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  • Captain of suspected Russian shadow tanker into French custody

    Captain of suspected Russian shadow tanker into French custody


    Reuters A French navy boat surrounds the GRINCH oil tanker, intercepted by France in the Alboran Sea on suspicion of operating under a false flag and belonging to Russia's shadow fleetReuters

    The Grinch was intercepted by the French navy on Thursday

    French officials have taken the Indian captain of a suspected Russian shadow fleet tanker into custody days after the oil tanker was seized.

    On Thursday, the French navy intercepted the tanker – named the Grinch – which President Emmanuel Macron said was “subject to international sanctions and suspected of flying a false flag”.

    The Grinch had been travelling through the Mediterranean Sea from the Russian Arctic port of Murmansk. It is now moored, under guard, at a southern French port near Marseille.

    Although Moscow is yet to comment, Macron said on Thursday that the shadow fleet helped to “finance Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine”.

    The office of the Marseille prosecutor office said the rest of the ship’s crew members – all also Indians – were being “kept on board” while the 58-year-old captain was taken into custody.

    “The investigation aims to verify the validity of the flag used by the tanker,” prosecutors said. French media report say it was sailing under a Comoros Islands flag.

    Nautical and air exclusion zones have been established around the anchorage site, officials say.

    French Joint Staff of the Armed Forces Soldiers talk to people on the oil tankerFrench Joint Staff of the Armed Forces

    Soldiers searched the vessel after it was seized in the Mediterranean

    Announcing the seizure on Thursday, Macron said: “We are determined to uphold international law and to ensure the effective enforcement of sanctions.”

    Many Western countries imposed sanctions on Russian energy following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

    Earlier in January, British armed forces supported a US operation to seize a Russian-flagged tanker in the Atlantic that US officials said had broken sanctions by carrying oil for Venezuela and Russia.

    Last October, France seized another sanctioned tanker, the Boracay, off its west coast before releasing it a few days later.

    Shadow fleets are becoming increasingly common, with Venezuela, Iran and Russia all accused of using them to avoid sanctions on oil.

    Financial intelligence firm S&P Global estimates that one in five oil tankers worldwide are used to smuggle oil from sanctioned countries.



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  • Cosmetic doctor sorry for upsetting singer in video

    Cosmetic doctor sorry for upsetting singer in video


    Yasmin Malikand

    Srosh Khan,BBC Newsbeat

    BBC/Sarah Louise Bennett A portrait of Troye Sivan where he is looking at the camera with brownish hair. He has a nose ring on, a blue jumper and a necklace. He's infront of a white wall. BBC/Sarah Louise Bennett

    Singer Troye Sivan hit out at a cosmetic doctor who gave him “unsolicited medical advice” on Instagram

    A cosmetic doctor who faced a backlash over a video picking apart pop star Troye Sivan’s appearance says he “feels terrible” for upsetting the singer – but will continue to post.

    London-based Dr Zayn Khalid Majeed posted a two-minute clip drawing attention to the 30-year-old’s “problem” areas following an appearance at a recent event in Australia.

    Fans criticised the “unsolicited” advice, and the singer himself responded with an essay explaining how the video had triggered long-held insecurities about his body.

    Since deleting the video and contacting Sivan to apologise, Majeed tells BBC Newsbeat he will try to make a more positive impact with his content.

    Sivan, whose career began when he was a teenager, is regarded by many as a poster boy for the “twink” look.

    The term refers to younger, slim gay men with a boyish look, and Sivan’s image appears prominently in Google results and on Wikipedia’s definition page.

    In the video, which compared studio images of the singer with recent footage from a red carpet interview, Majeed said Sivan appeared to be showing signs of “twink death”.

    The cosmetic doctor, who has more than 250,000 followers across platforms, pointed towards several “problem areas”, such as shadows and “volume loss” in the singer’s face.

    He then imagined a scenario where Sivan was his patient and listed various cosmetic “improvements” he could opt for, including skin boosters and dermal filler.

    Zayn Khalid Majeed/TikTok A screen shot from Majeed's video shows the doctor super-imposed over a composite image of Troye Sivan, made up of two pictures of the singer. One shows him in a studio environment while the other is taken in a media line on a red carpet.Zayn Khalid Majeed/TikTok

    Troye Sivan said he considered getting cosmetic surgery after watching a video breakdown of his face on Instagram

    People on social media and fans of Sivan criticised Majeed’s “unsolicited” advice on ways to “retwinkify” himself.

    The singer himself then got involved, posting on blogging platform Substack about how the video had heightened his insecurities and pushed him towards considering cosmetic surgery.

    “I’ve struggled with my body image for a lot of my life, as I’m sure most people have,” he wrote. “What good is money and modern medicine if not to fix all of these flaws that this random… plastic surgeon told me I have?”

    Newsbeat reached out to Majeeed, who said Sivan’s response “was incredibly raw and vulnerable”.

    “I felt terrible and it was never my intention to make him feel like that, which is why I reached out to him directly to apologise,” he says.

    Zayn Khalid Majeed Dr Zayn smiles into the camera. He is wearing blue surgical scubs and a silver chain round his neck. He has white teeth, olive skin and a slight curl in his brown styled hair. He also has a small silver hoop in his ear.Zayn Khalid Majeed

    Majeed apologised to Troye Sivan in what the singer called a “thoughtful and sweet message”

    Majeed deleted the videos from his TikTok and Instagram, and Sivan later updated his blog to say there were “no hard feelings from [his] side”.

    The doctor admits he can “see how it came across”.

    Majeed says he started creating content to “educate and inform” people, but began to talk about celebrities because viewers seemed to enjoy it.

    “For every one celebrity video I make, I make five chatty educational videos,” he says.

    But, reflecting on the situation with Sivan, he says he doesn’t want to contribute to the “negative beauty standards” that people face.

    “I have a voice and I need to use it to shape conversations for the better, where we’re more body positive and we accept ageing as a natural process,” he says. “Sometimes you don’t realise the impact that you can have.”

    However, Majeed says he will continue to make videos that analyse celebrity faces because he believes there is an appetite for them.

    “It is important to demystify surgeries that celebrities have and educate patients,” he says.

    ‘It’s mind-boggling’

    Samantha Rizzo Samantha smiles into the camera with a green scarf wrapped around her neck. She is wearing a black leather jacket and has brown hair. In the background we can see a festive street of shops lined with bunting and wreaths. It is early evening and there are yellow fairy lights switched on.Samantha Rizzo

    Content creator Samantha Rizzo says seeing videos about cosmetic surgery made her think she needed botox

    Samantha Rizzo, a “skin-positivity” content creator based in New York, says she can see a benefit to posts that seek to “showcase” cosmetic work or provide more information.

    “I appreciate if you’re using your clients and they consent to their before, during, after photos,” she tells Newsbeat. “I feel a little icky when they’re just taking the celebrity’s picture.

    “Just because they’re famous doesn’t mean you have the right to just pick them apart.”

    Rizzo, 26, had botox injected into her jaw in the hope it would relieve pain and migraines after watching videos online. But it left her with limited facial movement and she says she regrets doing it.

    In hindsight, she believes her insecurities were shaped by the content she was “consuming”.

    “The things you can see can skew your perception of yourself so much that it forces your hand for a decision like that,” she says. “It’s mind-boggling”.

    Keelin Moncrieff Keelin stares into the camera. She has blue eyes and silver hoop earrings, wearing her brunette hair down. She is wearing a grey t-shirt and we can see the shoulder straps of her dungarees. She stands against a plain white wall.Keelin Moncrieff

    Keelin Moncrieff says she finds the idea of changing her face “disturbing”

    Irish-born social media personality Keelin Moncrieff says she has concerns about the availability of information on various procedures and the influence it can have on young people.

    The mum-of-one tells Newsbeat she understands some creators might try to be “transparent” about any work they’ve had done, but argues it risks acting as an endorsement for the treatment.

    “People can’t make up or fill in the gaps of what they’re not seeing behind the scenes,” she says. “People think that this is an easy process.”

    Moncrieff, 28, also says that being online comes with unwanted comments about your appearance – something she’s experienced.

    “I remember I got a comment once saying that my hands were really wrinkly,” she recalls. “That’s something that’s never even popped into my brain.”

    When it comes to surgical changes though, she’s made her mind up.

    “Very often I look in the mirror and think: ‘Oh, I could get this done, I could get this done’,” she says.

    “I would find that disturbing. I don’t want to uphold those standards.”

    Correction: The headline and first paragraph of this story previously described Dr Zayn Khalid Majeed as a cosmetic surgeon. It has been updated to reflect the fact he is registered with the General Medical Council as a doctor, not a surgeon.

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  • Who was Alex Pretti, the intensive care nurse shot dead in Minneapolis?

    Who was Alex Pretti, the intensive care nurse shot dead in Minneapolis?


    Family handout Alex is pictured in woodland wearing shorts and walking boots while kneeling on the ground Family handout

    Alex Pretti was killed in Minneapolis on Saturday

    A man who was shot dead by federal agents in Minneapolis has been identified by his family as 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti.

    He has been described as an avid outdoorsman who loved mountain biking and is understood to have joined protests after Renee Good, also 37, was shot dead by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in her car earlier this month.

    Conflicting accounts have emerged about the moments leading up to his death.

    The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said an agent fired in self-defence after Pretti, who they claim had a handgun, resisted attempts to disarm him. Some eyewitnesses and officials, as well as Pretti’s family, have challenged that account.

    Pretti worked as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital, his family said in a statement. They told the Associated Press news agency (AP) that he was upset by US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration in the city.

    Pretti’s mother also said her son cared immensely about the Trump administration’s rollback of environmental regulations.

    “He hated that, you know, people were just trashing the land,” Susan Pretti told AP.

    She added: “He was an outdoorsman. He took his dog everywhere he went. You know, he loved this country, but he hated what people were doing to it.”

    Pretti had no interactions with law enforcement beyond traffic tickets, family say

    Pretti loved adventures with his beloved Catahoula Leopard dog Joule, who died around a year ago, AP reported.

    His family said he had no interaction with law enforcement beyond a handful of traffic tickets. According to AP, court records show he had no criminal record.

    Pretti’s parents, who live in Wisconsin, said they had also recently told their son to be careful while protesting.

    “We had this discussion with him two weeks ago or so, you know, that go ahead and protest, but do not engage, do not do anything stupid, basically,” his father Michael Pretti told AP.

    “And he said he knows that. He knew that.”

    Pretti’s family also explained he owned a handgun and had a permit to carry a concealed handgun in Minnesota – but they had never known him to carry it.

    Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara also said police believed he was a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry, the BBC’s US partner CBS reported.

    ‘Please get the truth out about our son’

    After seeing videos suggesting their son was a “domestic terrorist,” Pretti’s family issued a statement saying “the sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting”.

    They claimed videos showed Pretti was not holding a gun when he was tackled by federal agents.

    “Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man,” they urged in their statement.

    Pretti was a Democratic voter and had taken part in the wave of street protests after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, his ex-wife told AP.

    She said that he was someone who may shout at law enforcement officers at a protest but had never known him to be physically confrontational.

    Reuters Mascara runs down the face of a woman wearing heart shaped glasses and a hatReuters

    A woman cries as people gather around a makeshift memorial close to where Alex Pretti was shot

    A US citizen born in Illinois, Pretti grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he played football, baseball and ran track for Preble High School. He was a Boy Scout and sang in the Green Bay Boy Choir.

    He went to the University of Minnesota, graduating in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in biology, society and the environment, according to his family.

    He worked as a research scientist before returning to school to become a registered nurse.

    His parents said their last conversation with their son was a couple of days before he was shot dead when they spoke about repairs he had done to the garage door at his home, AP reported.

    A Latino man had completed the work and Pretti’s parents said with all that was happening in Minneapolis he gave the man a $100 (£74) tip.

    Doctor Dmitri Drekonja, who worked with Pretti, told ABC News the pair had bonded over their interest in mountain biking and would compare notes on which trails to ride.

    “He was the type of person you enjoyed being around and the notion that this helpful, smiling joking guy was being labelled a terrorist? It’s galling,” he said.

    Reuters People lay flowers, candles and pine cones in a street. An American flag can be seen in the front of the pictureReuters

    People gather around a makeshift memorial close to where Alex Pretti was fatally shot

    Neighbours described Pretti as quiet and warmhearted.

    “He’s a wonderful person,” Sue Gitar told AP, who lived downstairs from the nurse and said he moved into the building about three years ago. “He has a great heart.”

    Pretti lived alone and worked long hours as a nurse, but he was not a loner, his neighbours said.

    “I never thought of him as a person who carried a gun,” said Gitar.



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