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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected proposals for a buffer zone between Ukrainian and Russian forces as part of a peace deal, arguing it does not reflect the realities of modern warfare.

"Only those who do not understand the technological state of today's war propose a buffer zone," he told reporters on Friday.

His comments followed a report suggesting European leaders were considering a 40km (25-mile) buffer zone as part of either a ceasefire or longer-term agreement.

The war in Ukraine has evolved into a conflict driven by drone technology, and Zelensky suggested a buffer zone of sorts already existed because of the threat of drone strikes close to the front line.

Buffer zones can create demilitarised zones between warring countries, such as North and South Korea, and physical boundaries such as the Iron Curtain - which separated the Soviet Union and the West following World War Two.

According to a report in Politico, European diplomats said the proposal among military and civilian officials was for a strip of land in Ukraine to be blocked off between the two forces.

But Zelensky said there already was an area on either side of the front line where heavy artillery was unable to operate because of the risk of drone-fire.

"Today, our heavy weapons are located at a distance of more than 10km from each other, because everything is hit by drones, " he said.

"This buffer - I call it a 'dead zone', some call it a 'grey zone' - it already exists."

Any such deal could also mean Ukraine giving up some territory within the zone, which Zelensky also rejected: "If Russia wants to have a greater distance from us, they can retreat deep into the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine."

He added that Russia was not ready for diplomacy but seeking ways to postpone the end of the war.

A US-led diplomatic offensive to end Russia's full-scale war, which has now lasted more than 40 months, appears to be losing momentum.

A high-stakes meeting last week between US President Donald Trump, Zelensky and European leaders raised hopes of a possible summit between the Ukrainian leader and Russia's Vladimir Putin.

But those hopes are looking increasingly remote and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said there would "obviously not" be a meeting and it looked like Putin was "unwilling" to take part.

Russia fired 629 drones and missiles at Kyiv in the early hours of Thursday, killing 23 people, in one of the biggest aerial assaults of the war so far that has prompted outrage from European leaders. Two missiles landed near the EU's offices in central Kyiv.

After talks in the French city of Toulon, Merz and France's Emmanuel Macron said they would increase pressure on Russia due to Putin showing little interest in ending the war.

Macron said that if Putin did not meet a Monday deadline to agree to the talks, "it will show again President Putin has played President Trump".

Merz suggested the war could last "many more months".

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has condemned "Russia's ongoing assaults on civilians and civilian infrastructure, which are a deliberate escalation and undermine efforts toward peace".

On Friday, Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak discussed US peace moves with Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff as well as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance.

Yermak said after their meeting in New York that while Ukraine welcomed all peace initiatives put forward by the US, "unfortunately, each of them is being stalled by Russia".

European leaders are working on providing Ukraine with security guarantees if a deal with Russia can be agreed.

Kaja Kallas said that EU defence ministers had agreed on Friday that they would need to be "robust and credible" and Zelensky said he expected talks to continue next week on "Nato-like" commitments that would provide Ukraine with protection.

However, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described latest Western proposals as "one-sided" and aimed at containing Russia.

"Security guarantees must be based on achieving a common understanding that takes into account Russia's security interests," she said.

Why has Kamala Harris' security detail been withdrawn?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ceqy3jnl39do, today

President Donald Trump has cancelled former Vice-President Kamala Harris' Secret Service detail, seven months after she left office following her unsuccessful presidential campaign.

By law, the US Secret Service provides former vice-presidents and their families six months of protection after their terms end.

That term, however, can be extended, which former President Joe Biden reportedly did before leaving office.

The move already has caused controversy, with both California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass calling it politically motivated.

Here's what we know.

Why did Biden extend her security?

So far, neither Biden nor Harris have commented on the reasons for extending her security past the mandated six months. CNN reported that Biden extended it for one year with a previously undisclosed directive before leaving office.

From a legal perspective, Biden was within his rights to do so.

According to a law enacted in 2008, the Secret Service can provide protection to former vice-presidents, their spouses and any children under the age of 16 after leaving office.

While the law states that the protection should not extend any more than six months, the secretary of homeland security has the authority to order "temporary protection" in situations where "information or conditions warrant such protection."

Ronald Kessler, an author with expertise on the Secret Service, told the BBC that "if you set aside political implications, it's just standard practice."

Does Harris face enhanced risks?

Sources familiar with the current situation have told CBS, the BBC's US news partner, that a recent threat assessment did not uncover anything alarming to warrant extending Harris' security arrangements.

But some in Harris' team reportedly worried that as the first woman and person of colour to serve as vice-president and as a candidate in a contentious, emotionally charged election, she faced additional threats.

A number of threats against Harris were made public during her time in office and as a presidential candidate in 2024.

Several men were arrested and charged with making online threats against her in 2024, for example, and in 2021, a Florida woman pleaded guilty to making threats against Harris and admitted she sent videos to her imprisoned husband in which she displayed firearms and said that a "hit" could be carried out within 50 days.

In March, after Harris left office, a Florida man also was arrested after allegedly threatening to kill her with a sniper rifle.

Mr Kessler, however, said that compared to other politicians Harris "hasn't stirred up that much as far as I can tell."

"I think it's a sound judgement on the part of the Secret Service," he added.

The removal of Harris' detail comes just weeks before she is scheduled to begin a multi-city tour to promote her book, 107 Days, focused on her short-lived, unsuccessful presidential bid.

According to Mr Kessler, such an operation would further stretch an already overburdened and undermanned Secret Service. In September, the agency also is responsible for international dignitaries and VIPs at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

"That would require maybe a dozen Secret Service vehicles all over the country to follow on her big tour," he added. "That's a big drain on the service."

What elements of security are being taken away?

Secret Service protection extends far beyond the agents that drive a protectee, and protect them and their immediate family.

Additionally, the Secret Service is tasked with securing homes, such as Harris' Los Angeles residence, including installation of security systems and alarms. Agents pre-emptively identify and monitor potential threats, including those sent electronically or via social media.

It is unclear how much those protections cost, and the Secret Service has not published that figure.

Private security for well-known celebrities, VIPs and business leaders can easily reach millions of dollars per year, depending on the level of threats and protection required.

Meta, for example, reportedly paid over $23m (£17m) for Mark Zuckerberg's personal security in 2023, including $9.4m in direct security costs.

Is this political retribution from Trump?

After the removal of Harris' detail was announced, some of her allies and Trump's political detractors immediately characterised the move as politically motivated by the president.

Trump already removed Secret Service protection for former allies and foes alike, including Hunter and Ashley Biden, children of the former president; and Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Several former Trump officials and allies also had their protections revoked, including ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, a former national security adviser who had become a vocal critic.

"The safety of our public officials should never be subject to erratic, vindictive political impulses," Bob Salladay, spokesman for California Governor Gavin Newsom, told CNN.

Mr Kessler said that the "severely undermanned" Secret Service likely is refocusing its efforts on more immediate threats, such as those faced by Trump and members of his administration.

"President Trump may have been gleeful to do this," he said. "But there are real sound practical reasons".

Only one other former vice-president, Dick Cheney, is believed to have Secret Service protections extended after leaving office, by then-President Barack Obama.

Are the rules different for former presidents?

Unlike past vice-presidents, those who served as president have security for life, unless they choose not to.

In 1994 - to save costs - Congress moved to limit protection for ex-presidents and their spouses to 10 years after they left office.

But in 2013, President Obama signed a law again mandating lifetime protection. Today, this applies to George W Bush, Bill Clinton, Obama and Biden.

Only one president, Richard Nixon, is known to have chosen to forego the security offered, in 1985.

At the time, members of his staff told the New York Times he did so to save the agency money.

Canadian luxury retailer SSENSE to file for bankruptcy protection

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpqvg293gvpo, today

Canadian luxury fashion retailer SSENSE has said it plans to file for bankruptcy protection, partly citing pressure from US tariffs including on US-bound low value parcels, which just came into effect.

In an email to staff from CEO Rami Atallah, the Montreal-based firm said it was "surprised" by the elimination of the de minimis exemption for shipments to the US.

The de minimis exemption allowed for duty-free shipping to the US on packages worth $800 (C$1,100; £592) or less, and was widely used by e-commerce firms and global retailers to ship small packages to the US.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order suspending the exemption last month.

Minneapolis school attacker 'obsessed with idea of killing children', officials say

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g0lyny7ydo, today

Investigators say that the attacker who opened fire on pupils as they were praying at a church in Minneapolis was "obsessed with the idea of killing children".

Robin Westman, who killed two children and injured 18 others, did not seem to have any specific motive, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara.

The attacker "appeared to hate all of us", the chief said on Thursday, adding: "More than anything, the shooter wanted to kill children".

The murdered children have been identified by family as Fletcher Merkel, eight, and Harper Moyski, 10.

"Yesterday, a coward decided to take our eight-year-old son Fletcher away from us," his father, Jesse Merkel, told reporters.

"Fletcher loved his family, friends, fishing, cooking and any sport that he was allowed to play," he said.

"Give your kids an extra hug and kiss today. We love you, Fletcher. You'll always be with us," he continued, choking back tears.

The parents of Harper Moyski, Michael Moyski and Jackie Flavin, said in a statement that their daughter "was a bright, joyful, and deeply loved 10-year-old whose laughter, kindness, and spirit touched everyone who knew her".

"As a family, we are shattered, and words cannot capture the depth of our pain," they said, adding that they hope "her memory fuels action" to stop gun violence.

"No family should ever have to endure this kind of pain.... Change is possible, and it is necessary - so that Harper's story does not become yet another in a long line of tragedies."

FBI Director Kash Patel has described the attack as "an act of domestic terrorism motivated by a hate-filled ideology".

In a post on X, Patel said that the attacker "left multiple anti-Catholic, anti-religious references" written on guns and in notes uncovered by investigators.

"Subject expressed hatred and violence toward Jewish people, writing Israel must fall,' 'Free Palestine,' and using explicit language related to the Holocaust," he wrote.

The killer also "wrote an explicit call for violence against President Trump on a firearm magazine".

In their news conference, officials confirmed that the attacker had previously attended the school. Her mother, Mary Grace Westman, previously worked at the school, and has so far not responded to law enforcement's attempts to contact her.

They also confirmed that three residences associated with the attacker, who was from suburban Minneapolis, have been searched by police.

They said that the church locked its doors before beginning its Mass service, likely saving many lives.

Officials added that the guns used in the attack were all legally purchased, that the killer did not appear on any government watchlist, and that police are not aware of any mental health diagnoses or treatments that she was receiving.

Witnesses and relatives of victims who spoke to the BBC have described harrowing scenes of violence.

Patrick Scallen, who lives near the church, said that he saw three children fleeing the building - one of them a girl with a head wound.

"She kept saying, 'please hold my hand, don't leave me', and I said I wasn't going anywhere."

Vincent Francoual, whose 11-year-old daughter Chloe was in the church when the shooting took place, said he tried not to panic after he heard the news.

He called it "sick" that children in the US are trained to prepare for mass shootings.

"We live in a country where we train kids what to do. And she did what she had to do," he said.

"Here it's a pattern. It's no longer a freak accident," he said of school shootings in the US.

"I told my wife that every morning, when we drop our kids, we don't know if she'd be back safe."

Mr Francoual, who is originally from France, said that Chloe is afraid to return to school or church.

In the wake of the attack, several lawmakers, including the Minneapolis mayor, have called for the state to enact a ban on assault weapons.

"There is no reason that someone should be able to reel off 30 shots before they even have to reload," said Mayor Jacob Frey, also calling for a ban on high-capacity ammo magazines.

"We're not talking about your father's hunting rifle here. We're talking about guns that are built to pierce armour and kill people."

Trump moves to cut $5bn in foreign aid already approved by Congress

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdj2vldpd1do, today

The Trump administration has moved to cut $5bn (£3.7bn) in foreign aid that was already allocated by Congress earlier this year.

The president is using an arcane manoeuvre known as a pocket rescission, or a request to claw back approved funds so late in the fiscal year that if Congress does not weigh in, the allocated money lapses.

The move, which aims to cut billions in programmes including the funding of peacekeeping operations abroad, has not been attempted in nearly 50 years.

The budgetary tactic is likely to face legal challenges as it effectively bypasses the legislative branch to directly cut spending.

The decision was announced by the White House Office of Management and Budget in a social media post on Friday.

Funds cut including some $3bn allocated in funding for USAID and $900m in State Department funds.

Some $800m allocated for international peacekeeping operations and more than $300m to encourage democratic values in other countries were also among the cuts.

"The Trump Administration is committed to getting America's fiscal house in order by cutting government spending that is woke, weaponised, and wasteful," the White House said in a statement.

Trump is using a pocket recission through the Impoundment Control Act, which gives a president the power to request canceling funds approved by Congress. Congress can then vote to slash the funds or keep them within 45 days, but by requesting it so close to the end of the fiscal year on 30 September, the money could go unspent.

Some experts have questioned the legality of pocket recessions, including the Government Accountability Office, which argues the budget tool bypasses Congress's power of the purse.

Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, said that the Constitution "makes clear that Congress has the responsibility for the power of the purse" and any effort to claw back funds "without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law".

"Instead of this attempt to undermine the law, the appropriate way is to identify ways to reduce excessive spending through the bipartisan, annual appropriations process," Collins said in a statement. "Congress approves rescissions regularly as part of this process."

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, of New York, said that Trump's use of the pocket recession could undermine normal congressional procedure and result in "a painful and entirely unnecessary shutdown" of the government.

Former President Jimmy Carter was the last president to use a pocket recession in 1977.

Since he returned to office, Trump has slashed foreign aid, largely shuttering US Agency for International Development (USAID), the main foreign aid agency, because he found its spending "wasteful".

How US shoppers will be hit as tariff exemption ends

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cnv7l575lgeo, today

The US has pulled the plug on a long-running global tariff exemption that has been widely used by buyers of low-cost goods.

From Friday, imports valued at $800 (£592) or less will no longer be duty-free and will face tighter customs checks, in a move set to affect millions of shipments a day.

Last year, almost 1.4 billion packages - worth a total of more than $64bn - entered America without being charged duties under a rule called the de minimis exemption, according to US Customs.

Experts say US President Donald Trump's policy change will hit small businesses hardest and shoppers should brace for higher prices and fewer options - at least until the dust settles.

"I've reached the point of acceptance, but when I first heard the news about two and half, three weeks ago, I felt like it might be the end for my business," said Katherine Theobalds, founder and creative director of Buenos Aires-based shoe brand Zou Xou. "It still might - that remains to be seen."

What's the de minimis rule?

De minimis is a Latin term that broadly translates to "about the smallest things", often used in legal contexts to describe matters too trivial to merit concern.

The de minimis exemption was introduced in 1938 to avoid the expense of collecting only small amounts of import duties in the US.

The rule's threshold rose over the years, allowing e-commerce firms and global retailers that ship small packages to the US to thrive.

The exemption was often associated with companies like Chinese e-commerce giants Shein and Temu, which delivered Americans cheap goods that could be quickly shipped from the manufacturing source - with no warehouse stock or associated overhead costs.

But while Shein and Temu helped pioneer this way of working, many other businesses - foreign and domestic, large and small - came to incorporate the "loophole" into their supply chains and sales models.

Executives at Tapestry - the parent company of US fashion brand Coach, which is known for leather bags that sell from roughly $200 to $1,000 - told analysts this month that it expects to take a $160m hit to its profits due to changing tariff policies, with about a third of that attributed to the elimination of the de minimis rule.

Coach has rapidly expanded in recent years in a comeback campaign fuelled by Gen Z shoppers and Tapestry remains confident the momentum will offset some of the impact of tariffs. Still, the elimination of de minimis represents a logistical challenge.

Shipments under the exemption made up more than 90% of all the cargo entering the country, according to US customs.

The president and his predecessor, Joe Biden, criticised the policy as harmful to US businesses and said it has been abused to smuggle illegal goods, including drugs like fentanyl.

In a phone call with reporters on Thursday, Trump's trade adviser, Peter Navarro, said the move will "save thousands of American lives by restricting the flow of narcotics" through the mail, as well as add $10bn a year to US coffers.

Trump fast-tracked the rule's repeal with an executive order this year, well ahead of a planned 2027 expiry date.

With the necessary documentation, shippers will pay duties based on the country of origin's tariff rate. Otherwise, they can choose to pay a fixed fee between $80 and $200 per package, according to the White House.

The second option, which is aimed to give postal services more time to adjust to the change, will only be available for six months.

Mainland China and Hong Kong were the first to be cut from the de minimis rule in May, prompting e-commerce giant Temu to halt direct sales to the US.

Letters and personal gifts worth less than $100 will still be duty-free.

Smaller variety, longer waits

US consumers may see less variety of goods in shops and on e-commerce platforms as businesses get to grips with customs documentation, trade experts have told the BBC.

Smaller firms need time to adjust as they have mostly been spared from such paperwork until now, said Tam Nguyen from logistics administration firm GOL Solution. The company handles exports from South East Asia to the US.

"You need to indicate the source of all the materials in a product, which can come from many countries with different tax rates. This would absolutely make shipments slower."

The complexity could deter sellers from offering a broader range of products for export, she added.

That could have a particular impact on more niche markets.

Christopher Lundell, is a 53-year-old psychologist based in Portland, Oregon who also DJs and mixes music as a hobby. He is an avid vinyl record collector who recently became aware of the de minimis exemption suspension when he tried to - unsuccessfully - buy a $5 rare record from a seller in the UK.

"He cancelled my order and said, 'I'm sorry but the UK is not shipping to the United States anymore.'"

Mr Lundell says he tries his best to find US-based record sellers before searching online for overseas sellers based in countries like the UK, Japan and China. He adds that he understands the need to protect US businesses, but says that he believes a blanket suspension of the de minimis exemption is "political theatre".

Some orders may also be frozen for the next few weeks. Ms Nguyen said clients, including some in the healthcare sector, have halted orders.

Major postal services in the UK, Europe and and the Asia-Pacific region paused deliveries to the US this week.

The operators blamed uncertainty about how the tariffs would work and a lack of time to prepare.

Prices to rise

Without the exemption, businesses will have to factor in tariffs the US has imposed on the country of origin, which came into effect for most nations in August.

Those levies can be as low as 10% for countries like the UK and Australia, while goods from Brazil and India face the highest tariffs at 50%.

Following the change, specific duties will be imposed of $80 per item for countries with tariffs of 16% or less, $160 for shipments from countries with between 16% and 25% tariffs or $200 for items from countries with higher tariffs.

A senior administration official downplayed consumer concerns, saying that the move will "benefit" Americans by making them "safer" and "prosperous".

Some American businesses welcomed the news, arguing the elimination would level the playing field.

"Gap Inc. welcomes the Administration's decision to suspend duty-free de minimis treatment worldwide. The de minimis loophole has long provided an opportunity for some importers & retailers to avoid paying their fair share of US duties," the company said in a statement.

Small firms, in particular, will feel the strain from the costly audits needed to clear US customs, making it tough for sellers to keep prices stable, said trade expert Deborah Elms.

With many postal services holding off on US shipments, sellers may have to pay for more expensive express couriers to reach American buyers for now, said Ms Elms from research firm Hinrich Foundation.

British retailer Wool Warehouse is among firms that have paused orders from the US.

"There is a lot of uncertainty at the moment" due to the short time firms have had to figure out shipment process and fees involved, said managing director Andrew Smith.

His firm hopes to resume orders to the US – its largest export market – within two weeks, he said, adding that time is needed to wait to see how other companies have responded to the changes.

Prices of its goods – mostly wool and crafting materials sourced globally - are likely to rise by up to 15%, said Mr Smith.

The company also plans to revamp its website to indicate the tariff rate chargeable for each product, he said.

"We're aiming for full transparency so people know what it will cost with certainty and then they can decide whether they want to make the purchase or not."

At Zou Xou, Ms Theobalds specialises in artisan-made women's shoes, crafted by small workshops in Argentina, that sell for between $200-$300. She began her career in New York, and has focussed her business on American customers.

She has long operated a two-tier system - customers either receive shoes from a US warehouse where she keeps some stock, or shipped direct from Argentina through DHL.

A boost for China?

Larger shipments of shoes into the US were already subject to customs fees, she says, but sending one or two pairs from Buenos Aires to a customer was achieved cheaply and efficiently because of the de minimis exemption.

Now, she's not sure how to factor in the added costs and is exploring several options and hoping to get more clarity on how to shift her business model.

Equally important, she said, is how businesses like hers explain the changes to consumers.

She worries that even if pricing doesn't change much, a duty process that seems too complicated could turn off even those who want a higher-end product.

"The reason our customers come to us is because they appreciate the artisanal quality. They could have always gone to a mass retailer," she says. "But what people will have to think about is 'does that matter to me all that much, or do I just want a pair of shoes?'"

US-based retailers stand to gain if prices of goods ordered from overseas rise, Ms Elms said.

"If it's too expensive, they'll probably go to Walmart or Target to buy it there," she said.

But with so many goods being sent from around world now being subject to customs duties, US consumers may once again turn to China for cheaper options.

Chinese companies like Shein and Temu have set up distribution centres in the US that will help ease some of the cost of tariffs, said Ms Nguyen.

And China is "months ahead" in figuring out the paperwork as compared to firms in other countries that are now scrambling to get up to speed, she added.

There may be fewer competitors in the overall market, as the end of the de minimis exemption makes it harder for small businesses to launch e-commerce sites, said Ms Nguyen.

"It used to be: Set up a site, list products and start shipping. But now that low-cost entry point is gone."

Additional reporting by Nadine Yousif and Bernd Debusmann Jr

Lawyers clash over fate of Fed governor Trump tried to fire

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crevyw50dzyo, today

An emergency court hearing over President Donald Trump's attempt to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook ended without a ruling on Friday.

Cook's lawyers requested a temporary restraining order to block Trump from removing her from role, calling the president's firing "unlawful and void".

Trump has said there was "sufficient reason" to believe Cook had made false statements on her mortgage, and cited constitutional powers which he said allowed him to remove her.

The case sets off a potential legal battle, which could reach the Supreme Court, with implications for the US central bank's independence.

New video appears to show New Zealand fugitive dad with his child

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g6knz7e65o, today

New Zealand police have released fresh CCTV footage believed to show a fugitive who disappeared more than three years ago with his three children.

The night-time footage shows two people in full-body clothing - who police are "confident" is Tom Phillips and one of his children - apparently breaking into a store before driving away on a quad bike.

Detective Senior Sergeant Andy Saunders told a press conference on Friday that the pair had made off with some "grocery items".

Mr Phillips disappeared into the wilderness with his three children in December 2021. Police believe he took the kids after losing legal custody of them to their mother.

Since then a national search has been underway for Mr Phillips and his children: Ember, Maverick and Jayda.

Police released the latest footage in hopes that the community would report sightings of them.

The apparent break-in happened on Wednesday around 02:00 local time (Tuesday 14:00 GMT) in Piopio, a small town in northern New Zealand. Police said Mr Phillips was believed to have unsuccessfully targeted the same store in November 2023.

"At the heart of this are three children who have been away from their home for four years. Their wellbeing is our main focus," Detective Senior Sergeant Andy Saunders said in the police statement.

Mr Phillips faces a range of charges including aggravated robbery, aggravated wounding and illegally possessing a firearm, police said.

Police previously said that they believed Mr Phillips had assistance from other people. Now they're "considering what this burglary actually means", detective Saunders said.

"Does it mean that he's potentially had a falling out with who's helping him? Or is he just that brazen and confident that he's quite happy to come out at night and commit a burglary?"

Last October, Mr Phillips and his three children were publicly spotted for the first time since vanishing, when a group of teenagers spotted them trekking and filmed the encounter.

Police said at the time that the children had not been in contact with other people for years and had not received an education.

Last year authorities offered a cash reward for information that led to the safe return of the children - but the offer expired before being claimed.

Mr Phillips's family has publicly pleaded for him to come home.

"Tom - I feel really sad that you thought you had to do this. Not considering how much we love you and can support you," his mother wrote in a note provided to local media.

"It hurts every time I see photos of the children and of you and see some of your stuff that is still here."

US to stop Palestinians attending UN meeting in New York

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjdym32z9v7o, today

The US says it will deny or revoke visas for Palestinian officials wishing to travel to New York next month to attend the UN General Assembly session.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio blamed them for undermining peace efforts and for seeking "the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state".

The decision is unusual - the US, as host country, is expected to facilitate travel for officials of all countries wishing to visit the UN headquarters.

The ban comes as France spearheads international efforts to recognise a state of Palestine at the GA session. Donald Trump's administration has fully backed Israel in voicing opposition to such a move.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has constantly rejected the idea of a two-state solution - the long-time international formula to resolve the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict. It envisages an independent Palestinian state being created alongside Israel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Netanyahu says recognition of a Palestinian state would amount to rewarding "Hamas's monstrous terrorism".

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 63,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Hamas has been running the Gaza Strip for years, with its rival Fatah in charge in the West Bank.

Both are supposed to be governed by the Palestinian Authority (PA) led by President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas is also in charge of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) - the umbrella organisation which represents Palestinians at international fora. The PLO has had observer status at the UN since 1974. It can participate in meetings but not vote on resolutions.

In his announcement on Friday, Rubio said: "Before the PLO and PA can be considered partners for peace, they must consistently repudiate terrorism - including the October 7 massacre - and end incitement to terrorism in education, as required by U.S. law and as promised by the PLO."

He said they must also end efforts to bypass negotiations by pursuing legal cases against Israel at international courts.

Rubio said Palestinian representatives at the UN mission in New York could attend the meetings in accordance with the UN Headquarters Agreement - the document that regulates issued regarding the operations of the UN in the US.

It is unclear, however, if the US move to deny or revoke visas complies with that document, which outlines that foreign officials' attendance in New York shall not be impeded by the US "irrespective of the relations" between their respective governments and the US.

Apart from France, the UK, Canada and Australia have also announced plans to recognise a Palestinian state at the GA meeting next month.

The state of Palestine is currently recognised by 147 of the UN's 193 member states.

But with no recognised borders, Israeli settlers controlling large parts of the West Bank - illegal under international law - and calls to do the same in Gaza, any recognition of a Palestinian state would not change much on the ground.

Trump ends Secret Service protection for Harris

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c04r073nxz5o, today

President Donald Trump has cancelled Secret Service protection which had been arranged for Kamala Harris by Joe Biden before he left office, according to one of her advisers.

As a former vice-president, Ms Harris was entitled under law to receive six months of this extra security after leaving office in January.

Her protection had been extended for another year by an executive directive signed by her former boss but this was revoked by Trump in a memo, seen by the BBC, which is dated Thursday.

The BBC has asked the White House and the Secret Service for comment.

The move comes just weeks before Harris embarks on a national book tour to promote "107 Days" - a memoir of her short-lived and ultimately unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2024.

A copy of a letter seen by the BBC, dated 28 August, directs the Secret Service to "discontinue any security-related procedures previously authorised by Executive Memorandum, beyond those required by law" for Harris from 1 September.

The loss of Harris' secret security protection means she will lose the agents that are assigned to protect her and her property in Los Angeles, as well as proactive threat intelligence carried out to identify and pre-empt any potential threats.

The price of similarly protections, if privately funded, could add up to millions of dollars per year.

It is unclear who will provide the former vice president's protection in the future, but California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass have both expressed outrage at the announcement.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has revoked Secret Service protections for a number of people, including Hunter and Ashley Biden, the children of the former president, and Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Several former Trump officials and allies have also had their protections revoked, including ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, a former national security advisor who had become a vocal critic.

How a leaked phone call derailed the Thai PM's career - and the Shinawatra dynasty

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdrkvy2pn87o, today

Thailand's Constitutional Court strikes again, removing yet another prime minister from office.

The country's notoriously interventionist panel of nine appointed judges has ruled that Paetongtarn Shinawatra violated ethical standards in a phone call she had in June with the veteran Cambodian leader Hun Sen, which he then leaked.

In it, Paetongtarn could be heard being conciliatory towards Hun Sen over their countries' border dispute, and criticising one of her own army commanders.

She defended her conversation saying she had been trying to make a diplomatic breakthrough with Hun Sen, an old friend of her father Thaksin Shinawatra, and said the conversation should have remained confidential.

The leak was damaging and deeply embarrassing for her and her Pheu Thai party. It sparked calls for her to resign as her biggest coalition partner walked out of the government, leaving her with a slim majority.

In July, seven out of the nine judges on the court voted to suspend Paetongtarn, a margin which suggested she would suffer the same fate as her four predecessors. So Friday's decision was not a surprise.

Paetongtarn is the fifth Thai prime minister to be removed from office by this court, all of them from administrations backed by her father.

This has given rise to a widespread belief in Thailand that it nearly always rules against those seen as a threat by conservative, royalist forces.

The court has also banned 112 political parties, many of them small, but including two previous incarnations of Thaksin's Pheu Thai party, and Move Forward, the reformist movement which won the last election in 2023.

In few other countries is political life so rigorously policed by a branch of the judiciary.

In this case, it was the leaked phone conversation that sealed Pateongtarn's fate.

It is not clear why Hun Sen chose to burn his friendship with the Shinawatra family. He reacted angrily to a comment by Paetongtarn calling the Cambodian leadership's use of social media to push its arguments "unprofessional".

Hun Sen described it as "an unprecedented insult", which had driven him to "expose the truth".

But his decision caused a political crisis in Thailand, inflaming tensions over their border, which last month erupted into a five-day war that killed more than 40 people.

The Thai constitution now requires members of parliament to choose a new prime minister from a very limited list.

Each party was required to name three candidates before the last election, and Pheu Thai has now used up two, after the court's dismissal of Srettha Thavisin last year.

Their third candidate, Chaikasem Nitisiri, is a former minister and party stalwart, but has little public profile and is in poor health. The alternative would be Anutin Charnvirakul, the former interior minister whose Bhumjaithai party walked out of the ruling coalition, ostensibly over the leaked phone call.

Relations between the two parties are now strained, and Anutin would have to rely on Pheu Thai, which has many more seats, to form a government, which is hardly a recipe for stability.

The largest party in parliament, the 143 MPs who were formerly in the now-dissolved Move Forward and have reformed as The People's Party, has vowed not to join any coalition, but to remain in opposition until a new election is held.

A new election would appear to be the obvious way out of the current political mess, but Pheu Thai does not want that. After two years in office it has been unable to meet its promises to revive the economy.

For all of her youth, the inexperienced Paetongtarn failed to establish any real authority over the country, with most Thais presuming that her father was making all the big decisions.

But Thaksin Shinawatra seems to have lost his magic touch. Pheu Thai party's signature policy at the last election, a digital wallet which would put B10,000 ($308; £178) in the pocket of every Thai adult, has stalled, and been widely criticised as ineffective.

Other grand plans, to legalise casinos, and to build a "land-bridge" linking the Indian and Pacific Oceans, have gone nowhere.

At a time when Thai nationalist sentiment has been fired up over the border war with Cambodia, the Shinawatra family's long-standing – though now broken – friendship with Hun Sen has heightened suspicion in conservative circles that they will always put their business interests before those of the nation.

The party's popularity has plunged, and it is likely it would lose many of its 140 seats in an election now.

For more than two decades it was an unbeatable electoral force which dominated Thai politics.

It is hard to see how it will ever regain that dominance.

What has changed 20 years on from Hurricane Katrina?

https://www.bbc.com/weather/articles/c3ezvk133l8o, today

* Published5 hours ago

* Comments

Huge improvements in hurricane forecasting have been made since Katrina hit the city of New Orleans this day 20 years ago.

From starting out as a cluster of storm clouds over the Bahamas, Hurricane Katrina went on to become the deadliest (since 1928) and costliest natural disaster recorded in the United States.

As part of an Atlantic hurricane season that was the most active in documented history, Katrina took nearly 2,000 lives, destroyed or made uninhabitable an estimated 300,000 homes, and caused more than $100 billion in property damage.

Although the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) provided an accurate forecast of the storm's track three days in advance, the resulting devastation led to a concerted effort to significantly improve hurricane modelling, prediction, and warning capabilities.

[Graphic of new observing systems used in hurricane prediction showing drones and aircraft releasing dropsondes above water, saildrones on water and gliders, floats and drifters under the water]

Improved science and technology have increased accuracy

Technological advances have been the biggest driver of improved forecast accuracy.

A combination of satellites, aircraft observations, numerical forecasting models, as well as historical data are used to predict what will happen.

Back in 2005 forecasters had access to satellite images every 30 minutes. Today, satellites typically capture imagery every 10 minutes, and during severe weather this can be increased to every 30 seconds.

Now more data from satellites and radar can be fed more quickly into more sophisticated models to produce a more detailed forecast.

In 2005 data from aircraft flown into storms was not being used as part of the modelling. Today unmanned drones are used as part of research to improve hurricane science.

Twenty years on scientists have access to more data from the sea. Collected by gliders, floats and drifters, these instruments provide valuable information about the most turbulent region of the hurricane environment, called the boundary layer, where the air meets the ocean.

Computer models now also take into account forecast errors for the previous five years.

All these, plus advances in computing power and a better understanding of the physics of a hurricane through more data and research, have led to the significant improvements. In 2005 the average tracking error in a 48-hour forecast was 110 nautical miles (200km). Since then, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the error has reduced by about 50 per cent.

[NOAA map of the Gulf of Mexico and southern US showing the forecast track of Hurricane Katrina]

What challenges remain?

Forecasting a storms intensity however remains more challenging. Small changes in atmospheric conditions can have a large impact on whether a storm strengthens or weakens.

A 2024 study, external suggested the two main drivers to this uncertainty are changes in wind speed and direction through the atmosphere, known as vertical wind shear, and atmospheric moisture.

Vertical wind shear tends to rip storms apart, preventing intensification or even causing a storm to weaken. Moisture in the atmosphere provides the energy to build clouds to great heights and enables storms to "spin up".

The most unpredictable storms occur when there is a moderate amount of wind shear and moisture in the atmosphere.

Improvements in computing power and new technologies to gather data hope to make these "high uncertainty" storms easier to forecast.

Whilst a weather event can now be a forecasting success it is still possible for it to be a communications failure, as demonstrated by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, which hit the east coast of the US.

A review found the forecasts issued, including surge forecasts, were remarkably accurate, but were not communicated in ways that made it easy for officials and the public to understand.

Sandy killed 159 people, including 44 in New York City, many from coastal flooding, never having expected such a storm could reach so far north.

Dr Leanne Archer of the University of Bristol believes that forecasting is only one part of the disaster management cycle.

She says, "It is vital that efforts continue to improve early warning systems, risk mapping, evacuation plans, scientific research and governance structures to ensure that places are prepared to act when the next hurricane season arrives.

"There is a still a considerable challenge where the forecast science is clear and yet the warnings do not meet the right people at the right time."

[Coastal inundation on a town in New Jersey, with large detached houses completelly surrounded by water, and roads submerged]

Saffir-Simpson scale and storm surges

Part of the communication issues may be down to how hurricanes are classified, using the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. The scale was introduced in the 1970s and revised in 2010 after Katrina. It categorises hurricanes based on sustained wind speeds, ranging from Category 1 to Category 5.

Strong winds will often cause the most damage to buildings and structures, and they can pick up debris which creates further impact.

However, powerful winds are not the only deadly force during a hurricane. According to NOAA, the greatest threat to life actually comes from the water – in the form of a storm surge.

Storm surge is water from the ocean that is pushed toward the shore by the force of the winds swirling around the hurricane. Storm surge combined with waves and high tides can lead to flooding over a large area and cause extensive damage.

In the case of Katrina, a storm surge over 8 metres was pushed onto the vulnerable Gulf Coast. A levee system constructed to divert storm waters away from New Orleans burst in multiple places, sending floodwaters pouring into residential areas, the cause of most of the lives lost. At the height of the disaster, about 80 percent of New Orleans was underwater, more than 4 metres deep in places.

For over a decade Wireless Emergency Alerts, which include hurricane warnings, have been sent directly by government agencies to mobile devices. But it was not until 2017 that the NHC began issuing a storm surge warning graphic.

[Graphic showing the basic ingredients of a hurricane - hot and humid air rising to form rain clouds, horizontal spinning winds, and sea surface temperatures over 27 Celsius.]

The impact of climate change

A recent study by Climate Central has found that climate change intensified Hurricane Katrina, external.

Its analysis found that the warm waters over which Katrina strengthened were made up to 18 times more likely by climate change, increasing Katrina's maximum sustained wind speed by 5mph (8km/h).

Every 10th of a degree of ocean warming increases the risks of stronger storms and higher sea levels. And because of climate change, water temperatures in 2025 are higher than in 2005.

Dr Daniel Gilford, Meteorologist and Climate Scientist at Climate Central, said: "If Katrina had formed in today's climate, it likely would have been even more powerful."

As our atmosphere continues to warm and sea surface temperatures continue to rise, rainfall from hurricanes and the risk of coastal inundation due to storm surge could be greater.

Although there are not expected to be more hurricanes in total in the future, a greater number of them are forecast to be more powerful.

Perhaps the Saffir-Simpson Scale will need to be updated again to add a Category 6 storm?

* Storm surges: What makes them happen? Published27 September 2024

* Published27 September 2024

* Is climate change making hurricanes and typhoons worse? Published16 December 2024

* Published16 December 2024

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* What has changed 20 years on from Hurricane Katrina? Published5 hours ago

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'India put us on the boat like captives - then threw us in the sea'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g0p0522zeo, today

Noorul Amin last spoke to his brother on 9 May. The call was brief, but the news was devastating.

He learned that his brother, Kairul, and four other relatives were among 40 Rohingya refugees allegedly deported by the Indian government to Myanmar, a country they had fled in fear years ago.

Myanmar is in the midst of a brutal civil war between the junta - which seized power in a 2021 coup - and ethnic militias and resistance forces.

The odds that Mr Amin will ever see his family again are vanishingly small.

"I could not process the torment that my parents and the others who were taken are facing," Mr Amin, 24, told the BBC in Delhi.

Three months after they were removed from India's capital, the BBC managed to contact the refugees in Myanmar. Most are staying with the Ba Htoo Army (BHA), a resistance group fighting the military in the south-west of the country.

"We don't feel secure in Myanmar. This place is a complete war zone," said Soyed Noor on a video call made from the phone of a BHA member. He spoke from a wooden shelter with six other refugees around him.

The BBC gathered testimonies from the refugees and accounts from relatives in Delhi and spoke to experts investigating the allegations to piece together what happened to them.

We have learnt that they were flown from Delhi to an island in the Bay of Bengal, put on a naval vessel and eventually forced into the Andaman Sea with life jackets. They then made their way to shore and are now facing an uncertain future in Myanmar, which the mostly-Muslim Rohingya community had fled in huge numbers in recent years to escape persecution.

"They bound our hands, covered our faces and brought us like captives [on to the boat]. Then they threw us in the sea," John, one of the men in the group, told his brother by phone soon after reaching land.

"How can someone just throw human beings into the sea?" asked Mr Amin. "There is humanity alive in the world but I have not seen any humanity in the Indian government."

Thomas Andrews, the UN's special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, says there is "significant evidence" proving these allegations, which he has presented to India's head of mission in Geneva but has yet to receive a response.

The BBC has also contacted India's Ministry of External Affairs several times but had not heard back by time of publication.

Campaigners have often flagged that the condition of Rohingya in India is precarious. India does not recognise the Rohingya as refugees but rather, as illegal immigrants under the country's Foreigners Act.

India has a sizeable population of Rohingya refugees, although Bangladesh, where more than a million live, has the biggest number. Most fled Myanmar after a deadly army crackdown in 2017. Despite having lived there for generations, Rohingya are not recognised in Myanmar as citizens.

There are 23,800 Rohingya refugees in India registered with the UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency. But Human Rights Watch estimates that the actual number is upwards of 40,000.

On 6 May the 40 Rohingya refugees, who had UNHCR refugee cards and lived in different parts of Delhi, were taken to their local police stations under the guise of collecting biometric data. This is a yearly process mandated by the Indian government where Rohingya refugees are photographed and fingerprinted. After several hours they were taken to the Inderlok Detention Centre in the city, they told the BBC.

Mr Amin says his brother called him then and told him he was being taken to Myanmar, and asked him to get a lawyer and alert the UNHCR.

On 7 May, the refugees said they were taken to Hindon airport, just east of Delhi, where they boarded planes to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, an Indian territory in the Bay of Bengal.

"After getting off the plane, we saw that two buses had come to receive us," said Mr Noor on the video call. He added he could see the words "Bhartiya Nausena" written on the side of the buses, the Hindi term referring to the Indian Navy.

"As soon as we got to the bus, they bound our hands with some plastic material and covered our face with a black muslin cloth," he said.

Although the people on the buses did not identify themselves, they were dressed in military fatigues and were speaking Hindi.

After a short bus ride, the group boarded a naval vessel in the Bay of Bengal, which Mr Noor said they only realised later once their hands had been untied and their faces uncovered.

They describe the vessel as a large warship with two floors, at least 150m (490 feet) in length.

"Many of [the people on the ship] were wearing T-shirts, black-coloured trousers and black army boots," said Mohammad Sajjad, who was on the call with Mr Noor. "They weren't all wearing the same thing - some in black, some in brown."

Mr Noor says that the group was on the naval vessel for 14 hours. They were given meals regularly, traditional Indian fare of rice, lentils and paneer (cheese).

Some of the men say they were subjected to violence and humiliation on the ship.

"We were treated very badly," said Mr Noor. "Some were beaten very badly. They were slapped multiple times."

On the video call, Foyaz Ullah showed the scars on his right wrist, and described repeatedly being punched and slapped on his back and face, and poked with a bamboo rod.

"They asked me why I was in India illegally, why are you here?"

The Rohingya are a predominantly Muslim ethnic community but of the 40 people forcibly returned in May, 15 are Christian.

Those detaining them on their journey from Delhi would even say, "'why didn't you become Hindu? Why did you convert from Islam to Christianity?'," said Mr Noor. "They even made us pull down our pants to see if we are circumcised or not."

Another refugee, Eman Hussain, said the military personnel accused him of being involved in the Pahalgam massacre, referring to a 22 April attack where 26 civilians, mostly Hindu tourists, were shot dead by militants in Indian-administered Kashmir.

The Indian government has repeatedly accused Pakistani nationals of carrying out the attacks, a claim Islamabad denies. There's been no suggestion that Rohingya had any link to the shootings.

The next day, on 8 May, at about 19:00 local time (12:30 GMT), the refugees were told to climb down a ladder on the side of the naval vessel. Below, they described seeing four smaller rescue boats, black and made of rubber.

The refugees were made to board two of the boats, 20 on each and accompanied by several of the people transporting them. The two other boats, which led the way, had more than a dozen personnel on them. For more than seven hours, they travelled with their hands tied.

"One of the boats with the military personnel reached the seashore and tied a long rope to a tree. That rope was then brought to the boats," Mr Noor said.

He said they were given life jackets, their hands were untied - and they were told to jump into the water. "We held on to the rope and swam more than 100m to get to the shore," he said, adding that they were told that they had reached Indonesia.

Then the people who'd taken them there left.

The BBC put these allegations to the Indian government and the Indian Navy, and have not received a response.

In the early hours of 9 May, the group was found by local fishermen who told them they were in Myanmar. They let the refugees use their phones to call their relatives in India.

For more than three months, the BHA has been assisting the stranded refugees by providing food and shelter, in the Tanintharyi region of Myanmar. But their families in India are terrified about their fate in Myanmar.

The UN says the lives of Rohingya refugees "were put at extreme risk when Indian authorities forced [them] into the Andaman Sea".

"I've been personally researching this very disturbing case," said Mr Andrews. He admitted the amount of information he could share was limited, but that he had also "spoken with eyewitnesses and been able to corroborate those reports and establish that they are based in fact".

On 17 May, Mr Amin and another family member of the refugees who were removed filed a petition urging India's Supreme Court to bring them back to Delhi, immediately stop similar deportations and offer compensation to all 40 individuals.

"It opened up the country to the awfulness of the Rohingya deportation," says Colin Gonsalves, a senior advocate in the Supreme Court who is arguing on behalf of the petitioners.

"That you can drop a person in the sea with a life jacket in a war zone was something people automatically chose to disbelieve," Mr Gonsalves said.

In response to the petition, one Supreme Court judge on the two-judge bench called the allegations "fanciful ideas". He also said the prosecution had not provided enough evidence to substantiate their claims.

Since then, the court has agreed to hear arguments on 29 September to decide whether the Rohingya can be treated as refugees or if they are illegal immigrants and therefore subject to deportations.

Considering that tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees are living in India, it's not clear why so much effort was devoted to deporting these 40 people.

"Nobody in India can understand why they did it, apart from this venom against Muslims," said Mr Gonsalves.

The treatment of the refugees has sent a chill throughout the Rohingya community in India. In the past year, its members claim there has been an increase in deportations by the Indian authorities. There are no official figures to confirm this.

Some have gone into hiding. Others like Mr Amin no longer sleep at home. He has sent his wife and three children elsewhere.

"In my heart there is only this fear that the Indian government will take us also and throw us in the sea anytime. And now we are scared to even step out of our homes," Mr Amin said.

"These are people who are in India not because they want to be," said Mr Andrews from the UN.

"They're there because of the horrific violence that is occurring in Myanmar. They literally have been running for their lives."

Additional reporting by Charlotte Scarr in Delhi

Asylum hotel ruling won't feel like much of a victory at Home Office

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7vlpdqeg4qo, today

The Court of Appeal ruling that will allow asylum seekers to stay at the Bell Hotel, in Epping, is a technical victory for the government.

But for many Labour strategists, whichever way the ruling had gone, today was a case of "heads they win, tails we lose".

Let's begin with the good news for ministers.

They will be breathing a sigh of relief having feared that, had they lost this appeal, other local councils could bring legal challenges against the use of hotels to house asylum seekers in their area.

That would have risked throwing the whole system into chaos because there are thousands of asylum seekers awaiting decisions on their cases and limited accommodation options.

But the government has a legal duty to keep them off the streets.

This court ruling effectively resets the situation.

It gives ministers the time to fulfil their promise of removing all asylum seekers from hotels in "a controlled and orderly way" by 2029.

But there will not be any champagne corks popping in the Home Office.

That's because in order to uphold their legal responsibility to protect asylum seekers, they have had to argue in favour of using hotels to house them.

That is already being seized on by Labour's political opponents.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage claimed the government had used European human rights legislation "against the people of Epping" and that migrants had "more rights than the British people under Starmer".

While European human rights law was mentioned by the government in its written arguments, it was not a major part of its argument, nor the Court of Appeal's decision according to a summary of the ruling.

In fact, the duty to house asylum seekers so they don't sleep rough is a piece of British law, passed by MPs in 1999.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said: "Keir Starmer has shown that he puts the rights of illegal immigrants above the rights of the British people who just want to feel safe in their towns and communities."

She urged Tory councils to continue to bring legal cases against asylum hotels.

For a government under pressure after a summer of small boat crossings, this is a difficult position to be in.

As one Labour adviser told me, there will now be pressure on ministers to take more radical action to counter the kind of accusations they are facing.

That could include swapping some hotels for former military barracks or disused warehouses, as the health minister Stephen Kinnock suggested earlier on Sky News.

But such a move could further antagonise those voters on the left who believe the UK should be offering more support to asylum seekers.

The Green Party said the case was "a distraction" from "Labour's failure to come up with workable, humane solutions".

Former Labour leader and independent MP Jeremy Corbyn said asylum seekers "should be supported so they can live in a more humane, sustainable, community-based form of accommodation".

He added: "Both Reform and Labour want you to think that the problems in our society are caused by these minorities. They're not."

This court ruling might have been the climax to a difficult summer for the government. But it also marks the start of an autumn that doesn't look much easier.

Buddhist rites and packed museums: South Korea is celebrating K-pop Demon Hunters

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz0yzxx3x08o, today

When a South Korean monk performed a Buddhist ritual for a wildly popular K-pop boy band, it was the most unusual ceremony he had ever held.

His mission: to guide the souls of the band to peace and rebirth.

The band were long gone - or rather, they had never been alive, except in the fictional world of the animated Netflix hit K-pop Demon Hunters.

Still, the YouTube video went viral.

Although cast as villains, the Saja Boys have won a devoted following for their gorgeous looks and swagger. Even their name - saja - translates to "angel of death", among other things.

The live-streamed service, a genuine Buddhist rite known as Chondojae usually performed by monks for grieving families, lasted more than two hours and drew more than 4,000 viewers - more people than he had ever seen for a ceremony, even offline, says the monk, a virtual YouTuber who prefers to remain anonymous.

This was no joke. The BBC confirmed that he is a registered monk. But he could not guarantee salvation for the Saja Boys, not even for the lead, Jinu.

"That would depend on his good karma. I can guide him, but I can't promise."

As K-pop Demon Hunters tops every chart - Netflix says it has become its most watched movie ever - Koreans are revelling in the moment. Made and voiced by Korean-Americans, and produced by US studios Sony and Netflix, the film's inspiration is deeply Korean.

It's a tale about mythical demon hunters whose power comes from their music - in this case, that's a sassy K-pop girl band called Huntrix. And of course, the soundtrack that fans across the world are now singing along to every day is rooted in South Korea's biggest export: K-pop.

All of this has sparked a frenzy in South Korea, like in so many other places, a fascination with the Korean culture the movie centers, and even a little bit of FOMO - because unlike in the US and Canada, there are no plans yet to release the movie in cinemas here.

"Seeing all the sing-along clips [online] at cinemas… I'm jealous of Americans!" wrote a fan on social media. Another vowed, "I'll even take a day off if KDH comes to cinemas" - a big promise in South Korea's gruelling work culture.

Part of the fandom is driven by respect. Many Koreans are wary of clumsy depictions of their country on screen, especially given how popular the culture is right now. And to have such a global hit get it wrong would have stung.

"I've seen plenty of films and dramas that touched on Korean culture, but they were always full of errors. They would confuse it with Chinese or Japanese traditions, show actors speaking awkward Korean, and reduce everything to a shallow imitation," says Lee Yu-min, a woman in her 30s.

"But I was genuinely astonished at KDH's portrayal of our culture." Pointing to the opening scene, she says: "A thatched-roof house from the Joseon Dynasty, ordinary people in hanbok [traditional Korean clothing] with their distinct hairstyles – the details were almost perfect."

She says she had "never imagined" that it would capture hearts across the world the way it has.

Songs from the movie have become some of the most streamed on Spotify, while the track Golden hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

The fandom in South Korea is no less. Surprisingly, one of the biggest beneficiaries has been the National Museum of Korea, which carries traditional Korean artifacts that are featured in the film.

Already the most visited museum in Asia, it now has queues stretching outside before the doors even open. It recorded more than 740,000 visitors in July, over twice as many as it had during the same time last year.

"I arrived there at 10am sharp, that's when the museum opens, but there were already about a hundred people waiting," says Lee Da-geon who hoped to avoid the weekend rush by going on a Monday.

But she still left empty-handed: "Everything I wanted sold out." Her wishlist included a badge featuring a tiger and a magpie – the movie's animal characters Derpy and Sussie, which are inspired by folk painting.

The soaring sales are a boost for people like Choi Nyun-hee, who runs the craft business Heemuse. "My revenue has jumped about five-fold," she says, adding that her products are now being exported to the US and Australia.

She says she discovered K-pop Demon Hunters when the tiger-shaped "norigae", a traditional pendant, with mother-of-pearl, "suddenly started selling out".

Choi had previously worked at a museum, where she developed educational programs on Korean artifacts. After watching the film, she thought "Korean culture was well-displayed and weaved together into a story".

For others, it's not just the imagery and symbolism that resonated. "Rumi, the heroine, hides her true self out of embarrassment and shame. I related to that," says Lee Da-geon. "In Korea, people worry far too much about what others think."

Park Jin-soo, a YouTuber who has worked in the Korean film industry, admits he initially dismissed the movie as "a bizarre animation based on K-pop," but when he finally watched it, he found that he thoroughly enjoyed it.

"I would personally like to see KDH on screen, especially at a time when South Korean cinema is desperately in need of blockbuster movies," he says.

"Right now, they are at war over sharing the same pie, but streaming and cinemas each have their own purpose. If they shape trends together and if it goes viral, won't the pie they're fighting over ultimately grow larger? I think KDH can play that role."

To him, the "sing-along" experience - which is something that only a cinema can offer - is one way of turning a streaming hit into a box office blockbuster.

More than two months after its release, the film's momentum hasn't slowed – in fact, it's spilling into cinemas. In North America, special "sing-along" screenings have made K-pop Demon Hunters Netflix's first number one film at the box office.

Now South Korean fans are clamouring for the same experience, with so many of them saying online and offline, "I want to sing KDH in a cinema!!"

The movie will show at the Busan International Film Festival in September, which has announced limited sing-along screenings this year, though tickets are expected to be scarce.

Lee Yu-min, who has watched the film more than five times on Netflix, says she's determined to go if it arrives in the cinema: "I'll definitely drag my husband along – he hasn't seen it yet."

"I'm rooting for KDH screening in South Korea," declares a fan online. "I know nothing has been confirmed, but I'm already starting to memorise all the lyrics."

Another asks: "K-pop Demon Hunters is screening in North America, Canada and the UK… so why not in the home of K-pop?"

Is London set to put the brakes on SUVs?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp3e0xyyldvo, today

There is no doubt they are very popular but is a city any place for a sport utility vehicle (SUV)?

The vehicles tend to be heavier, larger and more polluting than other cars, and researchers say they are more dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists.

According to the campaign group Clean Cities, the number of SUVs has increased tenfold in London in 20 years from about 80,000 SUVs in 2002 to 800,000 SUVs in 2023.

Calls are increasing for more to be done to reduce the number of SUVs in London, with campaigners arguing that drivers of these cars should pay more to park and use the roads in the capital.

Some councils, including Lambeth in south London, are considering such policies, while in Westminster restrictions have already come into force.

Nicola Pastore founded the group Solve the School Run, which is dedicated to reducing car dependency for drop-offs and pick-ups. Mrs Pastore, who lives in Lambeth, says the number of SUVs seems to be increasing all the time.

"SUVs are really dangerous for children," she says. "I'm a parent of three kids all under nine and when we are navigating the urban area there are so many really big cars on the streets and it's really scary as children hit by big cars are at much more risk.

"The really worrying thing is this issue is getting worse as more of these SUVs are getting sold every year and getting on to our streets. So it's getting worse every year.

"We would like the councils to ultimately take action to deter the use and buying of SUVs. The measures available to them are thinking about how they can use their parking tariffs to make it more expensive to park in a city.

"If you have a big car and you are taking up more space and you're more of a threat to the public, you should pay more."

Dr Anthony Laverty, from Imperial College London, has carried out research into SUVs. He says they are much more dangerous than smaller cars.

"It is true that there are more of them around. Last year more than half of new car sales were SUVs," he says.

"And one thing our research has focused on is their impacts on road danger. And the summary there is if an SUV hits a pedestrian or a cyclist they are much more dangerous and more likely to kill them.

"We did a review of all of the studies globally, which included half a million road traffic injuries, and that found that if you are hit by an SUV compared to being hit by a passenger car you are 44% more likely to be killed.

"Among kids it's higher - it's 82%. And that makes sense when we think about it. The taller, blunter bonnets mean kids are more likely to be hit in the head or the torso. The real summary is they are much more dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists."

There have been moves in other cities to curb the use of the SUV.

Last year, Parisians voted to back a steep rise in parking rates for SUVs in the French capital, tripling them for cars weighing 1.6 tonnes or more to €18 (£15.55) an hour in inner Paris.

The proposals were approved by 54.55% of voters - although turnout was less than 6%.

As far back as 2008, in London the then-mayor Ken Livingstone proposed an increase in the congestion charge to £25 for larger vehicles in the carbon emissions band G, which included many 4x4s.

But Livingstone was defeated by Boris Johnson in the mayoral election later that year and the policy was never implemented.

However, it seems there is now a growing political movement against SUVs, with Lambeth Council considering whether to impose a parking surcharge on "supersize" cars.

Max Sullivan is a Labour councillor in Westminster. What happens in Westminster in terms of parking usually spreads across the capital and across the country.

There they have had an emissions-based parking scheme for the past year, which has increased charges for some but not all SUVs.

"I think we are open to any way which we can improve the street environment in Westminster," he told BBC London. "Right now we are just reviewing the first year of emissions-based charging and that has been very effective at cleaning up the air.

"And it does mean that some of those larger, more polluting vehicles are paying more, and we are discouraging some of those uses and those trips. I think we are making progress, but clearly there is still some way to go."

* Write to the Department for Transport asking that they update vehicle regulations to introduce tighter limits on passenger vehicle size and bonnet height

* Write to HM Treasury asking that they introduce a progressive tax on passenger vehicle weight into Vehicle Excise Duty

* Write to London Councils asking them to explore the feasibility of boroughs charging higher parking charges to SUVs to account for pressure they put on road space and local parking spaces

Additional reporting by Anna O'Neill

Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk

Thirsty data centres boom in drought-hit Mexico

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2ngz7ep1eo, today

Located in the middle of Mexico, Querétaro is a charming and colourful colonial-style city known for its dazzling stone aqueduct.

But the city, and state of the same name, is also recognised for a very different reason - as Mexico's data centre capital.

Across the state companies including Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and ODATA own these warehouse-like buildings, full of computer servers.

No one could supply an exact number, but there are scores of them, with more being built.

Ascenty, which claims to be the largest data centre company in Latin America, has two in Querétaro, both around 20,000 sq ft in size, with a third under construction.

It is forecast that more than $10bn (£7.4bn) in data centre-related investment will pour into the state in the next decade.

"The demand for AI is accelerating the construction of data centres at an unprecedented speed," says Shaolei Ren, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California Riverside.

So, what's the attraction of Querétaro?

"It's a very strategic region," explains Arturo Bravo, Mexico country manager at Ascenty.

"Querétaro is right in the middle [of the country], connecting east, west, north and south," he says.

That means it is relatively close to Mexico City. It is also connected to high-speed data cables, so large amounts of data can be shifted quickly.

Mr Bravo also points out that there is support from the municipality and central government.

"It's been identified as a technology hub," he says. "Both provide a lot of good alternatives in terms of permits, regulation and zoning."

But why are many US companies choosing this state over somewhere closer to home?

"The power grid capacity constraint in the US is pushing tech companies to find available power anywhere they can," says Shaolei Ren, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California Riverside, adding that the cost of land and energy, and business-friendly policies are also attractive.

Data centres host thousands of servers - a specialised type of computer for processing and sending data.

Anyone that's worked with a computer on their lap will know that they get uncomfortably hot. So to stop data centres melting down, elaborate cooling systems are needed which can use huge amounts of water.

However, not all data centres consume water at the same rate.

Some use water evaporation to dissipate the heat, which works well but is thirsty.

A small data centre using this type of cooling can use around 25.5 million litres of water per year.

Other data centres, like those owned by Ascenty, use a closed-loop system, which circulates water through chillers.

Meanwhile, Microsoft told the BBC it operates three data centres in Querétaro. They use direct outdoor air for cooling approximately 95% of the year, requiring zero water.

It said for the remaining 5% of the year, when ambient temperatures exceed 29.4°C, they use evaporative cooling.

For the fiscal year 2025, its Querétaro sites used 40 million litres of water, it added.

That's still a lot of water. And if you look at overall consumption at the biggest data centre owners then the numbers are huge.

For example, in its 2025 sustainability report Google stated that its total water consumption increased by 28% to 8.1bn gallons between 2023 to 2024.

The report also said that 72% of the freshwater it used came from sources at "low risk of water depletion or scarcity".

In addition, data centres also indirectly consume water, as water is needed to produce electricity.

The extra water consumption by data centres is a big problem for some in Querétaro which last year endured the worst drought of a century, impacting crops and water supplies to some communities.

At her home in Querétaro, activist Teresa Roldán tells me residents have asked the authorities for more information and transparency about the data centres and the water they use but says this has not been forthcoming.

"Private industries are being prioritised in these arid zones," she says. "We hear that there's going to be 32 data centres but water is what's needed for the people, not for these industries. They [the municipality] are prioritising giving the water they have to the private industry. Citizens are not receiving the same quality of the water than the water that the industry is receiving."

Speaking to the BBC in Querétaro, Claudia Romero Herrara, founder of water activist organisation Bajo Tierra Museo del Agua,  wouldn't comment directly on the data centres due to a lack of information but says she's concerned about the state's water issues.

"This is a state that is already facing a crisis that is so complex and doesn't have enough water for human disposal. The priority should be water for basic means…that's what we need to guarantee and then maybe think if there are some resources available for any other economic activity. There has been a conflict of interest on public water policy for the last two decades."

A spokesperson for the government of the state of Querétaro defended their decision saying: "We have always said and reiterated that the water is for citizen consumption, not for the industry. The municipality has zero faculties to water allocation and even less to assign water quality. Nor the state, nor the municipality can water allocate to any industry or the primary sector, that's a job for the National Water Commission."

Another concern for those living near data centres is air pollution.

Prof Ren says data centres typically rely on diesel backup generators that release large amounts of harmful pollutants.

"The danger of diesel pollutants from data centres has been well recognised," he says, pointing to a health assessment of the air quality surrounding local data centres by the Department of Ecology at the state of Washington.

Mr Bravo responded to those concerns by saying: "We operate under the terms and conditions specified by authorities, which, in turn, in my perspective, are the ones taking care of the fact that those conditions are acceptable for the communities around and the health of everybody."

As for the future, Ascenty is planning more data centres in the region.

"I do see it just kind of progressing and progressing, with a new data centre there every few years," says Mr Bravo.

"The industry will continue to grow as AI grows. It's a great future in terms of what is coming."

Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch's secrets to successful marriages

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp894ed8m5qo, today

Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch have spent the best part of the last year swearing, shouting and sneering at each other.

Their latest roles see them play Ivy and Theo Rose - a wealthy couple once blissfully in love, who now find themselves in a marriage breakdown and bitter divorce battle.

Ironically, the relationship between the two actors couldn't be further from their warring characters - they're actually close friends, having met decades ago in a radio recording studio.

As I sit down with them the morning after the film's premiere, the pair, cups of tea in hand, are gushing over how great the other looked last night.

Colman thanks Cumberbatch for his support the night before as she admits she hates these sorts of events and parties. "If it's my party in my own house with people I know, then I love it," The Crown actress says.

Cumberbatch agrees that these events can be challenging as "you have to have those awkward conversations and really you just want to go and speak to your mum or wife."

"It is very heightened, odd and a bit weird but you have to just enjoy it and try to find the fun in it."

After dissecting the night before, the enthusiastic praising of each other continues. Colman says she felt like a "competition winner" at points and Cumberbatch explains that their acting styles perfectly complement each other.

"I fret, she doesn't faff, she's really patient with my fretting and I love her non-faffing. We really do get on incredibly well," he says.

The Roses is an adaptation of the 1989 film The War of the Roses, which was directed by Danny DeVito and starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner as a couple going through an increasingly acrimonious divorce.

In this new version, the sour marital conflict from the late 1980s has been transported into a glossy but volatile world of modern ambition.

Directed by Jay Roach and written by Tony McNamara, Theo is an architect whose career collapses at the same time as his wife's career as an up-and-coming chef skyrockets.

Resentment grows as Theo finds himself a stay-at-home dad, dedicating his time to training their two children to get into a sports scholarship school, while Ivy jets around America opening new restaurants.

While their characters seem to detest every ounce of each other - "I like that he has arms", Colman's character says during one marriage counselling session - the actors are both happily married in real life.

Colman is married to producer Ed Sinclair and has three children. Cumberbatch also has three children with playwright and director Sophie Hunter.

'Don't throw knives'

Both married for a number of years, I ask them what the secret is to a successful marriage?

"Don't be complacent and keep the conversation between you going rather than thinking one of you is always right," the Sherlock actor says. "It's also important to be tolerant, understanding and never stop working at it."

Colman adds that she makes sure her and her husband always appreciate each other and are "being nice and checking in on each other".

They add that filming The Roses didn't make them think differently about love and relationships, but jokingly say they learned "not to have hard fruit in the house, don't throw knives or wear headphones in the bath".

The Roses is all about what happens when work, ambition and family life collide.

Both actors admit it's taken time to work at balancing career pressures and family life.

In the film, Ivy feels guilty for missing key moments in her children's livess because she's working, and Colman says this really resonates with her.

"From the moment you have a child, you'll have guilt.

"I took my eldest on set with me when he was six weeks old and I thought it would be easy but regretted it and even while he was on set, I felt enormous guilt because it didn't feel like the right environment for him to be in," Colman says.

She adds that she turns down most jobs which are abroad and normally tries to be home every night.

Cumberbatch agrees: "The British industry is flying right now, so a lot of work comes here including a franchise we're both part of."

He's referring to the Avengers franchise in which he will reprise his role as Doctor Strange in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. Colman has previously appeared in Disney+ TV series Secret Invasion, as MI6 agent Sonya Falsworth.

The pair look at each other coyly, nervously giggling - there has been no announcement of Colman being involved in the films.

I ask if we can expect Colman to be involved, at which she says to Cumberbatch: "If you've made this happen because you've said this now I will be so thrilled."

The pair tease me by saying she's the new villainess but it's left unclear whether she will have a role in the new films.

'Relentlessly entertaining'

There are plenty of rom-com films, including those that chart the downfall of a relationship, but few manage to merge both themes in under two hours.

Most critics have praised the film - The Independent called it "relentlessly entertaining" in its four-star review, while The Telegraph said Colman and Cumberbatch are "deliciously savage".

In a two-star review, The Guardian said the actors were "let down by the overly glossy romcom-y sheen" or Warren Adler's novel, who wrote The War of the Roses, on which the film is based.

I get the sense that these two British actors aren't particualrly interested in the reviews - Cumberbatch says the "whole project was based selfishly on us wanting to work together".

They're excited to discuss what they might do together next.

Cumberbatch says he really wants to do a play like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf or Much Ado About Nothing, but Colman is quick to shut it down saying: "I really can't hold a whole play in my head any more."

We might not know what the pair will act in together next, but one thing does seem certain, this isn't the last time they will be co-stars.

Taco Bell rethinks AI drive-through after man orders 18,000 waters

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgyk2p55g8o, today

Taco Bell is rethinking its use of artificial intelligence (AI) to power drive-through restaurants in the US after comical videos of the tech making mistakes were viewed millions of times.

In one clip, a customer seemingly crashed the system by ordering 18,000 water cups, while in another a person got increasingly angry as the AI repeatedly asked him to add more drinks to his order.

Since 2023, the fast-food chain has introduced the technology at over 500 locations in the US, with the aim of reducing mistakes and speeding up orders.

But the AI seems to have served up the complete opposite.

Taco Bell's Chief Digital and Technology Officer Dane Mathews told The Wall Street Journal that deploying the voice AI has had its challenges.

"Sometimes it lets me down, but sometimes it really surprises me," he said.

He said the firm was "learning a lot" - but he would now think carefully about where to use AI going forwards, including not using it at drive-throughs.

In particular, Mr Matthews said, there are times when humans are better placed to take orders, especially when the restaurants get busy.

"We'll help coach teams on when to use voice AI and when it's better to monitor or step in," he said.

The issues have been building online as disgruntled customers take to social media to complain about the service - with many pointing out glitches and issues.

One clip on Instagram, which has been viewed over 21.5 million times, shows a man ordering "a large Mountain Dew" and the AI voice continually replying "and what will you drink with that?".

It isn't the first time there has been issues with AI not getting it right when it comes to processing food and drink orders.

Last year McDonald's withdrew AI from its own drive-throughs as the tech misinterpreted customer orders - resulting in one person getting bacon added to their ice cream in error, and another having hundreds of dollars worth of chicken nuggets mistakenly added to their order.

But despite some of the viral glitches facing Taco Bell, it says two million orders have been successfully processed using the voice AI since its introduction.

UK blocks Israeli government delegation from arms trade fair

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgpxwy2lkwo, today

No Israeli government delegation will be invited to a global defence exhibition in London next month because of the Gaza war, the UK has said.

"The Israeli government's decision to further escalate its military operation in Gaza is wrong," a UK government spokesperson said. "As a result, we can confirm that no Israeli government delegation will be invited to attend DSEI UK 2025."

Israel's defence ministry called the move a "deliberate and regrettable act of discrimination" and said it would be withdrawing and not setting up a national pavilion.

UK leaders have become more outspoken against Israel's conduct in Gaza, including a recent plan to expand the war and take over Gaza City.

"There must be a diplomatic solution to end this war now, with an immediate ceasefire, the return of the hostages and a surge in humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza," the UK government spokesperson said in a statement on Friday.

The defence expo, which is set to take place at Excel London from 9 to 12 September, is organised and run by a private company with backing from the government, Reuters reported.

Israel's defence ministry said the UK's decision on the event "introduces political considerations wholly inappropriate for a professional defence industry exhibition".

But the ministry said Israeli industries that chose to participate would receive its "full support".

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in October 2023 in response to the Hamas-led attack on Israel that killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostage back to Gaza. Fifty hostages are still held there, 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

Israeli military actions in Gaza have since killed 62,966 people, including at least 18,592 children, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.

The UN has said Israel has restricted aid, and UN-backed experts have confirmed famine in Gaza City and its surrounding areas, with more than half a million people across Gaza facing conditions including starvation.

Israel, which controls entry of goods into the territory, has denied this report and defended its military operation as a fight against Hamas.

UK leaders have become increasingly critical of Israel's conduct in Gaza.

In March, the UK suspended talks on a trade deal with Israel, summoned the country's ambassador and imposed fresh sanctions on West Bank settlers, as Foreign Secretary David Lammy called the military escalation in Gaza "morally unjustifiable".

In recent months, Lammy said he was appalled and sickened by the plight of civilians in Gaza and called on Israel to allow in more aid.

This week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Israeli strikes on a hospital that killed at least 20 people, including five journalists, "completely indefensible".

After the Labour Party came to power last year, it suspended 30 out of 350 arms export licences to Israel, but did not include parts for the F-35 jet, which the government said it could not prevent Israel from obtaining as they are sent to manufacturers worldwide.

These jets have been used extensively in Gaza.

Survivors of South Africa's horrifying building blaze feel abandoned two years on

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c04r6v49e16o, today

Blackened by soot, the gutted and derelict remains of South Africa's infamous Usindiso building in central Johannesburg are an unintentional memorial to the 76 people who died here in a devastating fire two years ago.

At one time an office block, the 1950s building in the Marshalltown area was abandoned and then taken over by several hundred people desperately needing a home.

One of those was Vusi Tshabalala, who shakes his head in disbelief as he recalls how he survived the blaze on that late August night.

"The fire seemed to come out of nowhere," the 45-year-old tells the BBC in a melancholic voice, raspy from years of smoking cigarettes.

Mr Tshabalala was asleep on the third floor of the five-storey building, where he was sharing a place with his then-girlfriend and brother.

Awoken by the flames, they managed to escape by covering themselves in wet blankets and running in the dark towards an exit at the rear.

"As we were running others got injured, because when they fell down, they couldn't get back up. People were running over them. I thank God that we came out without any injuries."

The tragedy shocked the nation and highlighted the deep housing inequalities in Africa's wealthiest city - inequalities the authorities promised to address.

At the moment he lives in the shadow of his former home, where other former Usindiso building residents have put up shacks in an informal settlement known as Emaxhoseni.

Made of corrugated iron and wood, the structures are tightly packed together - and a few feet away, some people have even set up makeshift tents against the wall of the Usindiso building.

The street is filthy and residents tell us the drainage is poor. During the summer rains the area gets flooded and filled with waste.

But for Mr Tshabalala, who is currently working on a nearby construction site, living here is worth it: "I came back because at least here we get jobs. The other places we were taken to, we can't find work."

He blames the authorities for not doing enough to support the survivors of the fire: "No-one wants to know where the people from this tragedy are living."

Some of survivors have remained at a camp set up for them in Denver - though this does not mean they are happy.

"This place is not safe," 29-year-old Thobeka Biyela tells the BBC.

Children play in between the temporary corrugated iron shelters where women are also doing laundry when we visit. There are only a few dozen portable toilets and 12 taps for the estimated 800 people who live here.

Ms Biyela, who works as a police volunteer, explains how she was shot earlier this year as she was asleep in her home.

"I heard gunshots. Then I was hit by a bullet. I don't know who shot me but some guys were fighting outside," she says, struggling to hold back the tears.

The bullet that came through the wall and hit her is still lodged in her hip. The doctors told her trying to remove it would cause more damage.

She has covered the bullet holes left in the wall with masking tape: "Sometimes when I see the bullet holes, I cry. I cry because I didn't expect this to happen to me in my life. I've cried a lot."

Ms Biyela is desperate to leave the camp but she cannot afford private rent, as her volunteering role pays her very little.

She wants the authorities to relocate her as she was told the camp was only a temporary solution, but two years on she has no idea if and when she will leave.

"If the government had relocated us after six months like they promised us, maybe I wouldn't blame them. But I blame them because it's been two years.

"Now when it's cold, I can't go to work because my wound hurts. I have to buy painkillers every day. My legs hurt, I can't stand or walk for long."

Because of the safety issues, she has sent her three-year-old daughter, who was with her the night of the fire, to live with her grandmother in KwaZulu-Natal province.

"I'm very scared. They promised us that they were going to put gates at the entrance of the camp but there are no gates. Anyone can walk in here."

The camp residents say three people have been killed since their arrival in Denver: one stabbed, another beaten to death and the third shot.

The BBC contacted the city mayor's office to ask why the survivors of the fire had not been relocated two years on but got no answer to this question.

Nomzamo Zondo, a lawyer and the executive director of the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI), a human rights organisation based in Johannesburg, says it has been a struggle to get people out of so-called temporary emergency accommodation.

She explains that according to national housing policy the state should find permanent accommodation for those who are evicted or victims of a disaster, unless they are able to house themselves.

"Generally, that doesn't happen. Without any affordable accommodation that people can move into and without any plan for the state to provide that, it's unlikely people will leave their temporary housing," she tells the BBC.

There appears to be plenty of abandoned buildings in the centre of Johannesburg that could provide permanent homes, but developers interested in revamping them then charge a rent that is beyond the reach of many.

"The moment that you bring in the private market, there's no space for the poor," the housing lawyer says.

There is some hope of improvement ahead.

With South Africa hosting the G8 leaders' summit in November, Ramaphosa ordered that Johannesburg's inner-city neighbourhoods to be cleaned up ahead of the gathering.

That was in March - and one focus was supposed to be the city's crumbling buildings.

In one city authority document Mashalltown was identified as one of the areas that would benefit from investment to ensure "cleaner streets, safer buildings, and renewed economic confidence".

Johannesburg would be "a place where Africa's resilience, innovation, and potential will be on full display for the world".

But little seems to have happened so far and Ms Zondo says lasting change will take time.

"The G20 is just two months away. In that time, it's unlikely that much will be done, but our hope is that the presidency's commitment to improving the inner city will outlive the G20 and ensure that there is dignified housing for the poor and that we don't have another Usindiso," she says.

In response to a question about why the area had not been regenerated as promised, the mayor's office told the BBC that the project would continue after the G20 meeting.

Meanwhile many of the former Usindiso building residents remain in limbo.

"I don't see this changing," sighs Mr Tshabalala.

"If people are still living like this," he says, pointing to the homeless men in tents behind him, "I don't see any change. I don't know what is happening with our government."

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Israel struck Gaza's Nasser Hospital four times, analysis finds

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly6lxn1l4po, today

Israel struck Nasser Hospital at least four times during its deadly attack in southern Gaza on Monday, an analysis of new video footage by BBC Verify has found.

The attack, which has attracted international condemnation and widespread anger, reportedly killed at least 20 people, including five journalists.

Initial reports from Gaza said that Israel had struck the hospital twice, with the first blast followed nine minutes later by another which hit first responders and journalists who arrived at the scene.

But new analysis suggests the hospital was struck four times in total. BBC Verify and expert analysis found that two staircases were hit almost simultaneously in the first wave, and while what was thought to be a single later attack was in fact two separate strikes hitting the same place within a fraction of a second.

Israel does not allow international journalists to enter Gaza independently. BBC Verify identified the additional strikes by analysing dozens of videos provided by a freelancer on the ground and material filmed by eyewitnesses that circulated online.

In the first incident, an Israeli strike hit the exterior staircase on the hospital's eastern side at 10:08 local time (07:08 GMT), killing journalist Hussam Al-Masri who was operating a live TV feed for Reuters.

BBC Verify has now identified another previously unreported blast at a northern wing staircase at practically the same time, which was overshadowed by the "double-tap" strike on the eastern staircase.

New footage shows smoke rising and damage at both staircases, while emergency workers said the hospital's operating department was hit.

Other videos show an injured person being carried down the northern staircase and the hospital's nursing director holding shredded and bloodied clothing which he said was being worn by a nurse while she was working in the operating department when it was hit.

N R Jenzen-Jones - the director of Armament Research Services, an arms and munitions intelligence company - said the footage "appears to show interior damage consistent with a relatively small munition, including an entry hole that suggests a munition with a relatively flat trajectory".

Roughly nine minutes later, while dozens of first responders and journalists gathered on the eastern staircase, Israeli forces struck the facility again.

While the blast was documented by media at the time, frame-by-frame analysis of newly emerged footage clearly shows that two separate projectiles fired by Israeli forces hit the hospital milliseconds apart at an exposed stairwell where journalists and emergency workers had gathered.

Experts disagreed on the type of munition used in the third and fourth strikes.

Some munitions analysts with whom BBC Verify shared footage with identified the projectiles as Lahat missiles, a guided munition which can be fired from tanks, drones and helicopters. Several outlets in Israel have suggested that the munitions used against the hospital were fired by Israeli tanks stationed nearby.

The experts who spoke to BBC Verify said the blasts could not have been caused by a single tank, due to the quick succession in which the munitions hit the hospital.

"If these Lahats were fired from the ground, then at least two tanks would have been involved, as the interval between the two impacts is far too short," Amael Kotlarski, an analyst with the Janes defence intelligence company, said. "No tank loader could have reloaded that fast."

Meanwhile, Mr Jenzen-Jones said that the "impact of two projectiles at nearly the exact same moment suggests two tanks may have fired on the target simultaneously".

Although he said it wasn't possible to definitively identify the munitions used, the apparent physical characteristics and pattern of flight "suggest a 'multi-purpose' tank gun projectile, such as the Israeli M339 model".

Satellite images reviewed by BBC Verify show IDF forces 2.5km north-east of Nasser Hospital and within firing range on the day of the attack. Other armoured vehicles can also be seen nearby.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had no additional comment on the newly identified blasts when approached by BBC Verify.

Israel's narrative of the attack has evolved since Monday's attack. It initially said it had carried out a strike in the area of the hospital, saying that it "regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals " and that an initial inquiry would be opened as soon as possible, but provided no justification for the attack.

In the hours that followed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was responsible and that it "deeply regrets the tragic mishap".

On Tuesday, the IDF said an initial inquiry found that troops had identified a camera positioned by Hamas in the area of the hospital "used to observe the activity of IDF troops", without providing evidence.

The IDF has not yet acknowledged carrying out more than one strike on the hospital, amid allegations from some international legal experts that it may have violated international law.

Intentionally carrying out attacks on civilians which are "excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated" is prohibited under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

"A reasonable attacker must expect scores of civilian casualties since a hospital is full of protected persons," Professor Janina Dill of Oxford University said.

Prof Dill added that the "mere presence of equipment that belongs to an adversary" does not mean a hospital or medical facility loses its protected status under the laws of war.

At least 247 journalists have been killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023, according to the UN, making it the deadliest conflict for reporters ever documented.

Israel's military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

Almost 62,900 people have been killed in Gaza in the same period, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

Weekly quiz: What food did Meghan reveal Harry doesn't like?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn5edp4d9yxo, yesterday

This week saw Donald Trump fire the head of the US public health agency and a senior central bank official, SpaceX complete a successful test flight, and Manchester United humbled by League Two side Grimsby Town.

But how much attention did you pay to what else happened in the world over the past seven days?

Quiz collated by Ben Fell.

Fancy testing your memory? Try last week's quiz, or have a go at something from the archives.

Tesla asks court to throw out fatal crash verdict

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgdjx0vgn3o, today

Carmaker Tesla has asked a federal court in Florida to throw out a verdict from a jury that found the company partly liable in a 2019 crash that killed a pedestrian and severely injured another.

Lawyers for the victims had argued that Tesla's Autopilot driver assistance software contributed to the crash, failing to alert the driver of a Model S and activate the brakes.

Tesla blamed the driver for the crash, and on Friday asked the court to overturn the verdict, order a new trial, or reduce the punitive damages award.

The firm was ordered to pay $243m (£189m) in damages amid claims that boss Elon Musk misrepresented the software's capabilities.

In a written argument to the court, Tesla said the $243m award flew in the face of "common sense."

"Auto manufacturers do not insure the world against harms caused by reckless drivers," the company said.

But Brett Schreiber, who is representing the victims, said the bid "is the latest example of Tesla and Musk's complete disregard for the human cost of their defective technology".

"The jury heard all the facts and came to the right conclusion that this was a case of shared responsibility, but that does not discount the integral role Autopilot and the company's misrepresentations of its capabilities played in the crash," he added.

Mr Schreiber said he was confident the court would uphold the original verdict.

At trial, the jury heard that driver George McGee had lost sight of the road when he dropped his phone as he was approaching an intersection, causing his car to continue through it and crash into an SUV parked on the other side.

Neither Mr McGee nor the Autopilot software hit the brakes in time to prevent the vehicle from hitting the two victims who were standing nearby.

Naibel Benavides Leon, 22, was killed when she was struck by McGee's Model S and her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, suffered life-long injuries.

Tesla accused the victims' lawyers of overwhelming the jury "with a flood of highly prejudicial but irrelevant evidence" including statements from Mr Musk.

The lawyers also argued that the multi-million punitive damages award should be discarded or significantly reduced because such punishment requires clear evidence of "egregious wrongdoing" by the manufacturer.

The jury awarded the victims $329m in total damages, including $129m in compensatory damages and $200m in punitive damages which aims to deter Tesla from harmful behaviour in the future.

While other federal lawsuits have been brought against Tesla alleging its Autopilot played a role in fatal crashes, the Florida case which Tesla appealed on Friday was the first federal case of its kind to go to a jury.

Last year, Tesla settled a lawsuit over a 2018 crash that killed an Apple engineer after his Model X collided with a highway barrier while operating the company's Autopilot software.

In 2023, a California state jury found Tesla was not at fault in a case in which it was alleged that Autopilot had led to a death.

At trial, Mr McGee said his concept of Tesla's Autopilot was that it would assist him if he made a mistake - adding that he felt the software had failed him.

Mr McGee has settled a separate lawsuit with the victims for an undisclosed sum.

'Gringos out!': Mexicans protest against tourists and gentrification

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy5pvdyd0ygo, today

The timing of the first of several recent anti-gentrification protests in Mexico City was no coincidence - 4 July, US Independence Day.

Demonstrators gathered in Parque México in Condesa district – the epicentre of gentrification in the Mexican capital – to protest over a range of grievances.

Most were angry at exorbitant rent hikes, unregulated holiday lettings, and the endless influx of Americans and Europeans into the city's trendy neighbourhoods like Condesa, Roma and La Juárez, forcing out long-term residents.

In Condesa alone, estimates suggest that as many as one in five homes is now a short-term let or a tourist dwelling.

Others also cited more prosaic changes, like restaurant menus in English, or milder hot sauces at the taco stands to cater for sensitive foreign palates.

But as it moved through the gentrified streets, the initially peaceful protest turned ugly.

Radical demonstrators attacked coffee shops and boutique stores aimed at tourists, smashing windows, intimidating customers, spraying graffiti and chanting "Fuera Gringo!", meaning "Gringos Out!".

At her next daily press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum condemned the violence as "xenophobic".

"No matter how legitimate the cause, as is the case with gentrification, the demand cannot be to simply say 'Get out!' to people of other nationalities inside our country," she said.

Masked radicals and agitators aside though, the motivation for most people who turned out on 4 July was stories like Erika Aguilar's.

After more than 45 years of her family renting the same Mexico City apartment, the beginning of the end came with a knock at the door in 2017.

Long-term residents of the Prim Building, a 1920s architectural gem located in La Juárez district, they were visited by officials clutching eviction papers.

Erika, the eldest daughter, recalls the shocking news: "They came to every apartment in the building and told us we had until the end of the month to vacate the premises, as they weren't going to renew our rental contracts.

"You can imagine my mother's face," adds Erika, her voice momentarily wavering. "She'd lived here since 1977."

The owners were selling to a real estate company. But they gave the residents a final, albeit unrealistic offer.

"They told us that if we could raise 53m pesos ($2.9m; £2.1m) in two weeks, we could keep the building," she remembers with a hollow laugh.

"It's a fortune! New apartments were available for around one to 1.5m pesos ($50,000 to $80,000) back then."

Today, her old home is covered by tarpaulin and scaffolding, as a construction team converts it into luxury "one, two and three-bed apartments designed for short and medium-term rentals", boasts the company's website.

"It's not a construction for people like me," Erika – a newspaper layout designer – comments ruefully. "It's for short-term letting in dollars. In fact, before we were forced out, we'd already started to see rents being charged in dollars in some buildings here."

Erika and her family now live so far out of the city centre, they are officially in the neighbouring state, almost two hours away by public transport. It is what activist Sergio González refers to as "losing the right of centrality, with everything that entails".

His group has recorded more than 4,000 cases of "forced displacement of residents with roots" from La Juárez district over the past decade. He was one of them.

"We are facing what we call an urban war," he says at one of the subsequent anti-gentrifications protests held after 4 July.

"What's in dispute is the ground itself – who does and who doesn't have rights to this ground." Most of the residents forced out of his neighbourhood were unable to stay in the city, he says. "They've lost rights which are protected under the city's constitution.

"The first apartment I rented here cost around 4,000 pesos a month in 2007," Sergio explains. "Today, that same apartment costs more than 10 times as much. It's an outrage. It's pure speculation."

In face of the growing anger, the mayor of Mexico City, Clara Brugada, unveiled a 14-point plan intended to regulate rent prices, protect long-term residents, and build new social housing at affordable prices.

But for Sergio, and thousands like him, the mayor's plan came too late. He believes the administration needs to do more to tackle gentrification in Mexico at its core.

"We have a local and federal government which continues to promote a neoliberal economic model, that hasn't changed," Sergio argues.

"For as much as they have increased the social security safety net for people, which personally I think is very good, that hasn't changed the economic paradigm by which they govern."

He called the mayor's measures "palliative", and a case of "closing the barn door after the horse has bolted".

Claudia Sheinbaum's critics say she failed to meaningfully tackle the issue when she was the capital's mayor and, in fact, actively enticed foreigners to resettle in Mexico City by signing a partnership agreement with Airbnb to boost tourism and digital nomadism in 2022.

Erika points the finger of blame at a range of people for her family's upheaval - the building's former owners for selling to a real estate development company, the city government for not protecting long-term residents, even the tenants themselves for failing to act sooner over the creeping gentrification taking place around them.

However, she does not particularly blame the foreigners who have flocked to Mexico in their droves, particularly around the coronavirus pandemic. "If I had the means to live better elsewhere, I'd probably do it too," she reasons, "and tourism has been good for Mexico, it's a source of income."

Yet plenty of others, including many on the recent marches, do blame the recent American and European arrivals – at least in part. They accuse them of being tone deaf to Mexican customs, of failing to learn Spanish or, in many cases, even pay taxes.

The wave of well-heeled Americans heading south feels particularly galling to some when placed in contrast with the Trump administration's harsh treatment of Mexican and other immigrants in the US. Immigration is a problem when travelling from south to north yet apparently fine in the opposite direction, argue activists.

Back at the site of the 4 July protest, a wide esplanade at Parque México, the graffiti calling for "Yankees Out!" has been whitewashed, and the early-morning boxing and salsa classes continue unabated, often in English rather than Spanish.

Given the cost of living and the polarised politics in the US, the draw of the leafy streets of Condesa is obvious.

"It's quiet, walkable, the park obviously is a great draw for people. It's peaceful. We've really enjoyed it," says Richard Alsobrooks during a short trip to Mexico City with his wife, Alexis, from Portland, Oregon.

As they walk through the Mexican capital, they admit to having half a mind to resettle here one day. "Obviously we don't want to contribute to gentrification," says Alexis, acknowledging the extent of the problem.

"But you need to have a good job in the US, and obviously the dollar goes a lot further here. So, I can understand the appeal – especially for those who can work remotely."

Richard, who works for a major US sportswear company, says "the cost of living in America is too high", and too often predicated around the idea of working until your 70s.

Both think, though, it is possible to relocate in the right way. "If you treat those around you with respect and try to be part of the community, that goes a lot further than trying to make somewhere your own," says Richard.

"Exactly," agrees Alexis. "Learn the language. Pay your taxes!"

Yet the speed of change in Mexico City over the past decade has left casualties.

Erika's family life has spun on its axis in a matter of months, and her mother has struggled with depression. As we wander through her former neighbourhood streets in La Juárez, the memories come flooding back.

"That was a great bar called La Alegría, over there was the tortillería [tortilla shop], the tlapalería [hardware shop], I used to buy candies in that place when I was little," says Erika pointing to another shop.

"Most of all I miss the people, the community. There's hardly any families or children here anymore."

Most of those small businesses are gone, replaced by hip cafes and expensive eateries.

"I think the soul of La Juárez has died a bit," she laments. "It's like you've been living in a forest, and gradually the trees are uprooted and then suddenly you realise you're living in a desert."

Bank apologises for firing staff with accidental email

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c776plg6n8vo, today

One of Australia's largest banks has apologised to staff who found out they had been fired through an automated email asking them to hand back their laptops.

ANZ's retail banking executive Bruce Rush said it was "not our intention to share such sensitive news with you in this way" as the firm cuts jobs in its retail banking business.

The bank said the emails were sent to some staff ahead of schedule in error. It said it has since stopped sending the emails and that staff have been spoken to personally.

The Financial Sector Union said the email caused "panic and distress" and was a result of the company forcing through a "chaotic pace of change".

The union's president Wendy Streets said it had not been consulted on the changes the bank was making, adding that "ANZ must do better".

"Speed and cost-cutting cannot come at the expense of dignity and respect for workers," Ms Streets said, describing the "botched" episode as "disgusting".

Mr Rush wrote in an email to staff: "Unfortunately, these emails indicate an exit date for some of our colleagues before we've been able to share their outcome with them."

ANZ said that once it realised the email had been sent mistakenly it apologised to staff and called a virtual meeting to take any questions on the matter. It said it also bought forward formal conversations with staff about their roles.

ANZ said that, during changes to its organisation's structure, it was committed to treating employees with dignity and respect.

"It was not our intention to share such sensitive news with you in this way, and I apologise unconditionally," Mr Rush wrote in his email to staff.

The bank's chief executive Nuno Matos has reportedly told media outlets the move was "indefensible", "deeply disappointing", and that the bank was now investigating the incident.

This is not the first time a large company has been criticised for the way in which it told staff they had been fired.

In 2021, 900 staff were fired in an online Zoom call by their boss Vishal Garg, the head of US mortgage firm Better, who later accepted it was a blunder and badly handled.

Musk files to dismiss lawsuit over his purchase of Twitter shares

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn47ey2wxkpo, today

Elon Musk is seeking to dismiss a lawsuit by US regulators alleging he wrongly saved money by revealing he increased his initial investment in Twitter too late.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a January complaint that Musk failed to disclose that he had built up his stake in the company within the regulator's timeframe.

It said this had allowed him to save about $150m (£123m) by purchasing shares in Twitter - which he bought outright months later and renamed X - at "artificially low prices".

Musk's lawyers, filing shortly before the court's deadline for his response, called the lawsuit "a waste of this Court's time and taxpayer resources".

"The SEC does not allege that Mr. Musk caused any investor harm. Rather, the SEC alleges that Mr. Musk late-filed a single beneficial ownership form three years ago, and fully corrected any alleged error immediately upon its discovery," they said in their Thursday filing.

"There is no ongoing violation. There is no intent. There is no harm."

In its January complaint, the SEC alleged that Musk violated US securities rules requiring investors to disclose within 10 days if their holdings in a company surpass 5%.

It said Musk should have revealed he had crossed the threshold for disclosure of shares by 14 March 2022, but he did not disclose it until 21 days after his purchase - on 4 April.

"Musk's violation resulted in substantial economic harm to investors," it claimed.

During a prior investigation by the SEC into Musk's purchase of Twitter, he gave two depositions - with mystery surrounding whether he appeared at a further interview.

When the SEC filed its lawsuit in January, Musk blasted the regulator as a "totally broken organisation" on social media and accused it of wasting its time.

His lawyers' formal response, submitted on Thursday, also accused the SEC of targeting the executive in a "relentless pursuit".

"The Commission's selective enforcement against Mr. Musk - seeking monetary relief more than 1,500 times larger than the relief imposed on similarly situated individuals in similar cases - reveals an agency targeting an individual for his protected criticism of government overreach," it said.

It said other investigations launched by the watchdog over the past seven years - including one in which he was eventually cleared by a jury of wrongdoing over a tweet about the future of Tesla's ownership - reflected "relentless scrutiny".

The BBC has approached the SEC for a response.

Climate change pushing winemakers to blend wines from different years

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czxp41y3n7lo, 5 days ago

In the world of wine vintage is king. If you are buying a bottle of red, white or rosé then the specific year of the grape harvest is almost always written on the label.

By contrast, non-vintage still wine - that made by blending two or more years - is seen as very downmarket, something cheap and not cheerful. And it is significantly rarer.

Yet with climate change hitting vineyards around the world with more extreme weather, a small but growing number of quality-conscious wineries are releasing non-vintage bottles so they can make a more consistent wine.

Chris Howell is the winemaker at Cain Vineyard and Winery in California's celebrated Napa Valley region, 50 miles (80km) northeast of San Francisco. He has been in the job since 1991, and he says that summers have got noticeably hotter.

"Weather is a complicated thing," he says. "The issue people are focused on most in Napa are dramatic heat spells, heat waves that generally come throughout the summer, particularly in late summer.

"They have been around for as long as I have been here, but the peak temperatures of these are higher. The heat can be intense. You can get as high as 50C, something near to that."

With the higher temperatures comes the increased risk of wildfires. That was the case back in 2017, when he says "tremendously intense fires" broke out in Napa in the middle of the grape harvest.

That year Mr Howell decided to only use grapes from Cain's vineyards that had been harvested before the fires started, approximately half of the total, to prevent the risk of the smell - and taste - of smoke in the air from tainting the subsequent wines.

He says he is more "relaxed" than many winemakers would be about such a catastrophe, because he has long made a non-vintage red blend called Cain Cuvée. "So some of the wine we were able to make in 2017 was held over to be blended with that from 2018."

Mr Howell adds that "even without fires we are now subjected to more changeable vintages. So the odds are better if you use two different vintages to create the desired style for a particular wine."

While the world's still wines remain mostly vintage, there is one type of wine where non-vintage blends actually dominate – sparkling wine.

This is led by France's champagnes, where the vast majority of those produced have always been non-vintage.

Historically this was a necessity, as Champagne is the most northern wine region in France, and good summers were rare. So champagne-makers had little choice but to blend wines from different years to create a consistent, quality product.

Yet thanks to climate change bringing warmer summers to northern France, there is now more vintage champagne being produced than ever before.

Italian winery owner Riccardo Pasqua says it was enjoying the very best non-vintage champagnes that inspired him to make Italy's first multi-year still white wine.

Located north of the city of Verona, in the winemaking region of Veneto, his family-run business Pasqua Vigneti e Cantine has been producing the non-vintage wine since 2019, blending it from as many as five different years.

He explains that the idea was to produce the best possible wine from a single vineyard, removing the reality of vintage weather variations, both good and bad.

"I proposed it to my family and my board, and they told me 'you are crazy man, this is a big risk! You are going against the wine bible, the vintage is the vintage'," he says.

"But I decided to stick to the plan, and we went forward. It is about getting the best expression of the vineyard. It is like a book, using more than one vintages gives the wine more chapters."

The resulting wine is called Hey French, You Could Have Made This But You Didn't. The unusual name is a jokey nod to Italy's ongoing wine rivalry with France.

With climate change now hitting Italy's winemakers with everything from more droughts to bigger hailstorms, Mr Pasqua says that other wineries are now going down the non-vintage route, or at least considering it.

"I have to say in Italy already several wineries follow the idea. In Italy extreme weather events have gone from the extraordinary to the ordinary.

"Such as frost in April or early May, or hailstorms become more and more usual. Or heat waves with very high temperatures now year after year."

Back in California's Napa Valley, Chris Howell admits that more work has to be done to remove the stigma that non-vintage wines still face.

"Why are we so obsessed with single vintages? We need to change drinkers' perceptions. Non-vintage wines can be delicious."

Dawn Davies is a master of wine, a holder of the global wine industry's top qualification. She says that there are three types of wine buyers, two of whom will welcome more non-vintage still wines.

"The general consumer won't notice," she says. "The drinkers who buy a bottle up to the £15 mark, they just pick up a bottle of, say, sauvignon blanc. They don't think 'oh 2021, that was a good year'.

"And, at the top end, people engaged in the wine industry or those more informed, they know what is happening with tougher vintages. And they welcome the increased flexibility and consistency that non-vintage wines can offer the winemaker.

"Then you have the drinkers in the middle who shout about different vintages. There will always be this group of people who don't accept change in wine, such as the introduction of screw caps.

"But most wine, the vast majority, is a blend, as very rarely do you get a wine from a single barrel. Instead wines are blended from different vineyards or plots. So what's the difference if you blend from different years?"

Denmark ending letter deliveries is a sign of the digital times

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3v37plv2edo, 9 days ago

Sorting through bundles of letters, small packages and magazines, Herman Moyano is getting ready for his early morning post round.

Cargo bikes and vans stream out from the depot, just north of Copenhagen, as Herman departs on his scooter.

For the past seven years he's been delivering mail for Denmark's national postal service PostNord.

"I used to think that all the people are waiting for something, a special letter, a special communication, a special package," he says.

However, Herman has noticed the loads getting lighter, and rather than letters, these days it's mostly bills and bank statements.

"I have seen the mail going down gradually. But that's picked up pace over the last couple of years," he adds. "Nowadays, it seems... it's going really, really down."

The steep decline in letter volumes has been driven largely by digitalisation, and PostNord announced in March that it will cease letter services at the end of the year.

It will bring to an end four centuries of letter deliveries by the state-owned operation.

A third of its workforce is being let go, as it sheds 2,200 positions in its loss-making letter arm. Instead it will focus on its profitable parcel business, creating 700 new roles.

"Danes hardly receive any letters anymore. It's been going down for years and years," says Kim Pedersen, chief of PostNord Denmark. "They're receiving one letter a month on average, it's not a lot."

"On the contrary, Danes love to shop online," he adds. "Global e-commerce is growing significantly, and we are moving with it."

Fifteen years ago, PostNord operated several enormous letter-sorting facilities, but now there's just one on the western outskirts of Copenhagen.

Since 2000, the volume of letters the business handles has declined by more than 90%, from around 1.4 billion to 110 million last year, and it continues to fall rapidly.

As PostNord prepares to cease letter deliveries, 1,500 of its red post boxes are being removed from Danish streets. However, few locals in the capital appear to use them much.

Copenhagen resident Nikolaj Brøchner Andrès says he cannot recall when he last sent a letter. "I don't think I've sent a letter in years... I'm not even sure how to do it anymore, to be honest."

From email and cashless mobile payments, to digital health cards carried by smartphone, there's an app for almost everything in Denmark - and it's one of the world's most digitalised nations, second only to South Korea, according to the OECD's 2023 Digital Government Index.

The Danish government has embraced a "digital by default" policy, and for more than a decade correspondence with the public has been carried out electronically.

"We are facing this natural evolution of a digitalised society, earlier than maybe some other countries," Mr Pedersen explains. "In Denmark, we are maybe five or 10 years ahead."

The high cost of sending a letter in Denmark is also a contributing factor behind its decline.

In 2024, a new law opened up the postal market to private competition and took away its exemption from the country's 25% rate of VAT, so the price of a PostNord stamp jumped to 29 Danish krone ($4.55; £3.35) per letter.

"That made [volumes] drop even further faster," Mr Pedersen points out.

The big fall in the number of letters being posted is replicated Europe-wide, says postal sector expert Hazel King, editor of the magazine Parcel and Postal Technology International.

"Letters across Europe have been declining for years," she says. "I think PostNord's decision is a reflection of how the whole market has gone, and the way the consumer is moving."

Physical mail has dropped by 30% or more from its historical peak, across all major global markets, according to a report by consultancy firm McKinsey.

In Europe, Germany and Switzerland have seen the slowest declines in letters, says Florian Neuhaus, who co-authored the study. "It's only 40% there, but everybody else sees around a 50 to 70% decline [since 2008]."

There's a similar pattern in the US, where mail has also declined 46%.

"Clearly this is driven by digitalisation and how people communicate in general," adds Mr Neuhaus. "Overall, the economics in letters are just getting worse and worse."

In March, Germany's Deutsche Post said it was slashing 8,000 jobs, while cost-cutting efforts at the UK's 500-year-old Royal Mail will see it scale back second-class letter deliveries to only every other weekday, while targets for first class delivery times have also been lowered.

"I do think that we will see the end of letters in the mainstream," says Ms King. "However, I'm not sure we'll ever see zero letters, pointing to a necessity to protect medical letters, and services for the elderly, disabled and rural areas."

In Denmark, letter deliveries won't actually come to an end. Instead, private delivery firm DAO will step into the gap with its own nationwide service.

Yet DaneAge, an advocacy group for the elderly, fears that older people may struggle with the changes to letter deliveries.

"Most elderly live in small towns and in the rural places," says Marlene Rishoj Cordes, one of its senior consultants. "When there's not as many post boxes around, they will have a harder time delivering mail. "

Meanwhile, the trade union that represents postal workers, 3F Postal Union, has voiced concerns that rural services may worsen.

DAO strongly disagrees with these fears. It's historically a newspaper and magazine distributor with nationwide reach, and has become one of the country's major parcel couriers.

A recent survey found DAO's deliveries were faster, with more letters arriving within five days than PostNord.

"We are coming to all households, and we are in the rural areas in the whole country," assures its chief executive Hans Peter Nissen.

Last year it handled 21 million letters and, from 2026, following PostNord's exit, DAO expects to take on 30 to 40 million more.

Its staff will deliver letters directly, while doing newspaper and parcel rounds, Mr Nissen explains. Meanwhile, post is collected from mailboxes inside affiliated shops, though doorstep pick-ups can be booked for a small additional fee.

DAO plans to install a new sorting machine and add around 250 more staff to its 2,500 workforce.

As physical letters decline across Europe, Denmark's experience perhaps offers a window on the future.

In this increasingly digital world, however, there are still many who find joy in sending and receiving personal letters, including Copenhagener Jette Eiring Williams, who writes to her daughter overseas.

"I think the young generation wants that old school feeling," Ms Williams says. "She loves the physical touch of something, so not just an email or a text anymore."

Bank share prices tumble after calls for tax on profits

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2v3700pvqo, today

The share prices of leading UK banks have tumbled following calls for the government to introduce a new tax on banking profits.

Traders and investors have reacted to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) saying a windfall tax could raise up to £8bn a year for the government.

The think tank said the policy would compensate taxpayers for losses on the Bank of England's cash printing drive.

While the Treasury has not commented on any policy, concerns led to NatWest, Lloyds and Barclays being the biggest fallers on the main index of the London Stock Exchange early on Friday.

NatWest and Lloyds share prices were down by more than 4%, and Barclays had dropped by more than 3% in early trading.

Charlie Nunn, the chief executive of Lloyds bank, has previously spoke out against any potential tax rises for banks in the Budget.

He said efforts to boost the UK economy and foster a strong financial services sector "wouldn't be consistent with tax rises".

The Treasury has been contacted for comment.

The IPPR, a left-leaning think tank, said a levy on the profits of banks was needed as the Bank of England's quantative easing (QE) drive was costing taxpayers £22bn a year.

The Bank of England buys bonds - essentially long term IOUs - from the UK government and corporations to increase bond prices and reduce longer term interest rates.

The Bank is selling off some of these bonds, and the IPPR said it is now making huge losses from both selling the government bonds below their purchase value and through interest rate losses.

The IPPR described those interest rate losses as "a government subsidy to commercial banks", and highlighted commercial bank profits compared to before the pandemic were up by $22bn.

'Public money flowing to banks' coffers'

Carsten Jung, associate director for economic policy at IPPR and former Bank of England economist, said the Bank and Treasury had "bungled the implementation of quantitative easing".

"Public money is flowing straight into commercial banks' coffers because of a flawed policy design," he said.

"While families struggle with rising costs, the government is effectively writing multi-billion-pound cheques to bank shareholders."

A tax targeting the windfall profits linked to QE would still leave the banks with "substantially higher profits", the IPPR report said, while saving the government up to £8bn a year over the term of parliament.

Russ Mould, AJ Bell said the UK stock market had soured following the suggestion, with investors wondering "if the era of bumper profits, dividends and buybacks is now under threat".

"The timing of the tax debate, fuelled by a report from think-tank IPPR, is unfortunate given it coincides with a new poll from Lloyds suggesting a rise in business confidence, despite cost pressures," he said.

Financial services body UK Finance argued that a further tax on banks would make Britain less internationally competitive.

"Banks based here already pay both a corporation tax surcharge and a bank levy," the trade association said.

National security or xenophobia? Texas restricts Chinese owning and renting property

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgjyqnndvwjo, today

Jason Yuan, a second-hand car shop owner, closes the hood of a vehicle after tightening the last nut on the battery terminal - a routine he is all too familiar with.

Texas has long felt like home for him, as a naturalised US citizen born in China. But a recently passed state law is shaking his belief in his chosen homeland.

Texas Senate Bill 17 of 2025, also known as SB 17, will take effect on 1 September, restricting people and companies from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from purchasing and renting property.

Officials say the bill is to protect national security. But to people like Mr Yuan, it sends a discriminatory message - that people who look like him are not welcome in Texas.

"It is anti-Asian, anti-immigrant, and specifically against Chinese-Americans," said Texas Representative Gene Wu, a Democrat leading the fight against the bill.

The new law could harm businesses in Texas, Wu told the BBC. Companies that could bring millions of dollars of investment to the state are looking for options elsewhere.

Bill targets 'malignant influence'

SB 17 was proposed earlier this year and signed into law on 20 June by Governor Greg Abbott, who called it the "toughest ban in America" to keep away foreign "adversaries".

It prohibits certain individuals and organisations of countries designated as national security threats from acquiring property in Texas - including homes, commercial space and agricultural land. It also restricts the length of time for which they can rent property to less than one year.

China is the first country named in the legislation, which accuses Beijing of using "coercive, subversive, and malignant influence activities to weaken the United States" in its bid to surpass the US economically, militarily and politically.

Those who violate the law could face fines of more than $250,000 (£193,000) or jail terms.

US citizens and green card holders are exempt, and valid visa-holders will still be allowed to own one primary residence. But opponents say regardless of the carve-outs, the bill is discriminatory in nature, and anyone deemed to look Chinese could be subject to unfair scrutiny.

In July, the Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance (Calda), a non-profit organisation, filed a lawsuit on behalf of three visa-holders from China, arguing that the law was unconstitutional.

The judge later dismissed the case, siding with the state attorney general who said the plaintiffs - who are student-visa and work-visa holders living in Texas - would not be personally affected by the law.

It therefore appears that the three plaintiffs are spared for now. But, for the wider group of visa-holders from the four countries, the lack of clear interpretation of the legal clauses still stokes uncertainty. Calda says it has filed an appeal.

'The Chinese Exclusion Act of 2025'

Chinese nationals are the largest group affected by the new law. At least 120,000 people who were born in mainland China were living in Texas as of 2023.

Qinlin Li, a recent graduate of Texas A&M University and a plaintiff of the lawsuit filed against SB 17, said she was shocked when she first learned about the bill.

"If there's no human rights, then we [are] back to like 150 years ago, we were like the railroad labourers," Ms Li said.

Ms Li lived in a rented apartment nestled in a quiet residential area in a suburb of Austin. Busy with her work and the lawsuit, she did not have time to search for a new apartment that could meet her needs until two weeks before her lease was due to expire.

She was in the middle of moving when the lawsuit was dismissed. Though the court ruling said she was not affected by the law, she said the entire process had taken a toll on her mental health.

"I think it's going to block people from studying here and working here because it's a lot of trouble just to think about it," Ms Li said.

Jason Yuan has devoted his time outside his car shop work to be a community activist. Before the bill passed, he led rallies outside the Texas capital and testified at a public hearing, telling the committee that the new land bill should be called "the Chinese Exclusion Act of 2025".

In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act, a law fuelled by anti-Chinese sentiment, was passed. The controversial law barred immigration of Chinese labourers into the US.

"Banning home ownership from folks just like me based on their country of origin, that is discriminatory in nature," Mr Yuan, the car shop owner, told the BBC.

Mr Yuan was concerned about the future for his two children - and when he spoke at a recent rally, his 13-year-old son stood behind him.

"I told everybody this is all worth it," Mr Yuan said. "In the future, I would tell my kids when you face some discrimination, when somebody picks on you, this is a way to push back."

Chinese companies consider looking elsewhere

As a small business owner, Mr Yuan also worries about the bill's financial impact as at least one third of his clients are Chinese immigrants.

"It's an ecosystem that the business owners of the Chinese community depend on," he said.

As well as small businesses, transnational companies from China could be directly hit by the bill.

Between 2011 and 2021, 34 Chinese companies recorded 38 investment projects, $2.7bn in capital investment and 4,682 jobs in Texas, according to a report by state officials.

Some Chinese companies are now reportedly seeking alternatives to Texas.

Nancy Lin, a commercial estate agent based in Dallas, told the BBC that several prospective Chinese clients she has spoken to are pausing their investment plans, including some in the electric vehicle and solar panel sectors.

"If this issue can't be resolved, I think it will be more difficult for Chinese companies to enter Texas. As for those that already have existing leases, they can't renew them. If they do, it can only be for no more than one year."

The right to own land has been a struggle for Chinese-Americans, dating back over a century.

A previous alien land law in Texas, which restricted non-US citizens from purchasing land, was in force until 1965. It was deemed to be "unreasonable and discriminatory" and against "economic development".

Was project near airbase a threat?

Abbott says his top priority is the safety and security of Texans.

Asked for comment by the BBC, his office referred to previous statements on the matter, including a press release that said "hostile foreign adversaries", including China, "must not be allowed to own land in Texas".

Chuck DeVore, from a conservative think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation, was among those who spoke up in favour of the bill - highlighting the need to "keep hostile regimes away from our military bases, farmland, and infrastructure, like Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas, or the ranches feeding our state".

The legislative effort was prompted in part by Chinese businessman Sun Guangxin's controversial purchase of 140,000 acres land in Texas for a wind farm between 2016 and 2018, including land near Laughlin Air Force Base.

Although initially approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), Texas passed a law in 2021 prohibiting agreements with certain foreign-owned companies in "critical infrastructure", and Mr Sun's project was thwarted.

Texas Senator John Cornyn in 2024 said that as a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and a former senior leader in the Chinese military, Sun likely had other concerning surveillance plans on behalf of the Chinese government.

Mr Sun hit back at such claims. A 2024 lawsuit filed by one of his business subsidiaries highlighted that US officials had taken mitigation and cleared the project from national security concerns.

A survey conducted by Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, gathered 224 espionage cases against the US from China from 2000-2023 from open sources.

CCP-related threats to the US have grown in recent years, national security experts have suggested.

"The risk is real," Holden Triplett, former head of the FBI office in Beijing, told the BBC.

"Targeting the US at the sub-national level has increasingly become a trend in intelligence. The individuals and groups at that level tend to be less aware of the risks and more likely to establish relationships," Mr Triplett said.

But Patrick Toomey, from the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation (ACLU), said that in the case of SB 17, some officials were wrongly equating Chinese people with the Chinese government.

"There is no evidence that harm to national security has resulted from Chinese people owning or leasing residential properties in Texas," he said.

Experts also question the necessity of Texas's new law from an regulatory standpoint. It was preferable for federal government to handle such matters to avoid overlapping jurisdictions, said Sarah Bauerle Danzman, from the Atlantic Council think tank.

A national trend

SB 17 is not the first bill of its kind in the US.

Twenty-six states, most of them Republican-controlled, have passed 50 bills that restrict foreign property ownership targeting China since 2021, according to Committee of 100, a Chinese-American non-governmental organisation.

Most of the state laws were passed since 2023, the same year that a Chinese spy balloon flew across North American airspace, in an incident that marked a new low for US-China ties.

The Trump administration has also said it plans to ban Chinese nationals from buying farmland in the US.

"Texas's law should sound alarm bells," said Mr Toomey, adding that the legislation weaponised false claims of national security against Asian immigrants and other communities.

Mr Yuan believes that if Chinese-Americans do not put up a fight, the new law in Texas could lead to similar bills being passed in other states.

Ohio, for example, is considering a ban against "adversarial countries", but with stricter scope that could include green card holders as well. Activists have been rallying against it.

"They're trying to rewrite the rules of democracy," says Mr Yuan, "but there is still a chance we could change the course.

"Otherwise, the US will become much more like China."

'It's a chaotic mess': UK firms warn over US small parcel tax

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg3yjnq5zeo, today

UK firms are warning that new taxes on sending low-value parcels to the US are bringing uncertainty and potential price hikes for their businesses.

US President Donald Trump cutting the "de minimis" exemption means parcels valued under $800 (£592) will be subject to tax from Friday.

The Federation of Small Businesses has warned this will push up costs and create new barriers for small firms in the UK trying to compete with bigger brands.

"I knew it was going to be an absolute chaotic mess," said Helen Hickman, who has stopped shipping wool to the US due to uncertainty about the costs.

Her hand-dyed wool company, Nellie and Eve, in Carmarthenshire, west Wales, used to make about 30% of its sales to the US - but she has put them on hold.

"I didn't have enough information to be able to comfortably say that I could ship as normal," she says. "There is no way of giving the customer an upfront cost."

"I didn't want products to be excessively charged or returned to me or lost," she says.

The changes mean packages valued at under $800 will face the same tariff rate as other goods from their country of origin - for the UK that's 10%.

Previously, the de minimis exemption meant goods valued at $800 or less could enter the US without paying any border taxes.

US consumers used the exemption to buy cheap clothes and household items from online commerce sites like Shein and Temu, as well as from countries other than China.

But from Friday, "a typical $100 order could now incur an additional $30 to $50 in costs, depending on the final sales tax rate adopted by US authorities," says Martin Hamilton, partner and head of retail at accountancy firm Menzies.

"On top of that, brands will face extra fees from shipping providers for handling duties and taxes," he says.

Earlier this month, postal services around the world paused some deliveries to the US over confusion around the new rules.

The Royal Mail says it has been working with the US authorities and international partners so its services will meet the new US de minimis requirements when they come into effect on Friday.

Jay Begum sells handmade wooden decorations and gifts through her small London-based business Knots of Pine.

She had already noticed a slowdown in orders from the US since President Trump announced tariffs earlier in the year, because it made American customers more jittery in general.

But now the de minimis tax change is having an even bigger impact, and she has decided to no longer ship to the US at all.

As the country makes up about 20% of her sales, it's a significant hit. "Now, I only have the UK market," she says.

Jay will have to put more money into marketing to boost her domestic sales if she is unable to start selling to the US again.

"It would be a lot of work, to claw back the sales that I'm losing."

Tina McKenzie, policy chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, says: "Small firms in the UK have already been hit by US tariffs, with just over two in ten saying they have stopped, or may stop, exporting there altogether."

She added: "The US Administration's decision to scrap the de minimis threshold, combined with postal carriers temporarily suspending deliveries in response, will push up costs and create new barriers."

Statistics published by HMRC show that in 2023 around 28,000 small businesses - companies with less than 49 employees - exported goods to the US.

'I might have to get another job'

Sophie Arnold runs a small jewellery business, the Little Vintage Emporium in Edinburgh, and stopped shipping to the US when she heard the $800 exemption was ending.

She says it will have a negative impact on her business.

"America is our main market," she adds.

Ms Arnold thinks "big hitters" in the antique world may have the finances to pay extra duties, but says smaller businesses like hers will suffer.

"I might have to look at returning into an office or doing other jobs and not running my business full time," she says.

The FSB says it wants the UK government to provide more support.

Ms McKenzie says raising the Trading Allowance - a tax-free allowance for casual income - from £1,000 to £3,000 would "make it easier for people to sell more, helping them cope with the extra costs that tariffs will bring in".

"The UK and US should be working together to make it easier for small businesses to reach customers across the Atlantic. That means clear, practical rules, time to adapt, and systems that keep trade moving," Ms Mckenzie added.

The BBC has asked the UK Treasury for comment.

In April, the UK government announced it was reviewing its own de minimis rules.

Low-value imports, which are worth £135 or less, are currently exempt from customs duties.

AI boom boosts Nvidia despite 'geopolitical issues'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3wnj8611y7o, yesterday

Computer-chip designer Nvidia has been boosted by big tech firms keen to expand their AI capabilities, despite dealing with US and China tensions.

On Wednesday it reported $46.7bn revenue (£34.6bn) for the second three months of the year, a 56% surge from the same period in 2024.

But Nvidia, which has been caught in the crossfire of a trade war between the US and China, said it "continued to work through geopolitical issues" and its shares fell in after-hours trading.

The company has had to navigate the Trump administration's fast-changing policies aimed at ensuring the US remains ahead in AI development.

An ongoing AI boom

Nvidia's sophisticated chips have been an important part of the AI boom.

On Wednesday it said demand for its products remains strong, especially from big tech firms including Instagram-owner Meta, and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, as they race to build-out AI.

"The AI race is now on," said Nvidia boss Jensen Huang in a call with analysts following the report's release, saying spending from four big tech firms had doubled to $600bn per year.

"Over time, you would think that artificial intelligence would... accelerate GDP growth," Huang said. "Our contribution to that is a large part of the AI infrastructure."

Colleen McHugh, chief investment officer at investment firm Wealthify, told the BBC's Today programme Nvidia was "at the heart of this AI boom".

"It's really largely unchallenged in the market for AI chips," she added.

She said the company was "very reliant" on tech giants for revenue and firms continuing to spend on its chips would mean Nvidia's "returns and share price continuing to move up".

The company's revenue from data centres surged by 56% to $41.1bn, even as it fell slightly short of analysts' expectations.

Eileen Burbridge, an investor and founding partner of Passion Capital, said the share price "wobble" was a result of its data centre division "not posting results as strong as it was hoping".

However, she said the company had seen "unbelievable" growth.

"There's clearly been so much capital that's gone in that I don't think it's unfair to say there's been maybe too much exuberance or a bit of a bubble," she added.

In July, Nvidia became the world's first $4trn company.

The Santa Clara, California-based designer of artificial intelligence (AI) chips said revenue in the current quarter would probably grow to $54bn, topping the expectations of Wall Street analysts.

'Geopolitical issues'

But Nvidia remains exposed to geopolitical tensions between the US and China.

The company announced in July that it would resume sales of its high-end artificial intelligence chips to China.

The move came after Huang successfully lobbied the Trump administration to reverse its ban on the sale of the company's H20 chips, developed specifically for the Chinese market.

The administration had imposed the ban amid worries that the chips might benefit the Chinese military, in addition to AI developers based in the country.

On Wednesday, executives said that in late July, the US government had started reviewing licenses for sales of H20 chips designed specifically for Chinese customers.

But the company added that it had not shipped any H20s, despite some China-based customers receiving those licenses in recent weeks.

The US government is expecting to get 15% of the revenue generated from licensed H20 sales.

Nvidia did not include H20 in its outlook for the current quarter and said it was also lobbying the US government to approve the sale of its Blackwell ships to China, the largest market for chips.

In the meantime, analysts say, China is cultivating competition in the sector that Nvidia currently dominates.

"US export restrictions are fuelling domestic chipmaking in China," said Emarketer analyst Jacob Bourne after the report's release.

He said the question now is whether Nvidia's "dive into robotics" will help it sustain its role as "the bellwether of the AI economy".

US Fed Governor Lisa Cook sues Trump over his attempt to fire her

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1dxl6ry4y3o, yesterday

Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook has sued President Donald Trump over his attempt to fire her, setting up a potential legal battle with implications for the US central bank's autonomy.

Cook has asked the court to declare Trump's firing order "unlawful and void", and also named Fed Chairman Jerome Powell as defendant.

Trump has said there was "sufficient reason" to believe Cook had made false statements on her mortgage, and cited constitutional powers which he said allowed him to remove her. Cook previously said that "no cause exists under the law" to sack her.

The president has put increasing pressure on the Fed over what he sees as an unwillingness to lower interest rates.

Cook is part of the board responsible for setting interest rates in the US.

Thursday's lawsuit is likely to bring up a number of legal challenges that could end up at the US Supreme Court.

"This case challenges President Trump's unprecedented and illegal attempt to remove Governor Cook from her position which, if allowed to occur, would be the first of its kind in the Board's history," Abbe Lowell, Cook's attorney, wrote in the lawsuit.

"It would subvert the Federal Reserve Act ... which explicitly requires a showing of 'cause' for a Governor's removal, which an unsubstantiated allegation about private mortgage applications submitted by Governor Cook prior to her Senate confirmation is not," Lowell wrote.

UK car sales to US rise following tariff deal

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgvyv0zzj4o, yesterday

Sales of British-made cars to the US rose in July following the introduction of the UK-US tariff deal.

The 6.8% rise follows three months in a row of falling sales, according to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

In April, US President Donald Trump hiked import taxes on UK cars from 2.5% to 27.5%, which sent shockwaves through the industry, but in May both sides agreed this would be lowered to 10% from the end of June.

The SMMT said July's figures "illustrate the impact of this deal", though it added that UK car manufacturing was generally struggling.

"The US remains the largest single national market for British-built cars, underscoring the importance of the UK-US trade deal," the SMMT said.

The tariff cut from 27.5% to 10% only applies to the first 100,000 cars sent across the Atlantic, which is about the number of cars the UK exported to the US last year.

Any additional car imports above that number will be taxed at 27.5%, according to the agreement.

The US represented 18.1% of all UK car exports for July, while the European Union is a much bigger market for car makers, totalling 45.6% of exports.

Colleen McHugh, chief investment officer at investment firm Wealthify, said the US was "an important market for British-built cars".

"In particular, it is a key market for premium brands like Jaguar Land Rover (JLR)."

JLR paused shipments to the US in April after the initial higher tariffs were announced, before resuming them a month later.

Overall, UK car manufacturing rose rose for the second consecutive month in July, due to rises in both domestic sales and exports.

However, overall vehicle output for the year to date is down 11.7%, a figure which includes both cars and commercial vehicles. Last month, car making in the UK fell to its lowest level since 1953.

Experts say the slump has been caused by a combination of higher UK labour costs, increased competition from overseas, and Brexit.

Commenting on July's numbers, Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: "It remains a turbulent time for automotive manufacturing, with consumer confidence weak, trade flows volatile and massive investment in new technologies underway both here and abroad.

"Given this backdrop, another month of growing car output is good news."

From boom to ban: The rise and fall of India's betting apps

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cyvnlmde7dzo, yesterday

Kartik Srinivas (name changed) still flinches at the mention of online betting. What began as a thrill to earn a quick buck spiralled into a five-year addiction that cost the 26-year-old his savings, peace of mind and nearly his future.

Between 2019 and 2024, Srinivas lost more than 1.5m rupees ($17,000; £13,000). The money included three years of his earnings, as well as savings and loans from friends and family.

"I tried everything - apps, local bookies, international platforms. I was hooked," he says.

By 2024, he was neck-deep in losses.

Srinivas' story reflects the darker side of India's once booming Real Money Games (RMG) industry - where players use online platforms to bet cash on poker, fantasy sports and other games.

Days ago, India passed a bill to outlaw these games, arguing they had become increasingly addictive and were leading to financial distress among people.

The new law makes offering or enabling such services punishable, with a jail term of up to three years and a fine of up to 10m rupees. Promoting them carries penalties of two years and 5m rupees, though users are treated as victims, not offenders.

The government has defended the move as a way to protect consumers from gambling.

Federal IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said online money games had harmed 450 million Indians, causing losses of over 200bn rupees and triggering "depression and suicides" among many. The source of this data, which was presented in parliament last week, is unclear.

Indian gaming federations argue that shutting down "regulated and responsible Indian platforms" will drive millions of players into the hands of illegal networks, offshore gambling websites, and fly-by-night operators who operate without any safeguards and consumer protections.

In many Indian cities, betting already takes place through local bookies who operate without oversight, which is often more exploitative than online platforms.

Wagers are typically circulated via WhatsApp or Telegram groups, where links are shared with hundreds of users at a time. Overseas gaming apps also remain within reach, as many use VPNs to get around restrictions.

But the government argues that even legitimate real-money gaming platforms run on "opaque algorithms" that makes it nearly impossible for users to win - a point some experts echo.

Vishal Gondal, co-founder of video gaming company nCore Games, told the BBC that in contests like online rummy (a popular card game) users often unknowingly play against bots.

Mr Gondal added that the algorithm of these bots are designed to favour the gaming platform, ensuring it almost always emerges as the final winner.

"These games essentially amount to gambling," Mr Gondal said. "Calling them games of skill is like branding alcohol as fermented juice."

But others like Mr Srinivas are shocked by the suddenness of the move.

Even though he no longer plays, he says that rising awareness about the harms of gambling would've been far more effective than imposing a blanket ban.

"At least with these apps there was some accountability - without them, things might get worse," he said.

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Value of small parcels sent from China to UK hits £3bn

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cnv78eey8plo, yesterday

Small parcels shipped from China to the UK that aren't subject to import taxes more than doubled in value last year, as British businesses complain of unfair competition.

These small packages rose in value from £1.3bn in 2023-24 to around £3bn in the latest financial year, exclusive data obtained by the BBC shows.

Chinese e-commerce giants such as Shein and Temu are thought to be drivers of this increase as sales of cheap goods to online shoppers in the UK continue to rise.

The UK government is reviewing the rules on so-called low-value imports but industry groups want swifter action to protect retailers from being undercut, and consumers from potentially faulty goods.

Low-value imports, which are worth £135 or less, are currently exempt from customs duties.

The £3bn worth of these parcels from China made up 51% of all the small parcels shipped to the UK from around the world last year.

That was up from 35% in 2023-24, according to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) figures obtained by the BBC via a Freedom of Information request.

Katerina Buchy, director of Sheffield-based giftware wholesaler Ancient Wisdom, said low-value imports were hitting her company's business because it couldn't compete with the prices on sites like Shein and Temu.

"It's affecting our customers as well. They're not ordering from us because they know their customers can get it cheaper online," said Ms Buchy, who has worked at the firm since 2004.

"I think the government should not allow these companies to export such high quantities of products under these rules because it's just ridiculous.

"I'd like to know how much they are losing in taxes. We pay taxes. We employ more than 100 people."

Temu and Shein have become popular among UK consumers in recent years for selling affordable items including clothes, homeware, electronics and toys.

Founded in China but now headquartered in Singapore, Shein recorded soaring profits last year.

It has tried to get itself on the New York and London stock exchanges, but has yet to secure a listing on either.

Both companies were questioned by MPs earlier this year over labour standards linked to the making of products sold on their platforms.

Natalie Berg, retail analyst at NBK Retail, said it was no surprise that the increase in the value of small parcels from China had coincided with the expansion of companies like Shein and Temu.

"They've gone from niche newcomers to retail powerhouses in a very short period of time," she said.

But she warned that the removal of the tax exemption could disproportionately hit lower-income consumers, and small firms who use it to import goods.

She added: "This is a loophole that needs to be plugged, but the government must ensure that any changes don't ultimately harm consumers or small businesses."

'Significant and growing threat'

The Treasury announced a review of low-value imports in April following lobbying from major retailers including Next and Sainsbury's, which argued the exemption enabled overseas companies to undercut them.

But the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has called on ministers to take action now.

Andrew Opie, the BRC's director of food and sustainability, said low-value imports posed "a significant and growing threat" to investment in UK High Streets as retailers faced unfair competition.

He added that they also exposed consumers to "unregulated, potentially unsafe products" because they did not go through the same customs check process as other goods.

A spokesperson for Temu said the company aimed to have at least half of the sellers using its UK platform based in the country by the end of the year.

"This approach helps consumers access affordable products while giving UK businesses a low-cost channel to reach new customers and grow," the spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Shein said the firm's "on-demand" business model allowed it to make savings that it could pass on to its customers.

They added: "Vendors are required to comply with Shein's code of conduct and stringent safety standards."

Treasury review ongoing

The US has already ended its so-called "de minimis" exemption on imports of low-cost goods from China, but the policy will now be applied to the rest of the world from Friday.

The previous rule had allowed goods valued at $800 (£596) or less to enter the country without paying any tariffs.

The European Union also recently announced plans to charge a €2 flat fee on small packages worth €150 (£129) or less entering the bloc.

While the value of small parcels arriving in the UK from China has soared, when it comes to the actual number of items entering the country, the picture is less clear.

HMRC said it only records the number of customs declarations used for goods worth £135 or less, and multiple items can be included under one declaration.

It recorded around 281,000 customs declarations for low-value imports dispatched from China in 2024-25 – about 12% of the total.

A Treasury spokesperson said Chancellor Rachel Reeves' review of the customs treatment of low-value imports was ongoing and would be published "in due course".

They added: "We are a pro-business government that is backing Britain's High Streets by protecting and extending business rates relief that would have ended without our action, permanently lowering rates for retailers from next year, and capping corporation tax at the lowest level in the G7 to encourage investment and growth."

Additional reporting by Kris Bramwell.

Trump's 50% tariff on India kicks in as Modi urges self-reliance

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ykznn158qo, 2 days ago

US tariffs of 50% on goods from India took effect on Wednesday as Donald Trump sought to punish Delhi for buying Russian oil and weapons.

The tariffs – among the highest in the world – include a 25% penalty for transactions with Russia that are a key source of funds for its war in Ukraine.

India, a vital strategic US partner in the Indo-Pacific, has shown no signs of stopping its purchases, calling the tariffs unfair and vowing to choose the "best deal" on buying oil to protect its 1.4 billion people.

But there are fears exports and growth in the world's fifth largest economy could suffer. The US was, until recently, India's largest trading partner.

The tariff setback has sent the Indian government into firefighting mode.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to cut taxes to mitigate the impact of the tariffs which will disrupt millions of livelihoods across the country's export-driven industries that supply everything from clothes to diamonds and shrimp to American consumers.

He said a Diwali gift in the form of a "massive tax bonanza" was on its way for the common man and the millions of small businesses that power Asia's third largest economy.

Wearing a bright saffron turban and addressing crowds of spectators from the ramparts of Delhi's Red Fort during Independence Day celebrations, Modi also urged small shop owners and businesses to put up boards of "Swadeshi" or "Made in India" outside their stores.

"We should become self-reliant - not out of desperation, but out of pride," he said. "Economic selfishness is on the rise globally and we mustn't sit and cry about our difficulties, we must rise above and not allow others to hold us in their clutches."

He has since repeated these comments in at least two other public addresses this week. Modi's message to his countrymen has been loud and clear - both make in India and spend in India.

The former has proved increasingly difficult, with the share of manufacturing as part of India's gross domestic product (GDP) stagnating at 15% levels, despite his government rolling out subsidies and production incentives over the years.

But spurring long-pending tax reforms that immediately put more money into the hands of people could help the government soften some of the blow, experts say.

And so, after a $12bn income tax giveaway announced in the budget earlier this year, Modi is now aiming for an overhaul of India's indirect tax architecture – a reduction and simplification of the goods & service tax (GST).

GST, which was introduced eight years ago, replaced a maze of indirect taxes to reduce compliance and the cost of doing business.

But experts say it has too many thresholds and exemptions, making the system extremely complicated. They've repeatedly called for it to be revamped.

Now, Modi has promised precisely that, with India's finance ministry putting out a proposal for a simplified two-tier GST system.

"Combined with the income tax cut in place from April 2025... the GST rate reforms [likely worth US$20bn; £14.7bn] should together provide a meaningful push to consumption," analysts from Jeffries, a US brokerage house, said after the announcement.

Private consumption is a mainstay of India's economy, contributing to nearly 60% of the country's GDP. While rural spending – supported by a bumper harvest – has remained strong, demand for goods and services in cities has continued to slow down due to lower wages and job cuts in major sectors like IT, post the pandemic.

Modi's "fiscal stimulus" or tax cuts should help ensure a consumption recovery, according to investment banking firm Morgan Stanley. It will push GDP up and drag inflation down.

"This is particularly crucial amid headwinds from ongoing global geopolitical tensions and adverse global tariff-related developments that might impair external demand," Morgan Stanley said.

Among the sectors most likely to benefit from the tax breaks are consumer-facing ones such as, scooters, small cars, garments and even things like cement that goes into making homes, where demand typically picks up pace around Diwali.

While the specifics are unknown, most analysts estimate that the revenue loss on account of a lower GST would be offset by surplus collections of some taxes and higher than budgeted dividends from India's central bank.

According to Swiss investment bank UBS, the GST cuts will also have a larger "multiplier effect" than the previous corporate and income tax cuts undertaken by Modi, as they "directly affect consumption at the point of purchase, potentially leading to higher consumer spending".

Modi's tax handouts could also increase the probability of a further interest rate reduction by India's central bank, which has already slashed rates by 1% in the past few months - something that is likely to spur more lending, according to analysts.

This, along with a boost in the salaries of nearly five million government employees and 6.8 million pensioners that kicks in early next year, will help India's economy retain its growth momentum, they say.

India's stock markets have cheered these announcements. And despite the panic caused by trade uncertainties, earlier this month, India also got a rare sovereign rating upgrade from S&P Global, after a gap of 18 years. A sovereign rating measures how risky it is to lend to a government or invest in a country.

This is significant because it could lower the government's borrowing costs and improve foreign investment flows into the country.

But even as Modi rushes through with long-delayed reforms, India's growth prospects have slowed significantly from the 8% levels seen a few years ago, and its external crisis shows no sign of ebbing.

The war of words between Delhi and Washington, especially over the former's energy purchases from Russia, have only intensified and trade negotiations which were set to begin earlier this week, have been called off.

Meanwhile, at 50%, the tariffs on India are akin to a sanction on trade between the world's biggest and fastest growing economies, say experts - a scenario that would have been unthinkable even just a few months ago.

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Apple warns UK against introducing tougher tech regulation

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgj9kjmvzzo, 2 days ago

Apple has warned that "EU-style rules" proposed by the UK competition watchdog "are bad for users and bad for developers".

It says EU laws - which have sought to make it easier for smaller firms to compete with big tech - have resulted in some Apple features and enhancements being delayed for European users.

It argues the UK risks similar hold-ups if the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) pushes ahead with plans designed to open up markets the regulator says is too dominated by Apple and Google.

The CMA told the BBC it rejected Apple's characterisation of UK competition rules, arguing they were different from those in the EU and helped businesses innovate and grow.

Apple's intervention comes as international tech regulation was sharply criticised by President Donald Trump.

He did not specify which countries he was unhappy with, but attacked rules he claimed were "designed to harm, or discriminate against, American Technology" in an online post on Monday.

He demanded nations "show respect to America and our amazing Tech Companies or, consider the consequences!"

The US President wrote that all countries with digital taxes, legislation, rules, or regulations were "on notice" that unless such "discriminatory actions" were removed tariffs and restrictions on their access to US technology would follow.

The CMA, however, argues that its interventions will be good for users and UK app developers.

In July it found that "around 90-100% of UK mobile devices" ran on Apple or Google's mobile platforms, adding this meant the firms had "an effective duopoly".

As a result it said it would require Apple and Google to make changes to their services - for example permitting app makers to "steer" users to payment systems outside of Apple's own App Store.

It has now given the companies a chance to respond and will make a final decision in October.

Rivals get 'tech for free'

In its new statement, Apple argues that the CMA's approach "undermines the privacy and security protections our users have come to expect, hampers our ability to innovate, and forces us to give away our technology for free to foreign competitors."

According to Apple, the watchdog's proposed changes repeat mistakes made by the EU in its enforcement of its tech competition law the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Apple has had big fines imposed on it for breaching the DMA.

The CMA wants UK app makers to be able to use and exchange data with Apple's mobile technology - something called "interoperability"

Without it, app makers cannot create the full range of innovative products and services, it argues.

Apple claims under EU interoperability rules it has received over100 requests — some from big tech rivals — demanding access to sensitive user data, including sensitive information Apple itself cannot access.

It argues the rules are effectively allowing other firms to demand its data and intellectual property for free.

However, the CMA argues that, unlike the EU, it is focused on ensuring the interoperability of particular aspects of Apple's tech such as digital wallets and watches, so that UK developers can use them to create innovative new apps.

Apple also argues that proposals enabling App developers to steer users to rival payment systems would open the door to scams and threaten the security of users.

In response to Apple's criticisms, the CMA wrote that UK competition rules work in a fundamentally different way to the EU:

"They are designed to help UK businesses, including our thriving app developer economy, innovate and grow while ensuring UK consumers don't miss out on innovation being introduced in other countries," it said in a statement.

"Driving greater competition on mobile platforms need not undermine privacy, security or intellectual property, and as we carefully consider UK-specific steps, we will ensure it does not," it added.

4chan launches legal action against Ofcom in US

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyjq40vjl7o, 2 days ago

Lawyers representing controversial online forums 4chan and Kiwi Farms have filed a legal case against the UK Online Safety Act enforcer, Ofcom.

Their legal complaint filed in a Washington DC Federal Court seeks a legal ban on the UK communications regulator enforcing or attempting to enforce the Online Safety Act against them in the US.

"American citizens do not surrender our constitutional rights just because Ofcom sends us an e-mail," Preston Byrne of law firm Byrne & Storm said.

Ofcom told the BBC: "We are aware of this lawsuit. Under the Online Safety Act, any service that has links with the UK now has duties to protect UK users, no matter where in the world it is based."

A service doesn't have to be based in the UK to be subject to the act, and therefore face action from Ofcom.

It could be enough for it to have a significant number of UK users, or to have the UK as a target market.

But 4chan's lawyers want the US court to rule that US business with no presence in the UK are not subject to British legislation.

The also want it to declare that the Online Safety Act is at odds with the US constitution's free speech protections.

Lawyers for online message board 4chan recently told the BBC that Ofcom had provisionally decided to impose a £20,000 fine "with daily penalties thereafter" for failing to comply with two requests for information.

Ofcom alleges 4chan has not complied with the act with respect to the requests for information, but has not confirmed the provisional fine.

It has also stated that it continues to investigate 4chan over whether it is complying with Online Safety Act duties to protect its users from illegal content.

The US legal case is being brought on behalf of 4Chan Community Support LLC, and Lolcow LLC, the corporate entities behind 4chan and online forum, Kiwi Farms.

4chan has often been at the heart of online controversies in its 22 years, including misogynistic campaigns and conspiracy theories.

Users of Kiwi Farms have previously been linked to a number of serious incidents of harassment and trolling.

Both sites operate "fully in compliance" with US laws, the legal complaint says.

According to the filing, Ofcom has written twice to Kiwi Farms, beginning with a March letter telling it to comply with Online Safety Act duties requiring it to "carry out an illegal content risk assessment" and submit the record of that assessment to Ofcom by 17 April 2025.

'No authority'

The legal complaint alleges that Ofcom uses its powers under the Online Safety Act to threaten to impose "ruinous civil penalties and referrals to law enforcement for criminal penalties, including arrest and imprisonment" to American citizens and businesses if its orders are not obeyed.

It seeks to "restrain Ofcom's conduct and its continuing egregious violations of Americans' civil rights, including, without limitation, to the right of freedom of speech".

Ronald Coleman of the Coleman Law Firm, which is also acting for the plaintiffs 4chan and Kiwi Farms, said his clients were defending "the free speech rights of every American."

"We have asked the Court to confirm that Ofcom has no authority to impose or enforce unconstitutional UK laws on American soil."

Among the actions the legal case seeks the court to take are:

A declaration that Ofcom's orders and demands are unenforceable in the US as they are inconsistent with the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments to the US Constitution, relevant US legislation and public policy.

A permanent injunction prohibiting Ofcom from enforcing or attempting to enforce the Online Safety Act against the plaintiffs in the US.

Ryanair to increase oversized bag bonus for staff

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c99mdv3y431o, yesterday

The bonus for Ryanair workers who intercept passengers with oversized cabin bags will rise from €1.50 to €2.50 per bag, the airline's boss said.

Michael O'Leary told the BBC the change would come in this November, and that he made no apology for it.

Mr O'Leary said the bonus was meant to put off the small minority who brought cabin bags which were bigger than the size limit, insisting the airline was "not trying to catch people out".

He added that if people "don't comply with the rules and try to get on with an outsize bag, we will catch you and I would look forward to rewarding and bonusing our staff that pick out those oversize bags".

Ryanair passengers are allowed a free bag to take on board, but can be charged up to £75 if they try to bring a larger bag than allowed onto a flight, depending on the route and travel date.

The airline currently allows a small carry-on bag – with a size capped at 40cm x 20cm x 25cm and weight of 10kg – with every ticket.

However, this is set to increase to 40cm x 30cm x 20cm from September after a change in EU rules.

Mr O'Leary said about 200,000 passengers per year have to pay extra to put carry-on luggage in the hold, and that he did not feel sorry for "chancers" trying to bring "rucksacks" aboard.

"We're the airline with the lowest air fares in Europe," he said. "Those are our rules. Please comply with the rules, as 99.9% of our 200 million passengers do, and you won't have any problem."

He said if people "comply with the bag rules then everyone will board faster" and there will be "fewer flight delays".

In addition to increasing the bonus per bag, Ryanair is scrapping an €80 cap on how much staff can earn each month for catching people with bags that are too large.

The Ryanair chief executive also said he wanted "ground handlers to catch people who are scamming the system".

Sustainable fuel 'nonsense'

Mr O'Leary, who has previously voiced scepticism about sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), said there was "not a hope in hell" of the UK's SAF mandate of 10% being met by 2030.

He said Ryanair would not be increasing how much SAF it used because supply "is not there", and described SAF as "nonsense".

The mandate starts in 2025 at 2% of total UK jet fuel demand, increasing to 10% in 2030 and then to 22% in 2040.

Mr O'Leary said sustainability targets for aviation are "dying a death", with the sector set to miss both 2030 targets for sustainable aviation fuel and a 2050 net zero mandate.

"Over the next 10 years, I believe oil prices will fall materially," he added.

A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said SAF was "central to the UK's plans for making flying greener over time", and argued low carbon fuels could add £5bn to the economy by 2050.

They said there were "encouraging signs that the SAF mandate will be met, and [the government] will continue to support the production and use of SAF as the technology matures".

Trump's brand of US capitalism faces 'socialist' backlash from conservatives

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn85n2vg04go, 3 days ago

Donald Trump is getting the US government into the computer chip business.

He announced on Friday that the federal government is acquiring a 10% stake in Intel, the Fortune 500 company that is one of the largest American manufacturers of semiconductors. And he hinted that the US might not be done adding to its stock portfolio.

"I will make deals like that for our country all day long," he wrote on his social media website, Truth Social. "I will also help those companies that make such lucrative deals with the United States."

Trump's post was pushing back against criticism that has continued for days. He took aim at what he said were "stupid people" – a group that includes some on the political right.

"You can't just be against socialism when the left does it," said conservative radio host Erick Erickson. "So if you support socialism, apparently Donald Trump is your guy."

Trump's move is generating criticism such as this because it breaks with American tradition and small-government conservative orthodoxy. And some economists warn that his promise to help companies that make deals with the US government raises the potential for corruption and market inefficiencies.

"You're looking at investment decisions now having to be made on the basis of politics, not economics," said Tad DeHaven, an economic policy analyst with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. "This is injecting the government directly into the lifeblood of a major corporation's decision making."

While Trump says the US paid "zero" for the roughly $9bn in non-voting Intel shares, the transaction was far from a gift. The US converted unpaid construction grants designated in the 2023 Chips Act – legislation intended to promote domestic semiconductor manufacturing - into Intel stock.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump's second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher's weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

European banks hit by rogue PayPal payments worth 'billions'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj6y42jggdyo, 2 days ago

European banks have seen widespread unauthorised direct debits from PayPal accounts, the German Savings Banks Association (DSGV) says.

The German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) says payments worth in the region of 10 billion euros (£8.6bn) have had to be blocked, after PayPal's fraud-checking system failed.

It said payments were paused on Monday when lenders reported millions of suspicious direct debits from the payment firm.

The DSGV confirmed to the BBC there had been "incidents involving unauthorized direct debits initiated by PayPal against various credit institutions".

The BBC has approached PayPal for comment.

It told Reuters "certain transactions from our banking partners and potentially their customers" had been affected by a temporary service interruption.

"We quickly identified the cause and are working closely with our banking partners to ensure that all accounts have been updated," the PayPal spokesperson said.

The DSGV said PayPal had "acknowledged the disruptions" and "assured" it had resolved the problem.

"Payment transactions to and from PayPal have been running normally again," it said.

"These incidents had significant effects on payment transactions across Europe, particularly in Germany.

"The supervisory authorities have also been informed of the incidents at PayPal."

PayPal aims to filter out scams before they can get to banks through a security system.

In particular, it aims to deal with fake direct debits which have been set up by criminals.

There are many ways they are set up, but one typical method is tricking a person into handing over their details by pretending to be a bank or financial institution by phone.

According to SZ, PayPal's filter system did not work properly on Monday, resulting in unchecked direct debits being sent to banks alongside legitimate ones.

Shares in the payment firm fell 1.9% on Wednesday following the report.

AI firm says its technology weaponised by hackers

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crr24eqnnq9o, yesterday

US artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic says its technology has been "weaponised" by hackers to carry out sophisticated cyber attacks.

Anthropic, which makes the chatbot Claude, says its tools were used by hackers "to commit large-scale theft and extortion of personal data".

The firm said its AI was used to help write code which carried out cyber-attacks, while in another case, North Korean scammers used Claude to fraudulently get remote jobs at top US companies.

Anthropic says it was able to disrupt the threat actors and has reported the cases to the authorities along with improving its detection tools.

Using AI to help write code has increased in popularity as the tech becomes more capable and accessible.

Anthropic says it detected a case of so-called "vibe hacking", where its AI was used to write code which could hack into at least 17 different organisations, including government bodies.

It said the hackers "used AI to what we believe is an unprecedented degree".

They used Claude to "make both tactical and strategic decisions, such as deciding which data to exfiltrate, and how to craft psychologically targeted extortion demands".

It even suggested ransom amounts for the victims.

Agentic AI - where the tech operates autonomously - has been touted as the next big step in the space.

But these examples show some of the risks powerful tools pose to potential victims of cyber-crime.

The use of AI means "the time required to exploit cybersecurity vulnerabilities is shrinking rapidly", said Alina Timofeeva, an adviser on cyber-crime and AI.

"Detection and mitigation must shift towards being proactive and preventative, not reactive after harm is done," she said.

'North Korean operatives'

But it is not just cyber-crime that the tech is being used for.

Anthropic said "North Korean operatives" used its models to create fake profiles to apply for remote jobs at US Fortune 500 tech companies.

The use of remote jobs to gain access to companies' systems has been known about for a while, but Anthropic says using AI in the fraud scheme is "a fundamentally new phase for these employment scams".

It said AI was used to write job applications, and once the fraudsters were employed, it was used to help translate messages and write code.

Often, North Korean workers are "are sealed off from the outside world, culturally and technically, making it harder for them to pull off this subterfuge," said Geoff White, co-presenter of the BBC podcast The Lazarus Heist.

"Agentic AI can help them leap over those barriers, allowing them to get hired," he said.

"Their new employer is then in breach of international sanctions by unwittingly paying a North Korean."

But he said AI "isn't currently creating entirely new crimewaves" and "a lot of ransomware intrusions still happen thanks to tried-and-tested tricks like sending phishing emails and hunting for software vulnerabilities".

"Organisations need to understand that AI is a repository of confidential information that requires protection, just like any other form of storage system," said Nivedita Murthy, senior security consultant at cyber-security firm Black Duck.

'Punk rock' dinosaur with metre-long spikes discovered

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y2emnnn4po, 2 days ago

Scientists have discovered a bizarre armoured dinosaur which had metre-long spikes sticking out from its neck.

The species, called Spicomellus afer, lived 165 million years ago, and is the oldest example of a group of armoured dinosaurs called ankylosaurs.

The elaborateness and spikiness of the animal found in Morocco has come as a shock to experts, who now have to rethink how these armoured dinosaurs evolved.

Prof Richard Butler, from the University of Birmingham who co-led the research, told BBC News that it was the "punk rocker" of its time.

Punk rock is a sub-culture and music style that first emerged in the 1970s. Its followers often have spiky hair and accessories.

"It is one of the strangest dinosaurs ever discovered," said Prof Butler.

Prof Butler's project co-leader, Prof Susannah Maidment of the Natural History Museum, added that it was surprising that the spikes were fused directly on to the bone.

"We don't see that in any other animal, living or extinct," she said.

"It's absolutely covered in really weird spikes and protrusions all over the back of the animal, including a bony collar that wraps around its neck and some sort of weapon on the end of its tail, so a most unusual dinosaur," she said.

The discovery is so unusual that the two professors are considering whether the discovery might force a rethink of theories on how ankylosaurs evolved.

These animals survived late into the time dinosaurs were on Earth, in a period known as the Cretaceous. This was between 145 to 66 million years ago.

The end of this period saw the emergence of large carnivorous predators, such as T Rex, so it had been thought that ankylosaurs started off with simple small armoured plates on their back, which then became larger and more extensive to protect themselves from these big beasts, according to Prof Butler.

"If you had asked me what I would have expected the oldest known ankylosaur to look like I would have said something with quite simple armour," he told BBC News.

"Instead, we have an animal bristling with spikes like a hedgehog, the most bizarre armour that we've ever found in any animal, far outside the range of armour seen in later ankylosaurs."

The researchers don't have enough of the skeleton to be sure of the animal's proportions, but they estimate it would have been about four metres long and one metre high, weighing around two tonnes.

The discovery raises the possibility that ankylosaurs started off with elaborate armour in an earlier dinosaur period, known as the Jurassic, which evolved over tens of millions of years to become more simple and possibly more functional, according to Prof Maidment.

"What we are speculating is that maybe these structures actually were used for display, and it was only later in the Cretaceous, when we start to see gigantic dinosaurs with huge jaws and crushing bites, that they actually then needed to co-opt these display structures as body armour."

The discovery was made by a local farmer in what is now the Moroccan town of Boulemane. It was the first ankylosaur to be found on the African continent. Prof Butler recalls the moment when he first saw the fossils.

"it was a jaw dropping, spine-tingling moment, perhaps the most exciting in my career. It was clear right away that this animal was much weirder than we imagined and that we had enough of it to make sense of it," he said.

Prof Driss Ouarhache, who led the Moroccan team involved in the research, from the Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, said: "This study is helping to drive forward Moroccan science. We've never seen dinosaurs like this before, and there's still a lot more this region has to offer."

The research has been published in the journal Nature.

Watch the story of the dig with the Natural History Museum

Football Manager 25 would have damaged us forever, says maker

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70xd5wl00zo, today

After a year on the sidelines, Football Manager's creators say the game will be back this year.

But the top boss behind the video game admits cancelling the 2025 edition was "embarrassing".

Fans hoping to play FM25 were left disappointed when its was initially delayed last year, before being scrapped completely in February.

"Things went wrong" while the game was being developed, Miles Jacobson tells BBC Newsbeat.

"We know that a lot of people are upset about it, but we did it for the right reasons," the Sports Interactive studio director adds.

"I wasn't happy with the quality of the game, and I wasn't prepared for people to be going out and spending their hard-earned money on something that wasn't good enough."

The game's origins go back to 1992 as Championship Manager, before Sports Interactive launched Football Manager in 2004 after a split with its publisher.

This is the first time the game has paused the annual release since it began, with some fans claiming the communication wasn't clear enough.

But Jacobson says the company was trying to be as "transparent as we can be" about the reasons for the U-turn.

"If we had released FM25 in the state that it was in, it wouldn't have been good value for money and it would have damaged us forever."

"When it comes to cancelling, we have to let the stock market know first," Jacobson adds, "so it kind of limits what we can do and we can't give hints towards it until the city are able to be told."

"It's the most expensive decision we've ever made."

FM26

Sports Interactive had previously said the latest game was its "biggest technical and visual advancement for a generation" and it didn't want to compromise its quality by rushing its release.

Those features will now go into Football Manager 26, including a new game engine with updated graphics and a new user interface.

"[The cancellation] has had an impact on what we can put into FM26," says Jacobson.

"We spoke about how we weren't going to have an email inbox, it was all going to be WhatsApp based now - that system didn't work."

The new game will also be the first in the series to feature women's football, which had been planned for FM25.

Ahead of that anticipated launch in 2024, the developer told Newsbeat that it had to build a new player database and record motion-capture that represented female players.

Jacobson had previously spoken about women's football not being commercially viable to include in the game.

So what changed their minds?

"At an event, some of [England's] Lionesses came and told me that it would never be commercially viable unless people like us got behind it," he reveals.

The delayed inclusion has been frustrating for streamer and FM player Gwen Archer.

"It was upsetting to hear it being held back a year knowing that was such a big thing," the 26-year-old says.

But better late than never?

"Including women's football in the game will definitely open up a whole new experience for female gamers, those who identify as women - even male gamers as well will be able to connect on a deeper level."

FM26's release date hasn't yet been confirmed, but Gwen's backing the developers' decision to spend more time on it.

"A lot of people would have just put their game out knowing that the game wasn't ready or up to the standard they feel comfortable with," she says.

"I'm really excited for what's coming next because that means a lot of time and effort has been put into it to perfect those things."

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

BBC reveals web of spammers profiting from AI Holocaust images

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg4xjk1g1xo, today

An international network of spammers are posting AI-generated images of Holocaust victims on Facebook, a BBC investigation into "AI slop" has found.

Organisations dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust say the images are leaving survivors and families distressed.

They have also criticised Facebook's parent company Meta, saying it allows users on its platform to turn the atrocity into an "emotional game".

There are only a handful of genuine photos from inside the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War Two.

But in recent months, AI spammers have posted fake images purporting to be from inside the camp, such as a prisoner playing a violin or lovers meeting at the boundaries of fences - attracting tens of thousands of likes and shares.

"Here we have somebody making up the stories… for some kind of strange emotional game that is happening on social media," said Pawel Sawicki, a spokesperson for the Auschwitz Memorial in Poland.

"This is not a game. This is a real world, real suffering and real people that we want to and need to commemorate."

The BBC has tracked many of these images to the accounts of a network of Pakistan-based content creators who collaborate closely on how to make money on Facebook. They are gaming Meta's content monetisation (CM) program, an "invite-only" system which pays users for high-performing content and views.

One account named Abdul Mughees, listed as living in Pakistan, posted screenshots claiming to have earned $20,000 through social media monetisation schemes, including Meta's. Another post appears to show the account accrued more than 1.2bn views on content across the span of four months.

We have not been able to independently verify any creator's earnings.

Among the many Facebook posts from Abdul Mughees' account are several AI generated photos of fictional Holocaust victims and fake stories that included a child hiding under floorboards or a baby being left on train tracks outside a concentration camp.

The BBC's analysis of the online activities of the account and dozens of others like it suggests they are posting almost exclusively "AI slop".

The term refers to low quality AI-generated images and text, usually produced in large volumes and spammed across social media.

Auschwitz has become a popular topic for history-themed pages and groups. Some with names such as "Timeless Tales" and "History Haven" were posting more than 50 times a day.

In June, the Auschwitz Museum warned accounts like these were stealing its posts, processing them through AI models and often warping historical details or fabricating narratives and victims entirely. In a Facebook post, the Museum said these images were a "dangerous distortion" which "disrespects victims and harasses their memory".

Mr Sawicki said the tsunami of fake images was undermining the Auschwitz Memorial's mission to raise awareness of the Holocaust.

"We already started getting comments on our Facebook posts that 'oh, this is an AI-generated photograph'," he said.

Survivors and families are also disturbed by the surge of Holocaust AI slop, according to an organisation promoting Holocaust education and research.

"They don't quite understand what they're seeing," said Dr Robert Williams, from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

He said Holocaust survivors were feeling a "certain sense of sadness this has been allowed to happen" despite government and philanthropic investments into awareness campaigns.

"They feel like their efforts haven't been enough," he said.

"That's a very sad thing to consider because the last of the survivors will soon leave us."

Meta does not intentionally encourage users to post false stories, including about the Holocaust, but its system rewards posts with high engagement. The BBC has also found AI slop accounts based in India, Vietnam, Thailand, and Nigeria.

To understand why these networks are mass producing specific types of content, the BBC spoke with a Pakistani man Fazal Rahman, who is enrolled in several social media content monetisation schemes and says this work has become his sole source of income.

While he says he does not create any Holocaust images himself, and did not know what the word meant when initially asked, he operates in the same Facebook groups as those who do.

Mr Rahman said a Facebook page with 300,000 followers could earn its owner $1,000 USD a month if it had "premium content" catered to higher-value audiences from the UK, US, and Europe. He estimates Western views were worth eight times more per post than those from Asia.

He said history as a topic was a reliable driver of online traffic.

Other creators appear to agree. The BBC has seen step-by-step instructional videos on how popular AI models could be used to generate continuous fake history images and text.

In one video, the creator asked the AI chatbot to list key historical events they could use as a basis for content creation and was given the Holocaust as one of its answers.

Other advice given by some creators include tips on how to deceive audiences, by having their page impersonate other entities to build audiences and become eligible for Meta's CM program.

Facebook has a page transparency feature, which allows users to track the previous names of pages. Using this, the BBC found many pages that had posted Holocaust AI slop that once posed as a range of different entities including official firefighting departments in the US, commercial businesses, and American influencers - all without their consent.

These pages, according to creators' public posts, can also be sold or rented to those looking to break into the content creator market.

The BBC asked Meta about several profiles that had posted Holocaust-themed AI content and also appeared to have engaged in deceptive practices.

Several of the profiles and groups were removed, including ones originally flagged by the Auschwitz Memorial in June.

A spokesperson for the tech giant said while those fake images did not violate its content policies, it investigated them and found they broke its rules around impersonation or trading of pages.

"We removed the Pages and Groups shared with us and disabled the accounts behind them for violating our policies on spam and inauthentic behaviour," they said.

AI has been used in the past to commemorate the Holocaust and bring real victims' stories to life, but the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's Dr Williams warns there's a risk this can contribute to a sense that Holocaust history is somehow fabricated.

"Any form of extreme manipulation is something that we should shy away from," he said.

Additional reporting by Umer Draz Nangiana, BBC Urdu

AI supercomputer to help cancer vaccine research

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3dp3g4gl40o, 2 days ago

Researchers developing vaccines to treat cancer have been granted access to one of the UK's most powerful artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers.

The team at the University of Oxford's Nuffield Department of Medicine will be allowed to use the device, know as Dawn, for 10,000 hours as part of a government scheme.

They will be analysing tens of thousands of data sets from cancer patients to try to spot patterns.

Dr Lennard Lee, who is leading the project said: "It does feel like science fiction, however it's a reality - it's 2025, this technology is here and we're going to give it a go."

Explaining how the supercomputer would be used, Dr Lee said: "The issue that we're facing is that cancer's just very complex.

"What this means is that we can process huge data sets quickly so we can look at tens of thousands and spot hidden patterns.

"What this is giving us is something that's really special and it's around speed and scale."

Researchers hope to make discoveries while also contributing to the Oxford Neoantigen Atlas – an open-access online platform supporting cancer vaccine research across the UK.

"What we think we'll be able to do is really pave the way to design vaccines that simply weren't possible before" Dr Lee, who is an associate professor at Oxford's Centre for Immuno-Oncology said.

You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.

Court documents shed new light on UK-Apple row over user data

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx293qg7z39o, today

The UK government may have wanted to force Apple to provide it with access to more customer data than previously thought, a court document has indicated.

A row erupted between the two after it emerged the Home Office asked the tech giant for the right access to highly encrypted user data stored via a service called Advanced Data Protection (ADP).

Now a court document suggests the request - made under legislation called the Investigatory Powers Act - could have also enabled the government to seek access to a wider range of Apple customer data.

It also suggests the government may still be seeking to access data of non-UK users, despite US officials saying last week it had dropped the demand.

The UK government and Apple have been approached for comment.

It is believed the UK government would only want to access this data if there was a risk to national security.

In February, it emerged the government had demanded to be able to access encrypted data stored by Apple users worldwide in its cloud service. It applied to all content stored using ADP service.

The tech uses end-to-end encryption, where only the account holder can access the data stored - even Apple itself cannot see it.

It was an opt-in service, and not all users choose to activate it.

While it makes your data more secure, it comes with a downside - it encrypts your data so heavily that it cannot be recovered if you lose access to your account.

It is unknown how many people choose to use ADP.

'Back door'

After US politicians and privacy campaigners outlined their anger at the move, Apple decided to pull ADP from customers in the UK.

Now, a new court document has emerged from the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), an independent judicial body.

The IPT hears complaints from anyone who feels they have been the victim of unlawful action by a public body using covert investigative techniques.

It could also relate to the conduct of UK intelligence services including MI5 and MI6.

In this latest court filing, first reported by the Financial Times, it states Apple was given a technical capability notice (TCN) by the UK government at some point between late 2024 and early 2025.

It states the notice "applies to (although is not limited to) data covered by" ADP - it was previously understood the government's demand was exclusively focused on data stored using the encryption technology.

The TCN to Apple also included "obligations to provide and maintain a capability to disclose categories of data stored within a cloud based backup service and to remove electronic protection which is applied to the data where that is reasonably practicable".

The filing adds: "The obligations included in the TCN are not limited to the UK or users of the service in the UK; they apply globally in respect of the relevant data categories of all iCloud users."

The new court document from the IPT is dated Wednesday, 27 August - eight days after Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of national intelligence, said the UK had withdrawn its controversial demand to access global Apple users' data if required.

Gabbard said at the time in a post on X the UK had agreed to drop its instruction for the tech giant to provide a "back door" which would have "enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties".

The BBC understood at the time Apple had not yet received any formal communication from either the US or UK governments.

It is not clear if this new court document simply refers to the UK government's initial intention, or if indicates that the UK government has not yet dropped its wish to be able to access the data of Apple users from around the world, including those from the US.

Apple declined to comment, but says on its website that it views privacy as a "fundamental human right".

Apple has previously said it would "never build a back door" in its products.

Cyber security experts agree that once such an entry point is in place, it is only a matter of time before bad actors also discover it.

No Western government has yet been successful in attempts to force big tech firms like Apple to break their encryption.

The US government has previously asked for this, but Apple has refused.

In 2016, Apple resisted a court order to write software which would allow US officials to access the iPhone of a gunman - though this was resolved after the FBI was able to successfully access the device.

Similar cases have followed, including in 2020, when Apple refused to unlock iPhones of a man who carried out a mass shooting at a US air base.

Japanese town proposes two-hour daily limit on smartphones

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqlew2rv337o, yesterday

A central Japanese town wants to limit smartphone use for all its 69,000 residents to two hours a day, in a move that has sparked intense debate on device addiction.

The proposal, believed to be the first of its kind in Japan, is currently being debated by lawmakers after being submitted by Toyoake municipal government in Aichi earlier this week.

Toyoake's mayor said the proposal - which only applies outside of work and study - would not be strictly enforced, but rather was meant to "encourage" residents to better manage their screen time.

There will be no penalties for breaking the rule, which will be passed in October if approved by lawmakers.

"The two hour limit... is merely a guideline... to encourage citizens," Toyoake Mayor Masafumi Koki said in a statement.

"This does not mean the city will limit its residents' rights or impose duties," he said,

"Rather, I hope this serves as an opportunity for each family to think about and discuss the time spent on smartphones as well as the time of day the devices are used."

Smartphone use during non-leisure activities, such as watching videos while cooking or exercising, online learning and practicing for an e-sports tournament, will not count towards the two hours, he added.

Koki said he recognised smartphones were "useful and indispensable in daily life" but pointed out that some students were missing school because they refused to leave home without their phone.

Adults were also sacrificing sleep or time with families so they could keep scrolling on their phones and tablets, the mayor said.

More than 120 residents called and emailed local city authorities during a consultation period, according to Japanese news outlet Mainichi, with the majority (80%) not happy about the proposal. Some, however, showed support for the bill.

The proposal suggests that primary school students should stop using devices by 21:00 while older students and adults should stop by 22:00.

Many took to social media to air their grievances about the proposal, with one user saying you "cannot even read a book or watch a movie" in two hours, according to the Japan Times.

HSBC resolves app and online banking outage

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqjykl7ek9qo, 2 days ago

HSBC says it has now fixed an issue which left customers unable to access online banking or use its app in the UK, preventing some from accessing their accounts.

Thousands of people reported problems on outage-checking site Downdetector since the issues first emerged at 11:00 BST on Wednesday.

Five hours after the issue was reported by angry customers online, the bank now says the problem has been resolved.

"We apologise to our customers who were impacted, and we'll continue to monitor systems closely," it told the BBC.

Customers took to social media to complain about the impact the outage had on them.

One person said it was "very worrying", with others complaining it comes amid bank branches being closed in the UK in the past few years.

In 2022, HSBC announced the closure of 114 branches in the UK. It later promised not to close any more branches until 2026.

It is the latest in a long line of banking outages - with a number of major banks in May accepting 1.2m people were affected by them in 2024.

Meanwhile, in March a report found nine major banks and building societies have had around 803 hours - the equivalent of 33 days - of outages since 2023.

SpaceX pulls off Starship rocket launch in much-needed comeback

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly69z9lwnno, 2 days ago

SpaceX has pulled off a successful test flight of its newest generation rocket Starship, reversing a trend of disappointing failures.

The world's largest and most powerful rocket blasted off from Texas just after 18:30 local time (00:30 BST) for a nail-biting 60-minute flight.

Parts of the engine appeared to explode at one stage, and flaps on the side of the rocket caught fire and swung from side-to-side.

US space agency Nasa plans to use Starship to send humans to the Moon for its Artemis programme in 2027.

"Great work by the SpaceX team!!", posted SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on X, who is spending billions on developing Starship, which each launch costing an estimated $100m.

He will be welcoming the success after three Starship launches ended in spectacular failure this year, and one rocket exploded on its test stand in June.

Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket built to date. It is made up of a booster called Super Heavy and the spacecraft Starship.

The signs were positive from the start of Tuesday's test flight. All of the booster's 33 engines fired up, and after about seven minutes, the booster separated from the spacecraft and fell into the Gulf of Mexico.

Starship continued to ascend, reaching a maximum height of almost 200km above Earth, before coasting around the planet.

SpaceX said it intended to put the rocket under stress to test its limits, and parts of the rocket's flaps appeared to burn and swing wildly during the descent.

The company has designed Starship to one day be a fully reusable transport system capable of carrying people to the Moon and Mars.

"This was a great day for SpaceX, executing its full mission for the first time and deploying some test dummy satellites along the route," says Dr Simeon Barber, a planetary scientist at the Open University.

He adds that SpaceX will have gathered a full set of data from take-off, cruising and landing, which is a big step forward for the company.

The first version of the rocket had five successful launches, but all attempts to launch the newest version had ended in spectacular explosions.

In March, one explosion grounded flights and caused debris to rain down over the Bahamas with pieces landing in the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean.

But SpaceX did successfully execute the "chopstick" manoeuvre that caught the rocket booster in mechanical arms when it returned to Earth.

It is high stakes for US space agency Nasa, too. It has contracted SpaceX to use a modified version of Starship to take humans to the Moon as part its Artemis programme in 2027, although most observers say that date is almost certain to slip.

"This is also a big step forward for Nasa's Artemis program, but there's still a lot of development work to happen to get this spacecraft ready and to be rated to carry humans safely to the Moon," Dr Barber says.

Mr Musk wants Starship to be certified for human travel as early as next year, and has also suggested it will start un-crewed flights to Mars in the next 12 months.

SpaceX's mantra has been to fail fast, learn fast. Rather than taking a cautious approach, it has always aimed to move quickly and when rockets have exploded, the company says it is simply a chance to collect performance data.

But after three failures in a row this year, questions were being asked about the future of SpaceX and about whether Mr Musk had been spending too much time on US politics.

The world's richest man was a key supporter of US President Donald Trump in the 2024 election campaign, and until a falling out in June, the two men were close allies.

Starship returned to Earth battered and bruised on Tuesday but it was a big step forward for the company that needs to prove it can safely and reliably take humans to the Moon.

Tuesday's success "gets the programme back on track - getting to the Moon is another question," suggests Dr Ken Kremer, research scientist and founder of website Space UpClose.

He says the US reaching the moon in 2027 is "extremely unlikely. I don't want to say it's impossible but it's extremely unlikely".

The US is racing against China to be the first to return humans to the Moon, and some scientists say that even with Starship's progress, it is likely that China will win.

Sabrina Carpenter album 'not for pearl clutchers'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqxgnr12er1o, today

Sabrina Carpenter's seventh studio album, Man's Best Friend, dropped on Friday to much excitement among fans online, but it came with a warning from the US pop star herself.

"The album is not for any pearl clutchers," she told CBS News, with reference to prim, prudish or easily offended people.

"This is just fun - and that's all it has to be," she added of her often risqué live performances.

In June, the singer revealed alternative album artwork "approved by God" after the original cover - which showed her on her hands and knees in a black minidress with a suited man grabbing her hair - sparked controversy. Some argued it pandered to the male gaze and promoted misogynistic stereotypes.

'Almost TMI'

CBS News's Gayle King, interviewing Carpenter, praised her "sexual, powerful, vulnerable" and "unapologetic" new music, which includes recent chart-topper Manchild and new single Tears.

But, she offered: "I think there are some people that would listen to the music and they'd be clutching their pearls."

"Correct," Carpenter replied. "The album is not for any pearl clutchers. But I also think that even pearl clutchers can listen to an album like that in their own solitude and find something that makes them smirk and chuckle to themselves."

She added: "Sometimes people hear the lyrics that are really bold and they go, 'I don't want to sing this in front of other people'. It's almost... TMI.

"But I think about being at a concert, with however many young women I see in the front row that are screaming at the top of their lungs with their best friends and you can go like, we can all sigh of relief.

"This is just fun - and that's all it has to be."

Of the 12 tracks on her new album, 10 of them are labelled as explicit.

Carpenter co-produced it with Taylor Swift collaborator Jack Antonoff, along with John Ryan, who also worked on her previous album, last year's Grammy-winning Short n' Sweet, which topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

In a three-star review, The Times's Victoria Segal said that musically Man's Best Friend was "negligee-thin, surprisingly vanilla".

She added that after the initial cover artwork controversy, it "would have been amazing" if the album "was in fact so subversive that it crushed the male gaze for ever, somehow positioning Carpenter as an avenging angel, a cute pocket-sized gorgon turning men to stone.

"Unfortunately, nothing here justifies that cover image."

The Independent also went for three stars, saying while "there are some sensational songs... too much of the rest struggles for lift-off".

"With Carpenter circling many of the same themes in her lyrics, the hit rate on Man's Best Friend is largely dependent on its song-by-song production," wrote reviewer Adam White.

"House Tour is sensational, a chugging slice of 80s power-pop so instantly catchy that you're able to forgive it holding some of the album's biggest lyrical clunkers," citing some of her more suggestive lyrics.

He added: "Carpenter is above all a brilliant aesthete, her videos and album artwork uniformly inspired."

Meanwhile The I's Emily Bootle called the album "TikTok slop", adding: "She knows sex sells. That doesn't make her a feminist - or make her music any more interesting."

The New Statesman's George Monaghan added: "Her new studio album, Man's Best Friend, may be muted. But she remains the only popstar with comic talent."

The singer-songwriter celebrated the album's release with a Spotify-hosted fan event at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

She told Rolling Stone magazine the record "wasn't written from a place of 'how do I one-up myself?' or 'how do I re-create something else?'"

She said: "Short n' Sweet was this magical gift; it fed me, and it fed a lot of other people in the world. It felt true to me, and it felt authentic to a lot of other people. It's rare that those line up ever, let alone more than once.

"It unlocked my brain to know myself more and more."

The former Disney star, 26, has built her brand around fun and risqué pop music, and her sexual lyrics and provocative performances regularly cause a stir.

At the Brit Awards in March, media watchdog Ofcom received 825 complaints, with the majority involving her pre-watershed opening performance where she wore a red sparkly military-style mini-dress, with matching stockings and suspenders.

She was also seen having a close encounter with a dancer dressed as a soldier wearing a bearskin hat during the show, which was broadcast live on ITV.

Last month however, BBC News culture reporter Annabel Rackham noted how her performance at London's Hyde Park had been "noticeably toned down as the US singer embraced a more family-friendly show".

In her gig review, she wrote: "At one point a graphic flashed up on screen advising 'parental discretion' as Carpenter launched into album track Bed Chem. She ditched her usual sexually suggestive performance on song Juno and instead used a cannon to fire T-shirts into the crowd.

"Despite these changes she was still at her best, storming through a 17-song tracklist that comprised her biggest hits, charming the crowd with her Hollywood smile and incredibly bouncy hair."

'Expect energy' as Kneecap play home gig after year of controversy

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czr6zkd4de2o, today

South Belfast should "expect a lot of energy" and a "pretty intense" atmosphere when Kneecap support Fontaines DC at Boucher Road Playing Fields on Friday night, one fan has said.

Jamie Jamison will be seeing both acts for the third time and says the way they "challenge the establishment" adds to their appeal.

It is a homecoming for the rap trio, eight months since they last played Belfast. In that time they have been the centre of political controversy and the subject of police investigations.

The show is taking place days after one of Kneecap's members, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, appeared in court in London accused of a terrorism offence, a charge he denies.

Fontaines DC, a five-piece punk band who formed in Dublin, have voiced support for the Palestinian cause and criticised Israel's actions in Gaza.

Fan Jamie says both groups have been in the news "more for their views on the likes of Palestine or their political stance than the music".

He says people value the message that "you don't have to accept the status quo".

"We've moved on from generic X Factor groups."

A keen gig-goer, Jamie says "people are as excited to see Kneecap as to see Fontaines" and believes Kneecap will appeal to the younger people in the audience with their high energy, while Fontaines DC can be "more mellow".

His favourite songs by both?

Kneecap - Parful

Fontaines DC - Boys in the Better Land

International success and criticism

Kneecap, formed in Belfast in 2017, consists of Mo Chara and his bandmates Móglaí Bap (Naoise Ó Cairealláin) and DJ Próvaí (JJ Ó Dochartaigh).

Kneecap rap in a mixture of England and Irish, and have broken new ground by bringing the Irish language to global audience of music and film fans, including through an Oscar-nominated and Bafta-winning film.

But by April this year, Kneecap's vocal opposition to Israel's treatment of Palestinians in Gaza brought them attention of a very different kind.

The former X-Factor judge Sharon Osbourne called for their US work visas to be revoked after they ended their Coachella festival set with pro-Palestinian messages describing Israel's military action in Gaza as a US-funded genocide.

'Kill your local MP' investigation

During the fall-out from that row, videos of some of their previous performances began to be re-circulated, which led to two police investigations in the UK.

These included a November 2023 gig in which a band member was filmed saying: "The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP."

The band quickly apologised for the comment and for the hurt caused to the families of MP Jo Cox and Sir David Amess who were murdered in previous attacks.

In a statement, they said they rejected "any suggestion that we would seek to incite violence against any MP or individual".

They also claimed the remark was "taken out of all context" and that they were victims of a smear campaign due to their stance on Gaza.

But the story caused widespread furore and a number of festival organisers began to cancel Kneecap slots.

By May, a list of about 40 artists including Fontaines DC signed an open letter expressing support for Kneecap, saying there was a concerted attempt to censor and "deplatform" them.

Hezbollah flag court case

Metropolitan Police counter-terror officers assessed the "kill your MP" footage but said the group would face no further action, partly because the time limit for prosecution had elapsed.

But they also assessed a second show in November 2024 in Kentish Town, during which Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh allegedly displayed a flag in support of Hezbollah.

Hezbollah, a political and military group based in Lebanon, is a proscribed organisation in the UK and it is a crime to express support for them.

Mr Ó hAnnaidh was charged with a terrorism offence at Westminster Magistrates' Court in June and he is currently on bail waiting to find out if he will stand trial.

He denies the offence and the band said its members do not support Hamas or Hezbollah.

The court case has been adjourned until 26 September, which was close to the start of the band's planned US tour.

Earlier this week, Kneecap announced they were cancelling all 15 of their sold-out US tour dates in October due to the proximity of the upcoming court hearing.

Who are Fontaines DC?

Fontaines DC formed in 2014.

Its members are originally from different parts of the Republic of Ireland, England and Spain but they got together after meeting at music college in Dublin.

Lead singer Grian Chatten once said he and his bandmates Carlos O'Connell, Tom Coll, Conor Curley and Conor Deegan were drawn to one another "because of our appreciation of poetry".

The group released their debut single Liberty Bell in 2017, a track which makes reference to a working class area of inner city Dublin known as the Liberties.

Two years later their first ambul, Dogrel, inspired by everyday life in the city, was nominated for the Mercury Prize.

They have since released three more studio albums, the latest of which was last year's Romance, while Chatten released his first solo album in 2023.

Vital travel information

Friday's Belfast Vital show is the second night of two back to back festival nights at Boucher Playing Fields in the south of the city.

The gates open at 17:00 BST and the music begins at 18:00 with support acts Dead Dads Club and Chalk, followed by Kneecap and then headliners Fontaines DC.

The organisers have warned fans not to queue outside the venue too early and issued a public information notice for ticket holders attending the gig.

Emma Stone dazzles Venice with alien kidnap drama

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjdy81kpn5yo, today

In her latest film, US actress Emma Stone plays a powerful CEO who is kidnapped by two men who believe she's an alien.

It might sound a little out there, but Bugonia is one of the most talked-about movies at this year's Venice Film Festival, thanks to its unique depiction of the impact of conspiracy theories and echo chambers.

The film could easily have been a preachy lecture about the dangers of the internet. But Bugonia, directed by Oscars favourite Yorgos Lanthimos, is spinning a lot more plates than you initially think, and there is more at play than meets the eye.

"There's so much that's happening that I think is reflective of this point in time and our world," says Stone at the film's launch, "and is told in a way that I found really fascinating, moving, funny, [messed]-up and alive."

The film is Stone's fourth collaboration with Lanthimos following The Favourite, Kinds of Kindness and Poor Things - which won the 36-year-old her second best actress Oscar.

"The opportunity to get to work on these things that I have with him has been just a dream," Stone reflects, "because this material, there's so much [to confront]."

The director's films aren't for everyone - they are often dark, twisted and gory. But while this one ticks those same boxes, viewers who struggled with his earlier films might find Bugonia more accessible.

Regardless of your thoughts on alien life, the film functions as a gripping kidnap drama, and is a truly wild ride.

Stone plays Michelle Fuller, the CEO of a pharmaceutical company which a troubled young man, Teddy (Jesse Plemons), holds responsible for his mother's ill health and a declining bee population.

As a result, Teddy carefully plans the kidnap with his reluctant cousin Don (Aidan Delbis). Stone puts up a hell of a fight, but ultimately ends up being held captive in Teddy's basement, where much of the film plays out.

It's easy to dismiss Teddy as crazy, with foil on the windows around his house, but the film gradually shows more of his character and explores the factors that shaped his personality.

"Throughout history, there has been a human instinct to unconsciously categorise someone, and I think I probably tried to do that [with Teddy] when I started reading this script," says Plemons.

"His core, his relationship with Don, what you discover happened to his mother, I could talk for a long time about Teddy but my way of understanding him was he's a really tortured soul that was trying with all his might to help. It's a crazy thing to say, but I believe that."

It's true, Teddy believes, that capturing the CEO and trying to extract information from her is for the greater good of humanity. Some of his beliefs seem ridiculous and he would be laughed at by many - but that's the point.

"For all his ranting and raving, Plemons brings plenty of depth to Teddy, a man who has locked himself down in the wake of past traumas," wrote Screen Daily's Nikki Baughan.

"In this battle of wits between this well-dressed, carefully-controlled woman and this pony-tailed, irrational bumpkin, we know who we are supposed to believe. But can we? Should we?"

Plemons, who previously scored an Oscar nomination for The Power of the Dog, says Bugonia appealed because it forced him to confront his own preconceptions about people on the fringes of society.

"I think we have an instinct in general to close the book on things that are scary, hard to look at, hard to understand."

"For me as an actor, it's a way I can try and make sense of some of these things, and some of these people who are very difficult to understand. And there's a risk in writing them off as being non-human, because they are [human], and they exist."

Bugonia is a loose remake of Jang Joon-hwan's 2003 Korean sci-fi movie Save the Green Planet! - but Plemons admits he didn't watch it before shooting, so he could approach the role uninfluenced.

The role required Stone to shave her head. Or, more accurately, for the two men holding her captive to shave it for her.

"Was it easy for me to shave my hair? It was the easiest thing in the world, you just take the razor, it's so much easier than any hairstyle," the actress laughs.

Asked whether she gives any credence to theories about aliens, she doesn't totally shut down the idea.

"One of my favourite people who has ever lived is [astronomer] Carl Sagan," she explains. "I watched his show Cosmos, and fell madly in love with his philosophy and science and how brilliant he seems to be.

"He very deeply believed that the idea that we are alone in this vast expanse of the universe is a pretty narcissistic thing to think.

"So yes," she jokes, raising her hand, "I'm coming out with it, I believe in aliens, thank you."

The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney described Bugonia as a "genre-hopping blast of suspense, sci-fi, paranoia and dark comedy" and said Lanthimos "can always be relied upon to serve up something weird and subversive".

"As things grow increasingly frantic and gruesome, Lanthimos expertly milks maximum comic tension," said the Telegraph's Robbie Collin in a five-star review.

Stone was widely praised for her central performance, even by critics who were less keen on the film as a whole.

Time's Stephanie Zacharek said the actress is "a bold, creative performer" who is "laceratingly funny and bracingly convincing".

But she also described the movie as "punishing", adding that while "Stone can do anything, that doesn't mean she should."

It could be tempting to describe the film as dystopian, but Lanthimos doesn't think that quite hits the mark.

"Not much of the dystopia in this film is fictional," he notes. "A lot of it reflects the real world. If anything, this film says, this is happening now, and actually it became more relevant as time went by.

"Humanity is facing a reckoning very soon, people need to choose the right path in many ways, otherwise I don't know how much time we have, with technology, AI, with wars.

"And the denial of all these things, how desensitised we've become to them. To me, it's a reflection of our times and hopefully will trigger people to think today."

George Clooney film praised as 'midlife crisis masterpiece'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzxvr7zzpo, today

There's a line in George Clooney's new film where one character tells him: "You're the American dream, the last of the great movie stars."

It's a comment which could easily apply to Clooney in real life, and one of several parallels between the US actor and the ageing movie star he plays in Netflix's Jay Kelly, which has just launched at the Venice Film Festival.

A hugely successful actor playing a hugely successful actor may not sound like much of a stretch. But Clooney's performance goes much deeper than that, portraying an actor who finds himself feeling strangely empty as he reflects on his life choices.

The fictional Kelly may be adored by everyone and greeted with a slice of cheesecake wherever he goes (a stipulation of his rider), but as he reflects on his career and legacy, he begins to grapple with how much family life he missed out on.

"There was something compelling to us about the premise of a movie star going through a crisis and going on a journey that was a physical journey, but also an interior, psychological journey," explains director Noah Baumbach.

Jay Kelly's somewhat lacking sense of self, he adds, "became a way to try to wrestle with this notion of who we are, and how we want to make peace with this gap between how we present ourselves and who we might actually be".

Clooney may have spent much of the last decade directing films while only occasionally appearing in them, but in Jay Kelly, he is firmly back in movie star mode.

While the film is an unabashed crowd-pleaser, the subtlety of Clooney's performance could put him in the awards conversation in the coming months, in a year where the best actor race is packed with A-listers.

The film sees its leading man suddenly down tools, a week before he's due to start shooting a movie, after a string of setbacks including the death of a close friend and a heated encounter with his former college roommate (played by Billy Crudup).

With no warning, Kelly decides to fly to Europe to spend time with his daughters and get his head together - albeit with a stop-off in Italy to collect a lifetime achievement prize.

His entourage - including his publicist (Laura Dern) and stylist (Emily Mortimer) - are forced to follow them, as Kelly shows characteristically little interest in their lives compared with his own.

But his various assistants gradually peel off one by one and head back to the US as they realise Kelly is serious about potentially giving up his career.

One person who stays by his side, however, his his manager Ron, played by Adam Sandler, in a performance which reminds audiences how good a dramatic actor he is when not doing comedy.

"As an actor, when you read a script like this you say, 'Holy [expletive], I can't believe I'm getting this gift," Sandler tells journalists.

Of course, Sandler, Dern and Crudup are stars in their own right - and all agree the film helped them reflect on their relationships with the people who surround them in the Hollywood publicity machine.

"I've always appreciated my manager, agent, publicist, I just know how hard they work and how difficult it is to hear my ups and downs in life and back me up no matter what," says Sandler.

"But I do appreciate what they do, and I was excited to play a man who is devoted to somebody. And I admire everybody who does that and how much it means to them."

Dern says she relished the opportunity to play "the role of the people who have helped raise me in my professional life", and describes her publicist as "a mother figure", particularly early in her career after she began acting aged 11.

She too, intends to be more considerate and aware of her own power as a celebrity. "Did I know that my publicist has a family? I definitely did, but I definitely want to be that much more mindful now," she says.

Early reactions to the film have varied wildly in Venice. In a five-star review, the Telegraph's Robbie Collin described it as a "midlife crisis masterpiece", and highlighted the final scene as a "knockout".

"[Jay Kelly] looks like Clooney. He acts like Clooney," Collin said. "But perhaps we shouldn't be too quick to cleanly equate one man with the other – because Jay Kelly isn't Jay Kelly either, and that's the problem."

The Independent's Geoffrey McNab awarded four stars, writing: "If Clooney is playing yet another variation on himself in Jay Kelly, at least he's doing so in a far more raw and revealing way than he has ever done before."

But a one-star review from the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw said it was a "dire, sentimental and self-indulgent film".

Clooney may be in Venice for the film's premiere and has posed for photos on red carpets, but he is missing from the traditional press conference due to a sinus infection - "Even movie stars get sick," jokes Baumbach.

But there is still huge excitement on the ground for Jay Kelly - a name which, many viewers might notice, sounds suspiciously similar to George Clooney.

"I've known George over the years and I've been wanting to find something to do with him, and early on [when writing the script], we began to say, this is going to be George," Baumbach says of writing the script with Mortimer.

Actors often try to avoid playing versions of themselves on screen - it's far more fashionable to go through a significant transformation. But Baumbach says in this case Clooney's real-life popularity was more of a help than a hindrance.

"I felt it was important the audience watching the movie have a relationship with the actor playing the character.

"The character is running from himself for so much of the movie, deflecting and trying to hide, and what essentially I was asking of George was to reveal more and more of himself as he does it."

The Oscars might be months away, but Clooney is one of several A-listers already getting into position for what is likely to be a competitive year for the best actor race.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothée Chalamet, Daniel Day-Lewis and Dwayne Johnson are just a handful of the names starring in films which are being geared towards an awards season campaign in the coming months.

It's also fair to say that Hollywood always enjoys a film about itself - which could stand Jay Kelly in good stead come awards season.

Clooney, 64, could easily score a Golden Globe nod and is eyeing his first Oscar nomination for acting since The Descendants in 2012 - but we'll have to wait until much later in the season to see how his performance stacks up against others.

Baumbach himself is no stranger to Oscar voters (his 2019 film Marriage Story scored Dern an Oscar), and he is back on form after his poorly received last film, White Noise.

The director reflects: "If you make a movie about an actor, you're making a movie about identity and performance and a search for self."

"Actors are always trying to find themselves within a character, and asking where they fit in, it's a character outside themselves. And I think it was something we felt we are all doing essentially as we go through life."

Ariana Grande announces first tour in seven years

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr74d3k3358o, yesterday

Ariana Grande is to go on her first tour in seven years next summer, with five dates in London the only shows so far scheduled outside North America.

The pop star's The Eternal Sunshine Tour is named after her latest album, which came out in March 2024.

Since then, she has focused on acting, earning an Oscar nomination for her role as Glinda in Wicked, with the sequel Wicked: For Good due for release this November.

The tour will begin in Oakland, California, on 6 June 2026 and will conclude with five nights at London's O2 arena on 15, 16, 19, 20 and 23 August.

Pre-sale for the UK tickets will begin on 16 September, followed by the general sale on 18 September.

'Grateful and excited and inspired'

The tour will see her play her first full live shows since 2019's Sweetener World Tour.

She has been devoting much of her time to Hollywood in recent years - with a role in the fourth Meet the Parents film also in the pipeline - but in July she assured fans she was "working on a plan to sing for you all next year".

"Very silly of you all to assume that just because I have my hands full with many things that I plan to abandon singing & music...!!!" she wrote on Instagram.

"It is and has always been my lifeline. There will need to be room made for all of it.

"It may not look exactly like it did before but I much prefer how it looks in my head. I am having fun. I feel grateful and excited and inspired."

The tour will stop for four nights in Los Angeles and another four in Brooklyn, with other dates in Austin, Sunrise (near Fort Lauderdale), Atlanta, Boston, Montreal and Chicago.

It is currently not scheduled to visit any other UK or European cities.

In 2017, the Manchester leg of her Dangerous Woman Tour was targeted by a suicide bomber, killing 22 people.

She has returned to the city since - for a benefit concert two weeks later, and a headline slot at Manchester Pride in 2019.

The Summer I Turned Pretty fans told to stop abuse of cast

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp894e9n44po, yesterday

* Cast of The Summer I Turned Pretty face online abuse ahead of show's finale

* The love rivalry storyline has hooked viewers but sparked toxic reactions from some

* Amazon's call for no bullying is "not really going so well", actor Gavin Casalegno says

* Creator Jenny Han hints the TV ending may differ from her book

Fans of The Summer I Turned Pretty have been asked to start "acting normal online" after cast members received abuse amid the frenzied build-up to the show's dramatic climax.

Jenny Han, who wrote the original books, posted: "I know fans of the show are passionate and no one has bad intent. But even in jest, posting images of a woman being slapped or choked is not funny."

Lola Tung and her character Belly have been targeted - as has Gavin Casalegno, who plays fiancé Jeremiah, as many fans hope Belly ends up with Jeremiah's brother and love rival Conrad.

"The show isn't real but the people playing the characters are," read a message on the show's TikTok account, adding: "The summer we started acting normal online."

The warnings come after a message in July told fans to "keep the conversation kind this summer" and not to engage in "bullying and hate speech".

The third and final season of the hit Prime Video series has sparked high emotions and strong feelings among viewers as they follow the drama-filled build-up to Belly and Jeremiah's wedding.

Emotional negativity

Asked last week by the New York Times what it felt like to play "one of the internet's most hated boyfriends", Casalegno replied that he knew fans "tend to dislike him".

The actor said he does not check Instagram any more, "so I really haven't seen that much hate", and only sees funny memes sent by his sister.

But he added: "I think it's important to also understand and realise that this is a fictional story - and it's also not me.

"I don't think there's a single human being in the world who can carry the emotional negativity to the degree that stuff like this happens.

"And I think that's why Amazon did a good job of stepping in and being like, 'Hey, no bullying.' Though, not really going so well."

Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah?

In its story about Han's comments, Rolling Stone said the abuse had been "incredibly unhinged", with fan battles becoming "more intense, insane, and borderline psychotic with each weekly episode release".

One viewer wrote on social media: "I'm telling you this season has caused fans to go CRAZY."

Another posted: "I know some posts I seen on TikTok talking about how this character would die is sickening, its just a show."

Someone else said: "It's fictional. People need to stop taking it so seriously."

Episodes are released every Wednesday, with fans eagerly awaiting the final three instalments to find out whether Belly ends up with Jeremiah, Conrad - or neither.

Han has co-written the script for the finale and has said readers shouldn't necessarily expect the same ending as in her book, in which Belly ultimately chose Conrad.

"I always knew how I wanted to end the books," Han told Elite Daily in July. "But with the show, I went into it with an open mind. I wanted to approach it with fresh eyes and just see what sort of magic happened on screen."

The author told Entertainment Weekly: "There are going to be surprises. There are the things that they know and then there are things they think they know, and then there's going to be, hopefully, things that surprise them."

BBC News used AI to help write the summary at the top of this article. It was edited by BBC journalists. Find out more.

Top Boy star Micheal Ward in court on rape charges

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g6kqzdl74o, yesterday

Bafta-winning actor Micheal Ward has appeared in court on charges of rape and sexual assault.

Mr Ward, 27, who is known for roles in shows and films including Top Boy, Small Axe and Blue Story, was at Thames Magistrates Court in London for a short preliminary hearing on Thursday.

He is charged with two counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault. He was granted bail and his case has been sent to Snaresbrook Crown Court for a further hearing on 25 September.

The actor, of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, hasn't yet been asked to enter a formal plea, but has previously said he denies the charges "entirely".

In a statement after he was charged in July, he added that he had co-operated with police fully throughout their investigation and had full faith it would lead to his name being cleared.

The alleged offences relate to one woman and are reported to have taken place in January 2023, according to the Metropolitan Police.

Mr Ward arrived for Thursday's hearing wearing dark glasses and a black jacket, and spoke to confirm his name, address and date of birth.

The actor made his name as one of the stars of cult hit Blue Story in 2019, and won the Rising Star prize at the Bafta Film Awards the following year.

He played Jamie in Netflix hit Top Boy from 2019 to 22, and was nominated for best supporting actor at the Bafta TV Awards for Small Axe in 2021.

The Jamaican-born actor also starred in acclaimed 2022 drama Empire of Light, and will be seen in US pandemic-era Western movie Eddington, which was released in the UK last weekend.

Essex actor's latest movie role a 'dream job'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gz7enlzz8o, yesterday

An Epping-born actor said being cast in The Thursday Murder Club movie was a "dream job".

Daniel Mays, 47, plays alongside actors such as Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Helen Mirren in his role as DCI Chris Hudson.

After getting the part, Mays said he was "pinching myself" as "the actors are massive heroes of mine".

The film is about four pensioners who solve cold case murders for fun, but then find themselves with a real whodunnit on their hands.

Mays said he was in a hospital ward in Belgium when he got a call to say he had the part.

While in the country filming, he had been bitten by a mosquito and had to be treated for an infected arm.

"My mobile phone went, and it was my agent who suddenly called to tell me I got the part," he said.

"So I had gone from a horrendous situation in an A&E ward to absolute jubilation, it was surreal."

The character DCI Hudson is a middle-aged divorcee, longing for love, who investigates the murder, and Mays said he was made for the role.

"That for an actor was absolute gold dust. I felt great ownership of the character before rehearsals had even begun.

"I would love to go back to the character and develop it as he eventually goes to the gym and finds love."

The film is based on a 2020 novel by British television presenter Richard Osman.

Mays called it his "bible".

He added: "The reason it's such a global bestseller is because it's so well written. I have never felt this level of expectation with a project before."

The film is now available on Netflix.

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Iridescent bubble artwork opens in St Helier

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0j90wj1l4xo, today

Large iridescent bubbles which are part of an art display are on show in Jersey.

ArtHouse Jersey said the art project, in the IFC2 site on St Helier's Esplanade, was a "dazzling arrangement of 8m (26ft) high iridescent spheres" and anyone and everyone was welcome to attend the free event.

Deputy Kirsten Morel said: "It's just the sheer size and the kind of glowing, iridescent nature of them, It really takes your breath away as you see them."

Organisers said the artwork, by Sydney-based artists Atelier Sisu, would be open until 14 September.

ArtHouse Jersey said events at the bubbles included DJ nights and performances by musicians.

It said: "Each activity has been designed to complement the artwork, creating an immersive experience that blends visual art, performance, wellbeing, and community participation."

Morel said: "I personally, and I think many States members and many islanders, believe that art is so important to all of our lives, but art isn't just about pictures hanging on walls, it's also about art that can change the landscape, that can bring people and attract people to it.

"This is something that will bring people to town whether they're tourists or islanders and it will you know that brings more people into town they can then see what St Helier has to offer."

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Destination X winner to take family on holiday

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgeql2j0dqo, today

The winner of Rob Brydon's BBC show Destination X has said she will spend some of the £100,000 prize to go on holiday with her family.

Judith Magambo, who is from Bristol and works as a nuclear engineer in Somerset, was one of the contestants travelling around on a bus with blacked-out windows, trying to work out where they were.

The grand final aired on Thursday night and Ms Magambo was crowned the winner after being the first to find presenter Rob Brydon at the Spanish Steps in Rome.

"It was definitely not what I expected. I did not expect us to be completely in the dark pretty much all the time," Ms Magambo, 28, said.

She added: "You had earmuffs, were blindfolded - completely in the dark.

"That was when I started to feel a little bit out of my comfort zone. We had to rely only on the clues and the challenges."

The contestants were put to the test with challenges throughout their journey, as well as receiving clues about their destination.

"A lot of the time I did have to rely on myself," Ms Magambo said.

"I am a nuclear engineer, I think people got intimidated, thinking I know everything about the world.

"I had to figure it all out on my own which worked out in my favour."

Ms Magambo said she wants to make the prize money last.

"I've got to be sensible," she said. "At the same time, I need a break, I need some time to myself.

"I've gone straight from sixth form to uni to a graduate job and have been working ever since. So travelling with my family would be nice."

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Tom Grennan hosts city run club ahead of gig

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj4w7d2v5l2o, today

Hundreds of people joined singer-songwriter Tom Grennan as he hosted a run club in Coventry ahead of an "intimate" gig later - his final rehearsal before his UK tour.

The Little Bit of Love star took to social media on Thursday evening and invited residents to join him on a two-lap run around War Memorial Park at 08:00 BST on Friday.

Grennan, who has been adopted by the city where his grandmother is from, said: "It was amazing to see how much great spirit there is. It's a great turnout."

He is set to play his "Final Night Of Tour Rehearsals" show in the Exhibition Hall at Coventry Building Society Arena from 20:00.

BBC Radio WM and CWR presenter Trish Adudu got the crowd moving when she hosted an energetic warm-up session ahead of the run.

"It's been absolutely brilliant. We thought nobody was here because everyone was in their cars, but we got them out to do a workout," she said.

Despite the rain, the crowd chanted the singer's name as they prepared for him to get the two laps underway.

Trish added: "I am not Mrs Motivator, but I have tried my best, and the crowd has been fantastic.

"This is a proud day to be from Coventry and Warwickshire."

Andy, who organises a regular run club in the city called Chase Life, joined in with the morning exercise and said the singer had brought people together.

"Grennan's been around Coventry for ages. He's a big advocate for the city, and it's nice to do something in the local park with the community."

Trudy spotted Grennan's invitation late on Thursday evening and decided to surprise her daughter Georgie.

"I woke her up at seven and said, 'Do you want to run around the park with Tom Grennan?' She jumped out of bed and was so excited."

She added: "It's not every day that you get to run around the park with Tom Grennan."

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India's International Booker winner at the centre of a political row

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czxpzl12pqeo, today

Mushtaq made history earlier this year when she became the first author writing in the Kannada language to win an International Booker.

Her award winning-book, Heart Lamp, which was translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi, was praised by judges for showcasing characters that were "astonishing portraits of survival and resilience".

Mushtaq's stories, including in Heart Lamp, focus on the challenges women, especially Muslim women, face due to religious conservatism and a deeply patriarchal society.

Interestingly, she isn't the first Muslim person to be invited to inaugurate the Mysuru Dasara festival. In 2017, KS Nisar Ahmed, a Kannada poet and author, had been given the honour.

But the invitation to Mushtaq has come under scrutiny from the BJP.

BJP MP Yaduveer Wadiyar acknowledged Mushtaq's influence on Kannada writing, saying that her Booker win brought "great pride" to the Kannada literary fraternity.

However, he added that the Mysuru Dasara festival wasn't a cultural event but a Hindu religious festival and demanded that Mushtaq "clarify her reverence" towards the two Hindu dieties associated with the festival before agreeing to inaugurate it.

BJP leader Pratap Simha said that while it was okay for Mushtaq to chair literary festivals, it wasn't acceptable for her to be the chief guest at an event like Mysuru Dasara. He also questioned if Mushtaq had faith in the festival's goddesses and if she followed Hindu traditions.

Amid the criticism, a video of a speech delivered by Mushtaq last January began circulating online.

In her speech, she questioned the practice of associating a Hindu deity (Bhuvaneshwari) with Kannada language and identity, pointing out that it was exclusionary to her and other Muslims in the state.

Mushtaq isn't the first author to view this blurring of identities through a critical lens. Many progressive writers from the state have criticised what they call a "Hinduisation" of the Kannada language and identity.

Supporters of the invitation to Mushtaq say that the row is not just about her religious identity, but that it is a larger battle between keeping one of the state's biggest festivals open and welcoming to all faiths and turning it into a majoritarian event.

"Mysuru Dasara is a secular festival and inviting Banu to inaugurate it is one of the best things that can happen to Karnataka. Turning this into an issue about religion or Hindutva [Hindu nationalist agenda] is detestable," says Mamta Sagar, a Kannada poet.

Meanwhile, Karnataka's Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has defended his government's decision to invite Mushtaq, highlighting the festival's inclusive character.

Mushtaq too hasn't bowed down to pressure to decline the invite.

"Active politicians should have a sense of what to politicise and what not to," she told The Hindu newspaper.

Wet Leg announced as Edinburgh's Hogmanay headliners

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy5z24zw9xo, today

Organisers have announced the acts for this year's Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations, with Wet Leg set to ring in the bells.

The indie rockers will play the world-famous event, held in Princes Street Gardens, for the first time, after a big year that saw them play at Glastonbury and get to number one in the UK album charts.

The band, formed on the Isle of Wight, are known for songs such as Chaise Longue and Catch These Fists.

They will be joined by Scottish supports acts Hamish Hawk and Lucia & The Best Boys.

Edinburgh local, Hamish Hawk said it was a "privilege" to play such a famous event in his hometown.

He said: "As a local and a street party goer, I know how big a gig it is, and the size of shoes we need to fill - we're well up for the challenge."

Wet Leg's headline set will be punctuated by fireworks from Edinburgh Castle at midnight, marking the start of 2026.

Comedian Susie McCabe will host the event and lead the countdown.

Organisers say the event will "promises to be a night of incredible celebration and music".

The Concert in the Gardens is part of a four-day celebration kicking off on 29 December with a torchlight procession.

A "Night Afore Concert" on 30 December will feature performances from ceilidh bands Peat and Diesel and RuMac.

Revellers will hope the headliner's name is not a bad omen for the event that had to be cancelled last year due to "extreme weather".

Councillor Margaret Graham, culture and communities convener of Edinburgh City Council, said: "Our Hogmanay celebration is not just an Edinburgh tradition, we're known worldwide as the place to be to bring in the bells.

"I'm delighted that this year's Concert in the Gardens will have a strong Scottish supporting line-up. As the home of Hogmanay it promises to be the ultimate party to welcome 2026."

Tickets for Edinburgh's Hogmanay will go on pre-sale on Monday, with a general sale on Tuesday.

Electric Picnic 2025: All you need to know

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjey8z8y9z0o, today

Over 80,000 people are expected to attend this year's Electric Picnic festival at Stradbally, County Laois.

Acts such as Hozier, Sam Fender, Kneecap and Kings of Leon will all perform at Ireland's largest festival for a mix of music, arts and culture between Friday and Sunday.

From humble beginnings in 2004 with just 10,000 capacity, Electric Picnic has grown into a three day multi-stage event and attracts some of the biggest artists in the world.

Going this weekend? Here's what you need to know.

When and where is Electric Picnic 2025?

Electric Picnic takes place from Friday to Sunday at Stradbally Hall, County Laois.

Gates to the campsite opened for early entry pass holders at 14:00 local time on Thursday but general admissions can gain entry from 09:00 on Friday.

Gates close at 13:00 on Monday.

The lineup

With three days of music there's certain to be something for all tastes.

Headlining are Irish singer-songwriter Hozier, who plays on Friday night from 22:30.

Acclaimed English musician Sam Fender performs on Saturday from 21:30 and American rockers Kings of Leon close the main stage on Sunday night at 22:30.

Other acts playing on the main stage on Friday night are American synth-pop star and this year's best new artist according to the Grammys, Chappell Roan. She's on the main stage between 20:00 and 21:30, and Conan Gary is on from 18:00 until 19:00.

The Electric Arena sees Irish folk-rock legends The Saw Doctors playing at 21:00 on Friday while Scottish electronic producer Barry Can't Swim closes the stage at 22:45.

Saturday sees Belfast rap trio Kneecap, fresh from their performance at Tennent's Vital in Belfast on Friday night, playing the main stage at 15:30.

Nile Rodgers brings his disco and funk to Electric Picnic at 19:45 while Fatboy Slim will keep the party going with a post headliner set from 23:30.

Other notable acts in the Electric Arena on Saturday are Irish singer songwriter Maverick Sabre (17:45), Newry's DJ Mark McCabe (22.00) and Dublin rock band The Coronas who headline the stage at 23.30.

Sunday sees the always popular David Gray on the main stage at 17:15 before Limerick's Kingfishr (19:00).

Becky Hill brings her dancefloor pop to the festival at 20:45 before Kings of Leon close this year's festival.

The Electric Arena sees Irish dance-pop singer Jazzy taking to the stage at (19:30) before the Kooks bring their indie pop anthems to County Laois at 21:00.

Scottish DJ Ewan McVicar then brings his blend of house, disco, funk and techno to close the arena at 22:30.

Can I still get tickets?

All tickets for Electric Picnic are sold out. Tickets for the event went on sale last summer and were gone within hours.

An Garda Síochána (Irish police) have warned people to be "extremely cautious" when trying to buy tickets through any third party sellers for the event.

They are investigating alleged incidents of online fraud believed to have occurred in recent weeks and say it is important that people exert a great degree of caution if attempting to purchase tickets through any third-party.

A Garda spokesperson said: "It is likely that they will not materialise and in fact, do not exist and advise never to send cash through any app in advance."

What will the weather be like?

The long sunny summer days look to have come to an end for this year's festival.

Friday will be a breezy day with a mix of sunny spells and heavy showers with temperatures of 16-19 degrees.

Unsettled conditions continue throughout the weekend with heavy, regular showers forecast with mostly moderate winds.

Bring those wellies and ponchos.

Were masterpieces worth £100m really found under a pensioner's bed?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz932w11qwdo, 6 days ago

Three previously unknown oil paintings attributed to avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich are on show at a public museum in Bucharest. If proven authentic, they could be worth over £100 million, but a top scholar says the story behind their origin is problematic.

Now the museum exhibiting them is refusing to say whether the works are genuine.

Ukraine-born Kazimir Malevich is considered one of the most influential 20th-Century artists. On the art market, his paintings are worth more than any other Ukrainian or Russian artist, with one work selling for a record $85m (£63m) in 2018.

But during a house move in 2023, three unknown Malevich paintings were discovered under the mattress of Israeli pensioner Eva Levando, according to Yaniv Cohen, a Bucharest-based Israeli businessman and owner of the works.

The pensioner is the grandmother of Mr Cohen's wife, and she had given him the works.

The paintings are titled Suprematist Composition with Green and Black Rectangle (1918), Cubofuturist Composition (1912–13), and Suprematist Composition with Red Square and Green Triangle (1915–16), and they are being exhibited at Romania's National Museum of Contemporary Art until the end of August. The show is sponsored by Mr Cohen's dental clinic.

Yet the art world remains sceptical. Konstantin Akinsha, a Ukrainian-American scholar, told the BBC that the records proving their history and tracing them to Malevich's studio were incomplete.

"The three works now exhibited in Bucharest were not documented, photographed, or shown during the artist's lifetime," said the art historian and curator, who co-authored the American Association of Museums guide to provenance research.

Is Stalin to blame?

Eva Levando inherited the paintings from her father, an accountant in Odesa in Soviet Ukraine. He allegedly bought one of them and received the other two as payment for his services. The absence of records to support this story is explained by Stalin-era repression of modernist art, Mr Cohen told the BBC.

Ms Levando emigrated to Israel in 1990, taking the works with her, according to Mr Cohen.

"There is no evidence of Malevich's works circulating in the Russian or Ukrainian art markets of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Malevich's own records mention no private sales after 1917," said Konstantin Akinsha.

But to bolster his claim, Yaniv Cohen presented certificates from Kyiv art historian Dmytro Horbachov describing the works as "first-class examples" of Malevich's style. He makes this conclusion by analysing the style and technique of the paintings. But Dmytro Horbachov has previously authenticated disputed works, including one painting reportedly removed from Vienna's Albertina Museum after doubts over its authenticity.

The art historian claims to be a consultant to Sotheby's and Christie's. But he "does not work, and never has, for Sotheby's as a consultant", a spokesperson told the BBC. Christie's also denies any formal association.

Dmytro Horbachov did not respond to an interview request.

Yaniv Cohen says technical analysis supports his claim.

The BBC reviewed reports on all three works produced by the Institut d'Art Conservation et Couleur in Paris, and by the German laboratory of Elisabeth Jägers and Erhard Jägers.

While dating pigments and other elements to Malevich's lifetime, the reports stop short of claiming the works were painted by the artist.

Previously, reports from these two laboratories accompanied two paintings proven to be forgeries in a BBC documentary, The Zaks Affair: Anatomy of a Fake Collection. When presented with our findings, Erhard Jägers told the BBC that technical analysis could not prove authenticity of a painting.

The French laboratory said the reports it produces "are not proof of authenticity" and that it has never issued an authenticity certificate for Malevich works.

'Tip of the iceberg'

Yaniv Cohen insists he has no interest in selling the paintings, despite Dmytro Horbachov, who thinks the paintings are authentic, estimating they could be worth $160m-190m (£118-140m).

However, emails seen by the BBC indicated they were offered as collateral for a loan. The businessman denied connection to this offer, saying he had no plans to monetise the paintings and that he was financially secure thanks to cryptocurrency investments.

Unhappy with the BBC's questions, Mr Cohen threatened to "make [BBC journalists] disappear" and claimed he could hack their communications.

After Konstantin Akinsha questioned the paintings' provenance, Romania's National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) distanced itself from the paintings.

In a statement, MNAC called the exhibition "a curatorial experiment" and added that it did not have "expertise in authenticating these particular works".

The museum said it relied on the documents provided by Mr Cohen and that the inclusion of his paintings in its exhibition "should not be interpreted as institutional validation of their authorship or authenticity".

Konstantin Akinsha said publicly known cases of disputed works by Malevich and other artists of the period were only "the tip of the iceberg," adding that "thousands of questionable works continue to circulate today".

The market for Russian and Ukrainian modernist art was full of works that "are obviously problematic", Reto Barmettler, a consultant on Russian paintings with Sotheby's, told the BBC.

"Good avant-garde paintings don't come out of nowhere - they are of obvious quality, come with documented provenance and, ideally, an exhibition history," he explained.

He did not comment on the three works owned by Yaniv Cohen.

Renovated arts venue to 'revitalise' night economy

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce837gn9gpeo, today

The new operators of a refurbished live entertainment venue said they hope it will "revitalise" a town's night-time economy.

AEG Presents UK has taken over the running of Watford Colosseum, which is owned by Watford Borough Council, after it was closed for five years.

The Art Deco venue had £16m spent on it as part of a regeneration project by the local authority, and has a new stage and revamped bar area. It will reopen on Friday evening with a performance by Ocean Colour Scene.

Lisa Mart, AEG Presents UK's regional general manager, said the venue was now up to "modern standards" with the vision for it to be a "world-class entertainment venue".

AEG Presents UK got into the building four weeks ago and fitted new lighting, furnishings and equipment under the next phase of works.

Ms Mart said: "The vision is to be a world-class entertainment venue for Watford. What's really important for a lot of towns and cities is the revitalising of the night-time economy."

She said as more people chose to go out for meals and a drink rather than have a "late night", the venue's offering of comedy, gigs, sports events and some theatre will hopefully get "more people back into the town centre".

Ms Mart said: "The majority of the refurbishment is really about bringing back its heritage, bringing back that 1930s Art Deco style, and bringing back the front entrance as the building was designed to be used.

"It's about bringing the stage up to those modern standards, so that we continue to have those high-class acts."

The venue has retained its capacity for 2,300 standing and 1,200 seated.

Some of the acts to take to the stage in September include Adam Ant, Jake Bugg, Ricky Gervais and a sold-out gig by Level-42.

"There's that hunger in the community for people to come back out and have that evening entertainment," Ms Mart added.

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Street art festival returns to city for weekend

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c36jl8prrp8o, today

One of the UK's largest street art festivals is returning to a city centre for the weekend.

Southend City Jam in Southend-on-Sea will welcome hundreds of artists to paint large-scale murals on about 100 walls across the city, including at the seafront and pier.

Matt Dent, the Labour cabinet member for business, culture, music and tourism at the city council, said the festivities would create a "buzzing atmosphere" and build "civic pride".

The artwork will be put together up until Sunday.

It is the fourth year the festival has taken place and will welcome JEKS, a graffiti and mural artist from Greensboro in North Carolina.

JEKS, whose real name is Brian Lewis, attended City Jam in 2023 creating a mural called "Kenny Dub" in the Clarence Road car park.

The festival is supported by local businesses who help to fund things like materials and logistics.

Dent added: "I'm so excited to see such an amazing event return to our city, spearheaded by the incredibly talented and sought after JEKS from the USA."

The festival will run between 10:00 BST and 17:00 each day.

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Temporary theatre closure after water leak 'a big loss'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74de8myldyo, yesterday

The Alley Theatre in Strabane is to close its doors for about six months after a water leak was detected.

Derry City and Strabane District Council described the leak as "substantial".

Extensive repair and restoration works will be carried out during the closure, which will come into force from 25 September.

Ciara McCay, who is festival director of the Strabane drama festival, said the closure of the theatre and visitor information centre was "a big loss to Strabane as a whole".

As soon as the leak was detected a full assessment of the damage and necessary work was carried out by council's property teams.

A further external report carried out in recent weeks indicated the urgent need to address the issues.

The council said the closure would also provide an opportunity for other potential improvement works to take place at the venue ahead of its 20th anniversary in 2027.

Strabane Drama Festival in doubt

Ciara McCay told BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today programme that the news "sent everything into a tizzy".

The Strabane Drama Festival takes place over nine nights in March, with each night featuring a different group from across Ireland.

Ciara said: "The festival is confined to certain dates in March determined by the awarding bodies, we have a very short window in which we can hold the festival."

The company have been offered a sports hall as an alternative but she said this would be "extremely expensive" to turn into a theatre.

"We didn't receive any funding from the council this year, we were running our 40th anniversary on a shoe string as it is."

She said it remained unclear if the festival would be able to go ahead next year.

'Disappointing but unavoidable'

Sinn Féin councillor Brian Barney Harte said it was "disappointing but unavoidable" and would affect shows booked for Halloween and Christmas.

Councillor Harte had a meeting with the council after the leak was detected.

He said it had gone undetected for so long that it had led to "damp seeping through to the auditorium and reception areas".

The councillor said the timing of this news was particularly "inconvenient" as it would affect a number of acts around busy festive periods.

He understood alternative arrangements were being explored for acts and shows already booked in during the planned closure period.

A council spokesperson said the closure was regrettable and it was working with all its partners to minimise the impact.

"This will lead to the cancellation of some events planned for six months until the end of March 2026 and the venue team are working with promoters to manage that process," they added.

The council said staff at the venue would remain in the employment of the council for the duration of the work and would support Alley Theatre projects or other council services during this period.

They said customers with tickets for performances cancelled during the closure would receive a full refund from the Alley box office.

Painting looted by Nazis has vanished again, say Argentine police

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn84mld1gr9o, 2 days ago

A painting stolen by the Nazis that was spotted in an Argentinian estate agent's advert has vanished, a prosecutor says following a raid on the home.

Portrait of a Lady by Giuseppe Ghislandi was featured hanging above a sofa inside a property near Buenos Aires, which was being sold by the daughter of a senior Nazi who fled Germany after World War Two.

A police raid on the house this week however turned up no painting - but two weapons were seized, federal prosecutor Carlos Martínez told local media.

Mr Martínez said they were treating it as an alleged cover-up of smuggling, Argentinian daily Clarin reported.

The newspaper reported that the furnishings had been rearranged and the picture was missing from the wall when they raided the property.

Peter Schouten of the Dutch Algemeen Dagblad newspaper, which first reported the long-lost artwork's reappearance, said there was evidence "the painting was removed shortly afterwards or after the media reports about it appeared".

"There's now a large rug with horses and some nature scenes hanging there, which police say looks like something else used to hang there".

Portrait of a Lady was among the collection of Amsterdam art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, much of which was forcibly sold by the Nazis after his death.

Some of the works were recovered in Germany after the war, and put on display in Amsterdam as part of the Dutch national collection.

For more than 80 years, the location of late-baroque Italian portraitist Giuseppe Ghislandi's painting of the Contessa Colleoni had been unknown until now.

AD's investigation found wartime documents that suggest the painting was in the possession of Friedrich Kadgien, an SS officer and senior financial aide to Hermann Göring, who fled in 1945 before eventually moving to Argentina, where he became a successful businessman.

Kadgien died in 1979, but a US file seen by AD included the line: "Appears to possess substantial assets, could still be of value to us".

The paper added that it had made several attempts to speak to his two daughters in Buenos Aires over the years but to no avail.

It was only when one of Kadgien's daughters put the house up for sale that they made any progress in locating the missing works.

Another looted artwork - a floral still-life by the 17th-century Dutch painter Abraham Mignon - was also spotted on one of the sister's social media, AD reported.

Following the photo's appearance, one of the sisters told the Dutch paper she didn't know what they wanted from her, nor what painting they "are talking about".

Lawyers for Goudstikker's estate said they would make every effort to reclaim the painting.

His sole-surviving heir, daughter-in-law Marei von Saher, said her family "aims to bring back every single artwork robbed from Jacques' collection, and to restore his legacy".

According to AD, she took possession of 202 pieces in 2006.

City's Banksy stored ahead of London Museum debut

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2qz89nk11o, 2 days ago

A Banksy artwork that was one of nine that appeared across London last summer has been moved into storage ahead of its display in a museum.

Called 'Piranhas', the work includes spray-painted fish on a police sentry box in the City of London.

The City of London Corporation swiftly removed the box and placed it on public display at the Guildhall where visitors viewed it from behind safety barriers.

Now the sentry box is being placed in storage ahead of its permanent display in London Museum's new Smithfield location, which is due to open in 2026.

The museum obtained the Piranhas piece after the City Of London Corporation voted to donate it to the attraction.

Head of curatorial at London Museum Glyn Davies said: "With the arrival of Banksy's Piranhas, our collection now spans from Roman graffiti to our first piece of contemporary street art.

"This work by one of the world's most iconic artists now belongs to Londoners, and will keep making waves when it goes on show next year in the Museum's new Smithfield home."

Formerly the Museum of London, in December 2022 it permanently closed its site at London Wall in preparation for reopening in 2026 at Smithfield Market.

The museum changed its name and branding to London Museum in July 2024.

The City Of London Corporation allocated £222m toward the museum's relocation - which is expected to attract two million visitors every year and create more than 1,500 jobs.

The sentry box had been in Ludgate Hill since the 1990s and was relocated to Guildhall Yard once the artist had confirmed it was his work.

The Banksy work features the fierce fish in an 'aquarium' on the box and was part of the artist's animal-themed series across the capital last summer.

Nine works, including a rhino mounting a car, two elephants with their trunks stretched towards each other, and three monkeys swinging on a bridge, appeared over nine days in August 2024.

Some of the works, which also included a howling wolf on a satellite dish, were removed, covered up or vandalised, after being painted across the city.

Policy chairman of the City of London Corporation, Chris Hayward, said: "Banksy stopped Londoners in their tracks when this piece appeared in the Square Mile - and now, we're making it available to millions.

"By securing it for London Museum, we're not only protecting a unique slice of the City's story, but also adding an artwork that will become one of the museum's star attractions."

Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk

Renowned artist's wildlife works to be sold off

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c754g4zq6lzo, 2 days ago

A private collection of paintings by one of the UK's most renowned wildlife artists is to be sold at auction.

Terance James Bond, who was from Suffolk, was particularly known for his detailed and lifelike illustrations of birds. He died in 2023 at the age of 79.

The collection, belonging to a family in Bedfordshire, was built up over four decades and will be auctioned by Cheffins auctioneers, based in Cambridge, on 17 September.

Patricia Cross, associate at the auctioneers, said each of Bond's pieces showcased his precision and love of wildlife.

Bond was born in Suffolk in 1946 and grew up on a farm nearby Sudbury.

He later went on to live at Little Paddock in Wickerstreet Green, Kersey, near Hadleigh.

According to Suffolk Artists, he was a self-taught painter who turned his passion for wildlife into art.

During a Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) charity event, Bond met Mr and Mrs Robert Groves, and it sparked a long friendship.

The couple purchased one of his paintings during the event and continued to buy from him directly for more than 40 years.

The family is now preparing to downsize and relocate - and is auctioning the collection.

Highlights include a piece depicting a bald eagle in a snow-covered landscape, which has an estimated price of between £500 and £1,000.

There are also studies of owls and British songbirds - and birds of prey.

"His deep appreciation for the local landscape and wildlife clearly influenced his work, which often featured British birds in their natural habitats," Ms Cross said.

"His Suffolk roots weren't just a backdrop; they were a source of inspiration.

"He even transformed the land around his home into a haven for wildlife, which became a living studio for many of his paintings."

Follow East of England news on X, Instagram and Facebook: BBC Beds, Herts & Bucks, BBC Cambridgeshire, or BBC Suffolk.

Free art exhibition features actor's sculptures

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3r40vj0011o, 2 days ago

An art curator said she was still discovering new works in a free exhibition that features sculptures by an Academy Award-winning actor.

The Summer Contemporary is at Britten Pears Arts' galleries at Snape Maltings, Suffolk, until Sunday.

It showcases emerging and established artists, and includes pieces by the actor Jim Broadbent, known for his roles in Harry Potter, Paddington and Blackadder.

It is only the second time Broadbent has shown his work and exhibition curator Devi Singh said it was "wonderful" to see it amongst the other exhibits.

There are 160 works by artists including Laurence Edwards, who designed five 8ft (2.4m) statues placed on south beach in Lowestoft in 2024.

"I'm still learning about things in the exhibition and I put it together with help from the lovely gallery team," Ms Singh said.

"I'm still seeing things and looking at things in different ways... I'm still discovering new beauties of works, it's a lovely thing.

"It just seems fitting to have work by emerging artists, that have probably never exhibited their work before, that also sit beside works on the lawn by Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth."

Ms Singh said it was important to her that art was accessible to everyone and that the exhibition included pieces "from a multitude of diverse artists in a space which is freeing".

Broadbent has created several human-like sculptures, which he said was a way he could develop characters outside of his acting.

Ms Singh said it was "wonderful to see his work, especially as for him it's only his second time ever exhibiting, so that's great".

"He's a great craftsman," she added. "If you look at all the intricacies of the face and the costumes, it's really delicate work."

Broadbent won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2002.

He received it for his role as John Bayley in the film Iris, about the novelist Iris Murdoch's struggle with Alzheimer's disease.

Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.

Rural community concerns over Center Parcs village

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cger4851rnjo, today

An increasing number of farmers and other rural residents in the Borders have raised objections to plans for Scotland's first Center Parcs holiday village.

A planning application was submitted during the summer for the £350m development outside Hawick.

The proposals, which would create 1,200 permanent jobs, have been welcomed by community, tourism and business leaders, but some of those who live next to the proposed site have concerns around noise pollution and increased traffic.

Center Parcs said it had addressed all concerns during an eight-month consultation process, and said it had invited objectors to visit another of its sites to see how it worked with rural communities.

Almost 30 objections have now been presented to planners at Scottish Borders Council.

Merlin Lewis, who has lived all his life on the family farm which neighbours the 988-acre (400 ha) Center Parcs site, said: "It can't be understated how this will affect the viability of our farm or other farms around here on so many levels."

He added: "This is going to have a devastating impact on our family home and the homes of our neighbours.

"Life here will never be the same again."

He said the Borders needed investment, but claimed a private enterprise would not deliver benefits to the area.

The proposed development includes 700 holiday lodges and a large indoor pool complex, as well as a vast array of other dining and leisure facilities.

A perimeter fence would be erected around the entire site with new entrances linking with the A7 trunk road.

Although a series of recent consultation events at nearby towns and villages have been met with enthusiastic support for the proposals, there is growing dissent within the more immediate community.

As well as noise and light pollution for the nearest neighbours, concerns have been raised about additional traffic on surrounding roads with the site expected to attract about 350,000 visitors a year.

Objections relating to increased flood risk, loss of wildlife habitats and right-to-roam restrictions have also been submitted.

Marion Livingston, from nearby Bewlie, said: "While I am not against a holiday park development, this proposal for a semi-urban development is vastly out of scale for what is a green field site in the Scottish Borders' gently rolling countryside.

"The entire development will be visually intrusive from many iconic viewpoints across the southern Scottish Borders."

Merlin Lewis' mother, Arabella, runs her cut-flower business from her home next to the site.

She said: "We were totally gobsmacked when we first heard the announcement about Center Parcs - it meant that we were going to have to rethink our lives.

"It is so peaceful and quiet around here - but we are now facing three years of building work in the fields over there, and when it's up and operating the noise will be relentless."

Center Parcs said it had addressed all of the concerns during its consultation process.

It said it had reviewed where lodges were located and planned to put in place additional screening.

The company said it had also invited all of the site's neighbours to its other holiday villages to see how they operated alongside communities.

A spokesperson said: "As part of the planning process, we have carried out detailed assessments on issues such as transport, flooding, water supply and noise, working closely with the relevant authorities.

"These assessments are now being reviewed by public bodies including Transport Scotland and Scottish Water, before a decision is taken by Scottish Borders Council in due course.

"Should our application be approved, we are fully committed to maintaining an open and constructive dialogue with our neighbours and the wider community, and to continue building positive, long-term relationships."

In July, chief executive Colin McKinlay said the company had "listened carefully" to what the community had to say about its plans.

A decision on the full planning application is expected before the end of the year.

Contractor appointed to restore seaside landmark

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c23pxzldkg9o, today

A contractor has been appointed to undertake the first phase of £18m restoration works on a listed seafront landmark.

The Winter Gardens in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, has been on Historic England's heritage at risk register due to its deteriorating condition, and is the last surviving Victorian glasshouse on a seaside promenade in the United Kingdom.

It has been closed since 2008, but Great Yarmouth Borough Council hopes the building will reopen in 2028.

Carl Smith, the leader of the Conservative-led council, said: "We are determined to ensure we have a nationally and internationally significant landmark building that is at the heart of Great Yarmouth's life, economy and historical legacy."

VINCI Building has been appointed ahead of initial work, including the cleaning of existing ironwork, which is set to get underway in the autumn.

Designs for the building includes plans for high-quality glazing, heating and cooling systems, significant planting, rainwater harvesting, irrigation, and low energy and decarbonisation.

Smith said: "The Winter Gardens holds a special place in so many people's hearts and VINCI building has demonstrated it is well placed with the expertise and experience to help us deliver a re-imagined landmark we can all be proud of.

"It will provide a unique experience for residents and visitors for decades to come."

Funding for the project is made up of £12.3m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, £6m from the Government's UK Towns Fund, and a £500,000 grant from Historic England.

Paul Tumelty, regional director of VINCI Building, said the contractor would be working to return the Winter Gardens to its "former glory as the jewel in the crown" of Yarmouth's Golden Mile.

Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.

Fears heliport will be noisier if changes approved

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0ql3kqk1qko, today

A helicopter travel company has caused controversy among locals by seeking changes to conditions imposed on its heliport in 2018.

Penzance Helicopters runs a service from the Cornwall town to the Isles of Scilly.

Some residents and councillors fear the proposed amendments to the heliport's planning permission conditions would result in longer operating hours, use of noisier aircraft and more Sunday flights.

Penzance Helicopters denied these claims, saying that some of the 46 restrictions put in place in 2018 were simply no longer fit for purpose.

'Lifeline for islanders'

The company has applied to Cornwall Council for a change in Sunday opening hours, an extension to the morning and evening window by half an hour for engine testing, and to broaden the range of helicopters permitted to fly.

A spokesperson said it was not true that the changes would result in more flights and more noise.

The company added that the service "is a lifeline for islanders, businesses, and visitors, and it also provides vital assistance to air ambulance and coastguard helicopter teams".

Ludgvan Parish Council has recommended that Cornwall Council reject the changes.

Chairman Rod Porter said: "One concern we have is that they'll be reverting back to older, noisier helicopters and local residents are very against that."

The heliport operators refute this allegation, saying the change will only "broaden the range of helicopters... within a suitable noise profile".

Mr Porter responded: "Let's just get all the cards on the table rather than all the smoke and mirrors, let's have a public consultation so Cornwall Council can make a judgement based on the facts."

Dick Cliffe, a member of the Penzance Town Deal board, supports the changes to planning conditions, having supported the application seven years ago.

He said: "The original application went to judicial review and when it was granted there were 18 pages of conditions so I'm not surprised they want to see some of them relaxed."

However, he added: "I can understand why local people would be concerned that this might be the start of a slippery slope to a much busier and noisier service."

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'There was no campsite for my autistic son, so I'm starting my own'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crm48vyx9p2o, yesterday

A mother who said she struggled to find a suitable campsite for her autistic son is planning to set up her own.

Janatha Carden, from Bala, Gwynedd, runs short breaks for neurodivergent families, and said finding appropriate accommodation could be challenging.

An academic said the tourism and hotel industry did not really understand neurodiversity, and often individuals were not trained properly.

The Welsh government said inclusive tourism was essential to ensure "Wales is a welcoming destination for all".

Ms Carden recalled being unable to find anywhere she could take her son for a much-needed break.

She said: "He was badly bullied on the estate where I lived several years ago and I tried to find a campsite in the area where I could pitch my caravan... so we could escape at the weekends and try to restore his freedom and find new friends.

"I couldn't find anywhere within an hour's drive."

The 50-year-old described her son as "a runner and a climber" and said she needed to find a fully fenced location, adding lots of families had told her they also faced this issue.

She said during the pandemic she had the idea to create her own site that was secure, with play equipment in the centre and pitches around to give parents the optimal chance for relaxation.

"Respite is so important," she added.

She currently organises camping trips for families on a site outside Bala but has secured lottery funding to help create her own permanent site in the future.

"Our vision is to create the UK's first caravan and camping park exclusively for families with neurodiverse and autistic members here in north Wales."

'Inclusion is a massive thing'

Over the past three summers Toni Hall has been coming to the camp with her family.

The camp is only five minutes from where they live, but she said it had been "amazing" for her family of seven.

"I get quite anxious going to a campsite or going away somewhere because I don't know how we're going to react and how other parents are going to be watching us... here we don't have to worry at all."

The 32-year-old, who has a daughter with Down's syndrome and a son awaiting neuro and cognitive assessments, said the campsite "facilitates everybody".

"They feel so calm and included. Inclusion is a massive thing," she added.

Lee Morgan, whose seven-year-old daughter Liliarna is autistic, said preparing for the summer holidays could take months.

"That six-week period is a stressful period, and it doesn't start with the six weeks. It starts months before, because you're reliant on your support network," he said.

"If you haven't got a support network, it's an incredibly stressful, difficult time."

The father said balancing work, other children and other commitments can affect the mental health of many parents.

"A lot of special educational needs (SEN) parents are on the brink... many of them are depressed, definitely stressed and I know many of them have suffered mental health problems," he added.

He said while some businesses do try to be more inclusive, offering sensory rooms or quiet sessions, he would like to see leadership from the Welsh government on the issue.

Naiomi Flewers runs SEN holiday facilities in Porthcawl, Bridgend.

As a mother of four with additional needs, she said she could "fully appreciate" how overwhelming holidays can be.

She said: "I would often worry, thinking have I packed enough toys to keep the children entertained? What if there's no internet? How can we secure the doors and windows? Can I keep them safe?

"These questions were enough to get my anxiety racing before I've even booked a holiday."

The 38-year-old said despite a rising demand there seemed to be a lack of accessible playgrounds, inclusive holiday parks and attractions.

"Feedback from our families has only emphasised the need for more provision like ourselves, with the majority of guests stating it's their first ever family holiday as they have never found somewhere they were confident could meet their families' needs."

Prof Brian Garrod from Swansea University also said the Welsh government could be doing more to encourage inclusion.

The academic, who has researched the holiday experiences of families with neurodivergent children, said it was an overlooked area.

He said: "I think personally that it ought to be something that becomes statutory in the long term, part of the Equalities Act.

"The Equalities Act already provides for businesses to have a duty to make sure equality of provision but at the moment we're not getting that with families with neurodivergent children."

Prof Garrod explained it was challenging for families to find somewhere suitable, with many forming an "almost underground network" sharing recommendations of establishments which were "good" for their children.

The Welsh government said it worked closely with the industry to ensure inclusivity and accessibility were considered as "part of the high-quality experiences that bring people here".

It said Visit Wales could support in educating the sector to understand neurodiversity and share relevant information or training on request.

"We are keen to work with industry partners, academic experts, and neurodivergent communities to explore how best to embed inclusive practices."

The Druids Oak is 800 years old - can it help save tomorrow's forests?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2xz8r7egpo, today

Dr Ed Pyne snips a leaf from the Druids Oak, an 800-year-old tree that has watched over this woodland in Buckinghamshire for centuries, enduring droughts, storms, heatwaves and more.

"We know that this tree is a survivor," he says, taking a leaf sample for DNA testing.

"Is it just that it's got lucky? Has it led a stress-free life? Or is there something special about the genes of this tree?"

The conservation scientist from the charity, The Woodland Trust, thinks the secrets of such remarkable resilience lie in its DNA.

The experts want to understand how oaks can live for 1,000 years or more, resisting threats such as climate change and bouncing back from disease - knowledge that could be vital in restoring Britain's depleted woodlands.

"By exploring the genome of ancient trees, we can understand how to manage them better so that we can secure their future for generations to come," says Dr Emma Gilmartin of the tree charity, the Arboricultural Association, which is involved in the project.

English oaks are one of the UK's best-loved trees, growing widely in parks, gardens and the countryside.

They are classed as ancient when they reach around 400 years of age.

By studying the DNA of ancient oaks, the scientists hope to unravel the genes behind the trees' long life and their ability to survive climatic extremes.

This information would be used to select the best oak trees to plant in the future, to restore woodlands and bring back wildlife.

About 50 of the UK's most well-known ancient oaks will be studied, including:

The Druids Oak

* Located within a nature reserve in Buckinghamshire managed by the City of London Corporation

* The tree likely dates to the 13th Century, making it older than many historical buildings

* The tree has a girth and height of about 9m

* It has been pollarded, meaning its upper branches were historically cut back to encourage regrowth above the reach of grazing animals, giving it a distinctive squat shape

* Oaks were revered by ancient druids, which may have inspired the tree's name.

* Found off a busy high street in Addlestone, Surrey

* One of the oldest in the borough, it is believed to be at least 800 years old

* The name "Crouch Oak" may come from the Middle English word crouche, meaning cross, possibly indicating its use as a boundary marker

* It is also referred to as Queen Elizabeth's Picnic Tree, after Elizabeth I is said to have dined beneath it.

As well as their cultural and historical value, oaks are a haven for wildlife.

They support more life than any other native tree species in the UK, hosting more than 2,300 species, including birds, mammals, insects, fungi, and lichens.

Their leaves feed caterpillars, their bark shelters bats and beetles, and their acorns sustain mammals and birds through the winter.

Some of these species are very rare, such as the Moccas Beetle, which lives on just 14 old oak trees in Moccas Park, Herefordshire.

At the National Nature Reserve adjoining Moccas Park, conservationists are putting oaks at the heart of an effort to restore the landscape.

They are restoring a natural wildlife-rich habitat made up of open grasslands populated with ancient trees, known as wood pasture.

Acorns of ancient oaks that have stood for centuries in the area are being collected and grown into young oak trees, then put back where they once stood. Conifers that weren't part of the natural habitat were once planted here, but these are being removed and woodlands restored.

This has led to a resurgence of rare species, including hundreds of different flies and beetles, rare bats and woodland birds.

"We're really seeing a sort of boom in the bird population here," says Tom Simpson of Natural England, the UK government agency responsible for protecting and improving England's natural environment.

"In a short period of time – that's 16 years of restoration - we are really seeing nature recovery on this site. "

As climate change and habitat loss become bigger problems, conservationists want better protection and care for ancient trees. Old trees can't be replaced - they take decades or even centuries to grow and support many other living things.

Saul Herbert of The Woodland Trust says more needs to be done to protect these "living legends".

"We need to find out where they are and we need to engage with people and communities to ensure that these trees are valued and looked after for the ecological, cultural and the historic value that they bring to our landscapes," he says.

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Tourist pouring beer down elephant's trunk in Kenya sparks anger

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjeyjep9pw3o, today

Several investigations have been launched after a Spanish man in Kenya posted videos of himself pouring beer down an elephant's trunk - sparking anger on social media.

He was filmed in a wildlife reservation drinking from a can of Tusker, a popular local beer, before giving the rest of it to the elephant.

"Just a tusker with a tusked friend," he captioned one clip posted on Instagram, which was later deleted from his account after a backlash from Kenyans in the comments.

The BBC analysed the footage and was able to authenticate it as genuine. The landscape and a well-known bull elephant pointed to it being filmed at the Ol Jogi Conservancy in the central county of Laikipia.

Ol Jogi Conservancy has since been in touch to confirm the incident occurred last year at the privately owned wildlife sanctuary - saying it was "unacceptable, dangerous and completely against our values".

Earlier a member of the staff there had told the BBC he was shocked by the behaviour of the yet-to-be identified guest.

"This should never have happened. We're a conservation and we can't allow that to happen," the staffer, only identified as Frank, said.

"We don't even allow people to go near the elephants."

The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) was also investigating the matter, the agency's spokesperson Paul Udoto told the BBC.

The man involved does not use his name on his social media accounts, which all have a variation of the phrase Skydive_Kenya.

In another clip shared on Instagram on Tuesday, he is seen feeding two elephants with carrots and then saying: "We are on beer time."

The Instagram videos attracted hundreds of critical comments - with some calling for the man's deportation - before the posts were pulled down.

The elephant that was given the beer is big in size, with long tusks - one in particular is distinctive as it is damaged.

Ol Jogi Conservancy has confirmed the animal involved is Bupa, a friendly male whose photo is often shared by visitors.

Bupa was rescued from a mass elephant cull in Zimbabwe in 1989 and brought to the conservancy when he was eight years old.

"He is cared for closely by our team as an ambassador for conservation," the wildlife sanctuary said in a statement.

It treated cases like that involving the beer stunt "extremely seriously" and remained committed to ensuring the wellbeing and dignity of the animals in its care, it added.

Ol Jogi is home to about 500 elephants and regards itself one of the pioneers in rehabilitating animal orphans and releasing them back to the wild.

The man featured in the beer videos, who describes himself as an "adrenaline junkie" on TikTok, had posted a video on Monday in which he is seen at the nearby Ol Pejeta Conservancy feeding a rhino with carrots.

"He has also broken our rules because he was not supposed to touch the rhinos because they are not pets," Dylan Habil from Ol Pejeta told the BBC.

He confirmed the rhino in the footage was from their nature reserve but the elephant in the beer video did not belong to them.

Dr Winnie Kiiru, a Kenyan biologist and elephant conservationist, termed the tourist's behaviour "unfortunate" as it had endangered his life and that of the elephant.

"About 95% of elephants in Kenya are wild and it is wrong to have social media posts that give the impression that you can get close to the elephants and feed them," she told the BBC.

The incident comes barely a week after a group of tourists were filmed blocking migrating wildebeest at Kenya's Maasai Mara during the annual wildlife migration - one of the world's greatest wildlife spectacles.

The viral footage showed visitors jumping out of safari vehicles, crowding riverbanks and forcing wildebeests into crocodile-infested waters - sparking outage.

Following the incident, the tourism and wildlife ministry announced stricter rules, directing tour operators to enforce park rules by ensuring visitors remain inside vehicles except in designated areas.

It also pledged to improve signage across the wildlife parks and intensify visitor education on safety rules.

The Maasai Mara wildebeest migration draws thousands of visitors annually and is regarded as one of Kenya's most prized natural heritage assets.

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Reform council accused of diversity course U-turn

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpdjgv2x88qo, today

Critics have accused Reform UK of a U-turn after their councillors attended an equalities training session despite seemingly boycotting it earlier this year.

The party took control of West Northamptonshire Council in May and their leader Mark Arnull said his councillors would not attend any equality or climate change training at the local authority.

But 25 Reform UK members attended a session earlier in the summer.

Arnull has said the party believes "all people should be treated equally".

Daniel Lister, leader of the Conservative opposition, said: "Reform publicly declared a boycott of the training yet many of their councillors still attended.

"That shows they cannot be trusted to stand by their own words."

Arnull had said in May that his group would follow the party's national policy of not attending any equality or climate change training.

The council ran equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) training, but a spokesperson confirmed that back in June, the session was incorporated into a wider session on "lawful decision making" that covered various topics.

"The decision to combine EDI into a broader statutory session was made to consolidate several statutory training topics, recognising the volume of newly elected members and the importance of providing a practical and manageable schedule," the spokesperson added.

'Rebadged'

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Jonathan Harris said: "They made a very loud song and dance about not attending, but 25 of them did.

"It's another example of saying one thing and doing another in my view."

Reform won 42 seats on the council in May.

Harris also said he was concerned councillors at the session did not have a full understanding of specific climate change legislation.

The administration has attempted to scrap its own net-zero goals.

Labour group leader Sally Keeble also said: "[Reform] were going to boycott equality and diversity training – and then two thirds turned up when it was rebadged under a different name.

"They were going to scrap net-zero – and then scrapped only the local milestones and agreed to do what they could towards national net-zero.

"We need to know what Reform in west Northants stands for and what they will do."

Arnull told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "The legal framework training that was attended by Reform councillors and cabinet members covered all statutory decision-making, including their legal duties and responsibilities on local government, housing and planning alongside the Equalities Act.

"It is important that all councillors understand their legal duties and responsibilities so that we can administer a credible and effective Reform council."

Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.

Welsh tourist recalls horror of Hurricane Katrina

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq58n2y66jjo, today

Twenty years ago, Michelle Andrews and her friends were on holiday in the United States when disaster struck.

She was in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit, flooding 80% of the city, killing almost 2,000 and displacing more than a million others.

Ms Andrews went from enjoying her holiday to being stuck on the streets of the city, showering under a drainpipe while awaiting rescue.

Speaking on BBC Radio Wales Breakfast, Michelle, now 40, said she had lost hope but was "lucky" when journalists helped evacuate them after five days.

Ms Andrews, originally from Pontyclun, Rhondda Cynon Taf, but now living in Cardiff, after the hurricane hit, she and a group of survivors were moved from a shed to the 17th floor of a hotel.

But two days later, the generator failed, leaving them with two choices, the Convention Center or the Louisiana Superdome.

"We'd heard so many bad stories about the Superdome, we thought, OK, our best bet is to go to the Convention Center, but to be honest with you, it was so poorly managed we had to make our own way there," she said.

"Then they wouldn't let people in, unless you were elderly or frail.

So we just sort of made a home above a train track on a bridge next to a mall, and that's where we stayed."

"It was five days we were there before we got rescued," Ms Andrews said. "The stench of the mall you had, like the rotten seafood, the bathrooms were backed up,t here was no running water, there was no electricity."

"You just sat there for days thinking 'what are we going to do? What's next?' And all we could see was like these buses coming over the one bridge that was still accessible into New Orleans.

"You can see all these buses coming to take people away, but they're all heading to the Superdome in the first instance. So we could just see all of this happening, thinking 'when are we going to get rescued? When is it going to be our turn to leave? '

"We gave an interview to ABC News in Australia, and they very kindly said 'fine, we can take the three of you out of here now'.

"Well, we've never packed up our bag so quickly to leave. It was good to get away, but as you're sort of going away in the car, you could see everybody else that was left."

She said the experience taught her how quickly "things can change and how important it is to be prepared", as well as how to "be resilient and value community because we had to rely on each other to get through it".

Nearby on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain, nine-year-old Megan Feringa and her siblings had lived through many hurricane seasons.

But Katrina was different.

Now 29, Ms Feringa said she remembered the disaster "really vividly".

She said: "There was this sense that it wasn't going to be a really big deal. It wasn't going to be that dangerous. It was a category three, which is sort of run of the mill."

Then the hurricane landed.

"We were watching the trees outside my house sort of sway, tip the top of the house, and then sway back, and you were sort of waiting for them to fall on top of you.

"But the thing that will stay with me the most is, is what happened after the storm passed."

Her family home was "in the middle of the woods" on a swamp and "there's a one way road in and out that's about two miles long."

This road was blocked with fallen trees which took two-and-a-half weeks to clear a path.

Ms Feringa said Louisiana in August was "devastating" in the heat and there was only one house in the area which had a generator.

Half of the families living in the area had been evacuated and those who had remained "piled into this one person's home where this generator could power one room at a time"

"If someone was taking a shower, like sometimes the refrigerator would go off," she said.

Ms Feringa said in terms of food "you were eating whatever leftover crisps you could get".

"Then the river water kept coming up and up, so if you open the back door, suddenly you'd see like snakes or alligators or things that you obviously didn't want to be face to face with."

She said her family was lucky because their house was saved from rising water due to the land gradient but the six houses behind them were "completely flooded".

She and her mum canoed to the houses and "grabbed as many people as we could" and were "shuttling them to this house for safety".

Ms Feringa said many people they rescued wanted to save things but the canoes could not hold it so they "were just having to abandon their lives".

It was a time before social media and there was no phone signal, she said, so the only contact with the outside world was the "harrowing" news on the radio.

Once out, her family travelled to the airport to stay with cousins in California and remained there for about four months.

When they returned, she said you could "see the scars everywhere".

"You'd see the water lines that were just sort of seared into the buildings, like a constant reminder of how high the water was."

Ms Feringa said: "I don't think things really felt the same at least for another year or two, it was just all everyone kept thinking about it."

Moorland blaze now contained, says fire chief

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn026xn8l78o, today

A vast moorland blaze which has been burning for more than two weeks has now been contained, a fire chief said.

North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service Chief Fire Officer Jonathan Dyson gave an update earlier, as efforts continued to tackle the Langdale Moor wildfire, which started on 11 August.

At its peak the fire, which was declared a major incident, covered an area of 10 sq miles (25 sq km).

Mr Dyson said there had been "no further advancement of the fire in the last 48 hours" and thanked crews and volunteers for their efforts.

Speaking at a press conference in Pickering, he said the only areas with remaining visible flames were "well within the original cordons" that had been put in place by the crews and these were "well under control in all areas".

But the work was still ongoing, with 12 appliances, high-volume pumps and a helicopter remaining at the scene.

"Our contractors are still digging extensive fire breaks, they have dug kilometres wide in many areas and will continue to do so," Mr Dyson said.

He said crews were being "realistic" in case the weather changed over the weekend, so measures would still be in place to ensure there was no further spread.

The cause of the fire remained unknown.

Mr Dyson said he did not expect evacuation measures to be "deployed in any way" as the area was safe.

He said that despite the previous "difficulties" encountered with emissions and World War Two bombs, crews had ensured there were no further ordnance explosions over the last week.

"The strategy we adopted, there was aerial support with aircrafts going over the area and dropping water in those areas to mitigate the impact on our firefighters, he said.

Mr Dyson said it was "exceptional we have lost no property, there's been no loss of life or no injuries to our staff" despite such a huge fire, adding it was a reflection of the crews that have been working.

This included the "brilliant support from crews in Humberside, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, Cleveland, Durham and Darlington since day one".

Mr Dyson also hailed the efforts of on-call firefighters, and thanked their families and primary employers "for allowing them to spend time away from their daily lives to tackle the blaze".

Mr Dyson said he appreciated the impact of the fire on the public, businesses and nearby residents, and the "support being shown" towards the fire service.

He wanted to stress that "North Yorkshire is still open for business" and people should not be put off from visiting the county.

"All we ask is that you avoid the areas we've highlighted for safety and avoid the roads we've put the closures on," he said.

Lastly, Mr Dyson thanked the public for their donations - but said they had reached "saturation point".

He said crews had received "an abundance of cakes and supplies and drinks from everybody, which has been wonderful and the crews really appreciate it, but we're at saturation point and can no longer accept any further donations, but thanks for that".

He said that anyone wishing to make cash donations could send them to the Fire Fighters Charity.

Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.

Drought declared in north Wales after driest period since 1976

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx293qqgq84o, today

North Wales has moved into drought status after the driest six month period since 1976.

Environmental watchdog Natural Resources Wales (NRW) said despite the change in weather, trigger levels had been met to move the area into drought status.

It follows south-east Wales which declared drought earlier this month.

NRW said south-west Wales had benefited from the rainfall this week and would remain at prolonged dry weather status, while being closely monitored.

NRW said affected areas included Conwy, Anglesey, Arfon, Dwyfor, Meirionnydd, Clwyd and areas served by the River Dee and Upper Severn.

It added more reports were being received in north Wales about streams drying up and fish found in distress.

Ben Wilson from NRW said: "The six-month period between February and July was the driest since the drought of 1976, and has placed extreme pressure on our rivers, groundwaters, agriculture and wildlife.

"In some areas, this has caused river flows and groundwater levels to drop below historic lows."

He added the environmental watchdog would be keeping a close eye on weather forecasts, river flows and groundwater levels as we head into autumn.

For the period between February and July, Wales as a whole has been the 16th driest in 190 years and the driest since 1976.

So far this year Wales has received 555mm (22in) rainfall, between January and July, which is almost as dry as conditions in 2022, where the whole of Wales was placed into drought status by September.

Mr Wilson added: "As climate change accelerates, summers in the UK are expected to become drier, and extreme weather events will become more frequent and intense.

"While essential water supplies remain safe, we're urging people to think carefully about their own water usage in the home and at work, to protect supplies for the environment as well as public water supplies."

Welsh Water said it had no plans to introduce any temporary use bans and had no concerns about any impact on our drinking water supplies.

"We have no concerns about reservoir levels across our operating area, with most at levels close to what we would expect at this time of year."

Spain and Portugal wildfires drive worst EU season on record

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd6n8qqlj8go, yesterday

A record one million hectares - equivalent to about half the land area of Wales - have burned across the European Union so far this year, making it the worst wildfire season since records began in 2006.

Spain and Portugal have been hit especially hard, with roughly 1% of the entire Iberian Peninsula scorched, according to EU scientists.

The worsening fire season in the Mediterranean has been linked directly to climate change in a separate study by the World Weather Attribution group at Imperial College London.

Experts warn that more frequent and severe fires across Europe are likely to continue in the future.

More than two thirds of the area burned in the EU is in Spain and Portugal alone.

In Spain, more than 400,000 hectares have burned since the beginning of this year up until 26 August, according to the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).

This record is more than six times the Spanish average for this time period between 2006 and 2024.

Neighbouring Portugal has also suffered a record burn area of 270,000 hectares so far - almost five times the average for the same period.

The combined burn area across the Iberian peninsula this year is 684,000 hectares - four times the area of Greater London, and most of it burned in just two weeks.

Fires have been concentrated in forested areas of northern Portugal and in Spain's north-western regions of Galicia, Asturias and Castile and León.

Protected areas like Picos de Europa National Park have been impacted, as well as major routes on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage network which usually attracts more than 100,000 visitors in the summer months.

The events have triggered the largest known deployment of the EU civil protection mechanism's firefighting force.

Smoke from fires has dramatically decreased air quality in the area, with southerly wind sending smoke as far as France and the UK.

Climate change makes the conditions leading to wildfires more likely, but in a vicious cycle, the fires also release more planet-warming carbon dioxide gas (CO2) into our atmosphere.

CO2 released by fires in Spain this year has reached a record 17.68 million tonnes, according to the EU. This is more than any total annual CO2 emissions since 2003 from wildfires in that country, when data was first recorded by satellites.

For comparison, it is more than the total annual CO2 emitted by all of Croatia in 2023.

Firefighters have been battling blazes right across Europe this summer.

Climate change caused by humans made fire-prone conditions in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus about 10 times more likely, according to a rapid attribution study by World Weather Attribution group at Imperial College London.

It was responsible for a 22% increase in the extreme weather conditions behind the fires, said WWA.

It is causing more extreme heat, which dries out vegetation, increasing flammability, said Theodore Keeping, wildfire scientist at the centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London.

The continued burning of fossil fuels will lead to more of these extreme fires, the researchers warned.

"It was urgent 10 years ago to stop burning fossil fuels," said Dr Fredi Otto, Professor in Climate Science at Imperial and leader of the WWA, describing it as "lethal for people and ecosystems".

"Today, with 1.3C of warming [since pre-industrial times], we are seeing new extremes in wildfire behaviour that have pushed firefighters to their limit," said Mr Keeping.

The scientists have begun a rapid analysis on the wildfires in Spain and Portugal and expect similar findings related to climate change.

Across Southern and Eastern Europe, rural depopulation is also contributing to the intense wildfires, Mr Keeping added.

In regions like Spain and Portugal, a rising number of young people are relocating to cities in search of more profitable employment. Once-managed agricultural land is being abandoned and becoming overgrown, eliminating fire breaks and increasing the amount of flammable vegetation vulnerable to intense blazes.

Fire-hardy ecosystems struggling to cope

Fires have always been an important component of Mediterranean ecosystems and much of the natural wildlife has co-evolved to exist alongside fire.

In fact, species like the Iberian hare benefit from the newly opened habitat and native cork oaks can quickly colonise burned land.

Management techniques such as prescribed burning and vegetation removal have long kept yearly fires in check.

And regrowth of burned vegetation have typically offset the carbon emissions from wildfire as carbon once again became stored in plants and soil.

However, modern wildfires are larger, more frequent and more severe. Where forested regions struggle to regrow before the next fire, they can become part of a climate feedback loop, according to Dr Thomas Smith, Associate Professor in Environmental Geography at the London School of Economics.

"A warming climate is driving more frequent and larger fires, which is in turn driving carbon emissions that remain in the atmosphere, which is leading to a warmer climate," he explained.

The escalating risk from a hotter and drier climate makes fire management more difficult and poses a threat to long-term ecosystem stability.

There are also risks of accelerated soil erosion and water contamination from ashes washed into rivers and reservoirs, according to Professor Stefan Doerr, Director of the Centre for Wildlife Research at Swansea University.

Efforts to manage excess vegetation in fire-risk areas, as well as advances in preventing ignitions, fire detection and fire fighting could help reduce the number and severity of fires in future.

How are wildfires affecting you? Get in touch.

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Will there be a drought where I live?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crk661074ejo, 9 days ago

Millions of people across England and Wales are in regions hit by drought, and further areas are at risk of following if dry weather continues.

England's National Drought Group, led by the Environment Agency, says the water shortfall situation is now a "nationally significant incident".

Parts of eastern Scotland are also being closely monitored amid low water levels, according to the water companies there.

So how is your area doing and how close are you to a drought? Here's a look at what's happening around the country, including our rain, rivers and reservoirs.

What is a drought and is there a hosepipe ban in my region?

There is no single definition of drought, but it is ultimately caused by a prolonged period of low rainfall, which has knock-on effects for nature, agriculture and water supplies.

A decision to declare drought is taken based on an assessment of current water levels and long-term weather forecasts.

It is a public sign that water companies might introduce restrictions on water use, such as hosepipe bans, if they aren't already in place.

Areas with hosepipe ban areas don't exactly match drought declarations, because plans to manage water vary between regions.

In England, the North West, Yorkshire, East Midlands and West Midlands are in drought, the Environment Agency says, as shown by the map below.

Most of the rest of the England is in a status of prolonged dry weather, the category below drought.

Southeast Wales is the only area outside England officially in drought.

The rest of Wales is in prolonged dry weather status, according to Natural Resources Wales, while there are no official droughts currently in Northern Ireland.

Scotland does not declare droughts but monitors "water scarcity". Parts of eastern Scotland are in "moderate" scarcity – the second most extreme category – which means there is "clear" environmental impact.

One of the driest springs on record

The main reason for these droughts being declared is the long period of low rainfall.

The UK had its sixth driest spring since records began in 1836.

So there has been less moisture to top up our rivers, reservoirs and rocks below the ground.

If that lack of rainfall continues for a long time, it can strain the water supplies that serve our homes and businesses.

The Met Office says this summer is set to be one of the warmest on record, with below average rainfall across the UK.

However, while central, southern and eastern parts of England and Wales have continued to experience dry weather, some north western areas, particularly in Scotland, have seen more rain since the dry spring.

September has a greater chance of wetter and windier conditions, according to the Met Office.

Drier rivers for parts of the UK

River flows across the UK showed a regional contrast in July.

In western Scotland, Northern Ireland, and northwest England, flows were generally normal or above average for the time of year.

However, many rivers in eastern, central, and southern England, as well as parts of Wales and eastern Scotland, recorded below normal or lower flows.

Some river flows in these drier regions are now comparable with, or even lower than, notable drought years such as 1976, 2011, 2018 and 2022, said Lucy Barker, hydrologist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH).

Soil moisture levels have partially recovered after a very dry period, but some sites - particularly in the south of England - remain much drier than usual, UKCEH data shows.

Dry soils harm plant growth, hitting ecosystems and crop production. This dried out vegetation also brings a higher risk of wildfires.

Drier soils also warm up more quickly, which can amplify heatwaves.

Low reservoirs across England

Reservoirs are a crucial part of water supplies in northern England, Scotland and Wales.

But England's reservoirs are at very low levels for the time of year in records going back more than 30 years.

Despite more variable weather last month, reservoir levels were below average in all English regions for the end of July.

The main reason for this is, of course, the lack of rain, but a small number of reservoirs can be affected by other factors.

Normally at this time of year, Scottish reservoirs are 82% full. They are currently at 73%, according to Scottish Water, with stocks in the east of Scotland running especially low.

In Wales, most reservoirs are around normal, Welsh Water said.

Reservoir levels in Northern Ireland are in a reasonable position for the time of year, according to NI Water.

A more mixed picture underground

Much of south-east England relies more heavily on groundwater than reservoirs.

Groundwater originates as rainfall and is naturally stored beneath the surface in the pore spaces and fractures in rocks. Rocks that store lots of groundwater are called aquifers.

It accounts for a third of England's water supply, though this is much higher in the south and east.

That is down to the UK's varied geology, which affects how much water can be stored in the ground.

Water can flow more slowly through some rock types than others, sometimes taking years to respond to current conditions.

Some areas such as the South West and northeast Yorkshire are beginning to show declining groundwater levels due to dry weather in early spring, while conditions in places like East Anglia and London remain close to normal.

These groundwater stores "respond more slowly to changes in the climate than rivers, which is why they provide a useful buffer during periods of drought," said Prof Alan MacDonald of the British Geological Survey.

It is why groundwater droughts in the South generally take a longer time to develop but can be longer-lasting if they do occur.

What are the consequences of the dry weather?

People and nature are already feeling the effects.

Some farmers are facing the prospect of a second consecutive bad harvest after last year was affected by heavy rain.

Adapting to this year's dry weather is "hurting [farmers] financially and mentally," Rachel Hallos, vice-president of the National Farmers' Union, told BBC News.

With little rain, farmers have had to get water onto their crops using irrigation.

That has made things more expensive for them and means there is even less water to go around.

When the rain does come "it's going to be hitting hard ground and it's going to run off," she warns - "we could end up with a flood situation".

"Whatever else is going on, it is the weather that affects us the most," Mrs Hallos added.

"If this is the new normal, we have to be prepared."

And then there is the impact on wildlife.

A spokesman from the bird protection charity RSPB said that a big challenge has been making sure enough water is getting to key wetland habitats so that birds have safe places to nest.

"We need to be thinking about making our sites more resilient to climate change, as these periods of prolonged dry weather become the norm."

And it's not just water-loving birds that are having a hard time. Even in our gardens, common visitors like blackbirds can struggle to find worms and insects on our parched lawns, the RSPB says.

Is climate change to blame for drought?

Droughts are complex phenomena, driven by a mix of natural and human causes.

The Met Office expects the UK to experience drier summers on average in future as the world warms, though there has been no clear trend so far.

But rising temperatures can play a more fundamental role by sapping moisture from the soil via evaporation.

"A warmer atmosphere is thirstier for moisture and this can mean water in the soil, rivers and reservoirs are depleted more effectively, leading to more rapidly onsetting droughts, heatwaves and wildfires," said Richard Allan, professor of climate science at the University of Reading.

But there are other factors that determine whether dry conditions lead to water shortages, including how we use water.

As part of plans to address water shortages, the government is planning nine new reservoirs for England by 2050, in addition to one under construction at Havant Thicket in Hampshire.

But the Environment Agency has warned that measures to tackle water leaks and control water demand - potentially including hosepipe bans and more smart meters - may be needed in England too.

Water companies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also said they were taking steps to secure future supplies.

Additional reporting by Dan Wainwright, Christine Jeavans, Muskeen Liddar and Elizabeth Dawson

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Why scientists hope seabed mud could reveal Antarctic Ocean secrets

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2vz9jg8jzo, 11 days ago

Why would anyone brave hand-numbing cold, icy winds and rough seas - sometimes working through the night - to dig up mud from the Antarctic seabed?

That is what an international team of particularly adventurous researchers did earlier this year in the remote Antarctic Peninsula, on a mission aiming to reveal centuries of scientific secrets about the Southern Ocean.

Scientists around the world will now share and analyse these precious mud samples to work out how human activity - including a century of industrial whaling - affected Antarctica and the rest of our planet.

The research is part of a global effort to understand the relationship between the ocean and the climate.

A history of ocean life

Researchers used a special coring drill - a bit like a huge apple-corer - tethered to a research ship, to drill at depths of up to 500m.

They collected more than 40 long cores, or tubes, of seafloor sediment from locations around the peninsula.

This is one of the richest habitats for marine life in Antarctica, and a focal point for fishing, tourism and - before it was banned in the 1980s - industrial whale hunting.

Collecting the sediment gives insight and clues to the past, "like a book of history", explained lead researcher Dr Elisenda Balleste from the University of Barcelona.

"What is living in the seas now, what was living in the seas in the past and evidence of our human impact" is recorded in layer upon layer of sediment over centuries, she said.

By preserving and dating those layers, and analysing what they contain, researchers can build a picture of the history of Antarctic marine life.

Once on board the ship, the cores were frozen and transported to Barcelona and Dr Balleste's laboratory.

From there, carefully extracted pieces of this Antarctic mud will be sent out to several academic institutions around the world.

Scientists will scan and date the sediment layers, work out what microbial life they contain, measure levels of pollution and calculate how much carbon is buried in the mud.

It is part of a mission - the Convex Seascape Survey - which involves universities and research institutions around the globe working together to better understand how our ocean and climate are connected.

Claire Allen, an oceanographer from the British Antarctic Survey who has studied Antarctica's past for more than 20 years, said that cores like these were particularly valuable.

"Before 1950 - before there was any kind of monitoring capacity in Antarctica - sediment cores and ice cores are the only way that we can get an insight into any of the climatic or physical properties that have changed over time," she said.

The DNA fingerprint from whale hunting

The newly collected samples being stored for DNA analysis have to be kept at temperatures low enough to stop all biological processes.

Dr Balleste took them out of the industrial-sized freezer where they are being stored to show them to us, very briefly.

"They're kept at minus 80 degrees to stop them degrading," she explained.

These small pieces of the seabed - frozen in time at temperatures that preserve genetic material - will be used for what is known as environmental DNA analysis.

It is an area of science which has developed rapidly in recent years. It gives researchers the ability to extract genetic information from water, soil and even air, like a fingerprint of life left behind in the environment.

Dr Carlos Preckler, from King Abdullah University in Saudi Arabia, is leading this part of the research and will be trying to measure how almost a century of industrial whaling in Antarctica affected the ocean and our atmosphere.

Carbon - when it is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide - warms up our planet like a blanket.

So, as the world struggles to reduce those emissions, any processes that absorb and lock significant amounts of carbon might help to rein in global warming.

"We know whales have a lot of carbon in their bodies, because they are huge animals," said Dr Preckler.

What he and his colleagues want to know is how much of that carbon gets buried in the seafloor - and locked away from the atmosphere - when the animals die.

"We can measure whale DNA and the carbon in the sediment," explained Dr Preckler.

"So we can measure what happened before industrial whaling removed most of the whales in the [Southern] ocean," he added.

That, the researchers say, will provide a measure of how much whales - simply by existing, being huge and living out their natural lives - remove carbon from our atmosphere and help in the fight against climate change.

Expect smaller broccoli if heatwave continues, farmers warn

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7541rxgez1o, 12 days ago

Farmers in the driest parts of the UK are facing some of their worst ever harvests as the heatwave continues to hit crop and vegetable yields.

Broccoli growers are particularly struggling with a lack of water and bone-dry soils, with yields cut by more than 50%, quality affected and shoppers warned to expect smaller vegetables on the shelves.

One Herefordshire grower told the BBC there could be supply shortages if sustained rainfall does not come soon.

The British Growers Association said supplies of brassicas – including broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage - were "tight" but better harvests in wetter parts of the UK should ensure vegetables still make it to the supermarkets.

The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), an independent think tank, is now warning that the UK is on course to see its sixth or seventh worst harvest since records began 40 years ago.

Although the overall harvest picture is mixed across the UK, farmers in parts of the country that have seen little rain and have low river levels - and who are growing produce in lighter, drier soil that does not hold moisture well - are seeing substantial shortfalls.

Ben Andrews, who has a mixed organic farm growing broccoli near Leominster, Herefordshire, told the BBC that shoppers will have to "shift their expectations" about the size and shape of the vegetables in supermarkets.

He added, as it was also too hot for brassicas to be grown abroad and imported to the UK, there could also be issues with shortages.

"You'll be looking at maybe not quite as much availability and maybe needing to accept smaller heads of broccoli or lettuce or cabbage.

"I'm not sure quite about shelves being empty, but if this continues it's not completely impossible," he said.

The British Growers Association (BGA) said this summer was "proving to be yet another climatic challenge for growers", but shortfalls from some suppliers were being mitigated by producers growing more crops in areas that have seen lower temperatures and higher rainfall.

Jack Ward, the BGA's chief executive, said: "In some areas, supplies of summer brassicas, cauliflowers and cabbages are tight.

"Other root crops, carrots and onions have been kept going by the use of irrigation, but there are serious concerns about water supplies if the lack of rain continues.

"At this stage, we are confident that the crops will be there, but the weather events of the last three months highlight the increasing uncertainty around our food supplies."

Meanwhile, arable farmer Martin Williams, who is also the chairman of the National Farmers' Union (NFU) Herefordshire branch, said he had seen a 50% drop in his cereal yield, a third of the normal potato crop was likely, and there had been a 70% drop in the grass grown for feed.

He said conditions had been "absolutely, devastatingly dry" and he is now considering how and what he should farm in the future

"Going forward, it makes me wonder about the viability of growing cereal commodity crops.

"It is a risk-based job but if I can manage my risk down by not growing those risky crops then maybe that's something I should look at," he said.

'Hugely varied' harvest

The National Farmers' Union (NFU) said the extremes of weather conditions this year had been "unprecedented", with the overall harvest picture currently "hugely varied".

Jamie Burrows, chairman of the NFU's crops board, said that farmers in areas that had seen rainfall were actually seeing "better-than-expected" yields, while others are "facing significant drops which will have substantial financial implications on their businesses".

Tom Lancaster, the ECIU's head of land, food and farming, said successive years of extreme weather, both wet and dry, were taking its toll on farmers.

He told the BBC: "I don't think we should look at this year just in isolation. This is part of a pattern, coming off the back of the second worst harvest last year and the worst harvest on record in 2020.

"It's that pattern we need to be concerned about because, as these impacts on agriculture and on farmers start to stack up, farmers will just effectively stop farming."

Leaves falling, berries ripe, but it's hot. Is autumn coming early?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2enmn7j3zjo, 13 days ago

It's still hot in many parts of the UK, but some tree leaves are turning yellow and blackberries are so ripe in hedges that they're tasting alcoholic.

Councils in London have issued "do not sit under trees" warnings because of the dangers of dying branches suddenly falling.

What's going on? Is it still summer, or has autumn started already? And does it matter anyway?

There is no formal definition of "early autumn" but experts say signs of the season, like leaves falling or apples being ready to pick, are actually nature becoming stressed by the long hot and dry summer.

And a potentially historic one at that - the Met Office says this summer is on track to be one of the warmest since records began in 1884.

In Cardiff, Wanda O'Connor has grown melons outside for the first time since she started growing food six years ago.

She shows me ripening limes and lemons inside her allotment greenhouse. "It's 38-39C in here," she says, pointing to a thermometer.

Aubergines, red peppers, courgettes and lots of tomatoes have all thrived in the above-average temperatures and extra sunshine hours.

At the same time, classic autumn fruits like blackberries and apples - normally ready in September - are hanging off the branches.

Conservationists are still gathering data about whether this is record-breaking. Blackberries were seen in London on 22 June, according to the Woodland Trust. By contrast the earliest in 2024 was 4 July in Southampton - but scientists need more information to be certain about the long-term trend.

For Wanda in Cardiff, this has meant more food to take home for dinner, but it's harder work than usual for her to water her plants.

"In a normal year I'd come every three days, but this year it's every day. If I don't, the plants will die," she explains.

Farmers across the UK have, too, seen early harvests with some crops struggling in the heat, prompting concerns about food prices.

Last month, the Environment Agency said North West England, Yorkshire, the East Midlands and West Midlands were in drought. Parts of Wales, including the Cardiff area, have had the driest six months since 1976 and are in drought as well.

The UK has had 71% of the average rainfall for the season so far when it should be 79% by this date, according to the Met Office.

And we've had 89% of the average sunshine hours for summer. The Met Office says we would expect 79% by this point.

Climate change is affecting the timings of biological events including spring and autumn, according to the Met Office, although the level of change varies year-to-year.

At the Botanical Garden of Wales in Carmarthenshire, Luke Cheesman is having to work harder than usual to keep the garden healthy and attractive for visitors.

He's seen signs of stress like tree leaves turning yellow and falling, and branches drooping - so alongside extra water, he's mulching trees and adding organic material on top of the soil to keep it moist. He says this is good advice for those with plants or trees suffering at home.

"We've had three almost back-to-back heatwaves. It's not giving the trees much chance to recover," he says.

It's a similar story at Kew Gardens in London, where head of tree collections Kevin Walker says the last drought in 2022 killed nearly 460 of his trees - and he's seeing the same stress again.

English oaks are losing leaves on the canopy and producing deadwood, he says, and Norway Maple and magnolias are showing signs of stress.

"They're throwing their leaves, and will try and sit it out till next year," he says, while "summer branch drop" - where trees try to save energy by losing branches - is also happening which can be dangerous to people nearby.

"It's a live fast, die young strategy. That may work for a one in 10 year event. But instead of a drought or stress period being a one-in-10 year event, it's becoming a one in every two or three years," he says.

But does it matter if autumn conditions come early?

The Wildlife Trusts says this is a sign of "nature shutting down" and that it is likely to have impacts into the winter and next year.

"Some things are not dying, but they're not thriving, they're not growing, they're not photosynthesizing. They're going into survival mode," says Kathryn Brown, director of climate change and evidence at the Wildlife Trusts.

"The overriding thing is it's making everything much more chaotic for wildlife," she says.

Earthworms, which feed badgers and hedgehogs, are living inside rock hard and dry soil, meaning the animals could struggle to dig to find them and may have to travel further for food.

Birds will look for fruits like blackberries to "sustain them through the autumn and winter," she says. But where the crop comes early, the birds could go hungry.

Bees are also showing signs of shutting down for the winter, after flowering plants finished producing pollen and nectar in the hot weather. That could leave bees without enough food.

It will take time to work out the role of climate change in the heatwaves this year but scientists are clear that it will have boosted the heat.

"I'm very worried about what we're seeing already, and this is just a point that we're passing through on the way to much more extreme conditions," says Kathryn.

"Species have evolved to exist in a seasonal cycle. If that cycle is breaking down, those species will break down as well. We know it's a real risk we'll lose huge chunks of nature due to climate impacts."

Blair joins White House meeting with Trump on post-war Gaza

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gmrxd8ryno, yesterday

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has joined a White House meeting with US President Donald Trump to discuss plans for post-war Gaza.

Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has said the US is putting together a "very comprehensive" plan on "the next day" after the war. However, little else has been disclosed about the meeting.

Blair served as Middle East envoy for a few years after leaving office in 2007 - focusing on bringing economic development to Palestinian areas and creating conditions for a two-state solution.

However, when Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar was asked by reporters what the plan was for a Palestinian state, he said there would not be any.

The White House meeting came after the Israeli military warned Palestinians that the evacuation of Gaza City was "inevitable", as its forces prepare to conquer it.

The Israeli military is continuing operations around Gaza city, as well as Khan Younis and Jabalia.

In the past 24 hours, hospitals say dozens more Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes and gunfire, including while trying to get aid.

Thousands of people have already moved because of recent Israeli advances in Gaza City - mostly to other parts of the city, where about a million Palestinians still live.

In early August, Israel announced plans to occupy the whole Gaza Strip - including Gaza City, which it described as Hamas's last stronghold.

The UN and non-governmental organisations have warned that an Israeli offensive in Gaza City - where a famine was declared last week - would have a "horrific humanitarian impact".

In a statement on Wednesday, all the members of UN Security Council, with the exception of the US, called the famine in Gaza a "man-made crisis" and expressed "profound alarm and distress" at the latest report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

The statement called for Israel to immediately "and unconditionally" lift restrictions on humanitarian aid, reiterating that the use of starvation "as a weapon of war" is prohibited by international law.

In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Steve Witkoff said he believed the war in Gaza could be ended in the next four months.

"We're going to settle this one way or another, certainly before the end of this year," he stated.

Asked about a plan for governing post-war Gaza, he said: "It's a very comprehensive plan we're putting together on the next day that I think many people are going to... see how robust it is and how it's how well meaning it is, and it reflects President Trump's humanitarian motives here."

The White House said: "President Trump has been clear that he wants the war to end, and he wants peace and prosperity for everyone in the region."

No details have been released about the post-war Gaza proposals under discussion. However, in February Trump suggested that Gazans could be permanently relocated to neighbouring countries, with the US taking over the territory to transform it into "the Riviera of the Middle East".

The Axios website reported that Trump's son-in-law and former senior adviser, Jared Kushner, was also at the meeting.

On the ground in Gaza City, Israeli tanks pushed into the northern Ibad al-Rahman district on Tuesday night, destroying several homes, witnesses told Reuters news agency.

"All of a sudden, we heard that the tanks pushed into Ibad al-Rahman, the sounds of explosions became louder and louder, and we saw people escaping towards our area," Saad Abed said in a message from his home in Jala Street, about 1km (0.6 miles) away.

On Wednesday, the tanks reportedly retreated to Jabalia, an area further north where they have been operating.

Bombardment also continued in Gaza City's Shejaiya, Zeitoun and Sabra districts.

The Israeli military said in a statement on Wednesday that its troops had engaged in combat in the Jabalia area and on the outskirts of Gaza City, adding that they had eliminated a "terrorist cell" and located a weapons storage facility.

In a post on X on Wednesday, the military's Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee said that "evacuating Gaza City is inevitable" and told residents to relocate to southern Gaza.

He said there was "empty space" and that each family making the move would "receive the most generous humanitarian aid".

Last week, the UN and non-governmental organisations warned that forcing hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate Gaza City and head south was "a recipe for further disaster and could amount to forcible transfer".

They also said the areas of the south where displaced residents were expected to move were "overcrowded and ill-equipped to sustain human survival at scale".

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would conquer the entire Gaza Strip after indirect talks with Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal broke down last month.

But he is facing both international and domestic pressure to not proceed with the offensive.

On Tuesday evening, tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Tel Aviv demanding a ceasefire deal to bring home the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Only 20 of the 50 hostages are believed to be alive.

Israel has not accepted the latest proposal from regional mediators for a 60-day truce and the return of around half of the hostages, saying it will now only agree to a comprehensive deal to bring back all the hostages and end the war on its terms.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

Almost 62,900 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Most of Gaza's population has also been repeatedly displaced; more than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; and the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed; and UN-backed global food security experts have confirmed that there is famine in the Gaza City area.

Body of Israeli hostage recovered in Gaza, IDF says

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crlzyne9jl2o, today

The body of Israeli hostage Ilan Weiss has been recovered in an operation in the Gaza Strip, Israel's military has announced.

Weiss, 56, was killed during Hamas's attack in southern Israel on 7 October 2023.

The remains of a second hostage, whose identity has not been released yet, were also recovered, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says.

Israel launched a massive offensive in Gaza following the attack in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken back to the territory as hostages.

After the latest announcement, 48 hostages remain in Gaza - 20 of whom Israel believes are still alive.

Ilan Weiss was killed while defending Kibbutz Beeri on the day of the attack. His body was taken to Gaza.

Weiss's wife, Shiri, and daughter, Noga, were taken hostage by Hamas on the same day. They were released during a temporary ceasefire in November 2023.

"Ilan showed courage and noble spirit when he fought the terrorists on that dark day," Israeli President Isaac Herzog said, before praising Weiss's family's "extraordinary strength in their struggle for his return".

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been facing strong domestic pressure to agree a deal that would enable the return of all hostages still in captivity.

Huge protests have been held demanding an end to the war, as Israel pushes ahead with its plan to take over Gaza City and eventually establish control over the entire Strip. Netanyahu argues the defeat of Hamas will secure the release of the hostages.

The country's military says it has begun the "initial stages" of its advance into Gaza City.

The IDF said a scheduled pause in military action which had been due to come into effect at 10:00 (07:00 GMT) would not apply to Gaza City. It said this was in "accordance with the situational assessment and directives of the political echelon".

In recent days, Israel has carried out air strikes on Gaza City and advised residents to make their way towards makeshift housing in the south of the Gaza Strip.

Since 14 August, the day the offensive was announced, about 20,000 people have been displaced to the south from Gaza City in addition to about 40,000 moving further north, according the UN's humanitarian affairs office.

Western countries - and the UN - have warned that an operation in an area of Gaza where more than a million people live would have devastating consequences.

Most of Gaza's population has been repeatedly displaced.

More than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed and the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed.

Last week, a UN-backed body, which monitors hunger levels around the world, raised its food insecurity status in parts of Gaza to the highest and most severe - confirming famine for the first time. Israel denies there is starvation in the territory.

At least 62,966 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's military campaign in Gaza since the war began, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Turkish first lady appeals to Melania Trump over Gaza children

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn47ppy382wo, 6 days ago

Turkey's first lady has urged Melania Trump to speak out for children suffering in Israel's war in Gaza.

Emine Erdogan praised the US first lady's support for children affected by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, asking Trump to "extend the advocacy" to Palestinians.

In a letter published by the Turkish presidency on Saturday, Mrs Erdogan said Gaza had become a '"children's cemetery", telling Mrs Trump: "We must unite our voices and strength against this injustice."

It comes as UN-backed food security experts have assessed half a million people are suffering from famine in Gaza City - and 132,000 children's lives are threatened by malnutrition.

"The phrase 'unknown baby' written on the shrouds of thousands of Gazan children opens irreparable wounds in our consciences," Mrs Erdogan wrote.

The letter calls on Mrs Trump to "show the same sensitivity to Gaza that you have shown to Ukrainian children who have lost their lives in the war".

Mrs Erdogan also encouraged Mrs Trump to appeal directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end "the humanitarian crisis in Gaza".

Earlier this month, Mrs Trump sent Russian President Vladimir Putin a letter, imploring him to consider children, but did not reference any specific children.

The Turkish first lady does not usually involve herself in politics, more often choosing to be active in environmental issues - which has earned her praise from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

But Mrs Erdogan has written letters to the partners of world leaders in the past, in 2016 on behalf of Syrians caught up in civil war, and condemning Israel's actions in Gaza in March.

The letter was published in the wake of a damning report into the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report confirmed a famine in and around Gaza City - warning that more than 640,000 people will face "catastrophic conditions" between mid-August and the end of September.

In Friday's report, the IPC noted the particular toll food shortages had taken on children - roughly one in three in Gaza are acutely malnourished.

It also projects that up to June 2026, malnutrition will threaten the lives of 132,000 children aged under five.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry has said 114 of the 281 people who have died from malnutrition are children.

Israel denies there is famine in Gaza. It also accuses IPC experts of being biased, changing its methods for assessing famine, and using data coming from Hamas. The IPC has rejected this criticism.

The report comes as Israel prepares to launch a new military offensive aimed at occupying Gaza City.

On Saturday Gaza's health ministry reported 61 deaths in the past 24 hours after Israeli attacks. It said eight people, including two children, had died as a result of malnutrition in the same period.

In one attack on a displacement camp in the southern city of Khan Younis, 19 people were killed, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Israel's military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 62,122 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the health ministry.

Most of Gaza's population has also been displaced multiple times; more than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; and the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed.

Famine in Gaza City is 'failure of humanity', UN chief says

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c05ed5rgld3o, 7 days ago

The United Nations chief has described the famine confirmed in Gaza City and its surrounding areas as a "failure of humanity".

Antonio Gutteres said the situation was a "man-made disaster" after a UN-backed body, which identifies hunger levels around the world, raised its food insecurity status in parts of the territory to Phase 5 - the highest and most severe.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) says more than half a million people across Gaza are facing "catastrophic" conditions characterised by "starvation, destitution and death".

The report was labelled an "outright lie" by Israel, which has denied there is starvation in the territory.

The UN says Israel is continuing to restrict the amount of aid entering Gaza, which Israel also denies.

Its denials are in direct contradiction to what more than 100 humanitarian groups, witnesses on the ground, multiple UN bodies, and several of Israel's allies, including the UK, have said.

The IPC says that an "immediate, at-scale response" is needed or there will be an "unacceptable escalation" in famine-related deaths.

It predicts that between mid-August and the end of September, famine will expand across the strip to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis.

During this period, almost a third of the population - nearly 641,000 people - are expected to face "catastrophic conditions" in IPC Phase 5, while the number of people to face "emergency" conditions in IPC Phase 4 will likely increase to 1.14 million - or 58% of the population.

The report also projects that up to June 2026, malnutrition will threaten the lives of 132,000 children aged under five.

Since the start of the war, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry has reported that 271 people have died of malnutrition - including 112 children.

Only four previous famines have been classified by the IPC since it was established in 2004, the most recent in Sudan in 2024.

The IPC cannot officially declare famine - that is usually done by governments or the United Nations.

Reem Tawfiq Khader, 41, a mother of five from Gaza City, said: "The declaration of famine came too late, but it is still important.

"We haven't eaten any protein for five months. My youngest child is four years old - he doesn't know what fruit and vegetables look or taste like."

Rida Hijjeh, 29, said her five-year-old daughter Lamia's weight had dropped from 19kg (42lbs) to 10.5kg (23lbs). She said Lamia was healthy before the war began and had no prior illnesses.

"This all happened only because of the famine," she said. "There is simply nothing for the child to eat. There are no vegetables, no fruits."

Now, Lamia suffers from swelling in her legs, thinning hair, and nerve problems, she said.

In response to the report, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said the famine was entirely preventable, saying food could not get through to the Palestinian territory "because of systematic obstruction by Israel".

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said: "Just when it seems there are no words left to describe the living hell in Gaza, a new one has been added: 'famine'."

He described it as "not a mystery," but rather "a man-made disaster, a moral indictment, and a failure of humanity itself".

He added that Israel has "unequivocal obligations under international law - including the duty of ensuring food and medical supplies of the population".

Phillipe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), said: "This is starvation by design & man-made by the Government of Israel".

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk described the famine as "the direct result of actions taken by the Israeli Government", which has "unlawfully restricted" the entry of aid.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy described the famine as a "moral outrage".

"The Israeli government's refusal to allow sufficient aid into Gaza has caused this man-made catastrophe," he wrote on X.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement: "Israel does not have a policy of starvation, Israel has a policy of preventing starvation. Since the beginning of the war Israel has enabled 2 million tons of aid to enter the Gaza Strip, over one ton of aid per person."

In recent months, Israel has come under widespread international condemnation for the aid situation in the Gaza Strip.

Last month, after weeks of mounting pressure, the Israeli military said it had airdropped humanitarian aid into Gaza - a move that was criticised at the time by aid agencies as a "grotesque distraction".

Other aid drops have since taken place - but warnings have been issued about their safety, with reports that civilians were hit and killed by the falling pallets.

Earlier this week, BBC Verify found 10 separate occasions where aid was dropped into an area that the Israeli military has explicitly warned people not to enter.

In addition to airdrops, Israel said it would designate humanitarian corridors for UN convoys. However, on Tuesday the UN warned that the "trickle of aid" entering Gaza was insufficient to "avert widespread starvation".

Cogat, the Israeli military body in charge of aid, says roughly 300 aid trucks are entering daily, but the UN says 600 trucks of supplies a day are needed.

The IPC report comes as Israel prepares to launch a new military offensive aimed at occupying Gaza City.

Israel's military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 62,122 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

'Exhausted, hungry, and scared': What it's like to be a journalist in Gaza

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crm49zxyn0go, 2 days ago

"I never imagined that one day I would be living and working in a tent, deprived of the most basic human necessities - even water and a bathroom.

"It's more like a greenhouse in the summer and a refrigerator in the winter," journalist Abdullah Miqdad told the BBC.

After 22 months of war in Gaza, most journalists find themselves working in tents around hospitals in order to access the electricity and reliable internet connection they need to do their jobs.

Power has been cut off across Gaza, so hospitals, whose generators are still functioning, provide the electricity to charge phones and equipment, and offer high points with better mobile reception.

But working at hospitals has not afforded them safety, with Israeli strikes on hospitals and their compounds killing a number of journalists during the conflict.

On Monday, five journalists were among at least 20 people killed in a double Israeli strike on Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis.

International news outlets, including the BBC, rely on local reporters within Gaza, as Israel does not allow them to send journalists into the territory except on rare occasions when they are embedded with Israeli troops.

'As journalists, we feel we are targeted all the time'

At least 197 journalists and media workers have been killed since the war in Gaza began following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 - 189 of them Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza, according to the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Ahed Farwana of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate in Gaza told the BBC that he and his colleagues felt targeted by Israeli forces "which leaves us in constant fear for our own safety and that of our families".

After nearly two years of war, journalists are exhausted from non-stop work, but demand for news coverage persists.

This has opened the door for young people in Gaza, some of whom had never worked in journalism before, to become reporters and photojournalists.

Some journalists work officially for local or international media outlets, but many are hired on temporary contracts. This means their employment is less predictable and the protective equipment, insurance, and resources they receive varies greatly.

"Every journalist in the world has the right to enjoy international protection. Unfortunately, the Israeli military does not treat journalists this way, especially when it comes to Palestinian journalists," Ghada al-Kurd, a correspondent for German magazine Der Spiegel, told the BBC (for which she also sometimes works).

Israel has repeatedly denied that its forces target journalists.

However, the Israeli military said it did target Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif in his media tent in Gaza City on 10 August, in a strike that also killed three other Al Jazeera staff, two freelancers, and one other man. The military alleged Sharif had "served as the head of a terrorist cell in Hamas", which he had denied before his death.

The CPJ said Israel had failed to provide evidence to back up its allegation, and accused Israeli forces of targeting journalists in a "deliberate and systematic attempt to cover up Israel's actions" in Gaza.

Reuters cameraman Husam al-Masri was killed in the first strike on Nasser hospital on Monday. The second strike, minutes later, killed rescue workers and four other journalists who had arrived at the scene - Mariam Abu Dagga, a freelancer working with the Associated Press; Al Jazeera cameraman Mohammad Salama; freelance journalist Ahmed Abu Aziz and freelance video journalist Moaz Abu Taha.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incident as a "tragic mishap".

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that, after an initial inquiry, "it appears" troops struck "a camera that was positioned by Hamas in the area of the Nasser Hospital that was being used to observe the activity of [Israeli] troops". It also identified six people whom it said were "terrorists" killed in the strikes. None of the five journalists were among them.

The military provided no evidence and gave no explanation for the second strike.

"When you're working inside a tent, you never know what might happen at any moment. Your tent or its surroundings could be bombed - what do you do then?" says Abdullah Miqdad, who is a correspondent for Qatar-based Al-Araby TV.

"In front of the camera, I have to be highly focused, mentally alert, and quick-witted despite the exhaustion. But the harder part is staying aware of everything happening around me and thinking about what I could do if the place I'm in is targeted," he told the BBC.

'We ourselves are hungry and in pain'

Last Friday, famine was confirmed in Gaza City for the first time by a UN-backed body responsible for monitoring food security.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) reported that more than 500,000 people in the Gaza Strip were facing "starvation, destitution and death".

The journalists in Gaza are suffering the same extreme hunger as those they are covering.

"A cup of coffee mixed with ground chickpeas, or a glass of unsweetened tea, might be all you can consume during an entire workday," says independent journalist Ahmed Jalal.

"We suffer from severe headaches and fatigue, unable to walk from the sheer hunger," he told the BBC, "but we still carry on with our work."

Ahmed has been displaced many times with his family, yet each time he has continued his journalistic work while trying to secure food, water and shelter for his family.

"My heart breaks from the intense pain when I report the killing of fellow journalists, and my mind tells me I might be next... The pain consumes me inside, but I hide it from the camera and keep working."

"I feel suffocated, exhausted, hungry, scared - and I can't even stop to rest."

'We have lost the ability to express our feelings'

Ghada Al-Kurd says two years of covering news about death and hunger has changed her.

"During this war, we have lost the ability to express our emotions," Ghada told the BBC. "We are in a constant state of shock. Maybe we will regain this ability after the war ends."

Until that day comes, Ghada holds back her fear for her two daughters and her grief for her brother and his family, whose bodies she believes are still buried under rubble following an Israeli strike in northern Gaza early in the war.

"The war has changed our psyches and personalities. We will need a long period of healing to return to who we were before 7 October 2023."

Photojournalist Amer Sultan in Gaza assisted in preparing the report.

UN demands justice over Israeli double strike on Gaza hospital

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd6n97gj1nqo, 3 days ago

The UN has said "there needs to be justice" following Israel's double strike on a Gaza hospital which killed at least 20 people, as an initial Israeli military probe said the strike had targeted a "camera positioned by Hamas".

Condemnation of the attack, whose victims included five journalists and four health workers, has been mounting, with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer describing it as "completely indefensible".

Later on Tuesday the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released its initial inquiry, which identified several "gaps" for further investigation.

It came as Israelis launched a day of nationwide protests calling on their government to accept a deal to release the hostages.

The Israeli government has so far dismissed a ceasefire proposal agreed to by Hamas, despite its having previously signing up to it.

Netanyahu says the government now wants a different deal that would see all hostages released in one exchange.

Israel believes that only 20 of the 50 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are still alive after 22 months of war.

"Israel is standing against Netanyahu and his regime," said Yehuda Cohen, father of Nimrod Cohen, who was taken hostage in the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023.

"Another day for protest, another day to make sure the issue of the hostages stays a high priority. Another day to pressure Netanyahu and force him to end the war and get a hostage deal."

In Jerusalem, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the prime minister's office where a security cabinet meeting was taking place.

Qatar, one of the parties involved in ceasefire talks - said mediators were still "waiting for an answer" from Israel to the latest proposal.

"The responsibility now lies on the Israeli side to respond to an offer that is on the table. Anything else is political posturing," said foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari.

US envoy Steve Witkoff meanwhile said President Donald Trump would chair a meeting on a post-war plan for Gaza at the White House on Wednesday.

"We think that we're going to settle this one way or another, certainly before the end of this year," he told Fox News.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said on Tuesday that the bodies of 75 Palestinians had arrived at its facilities over the previous 24 hours.

Israel has unveiled a plan for its army to take control of Gaza City, despite widespread international and domestic opposition. Israel's defence minister has said Gaza City will be destroyed if Hamas does not agree to disarm and release all hostages.

A UN-backed body has confirmed a famine is taking place in Gaza City and its surrounding areas. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) says more than half a million people across Gaza are facing "catastrophic" conditions characterised by "starvation, destitution and death".

The report was labelled an "outright lie" by Israel, which has denied there is starvation in the territory.

Israel's military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 62,819 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.

How Israel's policies created famine in Gaza

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg4p90z1kxo, 7 days ago

Famine is taking place in Gaza - just a short drive away from hundreds of trucks of aid sitting idly outside its borders.

How did we get here?

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), backed by the United Nations, is the world's leading hunger monitor.

Its assessment that half a million people – a quarter of Palestinians in Gaza – are suffering from famine is shocking for many reasons.

Primary among them is the report's acknowledgement that this situation is "entirely man-made", with aid organisations today accusing Israel of the "systematic obstruction" of food entering the Gaza Strip.

* Starvation: At least 1 in 5 households face an extreme shortage in their consumption of food

* Malnutrition: Roughly 1 in 3 children or more are acutely malnourished

* Mortality: At least 2 in every 10,000 people are dying daily because of outright starvation or the combination of malnutrition and disease

'Entirely man-made'

After weeks of the world seeing images of starving children, with distended stomachs and protruding bones, many will feel like the signs that a famine was imminent were a long time coming.

The ability of Palestinians to access food has been complicated throughout the nearly two-year war in Gaza.

Israel has long placed restrictions on goods entering Gaza, and those restrictions increased after the beginning of the war on 7 October 2023, triggered by the deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel.

However, since March 2025, the situation has deteriorated rapidly after Israel introduced a nearly three-month total blockade on goods entering Gaza.

Under significant international pressure, Israel began allowing a limited amount of goods back into Gaza in late-May.

It also introduced a new system of food distribution operated by a controversial American group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) to replace the previous UN-led system of food distribution.

The GHF has four food distribution sites in militarised zones that Palestinians must walk long distances at risk to reach, replacing the 400 distribution points in the community under the UN's system.

Finding food has become a deadly endeavour for Palestinians and they have regularly told us that they have to choose between starvation and death, referring to the near-daily shootings of people trying to get aid at GHF distribution sites.

The United Nations has recorded the killing of at least 994 Palestinians in the vicinity of GHF sites, since late May, some of the 1,760 killed trying to access aid.

The UN says the majority killed were shot by Israeli troops, something corroborated by eye-witnesses we have spoken to and medics in Gaza. Israel has repeatedly rejected the allegations.

Under this system, overseen by Israel, starvation in Gaza has expanded.

As pressure continued to grow on Israel to allow more food in, in late July it began allowing more trucks of aid into Gaza each day and introducing "tactical pauses" in fighting to allow more aid convoys to move through the territory.

More aid has entered in recent weeks and the astronomical prices of some goods in the markets reduced somewhat – though for many Palestinians, prohibitively expensive. At times the price of flour reached above $85 for a kilo, though that figure began to reduce.

The UN and aid organisations say that despite Israel loosening some of its restrictions on food getting into the Gaza Strip, it still places significant impediments and obstructions in being able to collect and distribute aid.

The organisations say what's needed is 600 trucks a day bringing goods into Gaza for people to meet their basic needs – currently no more than half of that is being allowed in.

Israel also began allowing airdrops of aid, something criticised as inefficient, dangerous, and ultimately a distraction by humanitarian organisations.

Israel's accusation that Hamas is responsible for the hunger crisis has also been criticised. Multiple reports, including an internal US government report, found there is no evidence of systematic diversion of aid by Hamas.

There is indeed widespread looting of trucks entering Gaza – but aid agencies say most of the looting is by crowds of desperate Palestinians and some organised groups trying to make a resale profit.

Ultimately, aid agencies have been repeating for months that in order to avert starvation and famine, Gaza needs to be flooded with aid entering by road and currently Israel still imposes restrictions.

Israel's response

A number of Israeli government officials have today rejected the IPC's report.

Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has accused the IPC of publishing a "tailor-made fabricated report to fit Hamas's fake campaign".

The Israeli army body called Cogat (the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories), which is responsible for managing crossing into Gaza, called the IPC report a "False and Biased Report, Based on Partial Data Originating From the Hamas Terrorist Organization".

Among other criticisms, Israel says that the IPC "changed its own global standard", halving a threshold of those facing famine from 30% to 15% as well as "totally ignoring its second criterion of death rate".

The IPC rejected the accusations and said that it has used long-established standards that have been used previously in similar situations.

Israel's accusation that the IPC has used "Hamas data" appears to reference that some of the reporting about malnutrition in Gaza comes from the Hamas-run Ministry of Health there.

However, the ministry's data on deaths and injuries has widely been seen as reliable throughout the war.

Responses to the report from UN agencies and international leaders have been strong.

The United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that Israel, as the occupying power, "has unequivocal obligations under international law – including the duty of ensuring food and medical supplies of the population. We cannot allow this situation to continue with impunity".

The UN's humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, said the famine was the direct result of Israel's "systematic obstruction" of aid entering Gaza.

Meanwhile the UK's Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: "The Israeli government's refusal to allow sufficient aid into Gaza has caused this man-made catastrophe. This is a moral outrage."

On Friday, the UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said it was "a war crime to use starvation as a method of warfare, and the resulting deaths may also amount to the war crime of wilful killing".

Gaza City invasion

Israel has this week authorised the call-up of tens of thousands of reservist troops to conduct its controversial invasion and occupation of Gaza City, the area where the IPC has declared famine is taking place.

Netanyahu says a takeover is the best option to defeat Hamas, end the war and to return the Israeli hostages from Gaza.

The invasion would forcibly displace an estimated one million Palestinians living in Gaza City and the areas around it. Israel has already told medics and aid agencies to make preparations to make plans to evacuate the area.

A joint statement from a number of UN organisations including Unicef, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization expressed alarm about the planned offensive, saying "it would have further devastating consequences for civilians where famine conditions already exist.

"Many people – especially sick and malnourished children, older people and people with disabilities – may be unable to evacuate."

'Once-in-a-lifetime chance': Gaza scholars await UK evacuation to pursue studies

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2x16y2ppro, 5 days ago

As students across the UK celebrated securing their university places, Mahmoud received the news he had been waiting for while trying to sleep in a shelter in central Gaza.

The 27-year-old doctor, who holds a prestigious scholarship to study for a masters in global health policy at the London School of Economics, had just finished a night shift treating trauma patients at a field hospital. Rather than awaiting exam results, he was anxious to learn whether he would be able to leave Gaza to begin his course.

"I was highly emotional and so happy to be awarded the scholarship," Mahmoud tells BBC News. "It gave me the energy to keep working. But most of the time, I avoided talking about it, because of the indefinite uncertainty."

Mahmoud is one of nine students in Gaza who received emails this week from the UK government informing them that it was working to facilitate their evacuation. If successful, they would be the first to leave the Strip for study in the UK since the war began.

The development followed months of campaigning by politicians, academics, and others on behalf of more than 80 Palestinian students who have offers from UK universities this year, including around 50 with fully funded scholarships.

Chevening scholars like Mahmoud – recipients of a highly competitive UK Foreign Office grant – have been asked to confirm whether they want to be evacuated and provide their approximate location in Gaza. Other students have so far not been contacted.

"It's a positive step. It has kept me hopeful and optimistic about being evacuated in the coming weeks. However, the message does not give any guarantees," says Mahmoud.

Originally from Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, Mahmoud says he has dreamt of studying in the UK from a young age.

When the war broke out, he volunteered in the plastic and reconstructive surgery unit at the al-Shifa hospital before working on temporary wards across Gaza. He hopes his degree will one day help rebuild the territory's fragile healthcare system.

'I felt hope again'

"Life has never been easy," he says. "Over the past two years I have seen suffering beyond imagination. I've stood beside families in their hardest moments, all while trying to keep hope alive for my own future."

Mahmoud, who lives with his wife, parents, and three sisters, does not know whether any of them will be able to join him if he is evacuated.

He says: "It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but it will be hard to leave my family behind to face constant displacement, famine, chaos, and insecurity."

'Bureaucratic block'

"It feels like a slow death inside," says Manar, 36, an English teacher from Rafah, who has been displaced 14 times during the war and now lives in a tent with her husband and three young daughters.

She has been awarded a Cara Fellowship – a scheme for academics at risk of imminent imprisonment, injury, or death – to study for a PhD in education at the University of Glasgow.

She submitted one of her grant applications from the roof of a damaged four-storey building, climbing up in order to find enough signal. When she reached the top, Manar says she saw gunfire directed at a neighbouring block, and shrapnel landing nearby.

"I haven't slept for days," she says. "Every day, I wonder which will come first - a message from the UK government, or a missile.

"I feel deeply disappointed by this process, as some scholarship holders seem to be prioritised over others, even though all of us deserve equal consideration."

Professor Alison Phipps, Manar's supervisor and the University of Glasgow's specialist on refugee integration through arts and education, says she was "over the moon" to hear Mohammed may be evacuated to study at the university, but believes other scholars like Manar should receive the same support to leave Gaza.

"It's been a long hard road for these nine students." she says. "I know they have put in the work, but I know that all the eligible students have put it in equally.

"There seems to be a kind of bureaucratic block, and it would just really help us if the government could identify what that is, so all the students who meet the thresholds can come out."

A UK government spokesperson said it was "working urgently" to support the "safe exit and onward travel to the UK" of the Chevening scholars.

The government is also understood to be considering appeals for support from other Gazan students with places at UK universities, though no decisions have been announced.

Preparing for another late night working in hospital, Mahmoud stresses that while uncertainty remains for him, it is far greater for those who have not yet been told whether they will be evacuated.

"If the UK government does not act now, it will lose not only us, but future applicants from Gaza and other regions facing similar challenges," he warns.

'My youngest child doesn't know what fruit tastes like': Gaza residents on famine

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz602wvjv7lo, 7 days ago

Residents of the Gaza Strip have described to the BBC the effects of severe hunger on their bodies, after a UN-backed report confirmed famine in parts of the territory for the first time.

Reem Tawfiq Khader, 41, a mother of five from Gaza City, said: "The declaration of famine came too late, but it is still important.

"We haven't eaten any protein for five months. My youngest child is four years old - he doesn't know what fruit and vegetables look or taste like."

The UN says Israel has heavily restricted the amount of aid entering Gaza, which Israel denies.

Israel also denies there is starvation in the territory, in direct contradiction to what more than 100 humanitarian groups, witnesses on the ground, and multiple UN bodies say.

On Friday, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said there was an "entirely man-made" famine in Gaza City and its surrounding areas.

It warned that more than half a million people across the Gaza Strip were facing "catastrophic" conditions characterised by "starvation, destitution and death".

Rajaa Talbeh, 47, a mother of six, said she had lost 25kg (55lbs) in weight. She fled her home in Gaza City's Zeitoun district a month ago and now lives in a makeshift tent near the beach.

She suffers from gluten intolerance and said she could no longer find food she could eat.

"Before the war, a charity used to help me get gluten-free products, which I could never afford myself," she said.

"Since the war began, I can't find what I need in the market, and even when I do, I can't afford it. Isn't it enough to face daily bombardment, displacement and living in a tent that shields us neither from the heat of summer nor the cold of winter - and now famine on top of it?"

Rida Hijeh, 29, said her five-year-old daughter Lamia's weight had dropped from 19kg (42lbs) to 10.5kg (23lbs).

She said Lamia was healthy before the war began and had no prior illnesses.

"This all happened only because of the famine," she said.

"There is simply nothing for the child to eat. There are no vegetables, no fruits."

Now, Lamia suffers from swelling in her legs, thinning hair, and nerve problems, she said.

"She cannot walk. I went to many clinics, doctors, and hospitals. They all told me my daughter is suffering from malnutrition. But none of them gave me anything, not treatment, not any support."

Mandy Blackman, a British nurse working for the charity UK-Med in Gaza, said 70% of mothers attending their maternal health, ante-natal and post-natal clinics had clinical malnutrition.

"Babies are delivered smaller and more vulnerable as a result," she said.

More than 62,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its military campaign, in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

Since the start of the war, at least 271 people, including 112 children, have died of "famine and malnutrition", according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.

Another woman, Aseel, who lives in Gaza City, said: "Five months ago, I weighed 56kg (123lbs). Today, I weigh only 46kg (101lbs)."

She said she hadn't eaten a single piece of fruit or meat in months and had spent nearly her entire savings on basic ingredients to survive.

Aseel's sister-in-law - who she lives with - has a one-month-old baby.

"She's been desperately searching for baby formula at a reasonable price," Aseel said.

She said that when they can find it, it costs as much as 180 shekels (£39) per can.

"I have no food stockpile, not even enough to last a week or two," she added.

"Like thousands of people, we live day by day."

Additional reporting by Freya Scott-Turner and Caroline Hawley

Baptist minister arrested over Palestine Action sign

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg50lz33jy2o, 2 days ago

A Baptist minister has been arrested after holding a placard in support of banned terror group Palestine Action.

James Grote had been holding a banner reading "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action" in Oxford's Bonn Square on Sunday when he was arrested by Thames Valley Police officers.

Palestine Action was proscribed as a terror group last month, after members broke into RAF Brize Norton and caused an estimated £7m of damage to planes.

Ahead of the protest, Mr Grote said although he is not a member of Palestine Action, he "supports its work of disrupting anyone in the UK providing weapons for the war in Gaza".

"Palestine Action has broken into buildings and caused damage to property, not people; this is not terrorism," he said.

"The bombing of Gaza to dust is terrorism. So too was the 7 October massacre by Hamas."

Thames Valley Police confirmed officers arrested a man in his sixties from Bicester on Sunday who was "reportedly holding a sign expressing support for a proscribed terrorist organisation".

The force said the man had been released on bail "while charging advice is sought".

"While people have the right to protest in a lawful manner, behaviour that may cross into criminality will be subject to investigation and potential prosecution," police added.

Supporting Palestine Action is now a criminal offence, with membership or expressing support for the group punishable by up to 14 years in prison in line with the Terrorism Act 2000.

The Metropolitan Police has confirmed a total of 67 people have been charged with supporting Palestine Action during protests in central London on 5 July and 12 July.

Following the protest, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the banning of Palestine Action had been based on "strong security advice following serious attacks the group has committed" as well as "plans and ideas for further attacks".

"Many people may not yet know the reality of this organisation, but the assessments are very clear - this is not a non-violent organisation," she added.

Israel's military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 62,122 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.

Kyiv in mourning after strikes as allies discuss military support

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy9834jp9qno, today

A day of mourning has been declared in Kyiv after the second biggest aerial attack of the war so far killed at least 23 people, including four children.

The city's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said it was to honour the dead, as a massive recovery effort continues at the five-storey block of flats where 22 of the 23 were killed.

The attack has been widely condemned - the White House said President Donald Trump was "not happy" but not surprised, while European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russia would "stop at nothing to terrorise Ukraine".

Meanwhile, EU defence ministers are meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Friday to discuss military support for Ukraine.

The attack also damaged the EU's diplomatic mission and the British Council building in central Kyiv.

Speaking on the way into Friday's meeting, Lithuania's Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė said Russian President Vladimir Putin was "cheaply buying time to kill more people".

"Hopes of possible peace negotiations are at least naïve when we look at what is happening in Ukraine and what just happened [on Thursday]," she added.

Estonia's Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur said the best security guarantee for Ukraine would be membership of Nato.

Overnight from Thursday into Friday saw less fighting, although both Russia and Ukraine reported shooting down dozens of drones.

Kharkiv regional head Oleh Syniehubov said five settlements in his region had been attacked, with one person being killed in Kupyansk.

Trump had hoped to organise a summit involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin to bring an end to the war, but those efforts have since stalled.

Speaking after Thursday's attack, Zelensky said Moscow had chosen "ballistics instead of the negotiating table", and reiterated the need for "new, tough sanctions" on Russia.

Speaking after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said it seemed unlikely now that a meeting between Putin and Zelensky would take place.

Inside Donetsk as residents flee attacks on Ukrainian region Putin wants to control

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c209yn1ygz6o, 5 days ago

The Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine has long been in Moscow's sights. Vladimir Putin reportedly says he'll freeze the war in return for full control of it.

Russia already controls 70% of Donetsk and nearly all of neighbouring Luhansk - and is making slow but steady advances.

I'm heading to the front-line Donetsk town of Dobropillia with two humanitarian volunteers, just 8km (five miles) from Russia's positions. They're on a mission to bring the sick, elderly and children to safer ground.

At first, it goes like clockwork. We speed into the town in an armoured car, equipped with rooftop drone-jamming equipment, hitting 130km/h (80mph). The road is covered in tall green netting which obscures visibility from above - protecting it from Russian drones.

This is their second trip of the morning, and the streets are mostly empty. The few remaining residents only leave their homes to quickly collect supplies. Russian attacks come daily.

The town already looks abandoned and has been without water for a week. Every building we pass has been damaged, with some reduced to ruins.

In the previous five days, Laarz, a 31-year-old German, and Varia, a 19-year-old Ukrainian, who work for the charity Universal Aid Ukraine, have made dozens of trips to evacuate people.

A week earlier, small groups of Russian troops breached the defences around the town, sparking fears that the front line of Ukraine's so-called "fortress belt" - some of the most heavily defended parts of the Ukrainian front - could collapse.

Extra troops were rushed to the area and Ukrainian authorities say the situation has been stabilised. But most of Dobropillia's residents feel it's time to go.

As the evacuation team arrives, Vitalii Kalinichenko, 56, is waiting on the doorstep of his apartment block, with a plastic bag full of belongings in hand.

"My windows were all smashed, look, they all flew out on the second floor. I'm the only one left," he says.

He's wearing a grey t-shirt and black shorts, and his right leg is bandaged. Mr Kalinichenko points to a crater beyond some rose bushes where a Shahed drone crashed a couple of nights earlier, shattering his windows and cutting his leg. The engine from another drone lies in a neighbour's garden.

As we are about to leave, Laarz spots a drone overhead and we take cover again under trees. His handheld drone detector shows multiple Russian drones in the area.

An older woman in a summer dress and straw hat is walking by with a shopping trolley. He warns her about the drone, and she quickens her pace. An explosion hits nearby, its sound echoing off the nearby apartment blocks.

But before we can attempt to leave, there is still another family to be rescued, just around the corner.

Laarz goes on foot to find them, switching off the idling vehicle's drone-jamming equipment to save battery power. "If you hear a drone, it's the two switches in the middle console, turn it on," he says as he disappears around the corner. The jammer is only effective against some Russian drones.

A series of blasts hit the neighbourhood. A woman, out to fetch water with her dog, runs for cover.

Laarz returns with more evacuees, and with drones still in the air above, drives out of town even faster than he arrived.

Inside the evacuation convoy, I sit beside Anton, 31. His mother stayed behind. She cried as he departed and he hopes she will leave too soon.

In war, front lines shift, towns are lost and won and lost again, but with Russia advancing and the fate of the region hanging on negotiations, this may be the final time Anton and the other evacuees see their homes.

Anton says he's never left the town before. Over the roar of the engine, I ask him if Ukraine should relinquish Donbas - the resource-rich greater region made up of Donetsk and Luhansk.

"We need to sit at the negotiation table and after all resolve this conflict in a peaceful way. Without blood, without victims," he says.

But Varia, 19, feels differently. "We can never trust Putin or Russia, whatever they are saying, and we have experience of that. If we give them Donbas, it won't stop anything but only give Russia more room for another attack," she tells me.

The situation in Donbas is increasingly perilous for Ukraine as Russia slowly but steadily advances. President Volodymyr Zelensky has scoffed at suggestions that it could be lost by the end of this year, predicting it would take four more years for Russia to fully occupy what remains.

But it's unlikely Ukraine will recapture significant territory here without new weaponry or additional support from the West.

This part of Donetsk is critical to Ukraine's defensive. If lost or given to Russia, neighbouring Kharkiv and Zaporizhia regions – and beyond – would be at greater risk.

The cost of holding on is measured in Ukrainian soldiers' lives and body parts.

Later on, I drive to a National Guard field hospital and the medics of the 14th Operational Brigade who operate under the cover of darkness. The drone activity never ceases, and the war injured, and the dead, can only be safely retrieved at night.

Russian casualties are far higher, perhaps three times as much or more, but it has a greater capacity to absorb losses than Ukraine.

The wounded begin to arrive, the cases growing steadily more serious as night stretches into morning. The casualties are from fighting in Pokrovsk, a city that Russia has been trying to seize for a year, and is now partially encircled. It's a key city in Donetsk's defence, and the fighting has been brutal.

The first man arrives conscious, a bullet wound to chest from a firefight. Next comes another man in his forties covered in shrapnel wounds. It took two days and three attempts to rescue him, such was the intensity of the fighting. Next a man whose right leg has been almost blown off entirely by a drone strike on the road from Pokrovsk to Myrnohrad.

Senior Lieutenant Dima of the 14th Brigade National Guard, a 42-year-old surgeon, moves from patient to patient. This is a medical stabilisation unit, so his job is to patch up the injured as quickly as possible and send them on to a main hospital for further treatment. "It's hard because I know I can do more, but I don't have the time," he tells me.

After all this carnage, I ask him too if Donbas should be surrendered to bring peace.

"We have to stop [the war], but we don't want to stop it like this", he says. "We want back our territory, our people and we have to punish Russia for what they did."

He's exhausted, casualties have been heavier, dozens a day, since Russia's incursion, and the injuries are the worst the doctors have seen since the war began, mostly because of drones.

"We just want to go home to live in peace without this nightmare, this blood, this death," he says.

On the drive out that afternoon, between fields of corn and sunflowers, miles of newly uncoiled barbed wire glint in the sunlight. They run alongside raised banks of red earth, deep trenches and neat lines of anti-tank dragon's teeth concrete pyramids. All designed to slow any sudden Russian advance.

It is believed that Russia has over 100,000 troops standing by, waiting to exploit another opportunity like the earlier breaches around Dobropillia.

These new fortifications carved in the Ukrainian dirt chart a deteriorating situation here in Donetsk. What's left of the region may yet be surrendered by diplomacy, but until then Ukraine, bloodied and exhausted, remains intent on fighting for every inch of it.

Additional reporting by Liubov Sholudko

Zelensky vows to continue fighting as Ukraine marks independence day

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czxy2v9dzgxo, 5 days ago

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would continue to fight for its freedom "while its calls for peace are not heard," in a defiant address to the nation on its independence day.

"We need a just peace, a peace where our future will be decided only by us," he said, adding that Ukraine was "not a victim, it is a fighter".

He continued: "Ukraine has not yet won, but it has certainly not lost."

Zelensky's remarks came after Moscow said Ukraine had attacked Russian power and energy facilities overnight, blaming drone attacks for a fire at a nuclear power plant in its western Kursk region.

The Ukraine government's Centre for Countering Disinformation said it had been reported that the shooting down of a drone allegedly caused the fire.

The centre blamed Russia for "spreading manipulations" and said Russia accusing Ukraine of "allegedly carrying out targeted strikes" on the power plant "are typical methods" of Russian propaganda.

There were no injuries and the fire was quickly extinguished, the plant's press service said on messaging app Telegram. It said the attack had damaged a transformer, but radiation levels were within the normal range.

The United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was aware of reports regarding the fire, but could not independently confirm them. Its director general said "every nuclear facility must be protected at all times".

The IAEA has repeatedly called on both Russia and Ukraine to show maximum restraint around nuclear facilities in the war.

Also on Sunday, Russia and Ukraine both confirmed a prisoner swap had taken place, with 146 soldiers on each side being exchanged.

Russia's defence ministry also said eight people from Russia's Kursk region, which was partially occupied by Ukraine for several months, had been handed over and would return home.

Zelensky said those returned by Russia included soldiers, border guards and civilians, most of whom have been in captivity since 2022.

He also said journalist Dmytro Khilyuk, who was "kidnapped in the Kyiv region" at the start of the war, was coming home.

Independence Day celebrations were held in Kyiv, as the country marked its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney took part in the celebrations, and stood beside Zelensky at St Sophia's Cathedral as he addressed the crowd:

"I want to say something very simple and important: Canada will always stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine."

He said drones, ammunition and armoured vehicles, part of a $2bn Canadian dollars (£1bn) military package, would be delivered to Ukraine as early as September, Ukrainian media reported. The deliveries would make up more than half of a support package he announced in July.

Also present was US envoy Keith Kellogg - whom Ukrainian media reported was awarded the Order of Merit, first degree by Zelensky during the ceremony.

After Zelensky thanked him and US President Donald Trump for their support, Kellogg could be heard telling Zelensky: "We're going to make this work".

The Ukrainian president published a letter he received from Trump on X, which congratulated Ukraine on 34 years of independence and said "now is the moment to bring an end to the senseless killing".

Zelensky thanked the US for "standing shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine".

"We believe that by working together, we can put an end to this war and achieve real peace for Ukraine," he added.

Andriy Yermak, Zelensky's chief of staff, wrote on Telegram early on Sunday: "On this special day - Ukraine's Independence Day - it is especially important for us to feel the support of our friends. And Canada has always stood by us."

Meanwhile, Zelensky shared a letter from King Charles sending the people of Ukraine his "warmest and most sincere wishes".

"I keep feeling the greatest and deepest admiration for the unbreakable spirit of the Ukrainian people," the King writes. "I remain hopeful that our countries will be able to further work closely together to achieve a just and lasting peace."

Zelensky said the King's "kind words are a true inspiration for our people during the difficult time of war".

The UK government also said Ukrainian flags would appear above Downing Street in recognition of the anniversary.

The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that British military experts will continue to train Ukrainian soldiers until at least the end of 2026, with an extension to Operation Interflex - the codename given to the UK Armed Forces' training programme for Ukrainian recruits.

Norway announced on Sunday that it would contribute about 7 billion kroner (£514m; $693m) of air defence systems to Ukraine.

"Together with Germany, we are now ensuring that Ukraine receives powerful air defence systems," Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said in a statement.

The two nations are funding two Patriot systems, including missiles, with Norway also helping procure air defence radar.

Also on Sunday, Ukraine and Sweden announced they had agreed to joint defence production, with Sweden's defence minister saying it would "boost Swedish rearmament and meet the needs of Ukraine's armed forces".

Pål Jonson wrote on X: "Ukraine will share and provide technology for its factories in Sweden and defence materiel co-produced in Sweden will be exported to Ukraine."

On Saturday, Russia said its forces in eastern Ukraine had seized two villages in the Donetsk region.

Russian forces have been advancing very slowly, and at great cost, in eastern Ukraine and now control about 20% of Ukraine's territory.

A full-scale invasion of Ukraine was launched by Russia in February 2022.

There has been intense diplomacy over the war this month, with US President Donald Trump meeting his Russian counterpart President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on 15 August.

The summit was billed as a vital step towards peace in Ukraine. However, despite both leaders claiming the talks were a success, Trump has since shown growing frustration publicly over the lack of a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

The US president has said he is considering either hitting Russia with further economic sanctions or walking away from peace talks.

"I'm going to make a decision as to what we do and it's going to be, it's going to be a very important decision, and that's whether or not it's massive sanctions or massive tariffs or both, or we do nothing and say it's your fight," Trump said on Friday.

Zelensky has repeatedly called for an unconditional ceasefire and his European allies have also insisted on a halt in fighting.

He has accused Russia of "doing everything it can" to prevent a meeting with Putin to try to end the war.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Putin was ready to meet Ukraine's leader "when the agenda is ready for a summit, and this agenda is not ready at all", accusing Zelensky of saying "no to everything".

Russia is trying to stop meeting on peace and prolong war, Zelensky says

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgjpmg4r23o, 7 days ago

Ukraine's President Volodymr Zelensky has accused Russia of "doing everything it can" to prevent a meeting with Vladimir Putin to try to end the war.

US President Donald Trump has sought to bring the two leaders together, but he said on Friday "that's like oil and vinegar... they don't get along too well".

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Putin was ready to meet Ukraine's leader "when the agenda is ready for a summit, and this agenda is not ready at all", accusing Zelensky of saying "no to everything".

After an intensive week of diplomacy, in which Trump first met Putin in Alaska and then Zelensky with European leaders in Washington, the US president said the war was turning out to be the most difficult he had tried to stop.

Trump said after a call with the Russian leader on Monday that he had begun arrangements for a Putin-Zelensky summit that he would join afterwards.

Ukraine's president has backed the move, but he has sought security guarantees from Western allies to prevent any future Russian attack in the event of a peace deal: "Ukraine, unlike Russia, is not afraid of any meetings between leaders."

On a visit to Kyiv, Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said Trump was aiming to "break the deadlock" and the alliance was working on robust security guarantees with the US and Europe to ensure Putin "will never ever try to attack Ukraine again".

Speaking alongside Rutte, Zelensky said he wanted Ukraine's security guarantees to reflect Nato's Article 5, which considers an attack on one member of the alliance an attack against all Nato members.

"This is the beginning of a big undertaking, and it is not easy, because guarantees consist of what our partners can give Ukraine, as well as what the Ukrainian army should be like, and where we can find opportunities for the army to maintain its strength," Zelensky said.

Rutte said the alliance was working with Ukraine to define the guarantees, explaining that they would focus on making Ukraine's military as strong as possible and involve Western security commitments. It was "too early to exactly say what will be the outcome", he added.

Security guarantees have been agreed in the past, but not respected. The Nato secretary general insisted lessons had been learned from previous agreements such as the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons in return for "assurances" from Russia, the US and the UK about its future security.

Asked by the BBC what he would say to Ukrainians who have little faith anything will come from these latest diplomatic efforts, Zelensky said: "Maybe I'm showboating, but Washington felt like a success.

"Why? Because yes, Ukraine needs security guarantees. But without the US, Europe will not give us everything it can.

"I don't know how this will end but this is much better than it was a week or two ago.

"We saw unity in Washington. It's still political, but it's just the first step of everyone working on security guarantees."

Russia's foreign minister appeared to dent hopes of any potential summit, telling NBC News that "there is no meeting planned".

Sergei Lavrov said Russia had agreed to show flexibility on a number of issues raised by Trump at the US-Russia summit in Alaska last week.

He went on to accuse Ukraine of not showing the same flexibility in subsequent talks in Washington, blaming Ukraine for hindering progress toward a peace deal.

Lavrov said it was "very clear to everybody that there are several principles which Washington believes must be accepted".

He said this included no Nato membership for Ukraine and discussions of territorial issues: "Zelensky said no to everything," Lavrov said.

He was speaking after EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told the BBC that Putin was seeking territorial concessions from Ukraine that were a "trap that Putin wants us to walk into".

"We are forgetting that Russia has not made one single concession and they are the ones who are the aggressor here," Kallas said.

Later on Friday, Putin said there was "light at the end of the tunnel" for Russia-US relations, referring to last week's meeting with Trump in Alaska which he referred to as "very good, meaningful and frank".

The Russian leader said Trump's "leadership qualities" would help restore relations from recent lows.

He did not mention Ukraine or a meeting with Zelensky.

Despite latest efforts to broker a peace deal, Russia launched one of its heaviest attacks on Ukraine in weeks on Thursday, launching 574 drone and 40 missiles in one night.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone blew up an oil pumping station in the Russian region of Bryansk, halting oil deliveries along the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary and Slovakia - the third attack on the pipeline in nine days.

Hungary and Slovakia are largely dependent on the Druzbha pipeline for their oil supplies, and Budapest says it could take at least five days before operations resume. The two EU member states have complained to the European Commission.

The European Union sought to cut Russia's energy supplies after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and aims to phase out Russian oil and gas by the end of 2027.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wrote to President Trump to complain about the attack on the pipeline, and his officials posted Trump's handwritten response.

"Viktor - I do not like hearing this - I am very angry about it," he wrote.

"Tell Slovakia. You are my great friend."

Lives torn apart in Kyiv after Russia's heaviest bombardment for weeks

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj3ld2r2206o, yesterday

By day, Kyiv can often feel far from the front line. But at night, the war looms large.

In the morning rush hour, the traffic along the Dnipro river embankment is heavy and slow-moving as people try to get to work and go about their daily lives.

During the night, every so often, the air raid sirens go off. Much of the time, people glance at their phones and then decide on their plan of action, depending on the threat.

Last night, monitoring channels such as Telegram alerted Kyiv residents to a potentially heavy attack involving not just drones but missiles too.

They are not always accurate, but this time the air raid sirens rang and people listened.

The muffled thud of air defences intercepting drones and missiles was the soundtrack to most of the night. People can sleep through them.

But then, around 03:00, there was a loud explosion – the sound of a missile that had hit a building. It was enough to wake people up across the city.

People made their way to the shelter. Every so often, we could hear the whirr of a drone overhead; then flashes of light as some were shot down and they fell from the sky.

After the big explosion that woke us up, we could see huge plumes of smoke on the horizon.

That, we now know, was the strike on the Darnytskyi district on Kyiv's left bank.

It was hit by at least one missile, on a night that Russia fired almost 600 drones and more than 30 missiles, according to the Ukrainian military.

Missile and drone strikes were recorded in 13 different locations, and the attack on Darnytskyi was the most deadly.

Arriving at the site on Wednesday morning, we could see the aftermath for ourselves.

The missile ripped through the middle of the low-rise block of flats; the five floors had totally collapsed where it hit.

Rescue workers were clambering over the rubble – some of it was still smouldering.

The brick and wrought-iron balconies were twisted in the blast, some hanging by a thread. Plant pots and fruit baskets sat on broken windowsills, a reminder of the families that until hours earlier had led their lives tucked away behind these walls.

Diggers and trucks were lining up to collect broken bits of the building and clear the way for the workers, trying to sift through the debris in the hope of finding survivors.

Every so often, a stretcher with a body bag was delivered – a victim found in the rubble.

The death toll in Kyiv climbed throughout the day, with at least 21 killed including four children.

Oksana Rumpik, 54, and her husband Mykhailo survived the missile strike on the block of flats, but their gold-coloured Volvo car was hit by shrapnel.

"I just can't," she says, unable to finish her sentence when asked what she makes of the Russian strikes.

"People are dying, simple people are dying. So many are dying, you just cannot imagine."

Her husband believes the only path to peace is without Vladimir Putin.

"If there are negotiations and peace, Putin [can't] be president," he says, before conceding that's an unlikely scenario as he clings to power.

It's been 40 months now since Russia's full-scale invasion but the reality of war in Ukraine's capital is never far away.

Ukraine admits Russia has entered key region of Dnipropetrovsk

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c17n1p24yv9o, 3 days ago

Ukrainian forces have acknowledged that Russia's military has crossed into the eastern industrial region of Dnipropetrovsk and is trying to establish a foothold.

"This is the first attack of such a large scale in Dnipropetrovsk region," Viktor Trehubov, of the Dnipro Operational-Strategic Group of Troops told the BBC, although he made clear their advance had been stopped.

Russia has claimed throughout the summer that it has entered the area, as its forces try to push deeper into Ukrainian territory from the Donetsk region.

In early June, Russian officials said an offensive had begun in Dnipropetrovsk, although the latest Ukrainian reports suggest they have barely breached the regional border.

Any Russian advance into Dnipropetrovsk would be a blow to Ukrainian morale, as a US-led diplomatic bid to bring the war to an end appears to be flagging despite President Donald Trump meeting Russia's Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

The Ukrainian DeepState mapping project assessed on Tuesday that Russia had now occupied two villages just inside the region, Zaporizke and Novohryhorivka.

However, Ukraine's armed forces general staff denied that was the case. The military "continue to control" Zaporizke, it said in a statement, and "active hostilities are also ongoing in the area of the village of Novohryhorivka".

Moscow has not laid claim to Dnipropetrovsk, unlike Donetsk and Ukraine's four other eastern regions, but it has attacked its big cities, including the regional capital Dnipro. An attack overnight into Wednesday also targeted the energy sector in the neighbouring region of Poltava.

Before the war Dnipropetrovsk had a population of more than three million and was Ukraine's second biggest centre of heavy industry after the Donbas, which is made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Although Russian forces have made slow progress in capturing territory and have suffered very high casualties, they have made recent gains in Donetsk.

A small infantry group made a sudden 10km (six mile) push beyond Ukraine's defensive lines near Dobropillia earlier this month, but latest indications suggest their advance has been halted.

Putin is reported to have told Trump he would be willing to end the war if Ukraine handed over the areas of Donetsk region it still controls, but many Ukrainians believe Russia's leader has other plans.

Col Pavlo Palisa, deputy head of the presidential office in Kyiv, warned reporters in the US in June that the Kremlin wanted to occupy all of Ukraine east of the Dnipro river, which cuts Ukraine in half.

The EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, also warned that handing Ukrainian territory to Russia as part of a peace deal was "a trap". "We are forgetting that Russia has not made one single concession and they are the ones who are the aggressor here," she told the BBC.

After meeting Putin in Alaska and then Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington, Trump said last week he had begun arrangements for a summit between the two leaders.

By the end of last week hopes of a breakthrough had dimmed.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted the "agenda [for a summit] is not ready at all" and no meeting was planned.

He also said any discussion on future security guarantees without Russian involvement was "pointless", even though that would be a non-starter for the West.

Late on Tuesday, US envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News he would meet Ukrainian officials in New York later this week and that "we talk to the Russians every day".

President Zelensky has meanwhile urged his Western allies to intensify efforts aimed at agreeing future security guarantees in the event of a deal.

He met the head of Britain's armed forces, Adm Sir Tony Radakin, in Kyiv on Tuesday and the UK prime minister's spokesman said the UK would be ready to put troops on the ground once hostilities had ended.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Tuesday that security guarantees for Ukraine would first and foremost enable the Ukrainian army to defend their country in the long term.

Merz said Zelensky had made clear he was ready to sit down with Putin and now it was Moscow's turn: "If the Russian president is serious about putting an end to the killing, then he'll accept the offer."

Ukraine meanwhile has announced that men aged 18 to 22 can travel abroad, in an easing of a law that has required all up to the age of 60 to gain authorisation.

Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said the change also included those currently in other countries - meaning they could now return to Ukraine and leave again if they wished.

A growing number of Ukrainian parents are sending teenage boys abroad before they reach 18. "We want Ukrainians to maintain their links with Ukraine as much as possible," Svyrydenko said.

Men aged 18 to 22 are not subject to military conscription, which has a minimum age of 25 after it was lowered last year.

An estimated 5.6 million Ukrainian men currently live abroad.

If a Putin-Zelensky summit takes place, where could it be?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cedvexq7z8zo, 8 days ago

Ambitious plans for a bilateral summit between Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia's Vladimir Putin appear to be stalling, only days after Donald Trump expressed confidence that such a meeting could take place within weeks.

Locations from Geneva and Vienna to Budapest or Istanbul have all been mooted as possible venues. Putin and Zelensky have not been in the same room since 2019, three years before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The US president said he had "begun arrangements" for the summit, indicating he believed Putin had agreed to it over the phone on Monday.

This may have been an optimistic reading of the conversation.

Almost at once, the Kremlin shared its own, more vague version of the exchange. Trump and Putin had discussed "the possibility of raising the level of representatives" - said aide Yuri Ushakov – and that could simply mean that ministers, instead of envoys, may take part in the talks.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that a meeting could happen "within the next two weeks". But, he cautioned, "we don't know whether the Russian president will have the courage to attend such a summit" and he pushed for Putin to be "persuaded".

Trump mentioned a "rough" situation for Russia, should Putin not co-operate in the peace process, but declined to be more specific.

Now, as the diplomatic whirlwind dies down, the likelihood of a meeting between Putin and Zelensky seems to be further diminishing.

On the surface, Moscow appears to be open to taking part in bilateral talks between the two presidents. In reality, though, the preconditions it is attaching to a meeting will almost certainly prove unacceptable to the Ukrainian side.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this week that Putin was ready to meet Zelensky provided that all "issues" that required consideration "at the highest level" were worked out. This vague yet uncompromising language has been used by the Kremlin in the past to resist Ukrainian proposals for a bilateral meeting.

Last week Trump envoy Steve Witkoff said that Russia had accepted security guarantees for Ukraine, calling it "a very significant step".

But it now appears that the guarantees in question would be modelled on those first floated by Moscow and rejected by Kyiv in 2022, which would see Russia join a group of countries wielding a power of veto over military intervention in defence of Ukraine.

That proposal would also see a ban on Western troops being stationed in Ukraine, effectively leaving it defenceless in the event of a fresh Russian invasion. Lavrov said on Thursday that any other security framework would be "an absolutely futile undertaking".

Zelensky, meanwhile, has said any meeting with Putin would need to come after Kyiv's allies agreed on security guarantees – which would undoubtedly involve the support of Western forces and exclude Russia, making it the kind that Moscow would never accept.

As things stand, neither Russia nor Ukraine seem ready to budge from their long-held positions - and each is accusing the other of undermining efforts to reach a peace deal.

The possibility of a Putin-Zelensky summit may for the moment seem remote, but that has not stopped speculation about where it might take place.

In the aftermath of the diplomatic frenzy that followed the talks at the White House, Budapest was mentioned as a location for a potential meeting and the Americans were said to be in favour of it.

"They can come to Hungary at any time," said Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Sizjjarto. "Give us an hour's notice beforehand, and we are ready to guarantee fair, decent, safe, and equal conditions for everyone in Hungary."

But not everybody sees the Hungarian capital as sufficiently neutral ground. Prime Minister Viktor Orban is one of the few European leaders who has maintained ties with Putin. He has also blocked funding for Ukraine and has pledged to veto Ukrainian membership to the EU.

"Let's be honest, Budapest did not support us," Zelensky said on Thursday. "I'm not saying that Orban's policy was against Ukraine, but it was against supporting Ukraine," he told reporters, adding that holding talks in Budapest would be "challenging".

On Wednesday Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk posted on X that he was opposed to Budapest hosting talks. The city was the location of a 1994 summit that resulted in Kyiv surrendering its share of the Soviet nuclear arsenal in return for Russian security assurances. Those were later rendered meaningless by Moscow's illegal 2014 annexation of Crimea and its 2022 full-scale invasion.

"Maybe I'm superstitious, but this time I would try to find another place," quipped Tusk.

France's Emmanuel Macron raised the possibility of the summit being held in Switzerland – a militarily neutral European country with a long history of hosting high-stakes talks. Zelensky also mooted Vienna, the seat of several international organisations.

In 2023 the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for Putin alleging war crimes in Ukraine but Switzerland and Austria – both ICC signatories – have said they would grant immunity to the Russian president if he came for peace talks.

Turkey too has been floated as an option.

There is a precedent, as Istanbul has already hosted three rounds of direct delegation-level talks between Ukraine and Russia since April, although they failed to result in any meaningful progress towards a ceasefire beyond an agreement on exchanging prisoners of war.

The Vatican and Saudi Arabia were also mentioned by Ukraine as possible locations. The Vatican has long put itself forward as a suitable venue, while Saudi Arabia has previously brokered prisoner exchanges between Kyiv and Moscow.

Away from high-level diplomacy, the war shows no sign of abating.

On Thursday Ukraine said its armed forces had struck an oil refinery in Russia's Rostov region, which borders Ukraine's eastern regions of the Donbas.

Russia, meanwhile, launched its biggest wave of strikes on Ukraine for weeks, killing one person and wounding many more.

"There is still no signal from Moscow that they are truly going to engage in meaningful negotiations and end this war," Zelensky said on social media. "Pressure is needed."

Why Donetsk 'fortress belt' matters so much for Ukraine's defences

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj6yd4d5zj6o, 9 days ago

A key takeaway from the summit in Alaska is that Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly wants to freeze the war in Ukraine along its current front line in return for the surrender of the rest of Donetsk region.

Russia holds about 70% of the region (oblast), including the regional capital of the same name, after more than a decade of fighting in which Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk have been the bleeding heart of the conflict.

For Russia to gain all of Donetsk would cement its internationally unrecognised claim to the oblast as well as avoiding further heavy military losses.

For Ukraine to withdraw from western Donetsk would mean the grievous loss not just of land, with the prospect of a new exodus of refugees, but the fall of a bulwark against any future Russian advance.

Here we look at why the territory matters so much.

What does Ukraine still control?

Where is the territory's military value?

A recent report by the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) describes a "fortress belt" running 50km (31 miles) through western Donetsk.

"Ukraine has spent the last 11 years pouring time, money, and effort into reinforcing the fortress belt and establishing significant defense industrial and defensive infrastructure," it writes.

Reports from the region speak of trenches, bunkers, minefields, anti-tank obstacles and barbed wire.

Russian forces attacking in the direction of Pokrovsk "are engaged in an effort to seize it that would likely take several years to complete", the ISW argues.

Fortifications are certainly part of the Ukrainian defence but so is the topography.

"The terrain is fairly defensible, particularly the Chasiv Yar height which has been underpinning the Ukrainian line," Nick Reynolds, Research Fellow for Land Warfare at the UK-based Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), tells BBC News.

However, he adds: "If you look at the topography of the Donbas, eastern Ukraine in general, overall the terrain doesn't really favour the Ukrainians."

"The city of Donetsk is high ground. It's all downhill as you go west, which isn't great for the Ukrainians in terms of running defensive operations.

"That's not just about drawing in for the close fight or difficulties going up and down hill, a lot of it is also about observation and thus the ability to co-ordinate artillery fires and other forms of fire support without putting drones up.

"Likewise bits of high ground are better for radio wave propagation, better for co-ordination of drones."

Chasiv Yar, which the Russians recently claimed to have captured, "is one of the last bits of high ground the Ukrainians control", he says.

Intelligence via satellite imagery, whether provided by Ukraine's international partners or commercial, is very important, Reynolds notes, "but it is not the same as being able directly to co-ordinate one's own tactical missions".

Does the Russian military need all of Donetsk?

Western Donetsk is just a small part of a front line stretching some 1,100km but it has seen some of the fiercest Russian attacks this summer.

But were Moscow to channel its ground forces in any different direction, it is doubtful whether they would make any better progress.

"In the south, the front line in Zaporizhzhia is now very similar to the one in the Donbas, so that would be just fighting through extensive defensive positions as well," says Reynolds.

"The Russians face the same problem trying to bash through in the north, so they certainly wouldn't be pushing on an open door."

Would Ukraine be able to rebuild its defences further west?

In theory, in the event of a peace deal, the Ukrainians could move their line back further west.

There would, of course, be the issue of unfavourable terrain, and building deep defences would take time, even with the help of civilian contractors not having to work under fire.

But theory is one thing and Rusi's land warfare research fellow cannot see the Ukrainian military giving up western Donetsk without a fight.

"Even if the Trump administration tries to use ongoing US support or security guarantees as leverage," Nick Reynolds says, "based on previous Russian behaviour, based on the explicitly transactional approach that the US administration has taken, it is hard to see how the Ukrainian government would want to give up that territory."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his country will reject any Russian proposal to give up the Donbas region in exchange for a ceasefire, arguing that the eastern territory could be used as a springboard for future attacks.

What security guarantees for Ukraine would actually mean

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2qr08l1yko, 10 days ago

In the wake of this week's historic White House meetings, President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine and its allies are "already working on the concrete content of the security guarantees".

Sir Keir Starmer has been chairing a virtual meeting of those nations prepared to help secure Ukraine after a peace deal - the so-called "coalition of the willing".

And Britain has dispatched its Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, to Washington to work out how the US can help. The cogs are clearly turning.

But what do "security guarantees" actually mean in practice?

There is a wide spectrum here, ranging from the much overused "boots on the ground" to the threat of crippling economic sanctions on Russia's oil exports.

Let's start with what Ukraine wants, and isn't going to get, at least not for the foreseeable future, and that's membership of Nato.

US President Donald Trump has ruled that out but there are plenty of other Nato members who also quietly oppose it, such as Slovakia, mainly on the grounds it would dramatically raise the chances of the transatlantic alliance getting dragged into a shooting war with Russia.

Clearly Ukraine will need strong security guarantees after a peace agreement is reached, to prevent Russia from coming back and taking a second, or third, bite.

This is why Sir Keir and President Emmanuel Macron of France have been putting together the 30-plus nation "coalition of the willing" with the aim of providing Ukraine with some international reassurance after a peace deal is signed.

Policing Ukraine's airspace is one likely option. This could be done by basing planes at existing airbases in neighbouring Poland or Romania, with US participation.

But they would still need clear and robust rules of engagement if they are to be anything more than a symbolic gesture.

In other words, pilots need to know whether or not they can shoot back if Russia violates the peace deal by say, firing a cruise missile at a Ukrainian city.

The Black Sea is another area where Western security guarantees could help keep Russia's fleet at bay and ensure the free flow of commercial vessels out of ports such as Odesa.

On land, the situation becomes more problematic. Ukraine is a vast country and the front line currently stretches for more than 600 miles, or 1000km-plus.

The "coalition of the willing" cannot possibly muster enough troops to deploy to safeguard that line of contact, even if Russian President Vladimir Putin would agree to that, which he won't.

The Kremlin has reiterated its absolute opposition to the presence of any Nato troops in Ukraine, under whatever badge. So military support here is likely to be more in the areas of training, intelligence and logistic support, helping Ukraine to rebuild its bruised army, along with an ongoing supply of weapons and ammunition.

A big question mark, though, remains over what Russia will accept as security guarantees for Ukraine. Plenty of commentators online have suggested that Moscow should have no say in this matter at all.

But no countries in the coalition of the willing are prepared to send troops into Ukraine opposed. Nobody wants to start World War Three.

John Foreman, a former British military attaché in Moscow who has been following every twist and turn of this conflict, told me: "Russia might accept a US security guarantee for Ukraine in return for formal recognition of the occupied territories, effectively partitioning Ukraine for the long term, and no NATO (troops) in Ukraine and no Ukraine in NATO…Whatever happens, the Coalition of the Willing is no substitute for US power."

Will the US step up?

Numerous military experts have said any future "reassurance force" provided by the coalition of the willing must have input from the US, something that up until the Alaska summit last week, Donald Trump had declined to commit to.

He has now said the US will be involved, but with no boots on the ground in Ukraine.

In an ideal world, what Ukraine and its allies would like from Washington is both US support for this notional future force but also, more crucially, a solid undertaking that if Russia breaches the peace deal and looks like renewing its assault on Ukraine then US military muscle – especially air power – will be on-hand to back up the Europeans.

Trump has hinted that US air support will be available in some form but given how many times he has changed his position over how to end this war, this is less than reassuring.

Lt.Gen (retd) Ben Hodges, who commanded US Army forces in Europe, says he is sceptical that the "US is really serious about security guarantees for Ukraine and will deliver more than just words".

He adds: "The Europeans do not trust Vladimir Putin and they are not confused about who the aggressor is in this war. They are concerned that Trump is unable or unwilling to acknowledge that Russia is the aggressor. Putin will not abide by any agreement unless he is forced to do so".

And here lies the inherent contradiction about security guarantees. How do you make them robust enough to put Russia off attacking Ukraine again, yet not so robust that Russia opposes them and threatens to target Western assets if they go ahead without Moscow's consent?

The former British Defence Secretary Sir Ben Wallace believes the West, collectively, has not been firm enough in standing up to Vladimir Putin.

"The reality that everyone seems to want to avoid admitting or doing anything about is that Putin shows no sign of wanting to stop the killing," he says.

"Until Trump or Europe or both are prepared to do something to make Putin want a change then little will be achieved."

Edward Arnold, senior research fellow for European security at the London-based thinktank RUSI, concludes the coalition of the willing has been "successful in providing a format which is flexible and can engage with Trump in a constructive way while supporting Ukraine".

But he cautions: "It remains a political aspiration, rather than a hardened military construct. The next couple of months will really test its resolve and political risk appetite".

Trump under pressure as obstacles to progress on Ukraine persist

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c776edpr10eo, 10 days ago

Last Friday, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin met in Alaska for a summit that was high on pomp and pageantry and low on diplomatic breakthroughs in the push to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

On Monday, six European leaders rushed to Washington DC to meet with Trump and assess the consequences of that Putin meeting. While the gathering at the White House was historic, it too was heavy on rhetoric and light on tangible progress.

With little to show from two summits, pressure is intensifying on a president who made ending foreign wars a key campaign promise. But there were two potentially significant developments.

In Monday's White House confab, Trump appeared open to providing US security guarantees for Ukraine if a deal is struck. That is viewed by the Ukrainians, and their European allies, as an essential component in reaching a durable peace.

On Tuesday morning, Trump hedged a bit, saying a US commitment might entail "air support" rather than American soldiers in Ukraine and that Europe would have to shoulder most of the burden.

He also said "arrangements" were being made for a bilateral summit between Putin and Zelensky - although the location and details remain very much up in the air - after which he would directly participate in a three-way meeting with the two men.

European leaders also want a ceasefire in place before any bilateral meeting, something Trump has said is not likely.

Still, any steps however small towards direct, leader-level negotiations between Zelensky and Putin is an accomplishment.

The simple fact that yesterday's meetings between Trump and Zelensky, and the larger gathering of European leaders, was conducted in a friendly, co-operative fashion is itself notable given Zelensky's acrimonious White House visit in February and the sometimes contentious relations Trump has had with his European counterparts.

Trump seemed to enjoy being the gracious host both in Alaska and at the White House, and his comments suggest he views ending the war in Ukraine as a key to cementing his legacy.

"If I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons," he said in a Tuesday television interview.

But the path to heaven is narrow, as the saying goes, and there are still numerous obstacles to ending the war in Ukraine, not the least of which is that it is still not clear that Putin wants the war to end when he is making grinding progress on the battlefield.

The Russian leader may feel that his position only grows stronger as time goes by and that the best strategy is to slow negotiations while avoiding new US sanctions that could further damage its economy.

Trump has put those sanctions, which appeared likely as recently as two weeks ago, on indefinite hold, and he appears to legitimately believe that Putin wants to make a deal.

In private comments to French President Emmanuel Macron that were picked up by a live microphone, Trump said as much.

"I think he wants to make a deal for me, you understand that?" Trump said. "As crazy as it sounds."

It may sound crazy given that Putin has continued his relentless attacks on Ukraine for nearly four years. It may also sound naïve. But the American president is putting a considerable amount of faith in Putin's supposed good intentions.

Even if Putin proves to be a reliable negotiating partner – a big if – Trump himself can be a mercurial ally. While the meetings at the White House went smoothly, he has made hairpin turns in American foreign policy before and he could do so again. Just in the last eight months, his views on Zelensky have careened between sharply critical to supportive.

A peace that depends on American assurances may not be a firm foundation on which to build. The sometimes unseemly efforts of European leaders to lavish Trump with praise on Monday hinted at their concerns about his sometimes tempestuous nature.

"I think in the past two weeks we've probably had more progress in ending this war than we have in the past three and a half years," Finnish President Alexander Stubb said.

The Europeans' hastily arranged trip to Washington DC was designed to sandwich Putin to limit his ability to influence Trump's thinking.

Besides the key players, there is another voice factoring into Trump's decision making process - his political base that takes his "America first", non-interventionist rhetoric to heart.

Any security assurances, any commitment of military resources or any new foreign obligations Trump might consider taking on to reach a peace deal may be viewed sceptically by his supporters.

They were uneasy during the US strikes on Iran in June, and that was only one night of action. More permanent American obligations to Ukraine at a time when a large segment of the nation would prefer focusing inward could put Trump in a difficult position – one that he might prefer to avoid entirely.

Whatever progress has been made, there is still one fundamental reality that undergirds American involvement in the peace process in the days ahead. Trump may want to be viewed by the world – and history – as a peacemaker. But when compared to Europe, Russia or certainly Ukraine, he has the least at stake during these negotiations.

In the end, Trump could just leave the table. The ability to walk away is also a kind of power.

Four key takeaways from Ukraine talks in Washington

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yp4jggrj2o, 11 days ago

1. A Putin-Zelensky meeting on the cards?

Following the summit, Trump posted on Truth Social that he had called Putin to begin arranging talks between the Russian leader and Zelensky.

Trump said that following such a bilateral, at a location to be determined, there would be a trilateral where the US president would join them.

A Putin adviser said afterwards that Trump and Putin spoke for 40 minutes by phone on Monday.

Before European leaders sat down with Trump in the East Room at the White House, a hot mic picked up remarks between the US leader and French President Emmanuel Macron.

"I think he wants to make a deal. I think he wants to make a deal for me. You understand that? As crazy as that sounds," Trump told Macron, appearing to refer to Putin.

It remains to be seen how straightforward it will be to bring two such bitter enemies face-to-face at the negotiating table for the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

For months, Zelensky has been pushing to meet Putin, although this was likely a way of proving his argument that Russia is not serious about pursuing peace, as he believed the Kremlin had no interest in such a meeting.

Moscow has repeatedly turned down the idea of a Putin-Zelensky sit-down.

A noncommittal statement from Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov on Monday night said it was "worthwhile" to "explore the possibility of raising the level of representatives" from the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in negotiations.

2. Europeans push back as Trump backs away from ceasefire

Trump seemed to dismiss the need for any ceasefire before negotiations to end the war can take place.

In the past, that has been a key demand of Ukraine, which made clear it sees an end to the fighting as a prerequisite for further talks with Russia and, ultimately, for a longer-term settlement.

A ceasefire could also be marginally easier to agree than a full peace deal, which would take many months of negotiations, during which Russia's assault on Ukraine would probably continue.

"I don't know that it's necessary," Trump said of a ceasefire.

But the European leaders appeared to push back, with the strongest rebuttal coming from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

"I can't imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire," Merz said. "So, let's work on that and let's try to put pressure on Russia."

When asked to speak, Zelensky did not reiterate his previous calls for a ceasefire to be put in place.

3. Trump hints at security guarantees

Trump told Zelensky the US would help guarantee Ukraine's security in any deal to end the war, without specifying the extent of any assistance.

The US president did not offer boots on the ground. But when asked by reporters whether US security guarantees for Ukraine could include any American military in the country, Trump did not rule it out.

He said Europe was the "first line of defence", but that "we'll be involved".

"We'll give them good protection," the president said at one point.

This is the most decisive Trump has ever sounded on the issue of security guarantees, which are generally seen as paramount to any sort of deal with Russia.

He also said that during last week's Alaska summit Putin had accepted that there would be security guarantees for Ukraine as part of any peace deal.

At a news conference after Monday's meetings, Zelensky said part of the security guarantee would involve a $90bn (£67bn) arms deal between the US and Ukraine.

He said this would include US weapons that Ukraine does not have, including aviation systems, anti-missile systems "and other things I will not disclose".

Zelensky also said the US would buy Ukrainian drones, which would help fund their domestic production of the unmanned craft.

The Ukrainian president told reporters that security guarantees for Kyiv would probably be worked out within 10 days.

4. Zelensky launches charm offensive

Given his acrimonious last visit to the Oval Office in February, the Ukrainian president went to considerable lengths to charm his American hosts - including a flurry of six "thank yous" within the first few minutes of the meeting.

The last time he was at the White House, Zelensky was scolded by Vice-President JD Vance for a perceived lack of gratitude for US support for Ukraine.

This time, Zelenksy was wearing a dark suit rather than his traditional military garb, which drew a gibe from Trump last time that his guest was "all dressed up today".

Zelensky also sought to forge family ties during the meeting, handing his host a letter from Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska to be delivered to US First Lady Melania Trump.

"It's not to you - [it's] to your wife," he told Trump.

European leaders dialled up the flattery with Trump ahead of their multilateral meeting, heaping praise on him for his work in bringing them around the table.

"I really want to thank you for your leadership," said Nato chief Mark Rutte.

Italian PM Giorgia Meloni said while there had previously been no sign that Russia wanted to move towards peace "something had changed" thanks to Trump.

Despite the warm tones, the Europeans tried to convey that they, too, feel exposed to any future Russian aggression.

French President Emmanuel Macron told fellow leaders somberly: "When we talk about security guarantees, we're also talking about the matter of the security of the European continent."

'The world is behaving irrationally' - Putin's warm welcome gets cold reaction in Ukraine

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg4mj4011lo, 13 days ago

Ukrainians went to bed on Friday night with the frightening possibility that Donald Trump could be seduced by Vladimir Putin into offering significant concessions on the war.

They woke up on Saturday morning to find that the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska instead had fizzled out without any strategic or political agreements. It was a rare example of a failed summit coming as a relief.

In the absence of any real developments, attention in Ukraine turned to the presentational aspects of the summit – the "optics", in political speak.

Putin, the man responsible for the devastating war of aggression against Ukraine, had received the warmest welcome possible in Alaska. American soldiers knelt to literally roll out the red carpet for him. Trump applauded him as he approached and offered a friendly handshake. The two leaders rode together alone in Trump's presidential limousine and Putin could be seen laughing as the car pulled away.

For the Russian president, who has been shunned internationally since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the greeting marked the beginning of a remarkable return to the global diplomatic stage and set a tone that would continue throughout the day.

In Ukraine, it was not a welcome sight.

"Red carpets and this level of ceremony are normal at international events, but in this case – for an aggressor responsible for the deaths of millions – it should not have happened," said Maria Drachova, 40, a lawyer in the capital Kyiv.

Drachova, who woke up and watched the footage over breakfast, said it appeared as though "the entire event was staged to please Putin".

"The rational world is behaving irrationally by giving him this welcome," she said.

Putin's plane had been escorted into the airbase in Alaska by four American fighter jets and as he strolled down the red carpet, talking jovially with Trump, an American B-2 bomber flew overhead flanked by four more jets.

Ukrainians who had stayed up late to watch the spectacle were seeing the "legitimisation of a war criminal at the highest level", said Oleksandr Kovalenko, a Ukrainian writer and political analyst.

"There was no need for this pomp at all," Kovalenko said. "This is a meeting that should have been conducted in a much more restrained way – minimalistic, without this level of respect."

After the greetings, Trump and Putin sat down in front of a gaggle of reporters at Elmendorf Air Force Base, under a banner that read "Pursuing Peace". A question was shouted at Putin: "Will you you stop killing civilians?"

The Russian leader appeared to smirk, and gestured to his ear to suggest he couldn't hear.

Along with the smiles, laughter, and general good will on show, the gesture struck a very sour note in Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands have been killed and wounded in Russia's war of aggression.

"When I saw what happened I felt crushed," said Serhii Orlyk, 50, from the eastern province of Donetsk, which has been largely seized by Russian forces and seen some of the most intense fighting of the war.

"I lost my home twice, in Sloviansk and in Donetsk. I lost relatives," Orlyk said. "I understand that to agree on something, there must be protocol, you cannot just slap Putin in the face when he arrives. But it was a very unpleasant spectacle – especially his smirks."

The deference to Putin continued after the negotiations. In a joint statement to the press, Trump gave way to the Russian leader to speak first. He spoke for about eight minutes, carefully avoiding any mention of how the war began – with a striking and unprovoked act by Russia.

Putin appeared energetic, satisfied by how the summit had gone. Trump, by contrast, appeared uncharacteristically deflated, and spoke for barely two minutes. He could not boast of anything approaching a deal – the currency by which he tends to operate.

Instead, he had handed the initiative to Putin, said Kier Giles, a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia program at Chatham House.

"It was a massive victory for Putin even before he got off the plane, to be rehabilitated in this manner," Giles said. "Trump has facilitated him arriving to be greeted as a head of state, when he ought to be finding it difficult to travel because he is an internationally wanted war criminal."

Trump's approach would be unlikely to inspire European leaders to follow suit, Giles said. "If anything, it will reinforce how important it is not to endorse Putin's demands on Ukraine, and not to subject themselves to the same kinds of spectacle that is earning Trump scorn."

In a statement on Saturday, President Zelensky stressed the importance of European leaders being present at every stage of the negotiations. They are often seen as a bulwark against the possibility of Trump being unduly influenced by Putin.

But before that happens, Zelensky will head on Monday back to Washington, the scene of his disastrous Oval Office clash with Trump back in February. He will be hoping for a better outcome this time, and a path to peace that doesn't involve surrendering to Russia's aggressive demands.

The US had a "wide range of tools" at its disposal to assist Ukraine in that mission, said Oleksandr Kovalenko, the political analyst. But pomp and ceremony for President Putin should not be among them, he said.

"Perhaps this was all intended to deceive and flatter Putin, and push him into following the White House's strategy," Kovalenko said.

"But I doubt it. More likely it is Trump's whim, without any strategy at all."

Additional reporting by Daria Mitiuk

European leaders outraged after Russian strikes kill 23 and damage EU's HQ

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg3y7m2gz0o, today

The head of the European Union's executive Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has spoken of her outrage at Russia's deadliest onslaught on Kyiv since July - which also damaged the EU's delegation office in the Ukrainian capital.

At least 23 people, including four children, were killed and dozens more wounded in the bombardment, Ukrainian officials said.

A five-storey residential building was destroyed, and the EU mission and nearby British Council were damaged.

In a strongly worded statement, von der Leyen said that Russian missiles struck in close proximity to the diplomatic mission: "Two missiles hit in a distance of 50m (165ft) of the delegation within 20 seconds."

Ukrainian forces said Russia had fired almost 600 drones and more than 30 ballistic and cruise missiles - the biggest attack on the capital this month.

Many of those killed were in the five-storey residential building in the south-eastern Darnytskyi district on Kyiv's left bank.

A missile tore through the block of flats at about 03:00, causing it to collapse.

Diggers removed rubble, and rescue workers clambered on top of smouldering parts of the building looking for survivors.

Officials said three of the children killed were aged two, 14 and 17. Several other youngsters were wounded.

From the scene: Lives torn apart in Russian bombardment

The overnight attacks followed a US-led diplomatic offensive aimed at bringing an end to the war and infuriated the UK as well as the EU.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer accused Russia's Vladimir Putin of "sabotaging hopes of peace", while EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said they showed "a deliberate choice to escalate and mock peace efforts".

Moscow had chosen "ballistics instead of the negotiating table", said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who reiterated the need for "new, tough sanctions" on Russia.

Although the Kremlin said Russia was "still interested" in negotiations, von der Leyen said the strikes were "another grim reminder" that Russia would "stop at nothing to terrorise Ukraine", killing men, women and children and even targeting the EU.

The US special envoy on Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said Russia's "egregious attacks" on residential areas threatened the peace that President Donald Trump was pursuing.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Russia had "shown its true face again", and the fact that the EU delegation had come under fire was an indication of the Kremlin's increasing brazenness.

An EU spokeswoman said no diplomatic mission should ever be targeted and the Russian charge d'affaires in Brussels was being summoned in response to the attack.

Russia's ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, was summoned to the foreign office.

Zelensky said the attack on Ukraine's cities and communities was a clear response from the Kremlin to everyone who had called for weeks and months "for a ceasefire and for real diplomacy".

The wave of missiles came after more than 100,000 Ukrainian homes were left without power by Russian drone attacks on energy infrastructure on Wednesday. Another 60,000 consumers were left without power in the central Vinnytsia region in the latest attacks, officials said.

Russian forces also struck a Ukrainian naval vessel, killing one member of the crew and wounding several others. The Russian defence ministry claimed it had used an unmanned speedboat to target the reconnaissance ship Simferopol in the mouth of the River Danube, although Ukraine's military gave no details of where the attack took place.

European Council President António Costa said he was "horrified" by the latest Russian attacks on Kyiv.

The British Council, which fosters cultural relations with other countries and is housed in the same block as the EU's mission, said its office was severely damaged and would be closed to visitors until further notice.

Ursula von der Leyen said the EU was preparing a 19th package of sanctions on Russia and announced she would visit seven EU member states who shared a border with Russia and its ally Belarus over the next few days.

The Commission said she would travel to Latvia and Finland on Friday before going on to Estonia, Poland, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Romania.

President Trump had hoped to organise a summit involving Zelensky and Russia's Vladimir Putin to bring an end to the war, but those efforts have since stalled.

He first met Putin in Alaska before holding talks with Zelensky and European leaders in Washington.

Ukraine's president has backed the move, but the Kremlin has played down any chance of a Putin-Zelensky summit.

Despite the latest setback, US officials will hold talks with a Ukrainian delegation in New York on Friday. Zelensky said they would discuss "military, political and economic components of security guarantees" for Ukraine.

Ukraine is working with its European allies on guarantees aimed at preventing any future Russian attack in the event of a peace deal. Zelensky had talks in Kyiv this week with the head of Britain's armed forces, Adm Sir Tony Radakin.

Russia says it will not accept European troops on the ground and says discussing them without Moscow's involvement is a "road to nowhere".

UK summons Russian ambassador over Ukraine strikes

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c890j8zye0wo, yesterday

Russia's ambassador to the UK has been summoned to the Foreign Office, following Moscow's major strikes on Kyiv overnight.

At least 21 people, including four children, were killed in a wave of attacks on Ukraine's capital, according to Ukrainian officials. The offices of the British Council were also "severely damaged," the organisation said.

Andrei Kelin is thought to have met Foreign Office officials - not ministers - when he attended on Thursday afternoon.

In a post on X, Foreign Secretary David Lammy confirmed Mr Kelin had been summoned, and said that "the killing and destruction must stop".

The British Council which works to promote cultural relationships and educational opportunities between the UK and other countries, said a worker at its office was injured in the attack and is in a stable condition in hospital.

In a statement it said: "Following last night's attack on Kyiv, our British Council office has been severely damaged and will be closed to visitors until further notice.

"While there may be some delays in our responses, our work with our Ukrainian partners in education and culture continues."

Lammy condemned the attack and said: "Putin strikes last night killed civilians, destroyed homes and damaged buildings, including the British Council and EU delegation in Kyiv."

Following the meeting with Mr Kelin, the Foreign Office issued a statement calling for Russia to "stop this senseless killing and destruction immediately".

The ministry added that it has "made clear" to the Russian ambassador these strikes "will only harden UK and Western resolve to support Ukraine".

The Ukrainian military said Russia's attack involved almost 600 drones and more than 30 ballistic and cruise missiles, marking its first combined attack on the Ukrainian capital in weeks.

Alongside the 17 killed and damage to the British Council building, dozens more were injured and a five-storey residential building was destroyed.

The EU will also summon its Russian envoy over Moscow's strikes on Kyiv following the air strike on its office. No one was hurt in this attack.

The bloc's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said the attack showed Russia had made a "deliberate choice to escalate and mock the peace efforts".

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has accused Russia of "sabotaging hopes of peace" with its "senseless" attacks.

Trump adviser calls Ukraine conflict 'Modi's war' as US tariffs on India rise

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzd8gkr5jo, yesterday

A White House official has described Russia's ongoing war with Ukraine as Indian Prime Minister Narendra "Modi's war", stepping up pressure on Delhi to stop buying oil from Moscow.

US Trade Adviser Peter Navarro's comments came hours after US tariffs of 50% on Indian goods kicked in on Wednesday.

The tariffs, among the highest in the world, include a 25% penalty for purchase of weapons and oil from Russia which, the US claims, is a key source of funds for its war in Ukraine.

India has called the tariffs unfair and says it will not scale back purchases, insisting it will seek the "best deal" on oil to safeguard the interests of its 1.4 billion people.

Russia, which supplied less than 2% of India's crude before it invaded Ukraine in February 2022, now accounts for 35-40% of Delhi's oil imports, making it the largest source.

But India has pointed out that the US has not imposed similar additional tariffs on China, which is the largest importer of Russian oil, or the European Union, which still conducts a huge amount of trade with Russia.

Navarro's iteration of the US position came in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

"Everybody in America loses because of what India is doing. The consumers and businesses and everything lose, and workers lose because India's high tariffs cost us jobs, factories and income and higher wages. And then the taxpayers lose because we got to fund Modi's war," he was quoted saying.

When asked if he actually meant "Putin's war" instead, Mr Navarro said: "I mean Modi's war, because the road to peace runs, in part, through New Delhi."

Navarro then went on to add: "What's troubling to me is that the Indians are so arrogant about this. They say, 'Oh, we don't have higher tariffs. Oh, it's our sovereignty. We can buy oil from anyone we want.' India, you're the biggest democracy in the world, okay, act like one."

Navarro's comments came on the day US tariffs of 50% on goods from India took effect, a move that will disrupt millions of livelihoods across the country's export-driven industries. India supplies everything, from clothes to diamonds and shrimp to American consumers.

But despite the war of words between Delhi and Washington - and cancellation of trade negotiations which were set to begin earlier this week - there is still hope of a way out for India, which remains a vital strategic US partner in the Indo-Pacific region.

Analysts say comments by another US official - Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent - expressing confidence in bilateral ties with India point in that direction.

"I do think India's the world's largest democracy; the US is the world's largest economy. I think at the end of the day we will come together," Mr Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business on Wednesday.

The tariff setback has sent the Indian government into firefighting mode. Delhi has said the immediate impact on Indian exports appears limited, but the ripple effects on the economy pose challenges that require immediate solutions.

Earlier this month, Modi promised to cut taxes to mitigate the impact of tariffs.

In its monthly review report for July released on Wednesday, India's finance ministry said that ongoing India-US trade negotiations "will be crucial" in this regard.

Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

Ukraine's children speak of hope in art exhibition

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gljnyxg3go, yesterday

It is home to the famous codebreakers, whose deciphering efforts helped hasten the end of World War Two. As Bletchley Park commemorates the 80th anniversaries of VE Day and VJ Day with events marking a "Summer of Peace", one exhibition is exploring what peace means today for those still embroiled in conflict.

"Peace Through Our Eyes" features works from young Ukrainians, now living in Milton Keynes, who have offered their thoughts on the future of peace in their homeland.

'I don't want my country given away'

Ten-year-old Tadei is wise beyond his years.

He tells me he fled Ukraine via Poland three years ago, living with a host family for a month when he first arrived in the UK. He is now settled in Milton Keynes with his mother, father and brother.

He shows me his drawing of the world's largest plane, the Antonov An-225 Mriya.

A symbol of national pride for Ukraine, the cargo plane was destroyed in its hangar during the first days of the Russian invasion, forging an iconic image that for many marked the start of the war.

Tadei has views on the recent media coverage of US President Donald Trump meeting President Putin. On the so-called "land swaps" Donald Trump has talked about, Tadei said: "This is not how we should work it out."

He added: "I don't want my country to be given away to some country that wants to destroy our entire country… it's like his [Putin's] country are bullies, his bullies, that are launching rockets and artillery to destroy us."

'I hope I can see my grandparents'

For Alisa, eight, her hopes of "peace, no war and no conflict" are displayed among a collection of written messages from children in the exhibition.

She tells me while she hopes Ukraine can secure "victory", her greatest wish is simple - to finally be reunited with the family she has been separated from by war.

"I hope all the children can go back to Ukraine and I can see my grandparents," she said.

The "Peace Through Our Eyes" exhibition in Hut 12 has been open for visitors to Bletchley Park throughout August.

Learning manager Lily Dean said that while the museum was currently commemorating 80 years since the end of World War Two, it felt important to mark ongoing conflicts.

"For our codebreakers 80 years ago, [there was] jubilation at the end of the war and that idea that we wouldn't experience this again in Europe - so to have something that's happening in Europe, so close to home, is particularly something we wanted to reflect on here at Bletchley Park," she said.

"It's incredibly moving stories of young people, some incredibly young... of trauma, of losses, of moving away from their homes... this collection has been incredibly moving for our visitors."

'We all want peace'

Visiting the museum with her granddaughter Alisa is Raissa, 70.

She has recently returned from Ukraine, where she works with the Army as a translator.

She said the mood in the country had changed in recent weeks since those political meetings in Alaska.

"These are not only my feelings, a lot of people in Ukraine are thinking the same. Why should we give up our territories?" she said.

"Yes we all want peace for Ukraine, but at what price? What about those people who gave their lives fighting for those territories, does it mean their sacrifice was worth nothing?"

The "Peace Through Our Eyes" exhibition is a collaboration between the Milton Keynes' charity, Ukraine Appeal, the Middle Eastern Cultural Group and the Bletchley Park Trust.

It runs until 29 of August.

European leaders boost Moldova in face of 'relentless' Russia

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2xzng4rwro, 2 days ago

Leaders from France, Germany and Poland have travelled to Moldova to show support for the country's accession to the EU and warn of Russia's "relentless" efforts to undermine that ambition.

The visit comes as Moldova marks 34 years of independence from Moscow, declared as the Soviet Union fell apart.

But it is also taking place a month before critical parliamentary elections in which the EU and the Moldovan government fear pro-Russian elements could gain ground.

Flanked by European heads of state, Moldova's pro-Western President Maia Sandu told her country that it proved EU membership was "not a distant dream, but a project we are working on", one that is vital as a guarantee of security.

"The merciless war that Russia wages against Ukraine shows us daily that Europe means freedom and peace, whilst Putin's Russia means war and death," the president said.

Ukraine is close by, just across the border.

Last year Sandu called a referendum on enshrining the goal of EU membership in the constitution. The "yes" vote narrowly won.

Shortly after that vote, the president, who went to Harvard and used to work for the World Bank, won a second term after a tense second round.

There were allegations of Russian interference with evidence of everything from widespread disinformation campaigns to paying cash for votes, as our own team discovered on the ground.

Today, Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that is because Moscow "is trying relentlessly to undermine freedom and prosperity in Moldova," as Vladimir Putin attempts to return it to Russia's fold.

In response, Sandu is focused on forging strong relations with Europe.

In Chisinau she laid out the red carpet for her guests, greeting each of the leaders in turn before leading them up steps lined by soldiers standing to attention in white, elaborately embroidered capes.

Inside, in front of EU flags, President Emmanuel Macron described membership of the bloc as the "clear and sovereign choice" of Moldova and said he was there to convey "a message of solidarity and confidence" in that process from France.

Donald Tusk recalled how Poland's own journey from beneath Moscow's shadow towards EU accession had been littered with challenges, but worth the work. "You have chosen the right path," said the Polish prime minister. "You chose peace not war, and we support your aspirations."

Moldova has been a firm supporter of Ukraine since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, fearful that its own land was also in Putin's sights. Today, Merz said that Europe and the US were "putting everything" into trying to end the war there.

"We want to see the weapons in Ukraine finally to fall silent …ideally today…but not at any cost," the chancellor warned. "We don't want to see the capitulation of Ukraine. Such a capitulation would only buy time for Russia, and Putin would use that to prepare the next war."

President Sandu's party, PAS, are hoping that elections next month will give it a new mandate to push ahead with reforms and keep moving closer towards Europe, after the country began formal accession talks last year.

But polls suggest PAS will lose seats – and likely its majority - in parliament.

Which is why the president called in the European cavalry for Independence Day: keen to make Moldova's path to EU membership as "irreversible" as she asserts.

A 'joyful' girl and a boy who loved sports - Victims in Minneapolis shooting identified

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpv0egk8d1ro, today

Two children who were killed in an attack on a Catholic school in Minneapolis have been identified by their parents as Harper Moyski, a "joyful" big sister, and Fletcher Merkel, who loved "any sport that he was allowed to play".

While celebrating Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church on Wednesday, both Harper, 10, and Fletcher, 8, were killed in a gun attack that also injured 18 people.

"Yesterday, a coward decided to take our eight-year-old son Fletcher away from us," his father, Jesse Merkel, said in a news conference on Thursday, adding: "Please remember Fletcher for the person he was and not the act that ended his life."

Harper's family said she was "bright, joyful, and deeply loved".

In an emotional statement to reporters, Mr Merkel said that because of the attack that killed Fletcher, "we will never be allowed to hold him, talk to him, play with him, and watch him grow into the wonderful young man he was on the path to becoming."

He said his son loved his family, cooking and sports - especially fishing.

He added that he hoped those injured might recover quickly and that those victims - especially the children - could "recover mentally and find strength to live loving, happy and full lives".

Choking back tears, Mr Merkel asked that the public remember his son for the loving 8-year-old boy he was, and not the way he died.

"Give your kids an extra hug and kiss today," he said. "We love you. Fletcher, you'll always be with us."

The family said they hope to establish a scholarship fund in their son's name.

The family said that Harper's little sister "adored her big sister and is grieving an unimaginable loss".

"As a family, we are shattered, and words cannot capture the depth of our pain."

They added that the family hopes "her memory fuels action" to stop gun violence.

"No family should ever have to endure this kind of pain," they said. "Change is possible, and it is necessary - so that Harper's story does not become yet another in a long line of tragedies."

"Harper's light will always shine through us, and we hope her memory inspires others to work toward a safer, more compassionate world," they said, asking for privacy in order "to grieve, to support Harper's sister, and to hold tightly to one another."

The wounded include 15 other school children, ages 6 to 15, and three adults in their 80s.

At least one victim remains in critical condition at the hospital.

Vigils have been held across Minneapolis and in the neighbouring city of St Paul, and flags have been ordered to half-mast.

On Wednesday, a moment of silence was held before the baseball game between the Minnesota Twins and the Toronto Blue Jays.

Police have not yet discovered any clear motive for the attack, but say the assailant harboured extreme anti-religious beliefs, and had previously attended the school.

The killer's mother, who also worked at the school before retiring, has not responded to law enforcement attempts to contact her.

CDC director refuses to leave after White House order

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy3zjxy3dwo, yesterday

The director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) remains in a heated standoff with the Trump administration after the White House announced she had been fired.

Susan Monarez - who has only been in the job for a month - refused "to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives" and accused Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr of "weaponising public health", according to her lawyers.

Her lawyer insisted Dr Monarez's sacking was not legal and only President Donald Trump - not White House officials - could remove her.

The reason for her removal was that she was "not aligned with the president's agenda", the White House said in a statement.

At least three senior CDC leaders resigned from the agency, some citing frustration over vaccine policy and the leadership of Kennedy, also known as RFK Jr.

Among them was Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry, who warned about the "rise of misinformation" about vaccines in a letter seen by the BBC's US partner CBS News. She also argued against planned cuts to the agency's budget.

A long-time federal government scientist, Dr Monarez was nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the CDC and was confirmed in a Senate vote along party lines in July.

Her nomination followed Trump withdrawing his first pick, former Republican Congressman Dave Weldon, who had come under fire for his views on vaccines and autism.

On Wednesday, Dr Monarez's lawyers issued a statement saying that she had chosen "protecting the public over serving a political agenda".

The White House statement announcing the termination of her post said: "As her attorney's statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the president's agenda."

On Thursday, Kennedy told Fox & Friends on Fox News that the CDC leadership "needs to execute Trump's agenda".

The CDC, he added, "is in trouble, needs to be fixed".

The New York Times reports that she was at odds with Kennedy, a vaccine sceptic, over vaccine policy.

The White House has said they will name her replacement shortly.

"If people are not aligned with the President's vision and the Secretary's vision to make this country healthy again, then we will gladly show them the door," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday about the multiple exits.

The exodus at the top of one of the world's most foremost public health bodies comes as health experts voice concern over the agency's approach to immunisations since Kennedy took over.

Senator Bernie Sanders, who is the ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) said the sacking was "reckless" and "dangerous" and called for an investigation into the firing of Dr Monarez.

Daniel Jernigan, who led the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, was one of those to quit citing "the current context in the department".

Head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Demetre Daskalakis, also said he was no longer able to serve "because of the ongoing weaponising of public health".

There are also reports, including by NBC News, that Dr Jennifer Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology, has also resigned.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved new Covid vaccines while limiting who could receive them.

The vaccines will be available for all seniors, but younger adults and children without underlying health conditions will be excluded.

"The emergency use authorizations for Covid vaccines, once used to justify broad mandates on the general public during the Biden administration, are now rescinded," Kennedy wrote on X.

Dr Monarez was the first CDC director in 50 years to not hold a medical degree. Her background is in infectious disease research.

In her month as the CDC leader, she helped comfort agency employees after the CDC's headquarters in Atlanta was attacked by a gunman who believed he had been harmed by Covid vaccines.

The attack, in which hundreds of bullets struck the building, killed one police officer.

Earlier this month, current and former employees of the agency wrote an open letter accusing Kennedy of fuelling violence towards healthcare workers with his anti-vaccine rhetoric.

Dr Monarez's departure comes about a week after a union representing CDC employees announced that about 600 CDC employees had been fired.

The wide-ranging layoffs included employees working on the government's response to infectious diseases, including bird flu, as well as those researching environmental hazards and handling public record requests.

Judge orders new trial for officers in fatal Tyre Nichols assault

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crevryze32jo, today

A federal judge in Tennessee has ordered a new trial for three former Memphis police officers who were convicted on charges related to the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols in 2023.

Judge Sheryl Lipman cited concerns of bias after the judge presiding over the original federal trial allegedly suggested one of the defendants was a gang member.

Nichols, 29, was pepper sprayed, kicked and punched during a traffic stop for alleged reckless driving in 2023. He died three days later.

Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith, Jr were all convicted of witness tampering, but were acquitted of the most serious charge - that they had violated Mr. Nichols's civil rights by causing his death.

The fatal beating of Nichols sparked outrage across the United States, and led to nationwide protests over police brutality.

Judge Sheryl Lipman took over the federal case in June after District Judge Mark S Norris, who had presided over the case and trial, recused himself from the case.

Judge Norris is alleged to have said that the Memphis Police Department was "infiltrated to the top with gang members", according to court documents and the judicial order cited by US media.

He reportedly made the comment after one of his law clerks was shot during a carjacking. The incident happened five days after Bean, Haley and Smith were convicted and were allegedly made while expressing frustration with the police investigation into the shooting.

Two other officers - Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr - had both pleaded guilty over their involvement in Mr Nichols' death.

None of the five men have been sentenced.

Earlier this year, Bean, Haley and Smith, Jr were acquitted of state charges after a jury found them not guilty of charges including second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.

That case is separate from their federal convictions, which carry lengthy prison sentences.

Has crime in Washington fallen two weeks on from Trump's crackdown?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czxpzkylg3vo, yesterday

Alongside the taxis waiting outside Union Station in Washington DC, the sight of uniformed troops standing next to armoured military vehicles has been greeting passengers getting off their trains.

It is a striking symbol of President Trump's efforts to tackle a "crime emergency" in the US capital, which has seen his administration take over its police department and send National Guard troops, FBI and ICE agents on to the streets.

Trump says his crime crackdown, which began on 11 August, has had an immediate effect: "The numbers are down like we wouldn't believe, but we believe it".

And he has claimed that it has led to an extended period of time without any murders, a trend he says has not been seen in the US city in decades.

So what do the crime figures show?

Violent crime has fallen

There has been a significant fall in overall violent crime since the crackdown started, according to Washington's Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

It recorded 75 violent crimes from 12-26 August, a drop of 23% on the previous two weeks.

Property crimes, such as burglary and vehicle theft, fell by about a quarter over the same period.

There was a smaller fall in the crime of "assault with a dangerous weapon" and an increase in recorded "sex abuse".

US crime analyst Jeff Asher says this may not reveal the whole picture though.

"Reporting [of crime] always lags so some of that decline is likely artificial. You probably need six weeks or so for incident-based reporting to catch up and make a comparison of the most recent period."

MPD figures also show violent crime has fallen in the city over the past fortnight when compared to the same period last year.

Trump has repeatedly criticised police figures - which showed violent crime falling in 2024 and so far in 2025 - but we cannot find instances of him publicly rejecting the latest police data showing another fall during his crime crackdown.

More than 1,000 people arrested

US Attorney General Pam Bondi has been posting a daily tally of arrests since the DC takeover started.

On August 25, she posted there had been 1,007 arrests.

She has not given a detailed breakdown but US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said nearly half were "illegal criminals who never should have been in this country to begin with".

The MPD said from August 11 to August 25, 2025, it made 1,048 arrests - it would not give a breakdown either.

The Office of the US Attorney General for DC, Jeanine Pirro, told us 88% of arrests in this period have led to charges being filed.

Criminologists caution against citing arrest figures as a successful measure of tackling crime.

They stress that even if an arrest does lead to a charge, prosecutions can fall apart or the defendant can be found not guilty.

Pressure on the court system

The impact of the arrests and charges was evident when BBC Verify visited DC's District Court on Tuesday.

Some defendants have found themselves arrested over crimes which would normally be dealt with by a lower court but are now facing federal offences, which generally result in longer jail time.

Lawyers told us that the court was now struggling to process a bigger caseload.

The number of suspects being dealt with for a new offence has more than doubled in the two weeks after the crackdown - from 22 initial appearances to 49 - according to figures from the DC District Court.

In one hearing, Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui warned that suspects were being held in detention for much longer than they should be.

"If there's going to be a surge in prosecutions there has to be a surge in the protection of human dignity," he said.

Assistant Federal Defender Tezira Abe told the court her client, Darious Phillips, was "very obviously a victim of this incursion in DC of federal agents".

Mr Phillips was arrested on a gun charge last Thursday and remained in detention five days later.

Court documents seen by BBC Verify show the FBI and other federal agents were involved in the arrest, in which a Mac 9 machine gun was allegedly found.

Judge Faruqui said he was concerned that the defendant was now on "suicide watch" and had not yet had the opportunity to enter a plea.

The prosecutor argued in court that Mr Phillips remains a danger to the public and should stay in pretrial detention, not least because he served five years in jail for shooting a man at a gas station in 2018.

The Pentagon has sent 20 military lawyers from its Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps to the US Attorney's Office for DC to help with prosecutions.

The president has also signed a new Executive Order calling for the hiring of additional civilian prosecutors.

US Attorney General for DC Ms Pirro has said tougher sentences need to go hand in hand with the crackdown on crime.

In a statement, she condemned Judge Faruqui's comments and accused him of being soft on gun crime.

What about murders?

On 22 August, Trump told reporters that this is "the first time in anybody's memory, that you haven't had a murder in a week."

It is true that in the week Trump was referring to there had not been any homicides (a police term which includes both murder and manslaughter).

However, the homicide-free streak is not as rare as the president claimed.

DC police figures show there were several similar length periods earlier this year when no homicides were reported.

This happened in the week between 4 and 11 May, for example, and during the two-week period between 25 February and 13 March.

Trump said on 25 August that there had been "no murders in 11 days".

This was true at the time when the last homicide reported by DC police had been on 13 August.

But on 26 August a man was fatally shot in southeast Washington.

Additional reporting by Phil Leake and Daniel Wainwright.

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'My friend got hit in the back': Witnesses describe terror of US school shooting

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cev2w1elx7wo, yesterday

Witnesses to a mass shooting in the US city of Minneapolis have described the "terrifying" scenes after an attacker opened fire on a church in which children were celebrating Mass on Wednesday morning.

One young boy described being protected by a friend who got hit himself.

Two children were killed and 17 others injured in an incident that the FBI is treating as an anti-Catholic hate crime.

The attacker, named as 23-year-old Robin Westman, died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Authorities have not yet given a suspected motive.

Westman was a former pupil of the school that is adjacent to the church, CNN reported. The attacker's mother previously worked at the establishment, according to a school newsletter from 2016.

The young survivor, 10-year-old Weston Halsne, explained to CBS affiliate station WCCO that his friend saved him from bullets by lying on top of him.

"I was like two seats away from the stained glass window," he said. "My friend, Victor, saved me though, because he laid on top of me, but he got hit."

He continued: "My friend got hit in the back, he went to the hospital... I was super scared for him but I think now he's okay."

Weston said he and his classmates were well-drilled in what to do in a shooting situation - but not in the environment in which they found themselves. "We practise it every month, but not in church, only in the school," he said.

The suspect Westman is believed to have approached the side of the Annunciation Church, which also houses a school, and fired dozens of shots through the windows using three firearms. Police also found a smoke bomb at the scene.

Officials are investigating whether the shots were fired from inside the building or outside it, noting that no casings from bullets were found inside.

Locals described their confusion when they heard the shots ring out. One man, Mike Garrity, told NBC News that he believed it was the sound of a nail gun at a nearby construction site.

Bill Bienemann, who lives two blocks away, spoke to reporters near the scene and recalled the moment: "I said there's no way that could be gunfire because there's so much of it."

Another local resident, PJ Mudd, who was working from home on Wednesday morning, told the Wall Street Journal he heard three booms. "It suddenly dawned on me - it was a shooting."

Mr Mudd then ran to the church, where he saw three magazine cartridges on the ground.

Witnesses including Mr Garrity also described the horrifying spectacle of children emerging from the church covered in blood.

Another neighbour, Patrick Scallen, told the BBC that he saw three children fleeing the building - one of them a girl with a head wound.

"She kept saying, 'please hold my hand, don't leave me', and I said I wasn't going anywhere."

A nanny who works nearby said she was relieved to see some children leaving the building unharmed, but was disturbed by "the looks on their faces alone".

"You see videos online, but it does not compare to seeing it and witnessing it in person," Madee Brandt told NBC. "That was rough... it is terrifying."

Hundreds of people attended a vigil for the victims on Wednesday evening at another nearby school.

Those who were injured in the shooting are expected to recover, and some have already been released from hospital.

One mother told CNN that she was relieved her children were not hurt in the incident, but that she had "such mixed feelings right now".

Carla Maldonado spoke of being "incredibly sad and angry that this has to be a thing in any school". She went on to say: "The lives that were lost [are] too much. One is too much. It's not okay."

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz offered a similar sentiment, saying the situation was "all too common - not just in Minnesota, but across the country".

Walz said US President Donald Trump and his team had expressed their "deep condolences" and offered assistance.

Trump later said the US flag would be flown at half-mast at the White House as a show of respect to the victims.

Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, was among those who paid tribute to the young victims, saying he was "profoundly saddened" by the attack.

Giving updates in a press conference on Wednesday, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said the attacker did not have an "extensive known criminal history", and acted alone.

Police say they found a "manifesto" that Westman timed to publish on YouTube at the time of the shooting. The FBI assisted officials and took it down.

Westman's name was legally changed from Robert to Robin in 2020, Minnesota court records show. In the application the judge wrote: "Minor child identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification."

Minneapolis mourns two children killed in shooting - here's what we know

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy40znde9eko, today

Two children have been killed in a shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis which has left more than a dozen people injured.

The attack happened on Wednesday morning at Annunciation Church where children were attending a worship service during their first week of school.

The shooter died at the scene of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The FBI is investigating the incident as an "act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics."

Here's what we know about what happened.

Who is the suspected attacker, Robin Westman?

The attacker has been identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, from suburban Minneapolis. The motive may never be known, officials say.

The attacker - described as being dressed in all black - approached the side of the church, which also houses a school, and fired dozens of shots through the windows using three firearms.

Officials are investigating whether the suspect shot inside the building or if all the shots came from outside the church, noting that no casings from bullets were found inside.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said the attacker did not have an "extensive known criminal history", and acted alone.

Police did find a "manifesto" the suspect timed to publish on YouTube at the time of the shooting. The FBI assisted officials and took it down.

The police chief said the attacker had previously attended mass at the Catholic church and also went to the Annunciation Catholic School, confirming that "there is a connection between the attacker and this particular parish".

The attacker's mother, Mary Grace Westman, previously worked at the school, according to a school newsletter from 2016. A post on Facebook says she retired from the role in 2021.

On Thursday, officials said that she has not responded to law enforcement's attempts to contact her.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey pushed back against hatred directed towards the transgender community in the wake of the attack.

In their own updates, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Westman was a "man, claiming to be transgender", and in his post on X, FBI Director Kash Patel referred to Westman as "a male".

What do the videos and notebooks tell us?

BBC Verify has reviewed two videos on the YouTube account associated with Westman, before the account was closed.

One of them featured notebooks which suggest extensive planning before the shooting.

One page, titled "Annunciation from memory" in Cyrillic, includes a rough sketch of the layout of a church, which Westman points to before stabbing the sketch with a knife.

One of the notes, also largely written in Cyrillic letters, starts by saying that "things are moving swiftly into place" and that Westman is "feeling good about Annunciation" because it is a "good combo of easy attack for me and devastating tragedy".

The suspect lists a series of options for the attack, including during breaktime at a school or a Christmas concert at a church.

These notes are dated to late July, indicating that Westman had been preparing for this attack for more than a month.

There are also a number of guns, bullets and magazines filmed in what appears to be a bedroom.

A racist and an antisemitic message, as well as a message calling for the killing of US President Donald Trump, are written on the ammunition and guns.

Minnesota's acting Attorney General Joseph Thompson spoke about Westman's writings, saying the attacker "appeared to hate all of us", but "more than anything, the shooter wanted to kill children".

Who are the victims?

Two children, aged eight and 10, were killed. Eighteen people were also injured, 14 of whom are children.

The children who died are Fletcher Merkel, eight, and Harper Moyski, 10.

The three adults who were injured were all parishioners in their 80s, O'Hara said.

Thomas Wyatt, chairman of emergency medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center, said seven children aged between six and 14 years old were brought to his department and were in critical condition, with four needing surgery.

Non-critical patients were taken to other hospitals.

All injured victims are expected to survive, officials said.

"Please remember Fletcher for the person he was and not the act that ended his life," his father Jesse Merkel said on Thursday, choking back tears.

"Give your kids an extra hug and kiss today. We love you, Fletcher. You'll always be with us."

The family of Harper Moyski said she "was a bright, joyful, and deeply loved 10-year-old whose laughter, kindness, and spirit touched everyone who knew her".

"No family should ever have to endure this kind of pain," they said in a statement, calling for legislation to prevent gun attacks.

"Change is possible, and it is necessary - so that Harper's story does not become yet another in a long line of tragedies."

A 10-year-old boy who survived the attack told CBS affiliate WCCO that his friend saved him from bullets by lying on top of him.

"I was like two seats away from the stained glass window," he said. "My friend, Victor, saved me though, because he laid on top of me, but he got hit."

"My friend got hit in the back, he went to the hospital... I was super scared for him but I think now he's okay," he said.

What is Annunciation School?

Annunciation Catholic Church and its faith-based school is for students from preschool (nursery-level) up to Grade 8 (aged 14 years old), according to its website.

It is located in a residential area of southern Minneapolis.

The Catholic school's approach to teaching is one of faith-based learning.

The school added that religion "compels" it to engage with its local community. It also has a sister school in Haiti.

Principal Matt DeBoer spoke at a press conference on Wednesday and began his remarks by saying "I love you, I'm so sorry this happened today".

He thanked well-wishers for their thoughts and prayers and asked people to "pray with our feet" to take action against future shootings.

Police Chief Brian O'Hara said that the church's policy of locking its doors after mass begins saved additional lives.

"What's particularly heinous and cowardly about this is these children were slaughtered by a gunman who could not see them," he told the media on Thursday.

Videos show impact of Trump's crackdown in one Washington DC neighbourhood

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1le1zpqyzlo, 3 days ago

Residents in a Washington DC neighbourhood with one of the city's largest Latino populations say they have seen a surge in immigration raids since the Trump administration launched its crime crackdown.

"People are walking around scared," one resident, who wanted to remain anonymous, said. "I've never seen the streets so empty."

Videos posted on social media in the last week show arrests and raids - along with protests by locals - in the Columbia Heights area.

More than 1,000 arrests have been made across the US capital since the crackdown started on 11 August - nearly half were of suspected illegal immigrants, according to the White House.

BBC Verify has reviewed more than a dozen videos filmed in Columbia Heights and spoken to people who live there to assess the impact on the neighbourhood.

Car stopped and windows smashed

One video of two men being seized by law enforcement officers was posted on Instagram by a local journalist on Thursday morning.

In the footage, a number on a distinctive building can be seen. We used this to pin point the location to a road in Columbia Heights - about two miles north of the White House - and headed there to find out more about what happened.

We met a woman who witnessed the incident. She said she didn't know the two men but showed us several videos she had filmed, including one she live-streamed on Facebook at 07:39 that morning.

It shows two men in a red car, surrounded by a group of nine officers - some with "police federal officer" on their vests, some wearing masks.

The officers then smash two of the car windows before dragging the men out, forcing one of them to the ground and putting him in handcuffs.

Both men are walked to an unmarked car and driven away, while the woman filming shouts in Spanish: "They are fighting for their lives… They broke the windows, don't go out, don't go out."

Several other onlookers can be heard chanting "ICE go home", another shouts "you should be so ashamed". Someone names one of the men as "Eric Lopez".

When we arrived, we saw the car being towed away by a man who gave us a number for someone who he said knew the arrested men.

We contacted the person and he texted back to say the men were from Guatemala, in the US illegally, and one had a wife and son. He called them "good kids" and claimed they "do not have a bad record in anything".

BBC Verify asked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for more details.

A spokesperson said ICE agents had "arrested Erickson Sebastian Lopez-Castanon, an illegal alien who was in the car".

They added: "The target of this operation was Darwin Arahely Lopez-Castanon, a criminal illegal alien who has been charged with felony domestic violence. This criminal illegal alien from Guatemala was previously deported twice before he illegally entered the country a third time."

They said the officers had used "the minimum amount of force necessary".

The woman who filmed the videos wanted to remain anonymous but invited us into her home nearby. She said her family was originally from Central America but were now legal US citizens.

Her daughter, who also wished to remain anonymous, claimed the majority of Latino people in the area were undocumented and had become increasingly anxious over the last two weeks.

"I was born and raised here in Washington DC," she said. "My parents fortunately have documents… But I'm always on the edge thinking 'where are they going to hit next? Is it going to be us, even though we have documents?'"

"Even people with documents are hiding because they're scared."

Homes targeted in immigration raids

She told us her uncle's house across the street was targeted by federal agents last week.

"I walked out and saw a bunch of cops outside the house. They were knocking and asking my uncle to open the door, they weren't saying who they were looking for. They weren't showing any documentation."

"We called my uncle" she says, "I was like, don't open the door… after maybe 20, 30 minutes, they end up leaving. But they were so afraid."

The uncle joined us and showed us his documentation, which he says he waved to the agents from his window to prove that he is in the US legally.

He said federal authorities were also patrolling a local park where people play football.

The number of people turning up to play had dropped from roughly 50 to around 15, as many were undocumented and afraid of being detained, he said.

He showed us a picture of a large group of agents gathered near the park.

Several videos also show officers with FBI and Homeland Security markings, as well as local police, surrounding another property on Sunday evening.

Locals can be heard shouting "get out of our neighbourhood".

We located the videos to a street two blocks away.

A photographer who sent us one of the videos said he asked officers why they were there, and one told him it was due to an "exploitation case".

The FBI wouldn't confirm this, but told BBC Verify: "The FBI Washington Field Office conducted court-authorised law enforcement activity at that location on Sunday, August 24."

In May, Trump's senior advisor Stephen Miller said he had set a goal of "a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day" - as the administration tries to deliver on the president's campaign pledge of the "largest mass deportation in history".

"When you look at the type of people who are being arrested [in Washington DC] it seems like they are just trying to fill their deportation quotas," argues Austin Rose, an immigration lawyer.

He believes many will have tried to claim asylum in the US so would already be known to the authorities, making it easier to track them down.

Overall, BBC Verify reviewed 15 videos of incidents involving federal officers in Columbia Heights.

As of 26 August, a total of 169 crimes had been reported this year in the local area around the street we visited, according to DC Metropolitan Police's crime map.

There have been some serious crimes reported in the wider Columbia Heights area - including a suspected shooting earlier this year.

All of the ten people we spoke to on the street said they had felt safe there before the crime crackdown.

"I brought my mom here and she was like, this place feels way more like a neighbourhood than where we used to live… But since the crackdown, it feels less like a neighbourhood and more like a police state," said Winnie Litchfield, who has been living there for a year.

"I stepped out at 06:50 in the morning to go to work and I saw two men arresting a man in a car. They were surrounding him, pinning him, putting handcuffs on him. I stopped and the guy looked at me and shook his head," she said.

Aliaina Hooks, another resident who has lived in the area for three years, said the streets have become much quieter in recent weeks.

"There's usually a lot of Latino vendors that are set up on the sidewalk when I'm walking out of the gym in the morning… but today I was coming home and there was actually no-one set out," she told us.

We asked DHS how many people have been arrested in Columbia Heights and whether the area is being targeted.

A spokesperson said: "We will support the re-establishment of law and order and public safety, so Americans can feel safe in our nation's capital."

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Fed Governor Cook in court to block Trump from firing her

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cedvj2d5538o, today

Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook will seek an emergency temporary restraining order in a federal court on Friday to block Donald Trump from firing her while a lawsuit over the president's action plays out.

President Trump has demanded the removal of Cook, a move that escalates his long-running feud with the institution.

Late on Monday, he posted on his Truth Social account a letter addressed to Lisa Cook, saying she was being removed from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors due to mortgage fraud allegations.

Cook filed a lawsuit to challenge the move, asking the court to declare Trump's firing order "unlawful and void". The potential legal battle has significant implications for the US central bank's autonomy.

There has been an outcry from Democrats, who say it amounts to unprecedented political interference by Trump.

Who is Lisa Cook and what does she do?

Cook was appointed as governor of the Federal Reserve in 2022 by Democratic President Joe Biden, becoming the first African American to serve in the role. Her term was due to end in 2038.

She previously served on Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers and worked at the US Treasury.

There are seven governors on the board of the Fed and they play a key role in setting the monetary policy of the US.

They make up the majority of the committee that decides the level of US interest rates and aims to keep prices stable and unemployment as low as possible.

Cook has voted in recent months to keep interest rates on hold this year.

What has Trump accused Lisa Cook of?

In his Truth Social post, the president cited allegations that Cook may have falsified records to obtain a mortgage.

He said she signed two documents, two weeks apart, attesting that two homes in different states were both her primary residence.

"It is inconceivable that you were not aware of your first commitment when making the second. It is impossible that you intended to honor both," he wrote.

CNN has obtained and reviewed the mortgage documents in question and found she did claim two primary residences but it is unclear whether she informed either lender of the fact.

Cook has not been charged with any wrongdoing and in a statement she said she would fight her dismissal because Trump did not have just cause to fire her.

What does the Fed do?

As the central bank of the US, the Federal Reserve is responsible for running the nation's monetary policy, promoting stability in the financial system, regulating institutions and other tasks.

One of the most visible activities it undertakes is to set interest rates. This has a big impact on the nation's financial conditions by influencing how much money people can borrow.

The Fed functions as a federal agency and is considered to be independent within government - its decisions do not require the president's approval, though it is accountable to Congress.

Can Trump actually fire her?

This question could become the subject of an intense legal battle.

The Federal Reserve Act does not give the president license to remove a Fed official at will but, as Trump noted in his letter to Cook, it does allow him to do so "for cause".

Trump cited a "criminal referral" against Cook - after his ally, the housing finance regulator, recently called for Cook to be investigated for mortgage fraud. But it is not clear whether an investigation has been opened, and Cook has not been charged with any crime.

As well as Cook's denial that there is any cause to sack her, legal experts have shown scepticism. When announcing that a case would be filed over the issue, Cook's lawyer said the effort by Trump "lacks any factual or legal basis".

In a statement of its own, the Fed highlighted that there was a high bar for a president to remove a governor for a reason: "Long tenures and removal protections for governors serve as a vital safeguard, ensuring that monetary policy decisions are based on data, economic analysis, and the long-term interests of the American people."

Market reaction to Trump's move has been relatively muted so far - as investors appear to be waiting to see if the sacking actually comes to pass. However, there was a sell-off of long-term US government bonds on Tuesday, hinting that some investors were concerned about the Fed's independence.

Why does Trump want lower interest rates?

Trump has spent much of his second presidency putting pressure on the Fed, demanding that Powell cut interest rates to lower the cost of borrowing for American businesses and consumers. The target range is currently 4.25 to 4.5%.

Central banks typically cut rates in an effort to boost growth. But there is a balancing act, because higher interest rates help to keep inflation in check. Tackling inflation is another Trump priority.

Lower rates can also help US exporters and easing trade deficits is a central plank of Trump's economic policy.

Powell has so far steadfastly refused to reduce rates since Trump took office, but has hinted at a cut in September.

Boat heading to Canary Islands capsizes, killing at least 49 passengers

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1mp4r5vx27o, today

At least 49 people have died and around another 100 are missing after a boat capsized off the coast of Mauritania, coastguards in the north-west African country have said.

Seventeen people have been rescued and a search is continuing for other passengers aboard the dugout canoe that was heading towards Spain's Canary Islands.

According to survivors, the boat left The Gambia six days before Tuesday's accident, carrying around 160 people on board, mainly Gambian and Senegalese nationals.

The perilous journey over the Atlantic Ocean has become an increasingly common route for African migrants trying to reach Europe.

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South African influencer apologises over viral Russian job videos

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gljnn0wwlo, 2 days ago

A South African influencer linked to a controversial job scheme in Russia has apologised for her role in promoting it in a country where many young people are desperate to find jobs.

Cyan Boujee, whose real name is Honour Zuma, came under scrutiny after one of the videos she posted online advertising jobs for women aged between 18 and 22 went viral.

It prompted the government to issue a warning about the scheme and alert people to the dangers of human trafficking and "unverified job opportunities overseas".

"Immediately when I saw the comments on my stories and on my videos… I knew that this is not something I stand with," the 24-year-old told her 902,000 followers on Instagram.

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EU deal fuelling Mauritania's abuse of migrants - rights group

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cnv7lyp05qzo, 2 days ago

Mauritania's security forces have been systematically abusing migrants from other African countries, a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.

The violations have been exacerbated by a deal with the European Union (EU) and Spain, which aims to curb dangerous sea crossings to the Canary Islands, the rights group alleges.

It documents how migrants and asylum seekers often trying to leave Mauritania have been subjected to rape, torture and extortion at the hands of the military, border personnel and other security staff.

Mauritania has rejected the findings, saying it has taken recent steps to protect migrant rights. The European Commission has said its deal is "anchored" in upholding rights.

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First deportees arrive in Rwanda from the US

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg4xp2my0vo, yesterday

Seven migrants deported from the US have arrived in Rwanda, the first of 250 expected to be taken in by the African state under a deal reached with President Donald Trump's administration.

"The first group of seven vetted migrants arrived in Rwanda in mid-August," Rwandan government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said.

She gave no details about their nationalities, only explaining that four of them would remain in Rwanda, with three opting to return to their home countries.

Rights groups have warned that such deportations could breach international law if people are sent to countries where they risk torture or other abuses.

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Top official embroiled in Equatorial Guinea sex tape scandal jailed

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx27zy49kn3o, yesterday

A nephew of Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who was at the centre of a sex tape scandal last year, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for embezzlement.

Baltasar Ebang Engonga, the former head of the National Financial Investigation Agency, diverted money for personal use, a court ruled.

Nicknamed "Bello" because of his good looks, the married Engonga gained notoriety last year, when he appeared in leaked videos having sex with different women - many of them wives and relatives of people close to the centre of power.

The leak occurred while he was in detention, accused of depositing a huge sum of embezzled money into secret accounts in the Cayman Islands.

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A pregnant woman's diary of escape from war zone: 'I prayed the baby wouldn't come'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9870xjezk4o, yesterday

In the month of May Amira embarked on a perilous journey through one of Sudan's most active war zones.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had just seized the city where she was living - En Nahud in the state of West Kordofan.

The road out was dangerous, but she felt she had no choice. She was seven months pregnant.

"There were no hospitals anymore, no pharmacies," she said, "and I was afraid if I stayed longer, I wouldn't find any vehicles heading out. Travel had become almost non-existent: incredibly difficult and extremely expensive."

The civil war between the Sudanese military and the RSF has brutalised civilians for more than two years. Now, the front line has shifted to the southern region of Kordofan, through which Amira travelled.

The BBC is not using her real name to protect her identity.

As Amira fled, she recorded an audio diary that was made available to the BBC by the global campaigns group Avaaz. We also reached her by telephone in Uganda's capital, Kampala, where she is waiting to deliver her child.

Right from the beginning of the trip there was trouble.

Eventually, the travellers made it to el-Fula, the state capital of West Kordofan. But Amira did not want to stay there any longer than she had to, because the army was closing in.

"I didn't know what would happen if the army reached el-Fula," she recorded in her audio diary, "especially because soldiers have begun targeting people of certain ethnic groups that they thought were linked to the RSF, like the Baggara and the Rizeigat.

"My husband is from one of those groups, even though he has nothing to do with the RSF. He's a public sector worker and studied law - but right now, that doesn't matter. People are being targeted just because of their ethnicity."

The Sudanese armed forces and their allied militias have been accused of going after civilians suspected of collaborating with the RSF in territory they capture, in what the UN has called credible reports of extrajudicial killings.

The military has previously condemned "individual" violations committed by some soldiers when accused of human rights abuses.

The army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan appointed a committee earlier this year to investigate alleged abuses during the military's sweep through central Sudan.

Kordofan, made up of three states, has now become the main battleground. The region is critically important to Sudan's war, as the site of key oil fields, and a strategic centre of major transportation routes.

The involvement of other militias alongside the RSF, especially the powerful SPLM-N, has intensified the violence and amplified a severe humanitarian crisis, making it nearly impossible for aid groups to send in supplies.

After leaving el-Fula, it took Amira three days and several changes of vehicles to get to the border with South Sudan, and safety. There were endless obstacles.

"The RSF drivers were working according to their mood," she said.

"They decided who got to ride, where they sat, and how much they paid. There was no standard pricing - you had to endure it. These men were armed, and violence came easily to them."

Every 20 minutes or so the travellers were stopped at RSF checkpoints and forced to pay those stationed there, she said.

This despite the fact that they were accompanied by RSF-affiliated escorts, who they were also paying.

Food was very expensive, water was scarce.

In one village, el-Hujairat, the travellers managed to connect to the internet, on an RSF Starlink device. But even that had its dangers.

"Once you're back online you have to be careful," Amira said. "If the RSF men hear you - like if you watch an army video, or play an army ringtone or song, or even just mention the Rapid Support Forces casually in a conversation - they'll arrest you."

Road conditions were terrible, and the vehicles kept breaking down - three times during the course of the journey.

Amira's lowest moment came when a tyre burst as she was travelling through an acacia forest, leaving passengers stranded without any water. People driving by said they had no extra space.

"I swear to God, I felt that I might never reach another place again, that I would die right there," she told me.

"I gave up. I only had a blanket, so I took it, lay down and slept on the ground.

"That day, I truly felt that this would be my end right there."

But it was not the end.

Amira and her husband finally managed to hitch a ride on a pick-up truck carrying a cargo of vegetables.

The next day they made it to Abyei, on the border, but travel there was slowed down by rain and flooding.

At this point they were in a vehicle loaded with fuel barrels, which kept getting stuck.

"The car would sink into the mud again and again," says Amira.

"Our clothes were soaked. Our bags, already ruined by dust and heat, were now drenched.

"We were freezing and just praying to reach safety."

Eventually the couple made it to South Sudan's capital, Juba - around 1,300km (810 miles) south of En Nahud - from where they took a bus to Uganda's capital.

Now that she has reached safety, the relief is bittersweet.

Amira is desperately worried about family members who have stayed behind, and sad and anxious as she prepares to give birth.

"I'm very afraid of the feeling of giving birth, because this is my first time, my first baby and I won't have my mother with me," she says.

"It will just be my friend and my husband. I don't know… it's so many things, so unorganised, it's so overwhelming."

Amira is a women's rights and pro-democracy activist who took up relief work during the war, through what are known as Emergency Response Rooms.

Her group was viewed with suspicion by the military, she said. Some members were arrested.

"I was afraid of the army and military intelligence," she told me. "They would arrest young men and keep them detained.

"But when the Rapid Support Forces came, they were not any better. They loot, they rape. They do no less than what the army does. They are all the same."

Despite widespread evidence of looting and allegations of rape, the RSF also says it does not target civilians. It has dismissed charges of ethnic cleansing, describing the violence as tribal conflicts.

Both sides have denied allegations of war crimes.

The challenge for Amira right now - and the joy - is becoming a mother.

But always there is the question of whether she will be able to return to Sudan with her child.

"I hope that Sudan's situation will improve," she says. "It won't be the same safety as before, and it won't be the same people, not the same places - everything will change.

"But if the war stops, there will at least be some kind of security. People won't just die randomly, like they are now."

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

What is behind the passion of Love Island USA's Nigerian fanbase?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2qnwlkrx5o, 5 days ago

Committed Nigerian fans of the reality dating show Love Island USA are all primed to watch the coming reunion of the couples six weeks after the Fiji finale.

"Nigerians love drama. We love 'wahala'," says 20-year-old Nigerian student Ashimi Olamiposi, using the Nigerian Pidgin word for trouble. And there is plenty of that in Love Island.

But the on-screen drama was also matched by off-screen tensions among some in the global fanbase.

Nigerian viewers were often caught in the crosshairs with some branding them "toxic" - and others wanting them to be banned from watching the show.

This all stemmed from accusations that some in Africa's most-populous nation were trying to manipulate the outcome of the public vote as well as interfere with the social media accounts of some of the participants.

For the uninitiated, Love Island USA is the American spin-off of the hit British dating format. Contestants, dubbed "islanders", couple up in a luxury villa in Fiji, navigating challenges, romantic entanglements and public votes under constant camera surveillance. The prize: $100,000 (£86,200) and possibly love.

This year the winners of Love Island USA were Amaya Espinal and Bryan Arenales, who paired up in the last week of the show - and are still together.

Ms Olamiposi is keen to distance herself from what she calls "insane" attempts to affect the outcome.

Nonetheless, her passion for the show is still apparent when she talks to the BBC from Lagos - a month after the finale.

There is excitement in her eyes, her blonde braids swing back and forth as she recollects villa drama, late-night group chats and fierce online skirmishes, like a war veteran sharing combat stories.

"Love Island USA" was tweeted about more than 2.1 million times during the season in Nigeria, peaking at 574,000 tweets in a one day on X - more than in South Africa or Ghana.

Nigerians can watch Love Island using a VPN, which makes it appear as if they are in the US, and then access the app from broadcaster Peacock or, like Ms Olamiposi, view episodes posted on YouTube by anonymous users.

Ms Olamiposi, who had watched previous seasons of Love Island USA, says this year was different - mainly thanks to several TikTok videos of a particular islander: Huda Mustafa.

"I was like: 'Who is this girl bawling her eyes out?'" she says with amusement - adding that she was one of the only islanders who "came for the right reason" and had "depth".

The 24-year-old mother became one of the most talked-about contestants because of her polarising personality, public confrontations and complex relationships with fellow contestants.

Ms Olamiposi stumbled upon a WhatsApp group after she was trawling social media trying to find ways she could vote for her favourite islander, as people outside the US are not supposed to be able to participate.

The group she joined was co-founded by two people - one from the UK and the other in Nigeria.

Of the 200 people in the chat, about 150 were Nigerian, while the rest were from the US, Ghana, Kenya and the UK, Ms Olamiposi tells the BBC.

With military precision and determination, the well-oiled WhatsApp group pooled funds to buy American phone numbers so they could vote.

Donald Clarke, a London-based television producer who worked on the first series of Big Brother Nigeria and has two decades' experience in African reality TV, is not surprised by this and the love Nigerians have for reality television.

"Nigeria has a huge story-telling culture. Nollywood is a symptom of that," he says, referring to the country's massive film industry.

"That drifts into reality TV and the way Nigerian viewers watch it. They're heavily invested, and they express that heavily on social media."

That investment, he explains, is amplified by social media.

"The shows spark conversations, they provoke topics of discussion and then the audience runs away with it. With social media and how it's evolved into memes and shared moments, the conversation becomes as big as the show itself," he says.

For Dr Wendy Osefo, a Nigerian-American sociology lecturer at Wesleyan University and cast member of the reality TV show Real Housewives of Potomac, Nigerians' love for reality TV is linked to the West African country's fraught political landscape.

"A lot of Nigerians politically have lived their life through the lens of being viewers," she tells the BBC.

In a country that experienced military rule for several decades and has had allegations of disputed elections, Nigerians have felt little more than spectators, the 41-year-old explains.

"The biggest reality TV is our political system," she says of Nigeria - adding this could also now be applied to the US.

Admittedly both worlds tend to have big personalities, alliances, betrayals and dramatic twists - in the legislature and the Love Island villa.

And like politics, the Love Island USA fan culture can get vicious, very quickly.

When asked to connect the BBC with more people in her WhatsApp group, Ms Olamiposi was reluctant - wary of potential spies there.

Some Love Island USA fans who support other islanders have infiltrated the group and leaked their conversations and strategies, she explained

"Wahala" then ensued over allegations that efforts were being made by the group to shut down some contestants' social media accounts, which led to the "toxic" accusations.

One user on X said: "Please ban Love Island from Nigeria." This has amassed close to 9,000 likes.

"There gotta be a way to ban the whole Nigeria from watching love island again next year," another person in the US posted.

Someone in the UK tweeted: "Why is it always Nigerians with this toxic attitude towards TV shows?... Nigerians in Nigeria need to leave love island alone."

Tensions between American and Nigerian fans often come down to their different perspectives, especially when it comes to identity, says Ms Olamiposi.

"Black Americans always make it about race whereas Nigerians don't bother so much with that," she says.

On the show's starting line-up, there were four girls alongside Huda Mustafa, who is of Arab heritage.

Chelley Bissainthe and Olandria Carthen were the only black female islanders in that initial line-up and faced a lot of racist comments. When other black women did not support them, some saw it as a betrayal.

Ms Olamiposi says she was dubbed "anti-black" because she supported Mustafa.

"I was bamboozled," she says, her eyes wide with shock.

Dr Osefo says these cultural differences are rooted in distinct historical experiences.

"I think that when you come from a predominantly black nation, race is not something that's at the forefront of your mind," she says, explaining that black people in America do not have the luxury of thinking like that.

The Nigerian fandom is also shaped by the more colourful use of language, the academic says.

"There's a saying that if you hear Nigerians talking, you'd think they're arguing, because we're so passionate.

"Even in how we instruct people. Your mum in the US might say: 'You need to make your bed.' A Nigerian mum might say: 'Do you want to live your life as a pauper forever?' It's deeper and that passion translates to social media."

For Mr Clarke this underlines how deeply reality TV has become embedded in Nigerian culture.

"It's part of the fabric of society now. In its best form, reality TV reflects the audience and reflects the desires and hopes of the people that are watching it."

Watch parties are expected - some virtually - for the viewing of the Love Island USA Reunion, due to stream later on Monday.

"I want everybody to 'stand on business', '10 toes down'," says Ms Olamiposi - using two catchphrases that went viral during this season's Love Island USA.

In essence they convey the message: mean what you say and say what you mean.

If this happens, she, like most Nigerians, will be lapping up the "wahala".

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Russia outsmarts France with nuclear power move in Niger

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y23lvm05no, 3 days ago

Russia has dangled the possibility of building a nuclear power plant in uranium-rich Niger - a vast, arid state on the edge of the Sahara desert that has to import most of its electricity.

It may be deemed impractical and may never happen, but the concept is yet another move by Moscow to seek a geopolitical advantage over Western nations.

Niger has historically exported the metal for further refining in France, but that is changing as the military-led country cuts off ties with the former colonial power.

The uranium-mining operation operated by French nuclear group Orano was nationalised in June, which cleared the way for Russia to put itself forward as a new partner.

It is talking about power generation and medical applications, with a focus on training local expertise under a co-operation agreement signed between Russian-state corporation Rosatom and the Nigerien authorities.

If ever brought to fruition this would be the first nuclear power project in West Africa.

Beyond initial discussions, it is unclear how far down this road things will progress. But already, with this first move, Moscow has shown that it grasps the depth of local frustrations.

For more than five decades Orano - which until 2018 was known as Areva - mined Niger's uranium, to supply the nuclear power sector that is at the heart of France's energy strategy.

The French government-owned company now gets most of its supplies from Canada and Kazakhstan and has projects in development in Mongolia and Uzbekistan.

But the Nigerien connection remained significant and freighted with a degree of political and perhaps even cultural weight.

Yet Paris did not share its nuclear energy knowhow with its loyal African supplier. Niger, meanwhile, has to rely largely on coal-fired generation and imports of electricity from Nigeria.

But now, the rupture in relations between Niger's junta and France has allowed Moscow to offer the hope, however distant, of a nuclear future, something that Areva/Orano, over so many years of local operation, had failed to do.

"Our task is not simply to participate in uranium mining. We must create an entire system for the development of peaceful atomic energy in Niger," Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev declared on 28 July during a visit to Niamey.

Naturally, this is not entirely altruistic. There are economic benefits for Russia and it is part of a broader push to displace Western influence from the Sahel region.

The Russians could get the chance to develop the mine in Imouraren, one of the world's largest uranium deposits.

A French plan to develop the site was initially stymied by the slump in world uranium demand after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. It was revived in mid-2023, only for the military junta that seized power weeks later to then cancel Orano's rights to the Imouraren deposit.

Getting hold of this key asset would cement Russia's already important position in the global production of uranium, a commodity now so vital to world hopes that nuclear power will help in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

And they may well be able to buy up, at a favourable price, all or part of the up to 1,400 tonnes of semi-processed uranium "yellowcake" concentrate that is awaiting export from the Sominak mine operated by Orano at Arlit that was seized by the state in June.

Stocks first piled up after the West African regional bloc, Ecowas, imposed a trade blockade on Niger following the overthrow of Mohamed Bazoum, the country's civilian president, in July 2023. But even after sanctions were lifted the new military regime prevented Orano from resuming shipments.

At one stage China also showed interest in buying some of the concentrate.

The Nigeriens even explored contacts with Iran until the US warned them off pursuing any sale in that particular direction.

Of course, the picture of a Nigerien nuclear power station that Tsivilev has painted poses huge questions - technical, economic and in relation to security in a region notorious for Islamist militancy.

Indeed, the French never seem to have felt the option was worth serious consideration.

For while the refining of ore into yellowcake can be done in Niger, the subsequent conversion, enrichment and transformation into nuclear fuel was being carried out abroad, at Orano's plant at Cap de la Hague in Normandy.

From there it was delivered to France's nuclear power stations.

Building a nuclear plant can take years and such projects require a huge amount of capital investment, and once operational they need a large and secure power supply.

Furthermore, viability depends on the availability of industrial and domestic consumers who can afford the price of the power being generated.

There are also questions over whether a nuclear power plant could be safely built and protected in today's fragile and violent Sahel region. Jihadist armed groups control large areas of terrain in Mali and Burkina Faso, and parts of western Niger which makes the area highly insecure.

Given the time, the costs and the complications of developing the nuclear sector in Niger, this remains a distant prospect.

It probably does not offer an early means of easing the current pressure on energy supply or its need for economic diversification.

But in a sense, these technical questions are missing the point.

What Russia has seized on is Nigeriens' sense of resentment at the French assumption that they should be content to indefinitely remain a supplier of raw minerals, without the hope of ever graduating to a more industrialised level.

Allied military regimes in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso have now applied their African sovereigntist vision to their biggest export, gold.

New mining rules force foreign investors to give larger roles to local business partners and ensure that some of the production is refined locally, keeping more of the "added value" of jobs and profit at home.

Mali has even detained some executives of the Canadian gold mining firm Barrack for months in a dispute about revenue.

Now Niger has also played hardball.

The shutdown and eventual nationalisation of Orano's operations have been surrounded by mutual recrimination, with the government and the company accusing each other of obstructiveness.

The group's director in the country, Ibrahim Courmo, has been held in detention without charge since May.

And the junta in power today now seems determined to bring the era of French uranium mining in Niger to an end, with one official telling the Paris newspaper Le Monde that Orano had been "stuffing itself with our country's natural resources".

Who can say what Moscow's proposals for nuclear scientific partnership and perhaps even power generation will ever amount to in concrete terms?

But one thing is clear, in Niger it is the Russians who have correctly read the political mood.

Paul Melly is a consulting fellow with the Africa Programme at Chatham House in London.

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

The US teenagers wowed by African prom dresses

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg3dj5n7nmo, 7 days ago

"I felt like a princess," says US teenager Brianna LeDoux about her prom gown which she specially commissioned from Nigeria.

"I wanted my dress to stop people in their tracks."

The 18-year-old from Florida, who has Haitian and Dominican roots, wore a black garment made from a sequined and beaded, lace fabric, which is commonly used in traditional Yoruba designs for events where people want to wear matching clothes.

"I didn't just want a dress," Brianna tells the BBC.

"I wanted a story I could wear - something that said: 'This is who I am, and this is where my roots run.'"

High-school proms in the US are a rite of passage - long-idealised in countless coming-of-age movies - and are an opportunity for some to make a statement about identity and fashion.

The event is more than a party, it is a spectacle: part red carpet; part social milestone and for many young women - a powerful moment of self-expression.

But when Brianna made a TikTok video of herself in her African prom gown, she did not expect the reaction she got - it went viral and her post now has more than 1.1 million views.

This reflects a growing interest that has driven demand for custom-made outfits with bold designs and unique embellishments.

What began as a TikTok and Instagram trend - with people like Brianna flaunting their garments - has led to a booming business that links fashion designers in Africa to young people outside the continent.

The average price for an African-made prom dress ranges from $600 to $1,000 (£440 to £740), depending on the complexity of the design, fabric choice and added details. Custom luxury pieces can exceed $1,500.

This may sound expensive but is much cheaper than having a garment custom made in the US - where the cost starts at around $3,500 and can go much higher depending on the designer and materials.

The BBC spoke to five fashion designers in Nigeria and Ghana who, in all, fulfilled more than 2,800 orders for prom dresses during the 2025 season, most of them bound for the US.

Designer Shakirat Arigbabu and her team, based in south-western Nigerian city of Ibadan, were responsible for 1,500 of those.

She has carved out a niche for herself even though the prom tradition is not popular in her country.

"Ninety-eight per cent of dresses we made went to the US. We were working in shifts, just to meet deadlines," Ms Arigbabu says.

Her business, Keerah's Fashion Cave, employs 60 full-time staff and at least 130 contract staff have been brought in during peak periods.

In 2019, when she had her first major prom order, she had 50 dresses to deliver. By 2024, the orders passed 500, and this year that figure trebled.

Even though for the wearers of the gowns, post-prom may be a chance to bask in the afterglow of June's event, those making them are back at work.

Every July, Ms Arigbabu's team of tailors start preparing for next year: corset bases are cut; silhouettes are sketched; fabrics are sourced.

"It's not seasonal anymore - it's an entire cycle. Prom consumes everything," she says excitedly.

Business has also boomed for designer Victoria Ani and her workshop in Uyo, south-eastern Nigeria. She says she has shipped more than 200 gowns to New York, New Jersey and California.

She began tapping into this market in 2022 and now has a team of eight. A single gown takes three to seven days to complete, depending on the design, she says.

Ms Ani believes choosing an African designer is a cultural statement.

"They say there is this pride when they can say: 'My dress came from Nigeria,'" she says. "We had about three clients who won 'best dressed', and two who were prom queens."

Popular styles include corseted bodices, high slits, feathered trains, detachable capes and beaded sleeves. Some are inspired by Met Gala themes, Yoruba bridal looks or Afrofuturist aesthetics.

"We get requests like 'Coachella queen' or 'Cinderella but African,'" says Accra-based Ghanaian designer Efua Mensah, adding that the prom season has become a reliable sales cycle for businesses like hers.

Nian Fisher, 17, from Miami in Florida, describes the experience as "unique".

She found her designer on Instagram, drawn to their 200,000-strong following and "work ethic that goes above and beyond, they don't do the bare minimum".

All arrangements were made over WhatsApp, including a live video call where a tailor in Nigeria guided her and her mum through taking measurements.

"They made sure every number was perfect so my dress would fit like a glove," she says.

When the emerald gown arrived, "everyone was amazed", Nian says.

"The veil dragged across the floor, the fabric was heavy, and people kept saying: 'Wow… a beautiful black queen.'"

Her mother, Tonya Haddly, admits she was nervous about ordering from abroad.

"But when I saw that train flowing from her head to the floor and catching the light, I knew instantly this was not made in America."

Social media has been a meeting place for US teenagers and African fashion designers who are taking advantage of the market opportunity.

When Memphis high schooler Trinity Foster, 18, went searching for a prom dress, she wanted something "rare to see" in the US and found it on TikTok from a Lagos-based designer.

Even though she had never worn a super-formal gown before - only loose sundresses - Trinity trusted the designer's guidance, settling on a fitted look with "at least one over-the-top piece".

The two-week process was smooth, the vacuum-sealed package nerve-wracking to open, but inside was a perfectly fitting gown that made her feel like "like Tiana" on prom night - referring to Disney's first African-American princess.

"I was super excited… happy we didn't have to send it back or anything," she says.

Her Instagram post drew sweet comments, curious questions and more than a few people asking who made it.

The hashtag #AfricanPromDress now has more than 61 million views on TikTok.

"Instagram brings the sales," Ms Arigbabu says. "TikTok brings the fame."

For the Nigerian designer, most orders come through Instagram DMs, after potential clients have browsed photos of dresses tagging her brand and then get in touch.

But social media also brings complications.

Ms Arigbabu recalls a few frustrated clients who went public with their complaints instead of contacting her directly: "One girl said: 'I don't want it resolved - I want to go viral.'"

Efua Mensah, a designer in Accra, who shipped 404 dresses to the US this year, says: "Sometimes, dresses arrive late because of customs issues or courier backlog."

Sometimes, they are simply overwhelmed. "There are days we are working 20 hours fixing one gown while packaging another," she says.

Still, designers say most clients are satisfied - often filming detailed unboxing videos, tagging the brand and helping to fuel visibility and a surge in orders.

African designers who spoke to the BBC said that US prom dress orders accounted for a big chunk of their annual revenue - in one case up to 25%.

With Ms Arigbabu's team in Ibadan already preparing for next year's prom season, she says for the first time she will not have to lay off temporary staff.

However, the new 15% US tariff for goods imported from Nigeria presents an immediate challenge.

"The tariff will increase the cost... making them less competitive in the US market," the designer says.

While the higher price may reduce sales, she says she is considering making small adjustments, cutting costs, improving efficiency and exploring alternative markets to stay competitive without overburdening her customers.

"Of course, I'm worried," she admits, reflecting the wider anxiety among Nigerian businesses navigating US President Donald Trump's trade policy shift.

Another big change will be that instead of operating on the old model, where each dress was crafted only after an order, she plans to transition to a ready-to-wear system, with garments being available to ship immediately.

Affordability is also a key issue - and while cheaper than buying an equivalent piece in the US, a prom dress requires significant financial resources.

As the market is growing in sophistication so are the ways to pay, with designers starting to use online payment plans to spread the cost.

Looking back, Brianna says the price tag was worth it as prom was everything she had hoped for since she was little.

"I reminisce about prom a lot - it's something girls dream about since childhood.

"Honestly, if my nails were ugly, my make-up was disgusting, and my hair wasn't cute, as long as I was in that dress, I was fine."

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Boxing boots, Yoruba festivals and trombones: Africa's top shots

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c79lj9yep7lo, 7 days ago

A selection of the week's best photos from across the African continent and beyond:

More from BBC Africa over the past week:

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Three more species of giraffe than previously thought, scientists say

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2l7wxpxn0eo, 8 days ago

Giraffes are one of the world's most distinct and well-loved creatures, always thought to be one species.

But now scientists at the International Union for Conservation of Nature say we can welcome three more species of the world's tallest mammal.

It's not the first time researchers have suggested there are four species of these giants strolling on our planet, but the latest assessment puts an official stamp on it.

How did scientists work it out? And what does it mean for the future of the animal?

Scientists compared the skull size and head shape of different giraffes and concluded there was enough genetic diversity for four groups to be considered as different species.

The researchers looked at natural features across Africa such as deserts, rivers and valleys that could have separated animals in the past, meaning they evolved separately from each other.

Say hello to the Southern giraffe, one of the newly-recognised species.

This giraffe lives in South Africa, Angola, southern Botswana, Namibia, southern Zimbabwe, Zambia, and southwestern Mozambique.

Two rivers (the Kunene and Zambezi) and rainforests in the Congo Basin probably separated the animals from overlapping with other giraffes.

The second new species is the Reticulated giraffe.

This giraffe lives in the open savannas and wooded grasslands of Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia.

Scientists think the Tana river, Ethiopia's mountains and towns separated this animal from other giraffes in the north of the region.

It is also a migrating animal, which means it may have passed by other giraffes when it could have cross-bred.

The third species we can officially recognise is the Northern giraffe.

This animal lives in western Ethiopia, central and western Kenya, eastern South Sudan and Uganda.

Scientists say the Nile River and Lake Victoria, as well as its migration pattern, separated this giraffe from others.

The fourth and final species is the beautiful Masai giraffe, with its distinctive leaf-pattern hide.

It lives in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, separated from the Northern giraffe by Lake Victoria and the Nile River.

Although its pattern makes it seem like it could be a marker of being a separate species, the scientists say that the hides vary even within one population of giraffes and as the animals age.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) says that identifying genetic difference is "vital" for conservation and managing giraffe populations.

"The more precisely we understand giraffe taxonomy, the better equipped we are to assess their status and implement effective conservation strategies," said co-author of the report Michael Brown of the IUCN.

As a single species, the giraffe was classed as vulnerable to extinction, although some of the sub-species were increasing in numbers.

The IUCN will now re-assess the vulnerability of the four new species and their sub-species and says it hopes to better protect the majestic animals with the new information.

How Russia is quietly trying to win over the world beyond the West

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2vr37yd4no, 5 days ago

Listen to Juliana read this article

Javier Gallardo likes to start his morning watching a classical music programme on television - it is part of his routine, and puts him in the right mood for the day before going to work driving trucks.

But one Monday in June, he turned on the television and, instead of music, the screen was filled with images of a warzone. A news report was playing on a channel he had never heard of.

"What's happening?" he asked himself. After 20 minutes, he turned it off. "I couldn't connect with it."

A green logo at the bottom corner of the screen showed the letters: "RT". Searching online, he found that this was a Russian channel.

Javier lives in Chile. It is alleged that Telecanal, a privately-owned TV channel in the country, has handed over its signal to Russian state-backed news broadcaster RT, formerly Russia Today.

The country's broadcasting regulator has opened sanction proceedings against Telecanal for a possible violation of broadcasting law, and is waiting for the channel's response.

Telecanal did not respond to request for comment.

Viewers, meanwhile, were left confused.

"I got upset," admits Javier. "They didn't announce anything beforehand, and I couldn't understand why."

Over the last three years, the Russian state-backed news channel RT and news agency and radio Sputnik, have expanded their international presence; between them, they now broadcast across Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America.

This all coincides with bans in Western countries.

Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, sweeping restrictions were imposed to RT's broadcasting in the US, UK, Canada and across the European Union – as well as by major tech companies – for spreading disinformation about the war.

This culminated in 2024, when US authorities sanctioned RT executives - including its editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan - for alleged attempts to harm "public trust" in the country's institutions.

It came amid accusations of the Kremlin orchestrating a widespread campaign to interfere in the presidential election. RT denied involvement.

Yet elsewhere, RT's influence has only expanded.

Since 2023, RT has opened a bureau in Algeria, launched a TV service in Serbian, and started free training programmes aimed at journalists from Africa, Southeast Asia, India, and China.

The broadcaster has also announced it will open an office in India. Sputnik, meanwhile, launched a newsroom in Ethiopia in February.

All of this coincides with an apparent weakening from the Western media in some regions. Thanks to budget cuts and changing foreign policy priorities, certain outlets have downsized and even withdrawn from parts of the world.

Two years ago, the BBC closed its Arabic radio service in favour of its digital-based service - which provides audio, video and text-based news content. It has since launched emergency radio services for Gaza and Sudan. That same year Russia's Sputnik started a 24-hour service in Lebanon, occupying the airwave vacated by BBC Arabic.

Meanwhile, the US government-funded international broadcasting service Voice of America has cut most of its staff.

"Russia is like water: where there are cracks in the cement, it trickles in," says Dr Kathryn Stoner, political scientist at Stanford University.

The question that remains, however, is, what is Russia's endgame? And what does this apparent creeping of media power in those regions mean in an age with a shifting world order?

'Not all crazy conspiracy theorists'

"[Countries outside the West are] very fertile territory intellectually, culturally, and ideologically [because of their] residual anti-American, anti-Western, and anti-imperial sentiments," says Stephen Hutchings, a professor of Russian Studies at the University of Manchester.

Russian propaganda, he argues, is also spread smartly: its content is calibrated to cater to specific audiences, even if it means adopting different ideological stances in different regions.

Take the perception of RT. In the West it is often seen as a "Russian state actor and propagator of disinformation," he says. In other parts of the world, however, it is often regarded as a legitimate broadcaster with its own editorial line.

This makes viewers susceptible to believing it - "not all crazy conspiracy theorists who naively fall for disinformation".

This is how Dr Rhys Crilley puts it. He is a lecturer in international relations at the University of Glasgow, and believes that RT's coverage of the world can appeal to broad audiences - "people who are rightly concerned about global injustices, or events that they perceive the West to be involved in perpetrating".

'A very careful manipulation'

On the surface, RT's international site looks like a standard news website and it reports some stories accurately. "[It's] a very careful manipulation", argues Dr Precious Chatterje-Doody, senior lecturer in Politics and International Studies at The Open University, who wrote a book on RT with Prof Hutchings, Dr Crilley and others.

She and other colleagues analysed RT's international news bulletins covering a period of two years between May 2017 and May 2019, and concluded that its curation of stories (what it chose to cover and what it left out) fitted certain narratives.

For example, the researchers found that social unrest was prioritised as a topic to report on when it happened in European countries, whereas one of the frequent preferences in the coverage of Russian domestic affairs was the country's military exercises.

The broadcaster also makes explicit false claims, such as portraying Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 as a peaceful "reunification", denying clear evidence of military involvement. It has systematically denied evidence of Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine since the full-scale invasion in 2022.

RT has also published stories with commentators blaming Ukraine for shooting down Malaysia airlines flight MH17 in July 2014. (The UN aviation body has concluded that the Russian Federation is responsible for the downing and international investigators found that a missile system transported from Russia to occupied eastern Ukraine had been used by Russians and pro-Russian separatists to hit it.)

What was striking was the view of audiences on this coverage.

Between 2018 and 2022, the researchers interviewed 109 people who watched RT in the UK before it had its licence to broadcast revoked by media regulator Ofcom. Dr Chatterje-Doody says she observed that many said they felt that "RT is biased" but that they had the tools to discern what was truthful from what was not.

However, based on her research, she warned: "[The audience] is not necessarily aware of the precise ways in which RT is biased and where the dishonesty of the coverage comes from."

Why Russia has renewed focus on Africa

Russian state media's biggest recent expansion is in Africa, according to Prof Hutchings.

In February, Russian authorities travelled to Ethiopia for the launch of a new editorial centre for Sputnik. Sputnik already broadcasts across parts of Africa in English and French languages, and has expanded to include Amharic, one of the official languages of Ethiopia.

RT has also reoriented its French-language channel to target French-speaking African nations, along with redirecting funding from projects in London, Paris, Berlin and the US to the continent, according to RT's editor-in-chief.

Last year Russian state media claimed that RT had seven bureaux in Africa, although this cannot be independently verified.

Many Africans already have friendly views towards Russia - anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist sentiment, together with the legacy of Soviet support for liberation movements during the Cold War made it relatively common.

With this new focus, Russia hopes to undermine Western influence, build support for its actions, and build economic ties, argues Dr Crilley.

Inside RT's course for African reporters

When RT launched its first online course aimed at African reporters and bloggers, the BBC's Global Disinformation Unit joined it to find out more.

"We are one of the best in fact-checking and have never been caught distributing false information," RT's general director Alexey Nikolov told students.

One lesson examined how to debunk misinformation. The instructor stated a chemical weapons attack in the Syrian city of Douma in 2018, by the Russian-backed Assad regime, was a "canonical example of fake news", ignoring findings of a two-year investigation by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons confirming the attacks were carried out by the Syrian Air Force.

The host also dismissed the mass killing of Ukrainian civilians by Russian forces in the Ukrainian town of Bucha in 2022, calling it "the most well-known fake". (This, despite overwhelming UN and independent evidence blaming Russian forces.)

Speaking to those who took part after the course, many seemed unperturbed by this - some told the BBC they believed RT was a standard international TV broadcaster, comparable to CNN or Al Jazeera.

When we interviewed an Ethiopian journalist in December 2024, they echoed RT's claims by calling the Bucha killings a "staged event". Their social media profile picture was a photograph of Putin.

A journalist from Sierra Leone acknowledged the risks of misinformation and disinformation but, at the time, added that every media institution has its own "news value and style".

From the Middle East to Latin America

In the Middle East, Russian state media like RT Arabic and Sputnik Arabic are tailoring their coverage of the Israel-Gaza war to appeal to pro-Palestinian audiences, according to Prof Hutchings.

Elsewhere, including in Latin America, RT is also attempting to expand its reach.

RT is available for free in 10 countries in the region according to its website. Argentina, Mexico, and Venezuela are among them. It's also on cable television in 10 other countries.

Offering international news in Spanish in free-to-air television is "part of its success," says Dr Armando Chaguaceda, a Cuban-Mexican historian and political scientist, who is a researcher from the think tank, Government and Political Analysis (focused on civic education and the promotion of democratic culture).

And although RT has been banned on YouTube around the world, since March 2022, it still creeps its way onto the platform in some places.

In Argentina, 52-year old carpenter Aníbal Baigorria records TV reports from RT and uploads them to his YouTube channel, along with his reactions.

"Here in Buenos Aires the news focuses too much on the city," he argues. "RT gives an overview of all the places in Latin America and, of course, global news."

"Everyone has the right to decide what they believe is true."

Understanding the impact

Ultimately, it's difficult to quantify the impact of Russian state-backed media around the world.

RT claims to be available to more than 900 million TV viewers in more than 100 countries and says its content attracted 23 billion online views in 2024.

But, as Dr Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, professor of communication at the University of Copenhagen, points out: "Availability is not meaningful measure of audience size."

He also argues that the 900 million viewers figure is "extremely unlikely" and describes online views as a vague and easily manipulated metric.

Dr Chatterje-Doody agrees that assessing the direct impact is hard. But she points to one case which might suggest some success for Russia. In Africa's Sahel region, which extends from Senegal eastward to Sudan, Russia has played significant military roles "with relatively little public resistance", even considering the challenging landscape. (It has entrenched itself by supporting military juntas in countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.)

Another narrative that has stuck has been Russia's justification for the invasion of Ukraine. Russia has long framed Nato's eastward expansion and Ukraine's growing ties with the alliance as a key reason for its full-scale invasion, claiming it posed a "security threat" and that Russia acted in "self-defence". Though widely debunked in the West, this false claim lingered across the Global South.

"The idea… is a pretty well-received narrative, especially in academic circles, in Mexico and in Latin America in general," says Dr Chaguaceda of the Nato expansion argument.

Some Global South leaders have been hesitant in condemning the Russian war against Ukraine. In the first UN General Assembly vote after the full-scale invasion in 2022, an overwhelming majority of countries condemned the war, but 52 countries either voted against the resolutions, formally registered their abstention, or refrained from voting. Among them, Bolivia, Mali, Nicaragua, South Africa and Uganda.

Dr Crilley has his own take on what Russia's endgame is.

"[The Kremlin is trying] to reduce Russia's relative isolation on the world stage by portraying Russia as a fellow victim of 'Western' aggression and a defender of the Global South."

The risk, he warns, "is that RT and other Russian disinformation efforts prey on and exploit the weaknesses of liberal democracy, while normalising Russia's aggression in Ukraine, and presenting Russia not as an authoritarian state but as some sort of benign power in global politics."

Asked for a response to the allegations raised in this article, RT said: "We are indeed expanding around the world."

They declined to comment further on specific points.

Sputnik did not respond to requests for comment.

Ultimately, Prof Hutchings believes we should all be concerned about Russian state activities - particularly in the context of the future of the global world order and democracy.

He believes the West is taking its "eye off the ball" by cutting media funding and "leaving the field open to the likes of Russia Today."

"There's a lot to play for and a lot to lose… And Russia is winning ground - but the battle is not lost."

Top image credit: MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP via Getty

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New wave of African pride rises in the Caribbean

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czxyw4w440vo, 12 days ago

Augustine Ogbu works as a doctor, treating patients in clinics across the striking Caribbean island of St Lucia.

When he returns to his home in the coastal town of Rodney Bay, he clocks in for his second job - as the owner and solo chef of a Nigerian takeaway.

"Egusi soup and fufu, that's more popular... they love jollof rice too," Dr Ogbu says, reeling off a list of his customers' favourite dishes.

The 29-year-old hails from Nigeria - population 230 million - but crossed the Atlantic for St Lucia - population 180,000 - to train as a doctor in 2016.

He set up his home-based takeaway, named Africana Chops, in 2022, after being incessantly asked by his St Lucian friends for Nigerian fare.

The takeaway is now thriving, Dr Ogbu tells the BBC, and not just because his island customers think the food is tasty.

"They know that we all have the same ancestral origin. So most of the time, they want to get in touch with that," Dr Ogbu explains, adding that interest in African culture has grown "tremendously" since he arrived almost a decade ago.

St Lucia is not alone in this phenomenon.

Across the Caribbean, the desire to reconnect with the population's African heritage appears to have strengthened over the past few years.

People across the Caribbean have been expressing African pride through cultural means, such as food, clothing and travel, while governments and institutions from both sides of the Atlantic have been meeting to forge economic ties.

Africa has had a long presence in the Caribbean.

A significant part of the islands' population descended from enslaved West and Central Africans, who were forcibly transported to the Caribbean by European merchants in the 17th and 18th Centuries.

Slavery was abolished in much of the Caribbean during the 1800s, while independence from European powers came the following century.

The descendants of enslaved people retained some African customs, but largely developed their own standalone cultures, which differ from island to island.

In the past, there have been major campaigns to encourage African pride, as Dorbrene O'Marde, who runs the Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Support Commission, says.

"It was particularly strong in the 1930s or so, and then again in the 1960s - we saw a major outpouring in sync with the [American] black power movement during that period," he says, talking to the BBC on the island of Antigua.

Mr O'Marde believes the Caribbean is witnessing a renewed, more promising version of such "pan-Africanism" (a term used to describe the idea that people of African descent should be unified).

"It has widened beyond psychological and cultural themes and we are now talking in broader economic terms, such as stronger transportation links between the Caribbean and Africa," he says.

"We are in a different phase now of pan-Africanism – one that's not going to wane like before."

One thing that separates this wave of African pride from the ones that came before is social media.

Dennis Howard, an entertainment and cultural enterprise lecturer at the University of the West Indies, says a "significant" amount of Jamaicans are connecting with Africa through platforms such as TikTok.

"People are learning more about black history beyond slavery," he tells the BBC from his home in the Jamaican capital, Kingston.

Mr Howard also points to the global rise of Afrobeats, a musical genre from Nigeria and Ghana.

He feels that in Jamaica specifically, the popularity of Afrobeats is partly down to a desire to reconnect with the continent.

"Through the music videos, [Jamaicans] are seeing certain parts of Africa are similar to Jamaica and are developed. We had a concept of Africa as this place where it is backward and it's pure dirt road... the music is changing that."

Asked about the view of some Jamaican commenters online - that islanders do not need to reclaim their African heritage as they have an equally valid, hard-won Jamaican heritage of their own - Mr Howard stresses that the two are not distinct.

"Our whole culture is African, with a little sprinkling of Indian and European and Chinese. But for the most part it is African-derived. It is the most dominant part of our culture," he says.

Those leaning into their African heritage are not just consuming the culture, but actually getting on flights and exploring the continent first-hand.

The tourism authority in Ghana - once a major departure point for enslaved Africans being shipped to the Caribbean - told the BBC there had been a "notable increase" in holidaymakers from the islands in recent years.

Similarly, Werner Gruner, South Africa's consul to the Bahamas, says that over the past two or three years, his office has seen a rise in local people travelling to South Africa, Ghana and Kenya.

"I see a lot of interest in safaris and I think people also start to realise that South Africa and other African countries are actually very well developed," Mr Gruner says.

Even Burkina Faso, an economically struggling country under military rule that is not well known for tourism, is apparently on some people's buckets lists. Mr O'Marde says some of his countrypeople want to visit the country because of the pan-African leanings of its leader, Ibrahim Traoré.

Getting to the mother continent from the Caribbean can, however, be complicated, with travellers often forced to fly via Europe.

Earlier this year, in a speech in which she referred to herself as a "daughter of Africa", Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley called for the construction of "air and sea bridges" between Africa and the Caribbean.

"Let us make these changes, not just for heads of state, but for ordinary people who wish to trade, travel, and forge a shared future," she said.

Key institutions like the African Union, African Development Bank (AfDB) and African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) have been working on the "trade" angle, hosting conferences and setting up memorandums of understanding with their Caribbean counterparts.

Afreximbank says trade between the two regions could jump from around $730m (£540m) to $1.8bn (£1.33bn) by 2028, provided the right conditions are achieved.

But at the moment, Africa and the Caribbean have some of the lowest indicators in the world for transport infrastructure, logistics quality and customs efficiency, according to the World Bank.

In an attempt to reduce trade barriers, the prime minsters of Grenada and the Bahamas this year called for Africa and the Caribbean to launch a shared currency.

Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis told delegates at an Afreximbank meeting in Nigeria they should "seriously" consider a single digital currency, while Grenada's Dickon Mitchell said: "Such a move would symbolically and practically affirm our shared identity not just as trading partners, but as members of a truly global Africa".

Getting more than 60 countries to coordinate and launch a standard system would be no easy feat, but Mitchell said this must be done if the regions are to "take control of [their] own future".

Back in St Lucia, Dr Ogbu says his attempts to bring egusi, fufu and jollof to local people are a small but worthy contribution to the strengthening of relations between Africa and the Caribbean.

In June, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu signed various cooperation agreements with St Lucia during a state visit and Dr Ogbu sees Africana Chops as an extension of that.

"I can say I'm working hand-in-hand with the Nigerian government and even the St Lucian government to promote the African culture," he says.

The doctor and businessman is now trying to upgrade his food business to a full-fledged restaurant - and he hopes the "cultural exchange" between Africa and the Caribbean also goes from strength to strength.

"It's awesome!" he says. "I'm really, really excited about that."

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

South Africa's firebrand MP found guilty of hate speech

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg7jk8yyk01o, 2 days ago

South African opposition politician Julius Malema has been convicted of hate speech by the country's equality court, following remarks he made at a rally in 2022.

Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, often sparks controversy in a nation where, 31 years after apartheid ended, racial tensions still linger.

After an incident where a white man allegedly assaulted an EFF member, Malema said: "No white man is going to beat me up... you must never be scared to kill. A revolution demands that at some point there must be killing."

The equality court ruled that these remarks "demonstrated an intent to incite harm", but the EFF said they were taken out of context.

Two complaints had been made against the 44-year-old MP - one by South Africa's Human Rights Commission and another by a person who alleged they had been threatened because of the politician's remarks.

In its ruling, the court said: "Whilst calling out someone who behaves as a racist may be acceptable, calling for them to be killed is not.

"And calling for someone to be killed because they are a racist who has acted violently, is an act of vigilantism and an incitement of the most extreme form of harm possible."

In a subsequent statement, the EFF said the ruling "is fundamentally flawed and deliberately misreads both the context and the meaning of the speech".

"It assumes that the reasonable listener is incapable of understanding metaphor, revolutionary rhetoric or the history of liberation struggles," the EFF added.

In June, Malema, whose party came fourth in last year's parliamentary election, was denied entry to the UK.

The Home Office said he had been deemed "non-conducive to the public good".

In a letter released by the EFF at the time, the Home Office cited his vocal support for Hamas, including a speech he made after the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel in which Malema said his party would arm the group if it came to power.

The Home Office said Malema had also made "statements calling for the slaughter of white people [in South Africa] or hinted that it could be an acceptable option in the future".

The EFF condemned the UK's decision as "cowardice" and said it would stifle democratic debate.

Malema were also criticised by US President Donald Trump in a confrontational meeting with South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa in May.

Trump played a video of the EFF leader singing an anti-apartheid song which refers to white farmers.

Malema often chants the song - which includes the lyrics "kill the Boer (Afrikaner); kill the farmer" - at his political rallies.

Afrikaner lobby groups have tried to get the song banned, but South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal has ruled that a "reasonably well-informed person" would understand that when "protest songs are sung, even by politicians, the words are not meant to be understood literally, nor is the gesture of shooting to be understood as a call to arms or violence".

White-minority rule ended in South Africa in 1994, with anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela's rise to power.

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Nigeria bans export of shea nuts used in beauty creams for six months

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9qy98gp474o, 2 days ago

Nigeria has announced a six-month ban on the export of raw shea nuts from which many beauty creams are made.

The move is aimed at making the trade more lucrative as Nigeria is losing out by not producing much shea butter locally.

The country produces nearly 40% of the world's annual crop, but it only accounts for 1% of the $6.5bn (£4.8bn) global market - a situation Vice-President Kashim Shettima described as "unacceptable".

Harvested fruit from shea nut trees have to be crushed, roasted and boiled to extract their oil to produce the shea butter used in cosmetics.

More BBC stories on Nigeria:

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Diamond-rich Botswana declares national public health emergency

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78zg67x38zo, 4 days ago

Botswana has declared a public health emergency as it faces a shortage of essential medicines and medical equipment.

President Duma Boko made the announcement in a televised address on Monday, setting out a multimillion-dollar plan to rectify the supply chain involving military oversight.

Managing the shortages would be "highly price sensitive due to our limited coffers", he told the nation.

The economy of Botswana, which has a population of 2.5 million, has been hit by a downturn in the international diamond market, as it is one of the world's leading diamond producers. This strain, further fuelled by US aid cuts, has seen high levels of unemployment and poverty, according to media reports.

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Thai court removes PM over leaked phone call with Cambodian leader

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgeqlw05rzo, today

Thailand's prime minister has been removed by the Constitutional Court, plunging the country's politics into turmoil and dealing a blow to its most powerful political dynasty.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra was dismissed for violating ethics in a leaked June phone call, where she could be heard calling Cambodia's former leader Hun Sen "uncle" and criticising the Thai army, amid worsening border tensions with Cambodia.

The call, leaked by Hun Sen himself, damaged her reputation and critics accused her of undermining the country's army.

The ruling makes Paetongtarn, the daughter of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, the fifth prime minister to be removed from office by the court since 2008.

On Friday, the court's nine judges voted six to three against Paetongtarn, ruling that her actions had violated ethical standards expected of her office.

The court said that Paetongtarn possessed a "personal relationship" that "appeared to align with Cambodia" and dismissed her claims that the call was a "personal negotiation to... bring back peace without using violence".

In a ruling, it said "caused the public to cast doubt" on whether her actions "would benefit Cambodia more than the nation's interest".

In a brief press conference, Paetongtarn acknowledged the court's verdict but insisted she was trying to save lives.

Her call with Hun Sen came as tensions rose on the Thai-Cambodia border, which weeks later erupted into a five-day conflict in which dozens of people were killed and hundreds of thousands fled their homes.

Paetongtarn, 39, was thrust into the spotlight after the surprise dismissal of her predecessor Srettha Thavisin by the same court a year ago. She had only joined Pheu Thai in 2021 and became its leader in 2023.

Her replacement will be chosen by parliament, where her ruling Pheu Thai party has a thin majority.

A coalition partner had earlier quit her government, leaving her with only a slim majority as thousands of people protested in Bangkok to demand her resignation.

The powerful Shinawatra family have presided over several Thai governments - and Paetongtarn's removal is a blow to their political dynasty.

She becomes the third Shinawatra to have their premiership cut short: her father Thaksin was deposed by a military coup in 2006 and her aunt Yingluck was also removed by the Constitutional Court in 2014.

Despite his retirement from formal politics years ago, Thaksin remained hugely influential - though it's now unclear how much influence the Shinawatra name will now continue to bear.

Famous croc wrangler found guilty in evidence tampering trial

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y0ey8qvw9o, today

Famed Australian crocodile wrangler Matt Wright has been found guilty of lying to police and pressuring a hospitalised witness after a fatal helicopter crash.

The former Netflix star was charged with three counts of perverting the course of justice over the crocodile-egg-harvesting disaster in 2022. A jury on Friday returned guilty verdicts for two but couldn't agree on the third.

Wright's friend and Outback Wrangler co-star Chris "Willow" Wilson, who was suspended from the aircraft in a sling, died when it hit the ground. Pilot Sebastian Robinson was also seriously injured.

Prosecutors argued Wright had tried to tamper with evidence out of fear of being blamed for the crash.

Lawyers for Wright have already flagged they intend to appeal the verdict - which was delivered by the jury on his 46th birthday.

Protesters and police clash after death of taxi driver in Indonesia

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjw6el72xd4o, today

Mass protests have broken out in cities across Indonesia with clashes between police and those in attendance following the death of a ride-sharing driver who was hit by a police vehicle on Thursday night.

Twenty-one-year-old Affan Kurniawan had been taking part in the action opposing housing perks for politicians and cost-of-living issues.

On Friday, tear gas and water cannons were fired at crowds gathering in the major cities of Jakarta and Surabaya, while some protesters threw Molotov cocktails and fireworks.

The unrest is seen as key test for President Prabowo Subianto, with frustrations over a lack of jobs, low wages, high taxes and rising living costs.

Affan Kurniawan's funeral took place on Friday, with his former colleagues accompanying him to his final resting place.

They were joined by Jakarta police chief Asep Edi Suheri, as well as politicians Rieke Dyah Pitaloka and former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan, who expressed hope that the case would be thoroughly investigated but called delivery riders to stop their protest in order to maintain stability.

The police chief also repeated an apology.

As this was happening, protesters gathered outside the police headquarters to demand justice for his death.

An apology has also been issued to Mr Kurniawan's family by President Prabowo Subianto, who said he was "shocked and disappointed by the excessive actions of the officers".

The governor of Jakarta, Pramono Anung, also visited Mr Kurniawan's family, expressing condolences and offering financial assistance for funeral arrangements.

On Friday, seven members of the Mobile Brigade Corps (Satbrimob) were "found to have violated the police professional code of ethics".

As the day went on, tensions ramped up, with protesters trying to block a police convoy and throwing rocks at the vehicles.

The crowd continued to grow, as students from the local Pertamina University arrived.

Earlier, protesters had put up a banner on a nearby pedestrian bridge that read "arrest the damn officers".

In Kwitang, an area of central Jakarta, tensions rose as the protesters marched to the road in front of the Indonesian National Police headquarters in Kwitang, central Jakarta. Earlier, they had been blocked by the marine and army squad.

Police fired tear gas at protesters from inside the station, with protesters also attempting to block a police convoy and throwing rocks at the vehicles.

Despite heavy rain, some protesters threw Molotov cocktails and firecrackers towards the police compound, the BBC's partner Indonesia, Kompas, reported.

Protests were also seen taking place outside of Jakarta in Jawa Barat, Surakarta, Bandung and Medan.

Drone footage of Mr Kurniawan's funeral showed thousands of riders turning out in support, some on foot and other on their vehicles - many dressed with the distinctive green of their employer Gojek, a multipurpose app that includes ride-sharing services.

Following Mr Kurniawan's death, Gojek released a statement which read: "Behind every green jacket, there's a family, prayers, and struggle.

"Affan Kurniawan was part of that journey, and his departure leaves a deep sorrow for all of us."

The company added that it would provide support to Mr Kurniawan's family.

While the protests - which have taken place throughout this week - are about a wide-ranging set of issues, one of the core complaints is about a new monthly allowance for lawmakers.

They are set to receive 50 million rupiah ($3,030; £2,250), which is almost 10 times the minimum wage in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital and its largest city.

Protestors are also demanding higher wages, lower taxes and stronger anti-corruption measures.

Caning and fines for those caught in Singapore drug vape crackdown

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz60z98nzx7o, yesterday

Singaporean authorities have announced tougher penalties for vaping as they try to crack down on the increasing use of drug-laced vapes in the country.

These include stiffer fines, longer jail terms and even caning. Foreigners may also be deported.

While Singapore was one of the first places in the world to ban vaping in 2018, the practice has persisted and in recent months the city-state has seen a rise in popularity of vapes laced with etomidate, an anaesthetic drug.

This has caused widespread alarm in the country which has some of the world's toughest drug laws.

In recent months, authorities have acknowledged the growing prevalence of etomidate-laced vapes, more popularly known as Kpods in Singapore. The nickname is short for "ketamine pods" and refers to how etomidate has similar effects to ketamine.

A test of a random sample of 100 seized vapes in July found that a third contained etomidate.

Videos of teenagers and young adults acting erratically in public while vaping have also gone viral on social media, sparking concern among Singaporeans who widely support the country's tough penalties on drug trafficking and use.

Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Thursday that the tougher laws were needed as "vapes have become a gateway for very serious substance abuse" where the devices have become "delivery devices" for drugs.

The government has sharpened its penalties for vaping, while reclassifying etomidate as a Class C controlled drug for six months. The new rules will come into effect on 1 September.

Those caught using or possessing vapes - even regular ones - will face increased fines starting from S$500 (£288; $390) and state-mandated rehabilitation. The penalties will be even harsher for those caught with etomidate-laced vapes.

Suppliers of drug-laced vapes will face up to 20 years in jail and 15 strokes of the cane.

Foreigners working in Singapore will not only face the same penalties, but also risk getting their residential and employment permits revoked, and may be deported and banned from re-entering the country.

The rules also apply to tourists. The BBC understands that signs will be placed throughout Changi Airport that will remind arriving visitors of the vaping ban, along with vape disposal bins so that users can get rid of their devices without facing penalties.

The rules are intended as an interim measure while the government comes up with new laws to deal with etomidate and any other drug that could be delivered through vapes.

These measures come on top of a large-scale public health campaign and enforcement programme.

In recent weeks the island has been blanketed with government advertisements on buses, trains and public areas urging people to stop vaping, while local media outlets have been awash with reports on the issue.

Vape disposal bins have been placed in community clubs and universities, while an anti-vaping health education programme has been rolled out in schools.

Authorities have also launched roving patrols of trains, bus terminals and parks, where officials can conduct spot checks on members of the public and search their bags.

With many of the vapes in Singapore coming from neighbouring countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, authorities have also stepped up checks at land crossings, the airport, and other points of entry into the island.

Singapore's crackdown comes as other countries have moved to impose stiffer rules on vaping to curb the use among children and young people.

In June, the UK banned the sale of disposable vapes, after Belgium did so in January.

Australia has banned vaping in some form since 2023, starting with non-prescription vapes and then disposable vapes.

Xi shows Trump who holds the cards as he sets up meeting with Kim and Putin

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx29z9g2kl2o, yesterday

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attending a military parade in the centre of Beijing, alongside Russian president Vladimir Putin and China's leader Xi Jinping, is quite the photo-op.

It's also a key diplomatic win for Xi.

The Chinese leader has been trying hard to project Beijing's power on the international stage - not just as the world's second-largest economy, but also as a diplomatic heavyweight.

He has emphasised China's role as a stable trading partner while Trump's tariffs upended economic relationships.

Now, while a deal with Putin to end the war in Ukraine continues to elude the US President, Xi is getting ready to host him in Beijing.

Kim's attendance, a surprise announcement, is no less significant. Trump said earlier this week, in a meeting with the South Korean president, that he wanted to meet Kim Jong Un again.

His last shot at diplomacy with the reclusive dictator ended with no breakthroughs - despite two summits that captivated the world. Trump is suggesting he wants to try again.

Meanwhile, the Chinese leader is signalling that he may hold the geopolitical cards in this game, and that his influence – though limited – on both Kim and Putin may prove crucial in any deal.

The parade on 3 September will see a display of China's military might to mark 80 years since Japan surrendered in World War Two, bringing an end to its occupation of parts of China.

But now Xi has also turned it into a display of something more - and the timing is key. The White House has suggested that President Trump could be in the region at the end of October and is open to meeting Xi.

There is plenty on the table for them to discuss, from a long-awaited tariffs deal and the sale of TikTok in the US, to Beijing's ability to persuade Putin to agree to a ceasefire or more in Ukraine.

Now, having met both Kim and Putin, the Chinese leader would be able to sit down with Trump without feeling like he has been left out of the loop – and given his close relationship with both leaders, he may even have information his US counterpart does not.

Russia and North Korea are pariahs in the eyes of the western world. Kim for much longer than Putin because of his weapons programme, but his support for Moscow's invasion of Ukraine has renewed the condemnation.

So the invitation to Beijing is a big step for him - the last time a North Korean leader attended a military parade in China was in 1959.

There has been little public contact between Xi and Kim since 2019, when they met to mark the 70th anniversary of China-North Korean ties. Beijing was also Kim Jong Un's first stop in 2018 before his summits with President Trump to curb Pyongyang's nuclear programme.

More recently, Xi even appeared to be on the sidelines of a deepening Moscow-Pyongyang alliance, one that perhaps Beijing wanted no part of.

China has tried to stay publicly neutral on the war in Ukraine, while urging a peaceful solution. But the US and its allies have accused Beijing of supporting Moscow's efforts by supplying components Russia can use in its war effort.

Some analysts wondered if China's relationship with North Korea had soured as Kim grew closer to Putin. But Kim's visit to Beijing next week suggests otherwise.

It's not a relationship the North Korean leader can easily give up - his economy depends heavily on China, which provides almost 90% of food imports. And being on that stage with not just Putin and Xi, but other leaders, from Indonesia, Iran etc, also offers Kim legitimacy.

For Xi, this is diplomatic leverage with Washington ahead of a possible summit with Trump.

The two countries have continued talks to try and strike a deal and avert ruinous tariffs and a trade war. Another 90-day pause is under way but the clock is ticking, so Xi will want the strongest hand possible as negotiations go on.

He has much to offer: China has helped Trump in the past when he tried to meet Kim Jong Un. Could Xi do that again?

More important perhaps is what role China could play in ending the war in Ukraine.

The most striking question of all: could there be a meeting between Xi, Putin, Kim and Donald Trump?

Who is Dezi Freeman, the 'sovereign citizen' wanted for killing police?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr4e9ddwd5ro, 3 days ago

A major hunt is continuing in the Australian state of Victoria for a man accused of shooting dead two police officers on his semi-rural property, and injuring a third.

Police have confirmed that they are searching for Dezi Bird Freeman, a conspiracy theorist and self-described "sovereign citizen" who rejects government and law.

Freeman, 56, has a long history with the police, and his hatred of authority has been well documented in online posts, videos and court documents.

He has called police "terrorist thugs", compared them to Nazis and tried to arrest a magistrate during court proceedings.

Covid and conspiracies

Less than a week before the shooting of two police in Porepunkah, his wife, Mali, had told a neighbour that she was concerned about his behaviour, The Age reports.

Locals in the town have told journalists that the father of two was kind and polite, but then, during the Covid pandemic, his behaviour became erratic and his views more extreme.

Freeman - born Desmond Christopher Filby - developed a public profile for his views on the health crisis.

He refused to wear face masks in shops, rejected vaccinations and became increasingly outspoken about his distrust of the government restrictions and lockdowns - of which Victoria had particularly long and strict ones.

"He was anti everything to do with it," one local told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"He went from being just a pretty ordinary country bloke… a normal dude you'd see at the local footy club all the time to quite a strange bloke. He fell down a bit of a rabbit hole and sort of disappeared and went off the radar."

A 'sovereign citizen'

'You are now in my custody'

Freeman has been in and out of court for years, mainly on driving charges, some of which were dropped.

His conduct in court showed his contempt for authority. "Shame on you!" he shouted at a judge last year, who refused to drop his driving charges.

Freeman claimed that he was under duress when the police pulled him over, and acting in self-defence by filming them with his phone as he drove off.

He argued that he was worried they might try to arrest him, which would be "an assault and abduction".

"I felt threatened and preyed upon.... even the sight of a cop or a cop car... it's like an Auschwitz survivor seeing a Nazi soldier," Freeman said, court documents show.

The same file shows him referring to police as "frigging Nazis", "Gestapo" and "terrorist thugs".

In one of his more sensational court appearances, he tried to arrest a magistrate and police officer during a dispute over public access to a national park.

"You're acting oppressively," he told the judge. "You must stand down, and are now in my custody and under arrest. You are not free to leave."

He then ordered a police officer to arrest the magistrate, and when the officer refused, Freeman said he was under arrest too.

They ignored him.

Experienced bushman

Neighbours say that Freeman and his family live on a bus on a 20-hectare plot on the outskirts of Porepunkah.

Locals told journalists that they thought he lived with several people on the property, in a kind of compound, secured by a big gate with security cameras.

Australian media say the police officers were entering the bus to search it when they were shot at. Freeman was last seen running into dense bushland nearby.

Police say they understand he is an experienced bushman - or a person familiar with the wilderness - which presents a challenge for the search party hunting for him.

"He's well-versed in the bush and there's caves up there, so it'll be a while before they find him, I think," a neighbour told the ABC.

Police have warned that Freeman is "heavily armed", and the Sydney Morning Herald reports that he is believed to have stolen the guns of the police officers that he allegedly shot.

'Pillar of Porepunkah'

The Freemans - Dezi, Mali and their children - have lived in the Porepunkah area for many years and were known around the small community. Mali teaches music to children and works at a supermarket.

In 2018, the family featured on Channel Nine's A Current Affair programme, where they lamented about their "neighbours from hell" at a previous property, who were intimidating and disruptive.

"Mali and her family are all very kind, very beautiful people," a neighbour, whose grandchildren took music lessons with Mali, told the programme.

'How will I pay workers?': Indian factories hit hard by Trump's 50% tariffs

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98lr56mznjo, 4 days ago

An eerie silence hangs over N Krishnamurthy's garment manufacturing unit in Tiruppur, one of India's largest textile export hubs.

Only a fraction of some 200 industrial sewing machines on the floor are in operation, as workers make the last of the season's children's garment orders for some of the biggest US retailers.

At one end of the room, piles of fabric samples for new designs are gathering dust - casualties of US President Donald Trump's steep 50% tariffs on India, set to kick in from Wednesday.

India is a major exporter of goods, including garments, shrimp and gems and jewellery, to the US. Trade experts say the high tariffs - including a 25% penalty for buying Russian oil and weapons - are akin to an embargo on Indian goods.

BBC correspondents visited key export hubs across India to assess how the trade uncertainties are impacting business owners and livelihoods.

Across Tiruppur - which contributes to a third of India's $16bn (£11.93bn) exports of ready-to-wear garments to brands such as Target, Walmart, Gap and Zara - there's acute anxiety about what the future holds.

"September onwards, there may be nothing left to do," Krishnamurthy said, as clients have paused all orders.

He recently had to pause his expansion plans and bench nearly 250 new workers who were hired before the tariffs were imposed.

The timing of the announcement has made things worse because nearly half of annual sales for most export businesses are made during this period, in the run-up to Christmas.

Now these units are banking on the domestic market and on the upcoming Diwali season in India, to survive.

At another factory that makes underwear, we saw inventory of nearly $1m, meant for US stores, piled up with no takers.

"We were hoping India will ink a trade deal with the US. The entire production chain was frozen last month. How will I pay workers if this continues?" Siva Subramaniam, the owner of Raft Garments, told the BBC.

At a 50% tariff rate, an Indian-made shirt that once sold at $10 will cost US buyers $16.40 - far costlier than $14.20 from China, $13.20 from Bangladesh or $12 from Vietnam.

Even if duties ease to 25%, India will be less competitive than its Asian peers.

To soften the blow, the government has announced some measures - a suspension of import duties on raw materials, for instance. Trade talks with other countries have also gathered momentum to diversify markets. But many fear this is too little, too late.

"We can expect the diversion of trade, with US buyers moving to Mexico, Vietnam and Bangladesh," said Ajay Srivastava of the Global Trade Research Initiative.

Some 1,200km (745 miles) away, at an export zone in Mumbai, hundreds of workers are busy polishing and packing diamonds, part of India's $10bn gems and jewellery exports trade.

But jewellery brands here are nervous about the potential impact of the tariffs on their sales during September and October - when $3-4bn worth of jewellery gets shipped to the US.

While India's new trade partnerships with the UK and Australia have opened up opportunities, years of effort to build a presence in the US could be undone in months, fears Adil Kotwal of Creation Jewellery, who sells 90% of his diamond-studded jewels in the US.

He works on thin margins of 3-4%, so even a 10% additional tariff rate is difficult to sustain. "Who can absorb these tariffs? Even US retailers will not be able to [do so]," Kotwal told the BBC.

Kotwal sources his stones from Surat city in neighbouring Gujarat state. In Surat, the world's diamond-cutting and polishing hub, a crisis has been brewing long before the tariffs hit due to declining global demand and competition from lab-grown diamonds.

And now the tariffs are a double whammy.

American customers have vanished and factories that sustained nearly five million livelihoods are now operating for barely 15 days every month. Hundreds of contract workers have been sent on indefinite leave.

Inside a dimly lit diamond polishing unit on the city's outskirts, rows of dusty, unused tables stretch out in silence. Nearby, broken CPUs lie scattered.

"This place used to be buzzing," says a worker. "Many people were fired recently. We don't know what will happen to us."

Shailesh Mangukia, who built the unit, says he once employed 300 workers. Now only 70 remain. The number of diamonds polished every month has plunged from 2,000 to barely 300.

Local trade union leaders such as Bhavesh Tank say workers here face "decreasing wages, forced leave and shrinking monthly incomes".

Many of India's shrimp farmers, meanwhile, are considering switching to other products to survive the blow. India is one of the largest exporters of shrimp to the world - and the US is a major market.

Along with other duties, total tariffs on shrimps now stand to go up above 60% - a body blow for the sector as prices have dropped by $0.60-0.72 per kilo since the tariffs were first announced and are expected to fall further once the 50% rate comes into effect.

"This is the peak season for US buyers preparing for Christmas and New Year sales. Farmers here are just starting their new cultivation cycle. Trump's tariffs caused great confusion. We're unable to make any decisions," Thota Jagadeesh, an exporter, told the BBC.

Hatchery operators say they've significantly reduced shrimp larvae production as a result.

"Previously, we produced an average of 100 million shrimp larvae annually. Now, we're not even reaching 60-70 million," said MS Varma of Srimannarayana Hatcheries in Veeravasaram town.

All of this could affect the livelihoods of half a million shrimp farmers directly and another 2.5 million indirectly, according to estimates.

In a country already reeling from a protracted crisis of job creation, these are worrying figures.

For now, the impasse between India and the US continues. If anything, the environment for further trade negotiations has significantly deteriorated in the weeks gone by.

The latest round of trade talks which were set to begin in Delhi this week were reportedly called off, and US officials have doubled down on their criticism of India, accusing it of "cosying up" to Beijing and being a "laundromat" for Russia.

"The future of India-US talks now depends heavily on the Trump administration's priorities, domestic as well as those involving Russia and China, among others," Gopal Nadadur of The Asia Group advisory firm told the BBC.

"For India's policymakers and business leaders alike, the mantra will need to be: increase self-reliance, diversify, and leave no stone unturned."

Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, X and Facebook.

South Korea's charm offensive and other takeaways from Trump meeting

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy5pdlgl64zo, 4 days ago

Hours before South Korean president Lee Jae Myung was due to meet US president Donald Trump, a Truth Social post dropped.

"WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH KOREA?" Trump wrote, pointing to a "Purge or Revolution". It appears this was a reference to Mr Lee's attempts to move South Korea on from its martial law crisis last December, when its now ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol tried to orchestrate a military takeover.

But Lee turned on the charm and averted a repeat of what happened in the Oval Office to Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky or South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa.

The leaders found common ground on North Korea, with Trump repeatedly mentioning Kim Jong Un, and they managed to avoid public disagreements over thorny trade and defence issues. Here are three main takeaways.

Lee's strategy of flattery worked

Lee's team had been nervous about this meeting, and they had good reason to be: Trump is historically wary of South Korea, despite it being a US ally. In the past, he has accused it of freeloading from the tens of thousands of US troops that are stationed on the peninsula helping to defend against North Korea. He has also criticised Seoul's defence spending and its trade surplus with the US.

Lee, seen as a left-wing politician, has a reputation in Washington that plays to the worst of Trump's fears. In the past, he has been sceptical of South Korea's military alliance with the US, and now says wants to develop stronger ties with China. He has also been painted by some US conservative commentators as being "anti-American".

Lee's team had been worried he might be subjected to one of Trump's now famous Oval Office dressing downs.

The truth social post in the hours before the meeting gave them a scare. Trump's ominous-sounding message appeared to be referring to the aftermath of South Korea's martial law crisis last December, and the efforts Mr Lee's government and prosecutors are making to investigate the ousted president Yoon Suk Yeol, his wife, and former members of his government.

It is something the far-right in South Korea, and even some in the US, have railed against.

This was the nightmare scenario for South Korean officials – that Mr Lee might be forced to defend himself against right wing conspiracy theories. But when the meeting arrived, Mr Trump raised the issue, only to quickly brush it off as a probable misunderstanding.

Lee's strategy of flattery clearly worked. He first marveled at the Oval Office's "bright and beautiful" new look, then heaped praises the personal rapport that the US president has built with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, asking him to help make peace between the North and South.

"The only person who can make progress is you Mr President", Mr Lee said. "If you become the peacemaker, then I will assist you by being a pacemaker."

Lee even joked about building a Trump Tower in North Korea and playing golf there.

If this seems a little fawning, this was South Korea's strategy for this high-stakes meeting, which was meant to cover trade, the role of US troops in South Korea and how much Seoul spends on its defence.

The number one goal of Lee's team was to make sure that he left the Oval Office on Trump's good side, having avoided a Zelensky moment, and they succeeded.

Kim Jong Un looms large

It might look strange to see President Trump sitting next to the South Korean leader, in their first ever meeting, talking about how well he gets on with Kim Jong Un, the South's sworn enemy, and how much he's looking forward to meeting him again.

But this is actually one of the few areas of common ground these two leaders have.

South Korea's relatively new president Lee Jae Myung is taking a new approach to North Korea than that of his predecessor, who was accused of antagonising Kim Jong Un.

It was, in fact, Lee who initiated the conversation about Kim Jong Un, praising President Trump for the personal rapport he has built with the North Korean leader, and asking him to act as a "peacemaker" on the Korean peninsula.

Lee wants to talk to Kim, to establish peaceful relations between the North and South, but he knows that Trump has a far better chance of making this happen than he does.

Trump, who met Kim three times in his first term, often brings up the dictator. He famously said the pair "fell in love" while exchanging letters, but they failed to reach a deal to limit North Korea's nuclear programme.

"I spent a lot of free time with him, talking about things that we probably aren't supposed to talk about," Trump said on Monday. "I get along with him really well. I look forward to meeting with Kim Jong Un in the appropriate future."

The question is whether Kim Jong Un will want to talk to either Trump or Lee.

North Korea has repeatedly rejected Lee's efforts to talk, and ignored attempts by the US to restart dialogue. It hasn't closed the door on talking to Trump, but has suggested it would have to be on different terms than before, because it will not under any circumstances give up its nuclear weapons.

This is now something Seoul and Washington must try to navigate.

Trade, defence issues largely unaddressed

The main purpose of Lee's White House visit was to discuss the two countries recent trade deal and the role of US troops in South Korea, but both leaders managed to avoid being drawn on the specifics of these contentious issues while in the Oval Office.

Seoul negotiated US tariffs on South Korean goods down to 15%, after Trump threatened rates as high as 25%. This came after it agreed to invest $350bn (£264.1bn) in the US - $150bn of which will go into helping the US build ships.

South Korea has a thriving shipbuilding industry, building more vessels than any other country in the world other than China, at a time when US shipbuilding and its navy are in decline. And just hours after Lee's White House meeting, Korean Air announced that it would buy 103 Boeing planes.

The finer details and sticking points of the trade deal, including what happens to the profits from these investments, are being worked out by officials behind the scenes.

"I think we have a deal done" on trade, Trump told reporters after the meeting, without providing more details. "They had some problems with it, but we stuck to our guns," he said, noting the importance of the countries' economic partnership.

"The US and South Korea "need each other" for trade, Trump told reporters in Lee's presence. "We love what they do, we love their products, we love their ships, we love a lot of the things they make," he said. Meanwhile South Korea needs oil and gas, and the US would be trading those with them, he added.

In the Oval Office, Trump also sidestepped a question about withdrawing US troops from South Korea - an idea that the White House is reportedly toying with. He has in the past accused South Korea of taking advantage of US protection, by not spending enough on its defence.

Also on Monday, Trump floated the idea of letting the US own the piece of land housing Osan Air Base, to the south of Seoul, jointly operated by the US and South Korea.

Former player makes AFL history by coming out as bisexual

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g6wwrze2xo, 3 days ago

A former Aussie Rules player has come out as the first openly gay or bisexual man in the Australian Football League's (AFL) 129-year history.

Mitch Brown, who played 94 matches for the West Coast Eagles between 2007 and 2016, told The Daily Aus that the weight of hiding his sexuality played a "huge" part in his decision to retire.

He added that he hoped his decision to speak would create the "safety, comfort and space" for others to come forward.

The AFL had been the only major professional men's sport globally to never have had an openly gay or bisexual player, even after retirement.

Brown first shared the news in a direct message to The Daily Aus's social media account after watching coverage of recent incidents of homophobia in the AFL.

"I played in the AFL for 10 years for the West Coast Eagles, and I'm a bisexual man," he wrote.

The decision to speak out came from a "feeling of peace... comfort and confidence" that he didn't have while hiding his sexuality when he was an active player, Brown said.

"It was never once an opportunity to speak openly or explore your feelings or questions in a safe way," he added.

Brown described a culture of "hyper-masculinity" in the AFL, where he heard "countless" homophobic comments hurled at him on the field.

"When I was growing up at school, the word 'gay' was thrown around constantly… For a man in Australia, [it was seen as] probably the weakest thing you could be."

He also recalled having a conversation with teammates about how they would feel having to shower next to a gay man.

"One of the players said 'I'd rather be in a cage full of lions than have a shower next to a gay man.'"

Brown's revelation and criticism of the AFL's culture could mark a significant shift in the locker rooms of Australian men's sports, an expert in behavioural science told the BBC.

"This is an historic moment for world sport because the AFL is the last major professional sport to be without a openly gay or bisexual male player. However players coming out so far hasn't had much of an effect on changing behaviours in the grassroots," said Monash University researcher Erik Denison.

"[But] Brown is taking a very different approach than other players in that he is being very open about the problems that need to change in his sport, at the grassroots, to make people like him feel safe."

It has been 50 years since former American football player David Kopay came out as the first gay professional athlete in the NFL - but Denison is hopeful that Brown's announcement will "help drive change to culture and behaviour at clubs around Australia".

Brown, 36, is currently in a relationship with a female partner and was previously married to former netball player Shae Bolton, with whom he shares two sons.

The announcement comes after several high-profile homophobic incidents in the AFL.

Last week, Adelaide Crows player Izak Rankine received a four-week ban for using a "highly offensive" homophobic slur during a game.

Addressing the incident, Brown said he would like to see a "sense of change" in the league through the lifting up of "positive male role models".

"My advice to the AFL would be, let's celebrate the players who may not be the most successful, but they're the most important players in our community."

Brown said he believes there are currently gay and bisexual players in the AFL who remain closeted.

He encouraged fans to have empathy for all players and shared a message for those who still don't feel comfortable enough to speak out.

"I see you and you are not alone."

Ex-Australian senator wins defamation case against Brittany Higgins

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgr97p2zrx0o, 3 days ago

A former Australian senator has won her defamation case against an ex-staffer who alleged she was raped at work and that the politician helped cover it up.

The case centres on allegations in 2021 by Brittany Higgins that she was sexually assaulted by a colleague at Parliament House and that Linda Reynolds - her boss - tried to "harass" and "silence" her over the claims.

In 2023, Reynolds sued Higgins, saying three social media posts had tarnished her reputation, impacted her health and curtailed her career.

After a five-week trial in the Supreme Court of Western Australia last year, Justice Paul Tottle on Wednesday found that two of the three posts were defamatory.

The judge also awarded Reynolds A$315,000 ($204,523; £151,000), plus interest, in damages.

The verdict is the latest in a string of legal battles that emerged as a result of the initial rape claims, with the case sparking massive protests and several high-level inquiries into the conduct of the judiciary and culture in parliament.

Bruce Lehrmann - who has always denied that he and Ms Higgins had sex at all - faced a criminal trial in 2022, but this was aborted due to juror misconduct. A retrial was later abandoned over mental health concerns for Ms Higgins.

But in 2024, a civil court found in a separate defamation trial that on the balance of probabilies, Lehrmann had raped Ms Higgins and told "deliberate lies".

Lehrmann has appealed against this and is awaiting the decision of the ruling.

The long awaited ruling was handed down on Wednesday by Justice Tottle, who found that two of the three social media posts Ms Reynolds complained about were defamatory.

The judge found that Ms Higgins had defamed Ms Reynolds in an Instagram story in July 2023 where she accused her of mishandling her rape claim.

Justice Tottle also found that Ms Higgins had defamed Ms Reynolds in a tweet which implied that she had pressured her not to take the claim to police and that she was a hypocrite in her advocacy for gender equality and female empowerment.

Ms Reynolds had said the criticism of her was unfair and backlash over it caused her physical and mental health to suffer greatly.

However, the judge said that a third post - where Ms Higgins implied that Ms Reynolds had tried to "silence victims" of sexual assault - was not defamatory as it was a honest opinion, fair comment and protected under qualified privilege.

Ms Reynolds also claimed that Ms Higgins and her husband David Sharaz had conspired to damage her reputation in giving media interviews in 2021 but the judge found this was not true.

The case also sought an injunction to prevent Ms Higgins from speaking out about the matter but the judge ruled against this.

During the five-week defamation trial, the court heard from more than 20 witnesses including Ms Reynolds and the former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison who defended his former colleague.

Outside the courts, Ms Reynolds said the case had been an "incredibly emotionally and financially taxing journey" but that she "never gave up on the truth".

Shortly after the verdict, Ms Higgins released a statement, saying she was relieved the case was over.

"I accept that Linda Reynolds' feelings were hurt by these events and I am sorry for that," Ms Higgins said.

She added that the past six years have been "marked by challenge, scrutiny and change".

Norris: Tricky but not impossible to be friends with Piastri

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgkr452xj81o, yesterday

F1 driver Lando Norris says it's "tricky, but certainly not impossible" to be friends with McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri.

The pair are in a close battle for the drivers' championship, with Norris trailing by nine points ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix this weekend.

"It's very difficult to have a combination of knowing deep down you really want to beat that person more than anything, but also have a very good working friendship," Norris tells BBC Newsbeat.

"I work so closely with him that [we're] naturally inclined to be good friends, but I also want that."

Earlier this month, McLaren Formula 1 boss Zak Brown said the pair will "not properly fall out" as their title fight comes to a head.

But Brown said he expects the pair to "swap paint again at some point" after Norris ran into the back of Piastri in Canada in June.

"I want to get along with the people that I work with," insists Norris: "I want to have a laugh and enjoy as many moments as I can."

Yet being friends with rivals "is not possible for everyone," he admits. "For me, I'm always open on getting along with the people I work with.

"But there are certainly other people, which is not a bad thing, that maybe want to stick more to themselves and focus on themselves. They don't want to be friends with other people."

'Gaming helps me'

Racing rivalry is something Norris first got a taste for while playing video games with his siblings as children.

"Especially with my older brother, there was always a big competition between us both about who could be the best."

Speaking to Newsbeat at a launch event for Sega's new video game, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, Norris says gaming has helped him get to - and stay - where he is.

"The main thing I always used to play was driving games - I think that always helped with reactions. I learned how I really didn't like to lose and I love to win."

Now 25 years old and one of the fastest real-life drivers in the world, he believes it benefits him off the track too.

"Gaming really helps me disconnect from a very chaotic, busy, stressful life."

"For me, it's important to disconnect and feel a little bit more normal again for a period of time," he adds: "It's nice to feel like a kid again. It's important to keep that part of me alive."

'A different me' on Twitch

This love for gaming is something Norris shares with his fans on streaming platform Twitch, where he has 1.8 million followers.

"It's quite a different me to what you see on the race track. There, I'm very much in work, driver, I want to win mode - a very determined mindset," Norris reflects.

"When I'm at home, I feel the same as everyone. I just want to be online with my friends, we play some games, we have a good laugh, and go to bed.

"It's much more personal - forget I'm a racing driver, forget I'm in Formula 1. I like to just hop online and take the mick out of one another and laugh and have a good time."

But Norris doesn't want to "forget" that for long.

"I don't get to even call my job a job because it's what I've always loved to do since I was a kid," he says.

"I don't drive because it's a job, I drive because it's what I've always loved to do."

Whether it's racing Oscar Piastri for world titles or gaming with his siblings growing up, there's one thing both versions of Lando Norris have in common: he loves to win.

So which rivalry is bigger?

"I certainly had more fights with my siblings when I was a kid than I've had with Oscar," he says.

"Maybe the meaning of what we're fighting for is a little bit different, but there was certainly more crying and tears - and fun moments, in some ways - with my siblings than I would say I have with Oscar.

"Fingers crossed that's the way it stays. It's hard to beat sibling rivalries."

Police killed in Australia shooting named as manhunt continues

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g6wlxd5kko, 3 days ago

Two police officers who were shot dead while on duty in a rural Australian town have been named, as a massive search continues for their alleged killer.

Victoria Police identified the victims as 59-year-old Detective Neal Thompson - a local officer on the brink of retirement - and 35-year-old Senior Constable Vadim De Waart.

The pair had travelled to the property in Porepunkah, north-east of Melbourne, alongside eight colleagues to execute a warrant for alleged sexual offences. Another officer was seriously injured in the shootout but is recovering after surgery.

Police say the suspect - named as local man Dezi Freeman, 56 - is heavily armed and "still at large" more than 24 hours on.

Thompson joined the force in 1987 and worked with the major fraud and crime squads before moving to the town of Wangaratta - an hour from Porepunkah - in 2007. A great lover of the outdoors, he was planning for his imminent retirement.

De Waart was temporarily posted to Wangarratta, but lived in Melbourne, where the avid traveller had moved from Belgium.

In a statement, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said the "devastating loss" of the two officers "struck at the heart" of both the broader policing family and the Porepunkah community.

"It is not lost on me that our members take a risk every time they go to work to protect the Victorian community," he said. "While we all live with the knowledge that the worst could happen on a shift, we don't expect it to."

Groups of officers, a helicopter and at least one armoured vehicle are combing the dense bushland where Mr Freeman absconded - a task locals have likened to finding "a needle in a haystack" - with authorities warning residents to stay inside until he is caught.

Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Bush said police were "pouring every resource" into the search for Mr Freeman, urging people in the Porepunkah area to "be vigilant" and keep safe.

He also confirmed that Mr Freeman's partner and children were safe, refuting previous media reports that he had taken his family hostage.

Since the shooting there have been no sightings of Mr Freeman, who reportedly knows the local wilderness well, but authorities are focusing their efforts on bush near his home.

"He will know that area better than us so that is why we are putting in every expert, supported by local knowledge," Mr Bush said.

Surrounded by heavily wooded hills in the Australian Alps, Porepunkah is only about an hour's drive from the New South Wales border, and Mr Bush said he couldn't rule out the possibility Mr Freeman may have left the state - though there was currently "no information" to suggest that.

Misty-Rose Wilson, a local business operator, told the BBC those looking for Mr Freeman would be battling very thick bush and a very steep incline, along with dismal weather conditions and low visibility.

"Knowing how hard it would be to track through that area, it's a bit of a needle in a haystack to be quite honest," she said.

Marcus Simpson, who manages operations at the local airfield, said the town was in shock after the shooting.

"It's a good community, tight-knit, and everyone sort of knows most people," he said.

"[The town] is going to need a bit of a big healing process to get over it."

Mr Freeman has previously described himself as a "sovereign citizen", referring to a person that falsely believes they aren't subject to Australian laws and government authority. His hatred of authority has been well documented in online posts, videos and court documents.

Police have said it is too early to answer questions about Mr Freeman's beliefs - but the incident has revived questions over how authorities deal with extremists views.

Some, including Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, have noted the similarities between this attack and a shocking 2022 ambush on police in Queensland.

"This threat is very real and we need to be very vigilant about it," he said in an interview with the ABC on Tuesday night.

Manhunt under way after two police shot dead in rural Australian town

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckge4555vpxo, 4 days ago

A "heavily armed" man is being hunted after two Australian police officers were shot dead and one injured in an ambush in a small rural town in Victoria.

Police described the situation in Porepunkah in the Australian Alps - 300km (186 miles) north-east of Melbourne - as an "active incident" and that hundreds of officers had been deployed.

Officers were attacked as 10 of them attended a house to serve an arrest warrant, which Australian media said was for historical sex offences.

Police say the suspect escaped by running into the bush alone after the shooting. Australian media named him as Dezi Freeman. Police have not officially confirmed the name.

A police statement said that the suspect was believed to have been on his own at the time of the shooting, and that his partner and children had been "accounted for" after attending a police station.

"My message to that person is give yourself up, so that the community can be at peace and we can have this resolved peacefully," Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said.

He said that 10 officers went to the property on Tuesday at about 10:30 local time (00:30 GMT).

They were fired upon by a heavily armed offender, he said, adding that two colleagues - a 59-year-old detective and a 35-year-old senior constable - were "murdered in cold blood".

A third officer was shot in the lower body. He was airlifted to hospital and was undergoing surgery, Mr Bush said. His injuries are not life-threatening.

The state police chief said all the available resources were being used in the hunt for a "dangerous" suspect, and urged locals to stay indoors.

"[Our] priority is to arrest him and bring safety and security to this community," the officer said.

He said the fact that so many officers were attending, highlighted that they knew the risks - and urged the gunman to give himself up.

The police chief did not confirm the nature of the raid that officers were executing at the property.

Footage from the scene earlier on Tuesday showed dozens of police deployed to Porepunkah and a police helicopter circling in the area.

The town, home to about 1,000 people, is part of the Alpine Shire local government area. People have been warned not to travel into the area.

In a statement, Mayor Sarah Nicholas paid tribute to the officers, extending "thoughts, love and unwavering" support to their families.

"Today has been a day of deep sorrow and shock for our community... We are grieving together," she said.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan both praised the officers for their bravery.

Local resident Emily White told the BBC she and her guests had been sheltering in a caravan park that she owned.

"I think reality really set in - that this is a really, really horrible situation," Ms White said.

"We're such a small community, and we'll leave our cars unlocked, and we'll leave our front doors open. Nothing like this ever happens."

Australian media report Mr Freeman previously made headlines 2021 when he attempted to privately prosecute then Victoria premier Daniel Andrews for treason and fraud. He was arrested while protesting outside of court before the hearing.

Mr Freeman claims to be a "sovereign citizen" - which refers to someone who falsely believes they are not subject to Australian laws and government authority.

Called SovCits for short, these people have been a presence in the nation for decades, according to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

The police say they are mostly harmless, but there has been a resurgence of the beliefs in recent years - in part fuelled by mistrust in authorities which was exacerbated by the Covid pandemic.

In a 2023 briefing note, the AFP said the movement had "an underlying capacity to inspire violence".

Gun crime is relatively rare in Australia, which has some of the world's strictest gun regulations.

But similarities are being drawn with an ambush attack in 2022, when two police officers were killed at a rural property in Queensland.

'Half alive': Toxic mushroom lunch survivor tells court of murders' impact

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8zr04wzz9o, 5 days ago

Triple-murderer Erin Patterson has stolen "years of love and laughter", family members of the victims poisoned by her toxic beef Wellington lunch have told a court.

Patterson, 50, was last month found guilty of killing three relatives - and attempting to kill another - with a death cap mushroom-laced meal in July 2023.

In a hearing on Monday, ahead of her sentencing on 8 September, a group of relatives gave emotional statements about the impact of their loved ones' brutal deaths.

The sole survivor of the lunch, local pastor Ian Wilkinson, said he felt "half alive" without his late wife Heather - but made a powerful offer of forgiveness to the woman who killed her and almost took his life too.

In the days after the meal at Patterson's home, her former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, died in hospital, as well as Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66.

Mr Wilkinson became desperately ill, but recovered after weeks of treatment in hospital.

Patterson's estranged husband Simon Patterson had also been invited to the lunch but pulled out at the last minute. He has accused Patterson of a years-long campaign to poison him too - but three charges of attempted murder relating to him were dropped on the eve of the trial.

One after another, in quick succession, on Monday the court heard a series of victim impact statements which detailed how Erin Patterson's crimes blew up two close-knit families.

Mr Patterson spoke of his inability to articulate how much he missed his parents. Ruth Dubios - the daughter of Ian and Heather Wilkinson - told the court Patterson had used her parents' natural kindness against them. Don Patterson's 100-year-old mother shared her grief at having outlived him.

But it was Ian Wilkinson's turn in the witness box which floored the courtroom. He has barely said a public word since the fatal lunch, but today he walked into court and confronted the woman who murdered his wife, snuffed out the lives of his two best friends, and left him on the brink of death.

Sitting across from Erin Patterson, Mr Wilkinson opened his statement by tearfully paying tribute to his "beautiful wife".

"She was compassionate, intelligent, brave, witty - simply a delightful person who loved sharing life with others," he said.

"If she could help somebody she would."

"I only feel half alive without her," he added.

Not only did Patterson rob him of growing old with his wife, and his children of their mother, Mr Wilkinson said, but she also took his two best friends, Don and Gail Patterson.

"They were good and solid people... We encouraged and supported each other for about 50 years. My life is greatly impoverished without them."

Addressing Patterson directly, he questioned what "foolishness" had led her to think "murder could be the solution to her problems" - especially given the crime was committed against people who bore her only good will.

As the pastor neared the end of his statement, his voice became clearer and stronger as he spoke about his desire for justice, before offering Patterson his forgiveness.

"I bear her no ill will. My prayer for her is that she uses her time in jail wisely to become a better person," he said, to gasps in the courtroom.

"Now I am no longer Erin Patterson's victim. She has become the victim of my kindness."

Through a family spokesperson, Simon Patterson also told the court of his grief - which has been compounded by the "abrasive" court process and at-times "deplorable" media maelstrom which followed the crimes.

He noted in particular the distress that the past few years have caused his children, who must now confront a life without their grandparents and their mother – something which caused his estranged wife to draw in a sharp breath.

"Like all of us, they face the daunting challenge of trying to comprehend what she has done," his statement said.

"The grim reality is they live in an irreparably broken home with a solo parent, when almost everybody knows their mother murdered their grandparents."

He vowed that he would continue following the example his parents set for him, by drawing on God's strength and reflecting his love.

"I am faithful, however, they are with God and I will see them again," he said.

Among the other relatives to have their statements read in court was the sole surviving sister of Gail and Heather, Don Patterson's brothers, and his nephew who grew up idolising the former school teacher.

"I always wanted to be perpetually young at heart like him," Tim Patterson said of his uncle. "How could someone like this... leave the earth this way?"

"Years of love and laughter" have been stolen as a result of his relatives' murders, he added: "[And] the world is poorer for it".

Prosecutors push for life without parole

Prosecutors concluded the hearing by arguing that Patterson should be sentenced to life in prison, without parole.

Jane Warren told the court Patterson's actions should be considered "worst category offending" - pointing out the level of planning required, and that if she had come clean about the mushrooms, when asked by authorities, the lives of her victims could potentially have been saved.

Furthermore, the prosecution argued, Patterson spent the days after the lunch disposing of evidence and lying to police.

"It is a crime that is so cruel and so horrific, that in our submission the offender is not deserving of this court's mercy," Ms Warren said.

Patterson's lawyer Colin Mandy agreed nothing but life in prison would be appropriate, but argued that parole should be allowed as his client's notoriety means she will likely spend a lot of her jail term in isolation.

Justice Christopher Beale will hand down his sentenced in Melbourne on 8 September.

Sexist Italian image-sharing website forced to shut after political outcry

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c04r07n7dqyo, today

An Italian website that posted doctored images of well-known women, including Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, with obscene commentary, has announced its closure after a backlash from other female politicians.

The explicit site called Phica, a play on the Italian slang for vagina, now displays a message saying it has shut down "with great regret" due to the "toxic behaviour" of some users.

Meloni herself has said she is "disgusted" by the site and called for those responsible to be punished "with the utmost firmness".

The removal of Phica comes days after celebrity figures led a wave of public anger against an Italian Facebook group called Mia Moglie (My Wife), where thousands of men had been swapping intimate images of their partners apparently without their knowledge.

Phica was a far bigger operation, said to have some 700,000 users, and had been active for two decades despite previous complaints.

Its so-called VIP section contained photos of female Italian politicians and other prominent figures, from actresses to influencers, taken either from public appearances or lifted from personal social media accounts.

The images, including beach shots in swimwear, were digitally altered before being posted in albums with titles like "hot politicians" with other suggestive and sexist captions, prompting vulgar commentary beneath.

Alessandra Moretti, an MEP who spoke out against the site, says it also included incitement to rape.

She is now calling for a collective fight against such platforms and new laws to punish those responsible.

"Complaints are only effective when filed by well-known and influential figures," the MEP from the opposition Democratic Party wrote on Instagram. "Ordinary women, without the tools, are left alone and defenseless."

Phica's statement announcing its closure blamed users who it said had perverted the "spirit and original purpose" of the platform, claiming that it had been intended for those who wanted to "share their content in a safe environment".

But it accepted that the platform had become something people "wanted to distance themselves from, not be proud of", and pledged that all content would now be deleted.

The statement was illustrated with emoji-like images of tears and ended with the words "See you soon".

Italy's Postal Police, who deal with cyber-crime, have confirmed to the BBC that an investigation has been launched.

Phica said it had always blocked and reported all kinds of violence and images of minors.

But a petition for its closure on Change.org, which collected close to 170,000 signatures, said it had included pictures of people taken secretly in changing rooms and beauty salons "or filmed by hidden microcameras in public bathrooms".

Previous complaints about the Mia Moglie group had also gone unheeded.

That changed last week when the writer Carolina Capria denounced the group in a post that went viral. Women who recognised themselves in the images then began to speak out.

Police say they have since been inundated with reports about these and other platforms.

"It is disheartening to note that in 2025, there are still those who consider it normal and legitimate to trample on a woman's dignity and target her with sexist and vulgar insults, hiding behind anonymity or a keyboard," Italy's prime minister told Corriere della Sera newspaper.

She also urged women to report any images that were being shared without their consent.

Madeleine McCann suspect to be released in less than three weeks

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2063n085d1o, today

German investigators' prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann will be released from prison in a matter of weeks, local authorities have confirmed.

Christian Brückner, who is serving a sentence in northern Germany for a rape conviction, will be released by 17 September at the latest, the lead prosecutor investigating the toddler's disappearance told the BBC.

Hans Christian Wolters also said that he believed the 48-year-old German national was dangerous but that the current legal situation meant he must be released from prison without delay.

Brückner has never been charged with any crime in relation to Madeleine's disappearance and denies any involvement.

The then-three-year-old vanished from an apartment complex in Praia da Luz in the Algarve on 3 May 2007, sparking a Europe-wide investigation that has become one of the highest-profile missing persons cases.

Madeleine's parents had been dining with friends at a restaurant a short walk away while their daughter and her younger twin siblings were asleep in the ground-floor apartment.

They had checked in on the children periodically until her mother, Kate, discovered she was missing at around 22:00 local time.

The case remains unsolved, but German prosecutors have pointed to evidence suggesting Brückner may have been in the area when Madeleine disappeared.

Mr Wolters said that while he and other prosecutors did not believe they had enough evidence to formally charge Brückner in relation to the McCann case, their efforts would continue.

Brückner "is not just our number one suspect, he's the only suspect", he said. "There is no-one else."

"We have evidence which speaks against [Brückner], which indicates that he is responsible for the disappearance and the death of Madeleine McCann," he said.

"We haven't found anything in the last five years that exonerates [him]. We found evidence that strengthens our case. But in our view it's not strong enough to make a guilty verdict likely, and that's why so far we couldn't charge him or apply for an arrest warrant."

Due to differences in legal systems, German authorities suspect Brückner of murder in relation to Madeleine McCann, while British police continue to treat her disappearance as a missing persons case.

The prosecutor - who has led German efforts to solve Madeleine's disappearance since they announced that Brückner was their prime suspect in 2020 - added that an expert had recently assessed Brückner as a danger to society.

"You have to expect [Brückner] to commit further crimes."

As a result, prosecutors were applying for restrictions to be placed on him when he is released - including fitting him with an ankle tag, Mr Wolters said. These conditions will be decided by a court hearing that will not be open to the public.

Madeleine's disappearance was initially investigated by Portuguese authorities, before German prosecutors took the lead. Portuguese authorities have also named Brückner as a formal suspect, or "arguido".

Brückner, who spent many years of his life in the Algarve, was a drifter, a petty criminal and a convicted sex offender. He has several previous convictions, including for sexually abusing children in 1994 and 2016.

He is known to have spent time in the same part of Portugal between 2000 and 2017. German prosecutors have linked his mobile phone data and a car sale to their case against him.

Brückner is currently imprisoned for the rape of a 72-year-old American tourist in Portugal in 2005.

Portuguese and German police conducted a fresh search in June of land between where the McCanns had been staying and addresses linked to Brückner, but this yielded no breakthroughs.

However, Mr Wolters said items that were seized during the search were still being analysed.

He denied that the ongoing investigation by prosecutors in the northern German city of Braunschweig had been a failure but said he understood it could have lost credibility after five years of inquiries with seemingly no tangible results.

But the German prosecutor said he had not ruled out further searches.

Last year, Brückner was cleared by a German court of rape and sexual abuse in an unrelated trial.

UK, France and Germany move to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gmr3z49lxo, today

The UK, France and Germany have begun the process of restoring major UN sanctions on Iran - lifted under a 2015 deal - as tensions once again escalate over Tehran's nuclear programme.

The move will trigger a so-called snapback mechanism, which could result in the return of sanctions in 30 days.

In a letter to the European Union's policy chief, Iran's foreign minister said the three countries had "no legal jurisdiction" to reactivate the sanctions and that both Russia and China supported Iran's position.

The minister wrote that Iran was ready to resume "fair and balanced" negotiations on the disputed programme if the other parties showed "seriousness and goodwill".

Participants in the 2015 deal, the three European nations warned two weeks ago that they were prepared to restore the sanctions unless Iran agreed to a "diplomatic solution" by the end of August.

Iran's foreign ministry said the move would "seriously undermine" its ongoing process with the International Atomic Energy Agency, calling it a "provocative and unnecessary escalation" that "will be met with appropriate responses".

Talks between Iran and the US over its nuclear programme have not resumed since June when the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites and Iran barred UN-backed inspectors from accessing its facilities.

Years-long crippling economic sanctions were lifted in exchange for curbs to Iran's nuclear programme under a UN-backed deal between Iran and the US, UK, France, Germany, China and the EU.

But the deal unravelled after Donald Trump pulled the US out, calling it flawed and re-imposing nuclear-related sanctions in 2018 during his first term. Iran stepped up its nuclear activities in response, fuelling a renewed crisis.

The snapback provision was built into the 2015 accord and allows for a participant to initiate the process to bring back sanctions if they believe Iran has significantly failed to fulfil its nuclear commitments by notifying the UN Security Council.

The UK, France and Germany, known as the E3, took the step in a letter to the Security Council on Thursday. The council now has 30 days in which to decide whether to continue sanctions relief or allow it to lapse.

The letter said Iran's non-compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal was "clear and deliberate". It declared that Iran had "no civilian justification" for its high enriched uranium stockpile - uranium purified to near military grade - and that its nuclear programme "remains a clear threat to international peace and security".

The E3 said that during the next 30 days they would continue to engage with Iran "on any serious diplomatic efforts to restore [its] compliance with its commitments".

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the UK and its European allies recently offered an extension to sanctions relief, subject to Iran meeting certain conditions.

But he added that Iran had made "no substantive effort" to meet these conditions and "consistently failed to provide credible assurances on the nature of its nuclear programme".

Iran's foreign ministry pushed back, saying it had demonstrated "its utmost restraint and steadfast commitment" to diplomacy to preserve the previous deal and find a negotiated solution.

Iran urged a rejection of the snapback provision, but said it remained ready to engage with other members of the UN Security Council.

The US said it welcomed initiation of the snapback and would work with the E3 to complete it.

"At the same time, the United States remains available for direct engagement with Iran – in furtherance of a peaceful, enduring resolution to the Iran nuclear issue," a spokesperson for US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

Western powers and the global nuclear body the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) say they are not convinced that Iran's nuclear programme has purely peaceful purposes. Iran strongly insists it is not seeking nuclear weapons, and that its nuclear programme is solely a civilian one.

US tells Denmark to 'calm down' over alleged Greenland influence operation

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0j9l08902eo, yesterday

The US has told Denmark to "calm down" after the top US diplomat in Copenhagen was summoned over claims that Americans had been conducting covert operations in Greenland.

Denmark's public broadcaster DR quoted sources as saying the aim was to infiltrate society and promote its secession from Denmark to the US, although it was unable to clarify who the men were working for.

A White House official would not confirm an influence campaign was underway, but said: "We think the Danes need to calm down."

Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said "any attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the Kingdom [of Denmark] will of course be unacceptable".

Danish intelligence warned Greenland was being targeted by "various kinds of influence campaigns".

A US state department spokesperson said Chargé d'Affaires Mark Stroh had met with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, adding he had had a "productive conversation" that "reaffirmed the strong ties" between Greenland, Denmark and the US.

The spokesperson could not comment on "the actions of private US citizens in Greenland", but said the US had always respected the right of the people of Greenland to "determine their own future".

US President Trump has said several times he wants to annex Greenland, a semi-autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and Vice-President JD Vance has accused Copenhagen of underinvesting in the territory.

On a visit to Greenland a few months ago, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned the US that "you cannot annex another country".

Denmark's foreign minister said in a statement to the BBC that the government was "aware that foreign actors continue to show an interest in Greenland and its position in the Kingdom of Denmark".

"It is therefore not surprising if we experience outside attempts to influence the future of the Kingdom in the time ahead," he added.

Denmark is a member of Nato and the European Union and has long seen the US as one of its closest allies, and Danes have been shocked by Trump's determination to control its semi-autonomous territory. The US president said this year he would not rule out seizing it by force.

Denmark's PET security and intelligence service said in its assessment that influence campaigns would aim to "create discord in the relationship between Denmark and Greenland".

This could be done by exploiting "existing or invented disagreements" either with "traditional, physical influence agents or via disinformation", it added. PET said it had strengthened its presence in Greenland and co-operation with its authorities.

The US currently has no ambassador in Copenhagen, so Rasmussen has summoned Mark Stroh, who as charge d'affaires is the most senior diplomat in the Danish capital.

Lars Lokke Rasmussen has already summoned the US charge d'affaires in Denmark this year in response to a separate report in May suggesting US spy agencies had been told to focus their efforts on Greenland.

DR's report on Wednesday gave details of a visit by one American to Greenland's capital Nuuk, saying he was seeking to compile a list of Greenlanders who backed US attempts to take over the island. The aim would be to try to recruit them for a secession movement, DR said.

The earlier May report in the Wall Street Journal also referred to learning more about Greenland's independence movement, as well as attitudes to American mineral extraction.

At the time, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard did not deny the report but accused the Journal of "breaking the law and undermining our nation's security and democracy".

Greenland has a complex relationship with Denmark. Despite having broad self-government since 1979, its foreign and defence policy is made in Copenhagen.

Although most of its political parties favour independence, they disagree on how quickly they should push for it. While Greenlanders have had the right to call a referendum since 2009, polls suggest the vast majority of them have no wish to become part of the US.

When US Vice-President JD Vance visited a US military base on the island in March, he accused Denmark of not doing enough to keep US troops and Greenlanders safe from Russia, China and other countries that he said were interested in its potential mineral wealth and Arctic naval routes.

However, Greenland leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen made clear in May that the US would not be taking over the territory: "We don't belong to anyone else. We decide our own future."

The Danish foreign minister's latest decision to summon the US charge d'affaires amounts to a "diplomatic yellow card" unprecedented in Danish relations with the US, according to Jens Ladefoged Mortensen of the University of Copenhagen.

"This hostile attitude towards Denmark from the Trump administration is shocking," he told the BBC. "As a pro-American country we're asking why are you doing this."

One of Denmark's biggest companies has already been caught in the crosshairs of the US government in recent days, following an order to stop the construction of a big wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island.

The Revolution Wind project, already 80% complete, is being run by Danish multinational wind farm developer Orsted, which is 50.1% owned by the Danish state.

It is the latest wind power initiative to be targeted by President Donald Trump, who said last week "we're not doing the wind".

Shares in Orsted plummeted 16% on Monday in response to the so-called stop-work order, although they have since clawed back some of the losses.

The company says it has already installed 45 out of 65 turbines in the project aimed at providing power for 350,000 homes.

German cabinet backs voluntary military service, opening door to conscription

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c15l83e4dwdo, 2 days ago

Germany's cabinet has passed a draft bill which will introduce voluntary military service. The bill could also lead to conscription if more troops are needed.

It's part of a move to boost German national defences, following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Compulsory military service in Germany was ended in 2011 under then-Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz has made boosting Germany's military a priority given the threat from Russia and said "we are now back on the path to a military service army".

He summed up his thinking earlier this year saying: "We want to be able to defend ourselves so that we don't have to defend ourselves."

Germany's plans also follow calls by US President Donald Trump for Europe to take more responsibility for its own defence.

When his coalition government came to office earlier this year, it loosened borrowing restrictions to enable a surge in defence spending and then announced plans for 3.5% of economic output to go on defence over the next four years.

Defence Minister Boris Pistorius wants to increase the number of soldiers in service from 182,000 to 260,000 by the early 2030s to meet new Nato force targets and strengthen Germany's defences.

The defence ministry also wants to increase the number of reservists to 200,000.

In future, all 18-year-old Germans, both men and women, will be sent an online questionnaire asking if they are willing to volunteer for military service. It will include questions about their physical fitness.

Men will be required to complete the form, but it will be voluntary for women.

Quentin Gärtner, 18, who heads the country's Federal Pupils' Conference, said his generation wanted to contribute the defence of German democracy - but that young people's voices should be heard.

"We can only do our part and take responsibility for our society when we are included in every decision-making process affecting our generation," he told the BBC. "The ministry of defence has not reached out to us yet... He can call me any time."

In a statement, the government said military service would be voluntary for as long as possible.

However, it said that if the security situation worsened or if there too few volunteers came forward, the government could decide to use compulsion with the approval of the German parliament, the Bundestag.

Pistorius told Deutschlandfunk radio he expected military service to remain voluntary.

"With attractive pay and attractive military service, I am very confident that we will succeed in attracting young men and women to the Bundeswehr," he said.

In recent years, the defence ministry has stepped up advertising campaigns and career events in a bid to recruit soldiers.

In the first six months of this year, the Bundeswehr has reported a 28% increase in the number of new recruits, compared with the same period last year.

Some members of Pistorius's Social Democrat party, the junior partner in the coalition, have criticised the plans, saying the Bundeswehr should be made a more attractive employer, rather than re-introducing compulsory military service.

Members of Chancellor Merz's conservatives have warned that the insistence on approval by the Bundestag before reintroducing conscription could delay matters too much.

Some commentators have questioned whether this is the right step for Germany.

Johannes Angermann, writing for public broadcaster MDR, said military service would rob the younger generation of "time and money". He argued for an improved professional army instead.

Meanwhile, anti-war group Rheinmetal Entwaffnen said in a post on social media: "We want nothing to do with the wars of the ruling classes and are not prepared to die for a country that is increasingly cutting back on all social infrastructure. We will not fight your wars!"

Denmark apologises to Greenland's forced contraception victims

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yelp5466no, 2 days ago

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has issued a long-awaited apology to the Greenlandic women and their families affected by what she called "systematic discrimination" during a contraceptive campaign.

During the 1960s and 70s thousands of Inuit women and girls as young as 12 were fitted with contraceptive devices, as part of a birth-control programme administered by Danish doctors.

"We cannot change what has happened. But we can take responsibility," Frederiksen said of the scandal.

"On behalf of Denmark, I would like to say sorry," she said, acknowledging that victims had "experienced both physical and psychological harm".

The scale of the birth-control programme was first brought to light in 2022, by an investigative podcast called Spiralkampagnen - the coil campaign.

The device used is commonly known as a coil and is placed inside the womb, or uterus, to prevent pregnancy.

In the past few years, many women have come forward to say they were fitted with an intra-uterine device (IUD) without their knowledge or consent.

Few had previously been aware of the contraceptive campaign, and the reports prompted shock and anger.

Greenlanders demand answers over birth control scandal

Greenland women seek compensation over involuntary birth control

'Doctors fitted a contraceptive coil without my consent'

Records from the national archives showed that, between 1966 and 1970, 4,500 women and girls, some as young as 13, had an IUD implanted.

Of these, it is unclear how many cases lacked consent. However, dozens of women have come forward sharing traumatic personal accounts and some were left sterile.

A group of 143 women have since filed a lawsuit against the Danish state demanding compensation:138 of them were under 18 at the time.

Use of the birth control was so widespread that Greenland's population growth severely slowed.

Speaking on Danish television last December, the former Prime Minister of Greenland, Mute B Egede, said it was "genocide".

A formal inquiry was launched, and the findings will be released next month, following two years of investigation.

"Even though we do not have the full picture," Frederiksen said, "it makes a serious impression on the government, that so many Greenlandic women unanimously report that they have been subjected to abuse by the Danish healthcare system."

One of the victims, Henriette Berthelsen, said she was happy with the apology, even if it had come quite belatedly.

Naja Lyberth, who is a psychologist, told the BBC in an earlier interview that it was 100% clear the government had broken the law by "violating our human rights and causing us serious harm".

"An apology, that's nice of course, and makes my clients happy. That's part of what they need," said Mads Pramming, the lawyer representing the women told the BBC.

"[What] we've not heard anything about," he added, "is whether they also admit or agree that they that this was a human rights violation."

Greenland was a Danish colony until 1953, and did not gain home rule until 1979, however Copenhagen continued to oversee the healthcare system, before Greenland took responsibility in 1992.

A few cases of forced contraception also took place after this time, and as late as 2018, as the BBC has previously reported.

Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said his government also recognised its own responsibility but said on Facebook it was about time that Denmark had officially apologised.

"For too long, the victims... have been silenced to death. It's sad that an apology only comes now - it's too late and too bad," he said.

"We cannot change what has happened. But we can take responsibility for the fact that the truth comes out, and that responsibility is placed where it belongs. The upcoming investigation will show the full extent of the assaults and help ensure nothing like this ever happens again."

Mette Frederiksen acknowledged that the case had caused "anger and sadness for many Greenlanders and many families" and had damaged perceptions of Denmark.

This case is one of several controversies involving the Danish treatment of Greenlanders, including forced adoptions, the removal of Inuit children from their families, and the legally fatherless, that have rocked relations between the Arctic territory and Copenhagen, and contributed to calls for independence.

Greenland and Denmark agreed to investigate the coil scandal in 2022. At the time Danish historian Soeren Rud told the BBC that the rationale for the policy was partly financial, but also the result of colonial attitudes.

After the World War Two Greenland's tiny population rocketed and by 1970 it had almost doubled. Mr Rud said Denmark wanted to limit the growth of the population, adding that this reduced "the challenges of providing housing and welfare services".

Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic MP in the Danish parliament, welcomed the apology and told the BBC it was important for both Greenlandic and Danish society to achieve closure.

"These different cases that are not historic, but actually present. These are people living today, that have been affected by this."

"We also need to focus on compensation for the women," she continued. "Of course, we're going to look into the report. We're going to follow up politically."

France heads for political crisis as PM Bayrou risks all on confidence vote

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c87ene7r5d1o, 3 days ago

France is on the brink of another political crisis, after Prime Minister François Bayrou's shock decision to submit his government to a vote of confidence in parliament.

The chances of his winning the vote in a special session of the National Assembly on September 8 being extremely slim, the prime minister's days in office look numbered.

If the vote is lost, Bayrou will be expected to resign, leaving France once again rudderless at a time of immense economic, social and geopolitical uncertainty.

For the second time inside a year, the disastrous effects of President Emmanuel Macron's hasty parliamentary dissolution of July 2024 threaten institutional chaos and even civil unrest.

Far from offering the "clarity" that Macron wanted after his defeat in European polls in June 2024, the newly elected National Assembly was split three ways between centrists, the populist right, and the left – meaning that no government of any stripe could hope for a majority.

Macron himself was cut out of domestic politics and forced to focus on international affairs.

The first post-dissolution prime minister, Michel Barnier, struggled on until December, but then was brought down when the opposition parties combined against his budget.

And now exactly the same thing seems about to happen to his replacement.

Read more: French PM fights for survival as rivals refuse to support confidence vote

The only difference is that Bayrou is refusing to go through the same agony of three months of ultimately fruitless debate in parliament. Like a desperate gambler, he is staking the house on an initial vote of confidence.

If he wins, it will be a spectacular vindication of his apocalyptic strategy, warning – like a lone prophetic voice – of the existential threat to France if it fails to take back control of its debt.

The trouble is no-one expects him to win the vote. Least of all, probably, he himself.

The numbers are easy to count.

The four pro-government groups in the Assembly have 210 deputies between them. The oppositions – of left and right – have between them 353.

For Bayrou to have any chance, he would need either the Socialist bloc (66 seats) or Marine Le Pen's National Rally (123) to make a move. If National Rally abstained, it would make for a tight vote that might just be winnable if a few smaller groups did the same.

But if Bayrou is looking to the Socialists, they would have to vote for the government to make any difference. And that is not going to happen.

Indeed the whole question is looking increasingly academic as opposition leader after opposition leader has made it clear in the last 24 hours that they are not in any way minded to rescue the beleaguered PM.

Perhaps Bayrou has his eye rather on the country as a whole.

Maybe he wants to go down in history as the man who, Cassandra-like, foretold France's death-by-debt but was never believed. Or perhaps he is pondering the 2027 presidential election, and hopes that by then voters will realise he was right all along.

Sadly for him, though, there is no sign of the French changing their mind on debt. In their vast majority, they simply do not think the issue is as urgent as Bayrou says it is. Or if they do, they can't see why ordinary folks like them should suffer for it.

Even before this latest twist, the country was shaping up for a dramatic autumn – with a grassroots protest movement called Bloquons Tout (Let's Block Everything) earning comparisons with the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) who so disrupted Macron's first mandate as president.

Fired up by Bayrou's plans to axe two public holidays and freeze public spending, the movement announced a day of action on 10 September, for which it now has the support of far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon. Unions are planning separate actions against government "austerity".

Of course if the government falls on 8 September, then the need for such protest may have evaporated. And the country will have other, more pressing, problems on its mind.

What happens if the government does fall is hard to predict.

There will certainly be more calls for Macron to resign, which he will almost certainly resist. Presumably he will start by trying to find another prime minister, but after the loss of both Barnier and Bayrou who would take the plunge?

Marine Le Pen is leading calls for a new dissolution of the National Assembly, which under the constitution is now possible. No second dissolution was allowed within a year of the first which meant that until July there was no way out of the parliamentary impasse.

But it is highly unlikely new elections would improve the position of the centrist bloc which is loyal(-ish) to Macron. More probably it would reinforce the populist right, though the most likely scenario of all is yet another three-way blockage.

In such circumstances the country appears condemned to more domestic drift and deferred decisions.

It could hardly come at a worse time, as Europe and the West face big questions over security, immigration, debt and the rising costs of their post-World War Two welfare states.

President Macron's final 18 months in office look like being a sad parody of the hopeful era he so proudly announced back in 2017.

Baby bottles found during excavation of Tuam mass baby grave

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg3681jqgpo, today

Glass baby bottle feeders, shoes and spectacles are among the items that have found by a team carrying out an excavation of a former mother-and-baby institution at Tuam in County Galway.

The work began on 14 July, and is aimed at recovering and identifying the remains of children and babies who are believed to be buried in a disused sewage system at the site.

During the first six weeks, excavators have found "numerous personal items" from the institution, which operated between 1925 and 1961.

They have not recovered any bodies yet, but said their research indicated there was a "low likelihood" of remains being present in the areas they have been initially working on.

The story came to international attention in 2014 after local historian Catherine Corless found evidence of a mass grave at the site when she discovered there were 796 death certificates for children and babies who died there, but no burial records.

In 2017, investigators from an inquiry set up by the government said they had found "significant quantities of human remains" in underground chambers.

The excavation is being carried out by an agency known as the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam (ODAIT) and this is the first update since work began.

A machine is being used to excavate the location of a former workhouse yard, which is adjacent to a modern-day playground.

Digging is also being carried out by hand close to the boundary wall dating from the 19th century.

Most of the human remains are thought to be near the area of a memorial garden, which will be excavated at a later stage.

Archaeologists with expertise in skeletal remains have confirmed that a fragment of an adult tooth has been found.

ODAIT said: "This recovery is testament to the detailed methods that are being used on the site."

The team have also found glass bottles, which may date from the period between 1918 and 1925 when the site was used as a military base.

Medieval pottery is among other items recovered.

The update from ODAIT says that part of a health service facility near Tuam will be used as a mortuary, where any human remains will be forensically analysed.

The Toghermore campus, which belongs to the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE), will be adapted for the purpose.

In the meantime, a temporary facility in Headford in County Galway will be used for the storage and initial analysis of some recovered items.

The excavation is expected to go on until 2027, with follow-up work continuing for several years afterwards.

New appeal one year on from Kyran Durnin disappearance

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7vl4gj94ppo, today

Gardaí (Irish police) have made an appeal for information about the disappearance and murder of Kyran Durnin as it approaches one year since he was first reported as missing.

The last known images of Kyran were taken in June 2022, when he was six-years-old.

He was reported missing from his home in Drogheda, County Louth, in the Republic of Ireland in August 2024.

Despite extensive and ongoing enquiries carried out by gardaí, they have been unable to locate Kyran or determine what has happened to him.

Gardaí said there have been in excess of 570 separate investigative actions taken, two arrests of a man and a woman on suspicion of murder, three domestic residences and adjoining lands searched, and more than 29,500 hours of CCTV reviewed.

They said they are "aware of the extensive public commentary on this investigation including speculation, rumours and theories on what may have happened to Kyran".

The Durnin family's previous contacts with Irish child protection services are now the subject of an independent national review.

Tuslathe, the Irish state agency responsible for child welfare and protection, has also said it it carrying out an internal review of its interactions with Kyran's family.

Timeline of what has been confirmed so far

* 2021 - 2022 - Kyran was a pupil at a national [primary] school near his home in Dundalk, but he did not return to the school after the 2022 summer holidays

* May 2024 - Kyran's family moved out of their home in Emer Terrace in Dundalk, where they had been living for a number of years

* Unknown date in August 2024 - Tusla, the Irish state agency responsible for child protection, alerted gardaí about "a significant concern about Kyran"

* 28 August 2024 - The approximate date of the last sighting of the boy and his mother in Drogheda, according to a missing person report made to gardaí.

* 30 August 2024 - Kyran and his 24-year-old mother Dayla Durnin were reported missing from their home in Drogheda

* 4 September 2024 - Gardaí issued a public missing persons appeal, seeking help to find Dayla and Kyran

* 16 October 2024 - Gardaí said they now believed that "Kyran is missing, presumed dead" and they confirmed they have begun a murder inquiry

* 21 October 2024 - Acting under a search warrant, gardaí take possession of the Durnins' former family home in Emer Terrace, Dundalk

* 22 October 2024 - a forensic examination of the house, garden and nearby open ground began

Cases of flesh-eating screwworm on the rise in Mexico

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn85e172yxxo, yesterday

The number of animals infested with New World screwworm (NWS), a flesh-eating parasite, has risen by 53% in the four weeks to mid-August, Mexican government data reveals.

While infestations by the fly larvae primarily affect cattle, Mexican officials also registered cases in dogs, horses, sheep – and humans.

According to local media, dozens of people have been treated for the infestation in hospitals in the southern Mexican states of Campeche and Chiapas.

The rise in affected animals in Mexico comes just days after US health authorities said that they had confirmed the first human case in a patient who had returned to the US from El Salvador.

NWS was declared eradicated in the US in 1966 after sterile male flies were released to disrupt the insects' reproductive cycle, and Mexico followed suit in 1991.

However, it has remained common in tropical and subtropical areas of Central and South America and has recently been spreading north with the first new case reported in Mexico in November 2024.

Female New World screwworm flies (Cochliomyia hominivorax) lay their eggs in or near open wounds on the skin of warm-blooded animals. They are also attracted to the mucous membranes, such as those in the nose, mouth, eyelids, ears and genitals.

The eggs hatch into maggots which burrow into the wound or the membrane, feeding on the living flesh.

The infestation is called myiasis and, if left untreated, can cause serious damage - and can even prove fatal - as the larvae tear into the tissue with sharp mouth hooks.

Health officials warn that while fatal cases in humans are rare, people with pre-existing health issues and the elderly should take extra care.

Mexico's health ministry said an 86-year-old woman had died in Campeche state in July from skin cancer which had been exacerbated by an infestation of screwworm larvae.

Those most at risk are people working with livestock or those living in rural areas where infested livestock are present.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urges people who may have visited a region where screwworm flies are present to be alert to the symptoms. These include unexplained skin lesions, feeling larvae move within a wound or the nose, mouth or eyes and seeing maggots in an open sore.

Experts point out that prevention is key when visiting rural areas in affected regions, which includes keeping any open wounds clean and covered, and using an insect repellent.

They also ask people who suspect they may have been infested to seek medical help.

Founder of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel 'El Mayo' enters guilty plea

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2eny8nz94vo, 4 days ago

Mexican drug lord, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, has entered a guilty plea to two drug smuggling and conspiracy charges in a court in New York, bringing an end to one of the longest and most notorious criminal careers in the history of organised crime.

Zambada was not just any drug lord.

He was the founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, for years the biggest and most powerful criminal organisation in Mexico - with an astonishing global reach.

Last year, he pleaded not guilty to a raft of drug smuggling, gun-running and money laundering offences. But now, he has changed his plea before a federal judge in Brooklyn.

In doing so, he officially accepted his role in creating the vast criminal network which has sent huge amounts of cocaine and other drugs into the US since he co-founded the cartel at the end of the 1980s.

The Associated Press reported that in court Zambada apologised for his actions.

"I recognise the great harm illegal drugs have done to the people in the United States and Mexico," he said through a Spanish-language interpreter, the AP reported. "I apologise for all of it, and I take responsibility for my actions."

Local Mexican media has also said that Zambada admitted "the organisation that I headed fed corruption in my country by paying police, military commanders and politicians who allowed us to operate freely".

The step comes weeks after US prosecutors confirmed they would not be seeking the death penalty against the 77-year-old Mexican kingpin.

Zambada was arrested in Texas last year following an extraordinary double-cross by the sons of his former ally, the jailed co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.

El Chapo was sentenced to life imprisonment in the same court in 2019.

After his arrest, the cartel splintered into two main factions: one led by El Mayo, and its rival, led by Guzmán's sons, known as "Los Chapitos". The conflict between the two sides continues to rage, particularly in the state of Sinaloa itself.

In late July 2024, Zambada was allegedly lured to a meeting with one of El Chapo's son, Joaquín Guzmán López.

Initial reports suggested Guzmán López then duped his rival into boarding a light aircraft, but Zambada later claimed he was ambushed and overpowered by Los Chapitos, and forcibly removed to Texas.

US law enforcement officials were waiting for the aircraft when it landed near El Paso and both men were immediately taken into custody.

By entering a guilty plea, Zambada is expected to receive a more lenient sentence. In his late 70s and reportedly in poor health, he may have reasoned that it was futile to continue to claim his innocence, especially given Guzmán's conviction and life sentence in 2019.

"El Mayo will spend the rest of his life behind bars. He will die in a US federal prison where he belongs," US Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters.

It was confirmed last year that both the Guzmán sons - Joaquín and his younger brother, Ovidio - were negotiating plea bargains with the US government.

In May, 17 members of the Guzmán family were escorted into the US by officials. Last month, Ovidio pleaded guilty in Chicago to multiple charges of drug smuggling and involvement in a continuing criminal enterprise.

At his height, Zambada was probably the most powerful drug lord in the world.

More shadowy than other kingpins - particularly El Chapo whose escapes from prison in 2001 and 2015 made headlines around the world - Zambada was no less ruthless or calculating.

For some five decades, he successfully evaded arrest or capture. During that time he oversaw the transport of vast quantities of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine into the US via land, sea and air.

Now, in a US courtroom, one of the most enduring names in global drug trafficking has accepted his role at the top of the one of the biggest and most sophisticated criminal networks in the world.

He is due to be sentenced in January 2026.

Judge temporarily blocks Ábrego García's deportation

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c04ryk6ed5lo, 4 days ago

A federal judge temporarily blocked the US government from deporting Kilmar Ábrego García to another country, after immigration officers took him into custody at a check-in this morning.

The government brought Mr Ábrego García back to the US after mistakenly deporting him to a notorious prison in El Salvador in March, and has since charged him with human trafficking.

US authorities told Mr Ábrego García he may be deported to Uganda, following his refusal to accept a plea deal, his lawyers say.

Mr Ábrego García filed a new federal lawsuit challenging his current detention and potential deportation "to Uganda or any other country" until he has a trial.

At Tuesday's hearing, US District Judge Paula Xinis said she was barring the government from deporting Mr Ábrego García until she could hold a hearing on the matter.

She also raised questions about the government's intention to deport him to Uganda.

She said the US failed to demonstrate that Mr Ábrego García would not face harm if deported to Uganda.

The judge also expressed concerns that the government would send him to a country where he had no connections, should he not plead guilty to criminal charges.

"It is in my view plain that you can't do that," Judge Xinis said. "You can't condition the relinquishment of constitutional rights in that regard."

"You'd never get a knowing and voluntary guilty plea out of anyone if you do that," she said.

Two existing court orders bar the government from deporting him from the continental US until Wednesday afternoon.

"My understanding is that removal is not imminent," government attorney Drew Ensign told Judge Xinis. He noted that "third country removal takes some time".

Judge Xinis told Mr Ensign that the Trump administration was "absolutely forbidden" to remove Mr Ábrego García while those orders were in effect.

ICE is currently holding Mr Ábrego García at a facility in the state of Virginia, his attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg told Judge Xinis.

He asked that the judge order his client remain detained within 200 miles of the court in order to ensure he had swift access to his legal proceedings.

Judge Xinis asked both parties to submit briefs this week ahead of a potential hearing. She is the same jurist who oversaw the initial lawsuit over Mr Ábrego García's mistaken deportation to El Salvador.

On Monday morning, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took Mr Ábrego García into custody after summoning him to a mandatory immigration meeting in Baltimore.

Before going inside, Mr Ábrego García addressed a crowd of supporters and protesters gathered outside the building.

"Brothers and sisters, my name is Kilmar Ábrego García," he said. "And I always want you to remember that today, I can say with pride, that I am free and have been reunited with my family."

He was back in custody shortly after.

In a statement, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem confirmed his arrest and said that ICE "are processing him for deportation".

In a subsequent post on X, the Department of Homeland Security said "he will be processed for removal to Uganda".

The Trump administration spent much of the day alleging Mr Ábrego García was a criminal as justification for his latest action. The official White House X account posted an stylised image of Mr Ábrego García with the slogan "MS-13" appearing in bold letters beneath his face.

In a statement, Ms Noem alleged Mr Ábrego García was guilty of human trafficking and domestic abuse. President Donald Trump would not allow him to "terrorise American citizens any longer", she said.

Mr Ábrego García's legal team accuses the US of trying to "coerce" him to plead guilty by threatening to re-deport him "halfway across the world".

"The only reason that they've chosen to take him into detention is to punish him, to punish him for exercising his constitutional rights," Mr Sandoval-Moshenberg told reporters outside the ICE office.

A subsequent court order barred the government from removing Mr Ábrego García from the continental United States or altering his legal status until 16:00 Wednesday, unless a judge extends the order.

His lawyers said their client declined an offer to plead guilty to human smuggling charges in exchange for deportation to Costa Rica. He was asked to check in on Monday at the field office in Baltimore.

During the interview, Mr Sandoval-Moshenberg said ICE officers had taken Mr Ábrego García into custody with no explanation. An officer told the attorneys he would be taken to a detention centre but would not specify which one.

His attorney argued there was no reason to detain Mr Ábrego García, as he was under ankle monitoring and "basically on house arrest".

The US reached bilateral deportation agreements with Honduras and Uganda as part of the Trump crackdown on illegal immigration.

Uganda's ministry of foreign affairs announced last Thurdsay that it had reached a temporary agreement with the United States with respect to "third country nationals who may not be granted asylum in the United States but are reluctant to or may have concerns about returning to their countries of origin".

However, Uganda stated a preference to take individuals from African countries, and said it would not take individuals with criminal records or unaccompanied minors.

The saga of Mr Ábrego García's deportation case has been in the news since March when he was deported to his native El Salvador despite a court order blocking such action, and initially kept in the notorious Cecot prison.

But after US government officials acknowledged he was deported due to an "administrative error", a judge ordered the administration to facilitate his return.

He was sent to Tennessee where he was charged in a human smuggling scheme and detained until his release on Friday after a ruling by a federal judge.

Mr Ábrego García has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Teenager who shot Colombian senator sentenced to seven years

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c707l5vvn8go, yesterday

A 15-year-old boy has been sentenced to seven years in juvenile detention for shooting Colombian presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay at a rally in Bogotá in June.

The conservative senator, who was 39, underwent multiple surgeries after being hit by three bullets but died on 11 August.

The teenager was charged with attempted murder and the illegal possession of firearms.

After years of growing peace, the shooting shocked Colombians, who still remembered the political violence of the 1980s and 90s when several presidential candidates and influential Colombian figures were assassinated.

Five others have been arrested and charged in relation to the attack, including suspected criminal Élder José Arteaga Hernández.

Police say they believe a dissident group of the former left-wing Farc rebels was behind the assassination.

Uribe was shot in the head at a campaign rally on 7 June, with unverified video of the assassination widely circulated online.

Local media reports suggest that after the teenager was arrested, he cried out: "I did it for money for my family."

The senator was a popular member of the right-wing Democratic Centre party, and had been seeking his party's nomination for the 2026 presidential election.

His father, Miguel Uribe Londoño, announced his own presidential campaign earlier this week, in what he said was an effort keep his son's legacy alive.

Uribe Londoño was a member of Bogotá's city council in the late 80s and a senator for Colombia's Conservative Party in the early 90s.

During that time period, several presidential candidates and influential Colombian figures were killed, including Uribe's own mother, journalist Diana Turbay.

She was kidnapped by Los Extraditables in 1990 - an alliance created by leading drug lords. She was held hostage by them for five months before being shot dead during a botched rescue attempt.

Uribe often cited her as his inspiration to run for political office "to work for our country".

Argentina's Milei rushed to safety after convoy pelted with rocks

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ypje38962o, 2 days ago

Argentine President Javier Milei was moved to safety after protesters threw rocks and bottles at his convoy while campaigning for mid-term elections.

Milei was standing in the back of a vehicle moving along the streets of Lomas de Zamora in Buenos Aires, when at least one rock hit the bonnet. Other items were seen being thrown over Milei's head before he was driven away.

Scuffles broke out between supporters and opponents of the president, with one of his supporters suffering from injured ribs, according to AFP news agency.

Afterwards, Milei posted a picture of himself with his thumbs up, and accused the opposition of violence. His spokesman Manuel Adorni said no one had been injured.

Milei was later seen being escorted into a black vehicle with tinted windows, as he was asked by local press to comment on what had happened.

The president was with his chief of staff and sister Karina Milei during the incident.

He had been campaigning for October mid-term elections, greeting his supporters and signing books, before he was pelted with objects.

Milei's office claimed those who threw the missiles were supporters of the opposition.

Lomas de Zamora is traditionally known to be a stronghold of the Peronist opposition.

Local elections take place in Buenos Aires province on 7 September and midterm elections being on 26 October, both of which give Milei a chance to expand his power in opposition areas.

A cut-off finger ended her comfortable family life. Now she's hiding from US officials

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg4kd385e4o, 5 days ago

She had promised her daughter a trip to Disney World in Florida - but what had originally been planned as a holiday became an escape route from "terror".

Gabriela, not her real name, is from Guayaquil, Ecuador, where she led what she calls a "normal middle-class life": she worked at a television channel for 15 years, she had a mortgage and her daughter attended private school.

When she read headlines about violence rising in Ecuador - gangs battling over cocaine trafficking routes, homicides soaring, and extortions spreading - she assumed the extortions were aimed at "millionaires".

Then came the first threat: a phone call warning her to pay a gang or be shot. The caller knew her workplace and her licence plate.

Around the time of their planned Disney World holiday, her daughter's grandfather was kidnapped.

Her family was asked to pay tens of thousands of dollars and received videos showing his fingers being cut off. He was eventually murdered, his finger left in a bottle as a taunt – a case reported by the BBC.

This law is the subject of "much, much interpretation", according to Kathleen Bush-Joseph of the Migration Policy Institute.

During US President Donald Trump's first term in office, his administration made it harder for people to seek asylum from gang violence or domestic violence - two categories that at face value appear to be about crimes between individuals, but in many countries, are connected to systemic issues of justice and corruption.

Trump's attorney general raised the bar on those claims, issuing a directive that "the applicant must show that the government condoned the private actions or demonstrated an inability to protect the victims".

That can be difficult. Gabriela says that reporting threats in a country like Ecuador, can be risky. "If you're lucky enough and they catch the criminal, it's likely he'll get out the next day and try to kill you in revenge."

While the Biden administration repealed this legal interpretation, the law remains unchanged and those fleeing the cartels feel in limbo.

Donald Trump has also made criminal cartels a target of his immigration policies – designating some as terrorist organisations and deporting those he claims are affiliated to them, in some cases without providing evidence.

Ms Bush-Joseph says it is too early to tell how this will play out in the courts but it could go "both ways" for those fleeing cartel violence.

It could categorise some of them as victims of "terrorists". But there are concerns that those who have been forced to pay extortions could also be accused of having provided "material support" to these groups - even if it was coerced.

Gabriela agrees with Trump that cartel members are "terrorists" and thinks that therefore his government should recognise her and others as victims: "I would like the president to grant asylum to those fleeing violence from these terrorists."

Mario Russell, the executive director of the US-based Center for Migration Studies, believes the legal definitions of who can claim asylum should be updated.

He says that for now, most victims end up claiming asylum on political grounds, by arguing cartels have so much social and political power they act "as if they were the governing entity".

"The problem is these people are suffering violence and persecution, and by persecution we mean horror. There's a fear for their life."

Gabriela says that at her asylum interview - for which she has not yet been given a date - she plans to ask for political asylum. She argues that due to the fact that some police officers and judges in Ecuador are corrupt and have ties to the gangs, she did not feel she would have been protected from the threats gang members made against her in her home country.

Mr Russell says about 70% of all asylum claims are already being rejected. What has changed under the Trump administration, he says, is the increased detention of migrants who are in the country irregularly but seeking asylum.

A record 60,000 people are now in detention while awaiting to present their cases, data shows.

It "changes this equation", Mr Russell says, because they can "no longer live their lives relatively peacefully" as they wait for a decision on their claim. Detention, he adds, is "leveraged" as a way of encouraging people to give up and voluntarily accept deportation.

President Trump's latest executive orders have expanded deportations and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) arrest powers, including suspending entry for many undocumented migrants.

The result, says Ms Bush-Joseph, is an environment where judges face "immense pressure" to deny cases not deemed legally sufficient.

Straightforward political cases may be approved quickly, but cartel cases are hard and often rejected at first review, she says. These applicants must "fight for protection" while facing some of the "highest risks of deportation", she adds.

For applicants like Gabriela, this means effectively living in lockdown. "We have been afraid since President Trump took office," she says.

She has a work permit while her asylum claim is outstanding and works long shifts of manual labour in a US factory. "Our life consists of work, home, work, nothing else. I don't want to expose us to another trauma."

"It's stressful, not being able to go out, to relax, to forget our traumas," she says, adding that she fears being reported and arrested.

She is anxious about following the speed limit, fearing any mistake could justify deporting her or rejecting her claim. She answers everyone politely, even when she has experienced racism.

Gabriela's fears are shared by Maria, a lesbian from the Ecuadorean city of Durán, which is ranked as one of the world's most violent. A gang also tried to extort her by sending her threatening text messages.

She filed a complaint at the Prosecutor's Office in Ecuador, but a week later, criminals pulled her off her motorbike, warned her to pay up, and said: "Because you think you're a man, you think nothing's going to happen to you."

Maria sold the bike and fled to the US, where she is now working as a dishwasher in New York.

She told US immigration officials about the complaint she filed in Ecuador but her asylum hearing is not scheduled until 2028 and for Maria, that means she "can't enjoy life".

"You must hide, you don't know when a raid might happen," she explains.

There is a backlog in the US of about four million asylum cases waiting to be heard, and for many like Maria, the process takes years.

Luis, a taxi driver who fled Durán for the US after gangs tried to extort drivers from his co-operative, is another one.

"I never thought of emigrating. But so many of my friends were killed," he says of those who refused to pay.

According to immigration law firm Spar & Bernstein, rather than helping the cases of people who fled gang violence, the US government's designation of some cartels as terrorist groups could in fact result in some applications being found inadmissible.

Individuals who paid smugglers to help them reach the US, or those who "worked in a cartel-controlled town and paid protection money", could be seen as having links to the very groups they are trying to escape from - and see their asylum claims rejected.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser says US asylum law protects a "very limited number of persecuted aliens".

He also blames backlogs on "fraudulent and frivolous" claims made under the Biden administration and says new legislation would increase asylum fees to reduce fraud.

"A pending asylum claim does not make aliens immune from enforcement," he adds.

Americans meanwhile appear split on Donald Trump's immigration actions. Pew Research polling from June found 60% disapprove of suspending most asylum applications; 54% oppose increased raids. But support is very divided along party lines.

Most (65%) support legal paths for undocumented immigrants to stay, while 23% worry they or someone close could be deported.

Gabriela, Maria, and Luis insist those fleeing cartel violence are misunderstood. They accept why criminals might be deported but believe law-abiding immigrants "paying taxes" deserve to stay.

"We want what everyone wants: work, live in a state of law and order, and to no longer live in terror, not knowing if you or your child will return home."

She travelled eight hours by bus for violin lessons. Now she's playing Wembley with Coldplay

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93de1y9nl5o, 7 days ago

Pathrycia Mendonça never has to worry about jet lag.

The 26-year-old has just jetted into London, where she's about to play 10 nights at Wembley Stadium with Coldplay as part of Venezuela's Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra.

The flight took 12 hours and meant leaving her beloved 10-month-old daughter at home with her mother – but the violinist is bursting with energy as she arrives for rehearsals at the iconic Air Studios in north London.

That's probably because, as a 12-year-old student in Venezuela, she endured long, overnight bus journeys just to attend her lessons in Caracas.

"I am from Barquisimeto, which is a small town, and it is eight hours on the bus, because it's so slow," she explains.

"So when I started my classes, I would leave Barquisimeto at midnight to arrive in Caracas at dawn.

"I'd go to my classes then, at midday, I'd go back to my city with my mum. She was always with me, because I was a child. And I'd do it every week.

"For me, that was the key to being part of the orchestra here, now."

In other words, sleep deprivation means nothing to her.

Speaking to Mendonça, you'd be forgiven for feeling inadequate. As well as her position in the world-famous orchestra, she is also a violin teacher, a mother and a chef, and recently completed a Master's degree in music.

But she wouldn't be anywhere else in the world for the next three weeks.

"I don't know if I can say this, but I'm a crazy fan of Coldplay, so when they said, 'Do you want to come and play?' I was like, 'No way!'" she laughs, sheepishly.

"When I listen to the band in my house, I always dreamt about playing Viva La Vida. It's so iconic, and it has strings all the way through. So this is a dream that came true. Totally a dream."

Like her fellow players in the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, Mendonça is a beneficiary of Venezuela's El Sistema programme, which offers free music education throughout the country.

It was established in 1975 by visionary musician José Antonio Abreu, who saw it as an antidote to the crime and poverty that gripped the nation.

Those problems persist despite the country's vast oil wealth – but El Sistema ("the system") has earned Venezuela's musicians a place on the world stage.

To the players, it's about more than learning an instrument.

"El Sistema teaches you about the discipline of the community," says Humberto Jiminez, a violinist who also made weekly six-hour journeys to Caracas for his studies.

"You have to learn when to be part of the team, and when to be a leader – and how to integrate all those differences into one intention."

"It gave me everything," adds Mendonça. "My whole life, I think. It gives me motivation."

El Sistema's most famous graduate is Gustavo Dudamel, a seven-time Grammy winner who has been called "the happiest conductor in America" and "the closest thing to a rock star" in the world of classical music.

The 44-year-old is currently musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and artistic director of the Simón Bolívar Orchestra. Next year, he will become the first Latin American to lead the New York Philharmonic, the oldest symphony orchestra in the US.

But for the next three weeks, he's in London too – summoned by Chris Martin to open every night of Coldplay's record-breaking residency at Wembley Stadium.

"Chris is very into social action through music," says Dudamel. "When he plays music, his will is to help, to heal and to transform - and that connects with our values.

"I think he wanted to give something to the orchestra. A gift, a very generous gift, of having all of us together, celebrating the power of music."

Martin first met Dudamel in 2007, after the Simón Bolívar Orchestra made their BBC Proms debut playing Mambo from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story.

Their appearance was a sensation – combining sheer technical skill with a thrilling joie de vivre, as they span their double basses, twirled their trumpets and clattered their cowbells, all while clad in Venezuelan-flag jackets.

Not long afterwards, Martin invited the conductor to be part of Coldplay's 2016 Super Bowl half-time show, and their friendship was sealed. (Martin's mum, also a fan, frequently attends the conductor's rehearsals).

Breaking borders

Their partnership fits perfectly with Dudamel's urge to push the boundaries of classical music.

Earlier this year, he took the LA Philharmonic to the Coachella Music Festival, playing Wagner and Beethoven in a 50-minute set that also included guest stars such as Dave Grohl, Cynthia Erivo and LL Cool J.

"You think, 'Maybe this is something crazy', but it was the most natural thing," he says, recalling the way the audience chanted the opening "da-da-da-dum" of Beethoven's 5th like it was the riff from Seven Nation Army.

"We live in a world of walls and borders - and that happens with music, too," says Dudamel. "But it's been one of my goals to break that down.

"I think young people are hungry for culture and for us, in the orchestra, [Coachella] was a historical moment of embracing another audience and that audience connecting with what we do."

He's hopeful the Wembley shows – where the orchestra will again play Beethoven's 5th, alongside John Williams' Star Wars theme and Vivaldi's Spring – will have the same effect.

"I want the audience to walk away embraced by love," he says.

"It's not naïve to say we're living in a crisis of empathy. Music is not about that. Music is about making harmony together. It's the best example of how to behave as a community."

The conductor's optimism is infectious. As he leads the orchestra in rehearsals at London's Air Studios, they whoop and cheer, enjoying themselves in a way that orchestras rarely do.

It's proof of El Sistema's importance, as it turns 50 – an anniversary that's being marked with a mini-residency at London's Barbican, and a new album, called Odyssey, that mixes Latin American traditions with orchestral music.

But the organisation has come in for criticism. Some have accused it of being a political organisation, pointing out that it sits under the office of president Nicolás Maduro – who has repeatedly been accused of repressing opposition groups and silencing dissent, including with the use of violence.

Dudamel has criticised Maduro, calling for an end to "bloodshed" after an 18-year-old musician was killed at a protest in Caracas. But some have called for him to go further, saying his continued involvement with El Sistema makes him the president's "puppet and henchman".

But the conductor says his priority will always be the children whose lives are transformed by the programme.

"In the super-politicised world that we live in right now, you have to say, you have to do, you have be against.

"It's difficult because everybody is screaming – but we need more of these programmes that motivate you to find the best of people.

"For me, the most important thing is that this new generation has the opportunities that I had."

More than three million children have passed through El Sistema over the last five decades, with the programme replicated in dozens of countries around the world.

Over the next three weeks, almost one million people will see the results on stage at Wembley.

"It's the biggest number of people that I ever played. It's a lot," marvels Mendonça.

"It's a way to represent my country and, in my particular case, it's a way to give hope to all the children I've had the opportunity to teach.

"Sometimes, when you're growing up, you don't know why you are doing the things you do... But when you see someone close to you doing something like this, you say, 'If she can, why can't I?'"

Once home to a cult, the Chilean tourist village haunted by torture and child abuse

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93k3l373n5o, 13 days ago

With sloping red-tiled roofs, trimmed lawns and a shop selling home-baked ginger biscuits, Villa Baviera looks like a quaint German-style village, nestled in the rolling hills of central Chile.

But it has a dark past.

Once known as Colonia Dignidad, it was home to a secretive religious sect founded by a manipulative and abusive leader who collaborated with the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Paul Schäfer, who established the colony in 1961, imposed a regime of harsh punishments and humiliation on the Germans living there.

They were separated from their parents and forced to work from a young age.

Schäfer also sexually abused many of the children.

After Gen Pinochet led a coup in 1973, opponents of his military regime were taken to Colonia Dignidad to be tortured in dark basements.

Many of these political prisoners were never seen again.

Schäfer died in prison in 2010, but some of the German residents remained and have turned the former colony into a tourist destination, with a restaurant, hotel, cabins to rent and even a boating pond.

Now, the Chilean government is going to expropriate some of its land to commemorate Pinochet's victims there. But the plans have divided opinions.

Across Chile, more than 3,000 people were killed and more than 40,000 tortured during the Pinochet regime, which was in power until 1990.

Luis Evangelista Aguayo was one of those who was forcibly "disappeared".

His sister, Ana Aguayo, sits by the fire in her house in Parral, the nearest town to Colonia Dignidad.

"Luis was quiet, he loved swimming. He wanted to create a fairer world," she said.

Mr Aguayo worked as a school inspector, was a member of the teachers' trade union and was active in the Socialist Party.

On 12 September 1973, one day after Pinochet overthrew Chile's elected Socialist President, Salvador Allende, police came to Mr Aguayo's house and arrested him.

Two days later, he was sent to the local prison, but on 26 September 1973, police arrived and dragged him into a van. His family never saw him again.

Ana Aguayo says a local farmer came to her house to say that he had seen her brother at the German colony.

"My mother and father went to Colonia Dignidad but weren't allowed in," she said.

"They went everywhere looking for him, at police stations, at the courts, but could get no information. My father died of sorrow because he wasn't able to help him. My 96-year-old mother thinks she can hear him calling 'Mama, come and get me'."

Mr Aguayo was one of 27 people from Parral believed to have been killed in Colonia Dignidad, according to an ongoing judicial investigation ordered by the Chilean government.

The total number of people murdered here is not known, but there is evidence that this was the final destination of many opponents of the Pinochet regime, including Chilean congressman Carlos Lorca and several other Socialist Party leaders.

The Chilean justice ministry says investigations suggest hundreds of political detainees were brought here.

Ana Aguayo supports the government's plan to create a site of memory there.

"It was a place of horror and appalling crimes. It shouldn't be a place for tourists to shop or dine at a restaurant. It ought to be a place for remembrance, reflection and for educating future generations, so that it never happens again."

But the government's expropriation plans have divided opinion in Villa Baviera, where fewer than 100 adults live.

Dorothee Munch was born in 1977 in Colonia Dignidad.

"We lived in single-sex dormitories like barracks," she recalls.

"From a young age, we had to work, cleaning the dishes for the whole community and collecting firewood."

The government plans to expropriate 117 hectares of the 4,829-hectare site, including buildings where torture took place, and sites where victims' bodies were exhumed, then burnt and their ashes deposited.

Ms Munch disagrees with the expropriation plans because they include the centre of the village, encompassing the residents' homes and shared businesses including a restaurant, hotel, bakery, butchers and a dairy.

"We lived under a system of fear, we are victims too. We are rebuilding our lives and this will make us victims once more. Perhaps people my age could re-locate, but for the older residents it would be devastating."

Erika Tymm arrived in Colonia Dignidad from Germany in 1962, aged two.

Separated from her parents, she remembers crying at night for her mother.

Like several other people from the colony, she says she was given electric shocks as a child.

She also opposes the expropriation plans and wants to stay living in the same place. "I want to be with people who understand what I went through."

Chilean Minister for Justice and Human Rights Jaime Gajardo Falcón told the BBC that the government took the decision to expropriate the area in which the main buildings of the ex-colony are concentrated.

"These were sites of political detention, of torture, surveillance and training of state agents to commit crimes against humanity."

The expropriation decree was published in July. Over the next few months, the state will determine the value of the expropriated assets, he said.

Seventy-three residents and former residents of Villa Baviera have written to the Chilean president expressing their concern about the expropriation plans and asking to be involved in discussions about it.

They have hired a public relations firm to handle their relations with the media and a representative of this firm accompanied the BBC on its visit to the site.

Separately the BBC spoke to several other inhabitants and former inhabitants of Colonia Dignidad who support the plan to create a memorial site.

Georg Klaube lived in the Colonia Dignidad from 1962 – when he arrived from Germany with his parents aged two – until 2010.

Like many boys in Colonia Dignidad, he says he was given electric shocks, forced to take psychotropic drugs and was sexually abused by Schäfer.

"Every night I was taken to a building, I was stripped naked, they would put a black towel on my face and electric shocks were applied, here, here, here," he says, pointing to his genitals, his throat, his feet and under his arms.

"I think we should have a memorial because so much cruelty happened here to both Germans and Chileans. I cannot believe there is now a restaurant in the place where so many children's tears, urine and blood flowed."

Mr Klaube is part of a legal action – supported by an association of former and current Colonia Dignidad inhabitants – which claims that the leaders of Villa Baviera are not sharing out the income of the former colony fairly.

They want the government to ensure that when the expropriation takes place, the indemnification payment is distributed amongst all residents and former residents.

Among the other victims that support the expropriation plans are former political prisoners who were tortured in Colonia Dignidad, small farmers who were evicted from their land when the German colony was established and Chileans who lived locally and were sexually abused as children by Schäfer.

Schäfer was arrested in 2005 and in 2006 convicted of sexually abusing 25 children, including five counts of child rape. Several of his accomplices were also convicted.

Justice Minister Gajardo says it is important to ensure the horrors that happened here are not forgotten.

"Atrocious crimes were committed here. Until now it has been private property. Once it is taken over by the state, Chileans will be able to enter freely and it will become a space for memory and reflection to ensure that such crimes are never committed again."

At least 18 killed and dozens injured in separate Colombia attacks

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwypw0xvdk5o, 8 days ago

At least 18 people have been killed and dozens wounded in two separate attacks in Colombia, deepening the country's most serious security crisis in decades.

Six people died and more than 60 were injured after a car bomb exploded on a busy street in the western city of Cali in Colombia, according to authorities.

Earlier on Thursday, a separate drone attack against a police helicopter killed at least 12 people in a rural area outside the northwestern city of Medellin.

The attacks, attributed to different dissident factions of the now defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) group, pose fresh challenges to Colombia's fragile peace processes ahead of elections next year.

Alejandro Eder, the mayor of Cali, ordered martial law for the country's third most populous city. He also announced a temporary ban on large trucks entering the city and called on the public to report information about the incident for a $10,000 reward.

In the wake of both attacks, the president and the military leadership announced they would lead a security council meeting to "define additional protection measures" for citizens.

"The state will not yield to terrorism. These crimes will be pursued and punished with the full force of the law," the Ministry of Defence said on social media.

According to eyewitnesses, the car bomb in Cali targeted the Marco Fidel Suárez Military Aviation School, killing civilians in the street and damaging many houses.

"There was a thunderous sound of something exploding near the air base," an eyewitness told AFP news agency.

Defence Minister Pedro Sánchez called the blast a "terrorist attack" and blamed "the narco cartel alias Mordisco" - referring to Farc guerrilla leader Iván Mordisco.

"This cowardly attack against civilians is a desperate reaction to the loss of control over drug trafficking in Valle del Cauca, Cauca, and Nariño, where the Public Force has neutralized much of this threat," he said on social media.

Addressing the separate attack on a police helicopter, President Gustavo Petro said the aircraft was on a mission to eradicate coca leaf crops - a main ingredient in cocaine.

The helicopter crashed to the ground after being hit by a drone, killing the 12 officers on board.

Images circulating on social media showed thick plumes of black smoke billowing in a forested area of Amalfi in the country's north.

Sánchez said the attack was perpetrated by the EMC guerrilla group, the largest offshoot of Farc.

Colombia has experienced a rise in violence in recent months involving clashes between security forces and dissident rebels, paramilitaries or drug gangs.

Drone attacks have also become increasingly common in recent years: in 2024, 115 such attacks were recorded in the country, most of them carried out by illegal armed groups.

Last week, three soldiers were killed in a drone attack in the country's south-west, where explosive devices were dropped on members of the navy and army who were manning a checkpoint.

Bolsonaro planned to flee to Argentina, Brazil police say

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c05ede3j24zo, 8 days ago

Police in Brazil have accused former President Jair Bolsonaro, 70, and his 41-year-old son Eduardo of obstruction of justice.

They allege that the two tried to interfere in the trial currently under way against the elder Bolsonaro, in which he stands accused of leading an attempted coup after his defeat in the 2022 presidential election.

Police say they have found a document on Jair Bolsonaro's mobile phone which suggests he planned to evade criminal proceedings by seeking asylum in Argentina.

They also accuse Eduardo Bolsonaro of lobbying the Trump administration on behalf of his father - which they say led to the US imposing punitive tariffs on Brazilian goods.

The report also accuses Eduardo Bolsonaro of trying to influence his father's trial by lobbying the Trump administration to lay pressure on the Brazilian government and the Supreme Court.

In July, Trump announced he would raise tariffs on Brazilian imports to 50%, citing Brazil's treatment of Jair Bolsonaro as a trigger for the hike.

In addition to that, the US State Department banned eight Brazilian Supreme Court justices - including Alexandre de Moraes - from travelling to the US.

Eduardo Bolsonaro, who has been in the US for almost six months, took to social media on Wednesday to deny the allegations against him.

He said that his actions in the US had never been intended to influence any ongoing proceedings in Brazil and that his goal had been the "restoration of individual freedoms in the country".

Six severed heads found on road in Mexico

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8ry1m202nro, 10 days ago

Six severed heads have been found on a road in central Mexico, in an area not normally associated with cartel violence.

Local authorities made the discovery early on Tuesday morning on a route that links the broadly peaceful states of Puebla and Tlaxcala.

Police have not given a motive for the killings or said which of the criminal groups operating in Mexico might have carried them out.

Local media has reported that a blanket was left at the scene with a message issuing a warning to rival gangs and apparently signed by a group called "La Barredora", meaning "the sweeper".

It is the same name as a little-known criminal group operating in the western state of Guerrero but it isn't clear if they were behind the attack or why.

The local prosecutor's office said the heads found in Tlaxcala were those of men and it has launched an investigation into the killings, according to news agency AFP.

As well as drug-trafficking, there is an issue in the region with fuel smuggling, known as "huachicoleo", which generates billions of dollars a year for the groups behind the illegal activity.

So far, federal authorities have not commented on the killings.

They come amid a major crackdown by the administration of President Claudia Sheinbaum on fentanyl trafficking.

Puebla and Tlaxcala are not prone to the kind of extreme cartel violence prominent in other parts on the country.

In June, the bodies of 20 people - four of them decapitated - were found in Sinaloa, a state gripped by gang violence.

Seven Mexican youths were also killed in a shooting at a Catholic Church festivity in the central state of Guanajuato in May.

Violence between cartels has surged in recent years, with hundreds of thousands of people killed and tens of thousands missing since the government first began to use the Mexican military against gangs in 2006.

Peruvian woman accused of smuggling drugs in sex toy in Bali

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn92eywlwjlo, 10 days ago

A Peruvian woman has been accused of attempting to smuggle $70,000-worth (£52,000) of cocaine and ecstasy into Bali, concealed in her underwear and a sex toy.

The woman, who was only identified by the initials N.S., was stopped by customs officials who felt she was acting oddly, police said.

"The narcotics were hidden in six plastic packages wrapped in black duct tape inside a green bra, three similar packages in black underwear, and a sex toy containing drugs, which was inserted into her body," Radiant, Bali police's narcotics unit director, who goes by one name, told reporters.

The 42-year-old has been charged under Indonesia's drug laws, and if found guilty could face the death penalty.

Radiant said that 1.4kg (3.1lb) of cocaine and 43 ecstasy pills were found in total.

He added that the woman revealed she had been paid $19,000 to smuggle the drugs into Bali by someone she met on the dark web in April.

She took a flight from Barcelona, Spain, to the Indonesian island with a stopover in Doha, police said, arriving at the international airport on 12 August.

The woman was arrested shortly after being stopped at the airport, when customs officials alerted police.

Indonesia is known for the severe punishments it hands out for drug smuggling and has previously executed foreigners, but has upheld a temporary halt on the death sentence since 2017.

Last month, three British nationals avoided the death penalty after they were found guilty of smuggling cocaine disguised as packets of Angel Delight into Indonesia.

Bolivia set to elect first non-left wing president in two decades

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzlp85432o, 12 days ago

Bolivia is set to elect a non-left wing president after nearly two decades of near-continuous rule by the incumbent socialist party, according to official preliminary results.

Senator Rodrigo Paz Pereira and former president Jorge Quiroga came in first and second place respectively in Sunday's presidential elections.

Neither received a high enough share of the vote to secure an outright win, so the vote will go to a run-off between these two candidates, due in October.

Paz Pereira, of the Christian Democratic Party, was a surprise vote leader, after opinion polls had suggested Samuel Doria Medina, a businessman, was the frontrunner.

The electoral authorities said it can take up to three days to finalise the results.

Paz Pereira's campaign focused on redistributing more funds away from central government towards regional entities, and fighting corruption - with his slogan "capitalism for all, not just a few".

He has suggested a programme of accessible credit, tax breaks to boost the formal economy, and eliminating import barriers for products that Bolivia doesn't manufacture.

Quiroga briefly acted as interim president from 2001-2002 after serving as Vice President to Hugo Banzer, a military dictator until he was later elected.

The election of a president from outside the left camp will likely see sharp changes in the Latin American country's foreign policy.

In terms of trade, both candidates capitalist stances could indicate more support for foreign investment in Bolivia's vast lithium reserves - the key ingredient for batteries used in many electric cars, laptops and solar panels.

Politically, a change in government could mark closer ties with the US, after two decades of strengthening ties between Bolivia and China, Russia and Iran.

A recent US Congress report briefing described US-Bolivia relations as "strained" under the socialist party's governance.

The country's turn to the right comes as it is experiencing its worst economic crisis in years, with shortages of fuel, foreign reserves and some food items and high inflation and debt.

Opinion polls ahead of the election suggested that many voters wanted to vote for change, or to punish the incumbent Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) party.

The current president, Luis Arce, mired in deep unpopularity, decided not to seek re-election.

The punishment of the left is not just electoral, but physical in some cases.

The candidate for MAS, Eduardo del Castillo, was booed out of the school where he cast his vote. Bolivian media reported that some fellow voters told him to "wait in line like they do for fuel" rather than skip the voting queue.

People also threw stones at the highest-polling left-wing candidate, Andrónico Rodríguez, when he went to cast his ballot. Rodríguez was previously a member of MAS before splintering from the party.

Authorities in Bolivia also said that an explosive device was set off at the polling station where Rodríguez cast his vote. There were no reports of significant damage or injuries.

Rodríguez described it as an "isolated incident" orchestrated by a "small group" to a Bolivian newspaper.

The left has not just faced recent unpopularity over the economy. It is also deeply divided.

For the first time in about two decades, the former president, Evo Morales, was not on the ballot.

Morales ruled the country from 2006-2019 and was barred from running again, despite attempts to challenge legal and constitutional rulings to let him run for a fourth term.

He has urged his supporters to null their vote.

Rodríguez was once seen as a protégé of Morales, but has since distanced himself from him.

The last election in 2019 was disputed and protests erupted. Morales was accused of fraud after auditors found irregularities with the poll and he resigned under pressure from the military.

In 2020, Luis Arce - a former finance minister under Morales - took office as president. Morales then announced he would return to politics in Bolivia, and deprived Arce of a majority - turning the pair from allies to rivals.

Deep rifts and power struggles have existed in the ruling MAS party ever since. Morales's supporters have held protests and roadblocks against the re-election ban imposed on him, which have at times turned deadly with some emergency responders being killed.

Judges ordered an arrest warrant for Morales over an alleged sexual relationship and rape of a 15-year-old girl. He has called the accusations politically-motivated.

He has been living and operating from Chapare in Bolivia, protected at times by his supporters.

Israeli strikes kill six Syrian troops, Syria says

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp37kdjk0n2o, yesterday

Israeli drone strikes near Damascus have killed six Syrian soldiers, Syria's government said, among a series of reported attacks this week.

Syria's foreign ministry condemned Tuesday's strike as a violation of international law and a breach of its sovereignty.

After more strikes on Wednesday, Israeli forces carried out an airborne landing at a former military site in the area, international and Syrian state media report. Reports differ on what forces did and how long they stayed for.

Israel's military told the BBC it did not comment on foreign reports. Defence Minister Israel Katz posted on X on Thursday that "forces are operating in all combat zones day and night for the security of Israel".

Israel carried out dozens of attacks across Syria after the fall of ex-President Bashar al-Assad in December, which saw an Islamist-led government set up by former rebels. Israel at the time said it was acting to stop weapons falling "into the hands of extremists".

This year, Israel has conducted 95 attacks - 85 air strikes and 10 land operations - according to British-based monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

Tuesday's attack happened while Syrian troops were attempting to deal with "surveillance and eavesdropping devices" discovered during a field tour near al-Kiswah, Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reports.

Further air strikes followed on Wednesday, taking place around 10km (six miles) from where Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa was attending the Damascus International Fair, SOHR reported.

Few details were available on the landing by Israeli forces at the former military site, which was reported on Wednesday night.

SANA reported that Israeli aircraft launched several raids, followed by an airdrop, "the details of which are yet to be determined".

A Syrian military source told Al Jazeera the operation included dozens of soldiers with search equipment who stayed at the site for more than two hours.

Two Syrian army sources told Reuters that troops conducted the landing, but withdrew after, with no more details.

The reported series of attacks this week comes as the two countries engage in deconfliction talks.

In July, Israel bombed Syrian government forces around Suweida in the country's south as the army entered the predominantly Druze city following deadly sectarian clashes.

Israel's prime minister said he had ordered strikes on forces and weapons because the government "intended to use [them] against the Druze". Syria condemned the July attacks, which it said had resulted in deaths of members of the armed forces and civilians.

There is also a population of Druze, whose religion is an offshoot of Shia Islam with its own unique identity and beliefs, in Israel.

Israeli double strike on Gaza hospital - what we know

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c80d2zrdj7vo, 3 days ago

A double Israeli strike on a hospital in Gaza killed 20 people including journalists and health workers, according to the outlets they worked for, the World Health Organization and the Hamas-run health ministry.

At least one person was killed in an initial strike, and others in a second attack minutes later as rescuers and journalists attended the scene at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis.

The five journalists worked for international media outlets, including the Associated Press, Reuters, Al Jazeera and Middle East Eye.

Later on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident a "tragic mishap" which Israel "deeply regrets" and said military authorities were "conducting a thorough investigation".

How the attack unfolded

The first strike hit at around 10:00 local time, medical staff at Nasser said.

There was "mass panic... chaos", said a British medical professional working at the hospital, who was treating patients in the intensive care unit at the time.

Approximately 10 minutes later there was another blast in the same spot, the medical professional said, adding that medical staff had been planning their escape from the building when the second strike hit.

The hospital's emergency department, inpatient ward, and surgical unit was hit, according to the World Health Organization. Its head Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the emergency staircase was also damaged.

BBC Verify has seen footage to confirm these timings.

A livestream by Al Ghad TV shows several emergency workers responding to the first strike near the top floor of Nasser Hospital, as a number of journalists in the background film what's happening.

A staircase, where journalists often gather to broadcast from, is visible in the video. A strike then directly hits the emergency workers and reporters, sending smoke and rubble in the air. At least one body is visible in the aftermath.

A separate video, filmed from the same staircase, shows the aftermath of the strike. Bodies can be seen on the staircase, as medics respond to the attack.

Another clip, filmed in front of the main entrance of Nasser hospital, shows a medical worker holding up bloodied clothes to the camera, before an explosion sends people running for cover.

The British medical professional described seeing "trails of blood all over the floor" and "absolute scenes of chaos, disbelief, and fear".

Who were the victims?

The identities of the slain journalists have been confirmed but we know little about the other fatalities. The Hamas-run health ministry said rescuers and patients were killed.

Husam al-Masri worked as a cameraman for Reuters. The news agency reported he was killed in a first strike on the hospital while operating a live TV feed for Reuters. News organisations around the world including the BBC have used footage he has taken.

Mariam Dagga, 33, was one of the few female journalists covering the war in Gaza. She was a freelancer working with the Associated Press (AP) who said she regularly reported from the hospital. Dagga has a 13-year-old-son, AP reports, who was evacuated from Gaza earlier in the war to live with his father in the United Arab Emirates. AP said she had written messages for her son and for her family in case she was killed. In the message to her son she asks him to remember her and if he has a daughter to name her after her.

Mohammad Salama worked for Al Jazeera and Middle East Eye. Salama was planning his wedding to another journalist, Hala Asfour, with the pair hoping to wed after a ceasefire, according to Al Jazeera.

Ahmed Abu Aziz, 28, worked for Middle East Eye (MEE) and dreamed of studying abroad, according to its own reporting. The outlet says he worked as a freelancer based in Khan Younis. Engaged before the war, MEE says Abu Aziz married his fiancée lawyer Loucy Saleh last summer.

According to the outlet, he spoke recently about not having children "simply because I don't have the strength to guarantee them a life". MEE quoted Abu Aziz's reflections on the dire conditions he and his wife found themselves in as he spoke candidly about their daily life battling hunger and displacement.

"I steer clear of making small talk with other journalists around me because I can't bear the thought of losing another friend," MEE reported him as saying.

Moaz Abu Taha worked with various outlets, including the Israeli newspaper Haaretz just a fortnight ago filming a video call with journalists that showed children suffering from malnutrition at Nasser. Reuters said they occasionally published work by him.

Israel does not allow international news organisations, including the BBC, into Gaza to report freely. Local reporters are relied upon to provide information to the world's media agencies.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says more than 190 journalists have been killed in 22 months of war, the vast majority Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks.

Two weeks ago, Israel killed six journalists in a targeted attack on one of them near Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, drawing outrage.

What does Israel say?

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) initially confirmed it carried out a strike in the area of Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza.

Throughout the day, Israeli officials issued multiple statements with little information in them, indicating a lack of clarity within the military about the attack but designed to address widespread outrage.

On Monday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel "deeply regrets the tragic mishap that occurred today at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza", adding that Israel "values the work of journalists, medical staff, and all civilians" and saying the military was conducting a "thorough investigation".

However, the statement does little to address the apparent "double-tap" nature of the attack. The fact that most of those who were killed were struck by the second attack at precisely the same location around 10 minutes later appears clearly intentional.

"Double taps" are a controversial military tactic that are designed to maximise casualties by firing on those who respond to the scene of a first attack.

Statements from media organisations, including the Foreign Press Association in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, accused the Israeli military of a pattern of intentionally targeting journalists throughout the war.

It is unclear if and when Israel will publish results of the internal inquiry it says it has begun.

On Tuesday the IDF published what it called initial findings, claiming troops had identified a camera being used by Hamas in the area of the Nasser hospital.

It also said "six of the individuals killed were terrorists", claiming one had taken part in the 7 October attacks.

The statement did not mention the strikes being carried out so close together or what ammunition caused the blasts.

Wider reaction to the killings

UN Secretary General António Guterres strongly condemned the "horrific killings" at Nasser hospital, which he said "highlight the extreme risks that medical personnel and journalists face as they carry out their vital work amid this brutal conflict", and called for a "prompt, and impartial investigation".

The UK called the attacks "horrific" and "completely indefensible".

Prime Minister Keir Starmer's official spokesperson said journalists should always be protected and the attacks illustrated the need for a ceasefire.

French President Emmanuel Macron called the strikes "intolerable" and said civilians and journalists must be protected. He renewed the call for humanitarian aid to be allowed inside Gaza and for Israel "to respect international law".

Germany's foreign office said it was "shocked".

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said he was unaware of the strikes, but when asked for his reaction he said he was "not happy about it".

Media freedom groups also issued condemnation.

"When and where is it going to end? There is international law," said the head of Reporters without Borders Thibaut Bruttin.

"There are guarantees that should be granted to journalists covering conflicts, and none of that seems to be applying."

The Committee to Protect Journalists said: "Israel's broadcasted killing of journalists in Gaza continues while the world watches and fails to act firmly".

The Foreign Press Association said the latest killings must serve as a "watershed moment" and urged international leaders to act. It called on Israel to "halt its abhorrent practice of targeting journalists", adding that "too many journalists have been killed by Israel without justification".

Australia accuses Iran of directing antisemitic attacks on cafe and synagogue

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9d085n75q3o, 4 days ago

Australia has given Iran's ambassador seven days to leave the country after alleging the country's government directed antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.

Intelligence services linked Iran to an arson attack on a cafe in Sydney in October last year, and another on a synagogue in Melbourne in December, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a press conference on Tuesday.

Albanese added the two incidents were "attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community".

Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi and three other officials have been ordered to leave Australia, which has withdrawn its own diplomats from Tehran. Iran has "absolutely rejected" the allegations.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman added the decision to expel their envoy was "driven by Australia's domestic policies".

However, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) chief Mike Burgess said his teams had uncovered links "between the alleged crimes and the commanders in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC", following a "painstaking", months-long investigation.

"They're just using cut-outs, including people who are criminals and members of organised crime gangs to do their bidding or direct their bidding," Mr Burgess told reporters.

He added that IRGC had "used a complex web of proxies to hide its involvement" in the attacks on the Lewis Continental Kitchen in Sydney on 20 October, and Melbourne's Adass Israel Synagogue on 6 December.

Australia's intelligence services had also found evidence Iran was likely to be behind other antisemitic incidents in Australia, which has seen attacks on Jewish schools, homes, vehicles and synagogues since the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, Iran's ally, and the ensuing war in Gaza.

In the same period of time, civil society group the Islamophobic Register has also recorded a rise in Islamophobic incidents.

Police first indicated they were looking into the possibility that attacks on Jewish-linked property were being directed by "overseas actors or individuals" back in January.

The findings revealed on Tuesday were "deeply disturbing", Albanese said, describing the two incidents as "extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression".

In the second incident, a number of worshippers were forced to flee as the fire took hold of the synagogue, which was built by Holocaust survivors in the 1960s.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said it was the first time since World War Two that Australia had expelled an ambassador.

The ambassador was not found to have any links to the attacks, Mr Burgess stressed.

Wong said Australia would continue to maintain some diplomatic lines with Tehran but had suspended operations at its embassy in Iran for the safety of staff.

She also urged Australians not to travel to Iran and called for any citizens in the country to leave now if it is safe to do so.

Albanese said his government would also designate the IRGC as a terrorist organisation.

Israel's embassy in Canberra has welcomed the moves against Iran, which Israel fought a 12-day war with in June.

"Iran's regime is not only a threat to Jews or Israel, it endangers the entire free world, including Australia," it said in a statement on X.

Israel must take hostage deal, its military chief reportedly says

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx234dj9g45o, 5 days ago

Israel's Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff has said there is a "deal on the table" for the remaining hostages in Gaza, according to Israeli media.

Lt Gen Eyal Zamir reportedly said the Israeli military had brought about the conditions for a deal, and it is now in Prime Minister Benjamin "Netanyahu's hands," Channel 13 News reports.

On Tuesday, Israel's security cabinet is expected to discuss the latest proposal advanced by regional mediators, which Hamas accepted a week ago.

It follows mass demonstrations in Israel earlier this month as hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv, calling for an end to the Gaza war and a deal to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Zamir had voiced "what most Israelis were demanding," including a deal to bring home all 50 remaining hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be alive, and an end to the war.

The group is planning another day of mass protest on Tuesday.

The most recent proposal, from mediators in Egypt and Qatar is said to be based on a framework put forward by US envoy Steve Witkoff in June.

It would see Hamas free around half of the hostages in two rounds during an initial 60-day truce. There would also be negotiations on a permanent ceasefire.

Netanyahu's office previously said that Israel would only accept a deal if "all the hostages are released in one go".

On Saturday, planes and tanks pounded parts of Gaza City as Israel pressed on with its plan to seize the territory's largest urban area.

Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to defeat Hamas and defied criticism over his plans to expand the war, from the international community and from Zamir himself.

According to Israeli media, Zamir has argued against a full-scale occupation, citing fears of endangering the lives of hostages and miring an exhausted military in Gaza.

The offensive would forcibly displace a million people from Gaza City to camps in the south but Israel has not provided an exact timetable of when its troops would enter Gaza City.

Netanyahu is reported to want the entire city under Israeli occupation from 7 October.

At least 1.9 million people in Gaza – or about 90% of the population – have already been displaced, according to the UN.

Last week a UN-backed hunger monitor said there was now famine in Gaza City and that more than 500,000 people in Gaza were facing "starvation, destitution and death". The UN and aid agencies say this is a direct result of Israeli restrictions on letting food and aid into Gaza. Israel described the monitor's report as an "outright lie", denying there is starvation there.

The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 others taken hostage.

Israel's offensive has killed more than 62,686 Palestinians, according to figures from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which the UN considers reliable.

Israel pounds Gaza City in preparation for planned offensive

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg478y8l09o, 5 days ago

Planes and tanks have pounded parts of Gaza City as Israel's plans to seize the territory's largest urban area increase pressure on nearly a million Palestinians living there.

Residents have spoken of uninterrupted explosions in northern and eastern parts of the city.

Israeli troops have also returned to blow up buildings in the refugee camp of Jabalia further north.

Sixty-four people were killed and nearly 300 injured in Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours, the territory's Hamas-run health ministry said.

It said the overall number of those killed since Israel launched its massive campaign to defeat Hamas had risen to 62,686 - with another 157,951 injured.

Israel's military launched an operation in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to defeat Hamas and defied international criticism over his plans to expand the war.

Some 60,000 reservists are being called up to take part in the Israeli operation.

While it has yet to begin in earnest, Israeli attacks on Gaza City have continued unabated - with the areas of Zeitoun and Shejayia hit from the air overnight into Sunday, as tank fire targeted Sabra neighbourhood.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have also said that troops have returned to the Jabalia area in the past few days.

"The troops' activity enables the expansion of the fighting to additional areas and prevents Hamas terrorists from returning and operating in these areas," the IDF said.

Separately, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Sunday that a staff member had been released by the IDF after being held in Gaza since 21 July. There are no further details about the identity of the WHO worker or the reasons for his detention.

Netanyahu is also facing intense pressure in Israel - particularly from the families of hostages who want him to negotiate an end to the war in order to bring their captive relatives home.

Only 20 of 50 hostages still held in Gaza are believed to be alive.

The Israeli prime minister announced Israel's intention to conquer the entire Gaza Strip after indirect talks with Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal broke down last month.

Mediators Qatar and Egypt are trying to secure a deal to avert the offensive and have presented a new proposal for a 60-day truce and the release of around half of the 50 hostages, which Hamas said it had accepted.

But Israeli officials have said they will no longer accept a partial deal and have demanded a comprehensive one that would see all the hostages released.

Israel's defence minister warned that Gaza City will be razed if Hamas does not agree to disarm and release all hostages.

The Israeli military has said it plans to evacuate Gaza City's entire population and move it to shelters in the south before troops move in.

Most of Gaza's population has been displaced many times.

The UN and non-governmental organisations have warned that an Israeli offensive in Gaza City will have a "horrific humanitarian impact".

More than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed, and the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed.

Eighteen of Gaza's 36 hospitals are currently partially functional, according to the UN - 11 in Gaza City and its surrounding areas and one in a separate administrative district in North Gaza.

On Friday, conditions of famine were confirmed in Gaza City and its surrounding areas for the first time.

BBC witnesses Israeli settlers' attack on Palestinian farm in West Bank

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cewy88jle0eo, 12 days ago

From among the broken remains of Brahim Hamaiel's olive trees, in the occupied West Bank, we saw the masked men approach.

A dozen settlers, charging down from the illegal outpost above his farm and across the field towards us, moving fast and carrying large sticks.

A sudden and unprovoked attack.

Brahim had been showing us the trees he said had been hacked to pieces this week by settlers from the outpost.

His family have farmed olives here on land near Turmus Aya, for generations, making it a target for extremist settlers who think killing Palestinian trees and livestock will also kill the idea of a Palestinian State, by forcing residents like Brahim off their land.

"Fear is natural," Brahim had told me, looking up at the ridge where tarpaulin flapped at the settlers' lookout post in front of a few caravans and makeshift homes. "But there's something stronger than fear that drives me to stay here – the scent of my ancestors and an attachment dating back hundreds of years – even if I pay the price with my blood."

As the masked men run towards us, we pull back to the road and drive a safe distance away.

Within minutes, some of Brahim's neighbours from the surrounding farms and villages gather with catapults and stones to confront the attackers.

Tensions between local residents and settlers are complicated by the increasingly heavy control of Israeli forces across the West Bank, which has seen the evacuation and widespread demolition of refugee camps across the northern West Bank.

From January to June this year, the UN found that 149 Palestinians were killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers in the occupied West Bank. Nine Israelis were killed by Palestinians.

Hours after the clashes that erupted around Brahim's farm on Saturday, another Palestinian casualty was added to that grim tally.

Eighteen-year-old Hamdan Abu-Elaya was shot and killed by Israeli troops in al- Mughayyir village, a few miles from Brahim's field.

His mother told us he'd gone to see the fires lit by settlers nearby. "I raised him for 18 years, and he was gone in a minute," she said.

We asked the Israeli army what happened. It said "terrorists" had thrown rocks and Molotov cocktails at troops in the village, and that soldiers had "responded with fire to remove the threat".

Hundreds crowded into Hamdan's house for his funeral on Sunday, as his body was carried in for his mother to say goodbye.

His father, Ameen Abu Elaya, raging to friends and family, said he refused to show the Israelis his tears.

"They thought if they killed our son, we would leave," he said. "I will not shout and scream and say 'why has he gone?' I'm not sad that he passed. I encourage young men to do anything they can against the criminal occupier."

At the local mosque, there was a hero's welcome for Hamdan's body as it was carried in for the funeral prayer – vast Palestinian flags hung alongside those of Fatah and Hamas from the roofs and windows; crowds lining the path of the bier.

In the language of this conflict, each birth and each burial only strengthens the ties to the land.

Additional reporting by Morgan Gisholt Minard

Taiwan is preparing for a Chinese attack but its people don't think war is coming soon

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp94v42gmg9o, 4 days ago

It was just another Friday morning on the Taiwanese island of Kinmen, a few kilometres from the coast of China, when an air raid siren pierced the calm.

At a local government office, people switched off their lights and dove under tables. Others fled to an underground car park. At a nearby hospital, staff rushed to treat people staggering in with bloody injuries.

But the blood was fake, and the casualties were volunteer actors. Together with the government workers, they were taking part in mandatory civil defence and military drills held across Taiwan last month.

The purpose? Rehearsing their response to a possible attack by China.

China has long vowed to "reunify" with self-governing Taiwan and has not ruled out the use of force. It is a threat that Taiwan is increasingly taking seriously. President William Lai, who took office last year, is behind one of the strongest pushes in years to strengthen defence.

One of his biggest challenges, however, is convincing his own people of the urgency. While his defence drive has garnered support, it has also sparked controversy.

"We do need these defence drills, I believe there is some threat from China," says Ben, a finance professional who works in Taipei. "But the chances of a Chinese invasion are low. If they really wanted to attack us, they would have done so already."

Like Ben, most people in Taiwan – 65% according to a survey released in May by the military-affiliated Institute for National Defense and Strategic Research (INDSR) - believe it is unlikely that China will attack in the next five years.

This is despite the US warning that the threat to Taiwan was "imminent" and that Beijing is readying its military to be capable of invading by 2027.

Taiwan's military preparations

Lai and his government often repeat a particular phrase to explain what is driving them: "By preparing for war, we are avoiding war." They have stressed that they are not seeking conflict but exercising Taiwan's right to build up its defences.

As well as having initiated major military reforms, they also want to increase defence spending by 23% next year to NT$949.5bn (£23bn; $31bn), which would be more than 3% of their GDP, following US pressure to invest more in defence. Lai has pledged to increase it to 5% by 2030.

Following a lengthening of its mandatory conscription programme, Taiwan has now increased pay and benefits for the military, and introduced more rigorous training.

These measures are aimed at addressing the perennial problems of troop shortages and low morale - soldiers previously complained of poor training and were nicknamed "strawberry soldiers" for their perceived softness.

The annual Han Kuang war games, which rehearse a military response to a Chinese attack, have been revamped to replace scripted exercises with more realistic simulations.

This year's edition was the longest and largest ever, with 22,000 reservist troops taking part, about 50% more than last year. Besides tackling grey zone warfare and disinformation campaigns, one main focus was to prepare for urban warfare.

Soldiers rehearsed fending off enemy troops on the mass transit system, expressways and city suburbs. In Taipei, they practised loading missiles onto attack helicopters at a riverside park, and transformed a school into a battle tank repair station.

But the government is also preparing its citizens for invasion, upping the frequency and scale of civil defence drills.

Practice evacuations, raids and rescues

One of the largest ever, called the Urban Resilience Exercise, was held last month.

Over several days, every major urban area across Taiwan took turns to hold air raid drills. Residents in designated districts had to head indoors, while hotels, shops and restaurants had to pause business. Passengers could not get on or off trains and planes. Anyone caught flouting orders risked getting a fine.

In downtown Taipei, emergency teams and volunteers practised evacuating injured people, putting out fires, and lowering themselves down buildings which had been dressed up to look as if they had been hit by missiles. Medical teams triaged evacuees in a car park, wrapping up wounds and stringing up bags of saline for IV drips under tents.

Some Taiwanese approve. "I think it's a good thing. Because I do believe the threat has increased," says office worker Stanley Wei.

"Look at how China keeps surrounding us," he says, pointing out how China has been holding drills to encircle Taiwan with warships.

"I believe in a peaceful co-existence with China, but we need to increase our defence as well," says Ray Yang, who works in IT. "Before the Ukraine War, I didn't care about this [prospect of a Chinese attack]. But after Ukraine happened, I've started to really believe this could happen."

Some, however, are dismissive. "Even if the attack comes, what can we do?" argues Mr Liu, an engineer.

"I'm not sure they would invade anyway. This threat has always existed."

'Why would they hurt us ordinary folk?'

On Kinmen, the scepticism is even more prevalent.

The tiny island, which saw deadly clashes between Chinese and Taiwanese forces in the late 1940s and 50s, is considered a frontline of any possible attack. But with the improvement of cross-strait relations and economic links, many on Kinmen view their proximity to China as a boon, not a bane.

Much of Kinmen's economy is now geared towards serving Chinese tourists who take ferries across the narrow waterway from Xiamen, the nearest Chinese city.

Yang Peiling, 77, runs a shop in Kinmen selling traditional snacks. As a young girl, she witnessed Chinese forces from Xiamen shelling her island during the 1958 Second Taiwan Strait Crisis.

"We were on the mountain gathering wild vegetables, then we saw them shooting cannons and hitting Kinmen," she recalls. "[People] cried 'Xiamen is waging war.' Everything turned red."

Ms Yang and her family survived by hiding in mountain caves. Others from her village were killed.

Decades on, she welcomes day trippers from Xiamen at her shop. "China won't attack us now," she argues. "We are all Chinese, we are all one family. Why would they hurt us ordinary folk?"

Down the road at a souvenir store, shop assistant Ms Chen agrees. "If they blow up our buildings and kill us, what's the point of claiming a land like that? They would gain a Taiwan that has nothing, and that brings them no advantages."

This view - that invading Taiwan would be far too costly and pointless for China - is held by many Taiwanese. Beijing has repeatedly stressed it wants "peaceful reunification", seen by some as a signal it wants a Taiwan that is intact.

But Lai argues that China is a "foreign hostile force" that is planning to "annex" Taiwan, and is continuing its "political and military intimidation".

Another factor that has long reassured the Taiwanese is that the US is bound by law to help Taiwan defend itself.

Though polls suggest this sense of reassurance has waned during President Donald Trump's current administration, some still believe the US would aid Taiwan in the event of an attack - and China would be reluctant to be drawn into a direct military conflict with America.

"This isn't a naïve and innocent view that China doesn't present a threat to Taiwan and would never attack Taiwan," said Shen Ming-shih, a defence analyst with the INDSR.

"Yes, Xi Jinping does have strategic warfare intentions for Taiwan. But China's current military strength does not match America's," he says.

There is also a belief that the international community would come to Taiwan's aid given its outsized importance in the global semiconductor industry, he adds.

But after facing decades of threats, there is also now "a sense of Beijing as the boy who cried wolf," says Wen-ti Sung, a political scientist with the Australian National University's Taiwan Center.

"Psychologically, you can't take every threat seriously without going insane. So people tune out to prioritise their mental health."

The debate around whether China will invade

Whether China will invade has long been an existential debate in Taiwan. But the urgency of this question has spiked with a recent escalation in tensions, particularly with William Lai's election last year.

Lai, who insists that Taiwan was never part of China, and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are reviled by the Chinese government as "separatists".

Beijing has accused Lai's government of deliberately antagonising them, particularly with the defence drive. Last month, China's defence ministry called the Han Kuang exercises "nothing but a bluffing and self-deceiving trick played by the DPP authorities to hijack Taiwan compatriots onboard its 'Taiwan Independence' war chariot".

Any formal declaration of independence by Taiwan could trigger military action from China, which has a law stating it will resort to "non-peaceful means" to prevent the "secession" of Taiwan. Lai maintains Taiwan is already a sovereign nation and therefore has no need to formally declare independence.

Besides turning up its rhetoric, China has also increasingly sent its warplanes and ships into Taiwanese airspace and waters.

China has never confirmed the US claim that it is readying its military to be capable of invading Taiwan by 2027. But it has been clearly beefing up its army, navy and weaponry, which will be shown off in a much-publicised parade next month.

Experts are divided on whether China is really planning to invade soon. But many agree that the tensions, coupled with China's military moves, increase the possibility of confrontation.

Beach landings, missile attacks and cable sabotage

There are myriad ways China could attack. Besides landing on Taiwan's beaches or launching missile attacks, it could also stage air and sea blockades, or sever undersea communication cables. Many of these scenarios are illustrated in a Taiwanese government-funded TV series depicting a fictional Chinese invasion.

But some, particularly the Taiwan government, believe a subtler invasion may already be taking place: one where China is trying to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Taiwanese in the hopes they would one day choose unification.

Officially, China has been encouraging trade and economic ties with Taiwan, as well as cultural links.

Unofficially though, according to analysts and Taiwan officials, Beijing has also invested in disinformation campaigns and influence operations. One study by the V-Dem Institute of Sweden's University of Gothenberg found that for many years, Taiwan has been the most targeted place in the world for disinformation campaigns initiated by a foreign government.

In March, Lai warned of China's deepening influence in Taiwan's economy, culture, media, and even the government, and announced several measures to tighten security.

A number of Taiwanese soldiers and military officials have been jailed for allegedly spying on behalf of China. Members of the DPP – including a former aide to Lai – have also been charged with spying.

Meanwhile, Taiwanese celebrities friendly to China, social media influencers and Chinese spouses of Taiwanese citizens have come under close scrutiny, with some deported or forced to leave.

Lai has also backed a deeply controversial grassroots movement aimed at kicking out opposition politicians perceived as being too close to China.

'Lai is crazy in the way he talks to China'

There are some signs of public support of the defence drive. The INDSR survey found more than half of Taiwanese approve of increasing defence spending, with even more supporting US weapons purchases.

But there is also unease. One view is that the defence drive and Lai's rhetoric are provoking China, which could lead to war.

"I feel China is very simple," says Ms Chen, the Kinmen shop assistant. "As long as you don't tell them you want independence, they won't do anything to you.

"But William Lai is crazy in the way he talks to China. It will stoke their fury. You never know, one day Xi Jinping may get very unhappy and attack us."

Polls consistently show that most Taiwanese people want the "status quo", meaning they neither want to unify with China, nor to formally declare independence.

The political opposition, dominated by the Kuomintang (KMT) party, accuses the DPP government of using the prospect of a Chinese invasion to fearmonger so it can gain political support.

Alexander Huang, the KMT's director of international affairs, characterised the DPP government as "verbally intimidating the Chinese unnecessarily and damaging the stability in the Taiwan Straits".

Still, others argue that Taiwanese need to take a firm stand against China.

"[Citizens] have to acknowledge that China is a threat to Taiwan, and can use force, and that it is currently preparing to do so," said Dr Shen.

"And so national security officials and the military must first prepare for this."

Top image credit: Ritchie B Tongo/ EPA/Shutterstock/ EPA -EFE/REX

The race for the two miles-a-second super weapons that Putin says turn targets to dust

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgeqj1q8gj4o, 8 days ago

Listen to Frank read this article

Glinting in the autumn sun on a parade ground in Beijing, the People's Liberation Army missiles moved slowly past the crowd on a fleet of giant camouflaged lorries.

Needle-sharp in profile, measuring 11 metres long and weighing 15 tonnes, each bore the letters and numerals: "DF-17".

China had just unveiled to the world its arsenal of Dongfeng hypersonic missiles.

That was on 1 October 2019 at a National Day parade. The US was already aware that these weapons were in development, but since then China has raced ahead with upgrading them.

Thanks to their speed and manoeuvrability – travelling at more than five times the speed of sound – they are a formidable weapon, so much so that they could change the way wars are fought.

Which is why the global contest over developing them is heating up.

"This is just one component of the wider picture of the emerging geopolitical contest that we're seeing between state actors," says William Freer, a national security fellow at the Council on Geostrategy think tank.

"[It's one] we haven't had since the Cold War."

Russia, China, the US: a global contest

The Beijing ceremony raised speculation about a possible growing threat posed by China's advancements in hypersonic technology. Today it leads the field in hypersonic missiles, followed by Russia.

The US, meanwhile, is playing catch-up, while the UK has none.

Mr Freer of the Council on Geostrategy think tank, which received some of its funding from defence industry companies, the Ministry of Defence and others, argues that the reason China and Russia are ahead is relatively simple.

"They decided to invest a lot of money in these programmes quite a few years ago."

Meanwhile, for much of the first two decades of this century, many Western nations focused on fighting both jihadist-inspired terrorism at home, and counter-insurgency wars overseas.

Back then, the prospect of having to fight a peer-on-peer conflict against a modern, sophisticated adversary seemed a distant one.

"The net result is that we failed to notice the massive rise of China as a military power," admitted Sir Alex Younger, soon after retiring as chief of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service in 2020.

Other nations are also racing ahead: Israel has a hypersonic missile, the Arrow 3, designed to be an interceptor.

Iran has claimed to have hypersonic weapons, and said it launched a hypersonic missile at Israel during their brief but violent 12-day war in June.

(The weapon did indeed travel at extremely high speed but it was not thought to be manoeuvrable enough in flight to class as a true hypersonic).

North Korea, meanwhile, has been working on its own versions since 2021 and claims to have a viable, working weapon (pictured).

The US and UK are now investing in hypersonic missile technology, as are other nations, including France and Japan.

The US appears to be strengthening its deterrence, and has debuted its "Dark Eagle" hypersonic weapon.

According to the US Department of Defense, the Dark Eagle "brings to mind the power and determination of our country and its Army as it represents the spirit and lethality of the Army and Navy's hypersonic weapon endeavours".

But China and Russia are currently far ahead - and according to some experts, this is a potential concern.

Hyper fast and hyper erratic

Hypersonic means something that travels at speeds of Mach 5 or faster. (That's five times the speed of sound or 3,858 mph.) This puts them in a different league to something that is just supersonic, meaning travelling at above the speed of sound (767 mph).

And their speed is partially the reason that hypersonic missiles are considered such a threat.

The fastest to date is Russian - the Avangard – claimed to be able to reach speeds of Mach 27 (roughly 20,700mph) - although the figure of around Mach 12 (9,200mph) is more often cited, which equates to two-miles-a-second.

In terms of purely destructive power, however, hypersonic missiles are not hugely different from supersonic or subsonic cruise missiles, according to Mr Freer.

"It's the difficulty in detecting, tracking and intercepting them that really sets them apart."

There are basically two kinds of hypersonic missile: boost-glide missiles rely on a rocket (like those DF-17 ones in China) to propel them towards and sometimes just above the Earth's atmosphere, from where they then come hurtling down at these incredible speeds.

Unlike the more common ballistic missiles, which travel in a fairly predictable arc – a parabolic curve - hypersonic glide vehicles can move in an erratic way, manoeuvred in final flight towards their target.

Then there are hypersonic cruise missiles, which hug terrain, trying to stay below radar to avoid detection.

They are similarly launched and accelerated using a rocket booster, then once they reach hypersonic velocity, they then activate a system known as a "scramjet engine" that takes in air as it flies, propelling it to its target.

These are "dual-use weapons", meaning their warhead can be either nuclear or conventional high explosive. But there is more to these weapons than speed alone.

For a missile to be classed as truly "hypersonic" in military terms, it needs to be manoeuvrable in flight. In other words, the army that fired it needs it to be able to change course in sudden and unpredictable ways, even as it is hurtling towards its target at extreme speeds.

This can make it extremely hard to intercept. Most terrestrial-based radars cannot be relied upon to detect hypersonic missiles until late in the weapon's flight.

"By flying under the radar horizon they can evade early detection and may only appear on sensors in their terminal flight phase, limiting interception opportunities," says Patrycja Bazylczyk, research associate at the Missile Defence Project at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, which has received some of its funding from US government entities, as well as defence industry companies and others.

The answer to this, she believes, is bolstering the West's space-based sensors, which would overcome the limitations of radars on the ground.

In a real-time war scenario, there is also a terrifying question facing the nation being targeted: is this a nuclear attack or a conventional one?

"Hypersonics haven't so much changed the nature of warfare as altered the timeframes within which you can operate," says Tom Sharpe, a former Royal Navy Commander and anti-air warfare specialist.

"The basics of needing to track your enemy, fire at them, then manoeuvre the missile late on to allow for a moving target (the great advantage of ships) are no different from previous missiles, be that ballistic, supersonic or subsonic.

"Similarly the defender's requirement to track and either jam or destroy an incoming hypersonic missile are the same as before, you just have less time".

There are signs that this technology is worrying Washington. A report published in February this year by the US Congressional Research Service warns: "US defence officials have stated that both terrestrial and current space-based sensor architectures are insufficient to detect and track hypersonic weapons."

Yet some experts believe that some of the hype around hypersonics is overdone.

Is the hype overdone?

Dr Sidharth Kaushal, from the Royal United Services Institute defence think tank, is among those who think that they are not necessarily a gamechanger.

"The speed and manoeuvrability makes them attractive against high value targets and their kinetic energy on impact also makes them a useful means of engaging hardened and buried targets, which might have been difficult to destroy with most conventionally armed munitions previously."

But though they travel at five times the speed of sound or more, there are measures to defend against them - some of which are "effective," argues Mr Sharpe.

The first is making tracking and detection more difficult. "Ships can go to great lengths to protect their position," he adds.

"The grainy satellite picture available from commercial satellites only needs to be a few minutes out of date for it to be of no use for targeting.

"Getting satellite targeting solutions current and accurate enough to use for targeting is both difficult and expensive."

But he points out that artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies will likely change this over time.

Caution around the Russia threat

The fact remains that Russia and China have stolen a march when it comes to developing these weapons. "I think the Chinese hypersonic programmes... are impressive and concerning," says Mr Freer.

But he adds: "When it comes to the Russians, we should probably be a lot more cautious about what they claim."

In November 2024, Russia launched an experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile at an industrial site in Dnipro, Ukraine, using it as a live testing ground.

The missile, which Ukraine said travelled at hypersonic speeds of Mach 11 (or 8,439mph), was given the name 'Oreshnik', Russian for hazel tree.

President Vladimir Putin said that the weapon travelled at a speed of Mach 10.

Its warhead is reported to have deliberately fragmented during its final descent into several, independently targeted inert projectiles, a methodology dating back to the Cold War.

Someone who heard it land told me that it was not particularly loud but there were several impacts: six warheads dropped at separate targets but as they were inert, the damage was not significantly greater than that caused by Russia's nightly bombardment of Ukraine's cities.

For Europe, the latent threat to Nato countries comes primarily from Russia's missiles, some of which are stationed on the Baltic coast in Russia's exclave of Kaliningrad. What if Putin were to order a strike on Kyiv with an Oreshnik, this time armed with a full payload of high explosive?

The Russian leader claimed this weapon was going into mass production and that they had the capacity, he said, to turn targets "to dust".

Russia also has other missiles that travel at hypersonic speeds.

Putin made much of his air force's Kinzhal (Dagger) missiles, claiming they travelled so fast it was impossible to intercept. Since then, he has fired plenty of them at Ukraine — but it turns out that the Kinzhal may not be truly hypersonic, and many have been intercepted.

Of concern to the West is Russia's super-fast and highly manoeuvrable Avangard. At a ceremony for its unveiling in 2018 – along with five other so-called 'superweapons' - Putin declared it was unstoppable.

Dr Sidharth Kaushal suggests its primary role may actually be "overcoming US missile defences".

"Russia's state armament programmes also suggest its production capacity for a system like Avangard is limited," he argues.

Elsewhere, as the contest for strategic supremacy in the Western Pacific heats up between the US and China, the proliferation of China's ballistic missile arsenal poses a serious potential threat to the US naval presence in the South China Sea and beyond.

China has the world's most powerful arsenal of hypersonics. In late 2024, China unveiled its latest hypersonic glide vehicle, the GDF-600. With a 1,200kg payload, it can carry sub-munitions and reach speeds of Mach 7 (5,370mph).

'Milestone moment' in the UK's rush to catch up

The UK is behind in this race, especially as it's one of the five nuclear-armed permanent members of the UN Security Council. But belatedly, it is making an effort to catch up, or at least to join the race.

In April, the Ministry of Defence and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory announced that UK scientists had reached "a landmark moment" after the successful completion of a major testing programme.

The UK's propulsion test was the result of a three-way collaboration between the UK government, industry and the US government. Over a period of six weeks a total of 233 "successful static test runs" were carried out at the NASA Langley Research Centre in Virginia, USA.

John Healey, the UK's Defence Secretary, called it "a milestone moment."

But it will still be years before this weapon is ready.

As well as creating hypersonic missiles, the West should focus on creating strong defence against them, argues Mr Freer.

"When it comes to missile warfare, it's all about two sides of the same coin. You've got to be able to do damage limitation while also having the ability to go after the enemy's launch platforms.

"If you've got both hands available, and you can both defend yourself to an extent and also counter attack… then an adversary is a lot less likely to attempt to initiate conflict."

However, Tom Sharpe is still cautious about the extent to which we should be concerned at the moment.

"The key point with hypersonics," he says, "is that both sides of this equation are as difficult as each other - and neither are perfected… yet".

Top image credit: EPA/KCNA - a treated image of what is claimed to be the successful test firing of a North Korean hypersonic missile

Lucy Letby's new expert supporters claim no babies were deliberately harmed. Who should we believe?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj0y9673rjno, 10 days ago

Listen to Jonathan read this article.

When it comes to the Lucy Letby case, there are two parallel universes. In one, the question of her guilt is settled. She is a monster who murdered seven babies and attempted to murder seven more while she was a nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016.

In the other universe, Letby is the victim of a flawed criminal justice system in which unreliable medical evidence was used to condemn and imprison an innocent woman.

This is what Letby's barrister Mark McDonald argues. He says he has the backing of a panel of the best experts in the world who say there is no evidence any babies were deliberately harmed.

These extremes are both disturbing and bewildering. One of them is wrong - but which? Who should we believe?

An alternative version of events

The families of the infants say there is no doubt. Letby was convicted after a 10-month trial by a jury that had considered a vast range of evidence. They say Letby's defenders are picking on small bits of evidence out of context and that the constant questioning of her guilt is deeply distressing.

I have spent almost three years investigating the Letby case - in that time I have made three Panorama documentaries and cowritten a book on the subject with my colleague Judith Moritz. Yet, if true, the new evidence, presented by Mark McDonald in a series of high-profile press conferences and media releases, is shocking.

According to his experts, the prosecution expert medical case is unreliable.

Mark McDonald has not released the panel's full reports, which are currently with the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the body he needs to persuade to reopen Letby's case, but he has released summaries of the panel's findings.

Letby was found guilty of 15 counts of murder and attempted murder, and the jury in her original trial reached unanimous verdicts on three of those cases. That is a good indication of where the strongest medical evidence might lie.

To get a sense of the imperfections woven through both the prosecution and the defence arguments, it's worth looking at one of those cases in which the guilty verdict was unanimous: that of Baby O.

What really happened to Baby O?

Baby O was born in June 2016, one of triplet brothers. At Letby's trial, the jury was told that his death was in part the result of liver injuries, which the prosecution pathologist described as impact-type injuries - similar to those in a car accident.

As in other cases for which Letby was convicted, the prosecution said circumstantial evidence also tied her to the crime.

However, a paediatric pathologist who was not involved in the case but has seen Baby O's post-mortem report, says it was "unlikely" Baby O's liver injuries were caused by impact - as the prosecution claims.

"You can't completely rule out the possibility," says the pathologist, who does not want to be identified. "But in my view, the location of the injuries and the condition of the liver tissue itself don't fit with that explanation."

Which raises the obvious question - if the prosecution were wrong about Baby O's liver injuries, then why did he die?

Questions around air embolism

Letby was accused of injecting air into the blood of Baby O as well as that of other babies. This, the prosecution said, caused an air bubble and a blockage in the circulation known as air embolism.

During the trial the prosecution pointed to several pieces of evidence to make their case, including a 1989 academic study of air embolism in newborn babies, which noted skin discolouration as one possible feature of it.

Prosecutors argued that these same skin colour changes were observed in several babies in the Letby case.

However, Dr Shoo Lee, a Canadian neonatologist and one of the authors of that 1989 study, is now part of Letby's team of defence experts working with Mark McDonald. He argues that his study was misused.

He says skin discolouration has not featured in any reported cases of air embolism in babies where the air has entered the circulation via a vein – which is what the prosecution alleged happened in the Letby case.

In other words, the prosecution was wrong to use skin discolouration as evidence of air embolism.

It sounds significant. But is it enough to defeat the air embolism allegations?

As with many aspects of the Letby case, the answer is not clear-cut.

The prosecution did not rely on skin discolouration alone to make their case for air embolism. And although there have not been any reported cases of skin discolouration in babies where air has entered the circulation via a vein, some critics have argued that the number of reported air embolism cases is small and that the theory is still possible.

To muddy the waters further, another of Mark McDonald's panel of experts has said that in fact there was post-mortem evidence of air embolism in the babies.

"We know these babies suffered air embolism because of the post-mortem imaging in some of them," says Neena Modi, a professor of neonatal medicine.

She believes this is highly likely to have occurred during resuscitation, and that there are much more plausible explanations for the collapses and deaths of the babies in the Letby case than air embolism.

The air embolism theory, she said, was "highly speculative". But her remarks show the debate is far from settled.

The needle theory: another explanation?

There has been another explanation for Baby O's death.

In December 2024, Mark McDonald called a press conference in which one of his experts, Dr Richard Taylor, claimed that a doctor had accidentally pierced the baby's liver with a needle during resuscitation. This, he argued, had led to the baby's death.

Dr Taylor added: "I think the doctor knows who they are. I have to say from a personal point of view that if this had happened to me, I'd be unable to sleep at night knowing that what I had done had led to the death of a baby, and now there is a nurse in jail, convicted of murder."

The doctor accused of causing the baby's death was subsequently identified as Stephen Brearey – one of Letby's principal accusers at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

Mr Brearey says: "Given the ongoing investigations and inquiries, and to respect the confidentiality of those involved, I will not be making any further comment at this time."

It was a bombshell claim. But does the evidence support it?

One indication that the needle theory might be shaky was that Dr Taylor, by his own admission, had not seen Baby O's medical notes and was relying on a report that had been written by two other experts.

Another obvious problem with the needle theory is that it had already been examined at length during Letby's trial.

The prosecution pathologist concluded that there was no evidence that a needle had pierced Baby O's liver while he was alive and the paediatric pathologist we spoke to agrees.

They told us: "These injuries weren't caused by a needle. They were in different parts of the liver and there was no sign of any needle injury on the liver."

Even if the needle had penetrated the baby's liver, it cannot explain why Baby O collapsed in the first place or why he died - the needle was inserted after the baby's final and fatal collapse towards the end of the resuscitation.

When asked if he still stood by his comments about the doctor's needle, Dr Taylor told us that while the needle may not have been the primary cause of death, his "opinion has not substantially changed".

He said the "needle probably penetrated the liver" of Baby O, and "probably accelerated his demise".

Lack of consensus among the experts

The question of where this leaves the case presented by Mark McDonald's panel of experts when it comes to the needle theory is a difficult one to answer.

It would appear that among the experts working with Letby's defence, there is not consensus.

Consultant neonatologist Dr Neil Aiton is one of the authors of the original report on which Dr Taylor based his comments. Dr Aiton says that he has examined the evidence independently and has concluded that Baby O's liver injuries were caused by inappropriate resuscitation attempts, including hyperinflation of the baby's lungs.

However, he also says it was "pretty clear" a needle had punctured the liver during resuscitation.

When Dr Aiton was told that other experts, including the paediatric pathologist who spoke to the BBC, have examined the case of Baby O and said that it is implausible to conclude this happened, he said that there were two possibilities. Either the liver ruptured because of a needle or it ruptured spontaneously.

Dr Aiton's position appears to be that poor resuscitation caused the baby's liver injuries and whether the rupturing was caused by a needle or not is "not important".

That is a contrast from what Dr Taylor said in that December press conference. And critics say Dr Aiton's account still does not explain why Baby O collapsed in the first place and why he needed such desperate resuscitation.

A summary report from Letby's expert panel appears to back further away from the needle theory. It says a needle "may have" punctured the liver.

Other experts, including the paediatric pathologist, said that Dr Aiton's observation of hyper-inflated lungs would not explain Baby O's liver injuries.

Once again, the case illustrates how difficult it is to distinguish between plausible and implausible claims.

The debate around birth trauma

Since that press conference, other experts working for Letby's defence team have put forward another theory for Baby O's death. They say his liver injuries were the result of traumatic delivery at the time of birth.

Professor Modi says this was a "highly plausible cause".

But that has been contested from a surprising direction. Dr Mike Hall, a neonatologist, was Lucy Letby's original defence expert and attended court throughout her trial.

He has been a staunch critic of her conviction, arguing her trial wasn't fair and that there is no definitive medical evidence that babies were deliberately harmed.

However, Dr Hall's view is that evidence for the birth trauma theory is simply not there. He notes that Baby O was born in good condition by caesarean section and there is no record of a traumatic delivery in the baby's medical notes.

"There's still no evidence that anyone did anything deliberately to harm Baby O," he adds. "However, something was going on with Baby O, which we haven't explained.

"We don't know what the cause of this is. But that doesn't mean that we therefore have to pretend that we know."

The insulin evidence

For the jury, Baby O was one of the clearest cases that proved Letby was a killer. And yet there appears to be flawed expert evidence on both sides.

There were two other cases where the jury returned unanimous verdicts – the cases of Babies F and L.

The prosecution argued that both babies had been poisoned with insulin and highlighted blood tests that it said were clear evidence of this. For the prosecution, the insulin cases proved that someone at the Countess of Chester Hospital was harming babies.

Letby's defence have, meanwhile, marshalled numerous arguments against the insulin theory. One is that the blood test used - an immunoassay - is inaccurate and should have been verified. But even Letby's experts accept the test is accurate around 98% of the time.

Another argument is that premature babies can process insulin differently and that the blood test results are "within the expected range for pre-term infants". But the medical specialists we've spoken to are baffled by this claim and say it goes against mainstream scientific understanding.

Of course, mainstream opinion can be wrong. But it is difficult to tell because Letby's defence team have not shared the scientific evidence.

One of the experts behind the report – a mechanical engineer who carries out biomedical research – clarified that his analysis says the blood test results were "not uncommon". However, Letby's defence declined to show the BBC the published studies that support this claim.

Once again, the claims of both the prosecution and defence are not clear-cut.

Ultimately, the question of whether Letby's case should be re-examined by the Court of Appeal now lies with CCRC. They have the task of studying Mark McDonald's expert reports.

If he is successful and Lucy Letby's case is referred back to the Court of Appeal - that is ultimately where the expert evidence on both sides will face a true reckoning.

Lead image credit: Cheshire Constabulary, PA

Clarification 19 August: This article was amended to make clear that in mentioning Letby's defenders we were referring to those experts working with her defence team. We've also added some context to our reporting of Dr Aiton's position regarding whether a needle played any part in the baby's liver injuries.

Empty homes are on the rise. So why aren't they being used to solve the housing shortage?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3r413l5n57o, 10 days ago

In 1980, when Corina Poore, 36 years old and pregnant, first opened the door to a derelict house in New Cross Gate, south-east London, the estate agent refused to step in with her.

Inside were dead cats, dog excrement and filthy mattresses. Pigeons flew in through holes in the roof and there was no indoor toilet. The intense rotting smell was overwhelming.

Still, Corina decided this was her dream home. It was spacious, the £24,000 price was affordable and she was sure that everything was fixable.

After taking out a mortgage, she received a grant of £3,500 from Lewisham council, her local authority, which paid for fixing the ceiling.

"At that point, £3,500 was quite a healthy amount, which I desperately needed," recalls Corina.

Some 45 years on, her Victorian four-storey house is worth roughly £1m - something Corina, a semi-retired film and TV critic who got in touch through Your Voice, Your BBC News, could never have afforded otherwise.

However, times have changed.

Lewisham Council has continued to offer grants to the owners of empty homes for improvements - some for as much as £20,000 - but the uptake is low.

Just 22 grants were awarded in the borough in the last five years - despite it having 2,253 empty homes. A spokesperson for Lewisham Council said that, in addition to the grants, it is working "to make sure homes aren't allowed to remain empty or become derelict in our borough".

At present, however, 775 have been empty for longer than six months. Meanwhile, there is a national housing shortage, with rising homelessness and long social housing waiting lists.

As of October 2024, there were almost 720,000 empty homes in England, according to the government.

On the face of it, bringing these empty properties back into use would make up a significant chunk of the 1.5m homes that the Labour government wants to add to the country's housing stock by the end of its term.

But so far that isn't happening enough. The question is why, and given it could, in theory, be a sensible solution to two growing problems, is this a case of a missed opportunity - or is the issue more complex still?

Rising long-term empty homes

Not all empty homes are in the dire state of repair that Corina's once was. But roughly 265,000 of them in England have been vacant for longer than six months and are classified by the government as long-term empty (LTE). (Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have different housing policies, as housing is a devolved matter in the UK.)

Fixing these would also have a significant effect on the communities around them, as long-term empty properties can attract anti-social behaviour and in some cases reduce an area's value.

Ann Devereaux, of St Werburgh's in Bristol, says that after the property next to her home fell vacant, it became a "magnet" for crime.

"It makes me feel scared when I leave my house or come in at night," she added.

The government has previously stepped in. The 2010-15 Coalition made funding available via two schemes: the Empty Homes Programme, which gave owners grants to fix their long-term empty homes; and the New Homes Bonus scheme, which rewarded councils that brought such properties back into use.

They appeared to have made an impact. Between 2010 and 2016, the overall number of empty homes dropped by 20% to 590,000, and crucially, long-term empty homes dropped by 33% to 200,000.

However, in 2016 the government then ended the Empty Homes Programme and lowered the rewards from the New Homes Bonus scheme - after which the issue became the sole responsibility of councils.

By 2024, the number of empty homes had crept back up by 22% and the number of LTEs had risen 32%.

A report by the charity Action on Empty Homes concluded it was "likely" that the end of the Coalition's scheme had been a factor behind this increase, alongside changing housing market conditions and economic uncertainty.

And once it was left up to local authorities to decide what to do about empty homes, the approach varied widely from place to place.

Councils got creative - but struggled to solve it

Currently there is no centralised information about the actions individual English councils have taken since 2016, so we contacted each one to ask about their approach.

In total, 77 of the 245 councils who responded to the BBC's freedom of information requests said they continued providing grants or loans. But in most cases, take-up was so low that it didn't prevent the number of long-term empty homes from rising.

A few councils even ended their financial assistance schemes because of this.

Corina Poore suggests that people may not realise such schemes even exist.

But Benjamin Radstone, a property developer who partners with the public to identify empty homes, says there is a range of reasons why owners don't take up offers and incentives around empty homes.

"People don't want to be pressured," he says. "They'll do it when they're ready to do it."

Other councils have had some success with schemes of their own. In Kent, a No Use Empty scheme offers interest-free loans for up to three years to owners who will let or sell the property afterwards.

Though it was set up 20 years ago with a relatively modest pot of £5m, today it is self-sustaining. Nearly 200 of these loans have been issued over the past five years.

Now the council wants to see the scheme expanded nationally. Last year a group of MPs, peers and housing campaigners wrote to housing minister Matthew Pennycook urging him to implement it nationwide.

Elsewhere in England, some councils have tried more creative solutions, such as connecting private investors with empty homeowners. Almost all councils charge premium council tax rates on long-term empty homes, which can be as much as 300% of standard council tax rates.

But Mr Radstone, who refurbishes empty homes through his company You Spot Property, argues, that this can "push people away from wanting to engage with the council".

Some also argue that this can disincentivise councils from addressing the root problem, as empty homes bring them more income through the premium tax rates.

"We're now in a position where councils are actually saying, 'Well, we're being rewarded for homes being left empty longer,'" says Adam Cliff, policy lead at the Empty Homes Network.

Councils do also have the power to take legal action against owners of empty homes, but this can be risky, time-consuming and costly.

And while loans and grants can be used to target about 10-20% of long-term empty homes, Mr Cliff estimates, you would need to make use of other processes to get the majority of them back into use, he says.

This was the experience of Kent County Council, which says only 18% of its LTEs that were brought back into use did so after interest-free loans were issued. In fact 61% did so after advice was offered to owners around the likes of tax and VAT, raising finance and planning.

"If a council has 2,000 empty homes," Mr Cliff says, "they need 2,000 different solutions."

A baffling conundrum

Part of the conundrum about there being a quarter of a million long-term empty homes is that this comes at a time when at least 354,000 people in England are believed to be homeless, and 1.33m households are on social housing waiting lists.

This is also a time when renters and buyers alike talk about a housing crisis in which soaring costs leave properties out of reach.

The Office for National Statistics' definition of affordability is homes selling for less than five times local earnings - which has not been the case on average nationally since 2002.

More homes on the market would help tackle this, too. So why has more not been done to solve, or at least better address, this contradiction?

The challenge is that there is no single reason for homes being empty.

One factor is the probate system, which can in some cases take several years, during which time the deceased person's house cannot be sold. Katie Watson from probate research firm Finders International, believes increasing staff numbers could help address a court backlog.

Then there is the issue that sometimes, councils are unable to track down the owners of empty homes. Jasmine Basran, head of policy and campaigns at homeless charity Crisis, believes there is a "lack of coherent data".

When the BBC approached English councils, the information we were provided about the condition and reason for homes being empty covered only around 13% of their LTE stock.

This means councils are "blind to their potential", argues Ms Basran.

The debate around premium tax rates

The experts we spoke to had their own view on the best solutions. For Mr Radstone, it is through offering tax relief to buyers, as well as ensuring that everyone who takes out a mortgage keeps an up-to-date will to prevent probate hold-ups.

Mr Grimshaw, meanwhile, argues that the funds gathered from the premium tax rates could be used by councils to start their own loan schemes.

But Mr Cliff argues councils without an empty homes strategy should not be allowed to charge premiums.

One thing most of those I spoke to were unanimous on, however, was that the government should establish a statutory duty for councils to address long-term empty homes - and force them to investigate and act.

The former Conservative government didn't introduce this - although in March 2024 it did allow councils to double council tax on empty properties after 12 months rather than two years.

This was part of a "long-term plan for housing" to "help give local people the homes they need", then local government minister Simon Hoare said at the time.

We are yet to see if the new Labour government has taken the suggestion of a statutory duty on board in its housing strategy, although Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has said councils will be given more power to force landlords to rent out empty homes.

Meanwhile a spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: "We are determined to fix the housing crisis we have inherited, and we know that having too many empty homes in an area can have a significant impact on local communities.

"That's why councils have strong powers to increase council tax on LTEs, and we will strengthen councils' powers to take over the management of empty homes, with further updates to be provided in due course."

Back in south-east London, Corina Poore doesn't fully understand why the scheme that worked so well for her - and allowed her to become the homeowner of a £1m property - isn't doing the same today.

She believes it could still be a way of getting young people to make empty homes habitable too.

"When you're young you can do these things," says Corina. "[There are] people out there who would be prepared to do it.

"There are lots of houses that are nowhere near as bad as mine that probably just need a kitchen and a bathroom, and I think it should still be encouraged very vigorously."

The Green Party is at a crossroads. Is it time they get angry?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2kzrr4375o, 12 days ago

Warning: This article contains strong language

Listen to Helen read this article

The video opens with some white cliffs and a politician standing on a beach. This isn't Dover, and it's not Nigel Farage (although the echoes with Reform UK are deliberate). Rather, it's a campaign video for the Green Party's leadership hopeful, Zack Polanski.

Amid slick filming and a moody orchestral soundtrack, he delivers an animated and uncompromising message.

Small boats, he declares, are an "obsession that has gripped the country," blamed for a "crumbling" NHS and "obscene" rents, while people are told there's no money left.

"Well," he says, looking into the camera, "I call bullshit."

The real problem, he continues, are the "super-rich and their yachts".

The Green Party is on the brink of choosing its new leader. It usually does it once every two years and the contest can go fairly unnoticed.

Not this year.

Polanski, a former actor who is the party's deputy leader, has turbo-charged the race, the result of which will be announced on 2 September.

He calls his approach "eco-populism" and says it's about being "bolder" and more clearly anti-elite in communicating social and economic issues, as well as environmental ones.

This, he argues, is the style of messaging that the Green party needs to embrace.

He wants to "connect with people's anger" and then offer solutions, something the Greens are, in his view, often "too nice" to do.

He worries it leaves them looking "out of touch".

"I think far too often in the past we've equivocated or we've been too worried to challenge wealth and power in as blunt a way as possible. This isn't about shouting, it isn't about being louder, it's about being more effective."

Tried and tested vs a radical approach

The Greens had record success at the General Election last summer, going from one to four seats in Parliament and overturning large Labour and Conservative majorities.

Together with the Scottish Greens and the Green Party of Northern Ireland, they won 6.7% of the vote.

Now, the party is at a crossroads: does it stick with what it knows has worked or pick something more radical?

And, given the candidates don't really differ on policy, just how big a difference could new leadership make to the party's national chances?

Polanski, who is a member of the London Assembly, wants the Greens to replace Labour as the "party of the left".

But his opponents, the current co-leader Adrian Ramsay and new MP Ellie Chowns, who are running on a joint-ticket, believe Polanski would explode a winning formula that has brought them their greatest ever electoral success.

Ramsay and Chowns were elected to Parliament in last year's general election.

Their style is, mostly, less combative - they believe it's important that the Greens have broad appeal and that the party is seen to be at the heart of Westminster if it wants to bring about change.

Chowns says many voters already have a "generalised warm feeling" towards the Greens, they just need convincing they're a credible option.

"It's really the difference between populism and popularity," she says.

"What they need to know is that if they put their vote in the Green box on the ballot paper that's got a really, really good chance of electing somebody."

Time to capitalise on discontent?

Plenty of analysts, and Green party members themselves, have questioned why the party hasn't already capitalised more on left-wing discontent with Labour, or why it hasn't pitched itself more effectively as an alternative to the traditional parties, in the way Reform UK has.

Matt Zarb-Cousin, a former spokesperson for Jeremy Corbyn who joined the Greens in 2022, is a founding member of Greens Organise, a group that wants the party to take a more socialist stance.

He argues that it is "inexcusable" that the party hasn't made a breakthrough in the polls since the election.

Like Polanski, he believes that voters understand the party's environmental credentials and so it needs to highlight its policies on the cost of living, inequality and taxing wealth over work.

"It's not just about saying we support those things, it's about how you frame that argument: who are the enemies? Whose side are you on?"

Former Green party councillor Rupert Read, who is an environmental philosopher and a co-director of the campaign group Climate Majority Project, says a lot of Green party policy is left-wing, but adds that this is often the result of "making green policies that work for ordinary people".

"You need to come from a starting point that is not dogmatically and self-avowedly left. If you do there'll be a strict ceiling on the level of support which is possible."

Ramsay and Chowns make a similar argument. Ramsay says that Polanski is "about appealing to a narrow base of activists," which he and Chowns argue isn't enough to win in the UK's first past the past electoral system.

Chowns also believes that Polanski's approach is too similar to strategies that have failed in the past.

"We spent years as the Green party engaging in the sort of politics where we stood on street corners and told people why we were very passionate about things...

"It's all well and good but it's not the way to win people over."

Return of the 'Green surge'?

The Green Peer Baroness Bennett, who led the party between 2012 and 2016, said there had been "a level of excitement and interest around this leadership election more than I've ever seen before by a very large scale".

It is reporting a "significant increase" in members in the past few months, although it won't yet give an exact figure. (The cut-off date to join and be able to vote in the leadership contest was July 31.)

Baroness Bennett also points to "organic growth in the grassroots" since the general election.

The party has held 12 seats in council by-elections since 4 July 2024, and won another 14 - mostly at the expense of Labour, while losing four to the Conservatives.

This all marks a significant change from the past - the so-called "Green Surge" in 2015, under Baroness Bennett's leadership, saw the party's membership and vote share grow but still only returned Caroline Lucas to Parliament.

Prof Neil Carter from the University of York, a long-time observer of environmental politics, says he can see an argument for following Polanski's strategy, as the Greens have traditionally had the greatest success with "metropolitan, liberal-minded, young, professionals".

The sort of voters who are key to Chowns and Ramsay's approach could be harder to win over, he argues.

"The trouble is you can reach out to a sort of middle-class Tory rural voter to some extent, if you just talk Green, but as soon as you start to talk about all of those other issues that the Greens like to talk about, you're going to alienate those voters."

But Chowns, who, like Ramsay, won a formerly Conservative seat, says that's not her experience. "People across the political spectrum find a lot to like in what we stand for."

Attracting 'anti-system' voters

Getting noticed is often a struggle for smaller political parties. For that reason, Luke Tryl, who is UK director of the political research organisation More in Common, believes that Polanski's approach might be the Greens' quickest route to boosting its numbers.

"If you are trying to get 10 to 15%, it's probably what gets you noticed." But he argues it would net the party far fewer seats than the 40 that Polanski believes he can win.

He says that the party is rarely brought up in the focus groups which he runs outside of Green areas and that a charismatic leader could help the party cut through.

There is a segment of the population that is "anti-system", he says, to whom a more radical pitch from the Greens might appeal.

Mr Tryl, however, believes that while eco-populism could be a good way of getting known, the Greens would then need to "moderate" to become a "genuine mass movement party with potential for power".

On getting into government, he says: "The Adrian and Ellie approach is right because you need to win over more of the North Herefordshires and Waveney Valleys (Chowns' and Ramsay's seats) and actually places like the Isle of Wight - but they are a long way from that".

Where Corbyn's new party fits in

There is another challenge facing all candidates: the new party that will soon be launched by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, a former Labour MP.

Both Prof Carter and Mr Tryl warn that Polanski's strategy could be crowded out by this new party that has yet to be named but which, according to Corbyn, had 600,000 people sign up by early August.

Ramsay goes further. He believes the new Corbyn party would blow Polanski's pitch "out of the water".

Research carried out in June by More in Common suggested that the establishment of a Corbyn led-party could cut the Green's nationwide vote share from 9% to 5%. (This did not take into account who would be leading the Greens).

Polanski has signalled he would be willing to co-operate with a possible Corbyn-led project and believes the Greens' position as an already established party will mean he can succeed.

It is Ramsay and Chowns who have secured what could be considered the "OG" of Green endorsements: the former MP Caroline Lucas.

The strategy they propose sticking with is based on the one she used to get elected as the first ever Green MP in 2010, and focuses on intensive local campaigning.

The question of who to target

Both leadership pitches include carrying on with local targeting but Polanski believes it can't be scaled up sufficiently to get large numbers of seats on its own.

Chowns dismisses this idea: "My vision at the next general election is that we will have multiple large numbers of target seats and definitely more than one in every region."

With either approach, the Greens face other obstacles, such as funding.

The party's principle of not being funded by large donors means they lack the financial resources of other political parties.

During the election period, the party raised just £160,000, compared with more than £1.6m for both Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats, and £9.5m by Labour.

The Green leader has also little direct control over policy, as it is set by the members - not that there is much difference between the candidates.

Polanski has gone further than current party policy by suggesting the UK should leave Nato, but there are only a few differences between the candidates' public positions.

Ultimately, whoever is chosen to lead the party this time will likely face re-election again before the next general election. The political landscape may have changed further but there is certainly an opportunity for the Greens if they land on the right strategy.

As Mr Tryl puts it, "In the age of very fragmented multi party politics, small vote shares can deliver outsized results".

Top picture credit: Dan Kitwood / Leon Neal via Getty

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Trump posted a photo of me sitting by my tent - then a bulldozer arrived

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2x39d2jxvo, 13 days ago

US President Donald Trump was riding along in his motorcade through Washington DC last Sunday on the way to his golf club when he saw something that clearly irked him - a homeless tent encampment on a patch of grass.

"The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY," he posted on Truth Social that morning, along with four photos.

One of these showed a man sitting in a camping chair by his tent, who I would eventually learn was Bill Theodie. Four days later, Mr Theodie was forced to move after the president announced a crackdown on homelessness in the nation's capital.

"That's me," he said when I showed him the photo Trump posted, which was the first time he had seen it.

"That is insane that he just leaned out the window and takes a picture of me and then posts it on social media in a negative way, using it as his political tool."

On Monday, Trump announced his administration would be "removing homeless encampments from all over our parks, our beautiful, beautiful parks".

"We have slums here, we're getting rid of them," he said from behind the podium in the White House press room.

After the announcement, BBC Verify decided to investigate the photos that the president had posted.

We matched visual clues in the pictures of the tents - including a bend in the road alongside the grassy area where they were pitched - to a location on Google streetview.

The encampment was about a 10-minute drive from the White House, and less than that from the BBC office in Washington - so I headed down there to see what had happened to the site that had caught the president’s attention.

When I arrived local officials were there warning people they could soon be forced to move.

I also found Mr Theodie, a 66-year old from Missouri, sitting in the same camping chair.

He had seen Trump drive by before.

"The president's motorcade is pretty long," Mr Theodie said. "I've seen it coming through here three times."

"You know, I understand he doesn't want to see mess, that's why we go out of our way to maintain it clean. We're not trying to disrespect the president or any other person who comes by."

He told me he had been living at the site for years and works in construction, though he's been out of full-time employment since 2018. Normally, he can pick up just a few shifts a month.

On Thursday, Mr Theodie and the other residents there were told to pack up and leave immediately.

A local reporter filmed as a bulldozer was sent in to dismantle tents and other belongings people left behind.

"They said you need to pack it up or they are going to bulldoze it. They didn't come for talking, it was go, go, go," Mr Theodie said.

Wayne Turnage, the deputy mayor of the DC Department of Health and Human Services, said city authorities have removed encampments across the capital before.

This is usually done with at least a week's notice, he said, but the process has been fast-tracked following Trump's announcement.

Mr Theodie said he will try to find a new spot when he checks out of the motel: "My best option is to try to find a safe place to set my tent up. I don't know where that's going to be, but I would like to stay in DC."

I also met George Morgan, a 65-year old from Washington DC, at the encampment. He said he had only been living there for two months, after he had to move out of an apartment he could no longer afford.

When I called to see what had happened to him after the encampment was removed, he was in a motel reception area with his dog, Blue, after someone covered the cost of a night there for him too.

"We're sitting here to see if we're able to get another night. I had to pay $15 dog fee - which was the last money I had."

When I last spoke to Mr Morgan, he had been able to extend his stay at the motel through the weekend - but said he didn't know what next week would bring.

"I have to play it by ear as I have no money. God has always come through, so I'll see what God sets up next."

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

How many wars has President Trump really ended?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y3599gx4qo, 9 days ago

As President Donald Trump tries to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, he has been highlighting his track record in peace negotiations since starting his second term in office.

Speaking at the White House on 18 August, where he was pressed by European leaders to push for a ceasefire, he claimed: "I've ended six wars… all of these deals I made without even the mention of the word 'ceasefire'."

The following day the number he cited had risen to "seven wars".

The Trump administration says a Nobel Peace Prize is "well past time" for the "peacemaker-in-chief", and has listed the "wars" he has supposedly ended.

Some lasted just days - although they were the result of long-standing tensions - and it is unclear whether some of the peace deals will last.

Trump also used the word "ceasefire" a number of times when talking about them on his Truth Social platform.

BBC Verify has taken a closer look at these conflicts and how much credit the president can take for ending them.

Israel and Iran

The 12-day conflict began when Israel hit targets in Iran on 13 June.

Trump confirmed that he had been informed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of the strikes.

The US carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear sites - a move widely seen as bringing the conflict towards a swift close.

On 23 June, Trump posted: "Officially, Iran will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 12th Hour, Israel will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 24th Hour, an Official END to THE 12 DAY WAR will be saluted by the World."

After the hostilities ended, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei insisted his country had secured a "decisive victory" and did not mention a ceasefire.

Israel has since suggested it could strike Iran again to counter new threats.

"There is no agreement on a permanent peace or on how to monitor Iran's nuclear programme going forward," argues Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank.

"So what we have is more of a de facto ceasefire than an end to war, but I'd give him some credit, as the weakening of Iran by Israel - with US help - has been strategically significant."

Pakistan and India

Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo

Long-standing hostilities between these two countries flared up after the M23 rebel group seized mineral-rich territory in eastern DR Congo earlier in the year.

In June, the two countries signed a peace agreement in Washington aimed at ending decades of conflict. Trump said it would help increase trade between them and the US.

The text called for "respect for the ceasefire" agreed between Rwanda and DRC in August 2024.

Thailand and Cambodia

On 26 July, Trump posted on Truth Social saying: "I am calling the Acting Prime Minister of Thailand, right now, to likewise request a Ceasefire, and END to the War, which is currently raging."

A couple of days later, the two countries agreed to an "immediate and unconditional ceasefire" after less than a week of fighting at the border.

Malaysia held the peace talks, but President Trump threatened to stop separate negotiations on reducing US tariffs (taxes on imports) unless Thailand and Cambodia stopped fighting.

Both are heavily dependent on exports to the US.

On 7 August, Thailand and Cambodia reached an agreement aimed at reducing tensions along their shared border.

Armenia and Azerbaijan

Egypt and Ethiopia

There was no "war" here for the president to end, but there have long been tensions over a dam on the River Nile.

Ethiopia's Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam was completed this summer with Egypt arguing that the water it gets from the Nile could be affected.

After 12 years of disagreement, Egypt's foreign minister said on 29 June that talks with Ethiopia had ground to a halt.

Trump said: "If I were Egypt, I'd want the water in the Nile." He promised that the US was going to resolve the issue very quickly.

Egypt welcomed Trump's words, but Ethiopian officials said they risked inflaming tensions.

No formal deal has been reached between Egypt and Ethiopia to resolve their differences.

Serbia and Kosovo

On 27 June, Trump claimed to have prevented an outbreak of hostilities between them, saying: "Serbia, Kosovo was going to go at it, going to be a big war. I said you go at it, there's no trade with the United States. They said, well, maybe we won't go at it."

The two countries have long been in dispute - a legacy of the Balkan wars of the 1990s – with tensions rising in recent years.

"Serbia and Kosovo haven't been fighting or firing at each other, so it's not a war to end," Prof MacMillan told us.

The White House pointed us towards Trump's diplomatic efforts in his first term.

The two countries signed economic normalisation agreements in the Oval Office with the president in 2020, but they were not at war at the time.

Additional reporting by Peter Mwai, Shruti Menon and Eve Webster.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

Is the government meeting its pledges on illegal immigration and asylum?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9dqqj0v1ndo, 8 days ago

The prime minister has made tackling illegal immigration and "restoring order" to the asylum system a priority for the government.

Sir Keir Starmer has promised to "smash the gangs". It follows predecessor Rishi Sunak's pledge to "stop the boats".

BBC Verify looks at key government pledges - including tackling small-boat crossings, ending the use of asylum hotels and returning more people with no right to be in the country.

'End asylum hotels'

Labour promised to "end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds" in its general election manifesto.

The government wants to fulfil this pledge by 2029.

However, recent figures show there were more asylum seekers staying in hotels in June 2025 compared with June 2024 - a few days before the general election.

At the end of June 2025, there were 32,059 people in hotels - up 2,474.

Despite the rise over 12 months, the number has fallen by 286 since March 2025.

The government does not regularly publish figures on the number of actual hotels in use but government sources have suggested there are 210 asylum hotels, slightly down from 212 in July 2024.

The asylum process determines whether a person can remain in the UK because they have a "well-founded fear of persecution" in their home country.

Once someone applies for asylum, they gain legal protections while awaiting a decision - including accommodation if they cannot support themselves financially.

Almost everyone who arrives by small boat claims asylum - they made up a third of all asylum applications over the past 12 months. Another large group of claimants were people already in the UK who previously entered legally on a student, work or visitor's visa.

Since 2020, the government has been increasingly reliant on hotels, partly because the supply of other types of asylum accommodation has not kept up with the numbers arriving in small boats.

But using asylum hotels is expensive - costing £5.7m per day in 2024-25. The government has started to save money by adding beds to rooms in hotels to maximise the number of people in each site.

The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, David Bolt, told Parliament in June, that he did not believe the government would meet its pledge: "Frankly, I do not think that it will be achieved", he said.

"They are very large numbers, and it is very hard to see how they are going to be reduced significantly, even over the length of the Parliament."

'Smash the gangs'

As of 20 August, 27,997 people had arrived in the UK in small boats in 2025 - up by about 45% compared with the same period in 2024.

To reduce the number of crossings, the government has pledged to disrupt the people-smuggling gangs behind them.

But it is unclear how the government plans to measure its progress, or when this goal will be met.

The Home Office told us data on actions taken by officials to disrupt criminal gangs was "being collected and may be published in the future".

There is some information on efforts to prevent small boat crossings by French authorities - who, under a 2023 deal, are receiving £476m from the UK over three years.

They say about 33,468 people were prevented from crossing between July 2024 and August 2025. We do not know what happened to them or whether they tried to cross again.

There have been high-profile cases of UK-based smugglers being sentenced, including a man who helped smuggle more than 3,000 people.

In July, the UK and France agreed to a "one in, one out" pilot. Under the scheme, for each migrant the UK returns to France, another migrant with a strong case for asylum in Britain will come the other way.

The vast majority of UK immigration is legal - this includes people who have been granted permission to come to work, study, claim asylum or for other authorised purposes.

Over the past 12 months, about 49,000 people entered the UK illegally - about 5% of the nearly one million people who immigrated to the UK between July 2024 and June 2025.

'Clear the asylum backlog'

The government has also promised "to clear the asylum backlog".

This refers to the backlog of claims by asylum seekers who are waiting to hear whether they will be granted refugee status and be allowed to remain in the UK.

Since last June, there has been a 55% increase in decisions on asylum cases.

This, combined with a recent fall in applications has meant the overall backlog of asylum cases has fallen compared with the end of June 2024.

Under Labour, 39% of asylum claims were granted in the year to June 2025. This is lower than under the Conservatives the previous year, when about 44% of claims were granted.

Another backlog the government wants to clear is the high number of court appeals from asylum seekers following rejected claims.

That backlog has got worse since last summer's election. There were nearly 51,000 in March 2025 - a record high.

'Increase returns'

The government has also promised to "increase returns" of people with no legal right to be in the UK. It said it would set up a new returns and enforcement unit with 1,000 extra staff.

Between July 2024 (when Labour came to power) and July 2025, there were 35,052 returns recoded by the Home Office.

This is up 13% compared with the same period 12 months ago.

So the government is meeting this pledge but it is worth noting that just 9,115 people were forcibly removed - which could involve being escorted on a plane by an immigration official.

The figures also show 10,191 failed asylum seekers were returned in this period but they do not say how many were enforced or voluntary.

Separate government figures from April to June gave a fuller breakdown showing many of those who did leave voluntarily did so without government assistance or even its knowledge at the time, as BBC Verify has previously pointed out.

This is despite repeated claims from ministers that the government has "removed" or even "deported" this many people.

The Home Office says all returns outcomes are the result of collective efforts by the department.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?