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Norwegian princess Märtha Louise and husband sue ex-friends for ‘betrayal of trust’

The Norwegian princess Märtha Louise and her husband, the American businessman Durek Verrett, are suing several former members of their inner circle for defamation over what they described as a “calculated betrayal of trust”. Court documents filed in Los Angeles on 14 September claim the former friends and colleagues took “private access once afforded to them and weaponised it”. The accused include “former intimate partners, trusted business associates, a family member”. The documents allege that information including “confidential communications, disputed accusations and claimed insider knowledge” was used against Märtha Louise, Verrett and his company, Ohana, in what the couple describe as a “coordinated series of devastating public attacks”. The compensation claims total in excess of $80m, the newspaper VG reported. The legal action comes during a particularly challenging period for the Norwegian royal family. King Harald died in August aged 89, to be succeeded by his son, Haakon, who is Märtha Louise’s brother. Harald’s sister, Princess Astrid, died aged 94, two days after attending his funeral in September. At the same time, the royal family has been embroiled in several scandals including revelations about Queen Mette-Marit’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. Her son Marius Borg Høiby was found guilty of two counts of rape in June. The queen, who has pulmonary fibrosis, underwent a lung transplant in the same month. Märtha Louise and Verrett have been the subject of multiple headlines in recent years. In 2023, before marrying Verrett, who describes himself as a sixth-generation shaman, the princess renounced her royal duties to focus on the couple’s alternative medicine business. Last year they starred in a Netflix documentary about their lives, Rebel Royals: An Unlikely Love Story. The papers, filed to Los Angeles county superior court, state that the case was prompted by a “calculated betrayal of trust” and mention the “recent loss” of the late king. The alleged “incessant misconduct” was said to have started years ago, but “continued and escalated” in 2025 and 2026. “During that period, plaintiffs experienced significant medical and personal circumstances, including Verrett’s serious kidney failure, dialysis treatment, health deterioration and recent kidney transplant, as well as Princess Märtha Louise’s recent loss of her father,” the papers state. “Although plaintiffs would ordinarily have preferred to devote this period to their health, family, grief, and recovery, the timing of this filing is governed by applicable legal deadlines. Plaintiffs must proceed at this unfortunate time to preserve their claims and protect their rights arising from defendants’ publications and conduct in 2025 and 2026.” The lawsuit says the accused people, “far from being distant critics reporting from the outside”, were “at one time in the inner circle of Verrett and Princess Märtha Louise”. It adds: “They had been welcomed into Verrett’s private life, family relationships, communications, client-related affairs and business operations through relationships of intimacy, trust, confidence, and professional responsibility.” The couple’s US lawyer Richard Roth told VG: “Our clients’ reputations have been judged by the public for years. Now the facts will be tested in a court of law.” Court documents list two future hearings for the case in December. The palace and representatives of the couple have been contacted by the Guardian for comment.

What do we know about death of anti-plague institute worker in Russia and is there a wider risk?

After a 28-year-old lab technician died last week reportedly after an accident at an anti-plague research laboratory in Russia, we take a look at what we know about the incident. What has happened? The exact details remain unclear but reports from Russia have suggested Darya Shipilova, an employee at the anti-plague institute in the city of Irkutsk, died on 2 October, two days after becoming unwell at work. According to Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s health watchdog, Shipilova died from “pneumonia of unknown aetiology”. However, there are other accounts: Alexey Tsydenov, the head of the neighbouring Buryatia region, initially said Shipilova had died of plague, before editing his social media post to say she had “possibly” died of the disease. Russian authorities have denied this to the World Health Organization (WHO), stating: “No case of this dangerous disease has been recorded in the city of Irkutsk, Russian Federation.” If it is the plague, what are we talking about? We are talking about a disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, typically found in small mammals and the fleas that feed on them. It is the same organism that was behind the bubonic plague or “black death” that swept Europe in the 14th century. However, the bubonic form is different from the pneumonic plague that some have suggested caused Shipilova’s death. The former is more common, results in swellings called buboes and is spread by the bite of infected fleas, whereas the latter is lung-based. Pneumonic plague has a higher mortality rate and can be spread between people. How might Shipilova have ended up with pneumonic plague? One report in the media is that Shipilova was admitted with the disease after returning from Thailand, while another is that she became infected after breaking a test tube in the laboratory. Rospotrebnadzor has denied any such accidents have occurred at the institute. How concerned should we be? It is worth noting that the plague is not a disease of the past. “There are a few hundred cases of plague reported each year globally usually in geographically restricted areas, particularly in Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – although there are a small number of cases in the western United States, central Asia, Mongolia, etc,” said Dr Malick Gibani at Imperial College London. That might not seem reassuring, but we no longer have to rely on medieval medicine. Dr Simon Clarke at the University of Reading said: “Unlike many viral respiratory diseases, plague is caused by bacteria, and antibiotics such as fluoroquinolones and aminoglycosides work well against this pathogen if administered early enough and are often given prophylactically, post-exposure.” However, Prof Brendan Wren at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said there were multi-antibiotic-resistant strains emerging, “and if the laboratory is working on such a strain, then treatment options may be limited”. There have also been reports that almost 200 people with whom Shipilova may have had contact are now under medical observation, and that quarantines have been imposed in a number of hospitals. “Isolation and monitoring are sensible strategies,” Wren said. Prof Alice Hughes at the University of Melbourne added the incubation for pneumonic plague was only one to three days and, as yet no one has shown symptoms. Prof Ian Jones at the University of Reading also offered reassurance. “This case here seems like a rare lab accident and is unlikely to go much further.” However, Clarke said there were still unknowns. “Until more details emerge, it is difficult to assess whether this represents an isolated case, an occupational exposure, or evidence of wider transmission,” he said. The UN health agency’s spokesperson Christian Lindmeier has said the risk to others is low. “The WHO initial risk assessment from the information available estimates the risk to be moderate to low for Irkutsk, a low risk for the Russian Federation as a whole, and very low for the WHO European region,” he said. What happens next? Dr Zania Stamataki, an associate professor of viral immunology and academic lead for containment level 3 laboratories at the University of Birmingham, said the control systems used in the UK for hazardous organisms work, meaning laboratory-acquired infections are rare. But, she added: “They are not impossible, and this is why an incident warrants a full account of what happened. That account matters beyond Russia.” Other experts also stressed a need for transparency. “I think it’s important that we see how this pans out, and ideally, there’d be good communication between the public health authorities and the wider global health community,” said Gibani. “I think this emphasises the need to be aware of ongoing outbreaks of serious bacterial pathogens and highlights the need for investment in biosecurity, particularly for preventing biological risks,” he added. “This could include developing medical countermeasures like better diagnostics or vaccines.”

How dilapidated are French schools and how bad is inequality in the education system?

Hundreds of French high schools have been barricaded by teenagers and forced to close and hundreds of people have been injured amid clashes with police in the biggest youth protest movement in decades over the state of French lycées, where 15- to 18-year-olds are taught. School students say the education system is riven with inequality, that many buildings are in disrepair, class sizes are too big, and there are not enough teachers or funding. The French prime minister has promised to address what he called “legitimate” complaints, including on class sizes, long hours, dilapidated buildings and teacher provisions. So how bad are French high schools and what are the main problems? Is the French education system blighted by social inequality? Yes. A child born and schooled in a deprived neighbourhood in France has less chance of escaping their socioeconomic background than in most other developed nations, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Éric Charbonnier, a French education analyst at the OECD, said there was a marked gap between the performance of the most advantaged and disadvantaged school students in France. “And often disadvantaged students are in disadvantaged schools,” he said. This has raised issues of the quality of learning being delivered and higher absenteeism of teachers. Teachers’ unions and sociologists have said children in France are often segregated by their background, postcode and income, with a direct impact on education outcomes. Are French high school buildings dilapidated and rat-infested with collapsing ceilings? Some are, namely in certain cities and low-income suburbs. Videos filmed by students and teachers have shown leaks, scurrying rats, holes in walls and ceilings, broken toilets and not enough chairs or tables, meaning teachers have to carry them from classroom to classroom. Some children said they had to learn in class while leaks were pouring into buckets, or move desks to avoid getting wet. Many school classrooms experienced temperatures over 35C (95F) in the heatwaves of last May and June. Estimates in recent years have pointed to thousands of French schools at all levels, both primary and secondary, in need of repair. These include many 1960s school buildings. French regions are responsible for upkeep of high school buildings, but have asked for higher budgets from the government. A senate report has advised that billions need to be spent in the coming years to renovate and repair schools, as well as to address the impact of the climate crisis. Are class sizes bigger than other comparable countries? Yes, and often in urban areas. Charbonnier said: “There are an average of 29 students in French language lessons, compared with 26 across the OECD. However, this average masks substantial differences – particularly between large cities and rural areas.” Teachers and school students in Paris and its suburbs this week described many high school classes of 36 pupils or more, but in some rural areas it can be fewer. Figures from the French education ministry show class sizes have increased in recent years. Are school days longer in France? Yes. “In terms of number of instructional hours, France really has more hours than most of the OECD countries,” Charbonnier said. This is true of primary and all levels of secondary education. Teaching is also squeezed into shorter periods, with 36 weeks of school per year, fewer weeks than the OECD average. High school pupils at barricades have complained of regularly having school days that run from 8am to 6pm, with many gaps during the day. Teachers said this was due to timetable challenges after changes to the baccalaureate that allowed for more individual choice of subject combinations. The French government has undertaken to review the length of school days. Are absent teachers not replaced, leaving pupils without key classes, even in exam years? Yes, sometimes. The education ministry has acknowledged that about 10% of teaching hours across the year are not delivered, for various reasons, and that it is urgent to fix this. The education union SNES-FSU estimated that at least one teacher was lacking in more than half of all public middle schools and high schools at the start of the September school year. On the barricades, protesting students said there were more absent teachers not replaced in schools in low-income areas. In a question to parliament last year, the MP Bastien Lachaud, from the radical-left party La France Insoumise, asked if the government could confirm 2019 estimations by the parents’ organisation FCPE that school students in Seine-Saint-Denis outside Paris, one of the poorest areas in France, missed 20% of their teaching hours because absent teachers were not replaced – amounting to almost one whole year of missed schooling over a lifetime. In a response, the education ministry said it could not confirm that estimation but said an increasing number of absent teachers were being replaced. Unions said non-teaching staff could also be lacking, including school nurses and support staff for students with a disability.

Schools blockaded as tens of thousands of protesters take to streets in France

Nearly 90,000 students, staff and parents have taken to the streets in cities across France as protesters blockaded hundreds of high schools in a nationwide day of action against long hours, missing teachers and crumbling classrooms. The French interior ministry said 86,000 people took part in marches in cities including Marseille, Nantes ⁠and Lyon on Tuesday morning, with up to 40,000 more expected to join the largest demonstration, in Paris, later in the day. The demonstrations come after a fortnight of protests that ⁠began in the capital’s northern suburbs before snowballing across the country. They have been marred by frequent and often violent clashes with riot police that have left hundreds injured, some severely. While many protests have been peaceful, some demonstrators have set dustbins on fire, destroyed bus shelters and thrown projectiles at police, who have responded with batons, teargas and riot-control rounds. Twenty-four schools have been burned or ransacked since the start of the protests, according to the education ministry. At least 715 police officers and 215 teenagers have been wounded, according to government figures, while 6,100 people have been arrested, almost all minors. More than 1,800 are being prosecuted, 1,483 of them under 18, the justice ministry said. The national union of lycée students said 1,800 of the country’s 3,700 high schools were blockaded or had been closed for the day on Tuesday, although some local education authorities attempted to move classes ‌online. Students on the marches held aloft smoke flares and placards with slogans including “Under our text books, anger” – a reference to a celebrated slogan from the May 1968 student riots, “Under the paving stones, the beach” – and “Schools with no money = country with no future”. Océanne, 18, was among the marchers in Marseille. “We just want to save our education and be educated,” she said, adding that she had suffered from absent teachers who were replaced either by “pointless substitutes” or not all. Many teachers were also demonstrating. In the western city of Rennes, Romain Dubourg said he and “about 30 colleagues” had “talked about the police brutality that we’ve witnessed, and decided to be there for our students if they need us”. Trade unionists were also on the marches, with the head of the CGT union, Sophie Binet, urging members to “protect high school students”. The Green party leader, Marine Tondelier, urged local officials and parents to wear white and “go and protect our children during demonstrations”. Trade unions and rights groups have accused the police of unnecessary force against the young protesters, with Amnesty International saying French authorities should “put an end to the disproportionate police repression seen in recent days”. Anne Savinel-Barras, the president of Amnesty France, said: “The images and testimonies widely circulated over the past week raise alarming concerns about the dangerous use of teargas, batons and policing techniques by the police.” The interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, said police had launched 10 internal investigations into allegations of brutality since the protests started. On Monday, a 15-year-old’s hand was blown off as protesters battled riot police in northern France. A 16-year-old lost the use of his right eye after he was seriously injured in the head on Wednesday during the blockade of a high school in Tours. The local prosecutor, Catherine Sorita-Minard, said the wounds were “compatible with the impact of a defensive bullet of the blast ball type”. In another incident, a 14-year-old lost most of his teeth on Monday when a police officer appeared to fire a grenade at him at close range during a protest north-west of Paris. “His jaw is sealed shut, he can no longer speak and he eats through a straw,” his mother told reporters. The prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, has ordered his ministers to tackle the students’ core demands which include ensuring absent teachers are replaced, reviewing the length of the 8am to 6pm school day, and repairing ‌ageing buildings. But the protests, seven months before crucial presidential elections to choose a successor to Emmanuel Macron, have piled pressure on a government trying to reduce a ballooning budget deficit amid mounting investor concern over France’s mountainous debt and weak economic growth. The government has accused the radical-left La France Insoumise party of encouraging and even orchestrating the movement after numerous LFI MPs attended school blockades. The party’s veteran leader and presidential candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has strongly supported the protests, while urging non-violence.

Kenya confirms first Ebola case as virus ‘surges’ in DR Congo province

Kenya has reported its first-ever Ebola death, the health minister announced on Tuesday, as the disease continues to spread rapidly through the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the outbreak was announced in May. This is the 17th outbreak of the highly infectious, often deadly disease in the DRC. As of 2 October, 4,082 people had died out of 8,463 confirmed cases in the country since the emergence of the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, for which there is still no vaccine nor specific treatment. A Kenyan man who had been living in the DRC for seven years died after returning to Kenya, the Kenyan health minister Aden Duale told reporters. The man, who has not been named, had been treated in the DRC after falling ill about a month ago. He then travelled overland to the Ugandan capital, Kampala, before flying to Nairobi on 3 October. Kenya has previously never reported a case of Ebola, but neighbouring Uganda recorded 20 – almost all people who had travelled from the DRC – and two deaths, before being declared Ebola-free in August. Duale said the man was taken by a relative and a friend from Nairobi’s international airport to Nairobi hospital, where he was immediately isolated, suffering from “fever, chills, intense fatigue, weakness, muscle pain, painful swallowing, sore throat and bleeding under the skin at the injection sites”. He said the man was subsequently screened and confirmed positive for the virus, but “regrettably passed on last night at around 1130” in the evening (2030 GMT). Duale said officials had listed 28 contacts of the deceased, including family members and healthcare workers, but that so far “only one test has turned positive and is the one that we have just discussed”. He added that authorities were looking for another 23 passengers and four crew members who were on the same flight with the man and that “arrangements” for quarantine for those at risk had been prepared. “I wish to assure the public not to panic, as all systems are in place to mitigate the spread of the disease,” he said. Duale said a “safe and dignified burial” of the man had been planned for later in the day, in line with public health standards, but did not give further details. Kenyans reacted furiously to government plans earlier this year to allow the US to set up an Ebola facility at Laikipia airbase, about 125 miles from Nairobi. After starting in the DRC’s north-eastern Ituri province, the current outbreak has spread to seven provinces in the country’s north and east. The response to the virus in the vast central African country has been hindered by instability, including clashes between armed groups, mistrust of authorities – which has led to violence against health workers and other officials – and a lack of resources amid huge cuts in international aid. The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières warned on Monday of an “alarming surge” in cases in eastern North Kivu province, which borders Uganda. The province now accounts for 40% of all new Ebola cases, compared with 24% at the end of August, the NGO said. “It is like fighting a megafire,” said Stephanie Hoffmann, coordinator at MSF’s Ebola treatment centre in the city of Butembo. “Multiple outbreaks are developing at the same time, with varying intensity and in different locations.” The wider Butembo health zone is home to around 2 million people and only has four Ebola treatment centres, two of which only opened recently, MSF said. Hoffman said: “Because there are not enough beds available, we are sometimes forced to refer confirmed Ebola patients elsewhere, despite the significant risk this poses to the wider community. In addition, standards of care in some peripheral facilities do not always meet the requirements for Ebola treatment.” North Kivu is particularly affected by conflict, with 134 violent incidents there in the past month, according to tracking group Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, more than any other province. Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Plague epidemic risk in Russia low after death of lab technician, WHO says

The World Health Organization has said the risk of an epidemic in Russia is low after the sudden death of a lab technician who worked at a plague research institute in Siberia. Darya Shipilova, who was 28, died last week, two days after falling ill. Russian media reports suggested she may have become infected after an accident at her workplace, where dangerous pathogens are kept and studied. Russian authorities have downplayed the incident and say Shipilova died of “pneumonia of an unknown aetiology”. Strict quarantine measures have been imposed at the research centre in the city of Irkutsk and in several neighbouring hospitals. Christian Lindmeier, a WHO spokesperson, said on Tuesday that there was no sign of a wider outbreak. “All ‌of the patients’ contacts have reportedly been identified and are being monitored for ‌illness, and none to date have shown symptoms of illness,” he said. Russian ⁠officials were still investigating whether viral pneumonic plague caused Shipilova’s death but the WHO had assessed the health risk as “moderate to low” for Irkutsk, “low” for the rest of Russia and “very low” for Europe, he said. According to Russian media, 60 of Shipilova’s colleagues have been locked in the institute where she worked since Friday, sleeping on the floors and chairs while tests are carried out. Similar measures have been imposed in five hospitals, with relatives forbidden to see patients. The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, urged people on Tuesday not to listen to rumours but to rely on statements from Russia’s health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor. It said the situation in Irkutsk was stable, with no new infectious disease cases reported among institute employees. Washington has been watching developments closely. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, called on Moscow on Tuesday to release more details about the case. “I think it’s incumbent upon ⁠Russia to obviously share more information with the world,” he said. “We’re watching it very closely, hour ‌by hour.“ Donald Trump had said earlier that his administration was willing to offer assistance. “I hate to see them having it. We’ll help. Everybody who has that kind of a problem, we’ll always help,” he told reporters at the White House when asked what Washington was going to do about the risk of plague coming from Russia. In an apparent mirror response, Rospotrebnadzor announced that Russia was prepared to assist the US in combating its own outbreaks of infectious diseases. “The situation regarding dangerous infectious diseases remains unstable,” it said, highlighting a “significantly worsened” measles situation in three US states and a “fatal case of plague” recorded in New Mexico in June.

Germany arrests former intelligence chief over alleged spying

A former head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service has been arrested on suspicion of treason and spying on behalf of an overseas intelligence agency, prosecutors said. August Hanning, 80, was head of the federal intelligence service (BND) – which operates outside Germany to gather information across the fields of political, economic, and military intelligence – between 1998 and 2005. He was arrested at his home in Nordwalde near Münster early on Tuesday. His former chief of staff, identified only as Manfred D, was arrested at the same time in Bavaria, on suspicion of “aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage”, according to a prosecutor’s statement. Media pictures showed Hanning, dressed in an open-necked white shirt, being taken from his redbrick house to a bullet-proof vehicle by masked officers. Manfred D, who continued to work for Hanning’s successors at the BND after Hanning’s departure until the present day, is accused of using his role to gain access to classified information which he then handed to Hanning “in exchange for payment”, the prosecutors’ statement continued. “The current findings suggest that, over the years, Manfred D provided Hanning with approximately 2,000 documents, many of which contained classified information to be used exclusively by the federal intelligence service for internal purposes, particularly for executive intelligence briefings,” the statement said. Prosecutors believe that Hanning intended to resell the documents as part of a paid consulting role he had built up after leaving the BND, prosecutors added. To what extent and to whom he disseminated them remains part of an ongoing investigation. He is accused of using the information to “draft an analysis for an officer of a foreign intelligence service”, prosecutors said. It was unclear if this information had reached its intended recipient, they added. Over several years Hanning is also believed to have passed on potentially sensitive political information, in part based on information passed to him by Manfred D, to a close contact representing a separate foreign intelligence service. Several properties connected to both men were being searched simultaneously on Tuesday, including in Berlin. Manfred D is due to appear before judges at the federal court of justice in Karlsruhe later on Tuesday, while Hanning is scheduled to appear on Wednesday. Suspicions over Hanning’s activities emerged as a result of an investigation into the kidnappings of the children from a prominent Hamburg business family, which is the focus of a major trial in the north German port city. Investigators were led to Hanning over allegations, which he denies, that he helped Christina Block, the heiress of a steak restaurant dynasty, to organise the violent cross-border seizure in Denmark of her children from her estranged husband who has custody of two of their children. Block denies the charges. After he left the BND, Hanning worked as a global consultant in the fields of security and business, based on his credentials as former intelligence chief. He is considered to have been well connected with government and business sectors in Russia and China, and also had contacts with top-ranking intelligence authorities in Israel. Hanning was an officer stationed at the embassy-equivalent organisation for West Germany in communist East Berlin. After his role as president of the BND ended in 2005 he became the highest-ranking official in Germany’s security sector as the head of all security agencies under the federal interior minister Wolfgang Schäuble.