What happened
The Royal Navy destroyer HMS Dragon has departed Portsmouth and is heading for the eastern Mediterranean, where it will take part in British defensive operations. The Type 45 vessel left harbour yesterday and is expected to arrive in the region in roughly a week, becoming the only UK warship stationed in the area.

The deployment follows a drone strike this month on RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. The attack, involving an Iranian-made drone believed to have been launched from Lebanon or Iraq, caused limited damage to a hangar at the base.

Who said what
Defence Secretary John Healey said the ship had been readied unusually quickly. “What is normally six weeks of work was completed in just six days – a remarkable effort delivered round the clock.”

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel RFA Lyme Bay has also been placed on heightened readiness. However, “the MoD would not be drawn on what the primary purpose of the RFA Lyme Bay would be were it to be deployed”, said Aleks Phillips on the BBC, but its facilities as a support ship “make it well-suited for humanitarian and disaster relief missions”.

What next?
Additional helicopters have arrived in Cyprus and British aircraft are conducting “defensive missions” across the region.

What happened
Anthony Russell has been charged with the murder of Soham killer Ian Huntley following an attack at HMP Frankland (pictured above), the high-security prison in Durham where both men were inmates. Huntley was taken to hospital with serious injuries on 26 February and died nine days later.

Who said what
Christopher Atkinson, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said it had established “sufficient evidence” to bring the case to trial and that it was “in the public interest to pursue criminal proceedings”.

Huntley had been serving a life sentence, with a minimum term of 40 years, for murdering schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in August 2002. The girls’ disappearance “made national headlines and led to tireless searches”, said the BBC.

Huntley’s daughter Samantha Bryan told The Sun that she felt “glad” when she heard about the attack. “I have always been judged for being his daughter – it has been a very difficult thing to deal with over the years.”

What next?
Russell is expected to appear at Newton Aycliffe magistrates’ court via video link today.

Humans are living out their animal instincts through the therian movement. A small online subculture, those who identify as therians claim to have a non-human identity – one they embrace in their everyday lives. The movement has gained traction on social media, leading to demonisation and ridicule. Experts warn against openly rejecting the culture, as doing so could cause harm.

A therian is a person who “identifies as a non-human animal on an integral, personal level”, according to the Therian Guide website. Many also adopt animal-like behaviours or characteristics. The trend has been most popular in Uruguay and Argentina, but has been expanding to other parts of Latin America.

The term “therian” is a shortening of the Greek term “therianthrope”, meaning half-human, half-animal. The word began to “circulate in the 1990s on internet forums”, said Euronews, but has become more public recently on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

The growing exposure and growth of therians has led to a backlash and judgement. The community’s increasing popularity landed it in the “hands of the far right” and is fuelling “algorithms that reward scandal”, said Spanish newspaper El País. Similar to an “attack against trans people, against LGBTQ+ people”, the assault on therians is “reinforcing the narrative about the decadence of modern society”.

However, the attraction to therianthropy is not inherently a harmful thing. “If the experience does not affect a young person’s ability to form relationships, attend school or maintain healthy routines,” said the US news website Al Día, “there is no reason to automatically pathologise it.”