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Shortly after Myanmar’s military seized power in 2021, triggering mass protests that spiralled into a civil war, Kyaw Zwar Minn was locked out of the embassy for declaring his loyalty to the deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

On Wednesday he appeared in a London court charged with trespassing at a diplomatic residence between May 2021 and November 2024. Kyaw Zwar Minn, who still lives at the ambassador’s residence in north-west London, has pleaded not guilty.

The former ambassador argues that the current president, Min Aung Hlaing, the general who plunged Myanmar into conflict and economic chaos, is illegitimate and had no power to ask him to leave the property.

Min Aung Hlaing’s pro-military party won a landslide victory in elections earlier this year that have been widely condemned as a sham. Min Aung Hlaing is wanted by the international criminal court for crimes against humanity against the Muslim Rohingya minority.

Kyaw Zwar Minn’s lawyer, David Perry, told the court: “The military authorities could not lawfully terminate his licence at the address. Nor could they legitimately use the property.”

Prosecutors said Myanmar’s authorities instructed the former ambassador to “hand over state-owned properties” in April 2021, and that the Foreign Office also told him to leave the residence, but he did not comply.

They argue that his view of the Myanmar government – which is not formally recognised by most democratic countries, including Britain – does not provide a defence.

“Having been granted permission to reside at Myanmar House as the ambassador, his refusal to vacate the diplomatic premises after he was removed from that position means that he is guilty of the offence of diplomatic trespass,” the prosecutor Louise Oakley told the court.

Kyaw Zwar Minn previously told the Guardian he spent a night in his car outside the embassy in April 2021 after his then deputy, Chit Win, and a military attache, Soe Aung, locked him out of the building on the regime’s orders.

He said at the time that he no longer felt safe at the north London residence and had contacted the police after former staff delivered a letter ordering him to move. Friends and relatives in Myanmar had been forced into hiding fearing reprisals as a result of his stance, he said.

The 68-year-old became a diplomat under Aung San Suu Kyi after a long career in the army and has called the “Rohingya issue” very important. Before his removal as ambassador, he had been told by a source in Myanmar’s foreign ministry that his staff were spying on him.

He anticipated in 2021 that the crisis would lead to civil war. “You can see the military government is not going to step back,” he said. “More people will die and the economy is going to collapse. Then anything can happen in our country.”

The court case comes as the war enters its sixth year. More than 100,000 people have been killed and more than 5 million displaced, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Aung San Suu Kyi, now 81, has been detained on a range charges since the military took power. She was previously held under house arrest for 15 years under a past junta, and was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1991. After her election as state counsellor in 2015, she became a pariah for leading a regime that excused a genocide, jailed journalists and locked up critics. %!s()

Judge Tanya Jones Bosier ordered the Kennedy Center on Monday to pay $252,479.70 in legal fees and costs to attorneys for musician Chuck Redd within 45 days.

The Kennedy Center had sued Redd after he canceled a Christmas Eve concert at the venue. In June, the judge dismissed the Kennedy Center’s lawsuit and ruled in Redd’s favor under the district’s anti-Slapp statute, which is designed to protect people from lawsuits seeking to silence protected speech. Redd then requested that the court make the Kennedy Center reimburse him for the legal costs he incurred defending himself.

A Kennedy Center spokesperson said the organization intended to appeal.

When Redd canceled last year, the Trump-appointed Kennedy Center president, Richard Grenell, called the musician’s decision to pull out a “political stunt”, threatening to sue for $1m in damages.

Redd’s decision to cancel came after the Kennedy Center’s Trump-controlled board voted to rename the institution “The Donald J Trump and The John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” Trump’s name was then added to the building’s facade and the center’s digital materials.

But a federal judge ruled in May that the board did not have the authority to rename the Kennedy Center and ordered the Trump references removed from the building and the center’s official communications. The administration is also blocked from closing the cultural and arts venue for major renovations that had been planned to start in July and last for two years. US district judge Christopher Cooper requested detailed documentation about how the closure would affect the Kennedy Center.

Renovations at the Kennedy Center could include polishing its Carrara marble facade, remodeling its grand halls and theaters, and moving some marquee events offsite over the next few years, according to a document of the planned renovations obtained by Axios on Wednesday. %!s()

Court documents filed in Miami-Dade county and seen by multiple news outlets, including Miami’s NBC 6, show the request for custody was made by 48-year-old Hilton’s mother.

“My main concern and objective, as well as the family’s, is to protect the children and make sure they are safe,” said Natalie F Guerra-Valdes, an attorney representing Hilton’s mother, in a statement.

“We want them to have some sense of normalcy as they begin their journey of healing after the tragic events that occurred last week.”

Hilton, whose real name is Mario Lavandeira, is known for pioneering the celebrity gossip blog business in the mid-2000s, posting photos and gossip. He was embroiled in many high-profile feuds with that era’s pop culture icons including Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. His business translated a measure of celebrity on to Hilton himself.

But on 4 August, Hilton posted a now-deleted TikTok live stream from his home that appeared to show him naked and covered in blood, with visible cuts and holding what appeared to be a knife.

The Miami-Dade sheriff’s office said that deputies responded after they received “multiple calls regarding an individual who was livestreaming acts of self-harm on social media”.

Hilton’s identity was later confirmed by the sheriff’s office, which confirmed he was “Baker-Acted”, a term used in Florida to describe laws that allows police, doctors, mental health professionals or judges to temporarily detain a person for an involuntary psychiatric evaluation for up to 72 hours during a mental health crisis.

Hilton’s family said on Saturday he remained hospitalized in serious condition and had been stabilized, but said his injuries would require surgery.

His family later said his three children, niece and sister were inside the home “minutes before” the live stream began.

“When it became clear that Perez was experiencing a severe mental health crisis and harming himself, they immediately fled to protect the children from witnessing any further trauma,” a statement posted on the Perez Hilton website said.

The blogger is reported to be a single parent to children who are all under the age of 14 and born via surrogacy. His family have asked that the public “to leave the area surrounding the family’s home”.

“Our highest priority right now is helping the children begin to heal from what they experienced,” the statement reads. “An important part of that process is allowing them to safely return home and begin rebuilding a sense of security and normalcy.”

The family says it “remains focused on Perez’s treatment and recovery”. %!s()

Three people, including an eight-year-old child, were killed and another 24 injured in the overnight attack, local officials said.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had launched rockets, jet and naval drones in a "unique operation" to strike the Russian base, although he did not mention grain terminals being hit.

Ukraine's military later said four Russian warships, including two frigates, were hit. Russia's military has not commented publicly commented on the issue.

"The occupying fleet and all the infrastructure that supports it will not be safe as long as Russian aggression continues," Zelensky said in a post on social media.

Most of Russia's Black Sea fleet is docked in Novorossiysk - one of the largest ports in Russia - after it was forced to vacate its former home base of Sevastopol, in the Russia-occupied Crimean peninsula, which was too exposed to Ukrainian attacks.

A major grain trading company confirmed to Russia's TASS news agency that its terminal had been hit, while another told Reuters and Russian outlet RBK the same.

The Russian agriculture ministry announced on Wednesday that it was working to redirect cargo flows to ports in the Baltic and Caspian Seas as well as land routes. It did not make any reference to Ukraine's attacks but said it was "taking into account current logistical constraints".

Repeated explosions reportedly rang out over Novorossiysk throughout the night as air defences shot down aerial objects.

An emergency situation was declared in the city on Wednesday, after the barrage of drones struck areas around the port and damaged pipelines, suspending water supply for the city.

Elsewhere in the region a man was killed by drone debris, regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said. Several locations in the surrounding Krasnodar region were also struck by "several hundred drones" overnight, Kondratyev added, with dozens of buildings damaged, including homes.

For its part, Moscow launched aerial overnight strikes which killed at least 11 civilians in Ukraine between Tuesday and Wednesday.

The majority were killed when Russia hit the southern city of Zaporizhzhia with ballistic missiles and glide bombs.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

After a period of relative calm in the Black Sea, over the course of this summer Kyiv and Moscow resumed striking one another's ports and shipping.

The last remaining sea route out of Ukraine has been badly affected by several deadly Russian strikes on cargo ships and the port of Odesa, through which Moscow seeks to put off foreign companies from trading with Ukraine. In July, the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UCAB) reported a 23% decrease in exports.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has grown increasingly adept at carrying out long-range strikes on Russian territory. Its recent attacks on vessels in the eastern Black Sea have disrupted Russia's grain shipments, too.

Russia is the world's largest wheat exporter - but according to a Moscow-based analytics company, exports for August could fall by more than half compared to the same month over the last five years due to the disruption in the Black and Azov seas.

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine of carrying out strikes on Russian grain and agricultural infrastructure, resulting in a hike in global food prices and growing grain shortages.

But Zakharova also said that for its part Russia would continue striking "facilities that [Ukraine's armed forces] use on the Black Sea to destabilise the navigation situation" until "the full elimination of threats to security projected to the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea".

Concerns over how the war in Ukraine would affect global food supplies have been persistent since the start of Russia's invasion in 2022.

Together, Russia and Ukraine account for a significant share of global grain trade, particularly for buyers in North Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia.

The 2022 Black Sea Grain Initiative, under which Russia agreed to lift its blockade on Ukraine's agricultural exports, did not last after Moscow resumed attacks on vessels using the maritime corridors to Odesa the following year. %!s()

A 90-minute requiem mass – where prayers are offered for the soul of the dead – was held for the former MP and Reform UK spokesperson.

Before the service, police officers and sniffer dogs could be seen searching the grounds.

Widdecombe died on 8 July, aged 78, after she was hit over the head with a hammer 21 times at her home in Haytor. Joshua Kerry, 28, of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, was charged with her murder on 20 July.

It is understood that Reform leader, Nigel Farage, did not attend the funeral because he did not wish to be a distraction. He is expected to attend a public memorial planned for later this year.

Those slated to attend included the shadow chancellor, Mel Stride, the former Conservative justice minister Crispin Blunt and the broadcaster Iain Dale.

The private mass featured a homily from the Rt Rev David Charlesworth, the abbot of Buckfast. He said: “In the midst of the shock, clamour and sometimes unwarranted comment surrounding her death, our response is to pray for the repose of her soul, to give thanks for her fortitude, and offer Holy Mass in this abbey church, which Ann called her safe haven.”

An earlier statement from the abbey said: “Ann was a woman of profound faith, a faith which found expression in the public forum of politics. Ann was unafraid to express her unwavering convictions, formed through her Roman Catholic faith. She had a sharp intellect and was a dedicated public servant.”

The order of service showed tributes would be paid by the Rev Roger Widdecombe, Widdecombe’s nephew, and Christian Sweeting, a close friend.

Donations made in her memory will be divided between the Leprosy Mission and Abound, supporting the projects of the Christian Endeavour Hostel in India.

Widdecombe was first elected as a Conservative MP for Maidstone in 1987 and became a prisons minister in the 1990s. She later became a member of the European parliament for the Brexit party. At the time of her death she was a spokesperson on immigration and justice for Reform UK. She had also appeared on Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Big Brother. %!s()