2025

LONDON (AP) — Prince William expressed his shock and sadness Saturday at the news of the death of his former nanny’s stepson in the New Year’s truck attack in New Orleans that killed 14 people.

London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed Saturday that they are supporting the family of 31-year-old Edward Pettifer, including helping them through the process of returning his body to the U.K. Pettifer, who is from west London, is the final victim to be identified.

In a statement on social media, the Prince of Wales said he and his wife, Catherine, were “shocked and saddened by the tragic death of Ed Pettifer. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the Pettifer family and all those innocent people who have been tragically impacted by this horrific attack.”

Pettifer was the stepson of Tiggy Legge-Bourke, who was the nanny for both William and his brother, Prince Harry, between 1993 and 1999, which included time after the death of their mother Princess Diana in 1997. Legge-Bourke, who is also known as Alexandra Pettifer, was regularly photographed with Diana.

British media also reported that King Charles III is said to be deeply saddened by the news and that he has sent his condolences to Pettifer’s family.

In a statement, Pettifer’s family said they were “devastated at the tragic news of Ed‘s death” and described him as “a wonderful son, brother, grandson, nephew and a friend to so many.”

“We will all miss him terribly. Our thoughts are with the other families who have lost their family members due to this terrible attack,” the family added.

The U.K.’s Foreign Office also said it was supporting Pettifer’s family and was in contact with U.S. authorities.

Authorities say 14 people were killed and about 30 were injured in the attack early Wednesday by Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a former Army soldier who posted several videos on his Facebook hours before the attack previewing the violence he would unleash and proclaiming his support for the Islamic State militant group. The coroner’s office listed the cause of death for all 14 victims as “blunt force injuries.”

Jabbar, 42, was fatally shot in a firefight with police at the scene of the deadly crash on Bourbon Street, famous worldwide for its festive vibes in New Orleans’ historic French Quarter.

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KYIV (Reuters) – Power cuts will continue on Saturday in the breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniestria, which has been left without Russian gas supplies following Ukraine’s decision not to extend a contract for Russian gas transit, local authorities said.

Flows of Russian gas via Ukraine to central and eastern Europe were halted on New Year’s Day after the expiry of a transit agreement between the warring countries, and Kyiv rejected doing further business with Moscow.

Transdniestrian officials said the first rolling power cuts had gone into effect on Friday evening.

The mainly Russian-speaking region, which lies along the Moldova-Ukraine border and which split from Moldova in the 1990s, had been receiving Russian gas via Ukraine and used it to produce electricity.

The official Telegram news channel of Transdniestria’s government said power supplies would be cut for three hours between 2 p.m. (1200 GMT) and 5 p.m. in many districts.

The enclave’s self-styled president Vadim Krasnoselsky had earlier said power cuts were inevitable. He said the region had gas reserves to cover 10 days of limited usage in the north and twice as long in the south. He did not say if there were any plans to source supplies after that.

On Saturday, Krasnoselsky said on Telegram that the blackouts could be extended to four hours on Sunday.

Russia denies using gas as a weapon to coerce Moldova, and blames Kyiv for refusing to renew the gas transit deal.

Moldova itself gets around 60% of its gas needs from Romania and produces the rest. But the Transdniestria power cuts are a problem for Moldova particularly because the enclave is home to a power plant which provides most of the power for government-controlled areas of Moldova at a fixed and low price.

Prime Minister Dorin Recean said on Friday his country faced a security crisis after Transdniestria’s imposition of rolling blackouts, but he also said the Chisinau government had prepared alternative arrangements, with a mixture of domestic production and electricity imports from Romania.

Moldova says Russian gas major Gazprom could supply gas bypassing Ukraine but has deliberately chosen not to do so. Even before the halt of supplies via Ukraine, Gazprom had said on Dec. 28 that it would suspend exports to Moldova on Jan. 1 because of what Russia says are unpaid Moldovan debts of $709 million.

Moldova disputes that and put the figure at $8.6 million.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by David Holmes)

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Russia-appointed officials in Moscow-occupied Crimea announced a regional emergency on Saturday, as oil was detected on the shores of Sevastopol, the peninsula’s largest city.

Fuel oil spilled out of two storm-stricken tankers nearly three weeks ago in the Kerch Strait, close to eastern Crimea — about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from Sevastopol, which lies on the southwest of the peninsula.

“Today a regional emergency regime has been declared in Sevastopol,” regional Gov. Mikhail Razvozhaev wrote on Telegram.

Oil was found on four beaches in the region and was “promptly eliminated” by local authorities working together with volunteers, Razvozhaev said.

“Let me emphasize: there is no mass pollution of the coastline in Sevastopol,” he wrote.

Razvozhaev’s announcement came after authorities in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region announced a region-wide emergency last week, as the fuel oil continued washing up on the coastline 10 days after one tanker ran aground and the other was left damaged and adrift on Dec. 15.

Krasnodar regional Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said that almost 7,000 people were still working to clean up the spill on Saturday.

More than 96,000 tons of contaminated sand and soil have been removed along the region’s shoreline since the original spill, he wrote on Telegram.

On Dec. 23, the ministry estimated that up to 200,000 tons in total may have been contaminated with mazut, a heavy, low-quality oil product.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the oil spill an “ecological disaster.”

The Kerch Strait, which separates the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula from the Krasnodar region, is an important global shipping route, providing passage from the inland Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.

It has also been a key point of conflict between Russia and Ukraine after Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014. In 2016, Ukraine took Moscow to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, where it accused Russia of trying to seize control of the area illegally. In 2021, Russia closed the strait for several months.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, described the oil spill last month as a “large-scale environmental disaster” and called for additional sanctions on Russian tankers.

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