Former US secretary of state Colin Powell dies at 84

Colin Powell, who helped to lead the United States into war with Iraq in 2003, has died at the age of 84. Mr Powell had been suffering from Covid-19. A decorated soldier and veteran of the Vietnam War, Mr Powell rose to become the US armed forces' most senior officer, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – the first black man to hold the role. He joined George W Bush's government as Secretary of State, in which role he went before the UN Security Council in 2003 to make the US's case for war with Iraq. Mr Powell claimed Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction – an assertion that was later disproved, and which he blamed on faulty intelligence.