A fraternity brother of missing University of Alabama student James Paul Gracey recalled the last moments he spent with the 20-year-old inside a Barcelona nightclub before his disappearance.

Gracey, who goes by Jimmy, had been hanging out with a group of friends during his spring break trip to Spain when he was separated from his pals inside the world-renowned Shocko club on Tuesday morning.

“Unfortunately, he was separated from the rest of the group later into the night, and that was the last time we’ve heard from him,” Cavin McLay told WBMA on Wednesday.

Gracey and McLay are both part of the Theta Chi fraternity at the University of Alabama, where the pair met as freshmen and rushed together, according to WVTM.

Gracey, an Elmhurst, Illinois, native who is studying accounting, was reported missing after he failed to return to the Airbnb where he had been staying.

The junior was seen on surveillance footage leaving the hip nightclub with an unidentified person at around 3 a.m. Tuesday, a reporter for the Spanish newspaper El Periódico told CBS 42.

That footage led police to suspect somebody might be involved in Gracey’s disappearance.

McLay described his missing “brother” as a “great person, a man of upstanding character. One of those people that’s there for anyone when they ever need it,” he told WVTM.

In October, Gracey was elected to serve as the chaplain of the fraternity’s executive board, saying he was looking forward to “leading with integrity, promoting a values-based culture and supporting the personal and spiritual growth of the chapter,” according to his LinkedIn.

“He serves as a mentor for our younger guys and guides our brothers on their journey with their faith,” McLay told the outlet. “And he also serves as one of our philanthropy chairmen and devotes his time to giving back to others.”

Since his disappearance, the group of friends has come together with Gracey’s family, helping in the search for the college student.

“They’re out on the beach right now handing out flyers just getting as many eyes as we possibly can looking out for him,” McLay said.

“It’s tough. We’re doing everything we can to keep our heads up and remain hopeful that we find him safe, but it’s a tough time. And, you know, we’re scared,” McLay said.

“His dad landed here this morning. We’ve been working closely with local authorities and Sen. (Katie) Britt’s office, the State Department, US embassy here in Barcelona.”

Catalonia police have opened an investigation into Gracey’s disappearance, revealing his phone was recovered by officials.

“We went into the station, and they told us that they had his phone,” McLay told WBMA.

HAVANA — The Trump administration made clear Tuesday that it sees Cuba as the next country where the U.S. can play out its desires on the world stage.

A day after Cuba’s third nationwide blackout in four months as the socialist island’s economy suffers under U.S. sanctions, President Donald Trump said, “Cuba right now is in very bad shape.”

“And we’ll be doing something with Cuba very soon,” the president added.

The Trump administration is looking for President Miguel Díaz-Canel to leave as the U.S. continues negotiating with the Cuban government, according to a U.S. official and a source with knowledge of talks between Washington and Havana. No detail has been offered about who the administration might like to see come to power.

Many Cubans do not believe that Díaz-Canel holds much power in Cuba, anyway, as opposed to revolutionary founding father Raúl Castro and his family.

Electricity was slowly being restored to hospitals and some homes Tuesday afternoon, but officials warned that the crumbling power network could fail again.

The government blames its woes on a U.S. energy blockade after Trump in January warned of tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is of Cuban heritage, said the island “has an economy that doesn’t work in a political and governmental system. They can’t fix it.”

A Cuban official said Monday that Cuba is open to trading with U.S. companies, but such promises have been made before.

“So they have to change dramatically,” Rubio said. “What they announced yesterday is not dramatic enough. It’s not going to fix it.”

The Trump administration is also demanding that Cuba release political prisoners and move toward political and economic liberalization in return for a lifting of sanctions. Trump has also raised the possibility of a “friendly takeover of Cuba.”

While Cuba produces 40% of its petroleum and has been generating its own power, it hasn’t been sufficient to meet demand as its electric grid continues to crumble.

Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines said on X that the island had restored the electrical system in the western town of Pinar del Rio and the southeastern province of Holguin and that some “microsystems” were beginning to operate in various territories.

State-owned media reported that by late Monday power had been restored to 5% of residents in the capital, Havana, representing some 42,000 customers.

The city’s residents are concerned about food spoiling and simply trying to maneuver in homes with no lighting.

“The power outages are driving me crazy,” said 48-year-old Dalba Obiedo. “Last night I fell down a 27-step staircase. Now I have to have surgery on my jaw. I fell because the lights went out.”

Havana resident Tomás David Velázquez Felipe, 61, said the relentless outages make him think that Cubans who can should just pack up and leave the island. “What little we have to eat spoils,” he said. “Our people are too old to keep suffering.”

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Seung Min Kim and Aamer Madhani contributed from Washington.

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A famous musician long rumored to be the elusive guerrilla artist Banksy has been unmasked — as his partner in crime.

For years, the identity of the world-famous street artist has remained a closely-guarded secret, although many names have been put forward.

One of the more serious suggestions has been someone famous in their own right — singer Robert “3D” Del Naja with the popular British group Massive Attack.

The 61-year-old has long been suspected of being the polarizing graffiti artist — both he and Banksy were known to have grown up in the UK city of Bristol at around the same time.

Banksy was also reported to be a fan of Massive Attack, who were set to play a concert at his faux theme park, titled “Dismaland,” in 2015 before dropping out.

The trip-hop pioneers — who last played the US in 2024 — had a string of hits in the 1990s, including “Unfinished Sympathy” and “Teardrop.”

Del Naja started as a graffiti artist, and his visual art has appeared on every one of Massive Attack’s record sleeves.

But according to a Reuters exposé, which named Banksy as 51-year-old Robin Gunningham, Del Naja is actually friends and collaborators with the artist. 

“Robert Del Naja, Gunningham’s graffiti idol, friend, and a man himself rumored to be Banksy, has on at least one occasion been his secret painting partner,” the report said.

The investigation, which involved speaking to insiders, experts, and witnesses who Gunningham entering Ukraine in 2022, said the former mystery man now goes by the generic name David Jones so as to avoid detection.

Jones, Del Naja, and a third man, photographer Giles Duley, crossed into war-torn Ukraine on Oct. 28, 2022, the report found, with a source quoted as saying they spotted the singer in the same hotel as Banksy.

“You’ll never f–king guess who I met? Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack!” the source said.

Del Naja has also previously been forced to deny he is Banksy.

“Rumors of my secret identity are greatly exaggerated. It would be a good story but sadly not true. Wishful thinking, I think,” he told the Daily Mail in 2016.

Del Naja went on to describe Banksy as a “mate” who had been to several Massive Attack concerts.

Banksy’s lawyer Mark Stephens told Reuters his client “does not accept that many of the details contained within [the] enquiry are correct,” adding that the findings “would violate the artist’s privacy, interfere with his art and put him in danger.”

“It protects freedom of expression by allowing creators to speak truth to power without fear of retaliation, censorship or persecution,” he added.

Disgraced British actor John Alford has been found dead in prison, aged 54.

The actor, known for his roles on UK TV series “London’s Burning” and “Grange Hill”, was in custody following a string of sex offenses connected to two teenage girls in 2022.

He was sentenced to eight years and six months in January this year.

His death was confirmed by The Mirror, who shared a statement from a prison spokesperson.

“John Shannon died in prison on 13 March 2026,” it read.

“As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.”

Alford’s real surname was Shannon, though he used the former as his stage name.

According to The Sun, Alford was found unresponsive in his bed at the Category C HMP Bure in Norfolk. While medics were called, the actor did not wake despite their attempts.

“He didn’t wake up in the morning. He was in his bed and they thought he was just asleep,” a source told the publication.

“When they tried to wake him there was no response and they realized he was dead.”

The actor rose to fame in the 1980s thanks to his role as rebel Robbie Wright in the BBC teen drama “Grange Hill”. He was just 13 at the time. He later moved on to star as fireman Billy Ray in “London’s Burning” in the 1990s.

Despite his popularity on the program, Alford’s career on TV was short-lived. He was famously sacked from the TV series after he was convicted for supplying cocaine and cannabis.

He was sentenced to nine months in jail in 1999, serving just six weeks behind bars.

He briefly broke back into acting in the early 2000s but found himself in trouble with the law once again in 2018 when he was charged for resisting a police officer.

At the time of his death, Alford was only months into serving out a sentence connected to the assaults of two young females.

The actor attacked the two girls, aged 14 and 15, while they were drunk after a night out at a pub in April 2022.

Alford was staying at a friend’s Hertfordshire house, also the father to a third girl, at the time of the assault.

The trial heard he had intercourse with the 14-year-old female and touched the 15-year-old inappropriately while she was half asleep.

Chris White, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said the disgraced star was “fully aware of the girls’ ages, yet he chose to exploit them,” as per Sky News.

The actor was found guilty on four counts of sexual activity with one girl and sexual assault and assault by penetration relating to the other at St Albans Crown Court in September last year.

At the time, he insisted the jury’s guilty verdict was “wrong”.

MOSCOW — A court in Moscow in Thursday convicted 19 people of involvement in the 2024 shooting rampage in a Moscow concert hall that killed 149 people and wounded over 600 in one of the deadliest attacks in the capital in years.

A faction of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the March 22, 2024, massacre at the Crocus City Hall concert venue in which four gunmen shot people who were waiting for a show by a popular rock band and then set the building on fire.

All 19 defendants were handed lengthy prison terms: 15 were sentenced to life in prison, one was handed 22 1/2 years in prison, and three others were given 19 years and 11 months each.

The trial began in August 2025 in a military court, as is customary for terrorism charges, and took place behind closed doors, with the authorities citing security concerns.

President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have claimed, without presenting evidence, that Ukraine had a role in the attack. Kyiv has strongly denied any involvement.

The Investigative Committee, Russia’s top criminal investigation agency, has said that the attack had been “planned and carried out in the interests of the current leadership of Ukraine in order to destabilize political situation in our country.” It also noted the four suspected gunmen tried to flee to Ukraine afterward.

The four, all identified as citizens of Tajikistan, were arrested hours after the attack and later appeared in a Moscow court with signs of being severely beaten.

Those tried alongside them included three men who sold the suspected gunmen a car, a man they rented an apartment from, and 10 others accused of terrorist ties, according to independent Russian news site Mediazona.

Police are investigating whether a bus fire in a town west of the Swiss capital that killed at least six people was started deliberately.

Police spokesperson Frédéric Papaux of Fribourg canton, or region, said an unspecified “voluntary act” could have caused the fire Tuesday evening in the town of Kerzers, about 15 miles west of Bern.

Five people were also injured in the fire, which for locals echoed a New Year’s Eve fire in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana that killed 41 young people.

Christa Bielmann, representing the Fribourg police, told Swiss broadcaster SRF: “There is information circulating that a person poured flammable liquid over themselves on the bus and that this caused the fire. But this is part of the ongoing investigation and is being clarified.”

“It shocks and saddens me that once again people have lost their lives in a serious fire in Switzerland,” Swiss President Guy Parmelin wrote on X on Tuesday night. “The circumstances are being investigated. I offer my condolences to the families of those who died in Kerzers. And my thoughts are with the injured and the rescue workers.”

There were no indications that this was a terror attack, Martial Pugin, head of communications for the Fribourg cantonal police, told broadcaster RTS on Wednesday morning.

The regional transport bus is operated by PostBus, which is affiliated with the national postal service. Images from the scene on Swiss media showed flames tearing through the bus.

“We are deeply moved by this tragic news. Our thoughts are with the victims, the injured, and all their families,” PostBus said in a statement on its website.

“After rushing to the scene, rescue teams noted that the vehicle was totally engulfed in flames,” the regional government said in a statement.

Ambulance and helicopter teams ferried three people with severe injuries to hospitals, while two others were treated on site, police said.

Papaux said at least six people were killed.

Police said the identification of the victims could take several days.

The burned-out vehicle was removed during the night and traffic returned to normal as of Wednesday morning.

President Trump branded a US ground invasion in Iran a “waste of time” and said Iran has “lost everything” – after Tehran’s foreign minister claimed the regime was “waiting” for American and Israeli forces.

Trump downplayed Abbas Araghchi’s claim as a “wasted comment” on Thursday night, telling NBC News, “They’ve lost their navy. They’ve lost everything they can lose.”

CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper revealed that more than 30 Iranian warships have been sunk or destroyed — including Iran’s prized vessel, the IRIS Shahid Soleimani, which left 87 sailors dead — since the US launched “Operation Epic Fury” last week.

Cooper said B-2 bombers dropped dozens of 2,000-pound bombs on buried ballistic missile launchers and US forces had hit Tehran’s version of Space Command.

“The US military is in the process of dismantling Iran’s missile production capability for the future,” Cooper said. “We’re not just hitting what they have. We’re destroying their ability to rebuild.”

The US attacked a drone carrier — named IRIS Shahid Bagheri — and set the vessel ablaze in its “mission to sink the entire Iranian navy.”

Israel’s military launched “a broad-scale wave of strikes” on Friday in Tehran and Beirut, where forces clashed with Hezbollah after Iran fired drones and missiles into Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain

Araghchi seemingly suggested Iran could “confront” American troops if the US launched a ground invasion of Iran.

“No, we are waiting for them,” he told NBC News after being probed on whether he was afraid of American forces. “Because we are confident that we can confront them, and that would be a big disaster for them.”

Trump repeated his calls for Iran’s leadership structure to be fully removed.

“We want to go in and clean out everything,” Trump told the outlet. “We don’t want someone who would rebuild over a 10-year period. We want them to have a good leader. We have some people who I think would do a good job.”

On Thursday, Trump addressed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba reportedly becoming the favorite to over the Iranian regime after the 56-year-old was hospitalized four times for “impotency.”

“They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight,” Trump told Axios. “Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me.”

Earlier this week, Trump told The Post that Operation Epic Fury was “way ahead of schedule,” but didn’t rule out sending US ground troops into Iran “if they were necessary.”

“I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground — like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it,” Trump said. “I say ‘probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary.’”

Trump told the Daily Mail on Sunday that he estimated the war would last “four weeks or so,” but hinted to The Post on Monday that the timeframe could be shortened.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth also didn’t put a precise date in terms of the operation.

“We’ve only just begun to hunt, dismantle, demoralize, destroy and defeat their capabilities,” he told reporters Wednesday.

“More and larger waves are coming. We are just getting started. 

“We are accelerating, not decelerating. Iran’s capabilities are evaporating by the hour, while American strength grows fiercer, smarter and utterly dominant.”

Dan Caine, the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, revealed US forces will “expand inland, striking progressively deeper” into Iranian territory as the operation evolves.

San Francisco International Airport welcomed its first non-stop Emirates flight from the Middle East since the start of the Iran war.

Thursday marked long-awaited reunions as passengers from Dubai finally embraced their loved ones.

Several travelers told ABC7 Eyewitness News their work trips became ordeals, leaving them stranded as conflict erupted. They described tense days sheltering, hearing distant explosions, and uncertainty about when they could return home.

Heather Doherty of Alameda set out for India on business, but her plans changed when her connecting flight from Dubai was forced to return mid-air because of escalating violence.

“I couldn’t be more relieved to be home,” Doherty said.

“It was five days of uncertainty, but I’m thrilled to be back on American soil,” she told the outlet.

“I spent the first night huddled on the floor next to my bed, worried about the windows exploding — so you hear alerts going off, you hear explosions in the sky,” she added.

Susan Daley from Chicago was also in the Middle East for work and described her experience to ABC. “We had a lovely lunch, then the bombing started, so we went back to the hotel, and at that point, we were sheltering in place, locked down, doing whatever they told us to do.”

For Dubai residents Jeyaram and Jayant Deshpande, the idea of returning to the Middle East brought no hesitation.

“The civilians are so safe,” said Venkatesh Jeyaram of Dubai. “We are very well taken care of. I’m absolutely not worried about going back to Dubai.”

The joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign, Operation Epic Fury, has escalated into a full-scale conflict to dismantle Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and achieve regime change.

As of March 5, 2026, the strikes have reportedly killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and devastated the Iranian Navy, while Tehran has retaliated with massive missile and drone barrages against U.S. bases and allies across the Persian Gulf.

SEOUL, South Korea — SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected his new destroyer for two straight days ahead of its commissioning and observed a test of cruise missiles fired from the warship, vowing to accelerate the nuclear-armament of his navy, state media said Thursday.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim, during his visits to the western shipyard of Nampo on Tuesday and Wednesday, also inspected the construction of a third destroyer of the same class as his 5,000-ton warship, the Choe Hyon, first unveiled in April 2025.

Kim has hailed the development of Choe Hyon as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military. State media says the ship is designed to handle various weapons systems, including antiair and anti-naval weapons, as well as nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles. South Korean military officials and experts say Choe Hyon was likely built with Russian assistance amid deepening military ties, but some have raised doubts about whether it’s ready for active service.

North Korea unveiled a second destroyer of the same class in May last year, but it was damaged during a botched launching ceremony at the northeastern port of Chongjin, triggering a furious reaction from Kim, who called the failure “criminal.” North Korea has said the new destroyer, named Kang Kon, was relaunched in June after repair, but outside experts have questioned whether the ship is fully operational.

After observing Choe Hyon’s sea trials on Tuesday, Kim said the ship met operational requirements and called it a symbol of the country’s expanding naval capabilities. He called for building two warships a year over the next five years of the same or higher class as the Choe Hyon.

Kim came back Wednesday to observe a test launch of cruise missiles from the Choe Hyon. State media published photos of him watching from shore as several projectiles rose from the vessel in plumes of white smoke and described the weapons as “strategic,” a term used for nuclear-capable systems.

After years of spurring ballistic missile development, Kim has shifted his focus more toward naval capabilities, including an ongoing construction of a nuclear-powered submarine. KCNA said the third destroyer under construction at the Nampo shipyard is expected to be completed by the ruling Workers’ Party’s founding anniversary in October.

Naval capabilities were also a key focus when Kim outlined his five-year military goals at last month’s Workers’ Party congress, which included calls for intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of being launched from underwater.

Kim on Tuesday claimed that his efforts to arm his navy with nuclear weapons were “making satisfactory” progress. He said those purported advancements would “constitute a radical change in defending our maritime sovereignty, something that we have not achieved for half a century.”

KCNA did not elaborate on what Kim meant. Some analysts say North Korea may be preparing to formally declare a maritime boundary that could encroach on waters controlled by rival South Korea.

As inter-Korean tensions worsen, Kim has repeatedly said he does not recognize the Northern Limit Line, drawn by the U.S.-led U.N. Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. The poorly drawn western sea boundary has been the site of several deadly naval clashes in past years.

At the party congress, Kim doubled down on plans to expand North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, which already is equipped with various weapons systems threatening the United States and U.S. allies in Asia, and confirmed his hard-line view of rival South Korea.

But he left the door open for dialogue with the Trump administration, reiterating Pyongyang’s demand that Washington drop its insistence on denuclearization as a precondition for resuming long-stalled talks.

New images have emerged that appear to show US pilots who were mistakenly shot out of the sky by friendly fire in Kuwait.

The viral images show at least two of the six crew members who were forced to eject from their F-15E Strike Eagles after the jets were shot down by Kuwaiti air defense. 

One of the pilots appeared to be dazed as he was approached by Kuwaiti security officers responding to the incident, The US Sun reported. 

Another image shows one of the pilots receiving help from a group of Kuwaitis who loaded the flier into the back of their car before driving off to safety, according to Visegrad 24. 

Other images of the downed American pilots have also gone viral on social media but are yet to be verified.