The five US prisoners released by Iran today as part of a controversial prisoner swap have arrived in Doha to begin their journey back to America. 

The prisoners were flown first from Tehran to Doha on a Qatar Airways jet today. They were greeted on the tarmac at Doha Airport by the US Ambassador to Qatar, Timmy Davis. 

Only three of the five released US prisoners have been named publicly. They are businessmen Siamak Namazi , 51, and Emad Shargi, 59, and Morad Tahbaz, 67, an environmentalist who also holds British citizenship. 

The other two prisoners – a man and a woman – have requested anonymity, according to a statement released by President Biden this morning.

The female detainee was comforted by Davis today on the tarmac in Doha. All were imprisoned in Iran on unsubstantiated spying charges. 

In exchange for their release, the Biden administration not only released five Iranians jailed in the US, but officials also unfroze $6billion in seized cash. 

He has been widely panned for the deal, which many say sets a dangerous precedent for America negotiating with terrorists. 

Among the Iranian prisoners is Reza Sarhangpour-Kafrani, a dual US-Iranian citizen who was jailed in February for supplying the Central Bank of Tehran with computer equipment and technology through a front company in the UAE, and, who was caught obtaining equipment that could be used in missiles and electronic warfare. 

The deal has been widely criticized by Republicans who say Biden is paying ransom to terrorists by releasing the men and the funds, which were frozen in South Korea in 2018 by President Donald Trump.  

The Biden administration insists there are ‘guardrails’ on what Iran can spend the money on, but critics are now demanding to know how he or his administration will police how it is used. 

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi however said this week that Iran would decide how the money would be spent. 

Trump was among the first to criticize the agreement when details of it became public on 9/11, an ill-timed announcement that was widely panned. 

A female prisoner is also being released along with a fourth, unnamed male.

Namazi has been in prison since 2015, when he was arrested during a business trip and convicted of cooperating with a hostile government – the US. 

 Shargi was arrested with his wife in 2018 on unsubstantiated espionage charges. She was later allowed to return to the US. 

Tahbaz was also convicted of spying charges. He was left out of a previous prisoner swap brokered by former British Prime Minister Liz Truss. 

But they remain deeply divided on other issues ranging from Iran‘s nuclear program and its influence around the region to U.S. sanctions and America’s military presence in the Gulf.

Qatar, a tiny but hugely wealthy Gulf Arab energy producer, has sought to raise its global profile, hosting the soccer World Cup last year and carving out a role in international diplomacy.

The Sunni Muslim nation hosts a big U.S. military base but has also forged close ties with Shi’ite Muslim Iran.

Doha hosted at least eight rounds of talks with Iranian and U.S. negotiators sitting in separate hotels, speaking via shuttle diplomacy, a source previously told Reuters.

Under the agreement, Doha agreed to monitor how Iran spends the unfrozen funds to ensure the cash is spent on humanitarian goods, such as food and medicine, and not any items under U.S. sanctions.

The transfer of Iran’s funds has drawn criticism from U.S. Republicans who say President Joe Biden, a Democrat, is in effect paying a ransom for U.S. citizens.

The White House has defended the deal.

Ties between Washington and Tehran have been boiling since Donald Trump, a Republican, pulled the U.S. out of a nuclear deal between Iran and global powers when he was president in 2018. 

Reaching another nuclear deal has gained little traction since, as Biden prepares for the 2024 U.S. election.

As a first step in the deal, Washington waived sanctions to allow the transfer of $6 billion in Iranian funds from South Korea to Qatar. 

The funds were blocked in South Korea, normally one of Iran’s largest oil customers, when Washington imposed sweeping financial sanctions on Tehran and the cash could not be transferred.

A summer resurgence in Covid cases has prompted some GP surgeries to bring back face mask rules for patients — weeks after a new variant was spotted.

One practice in Leicester last week reinstated the guidance, urging people to mask-up, as a ‘precautionary measure’ to protect vulnerable patients.

Another in Essex cautioned that an ‘increasing number of patients and staff with Covid’ had prompted the move. 

A spike in infections across the country has seen Covid hospitalisations in England hit a five-month high. 

Health officials yesterday confirmed that a total of 42 cases of the super-mutated Pirola Covid variant have now been detected in the UK, up from 36 last week. 

Mukta Modi, manager of Canon Street Medical Centre in Leicester told GP magazine Pulse: ‘We are preparing for the autumn vaccination programmes and this is a precautionary measure to protect staff and our vulnerable patients.

‘This has been discussed with our patient participation group who have been very supportive.’

Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Local Medical Committee (LMC) chair Dr Grant Ingrams told MailOnline today: ‘Every practice is different with significant variation in the number of staff and patients who are at higher risk of catching Covid or having complications. 

‘In addition, many practices are very short of space meaning that patients have to sit or stand close together in reception and waiting areas.’

He added: ‘Practices are private companies and have a legal duty to protect their staff and patients under Health and Safety Legislation and this includes against infection. 

‘Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland LMC supports all practices to carry out a risk assessment and implement what protection they conclude is needed which may include wearing masks.’

While the true prevalence of the virus is unclear, data from the ZOE Covid study, which tracks self-reported infections, suggests there were 97,904 new daily cases of symptomatic infection on September 13 — almost double the 50,000 it reported at the start of August.

The study, which is based on data from millions of users of the ZOE app, estimates around 1.29million in the UK are currently infected, roughly one in 52 people. 

The figure is the highest for five months, but it is still far lower than the estimated toll during earlier peaks, with it reporting that 3.8million people were infected in April 2022.

Patients had been required to wear face masks in GP surgeries up until June last year.

Updated NHS guidance at the time told practices that patients, apart from those with respiratory symptoms, are ‘not required’ to wear a face mask unless they wish to as a ‘personal preference’.

However, health and care staff were advised to continue to wear face masks as part of PPE when working with suspected or confirmed Covid patients, including those working with untriaged patients in primary care.

It comes as a caller, known only as Caroline, spoke to TalkTV on Wednesday claiming the unnamed GP surgery she works at in Essex had asked staff ‘to mask up again’.

In a message sent out to staff earlier in the week, it said: ‘Due to an increasing number of patients and staff with Covid, I’m afraid we need to ask you to mask up again at work from tomorrow. 

‘Hopefully by wearing them again during the surge we can protect and look after each other and provide an example to patients.’

The message also confirmed the practice would review ‘mask wearing on a regular basis’, she claimed.

She told TalkTV: ‘I did message back and said I wouldn’t be wearing them and I would try and keep my distance if they were worried.

‘They also wanted us to start testing again if we feel unwell.’ 

In recent weeks scientists have recommended a return of pandemic mitigation measures, including mask wearing, and increased ventilation because of the virus’ resurgence. 

Some virologists have also urged Ministers to re-consider vaccine eligibility criteria, after the Government ditched plans last month to offer Covid vaccines to under 65s under the autumn jab rollout which began on Monday.

Despite some experts questioning whether they were ever necessary, studies have repeatedly shown mask wearing can reduce the transmission of the virus.  

Last month, a report by the Royal Society also found ‘mask wearing and mask mandates were an effective approach to reduce infection’.

Researchers said studies consistently reported the measures were an effective approach to reduce infection, despite officials issuing mixed messages about their effectiveness at the beginning of the pandemic. 

Other evidence from studies in healthcare settings also showed that higher-quality ‘respirator’ masks — such as N95 masks — were ‘more effective than surgical-type masks’, they added. 

However researchers noted that as the pandemic progressed and the virus became more transmissible, non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) became less effective in controlling the spread of the virus. 

It comes after UKHSA data yesterday showed that Covid hospitalisations are at their highest level since April.

Admissions among patients who tested positive for the virus stood at 4.6 per 100,000 people in the week to September 10, official figures show.

This is up from 3.7 per 100,000 the previous week and the highest since the week ending April 30.

This is still a fraction of the level reached last winter, when the rate stood at 11.8 per 100,000. It is also well below the figures seen during the first year of the pandemic. 

The rate has been on a clear upwards trend for the past two months, however. 

Rates remain highest among people aged 85 and over, at 51.1 per 100,000, and 75 to 84-year-olds, at 21.2 per 100,000.

Experts predict Covid cases will continue to rise as the UK heads into the autumn, and people mix more indoors.

Brits are also no longer testing en masse like they were earlier in the pandemic — with community testing ending in May 2022. 

Therefore, confirmed cases are an underestimate of how many Britons are infected with Covid and how many of those have the new variant Pirola. 

Yesterday UKHSA confirmed a total of 42 cases of the super-mutated strain, known scientifically as BA.2.86, have now been detected in the UK, up from 36 last week. 

Of England’s 37 cases, spotted as of September 11, seven had been hospitalised, while two were detected among A&E patients. No deaths have been recorded among those infected. 

Some 5 BA.2.86 cases have been reported by Public Health Scotland. No Pirola cases have been detected in Wales and Northern Ireland. 

Pirola, like other recently emerged Covid variants, is a spin-off of the Omicron strain.

However, its host of mutations, 35 in total, sparked alarm with some experts fearing it would be different enough to effectively dodge the protection offered by Covid vaccines and infection from previous waves. 

The UKHSA said it is currently analysing blood samples taken from NHS workers to test how effective the immune response generated by Covid jabs is against Pirola.

Experiments to determine how effective lateral flow tests are at spotting Pirola are also still underway. 

Biden leaves for New Delhi as polls raise questions about his 2024 run

By Nikki Schwab, Senior U.S. Political Reporrter In Charleston, South Carolina

Published: 08:13 EDT, 8 September 2023 | Updated: 08:13 EDT, 8 September 2023

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President Joe Biden departed Thursday for the G20 Leaders‘ Summit in New Delhi, India after days of speculation over whether the president would catch COVID-19 from his wife and scrap the trip. 

The maskless commander-in-chief didn’t take questions from the press as he boarded Air Force One through the smaller steps.

His trip begins just 24 hours after the Department of Justice warned they would seek to indict his son Hunter on gun charges by the end of the month, and he faced criticism from 9/11 families for marking Monday’s 22nd anniversary of the attacks in Alaska.

And more poll results released by CNN on Thursday morning show the majority of voters – including Democrats – think he is too old to run, and he is neck-and neck with Donald Trump.

While press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that there were no ‘contingency plans’ being made if Biden had to skip, the White House didn’t reveal too much of Biden’s schedule either. 

He’s expected to meet with the G20’s host, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after Air Force One lands Friday and then attend G20 sessions Saturday and Sunday before jetting off to Vietnam. 

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan wouldn’t say Tuesday if Biden planned to hold bilateral meetings with two of the most controversial leaders expected to attend –  Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is skipping the meeting of the world’s richest economies amid the Ukraine invasion – sending Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in his stead – while Chinese President Xi Jinping is sitting the summit out amid tensions with host country India. 

Last week, China and India got into a diplomatic tiff over an ‘official map’ released by China that claimed lands along the Himalayas that Indian officials say belong to them. 

Xi is sending Premier Li Qiang in his place, Beijing announced Monday. 

At the briefing Tuesday, Sullivan encouraged the Chinese delegation to still play ball, despite Xi’s summit snub.

‘As far as the question of tensions between India and China affecting the summit: Really, that’s up to China,’ Sullivan said. ‘If China wants to come in and play the role of spoiler, of course, that option is available to them.’ 

Sullivan encouraged the Chinese to come to the summit ‘in a constructive way’ and work with other nations on the issues of ‘climate, on multilateral development bank reform, on debt relief, on technology’ and ‘set aside the geopolitical questions.’ 

One of the top summit agenda items for the U.S. is World Bank reform, scaling up the lender to provide funds for climate and infrastructure projects.

This move is strategic in that it could move some developing economies toward Western nations and away from the Chinese Communist Party’s lending practices, which the White House called ‘coercive and unsustainable’ when asking Congress in late August for $3.3 billion in additional funding. 

At the G7 in May in Hiroshima, Japan, some of the planned topics of discussion were overshadowed by the Ukraine war. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise visit to the summit, meeting with Biden and the other leaders of the top industrialized nations. 

The dynamic will be slightly different at the G20 – in part because Zelensky wasn’t invited by India. 

India has not condemned the Ukraine war as harshly as the United States and its top allies, as Russia is an important trading partner, though Modi did meet with Zelensky on the sidelines of the G7 in Japan. 

Also while Russia was expelled from the then-G8 in March 2014 after the annexation of Crimea, territory previously held by Ukraine, it remains a member of the G20.

Lavrov will be filling in for Putin during this weekend’s Leaders’ Summit, as the Russian leader hasn’t traveled outside the country since the International Criminal Court in March issued a warrant for his arrest over war crimes, including the removal of Ukrainian children to Russia. 

Lavrov has been on a world tour this week, appearing at the ASEAN summit in Jakarta, Indonesia – which was also attended by Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Sullivan predicted there would be a ‘continued focus on how the G20 deals with Russia’s illegal and ongoing war in Ukraine.’ 

‘The reality is that Russia’s illegal war has had devastating social and economic consequences, and the poorest counties on the planet are bearing the brunt of that,’ Sullivan pointed out. 

No major headway is expected from the full G20, with Lavrov on Friday already saying that Russia would block the final declaration from the summit if it didn’t reflect Moscow’s views on Ukraine. 

Meanwhile Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a surprise trip to Kyiv earlier this week.  

With Putin and Xi skipping the G20, no meeting of Biden’s will be more closely watched than if he decides to sit down with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the sidelines of the summit.

Late last month, Axios reported that Biden was considering meeting with MBS, according to four sources in the know. 

Sullivan wouldn’t cement anything when asked about MBS – and Erdoğan – on Tuesday. 

‘I’m not going to speak to how the schedule will shape up over the course of the coming days,’ the national security adviser said. 

Sullivan said there was a ‘certain dynamic element’ to G20 scheduling, meaning that some of the meetings ‘will likely be announced at the last minute.’ 

‘And we will do our darndest to make sure that they are done in a way where the U.S. press has the ability to participate in them,’ he told the reporters in the briefing room. 

On the table, potentially, is a ‘mega-deal’ between Saudi Arabia and the U.S. that could lead to Saudi and Israel normalizing relations. 

It would be a historic breakthrough for Mideast peace. 

Officials told Axios that the administration is trying to finish its diplomatic push before the 2024 presidential election ramps up. 

While those sources pointed to how much of Biden’s time his reelection campaign will eat up, Saudi relations are not popular among swaths of the U.S. 

Besides the country’s poor treatment of women, there was the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. 

And timing of an MBS meeting could also be awkward for Biden – who has decided to skip the traditional 9/11 ceremonies to mark the anniversary of the terror attacks Monday in Alaska on his way home from India and Vietnam. 

For years, 9/11 families have gone after the Saudi government, as 15 of the 19 terrorist hijackers were Saudis. 

A British parent has described the ‘hell’ of the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea, revealing how children fainted, had to face ‘huge mosquitoes’ and had snakes under their beds before the disastrous event was scrapped.

Olaf Clayton said his daughter Gabriela, 16, was ‘absolutely devastated’ when UK Scouts announced it was evacuating its 4,500 members on Friday but that the hygiene levels and blistering heat were getting worse as they left.

Gabriela had travelled from the family’s home in Madrid, Spain, with British Scouting Overseas to join the jamboree. Now, in the days after she and the Brits were pulled out, officials have called the whole event off due to an incoming typhoon.

The teenager, who even learned Korean phrases and studied its culture, had spent 18 months fundraising through bake sales, teaching English and working in catering while the 1st British Scouts Madrid ran events for her to save money to attend.

Her father Mr Clayton – like many others, including the head of UK Scouts – has blasted the experience faced by more than 40,000 children.

‘By the time they were leaving it was hell – kids were fainting waiting for the buses to arrive,’ he said. ‘There was no shade, all activities were cancelled and there were huge mosquitoes.

‘Gabriela is quite a tough cookie but she said there were ‘funny things’ coming out of the ground. There was a snake under her bed – thankfully the Bangladeshi scouts knew just how to deal with snakes.’

He said he and his wife had had no problems about their daughter travelling to South Korea, a ‘massive scouting nation and a first world country known for its organisation’.

‘Gabriela will have war stories and learned a lot from it, so there are positives but not so much for South Korea and its reputation for hosting this kind of thing,’ he added.

It comes after Matt Hyde, the chief executive of UK Scouts, criticised the organisers behind a disastrous jamboree plagued by multiple issues.

Officials in the country are preparing to evacuate tens of thousands of teenagers from the coastal camp ahead of an incoming tropical storm.

The jamboree has already been marred by hot temperatures which forced many – including more than 4,000 British scouts – off the site and into hotels at the cost of £1million.

Mr Hyde said the group had been ‘let down by the organisers’ and described the huge camp in the south-western county of Buan as having dirty toilets and a general lack of hygiene, while one parent of a teenager at the event said his daughter found a snake under her bed.

Hundreds of participants have been treated for heat-related ailments since the jamboree started on Wednesday, with 2,500 falling sick with ailments including bug bites, skin rashes and heat exhaustion. There has also reportedly been an outbreak of Covid-19.

Now, as Tropical Storm Khanun bears down on the camp, the World Organization of the Scout Movement said it will be evacuating all participants, bringing an end to the event.

That means using buses to move some 36,000 scouts – mostly teenagers – from 158 countries out of the storm’s path and to safer locations.

Khanun is expected to hit the country by Thursday morning, bringing winds of up to 95mph (153kph).

Large swathes of the country’s south, including Buan, could be affected by the storm as early as Wednesday, the agency said. 

The storm has caused one death and 70 injuries on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, according to the country’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency. 

Due to the forecast, Japanese rail bosses said ‘Shinkansen’ bullet train services could be suspended from Wednesday night to Thursday morning. 

South Korea’s president Yoon Suk Yeol has called for ‘contingency’ plans, which could include relocating scouts to hotels in the capital, Seoul, and other cities.

Long before the event started, critics raised concerns about bringing such large numbers of young people to a vast, treeless area lacking protection from the summer heat. 

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Hyde said his organisation had brought their concerns to the event’s organisers, and described the dire conditions at the camp.

‘We are both disappointed and feel let down by the organisers because we repeatedly raised some of these concerns before we went. 

‘We were promised things were going to be put in place.

‘If you can imagine, toilets that are being used by thousands and thousands of people are not being cleaned with the regularity you would expect, you can imagine the sort of things that people were seeing.

‘It wasn’t just that, it was actually the lack of soap as well, so again it’s the compounding impact of all these things together but like all of these things, when you’re put in a position where you have to make difficult decisions there are choices.’

He added: ‘We have at this point had to make the difficult choice of investing our money to ensure that young people are safe. That is the right thing to do and the board took that decision and stand by it 100 per cent and unanimously.’

No details have been given on where the participants will stay until they return home. However Choi Chang-haeng, secretary-general of the jamboree’s organising committee, said they have secured more than 340 evacuation venues, including community centres and gyms, in regions near Buan.

About 40,000 scouts, mostly teenagers, from 158 countries came to the Jamboree at a campsite built on land reclaimed from the sea.

About 4,500 were from the U.K., representing the largest national contingent, while 1,000 were from the United States.

Those from the UK and the US were moved into hotels over the weekend. 

In a separate video posted to the Scout’s Instagram, Mr Hyde again hit out at the organisers, expressing his disappointment while praising the efforts of young scouts and the adult volunteers for continuing their ‘jamboree journey’ in Seoul.

He added: ‘The reason why we’ve taken [the decision to move] is because we were concerned about young people and adult volunteers’ safety.

‘The first [reason] is that we were particularly concerned about sanitation and the cleanliness of toilets that were causing severe concerns for us from a health and safety point of view. In addition to that, we were worried about food and those with dietary requirements in particular, and the amount of food that was available.

‘We were concerned also about the heat. It’s punishingly hot here in Korea, it’s an unprecedented heatwave, but we were concerned about the heat relief measures that were being put in place.

‘And finally, we were concerned about medical services. Those four areas gave us concerns about whether young people and our adult volunteers were safe and that’s why we’ve relocated our jamboree journey to here in Seoul.’

He added: ‘We are disappointed in the organisers and the organisation and we do feel let down.’

Praising Seoul as a ‘remarkable city’, Mr Hyde continued: ‘Last night a local football team reached out, offered us 4,000 tickets for our participants to go and watch a game of football, and I am truly inspired by the response of our adult volunteers and our young people.

‘When I arrived upstairs in a hall yesterday as young people were arriving, it was so inspiring just to see their response. They were singing campfire songs, there was someone on the piano, they are a credit to scouting and a credit to the UK.’

MailOnline revealed over the weekend how volunteers have been left ‘incandescent at the lack of leadership’ amid the chaos at the jamboree.

Before news of the incoming storm, the World Organisation of the Scout Movement called for the event to be shelved and asked South Korean organisers to ‘consider alternative options to end the event earlier than scheduled’.

But the South Korean government conducted spot inspections on Saturday and found conditions were no longer as dire as has been claimed, prime minister Han Duck-soo said.

Former jamboree leaders and volunteers have blasted the UK contingent for preventing youngsters and leaders from exposing ‘the true scale of the mess’, while one parent said their child thought ‘they were going to die’ amid the blistering heat. 

A volunteer, who wished to remain anonymous, told MailOnline: ‘I am absolutely incandescent with the lack of leadership at the very top.’ 

She added that the chaos was being masked by leaders – and several volunteers believe that ‘had the true position come to light earlier, the situation may have been much better’.

Scouts UK said it was ‘unaware’ of any form of censoring going on. 

Temperatures hit 35C (95F) in Saemangeum, near the city of Buan on South Korea’s west coast, where 43,000 participants were camping as of Friday.

Other parts of South Korea have topped 38C (100.4F), forcing the government to issue the highest heat warning in four years.

Among those in attendance is adventurer Bear Grylls – the UK’s chief scout since 2009 – who was filmed dripping in sweat as he delivered a speech at the opening ceremony. He urged people to remain calm before the UK pulled members out.

Saturday saw thousands of British children, aged 14 to 17, packing their bags at the campsite. The first wave of children arrived at hotels in Seoul – where they were met by Gareth Weir – the British deputy ambassador to South Korea. 

British scouts continued to evacuate to hotels across the weekend. 

A man went on a ‘stabbing rampage’ near a South Korean subway station, killing one and injuring at least 13 people after running down three people with a car, according to South Korean media.

The attack took place near the Seohyeon subway station in Seongnam, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) southeast of Seoul, an official at the National Police Agency said.

CCTV footage of the incident shows the suspect stalking through the busy department store connected to the station, wearing a dark jacket and brandishing a long blade, before lunging at bystanders.

Unverified images of Thursday’s attack showed the shop floor stained with blood drops and at least one emergency medical helicopter arriving to the scene. 

Other clips showed how some citizens were desperately trying to stop the bleeding of victims lying on the floor following the violent spree. 

Police said Thursday’s assailant was arrested after apparently targeting people at random. 

Media reports described him as a man in his 20s with a delivery job and suffering from some mental health issues. 

Earlier footage showed a man with short dark hair and glasses holding what looked to be a blade stepping onto an escalator. But in security camera footage, the perpetrator appeared to be wearing a hood.  

It is thought the suspect, who was arrested at the scene according to officials, may have procured the hooded top in the department store prior to the attack.

Police said a motive for the stabbings was not immediately clear, and investigators said the suspect made ‘incomprehensible statements’ after he was detained.

At least eight of the stabbing victims are in critical condition, Yonhap reported.

In response to the attack, the National Police Agency said it would hold an online meeting with regional police chiefs to discuss ways to deal with stabbings and other attacks against random targets. 

Police Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun warned South Koreans to be on guard for such attacks and urged officials to be vigilant and look out for copycat crimes. 

It comes a fortnight after one person was killed and three wounded in another stabbing incident in the South Korean capital on July 21. 

South Korea is typically an extremely safe country, with a murder rate of 1.3 per 100,000 people in 2021, according to official statistics. 

By comparison, the United States has 7.8 homicide deaths per 100,000 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Bundang, an affluent satellite city of Seoul, generally has a reputation for safe streets and residential neighbourhoods but the two stabbings triggered concern online.

‘The attack (near the) Seohyeon station is really terrifying,’ one wrote on Twitter, which is being rebranded as X. 

‘How can we feel safe and comfortable going outside with incidents like this happening?’ 

Margot Robbie stuns in pink designer ensemble from Gucci, Versace and Chanel at Sydney Airport as she heads to South Korea with husband Tom Ackerley to promote Barbie movie

By J. Peterson For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 20:43 EDT, 30 June 2023 | Updated: 10:31 EDT, 1 July 2023

South Korean actress Park Soo Ryun who starred in Disney+ K-drama Snowdrop dies aged 29 after fall down stairs

• Park Soo Ryun, 29, fell down a set of stairs in South Korea on Sunday afternoon
• Her family has now decided to donate her organs to ‘someone’ who needs them

By Alexander Butler

Published: 11:57 EDT, 13 June 2023 | Updated: 21:18 EDT, 13 June 2023

Angelina Jolie was seen heading out of Washington DC on Thursday.

The 47-year-old Tomb Raider actress wore a beige trench coat open over a black V-neck top, slacks and boots while holding a Celine purse in the crook of her arm as she walked through the Washington/Dulles airport.

By her side was her eldest child, 21-year-old son Maddox who wore a black top and acid washed jeans with black lace-free sneakers as he carried a duffle bag.

The two were in the US capital to attend the White House state dinner honoring the president of South Korea on Wednesday.

Also at the event were President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden.

This year, the Bidens hosted South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife Kim Keon-hee in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the U.S.-ROK alliance.

Angelina and Maddox were dressed to the nines for the lavish affair and had the pleasure of witnessing President Yoon belt out Don McLean’s 1971 hit American Pie.

Maddox – who was adopted by the actress from Cambodia in 2002 – is very familiar with South Korea after studying biochemistry at Yonsei University in Seoul.

Angelina flew to South Korea to send her son off to college in August 2019.

They first visited the school, as well as other college campuses in South Korea, in late 2018.

Although he ‘got accepted to other universities,’ Maddox ultimately decided that Yonsei was the right fit for him, as reported by PEOPLE at the time.

Along with biochemistry courses, the outlet claimed that Maddox was ‘studying Korean language.’

But Maddox’s study abroad was interrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic which forced him to trade in-person classes for online school. 

As a result, he returned to his family home in Los Angeles in March 2020, according to Angelina, who opened up about her son’s education in an interview with Extra that year.

Because his classes remained on Korea time, the Changeling star revealed that Maddox had no choice but to become a night owl. 

‘He had to stay back from Korea. He’s going online, and so I think he starts at 6pm at night,’ she told the outlet.

Maddox eventually retuned to South Korea in March of 2021 after a year of remote learning. It’s unclear whether or not Maddox has officially completed his degree at Yonsei.

For Wednesday’s White House state dinner, the mother-son duo walked into the Oval Office arm-in-arm.

Angelina looked radiant in an off white, vintage Chanel blazer worn over a flowy white dress with a deep V-neckline. The Hackers star accessorized with a strand of large pearls and matching drop earrings. Her light brunette hair fell onto her shoulders in loose curls and her famously plump pout was painted bright red.

Maddox cut a stylish figure for the occasion by wearing a fitted black peacoat over a white button-down shirt and tie.

He slipped on slender trousers and black dress shoes to complete his White House look.

Jolie, who is politically active, was at the White House in September 2021 to talk about the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. 

During that trip she also visited Capitol Hill to lobby Congress on the matter. 

She returned to the White House in March 2022 to watch President Biden sign the reauthorization into law. She brought her daughter Zahara to that event, where they met with the president.

Jolie has long been active in political and international issues, particularly women’s issues and speaking for refugees.

A state visit is the highest diplomatic honor the U.S. reserves for its closest allies. Biden’s first went to France last December and took place in a glass tent on the South Lawn. 

Wednesday night’s event was the first state dinner in the White House.

This comes after news Jolie will team up with Halle Berry in the new action-thriller Maude v Maude.

Warner Bros emerged victorious for the project after an ‘intense multi-studio bidding war’ for the project, according to Deadline. 

Jolie and Berry, 53, are both set to star and produce the project.

Roseanne Liang (Shadow in the Cloud) is directing from a screenplay by Scott Mosier (Free Birds), who will both executive produce.

No plot details have been released by the project has been described as a, ‘Bond vs. Bourne type of global action thriller,’ with locations to be announced at a later date.

This will mark the first time that Jolie, who won an Oscar in 2000 for Girl Interrupted, and Berry, who won her Oscar in 2002 for Monster’s Ball, will team up on screen.

Both are well-versed in the action genre, with Jolie starring in two Tomb Raider movies, Mr. and Mrs. Smith with her ex-husband Brad Pitt and Salt.

Berry is no stranger to action either, starring as a Bond girl in 2002’s Die Another Day, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and several of the X-Men movies.

Jolie is currently in post-production on her latest directorial effort, Without Blood, which stars Demian Bichir and Salma Hayek, which Jolie also wrote the screenplay adaptation for, based on the book by Alessandro Baricco.

While she hasn’t been seen on the big screen since 2021’s Eternals, she has a number of projects in pre-production, including Maleficent 3 and Maria, playing legendary opera singer Maria Callas. She is also attached to star in Every Note Played with Christoph Waltz and is returning as Tigress in the animated sequel Kung Fu Panda 4.