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A journalist who spotted that a new book appeared to name a royal at the centre of a racism row says he was called by the publisher within an hour of writing his article.

Rick Evers, who has been a royal correspondent in the Netherlands for 14 years, told Sky News he published an article with key claims made in Endgame at around midday on Tuesday.

By 1pm, he says the publisher had been in touch to ask him to delete the article over “legal problems” in the book, written by Omid Scobie, who some commentators have said is an ally of Harry and Meghan.

The book appeared to name two royals who the Sussexes claim raised concern over the skin colour of Meghan’s then-unborn son, Archie – but only in the version sold in the Netherlands.

Xander, the publishers of the Dutch translation, have put sales of the book on hold “temporarily” over what it calls an “error”.

“I think it took an hour for the publisher to phone me to ask me to delete the whole article and to get it offline, because there are some legal problems with it,” he said.

“And, of course, I was very curious – what was it? They couldn’t say it, because there were names mentioned.

“The only thing they had to say [was] that all of the books will be destroyed from the Dutch versions. So, there was something wrong.”

Mr Scobie’s book claims that Meghan wrote a letter to King Charles, who at the time was the Prince of Wales, expressing concern about unconscious bias in the Royal Family.

This came after the Duchess of Sussex claimed in her March 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey that a member of the Royal Family raised “concerns” about Archie’s skin colour.

The version being sold in English-speaking countries does not name anyone, with Mr Scobie stating: “Laws in the United Kingdom prevent me from reporting who they were.”

But early readers in the Netherlands spotted the Dutch version names an individual.

Mr Evers – who says he did not realise the Dutch version was any different until after he had published an article – said he does not believe it is down to a “mistranslation”, as Mr Scobie has suggested.

“If you compare the Dutch version and the English version it is quite clear that there is just a paragraph missing,” he said.

“One of them is replaced by some kind of sentence that Omid is not allowed to say the names because of legal problems to mention them, so it’s very clear that something has been erased.”

He said he suspects the original manuscript was checked by a legal department, who told the publishers the name should “come out”.

“So, I think they sent it to all the translators all over the world, who were translating the manuscript, except for one country – the Netherlands,” he said, adding he does not believe the name was included on purpose.

Mr Evers said he was one of two journalists in the Netherlands to receive an advanced copy of the book – none in the UK did.

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Mr Scobie told chat show RTL Boulevard he wrote the English version and “there was no version from me in which names were mentioned”.

Xander, the publishers, said the books are being withdrawn from sale – though Mr Evers says some copies can still be bought in shops.

“[We are] temporarily withdrawing the book by Omid Scobie from sale,” Xander said in a statement. “An error occurred in the Dutch translation and is currently being rectified.”

Harry and Meghan have always refused to reveal who they claim raised concerns about Archie’s skin colour before he was born, but they did clarify it was not Prince Philip or the late Queen.

Rwanda may be getting more than the £140m it has already been paid under the controversial deportation deal, despite no flights taking off, MPs have been told.

Sir Matthew Rycroft, the top civil servant at the Home Office, hinted more money would be spent but repeatedly refused to disclose the sum – saying ministers had decided they would not reveal that information until the summer.

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He made the comments during an awkward appearance at the Home Affairs Committee (HAC) which left MPs exasperated as he was unable to answer many of their questions, with Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson saying he “did not have a clue”.

The combative exchange came after Sir Matthew and his Home Office deputy made the admission that they do not know what has happened to around 17,000 asylum seekers whose claims have been withdrawn by the department.

The session started with a grilling on whether the government in Kigali has received more than the £140m previously given to them to house and process deported asylum seekers.

Sir Matthew said “there are additional payments each year” but “ministers have decided the way to keep you updated is once a year”.

He said the £140m figure was for the 2022/23 financial year so anything in 23/24 will be announced “in the normal way in the next annual report”, coming out next summer.

Labour chair of the committee Dame Diana Johnson said his responses made it “quite hard to effectively scrutinise the flagship policy of the Home Office, and how much money is being spent on it, when we’re only getting the figures at the end of the year”.

Sir Matthew said it was the decision of ministers to update parliament annually “rather than giving a running commentary”.

Labour’s shadow minister for immigration Stephen Kinnock described suggestions that Britain could sent more money to Rwanda, despite no migrants being sent there yet, as an “affront to the hard-working British taxpayer”.

Officials working on ‘finishing touches’ on new Rwanda deal

It’s been more than 18 months since the government first announced that it wanted to deport anyone who arrives in the UK by unauthorised means to Rwanda to claim asylum there, not the UK.

But the scheme has been held up in the courts ever since the first intended flight was grounded at the eleventh-hour last June following an injunction from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Earlier this month the plan was dealt another major set-back as Britain’s highest court ruled it to be unlawful.

The Supreme Court cited concerns with Rwanda’s asylum system and said there was a risk of refugees being sent back to their country of origin – something which is against international law.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is determined to see the plan through, however, and has announced his intention to sign a new legally binding treaty with Rwanda to address the judges’ concerns.

Sir Matthew told the HAC that officials were in Kigali “as we speak” and putting “finishing touches” to the new deal.

However, he said he did not know how much the government’s legal battle to get it over the line had cost and would respond to the committee at a later date. He also said it was “not realistic” to say how many Home Office officials were working on the policy as they “are doing other things as well”.

Home Office ‘doesn’t know’ where thousands of failed asylum seekers are

Several MPs expressed frustration at the lack of detail Sir Matthew, as well as his second-in-command Simon Ridley, was able to provide.

Conservative MP Tim Loughton appeared visibly shocked when it emerged the Home Office does not know what has happened to thousands of asylum seekers whose claims have been withdrawn.

The two officials were asked if it was “fortuitous” that, amid ongoing efforts to address the legacy backlog, 17,316 claims were withdrawn between September 2022 and September 2023 – a 307% increase on the withdrawal rate for the year before.

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The senior Tory said 5% of cases were classified in this way because their claim was not substantiated but the rest were categorised as happening “for other reasons”.

Mr Ridley said these were asylum seekers who made a claim, were invited to interview, but did not turn up so their cases were withdrawn. He said: “In most cases I don’t know where those people are.”

Following a series of terse exchanges on various subjects, including Channel crossings and the cost of the Bibby Stockholm contract, Dame Diana asked: “Do we have any figures about anything?” She said it was “disrespectful to this committee you didn’t come prepared”.

Right-wing Tory MP Mr Anderson also lost his patience when he was unable to get a figure on how many rejected asylum seekers had been deported in the past three years – excluding criminals and Albanians.

He said: “I find this absolutely staggering that the big boss hasn’t got a clue, not just on this question, but nearly every other question we’ve asked today. Why is that?”

“Mr Ridley is looking for the numbers and we will send them to you”, Sir Matthew replied.

Hamas has claimed its youngest hostage – a 10-month-old boy – has been killed along with his four-year-old brother and their mother.

Shiri Bibas and Kfir and Ariel Bibas were taken during the terror attack on Israel in October and were the highest-profile civilian hostages yet to be freed.

The group’s armed wing, al Qassam Brigades, said on social media that Mrs Bibas, 32, and her sons died in an Israeli airstrike before the current ceasefire.

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The boys’ father, Yarden Bibas, is also being held.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it was “examining the reliability of the information”.

“IDF representatives spoke with the members of the Bibas family, informed them of the publication [of the claims] and are with them at this time,” a statement read.

Relatives made a special appeal on Tuesday after the family was left off the penultimate list of people to be freed under the current truce deal.

Mrs Bibas’s cousin, Yifat, told Sky News it was agonising to have no information.

“I can’t stop thinking about Kfir, what he is eating, is he bathing, is he hitting his milestones?” she said.

She was worried Hamas might have passed them to another armed group in Gaza.

“We reach a dead end every time we try to figure out why Hamas is having so much trouble getting them back, or whether that means if they’re alive or not,” she said.

Yifat said Hamas could be playing “psychological games” by not giving them any news.

“It’s amazing that a baby became some sort of a card or, you know, a winning card or a trophy holding him hostage like this to get more arms or, I don’t know, fuel for their missile launchers,” she said.

Sky’s Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall said the family would now be desperately hoping the Hamas claim is false.

“There have been occasions in the last week or so when hostages who had been declared dead by one of the armed groups in Gaza actually turned out not to have died – and have subsequently been released,” said Bunkall.

“I’m sure that that is something the family will be clinging on to tonight.”

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Hamas has so far freed 61 Israelis – nearly all of them women and children – as part of a ceasefire deal that started on Friday

The extension to the truce is due to end late on Wednesday and intense talks are going on to extend it further.

Egyptian security sources have told Reuters news agency they expect it can be extended by another two days.

After more than a decade of intense lobbying, Somalia has been admitted into the East African Community (EAC). After ratification by the Somali Federal Parliament, the membership will become official.

The application process, started by former President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in 2011, had been long and arduous with some member states allegedly hesitant to bring Somalia into the fold.

The process finally yielded fruit this year after the current president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, appointed a special envoy to accelerate the admission process not long after he came into office in August 2022 for a second time. Mohamud, who was also president from 2012 to 2017, was a key backer of regional integration during his first term.

“We are a significant country in the region which can contribute a lot, and we will also benefit from them,” Mohamud said as he landed in Mogadishu after an EAC summit in Arusha, Tanzania, where Somalia was admitted into the bloc on Friday.

The president has said Somalia’s membership will also benefit EAC members Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania.

Critics of the move said the admission of Somalia, a country of more than 17 million people and a long history of conflict, could introduce security challenges for the bloc, which now has a combined population of more than 300 million people, or a fourth of Africa’s population.

However, experts argued that Somalia has taken significant strides in its fight against the armed group al-Shabab and point to security challenges in other EAC members such as the DRC, where at least 120 armed groups are fighting in its volatile east, and South Sudan, which has been in and out of a civil war since before its independence.

Challenges and opportunities

The EAC was stablished in 2000 and is headquartered in Arusha. Its mission has been to foster economic growth by, among other things, eliminating customs duties among member states. It established a common market in 2010.

Somalia’s primary economic activities are livestock and agriculture, and they have proven to be highly vulnerable to climate change. Livestock remains Somalia’s main export, followed by bananas, fish, hides and skin, and charcoal, but the country is believed to have potential offshore resources like oil and gas.

Since 1991 when Somalia’s government collapsed, leading to three decades of political instability and the rise of al-Shabab, the country’s trade volume with its neighbours shrank rapidly.

Still, analysts said, Somalia, which has Africa’s longest coastline and an estimated two million citizens in the diaspora, is ripe for economic integration with its neighbours.

“I think EAC countries also see Somalia’s … successful investments by Somalis in EAC countries,” Mohamed Abdi Waare, political analyst and a former president of Somalia’s Hirshabelle state, told Al Jazeera. “They also see its vast blue economic potential in its long coastline, the opportunities to participate in the reconstruction of Somalia and to leverage Somalia links with its diaspora, its links with the Middle East and its strategic location.”

“With massive natural resources, the rebuilding and reconstruction boom after the defeat of al-Shabab, Somalia will provide an excellent opportunity for regional investment in its blue economy, its infrastructural rehabilitation and its real estate and construction industries,” he added.

However, not everyone is on board with the integration, even within the Horn of Africa nation.

Friday’s announcement has become contentious among Somalis. Many have described the integration as rash or too early.

One of them is Abdirahman Abdishakur, the presidential envoy for humanitarian coordination, who said EAC membership is different from that in other bodies like the African Union (AU), Intergovernmental Authority on Development, Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Conference.

“We understand that all [those bodies were] formed for political, peace and development cooperation, but the EAC bloc is different and was mainly formed for economic and trade purposes,” Abdishakur, who is also a member of parliament, told Al Jazeera. “For Somalia, we don’t have goods, services and economic ideology to bring to the table.”

“Almost every Somali middle-class [citizen] bought an apartment and has their family in Nairobi, and the real estate is booming, which signals [an] advantage for Kenya’s economic growth and other countries want the same,” he said. “It’s an added advantage [to member states] for Somalia to join the bloc, but we are not gaining much.”

He added that Somalia could be better off joining the bloc in the future if the country’s leadership could provide resources, energy and ideas to stabilise the country first.

There are also other challenges.

After its accession, Somalia is required to put elements of the treaty into law within six months of signing the document.

In a report released this month, the Heritage Institute, a Mogadishu-based think tank, stressed that this could be tough to do and thus hinder Somalia from being an effective member of the EAC. This, the report said, was due to the country’s poor track record on governance, human rights, rule of law and socioeconomics. Additionally, “constant friction between the Somali federal government and member states” could also hinder smooth ratification of the treaty in parliament, the report said.

“Any infrastructure that Somalia lacks will only delay the part of the integration for which such infrastructure is needed,” Bashir Sheikh-Ali, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Institute and the author of the report, told Al Jazeera.

For instance, the EAC expects partner states to have dispute resolution forums for interstate matters within the bloc, Sheikh-Ali said. Without an independent judiciary, Somalia may not be able to fully participate or benefit from the bloc’s binding resolutions, he said.

“If the Somali government takes the creation of an independent judiciary seriously, Somalia will have a shot at having a full-fledged government, which should lead to a better environment for people in all aspects of their lives,” he added.

The institute suggested in its report that the country create a comprehensive risk minimisation plan and secure a prolonged period of treaty implementation.

Conflict resolution

In recent years, relations have soured between Somalia and its autonomous region of Somaliland over the disputed city of Las Anod. Some of the EAC members have a diplomatic presence in both territories, and it remains to be seen how the bloc would help keep the peace after Hargiesa, capital of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, previously shunned Kampala’s effort to mediate with it and Mogadishu.

Previously, Somalia was embroiled in a diplomatic rift with Kenya – the only bloc member that directly borders it – over a maritime dispute. The former asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule on the case after out-of-court negotiations between the two nations failed.

Although Kenya refused to acknowledge the ICJ ruling in 2021 that favoured Somalia, experts said the two countries now have a platform to resolve any future disputes.

“For the Kenyan side, there was no avenue to resolve the issue, but now after the admission of Somalia to the East African Community, there is hope any future dispute between the two countries can be resolved through the mechanisms of the economic bloc,” said Abdullahi Abdi, an analyst on Horn of Africa affairs.

Signs of that new harmony could manifest soon enough.

In June, the AU Transition Mission in Somalia, previously known as the AU Mission in Somalia, began winding down its peacekeeping mission. Established in 2017, its mandate fully ends next year. Thousands of the AU peacekeepers came from three EAC members.

Analysts believe that Somalia’s accession will only increase its neighbours’ desire to focus on eliminating the armed group al-Shabab. The EAC has deployed a regional force to the DRC, the last member to join, and could well do the same for Somalia.

If that leads to the decimation of al-Shabab, which is infamous for its resilience, then Somalia’s admission into the EAC could turn out to be a masterstroke not just for the country but also the region, they said.

Protesters marched through Johannesburg demanding a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, in solidarity with Palestine.

Members of South African political parties and civil society organisations marched through the streets of Johannesburg on Wednesday demanding a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as they marked the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

Rival political parties including the ruling African National Congress and the left-wing opposition Economic Freedom Fighters were among many demonstrators who marched across the Nelson Mandela Bridge to protest against Israel’s military offensive in Gaza against Hamas.

Other protests were planned around South Africa, where many including President Cyril Ramaphosa have compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank with South Africa’s past apartheid regime of racial segregation. Decades of white-minority rule ended in South Africa with elections in 1994.

Veteran anti-apartheid activist Ronnie Kasrils called for the boycott and isolation of Israel over the current war.

“All over the world, millions and millions are coming out and saying no, no, no. We will boycott and isolate Israel until it hurts them, and we stand by the Palestinian people fully, in our total support,” Kasrils told the crowd.

For years, the country has been critical of Israel’s continued occupation of Gaza.

Last week, a majority of South African lawmakers voted in favour of a motion calling for the closure of Israel’s embassy and the suspension of diplomatic relations. The motion was sponsored by EFF lawmakers but heavily backed by the governing ANC. It was opposed by members of the centrist, white-majority, largely pro-Israel Democratic Alliance.

The action is largely symbolic because it will be up to President Cyril Ramaphosa‘s government to implement it or not.

It came after Israel recalled its ambassador to South Africa following remarks by South African leaders who accused Israel of committing genocide and referred Israel’s attacks on Gaza to the International Criminal Court.