Elected the ICC's third prosecutor in 2021, Khan was suspended last month. Khan, a prominent British lawyer, has been on voluntary leave to fight the allegations since May 2025.
Members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) have voted to dismiss Karim Khan as chief prosecutor for alleged sexual misconduct.Elected the ICC's third prosecutor in 2021, Khan was suspended last month. The decision to removehim was passed with 82 votes in favour.The court's oversight body found in June he had committed a "serious breach of duty and serious misconduct" by engaging in an improper sexual relationship with a junior ICC staff member and seeking to stop her pursuing her complaint.Khan has repeatedly denied all the allegations against him.His lawyers have described his suspension as "unlawful, procedurally unfair and unsupported by evidence".This process goes beyond the fate of a single prosecutor and could reshape the world's only permanent war‑crimes tribunal.The misconduct investigation has put the institution under a glaring spotlight, intensified divisions inside it and played out alongside an unprecedented campaign to weaken, and in fact dismantle, the ICC in its entirety.The fear among its supporters is that the court will emerge weakened and less able to face the gravest global threats.Khan, a prominent British lawyer, has been on voluntary leave to fight the allegations since May 2025. He remains suspended from practising law in the UK, after the Bar Standards Board imposed an interim ban while it conducts its own inquiry.He was unable to attend the vote, held in the United Nations headquarters in New York, because he is barred from entering the United States under sanctions imposed by the Trump administration over the ICC's investigation into alleged war crimes by Israeli officials in Gaza.Regardless of his removal, the controversy is unlikely to end there.The decision follows a highly sensitive process that has left the court under intense scrutiny.In May 2024, allegations that Khan had engaged in sexual misconduct involving a female staff member were reported to the ICC by a third party.The court's Independent Oversight Mechanism (IOM) opened an investigation, but the case was later closed after the alleged victim declined to participate.Critics of the process argued that the investigation had been mishandled, undermining confidence in the IOM.Investigators ultimately said there was insufficient evidence to substantiate the allegations.A second referral was made in October 2024. The matter was then transferred to the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), which conducted a broader investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse of authority.That inquiry ran from November 2024 to December 2025 and generated more than 5,000 pages of evidence and testimony.The OIOS findings were subsequently reviewed by a panel of three judges tasked with advising whether Khan's conduct amounted to serious misconduct, less serious misconduct, or no misconduct.The allegations have unfolded during a period of exceptional pressure on the ICC, coinciding with wider political tensions.The United States imposed sanctions on Khan after he sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged crimes linked to the war in Gaza.Washington's attitude to the court in general has become increasingly hostile in recent years.Earlier this month, the US launched a new "whole‑of‑government" campaign to dismantle the ICC "brick by brick" in what it calls a threat to American sovereignty, promising visa bans, asset freezes and diplomatic pressure on allies to withdraw from the court or reject its jurisdiction over their nationals.The United States, Russia and Israel are not members of the ICC. However, the court can exercise jurisdiction over crimes committed by their nationals on the territory of ICC member states.
Powerball lottery tickets are sold at a convenience store, Dec. 22, 2025, in Portland, Ore. Jenny Kane/AP hide caption toggle caption Jenny Kane/AP Powerball ticket sales in the United Kingdom will begin Tuesday, giving players across the Atlantic a chance at winning the same massive jackpot that U.S. players already play for — with the same minuscule odds. The expansion, first announced in April through an agreement between the Multi-State Lottery Association in the U.S. and Allwyn UK, will mark the first time a lottery outside the U.S. contributes to the Powerball jackpot. The expansion will allow U.K. players to play for much larger jackpots than are now available at lotteries in the country and Europe. Wednesday night's drawing will be the first Powerball drawing open to players in the U.K. The largest Powerball payout was just over $2 billion (about 1.5 billion pounds) from a ticket bought in 2022 in California. EuroMillions, a lottery offered across nine European countries and also operated in the U.K. by Allwyn, awarded the maximum 250 million euros (about $285 million) to players from France, Ireland and Austria over the course of 2025. The odds of winning a Powerball jackpot are a minuscule 1 in 292.2 million. Those odds will be the same for U.S. and U.K. players, lottery officials say. U.S. lottery officials say the expanded player base will allow Powerball jackpots to grow more quickly, likely increasing sales as more people are drawn to larger grand prizes. Powerball tickets cost $2. Tickets purchased in the U.K. will only go toward the Powerball jackpot — not lower-tier prizes. Players in the U.K. will have a different lower-tier prize structure. The estimated jackpot amounts in each country will differ due to currency conversion rates and because the U.S. advertises prize amounts pretax, unlike in the U.K. U.K. Powerball jackpots will also be paid over 30 years, whereas in the U.S. jackpot winners have a choice between taking their winnings spread over years through an annuity or in cash — nearly all winners opt for cash. Powerball is played in 45 U.S. states, and Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In the game, players choose five white-ball numbers from 1 to 69 and one red Powerball number from 1 to 26. Drawings will continue to be held Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
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