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Meanwhile, conspiracy theories have spread, from rumours that Lungu is not actually dead to speculation that Hichilema wants to use the body for witchcraft.

Many Zambians have joked about the saga. “It’s coming home!” Kodwani Banda, a self-described “youth advocate”, posted to his 356,000 Facebook followers, with an image of white smoke rising from the Sistine Chapel chimney.

Emmanuel Mwamba, a spokesperson for the Patriotic Front, Lungu’s party, said: “There should have been more sympathy. When [government officials] came to South Africa, they were just interested in picking up the body and holding the funeral. It was very mechanical. Their approach lacked sympathy, lacked empathy, lacked a sense of Africanness, a sense of ubuntu.”

Kabesha had previously argued that a state funeral with full military honours was a legal requirement, citing a court ruling on the burial of Zambia’s first president, Kenneth Kaunda. “The moment that a national mourning is declared, the law kicks in,” he told the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation in June.

Mwamba responded that a state funeral could be held without the current president presiding over it. “His presence doesn’t make it. A state funeral is, in fact, the protocols such as the gun salute, the pallbearers being soldiers, the ceremony being handled by the defence forces,” he said.

Sishuwa Sishuwa, a political historian and senior lecturer at Stellenbosch University, said the burial dispute had heightened political discord in Zambia.

“The faultlines have always been there, but the dispute over Lungu’s burial place has exacerbated the country’s regional and political polarisation,” he said. “Whatever way the dispute is resolved, it will have a significant bearing on the 2026 elections … A key reason behind the government’s court action in South Africa is to reduce the political costs of burying Lungu in exile.”

Lungu ruled Zambia from 2015 to 2021, having taken over when Michael Sata died in office. He defeated Hichilema in the 2016 presidential election, which Hichilema and his United Party for National Development (UPND) party claimed was rigged.

The following year, Hichilema was sent to prison to await trial on treason charges after his convoy did not give way to Lungu’s presidential motorcade. Four months later, after an international outcry, he was released and the charges were dropped.

Hichilema finally defeated Lungu in the 2021 elections, amid an economic crisis. Since then, he has been accused of using oppressive methods similar to those of his longtime rival.

In 2023, police stopped Lungu from going out for runs, saying they were “political activism” that had to be approved in advance to “ensure public safety”. His wife and children have faced corruption charges, which they have denied and said were politically motivated.

In 2024, Lungu was banned from running in next year’s presidential election by the constitutional court, which ruled that the period from when Lungu took office in 2015 until the 2016 election counted as a full first term.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave Donald Trump a golf club during his visit to Washington this week that had belonged to a serviceman fighting Russia’s invasion, Kyiv said on Tuesday.

Trump, an avid golfer who owns several courses, accepted the gift and presented Zelenskyy with symbolic keys to the White House in return, the Ukrainian leader’s office said.

The warm exchange marks a stark turnaround from February, when Zelenskyy left the White House early after a televised shouting match with Trump and the US vice-president, JD Vance.

Since that tense encounter, Zelenskyy has sought to repair ties, flattering Trump in public appearances and praising his efforts to secure peace.

“The president of Ukraine presented the president of the United States with a golf club,” Zelenskyy’s office said.

The club previously belonged to Kostiantyn Kartavtsev, a Ukrainian soldier who “had lost a leg in the first months of Russia’s full-scale invasion while saving his brothers-in-arms”, the office said.

Zelenskyy showed Trump a video of Kartavtsev, it said.

Later on Tuesday, the Ukrainian veteran organisation United by Golf published a video of Trump holding the golf club and thanking Kartavtsev.

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“I just watched your swing. I know a lot about golf and your swing is great,” Trump said in the video. “You’re an amazing person, and you just keep playing golf and doing all of the other things. Your country is a great country. We’re trying to bring it back to health.”

Zelenskyy also brought a letter for Melania Trump from his wife, Olena Zelenska, thanking the US first lady for writing to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, urging him to save children’s lives.

Foreign leaders visiting the White House have been trying to woo Trump with various gifts. In late February, the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, brought him an invite for an official visit with a letter signed by King Charles III.
Six months on from their explosive meeting in the White House, Volodymyr Zelenksyy once again met with the US president, Donald Trump, in Washington. But this time the Ukrainian president arrived with the support of key European leaders, who dropped everything in the hopes of securing a potential deal to end the war with Russia.

Washington bureau chief David Smith speaks to Nour Haydar about whether Europe’s united front managed to steer Trump away from the Kremlin, what chance is left of a ceasefire and how Trump welcomed Vladimir Putin back on to the world stage
On Monday evening, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, garnered compliments from Donald Trump and the White House press pool for his formal jacket and trousers.

But for the ensemble’s designer, Viktor Anisimov, the outcome of the meeting, not the verdict on the outfit, was of more concern.

“It’s not about the suit – it’s about what happens to Ukraine,” Anisimov told Womenswear Daily (WWD), speaking through an interpreter before the meeting.

Zelenskyy has largely eschewed formalwear since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, opting instead for military-style clothing as a gesture of solidarity with his country’s citizens.

In February, he was criticised by the pro-Trump TV reporter Brian Glenn for his decision to wear a long-sleeve polo shirt emblazoned with the Ukrainian trident, from the Ukrainian menswear brand Damirli.

“Why don’t you wear a suit? You’re at the highest level in this country’s office, and you refuse to wear a suit. Do you own a suit? A lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting the dignity of this office,” Glenn said at the time.

“I will wear [a suit] after the war is finished,” Zelenskyy replied.

Trump, too, noted the casual outfit in February, greeting Zelenskyy with a sarcastic: “You’re all dressed up.”

View image in fullscreen Zelenskyy in the Oval Office during his difficult meeting with Donald Trump in February. He was criticised over his choice of clothes during the visit. Photograph: ABACA/Rex/Shutterstock

Anisimov told the magazine that Zelenskyy’s new look had not been designed in response to the first White House meeting. “We had already started working on the president’s new wardrobe and style in January. After what happened in February, knowing our president’s principles, I thought that he would not want to change his style. But no, he decided that we should continue.”

He told the Wall Street Journal that he was “gradually shifting the president’s image towards a more civilian style, while still preserving the military reference”.

On Monday, Zelenskyy was back in the Oval Office with Trump for another summit about the future of Ukraine. This time, Glenn praised Zelenskyy’s new look, saying: “You look good.” “I said the same thing,” Trump added.

Zelenskyy pointed out that Glenn, meanwhile, was wearing the same outfit. “I changed, you did not,” he said.

Despite Glenn’s remarks to the contrary, Zelenskyy’s Monday evening outfit is not technically a suit. It is a French-style army jacket, made in a military canvas material with four patch pockets – a style more akin to a counter coat. Zelenskyy wore the jacket with coordinating trousers, which may have been the source of Glenn’s confusion.

Anisimov, meanwhile, had other concerns. “I am not worried about whose suit he will wear,” he told the magazine. “It’s more about the results of this whole meeting. I am more concerned about who will be with us as a country.”
Ziad Rahbani, who has died aged 69 of a heart attack, was a national hero in Lebanon. A composer, pianist, playwright, actor and political commentator, he shook up the Beirut theatre scene with his controversial musical plays and transformed his country’s popular music with his bravely original fusion of Middle Eastern and western styles. In the process he also transformed the career of his mother, Nouhad Haddad, better known as Fairuz, the most beloved singer in the Arab world.

Fairuz had a vast following across the Middle East and North Africa, sold more than 150m records and performed in musical plays and films. Ziad’s father, Assi Rahbani, was a pioneering composer who, working with his brother, Mansour, as “the Rahbani Brothers” had written many of the songs made famous by Fairuz. She was initially best known for stories of Lebanese pastoral life, love and loss.

Ziad proved that his mother could broaden her musical range and tackle wider, more adventurous themes. In 1979, at the age of 22, he produced her album Wahdon, hailed as a turning point in her career. It included Ziad’s funky composition Al Bostah (The Bus), in which a man remembers a bus journey with a woman he loved – and her remarkable eyes. It shocked some of his mother’s more conservative followers, but became a dancefloor hit.

After his father’s death in 1986 he became her main songwriter, responsible for other successful albums including Maarifti Feek (1987), which showcased Ziad’s jazz and funk influences. A musician with widely eclectic tastes, he was a fan of American jazz stars including Charlie Parker, Stan Getz and Dizzy Gillespie, and though he used western influences in many of his songs, his music remained distinctively Lebanese. He once described his style as “oriental jazz – or something like a hamburger that tastes of falafel”.

Kifak Inta (1991) took the eclectic mix even further, blending jazz and funk with Brazilian influences. The title track tells of a woman confessing to her love of a married childhood sweetheart – and it again startled some Fairuz fans.

As well as composing and producing albums for his mother, Ziad performed with her. So when she played at the Royal Festival Hall, London, in 1986 (later released as a live album), Ziad was in the band, accompanying her on the piano. He also enjoyed a wildly adventurous solo career, much of it based around political satire and musical theatre.

View image in fullscreen Mourners in Beirut, 3 August 2025. Photograph: Wael Hamzeh/EPA

His first play, Sahriyya (1973), was much in the folklore style of the Rahbani Brothers, but with Nazl el-Sourour (1974) he branched out, telling the story of an unemployed betting addict. Ziad appeared in the play, which was praised for its music, humour and use of Beirut street slang.

Much of his work during the long years of the Lebanese civil war (1975-90) reflected Beirut life in this era. Bennesbeh Labokra Chou? (1978) was set in a bar and included the celebrated line: “They say tomorrow will be better, but what about today?” Film Ameriki Tawil (1980) also reflected the anxiety and confusion of the era with a story set in a psychiatric hospital – with Ziad playing a militiaman. The play ends with him screaming.

The war also influenced one of his best-known albums, Ana Moush Kafer (1985). The British musician and global music exponent Lu Edmonds describes the slinky, oud-backed title track as “a masterpiece – it should be on everyone’s playlist, and the lyrics should be translated into 100 languages…” It starts with the line: “I am not the infidel, but hunger is the infidel.”

Edmonds remembers meeting Ziad in 1993 and that he was “very funny, with a very dry wicked sense of humour”. They started drinking vodka at 10am, and discussed music, technology and their shared love of the Algerian pianist Maurice el Médioni until Ziad had to leave for an afternoon theatre performance.

Meanwhile, conspiracy theories have spread, from rumours that Lungu is not actually dead to speculation that Hichilema wants to use the body for witchcraft.

Many Zambians have joked about the saga. “It’s coming home!” Kodwani Banda, a self-described “youth advocate”, posted to his 356,000 Facebook followers, with an image of white smoke rising from the Sistine Chapel chimney.

Emmanuel Mwamba, a spokesperson for the Patriotic Front, Lungu’s party, said: “There should have been more sympathy. When [government officials] came to South Africa, they were just interested in picking up the body and holding the funeral. It was very mechanical. Their approach lacked sympathy, lacked empathy, lacked a sense of Africanness, a sense of ubuntu.”

Kabesha had previously argued that a state funeral with full military honours was a legal requirement, citing a court ruling on the burial of Zambia’s first president, Kenneth Kaunda. “The moment that a national mourning is declared, the law kicks in,” he told the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation in June.

Mwamba responded that a state funeral could be held without the current president presiding over it. “His presence doesn’t make it. A state funeral is, in fact, the protocols such as the gun salute, the pallbearers being soldiers, the ceremony being handled by the defence forces,” he said.

Sishuwa Sishuwa, a political historian and senior lecturer at Stellenbosch University, said the burial dispute had heightened political discord in Zambia.

“The faultlines have always been there, but the dispute over Lungu’s burial place has exacerbated the country’s regional and political polarisation,” he said. “Whatever way the dispute is resolved, it will have a significant bearing on the 2026 elections … A key reason behind the government’s court action in South Africa is to reduce the political costs of burying Lungu in exile.”

Lungu ruled Zambia from 2015 to 2021, having taken over when Michael Sata died in office. He defeated Hichilema in the 2016 presidential election, which Hichilema and his United Party for National Development (UPND) party claimed was rigged.

The following year, Hichilema was sent to prison to await trial on treason charges after his convoy did not give way to Lungu’s presidential motorcade. Four months later, after an international outcry, he was released and the charges were dropped.

Hichilema finally defeated Lungu in the 2021 elections, amid an economic crisis. Since then, he has been accused of using oppressive methods similar to those of his longtime rival.

In 2023, police stopped Lungu from going out for runs, saying they were “political activism” that had to be approved in advance to “ensure public safety”. His wife and children have faced corruption charges, which they have denied and said were politically motivated.

In 2024, Lungu was banned from running in next year’s presidential election by the constitutional court, which ruled that the period from when Lungu took office in 2015 until the 2016 election counted as a full first term.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave Donald Trump a golf club during his visit to Washington this week that had belonged to a serviceman fighting Russia’s invasion, Kyiv said on Tuesday.

Trump, an avid golfer who owns several courses, accepted the gift and presented Zelenskyy with symbolic keys to the White House in return, the Ukrainian leader’s office said.

The warm exchange marks a stark turnaround from February, when Zelenskyy left the White House early after a televised shouting match with Trump and the US vice-president, JD Vance.

Since that tense encounter, Zelenskyy has sought to repair ties, flattering Trump in public appearances and praising his efforts to secure peace.

“The president of Ukraine presented the president of the United States with a golf club,” Zelenskyy’s office said.

The club previously belonged to Kostiantyn Kartavtsev, a Ukrainian soldier who “had lost a leg in the first months of Russia’s full-scale invasion while saving his brothers-in-arms”, the office said.

Zelenskyy showed Trump a video of Kartavtsev, it said.

Later on Tuesday, the Ukrainian veteran organisation United by Golf published a video of Trump holding the golf club and thanking Kartavtsev.

Allow Instagram content? This article includes content provided by Instagram . We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. Allow and continue

“I just watched your swing. I know a lot about golf and your swing is great,” Trump said in the video. “You’re an amazing person, and you just keep playing golf and doing all of the other things. Your country is a great country. We’re trying to bring it back to health.”

Zelenskyy also brought a letter for Melania Trump from his wife, Olena Zelenska, thanking the US first lady for writing to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, urging him to save children’s lives.

Foreign leaders visiting the White House have been trying to woo Trump with various gifts. In late February, the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, brought him an invite for an official visit with a letter signed by King Charles III.

Six months on from their explosive meeting in the White House, Volodymyr Zelenksyy once again met with the US president, Donald Trump, in Washington. But this time the Ukrainian president arrived with the support of key European leaders, who dropped everything in the hopes of securing a potential deal to end the war with Russia.

Washington bureau chief David Smith speaks to Nour Haydar about whether Europe’s united front managed to steer Trump away from the Kremlin, what chance is left of a ceasefire and how Trump welcomed Vladimir Putin back on to the world stage

On Monday evening, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, garnered compliments from Donald Trump and the White House press pool for his formal jacket and trousers.

But for the ensemble’s designer, Viktor Anisimov, the outcome of the meeting, not the verdict on the outfit, was of more concern.

“It’s not about the suit – it’s about what happens to Ukraine,” Anisimov told Womenswear Daily (WWD), speaking through an interpreter before the meeting.

Zelenskyy has largely eschewed formalwear since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, opting instead for military-style clothing as a gesture of solidarity with his country’s citizens.

In February, he was criticised by the pro-Trump TV reporter Brian Glenn for his decision to wear a long-sleeve polo shirt emblazoned with the Ukrainian trident, from the Ukrainian menswear brand Damirli.

“Why don’t you wear a suit? You’re at the highest level in this country’s office, and you refuse to wear a suit. Do you own a suit? A lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting the dignity of this office,” Glenn said at the time.

“I will wear [a suit] after the war is finished,” Zelenskyy replied.

Trump, too, noted the casual outfit in February, greeting Zelenskyy with a sarcastic: “You’re all dressed up.”

View image in fullscreen Zelenskyy in the Oval Office during his difficult meeting with Donald Trump in February. He was criticised over his choice of clothes during the visit. Photograph: ABACA/Rex/Shutterstock

Anisimov told the magazine that Zelenskyy’s new look had not been designed in response to the first White House meeting. “We had already started working on the president’s new wardrobe and style in January. After what happened in February, knowing our president’s principles, I thought that he would not want to change his style. But no, he decided that we should continue.”

He told the Wall Street Journal that he was “gradually shifting the president’s image towards a more civilian style, while still preserving the military reference”.

On Monday, Zelenskyy was back in the Oval Office with Trump for another summit about the future of Ukraine. This time, Glenn praised Zelenskyy’s new look, saying: “You look good.” “I said the same thing,” Trump added.

Zelenskyy pointed out that Glenn, meanwhile, was wearing the same outfit. “I changed, you did not,” he said.

Despite Glenn’s remarks to the contrary, Zelenskyy’s Monday evening outfit is not technically a suit. It is a French-style army jacket, made in a military canvas material with four patch pockets – a style more akin to a counter coat. Zelenskyy wore the jacket with coordinating trousers, which may have been the source of Glenn’s confusion.

Anisimov, meanwhile, had other concerns. “I am not worried about whose suit he will wear,” he told the magazine. “It’s more about the results of this whole meeting. I am more concerned about who will be with us as a country.”

Ziad Rahbani, who has died aged 69 of a heart attack, was a national hero in Lebanon. A composer, pianist, playwright, actor and political commentator, he shook up the Beirut theatre scene with his controversial musical plays and transformed his country’s popular music with his bravely original fusion of Middle Eastern and western styles. In the process he also transformed the career of his mother, Nouhad Haddad, better known as Fairuz, the most beloved singer in the Arab world.

Fairuz had a vast following across the Middle East and North Africa, sold more than 150m records and performed in musical plays and films. Ziad’s father, Assi Rahbani, was a pioneering composer who, working with his brother, Mansour, as “the Rahbani Brothers” had written many of the songs made famous by Fairuz. She was initially best known for stories of Lebanese pastoral life, love and loss.

Ziad proved that his mother could broaden her musical range and tackle wider, more adventurous themes. In 1979, at the age of 22, he produced her album Wahdon, hailed as a turning point in her career. It included Ziad’s funky composition Al Bostah (The Bus), in which a man remembers a bus journey with a woman he loved – and her remarkable eyes. It shocked some of his mother’s more conservative followers, but became a dancefloor hit.

After his father’s death in 1986 he became her main songwriter, responsible for other successful albums including Maarifti Feek (1987), which showcased Ziad’s jazz and funk influences. A musician with widely eclectic tastes, he was a fan of American jazz stars including Charlie Parker, Stan Getz and Dizzy Gillespie, and though he used western influences in many of his songs, his music remained distinctively Lebanese. He once described his style as “oriental jazz – or something like a hamburger that tastes of falafel”.

Kifak Inta (1991) took the eclectic mix even further, blending jazz and funk with Brazilian influences. The title track tells of a woman confessing to her love of a married childhood sweetheart – and it again startled some Fairuz fans.

As well as composing and producing albums for his mother, Ziad performed with her. So when she played at the Royal Festival Hall, London, in 1986 (later released as a live album), Ziad was in the band, accompanying her on the piano. He also enjoyed a wildly adventurous solo career, much of it based around political satire and musical theatre.

View image in fullscreen Mourners in Beirut, 3 August 2025. Photograph: Wael Hamzeh/EPA

His first play, Sahriyya (1973), was much in the folklore style of the Rahbani Brothers, but with Nazl el-Sourour (1974) he branched out, telling the story of an unemployed betting addict. Ziad appeared in the play, which was praised for its music, humour and use of Beirut street slang.

Much of his work during the long years of the Lebanese civil war (1975-90) reflected Beirut life in this era. Bennesbeh Labokra Chou? (1978) was set in a bar and included the celebrated line: “They say tomorrow will be better, but what about today?” Film Ameriki Tawil (1980) also reflected the anxiety and confusion of the era with a story set in a psychiatric hospital – with Ziad playing a militiaman. The play ends with him screaming.

The war also influenced one of his best-known albums, Ana Moush Kafer (1985). The British musician and global music exponent Lu Edmonds describes the slinky, oud-backed title track as “a masterpiece – it should be on everyone’s playlist, and the lyrics should be translated into 100 languages…” It starts with the line: “I am not the infidel, but hunger is the infidel.”

Edmonds remembers meeting Ziad in 1993 and that he was “very funny, with a very dry wicked sense of humour”. They started drinking vodka at 10am, and discussed music, technology and their shared love of the Algerian pianist Maurice el Médioni until Ziad had to leave for an afternoon theatre performance.