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“Iron Woman” is the name given to Mutlu Kaya by her almost two million TikTok followers, due to the bullet in her brain. She is a social media star, a heroic figure to her followers. But this isn’t how she wanted to find fame.

In May 2015, aged 20, Mutlu was a finalist on the Turkish equivalent of Britain’s Got Talent. As a little girl, she used to sing into her hairbrush in front of the mirror, pretending to be a popstar, and now it looked as if her dream might come true. “I was so excited I could hear my heart,” she recalls.

But, days after appearing on the TV show, the future she had imagined was brutally snatched from her when a jilted suitor tried to kill her. Mutlu was shot in the head and spent just under two months in intensive care, her family camping in the hospital car park outside to stay near her.

Turkish singer Mutlu Kaya was shot by an ex boyfriend

Her story made headlines around the world. Eight years on, she is unable to use her hands and uses a wheelchair, and the little walking she can manage is slow and stilted. The bullet remains lodged inside her brain, a permanent reminder of her ordeal, too risky to remove.

In a cruel twist of fate, her older sister, Dilek was murdered three years ago by a man claiming to be her boyfriend. According to the Turkish campaign group We Will Stop Femicide, some 334 women lost their lives as a result of gender violence in 2022, and 245 died suspiciously.

Dilek was shot and killed the day after her 35th birthday, in March 2020. “It hit me harder than the bullet,” Mutlu says.

Turkish singer Mutlu Kaya was shot by an ex boyfriend - pictured with her sister Dilek
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Mutlu (left) pictured with her older sister Dilek

Today, she still wants her voice to be heard but she is no longer singing traditional Turkish folk. Instead, she has recorded a protest track, Resurrection, a Turkish trap song in which she sings of her hope that “the cruel ones will pay the price one day”. On TikTok, she is fighting for change; for harsher penalties and for violence against women in Turkey to be taken more seriously.

Mutlu is one of eight siblings, six girls and two boys, and her family comes from the small Ergani district of Diyarbakir, a conservative, Kurdish-majority city in southeastern Turkey. She speaks no English, so we communicate through a translator on a video call. Dressed in a brown spotted blouse, she looks more formal than in the TikToks in which she is often beautifully made-up, wearing bright colours. Her long, dark hair, which reaches to the backs of her knees, is pulled loosely behind her.

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She first met Veysi Ercan, “the man who messed up all my life”, when she was 14 and he was in his 20s. She thought he was a gentleman at first, but over time her opinion changed. When he asked her to marry him, she said no, sending him “crazy”.

Turkish singer Mutlu Kaya was shot by an ex boyfriend

When she filmed the TV show in Istanbul, some 1,400km (869 miles) from her home, he also made the journey. “He came to the studios and said, ‘if you let her join the show, I will kill you all’. He was always calling and threatening me. ‘You are mine or you will be dead’. After I took part in the contest, he became more jealous. I think he felt like if she is successful on TV, [he] won’t be able to control her.”

With just a few days until the final, Mutlu had been rehearsing when Ercan turned up to find her at Dilek’s home, after bombarding her with messages. Outside, he pulled out a gun and shot her through a glass door. The next thing she remembers is waking up in hospital. “I opened my eyes and I was in bed, totally immobile. I had to use nappies, which was very hard.”

In 2016, Ercan was convicted over the shooting and sentenced to 15 years in jail. There have been reports of his release under surveillance, but it is unclear exactly when that may be. With time served before his sentencing – which counts for double – it could be in the next few years.

Mutlu says this is one of the hardest things to deal with. “This man took my hands and feet from me. He should have got a life sentence. The penalties are not strong enough. I want to keep the topic of violence against women on the agenda. I always get positive feedback, especially from women. They tell me, ‘Mutlu, you are our hope’.”

Turkish singer Mutlu Kaya (centre), who was shot by an ex boyfriend, pictured with her sister Songul and mother Hanim
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Mutlu (centre), relies on the support of one of her other sisters, Songul, and mother Hanim

According to the World Health Organisation, almost a third (32%) of women and girls in Turkey aged between 15 and 49 have experienced physical and/or sexual violence from a partner in their lifetime, based on data collated between 2000 and 2018. This is the highest percentage in Europe and West Asia, for countries where data is available. By contrast, the average for Europe is 23%.

Incidents of femicide and violence against women are said to have risen in recent years. In 2021, there were protests after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pulled out of the Istanbul Convention, an international accord designed to protect women from domestic violence.

Hundreds of women protested against the decision to pull out of the Istanbul Convention
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Hundreds of women protested against the decision to pull out of the Istanbul Convention in 2021

Mutlu is sharing her story in a new documentary, My Name Is Happy, so-called because “mutlu” means “happy” in English. In one extraordinary scene, she sits and watches as a doctor shows her a scan of the bullet inside her. She has made peace with it. It sounds strange, she says, but sometimes she talks to the foreign object inside her head. “Often I have strong headaches. I ask her not to make me feel so bad and cause so much pain.”

Since the shooting, the support Mutlu has found on social media has sustained her in her darkest moments. She shares everything from updates on her treatment to touching family moments and singing clips. In the documentary, we see footage of her speaking to other women sharing their stories of violence and femicide.

In 2022, her sister’s killer received a life sentence, which he is appealing, according to the programme. Despite her disabilities, Mutlu made sure she was at the court for the hearing.

She still loves singing but it is campaigning that helps her cope. “In Turkey, many people play the three monkeys: deaf, blind and mute,” she says. “I want other countries and communities to hear what happened. I want everyone in England to hear my voice – and I ask them to add theirs.”

Her name may mean “happy”, but for her it now has a different meaning, as she says in the documentary. “When I say Mutlu now, it means to be mature, to be a woman who has suffered a lot.”

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Myanmar earthquake: Survivors’ footage shows what it’s like to be trapped in rubble

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Myanmar earthquake: Survivors' footage shows what it's like to be trapped in rubble

Video from the Myanmar earthquake has revealed the terrifying ordeal of being trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building.

The footage shows two girls, aged 13 and 16, and their bloodied grandmother in a debris-filled space after Friday’s powerful 7.7-magnitude quake.

They became trapped as they fled their sixth-floor apartment in the country’s second biggest city of Mandalay – near the epicentre of the earthquake – and ran for the emergency stairs.

Trapped in Mandalay apartment
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The two girls and their grandmother were trapped amongst the rubble

The girls’ father initially believed his daughters and mother had died and appealed for help on social media to retrieve their bodies.

But they were alive – and had grabbed their phones in the moments before the building collapsed.

Writing on Facebook, he said: “My daughters recorded videos on their phones, thinking that if they and grandma died, their phones might be found, and their father and mother, would see them.

“They even unlocked their phones.”

He said his family could hear others trapped underneath them in the wreckage of the Sky Villa apartment block.

“They called out to each other from above and below, but there was no sound from the outside. As hours passed, they became disheartened and held hands with grandma, crying,” he said.

Trapped in Mandalay apartment

Rescuers eventually found them and used a hammer to make a small hole to pass them water, but they had to leave to get more equipment.

Left alone for some time, the girls took matters into their own hands and used the hammer to make a gap for them to escape.

“They wanted to make a bigger opening for grandma, but the large stones were too heavy, and both sisters couldn’t move them,” said the man’s post.

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Bangkok building collapses after earthquake

‘Gasping for breath’

Rescuers returned and managed to pull the girls out.

Their 75-year-old grandmother was “gasping for breath” and could not fit through – but was also later rescued.

“I am deeply grateful to my mother and my two daughters for enduring this ordeal with such strong spirits,” the man wrote.

“These are the words my daughters shared with me after their trauma had subsided.

“At a time when all hope was lost, I bow my head in reverence and gratitude to the Lord Buddha for allowing our family to survive together.”

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Before and after: Myanmar earthquake

More than 1,700 people are now said to have died in Myanmar following the quake, according to state media on Sunday.

Eighteen were also killed in Thailand but dozens more remain unaccounted for. Hopes of people surviving in rubble diminish after 72 hours.

The UN is rushing aid supplies to survivors in Myanmar but the rescue effort is complicated by the fact that many roads, bridges, rail lines and airports have been damaged.

The country is also in the middle of an ongoing civil war that has taken a heavy toll on the health system and displaced more than three million people.

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First orbital rocket launched from Europe crashes into sea – but company says test ‘met all expectations’

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First orbital rocket launched from Europe crashes into sea - but company says test 'met all expectations'

The first orbital rocket launched from mainland Europe took off from Norway on Sunday – but crashed into the sea and exploded 40 seconds later.

The unmanned Spectrum rocket blasted off from the Arctic Andoeya Spaceport, on Sunday at 12.30pm local time before it was terminated less than a minute later.

Isar Aerospace, the German company that built the rocket, had warned that the launch could end prematurely. It maintained that despite being short, the flight had produced extensive data that its team could learn from.

“Our first test flight met all our expectations, achieving a great success,” Daniel Metzler, Isar’s chief executive and co-founder, said.

In this photo provided by Isar Aerospace, Photo Wingmen Media, Isar Aerospace test rocket "Spectrum" lifts off for a test flight at Andoya Spaceport in Nordmela, on And..ya island, Norway, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (Isar Aerospace, Photo Wingmen Media via AP)
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Isar Aerospace test rocket Spectrum lifts off for a test flight. Pic: Isar Aerospace via AP

“We had a clean lift-off, 30 seconds of flight and even got to validate our flight termination system.”

Spectrum is a two-stage launch vehicle specifically designed to put small and medium satellites into orbit.

Its maiden voyage was aimed at kickstarting satellite launches from Europe.

Several European nations, including the UK and Sweden, have said they want to be an active player in the growing market of commercial space missions.

In this photo taken from video provided by Isar Aerospace, Photo Wingmen Media, Isar Aerospace test rocket "Spectrum" felling back down after the launch at Andoya Spaceport in Nordmela, on And..ya island, Norway, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (Isar Aerospace, Photo Wingmen Media via AP)
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The flight was terminated after 40 seconds. Pic: Isar Aerospace via AP

Big global companies already ahead in the satellite launch game include Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which launches from the US, and French company ArianeGroup, a joint venture between Airbus and Safran that uses a spaceport in South America’s French Guiana.

Mr Musk’s SpaceX also operates the Starlink satellite service, a communications network that can provide much of the globe with access to the internet.

In this photo taken from video provided by Isar Aerospace, Photo Wingmen Media, Isar Aerospace test rocket "Spectrum" explodes felling back down after the launch at Andoya Spaceport in Nordmela, on And..ya island, Norway, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (Isar Aerospace, Photo Wingmen Media via AP)
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Isar said the flight was a success despite it crashing into the sea. Pic: Isar Aerospace via AP

Germany’s BDLI aerospace industries association said Isar’s first flight would lead to further progress.

BDLI managing director, Marie-Christine von Hahn, said: “Europe urgently needs to ensure its sovereignty in space. Elon Musk’s Starlink is not without alternatives – nor should it be.”

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Sweden, with its Esrange launch site, and Britain with its SaxaVord Spaceport in the Scottish Shetland Islands, are the nearest rivals to the Norwegian site, all of which aim to give Europe greater autonomy in space flights.

SaxaVord, which suffered a setback when a rocket engine exploded during a test last year, is planning its first satellite launch later this year.

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British explorer Camilla Hempleman-Adams becomes first woman to complete solo traverse of Baffin Island

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British explorer Camilla Hempleman-Adams becomes first woman to complete solo traverse of Baffin Island

A British explorer has become the first woman to complete a solo traverse of Canada’s Baffin Island.

Camilla Hempleman-Adams, 32, pulled a sledge 150 miles in temperatures as low as -40C and winds as high as 47mph.

She finished the trek from Qikiqtarjuaq to Pangnirtung in 13 days – a day ahead of schedule.

Pic: PA
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The Briton completed the challenge a day faster than expected. Pic: PA

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The largely uninhabited Arctic island is the fifth largest in the world and is in far northwest Canada – between the mainland and Greenland.

Speaking from the Inuit hamlet of Pangnirtung, Ms Hempleman-Adams said: “I’m feeling pretty exhausted, I have very sore feet, but it’s nice to be back in civilisation, just slowly settling back in.

“It’s been a really tough two weeks, but an incredible two weeks.”

“When you go in by yourself, you just have a mindset to keep going,” she said.

“You adapt, you have the mindset that you can’t give up. There is no giving up in those conditions.”

She admitted she had been looking forward to a hot shower.

Pic: PA
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Ms Hempleman-Adams was met at the finish line by her father. Pic: PA

Her father, adventurer Sir David Hempleman-Adams, flew out to meet her at the finish line.

He said he’d been “really, really worried” due to the strong winds – which increase the chance of frostbite.

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“Being solo, you’ve got to be really on top of your game the whole time. If you just lose concentration for five minutes, it’s a real problem,” he said.

Sir David added: “It’s a fantastic advertisement for females. I mean, we are big, ugly and strong, but she’s half my weight and did it twice as fast as I did.”

Ms Hempleman-Adams also became the youngest British female to ski to the North Pole when she was just 15.

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