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South Africa could become a "failed state" but has yet to reach that point, a senior official of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has said. The admission by ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula comes as South Africa experiences power cuts, known as load-shedding, of up to 10 hours a day. "This load-shedding has just made a mess of our country," he told the BBC's HARDtalk programme. The power cuts have worsened South Africa's economic crisis. The country is also battling high levels of corruption, all of which has damaged confidence in the ANC government. "If certain things are not resolved, we will become a failed state, but we are not journeying towards that direction," Mr Mbalula said in an exclusive interview with BBC HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur.

Hundreds of Catholic priests and church officials in the US state of Illinois have been named in a new report detailing sexual abuse by clergy. The state's top prosecutor said 451 clergy in Illinois had sexually abused 1,997 children since 1950. The church had acknowledged only 103 individual abusers before the start of the investigation in 2018. Nearly every survivor interviewed struggled with mental health issues after being abused, the report said. Several US states launched investigations into Catholic sexual abuse after a Pennsylvania grand jury report in 2018 found that 300 priests had abused more than 1,000 children over a period of 70 years.

US President Joe Biden and Republican leader Kevin McCarthy have called their latest talks on the debt ceiling productive but no deal has yet been reached. Any agreement will have to pass through Congress. With just nine full days till the estimated debt-limit deadline of 1 June, hitting that date is looking increasingly difficult. The US Senate is currently out of session and the House of Representatives has a planned recess this weekend for the Memorial Day holiday on Monday 29 May. Congressional leaders could call the chambers back, but simply getting enough legislators in town to vote will be a logistical challenge. Of the nine days left, only six are working days. House Speaker Mr McCarthy estimated that it would take about a week for Congress to raise the debt limit smoothly.

US retailer Target is removing some items from its LGBTQ Pride Collection range after threats and confrontations in certain stores. The company said on Tuesday the move would protect employees after what it described as "volatile circumstances" in some of its 2,000 shops. In some states, Target said it had moved Pride month merchandise to the back of the store. The 2,000-item range includes rainbow motifs and "love is love" t-shirts. Other items include "gender fluid" mugs and children's books titled "Bye Bye, Binary," "Pride 1,2,3" and "I'm not a girl." "Since introducing this year's collection, we've experienced threats impacting our team members' sense of safety and well-being while at work," Target said in a statement. "Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the centre of the most significant confrontational behaviour."

Donald Trump will face a criminal trial in March 2024, a New York judge has ruled, as the Republican's campaign for the presidential nomination will be in full swing. The former US president received the news at a hearing on Tuesday in the case about the alleged concealment of a payment to a porn star. Mr Trump was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He pleaded not guilty to each charge last month. After the hearing, Mr Trump aired his frustrations at the timing of the trial on his social network, Truth Social. "They forced upon us a trial date of March 25th, right in the middle of the primary season," Mr Trump wrote, adding it was "very unfair" and "election interference".

Russia has condemned the G7 summit as a "politicised" event pumping out anti-Russian and anti-Chinese statements and accused the forum of undermining global stability. Moscow's Foreign Ministry in a statement on Telegram accused the summit of fanning anti-Russian and anti-Chinese "hysteria", according to Reuters news agency. It said the G7 had "irreversibly deteriorated" and that the forum had become "an incubator where, under the leadership of the Anglo-Saxons, destructive initiatives that undermine global stability are prepared".

The Biden administration is touting a sharp drop in migrant numbers at the southern border in the wake of the Title 42 public health order’s expiration — with an almost 70% drop in numbers bucking predictions that the floodgates would open when the order ended. The Department of Homeland Security released statistics showing that numbers encountered by Border Patrol had dropped from historic highs of 10,000 a day last week in the days preceding the end of Title 42 on May 11, to an average of 4,000 a day since the order expired.

President Joe Biden’s critics called out the world leader for telling a reporter to "shush up" while he was meeting with the Australian prime minister at the latest G7 summit in Japan. Annoyed Twitter users slammed Biden as condescending for the command, with some pointing out that if former President Donald Trump had done that to an overzealous member of the press, he wouldn’t have heard the end of it from his usual critics. The brief but tense moment happened while Biden was speaking one on one with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this weekend at the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan.

A painting in the National Portrait Gallery has gained attention after a mother and daughter couldn't help but notice what appears to be modern-day footwear in the image - Nike trainers, to be exact. As a result, it's led people to speculate if the person in the painting is a "time traveller". Portrait of a Boy was painted by Dutch master Ferdinand Bol in the 17th century, which shows an eight-year-old boy standing in the foreground holding a goblet while resting his other hand on his hip. Well, that is until you take a closer look at the footwear to see what appears to be a white Nike "tick" logo on the side of the youngster's left shoe. That in itself is pretty impossible considering the fact Nike was founded in 1964, with the portrait being painted 300 years before this.

White House and Republican negotiators have resumed US debt ceiling talks after a brief pause on Friday that rattled financial markets. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy said negotiations at the Capitol were back on, but the White House warned of "serious differences". Republicans had suspended talks hours earlier, accusing the White House of "unreasonable" requests. Without a deal, the US could default on its $31.4tn (£25.2tn) debt. That would mean the government could not borrow any more money or pay all of its bills. The Treasury Department has warned that a default could begin on 1 June. Speaker McCarthy told Fox Business on Friday evening: "We'll be back in the room tonight. "But it's very frustrating if they want to come into the room and think we're going to spend more money next year than we did this year. That's not right, and that's not going to happen."

The US will support the delivery of advanced fighter jets to Ukraine by allowing Western allies to supply American-made F-16s, and by training Ukrainian pilots to use the jets. It would certainly be a military boost for Kyiv - but the devil is in the detail. The crucial questions are: how many, how quickly, and what weapons will the jets come supplied with? No-one doubts the ability of the F-16, which has more than proved itself in conflicts around the world. They will be a step up from Ukraine's Soviet era Mig-29s and Su-27s, which fly comparable missions. The F-16 radar can see further, allowing hostile aircraft to be engaged at longer ranges. They typically come with missiles that do not require the aircraft to maintain a radar lock to hit their target - a capability that Russia currently has, but Ukraine does not. F-16s can also launch precision bombs guided by laser, GPS, and advanced targeting systems, and are better at targeting and destroying enemy ground-based radars than Ukraine's current fighter jets.