significant effect,” Dill added.

What has the reaction been?

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also said the ICC must be able “to freely pursue the fight against global impunity.”

The European Union, however, is not speaking with one voice. The Hungarian hard-right prime minister, Viktor Orban, said Trump’s decision meant “it’s time for Hungary to review what we’re doing in an international organization that is under US sanctions.”

Why now?

The sanctions come after Trump welcomed Netanyahu to the White House. Having previously said he wants to “clean out” the Gaza Strip, Trump on Tuesday unveiled a plan for the US to “take over” the territory, resettle the Palestinians living there and turn it into a new “riviera.”

The plan, which would amount to ethnic cleansing and violate international law, caused a global diplomatic storm, delighted many on the right wing of politics in Israel and horrified Palestinians.

This, combined with the new sanctions, sends a signal that the US, under Trump, “is moving further from being a supporter of international criminal justice to being a perpetrator of injustice,” Dill said. “That is really worrisome.”