Joe Biden took to the stage at his Thursday night press conference with everything on the line – his presidency, his re-election hopes, his political life.

If those were the stakes, he barely acknowledged them. He dismissed the concerns about his campaign that were posed again and again for a full hour by a room full of reporters, and promised that he was fighting not for his legacy, but to finish the job he started when he took office in 2021.

“If I slow down and can’t get the job done, that’s a sign I shouldn’t be doing it,” he said. “But there’s no indication of that yet.”

Depending on perspective, it was either a sign of dogged determination or of a man in denial about how dire his situation has become.

Minutes after the news conference finished, several more Democratic members of Congress publicly called on Mr Biden to step down, joining at least a dozen other lawmakers in the president’s own party who have done so.

The question for Joe Biden’s campaign is whether the floodgates will now open, or if the tide will hold.

The situation will not be helped by two excruciating gaffes that will be remembered by anyone who watched.

In his very first answer, he called his own Vice-President Kamala Harris “Vice-President Trump” – a painful faceplant in front of a national television audience.

That came just an hour after another headline-grabbing mistake at a Nato event, when Mr Biden introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin”, prompting loud gasps in the audience.

He corrected the first verbal misstep involving Ukraine’s leader quickly. The second one he didn’t catch, even as some reporters in the room murmured in surprise and several of his top Cabinet secretaries sat stone-faced in the front row of the audience.

Those moments – the only major stumbles in an otherwise steady if not vigorous, appearance – will surely prompt nervous Democrats to wonder if there are more gaffes to come if the president presses ahead with his campaign.

But for now at least, Mr Biden seemed the happy warrior, insisting he will push on. He laughed and smiled as he was peppered with questions, and said he could keep up with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping, even if the hoarseness and cough that had been on display during his debate two weeks ago still appeared to linger.

He again insisted he didn’t need cognitive tests, telling reporters that if he even saw “two doctors or seven”, his critics wouldn’t be satisfied.

The election campaign, he said, had barely started, and he again repeated that he was confident he could beat Donald Trump in November’s election.

The Democratic delegates who will back him officially as the party’s nominee at next month’s convention were free to change their minds as they pleased, he said, before mock whispering: “It’s not going to happen.”

He said he would consider stepping aside if his staff gave him data that he couldn’t win, but that polls still show the race a dead heat.

In that regard, he is on firm ground. An Ipsos survey released earlier on Thursday, for instance, had Mr Biden only one point behind his opponent – well within the margin of error. If there’s one thing that has been clear since the start of the year, support for the two candidates has remained remarkably stable despite unprecedented drama surrounding both men.

Polling alone won’t calm the panic that has set in among many Democratic officials, however, and the storm clouds that linger around Biden’s campaign won’t be so easily dispelled.

More Democratic politicians are waiting in the wings, according to reports, poised to announce their own break with the president, having waited until the conclusion of this Nato summit to voice their concerns.

And that’s just the first round of tests for the embattled president. He has another high-profile sit-down interview, with NBC’s Lester Holt, on Monday. Donors are anxious, and earlier on Thursday several reports suggested that even figures in the president’s own campaign were plotting ways to usher their candidate toward the exit.

Despite all of this, Mr Biden made clear that it will be a challenging task to pry the nomination away from him. The 81-year-old man who at times gripped the lectern with two hands and insisted he was the “best-qualified person” to run the country is not going to exit the stage quietly.

• POLICIES: Where Biden and Trump stand on key issues
• GLOBAL: What Moscow and Beijing think of rematch
• ANALYSIS: Could US economy be doing too well?
• EXPLAINER: RFK Jr and others running for president
• VOTERS: US workers in debt to buy groceries

Narcissistic people get more empathetic, generous and agreeable with age, according to new research into the personality trait.

But although their unreasonably high sense of self-importance may mellow, they do not fully grow out of it, the study involving more than 37,000 people suggests.

Those who were more narcissistic than their peers as children tended to remain that way as adults, investigators found.

And there are at least three types of narcissistic behaviour to look for, they say.

Narcissist has become an insult often hurled at people who are perceived as difficult or diagreeable.

We all may show some narcissistic traits at times.

Doctors use the term to describe a specific, diagnosable type of personality disorder.

Although definitions can vary, common themes shared by those who have it is an unshakeable belief they are better or more deserving than other people, which might be described by others as arrogance and selfishness.

The work, published in the journal Psychological Bulletin, comes from data from 51 past studies, involving 37,247 participants who ranged in age from eight to 77.

Researchers looked for three types of narcissist, based on behaviour traits:

• Agentic narcissists – who feel grand or superior to others and crave admiration
• Antagonistic narcissists – who see others as rivals and are exploitative and lack empathy
• Neurotic narcissists – who are shame-prone, insecure and overly sensitive to criticism

They studied what happened to these personality measures over time, based on questionnaires, and found that, generally, narcissism scores declined with age.

However, the changes were slight and gradual.

“Clearly, some individuals may change more strongly, but generally, you wouldn’t expect someone you knew as a very narcissistic person to have completely changed when you meet them again after some years,” lead researcher Dr Ulrich Orth, from the University of Bern in Switzerland, told BBC News.

He says some narcissistic traits can be helpful, at least in the short term.

It might boost your popularity, dating success, and chance of landing a top job, for example. But over longer periods, the consequences are mostly negative, because of the conflict it causes.

“These consequences do not only affect the person themselves, but also the wellbeing of individuals with whom they interact, such as partners, children, friends, co-workers, and employees,” he explained.

Dr Sarah Davies is a chartered counselling psychologist who has written a book on how to leave a narcissist.

She told the BBC that although people may be arrogant or selfish at times, that should not be confused with true clinical narcissism.

“Narcissists tend to be envious and jealous of others and they are highly exploitative and manipulative,” she said.

“They do not experience remorse or feeling bad, or have a sense of responsibility like other non-narcissistic people do.”

She says there has been a boom in interest about narcissism, driven by social media.

“To some extent that’s helpful – it helps inform more people about it and to bring more awareness of this issue. However, like many mental health terms, the clinical meaning can get a little lost.

Dr Davies says we should be more discerning with the term.

“I find it much more useful to be specific with naming behaviours and separate them. For example, a friend of mine recently called her ex a narcissist because he had ghosted her after they broke up.

“Being ghosted [suddenly cutting someone out of your life without explanation] is of course horrible, but he may not have been able to deal with a conversation after their relationship came to an end. It doesn’t necessarily mean he is a raging narcissist.

“They were together a while and there were no other indications of his ‘narcissism’.”

According to Dr Davies, some signs you may be involved with or around a narcissist include:

• Constant drama – a narcissist needs to be needed and seeks chaos and conflict
• No genuine apologies – they never really take full responsibility for their own behaviours
• Blame game – they manipulate and exploit others for their own selfish gains

Dr Tennyson Lee is a consultant psychiatrist with the Deancross Personality Disorder Service, based in the London borough of Tower Hamlets. He said the study was well-conducted and the findings were useful.

“The good news is narcissism typically reduces with age. The bad news is this reduction is not of a high magnitude.

“Do not expect narcissism will dramatically improve at a certain age – it doesn’t.

“This has implications for the long-suffering spouse who thinks ‘an improvement is just around the corner’,” he told BBC News.

support is available.

An Australian soldier and her husband have been arrested and each charged with spying for Russia.

Investigators say the couple – both Russian-born Australian citizens – obtained Australian Defence Force (ADF) material to share with Moscow.

However, Australian police say “no significant compromise” of military secrets has been identified.

It is the first time stricter foreign interference laws – introduced by Australia in 2018 – have been used to lay espionage charges.

Kira Korolev, a 40-year-old army private, and her 62-year-old husband Igor Korolev faced court in Brisbane on Friday, each on one count of preparing for an espionage offence – which carries a maximum 15-year jail sentence.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had been “briefed extensively” by the nation’s security agencies but would not comment on the case directly as it is now before the courts.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Reece Kershaw said the couple had been in Australia for more than a decade before the alleged offending and had both become citizens several years ago.

Igor worked as a self-employed labourer, and Kira was an information systems technician in the army, a role for which she had obtained a security clearance, police say.

Mr Kershaw alleged she secretly travelled to Russia while on leave from the ADF, then instructed Igor to access her work account and send sensitive material so that she could forward it on to Russian authorities.

An investigation in to whether any of the material was ever delivered to them is still underway, Mr Kershaw said, adding that the charges could be upgraded.

Both Mr Kershaw and Australia’s spy agency boss Mike Burgess – who addressed media together on Friday – declined to answer questions about the nature of the documents or how authorities were tipped off about the alleged crimes.

But Mr Burgess said that the ongoing threat of espionage is “real”.

“Multiple countries are seeking to steal Australia’s secrets. We cannot be naive, and we cannot be complacent.”

“If you are spying in this country, we are looking for you. If you are being spied on in this country, we are looking out for you,” he added.

Mr Kershaw stressed that Australia’s allies could be “confident” that the country would “continue to identify and disrupt espionage and foreign interference activity”.

In a statement, the ADF said it was aware one of its members had been arrested and that it “takes all breaches of security seriously”.

After months of lavish celebrations spread across the world, the wedding ceremony of the son of Asia’s richest man is set to take place on Friday.

Anant Ambani, son of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, will tie the knot with Radhika Merchant, daughter of pharma tycoons Viren and Shaila Merchant.

The four-day wedding extravaganza in Mumbai city is the final stop in a string of lavish parties the family has hosted since March.

The events, which have already featured performances by popstars like Rihanna and Justin Bieber, have captured the world’s attention.

But it has also led to backlash – city dwellers have complained of traffic snarls, while others have questioned the ostentatious display of wealth at the seemingly never-ending celebrations.

• The marathon Indian wedding turning heads around the world

Mukesh Ambani, 66, is at present the world’s 10th richest man with a net worth of $115bn, according to Forbes. Reliance Industries, founded by his father in 1966, is a massive conglomerate that operates in sectors ranging from petroleum and retail, to financial services and telecoms.

Anant Ambani is the youngest of his three children, all of whom are on the board of Reliance Industries. The 29-year-old is involved in Reliance’s energy businesses and is on the board of Reliance Foundation.

On Friday, the couple will get married in a traditional Hindu ceremony at the Jio World Convention Centre.

Reports say the family will host a grand reception through the weekend, before a final reception for their household staff on Monday.

Rumours on the internet suggest that Adele could be performing at the wedding, but the family has not confirmed this.

Mumbai police have labelled the wedding a “public event” since it would be attended by several international and Indian VIPs, reports Reuters news agency.

The city police has also imposed traffic restrictions around the venue.

From Friday to Monday, roads around the convention centre will be open only for “event vehicles” between 13:00 India time (07:30 GMT) to midnight, it said.

Rajan Mehra, CEO of air charter company Club One Air, told Reuters that the family had rented three Falcon-2000 jets to ferry wedding guests to the event.

“The guests are coming from all over and each aircraft will make multiple trips across the country,” he said.

The restrictions have sparked anger among the city residents who say they are already struggling with traffic jams and monsoon flooding.

The wedding festivities began in March when the family held a three-day pre-wedding party in their home state of Gujarat.

Among the 1,200 guests to attend the celebration were international celebrities, politicians, and members of the business world – including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft’s Bill Gates.

• World’s rich in India for tycoon son’s pre-wedding gala

The party started with a performance by Rihanna on the first night. Diljit Dosanjh, the first Punjabi singer to perform at Coachella, took the stage on the second night, while rapper Akon closed the show on the final day of celebrations.

In June, the Ambanis organised another pre-wedding celebration, this time, a luxury cruise from Italy to France. The Backstreet Boys, Katy Perry and Pitbull performed for the 800 guests, which included Bollywood stars and cricketers.

Then came the final round of celebrations, which began earlier this week when Bieber landed in Mumbai.

Social media has been flooded with photos and videos of him singing in front of an ecstatic audience.

Money was also lavished on constructing 14 temples inside a sprawling complex in Jamnagar to showcase India’s cultural heritage and provide a backdrop for the wedding. As part of the celebrations, the Ambanis hosted a mass wedding for 50 underprivileged couples too.

On Wednesday, the family hosted a bhandara – a community feast for underprivileged people.

The Ambanis have not revealed how much this wedding is costing them but wedding planners estimate they’ve already spent anywhere between 11bn and 13bn rupees [$132m-$156m]. It was rumoured Rihanna had been paid $7m (£5.5m) for her performance, while the figure suggested for Bieber is $10m.

Every day, for the last seven years, Arun Kumar has set up his fruit stall on a busy Mumbai street.

It’s not an easy way to make a living.

“Being a street vendor is a challenge. There’s the fear of being robbed or, as I am not a licensed vendor, the local body can come and dismantle my store anytime,” he says.

But over the past four years at least one aspect of his work has become easier.

“Prior to Covid everything was in cash. But now everyone pays with UPI. Scan the code and the payment is done within seconds.

“No issues of handling cash, giving change to customers. It has made my life and business smooth,” he says.

UPI, or to give it its full name the Unified Payments Interface, was launched in 2016 in a collaboration between India’s central bank and the nation’s banking industry.

It’s an app-based instant payment system, which allows users to send and receive money, pay bills and authorise payments in a single step – no need to enter bank details or any other personal information. And, perhaps most importantly, it’s free.

It has become so popular that India is now the biggest real-time payments market.

In May, UPI recorded 14 billion transactions, up from nine billion the year before.

But the popularity and ease of use has made it a rich feeding ground for scammers.

“While digital payments are convenient, they do come with vulnerabilities,” says Shashank Shekhar, founder of the Delhi-based Future Crime Research Foundation.

Mr Shekhar says that scammers use a variety of ways to trick people, including persuading them to share their UPI pin number, which is needed to authorise payments.

Some scammers have also created fake UPI apps, that are clones of legitimate banking apps, and then steal login details or other valuable information.

“The pace at which digital transformation took place in the country means unfortunately digital literacy and safe internet practice could not catch up,” says Mr Shekhar.

He says that between January 2020 and June 2023 almost half of all financial fraud involved the use of the UPI system.

According to government figures there were more than 95,000 cases of fraud involving UPI in the financial year ending April 2023, up from 77,000 in the previous year.

Shivkali was one such victim. She had always wanted to own a scooter, but they were beyond her budget.

However, earlier in the year the 22-year-old, who lives in Bihar state in northeastern India, spotted one for sale on Facebook that looked like a great deal.

“I grabbed the opportunity without thinking,” she says.

A couple of clicks later and she was talking to the owner, who said that for $23 he would send over the vehicle papers.

That went smoothly, so Shivkali continued to send the owner money, via instant transfers. She eventually ended up paying $200, but the scooter (also commonly called a Scooty in India), was never delivered.

Shivkali realised she had been scammed.

“I did not think I could be cheated, as I have some education background and know what is happing in the world. But scammers are smart. They have an art of speaking to convince the opposite person,” she says.

The government and the central bank are looking at ways to protect UPI users from scammers.

But at the moment, if a victim wants compensation, they have to approach their bank.

“The problem is deep rooted,” says Dr Durgesh Pandey, an expert in financial crime.

“Most of the onus lies with banks and telecom companies. They are lax in making identity checks, that’s why the fraudster can’t be traced.

“But the challenge for banks particularly is that they have to balance between inclusivity, ease of business and enforcement of identity checks. If they are too rigid, the vulnerable section of society will remain without banking facilities.”

But Dr Pandey argues that in most cases of fraud, the bank is not totally to blame.

“It’s a complex question because the problem lies with banks, but it’s the victim who is giving his credentials in most case. I would say both victim and bank should bear the loss.”

Despite those problems, UPI is being promoted in rural areas where access to banking services can be difficult.

Poonam Untwal from Rajasthan runs a guidance centre which helps people use the internet and digital banking.

“Most of us are not that educated, nor know the proper use of smartphones. I teach them that phones are no longer a device just to talk to people but banks at their fingertips,” she says.

She believes that UPI will help develop the local economy.

“Many women like me have a small business that we run from our home. Now we can receive and send money with UPI. People who don’t have smart phones come to my centre to get their transactions done,” she says.

As well as making inroads into rural areas, UPI is spreading overseas.

Retailers in Bhutan, Mauritius, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka and UAE will take UPI payments.

And this year, France become the first European country to accept UPI payments, starting with tickets to the Eiffel Tower.

Back in Mumbai, Mr Kumar is happy that he no longer has to use cash, but remains wary.

If he can’t get a good internet connection then customers can, by accident or design, make off without paying.

“For a small vendor like me it [UPI] made receiving money very easy. But I am always scared of fraud. I keep hearing in the news how the UPI frauds are increasing. Hopefully some mechanisms are invented so a small vendor like me doesn’t face losses.”

Long-range US missiles are to be deployed periodically in Germany from 2026 for the first time since the Cold War, in a decision announced at Nato’s 75th anniversary summit.

The Tomahawk cruise, SM-6 and hypersonic missiles have a significantly longer range than existing missiles, the US and Germany said in a joint statement.

Such missiles would have been banned under a 1988 treaty between the US and former Soviet Union, but the pact fell apart five years ago.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow would react with a “military reponse to the new threat”.

“This is just a link in the chain of a course of escalation,” he argued, accusing Nato and the US of trying to intimidate Russia.

The joint US-German statement made clear the “episodic” deployment of the missiles was initially seen as temporary but would later become permanent, as part of a US commitment to Nato and Europe’s “integrated deterrence”.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, who was speaking at the Nato summit in Washington, said the idea behind the US plan was to encourage Germany and other European countries to put their own investment into developing and procuring longer-range missiles.

The temporary deployment of US weapons would give Nato allies the time to prepare, he explained: “We are talking here about an increasingly serious gap in capability in Europe.”

Mr Pistorius joined colleagues from France, Italy and Poland on Thursday in signing a letter of intent aimed at developing long-range missiles in Europe. The European Long-Range Strike Approach (Elsa) was intended to improve European missile capability, which was “sorely needed to deter and defend our continent”, Italian news agency Ansa reported.

Such missiles were banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF), which was signed at the end of the Cold War and covered ground-launched missiles that could travel between 500-5,500 km (310-3,400 miles).

Russia’s Vladimir Putin felt it was too restrictive and in 2014 the US accused him of violating the pact with a new type of nuclear-capable cruise missile.

The US finally pulled out of the treaty in 2019, and Russia followed suit.

Politicians from Germany’s Greens were critical of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s agreement to allow US missiles on German soil.

The Greens are part of Mr Scholz’s ruling coalition, and their spokeswoman on security Sara Nanni made clear their frustration that he had made no comment about the decision.

“It can even heighten fears and leaves room for disinformation and incitement,” she told the Rheinische Post newspaper.

A pod of 77 pilot whales has died after washing ashore on a beach in Orkney in what could be the biggest mass stranding for decades.

The British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) had established 12 of the animals at Tresness Beach on the island of Sanday were still alive when they came out of the water.

However the decision was taken to euthanise them after refloating efforts failed.

The pod included male whales up to seven metres (22ft) long as well as females, calves and juveniles.

Experts say it is too early to know what has caused the stranding, but it is likely one of the whales got into trouble and the rest of the pod tried to help.

Members of the public are being asked to stay away from the area while post mortem examinations are carried out.

It is thought to be the largest stranding event in Scotland since at least 1995, when the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) was founded – though strandings of a similar scale have been seen in recent years.

Last year an entire pod of 55 pilot whales died following a stranding on Lewis.

Only 15 of the whales were alive when they were washed ashore. One was successfully re-floated while the rest had to be euthanised.

Between 60-70 of the animals came into shallow waters in Sutherland in 2011.

According to the Natural History Museum, the largest UK stranding took place in 1927 when 126 out of more than 130 false killer whales died in the Dornoch Firth in the Highlands.

Experts from the BDMLR, the Scottish SPCA and marine vets from the Scottish mainland travelled to Sanday to assess whether any of the whales could be saved.

The area was cut off by the high tide and the sand on the beach where they were stranded proved too soft to allow the mammals to be righted.

The whales needed to be moved back into an upright position as quickly as possible if there is to be any chance of saving them.

But the soft sand meant the whales fell back over when the rescuers attempted to right them.

Emma Neave-Webb from the BDMLR said early on that while these experiences are difficult, the thinking had to be “realistic”.

BDMLR medics were brought in from mainland Orkney and Inverness to help with the rescue attempt, but Ms Neave-Webb said it appeared the whales had been stranded for “quite some time”.

She described the scene as “really quite horrible” and “hugely emotional”.

Rescuers attempted to keep the whales alive by pouring sea water over them, but the decision was later taken to euthanise them.

A spokesperson for Orkney Islands Council said discussions were taking place with community representatives on how best to dispose of the bodies.

They said: “In previous circumstances where whales have beached on our shores and subsequently died, the approach from our Environmental Health team around disposing of the body has been to allow nature to take its course – with the public advised to stay away from the area.

“Our assessment in this case, given the scale and the likely public health implications, is that more definite action will need to be taken, for example burying them where they are or removing the bodies to a large grave site elsewhere.”

Andrew Brownlow of the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme said mass strandings of this scale are becoming more common in Scotland.

He told BBC News: “It used to be quite unusual to have a mass stranding event, certainly of this size.

“But over the last ten years or so we have seen an increase both in the number of mass stranding events around Scotland and also the size of the mass and the number of animals that it involves.

“So that is slightly concerning and that might be because there are just more animals out there, or it could be that there are more hazards that these animals are exposed to.”

US actress Shelley Duvall, known for films like The Shining, Annie Hall and Nashville, has died at the age of 75.

Her partner Dan Gilroy confirmed the news to The Hollywood Reporter.

“My dear, sweet, wonderful life partner and friend left us. Too much suffering lately, now she’s free. Fly away, beautiful Shelley,” he said, according to the outlet.

She died in her sleep of complications from diabetes at her home in Texas, Gilroy said.

Duvall’s other credits included 1977 drama 3 Women, directed by Robert Altman, for which she won the Cannes Film Festival’s best actress award and was nominated for a Bafta.

Three years later, she starred as Olive Oyl opposite Robin Williams in Altman’s musical version of Popeye.

But Duvall fell out of favour in Hollywood and was off screens for two decades, before making her comeback in 2023’s The Forest Hills.

With her large brown eyes and offbeat charisma, Duvall was a distinctive and compelling presence.

She began her career, and her association with Altman, in 1970 dark comedy Brewster McCloud, and the pair reunited for McCabe and Mrs Miller in 1971.

After filming her performance as a woman who falls for a 1930s bank robber in their next movie, Thieves Like Us, Altman told her: “I knew you were good, but I didn’t know you were great.”

She said that remark was “the reason I stuck with it and became an actress”.

The director stuck with her, once saying she “was able to swing all sides of the pendulum: charming, silly, sophisticated, pathetic, even beautiful”.

Altman cast her again in 1975’s Nashville, his satire of US society, politics and country music.

Their next collaboration, 3 Women, saw Duvall play a talkative, trend-following health spa attendant. The Guardian’s Anne Billson ranked it as her best role, and “quite simply one of the greatest performances of the 1970s”.

Meanwhile, also in 1977, Duvall memorably played Pam, a Rolling Stone reporter who went on a date with Woody Allen’s Alvy in Annie Hall.

Her best-known role was perhaps Wendy, the wife of Jack Nicholson’s terrifying hotel caretaker in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror classic The Shining.

Filming was an ordeal. “I had to cry 12 hours a day, all day long, the last nine months straight, five or six days a week,” she once recalled.

After that, Duvall’s film roles included Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits and Roxanne with Steve Martin.

She also set up her own production companies, and made and hosted beloved 1980s children’s TV show Faerie Tale Theatre.

Her acting roles diminished in the 1990s, with Jane Campion’s The Portrait of a Lady the pick of the crop, and she dropped off the radar in 2002.

The New York Times attributed her apparent disappearance to the impact of a 1994 earthquake that damaged her Los Angeles home, and the stress of her brother having cancer.

Discussing her prolonged absence from the screen, she told the paper in May she had been the victim of a fickle film industry. “I was a star. I had leading roles. People think it’s just ageing, but it’s not. It’s violence,” she said.

Asked to explain, she said: “How would you feel if people were really nice, and then, suddenly, on a dime they turn on you?

“You would never believe it unless it happens to you. That’s why you get hurt, because you can’t really believe it’s true.”

Concerns about her health were raised when she appeared on the TV talk show Dr Phil in 2016 and told him: “I’m very sick. I need help.”

She also talked about receiving messages from a “shapeshifting” Robin Williams following his death, and talked about malevolent forces who were out to do her harm, the paper said.

Speaking about that period, Gilroy told the New York Times she had become “paranoid and just kind of delusional”.

Asked by the paper why she had agreed to return to the screen in The Forest Hills, she replied: “I wanted to act again. And then this guy kept calling, and so I wound up doing it.”

Novelist Nicole Flattery wrote in the Financial Times in 2023 that her return showed her magic had remained intact.

In an article dubbing her the “ultimate film star”, Flattery summed up her talent, writing: “She’s a master at playing characters who act happy when they’re sad, their daffiness masking depth.”

Donald Trump will meet Viktor Orbán in Florida on Thursday night, just weeks after the Hungarian prime minister met Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

His visit to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach is the latest in a number of meetings between the two men.

Mr Orbán has publicly endorsed Trump’s re-election bid and recently said there was a “very, very high chance” that President Joe Biden would lose the election.

The Hungarian leader has been frequently criticised in Europe for his pro-Russian views but remains popular among Trump supporters and US conservatives.

He has also recently met China’s Xi Jinping and Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in a self-described “peace” initiative.

On Wednesday, Russian newspaper Izvestia wrote such initiatives were futile, “but Viktor Orbán may pass information he has collected to Trump’s team”.

Mr Orbán told German media earlier this week that the former US president was a “self-made man” with a “different approach to everything”.

A Trump victory in the US election would be “good for the world politics”, he added.

“He [Trump] is a man of peace. Under his four-year term he did not initiate a single war, and he did a lot in order to create peace in old conflicts in very complicated areas of the world.”

Mr Orbán, whose country currently holds the presidency of the European Union, also criticised the Biden administration for failing to end the conflict in Ukraine.

“I think new leadership will provide new chances,” he said.

Mr Orbán was the first and only EU leader to back Trump’s bid for presidency in 2016, but had to wait until May 2019 for his first visit to the White House.

Trump has found more time for the Hungarian leader out of power. At the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas, he told cheering delegates: “The globalists can all go to hell… I have come to Texas.”

His creation of a similar group in his country, CPAC Hungary, has boosted his relationships further.

In March this year, after meeting Trump in Florida, Mr Orbán posted on X/Twitter: “We need leaders in the world who are respected and can bring peace. He is one of them! Come back and bring us peace, Mr President.”

In April this year, Trump sent a short video message to CPAC Hungary, saying he was “honoured to address so many patriots in Hungary… proudly fighting on the front lines of the battle to rescue western civilisation.

“Together we’re engaged in an epic struggle to liberate our nations from all of the sinister forces who want to destroy them.’

He referred to Mr Orbán in the same address as “a great man”.

Mr Orbán has boasted that he has created an “illiberal democracy” in Hungary, and claims “progressives” have unleashed a “virus” of “migration, gender, and the woke movement”.

A woman charged with criminal offences in Dubai after she was allegedly a victim of domestic violence has said she is “so relieved… thankful and grateful” to have returned to Ireland.

Tori Towey, 28, faced charges including attempted suicide and consuming alcohol and had her passport destroyed.

Her flight from Dubai landed in Dublin at 12:21 local time.

“I’m just so relieved, I just I can’t believe it,” Ms Towey told Irish broadcaster RTÉ.

Ms Towey added that the support of the Irish people and the media had been amazing.

And, now she plans to see her family and friends.

But first of all, Ms Towey said she is going to “go home and rest” after an ordeal she described as “tiring”.

Ms Towey, from County Roscommon, was working as a flight attendant with an airline based in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), when she was charged with attempting suicide and consuming alcohol.

Her case prompted an intervention by Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Simon Harris earlier this week after it was raised in the Dáil (Irish lower house of parliament).

Police in the UAE withdrew the charges against her on Wednesday and a travel ban was lifted.

Ms Towey said she was “so thankful and grateful to be back” and spoke of her fear of not being able to return to Ireland.

“Obviously when my mother came out to me it was a massive help, but it was just the unknown and just not knowing anything, not knowing what’s going to happen,” she said.

“It’s only kind of between yesterday and today that I kind of got clarity. I wasn’t getting any answers, but I’m just glad to be back.”

Ms Towey was speaking at the airport beside her mother, Caroline, and aunt Ann Flynn.

Caroline said it is “great to have her home” and described the ordeal as “a nightmare, a real nightmare”.

Ms Towey’s mother said the plan now is to “go home and get our heads together and move on”.

Her case drew attention in Ireland when it was raised in the Dáil by Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald on Tuesday.

“She has been the victim of the most gross domestic violence,” Ms McDonald said.

“Her passport has been destroyed. There was a travel ban imposed on her.”

The Irish government should make it “absolutely plain to the authorities of Dubai that no woman should be treated in this way”, Ms McDonald told the Dáil, and that “an Irish citizen, an Irish woman, will not be treated in this way”.

The taoiseach thanked Ms McDonald for bringing the case to his attention and said he was ready to “intervene”.

Mr Harris said her treatment had been “utterly, utterly unacceptable”.

He went on to say Ms Towey had “been the victim of male violence”.

“What Tori has been through is, I think, unimaginable for so many people here in this country, that a woman who has been the victim of a brutal attack found herself waking up not in a hospital, but in a police station,” Mr Harris added.

On Wednesday, the taoiseach told the Dáil that a travel ban preventing Ms Towey from leaving the UAE had been lifted and Irish embassy staff would be escorting Ms Towey to the airport.

After her arrival in Dublin Airport on Thursday afternoon, Ms Towey thanked the taoiseach, Ms McDonald, Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) Micheál Martin and the Irish ambassador to the UAE.

She also thanked human rights advocate and lawyer Radha Stirling from Detained in Dubai, who assisted her case.

• 28 June – After allegedly being assaulted, Ms Towey is charged with attempting suicide
• 9 July – Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald raises her situation in the Dáil and says her passport has been destroyed and she has been banned from travelling
• Taoiseach Simon Harris says the Irish government will do what it can to help Ms Towey
• 10 July – Mr Harris says he has spoken to Ms Towey and that she is increasingly positive about the situation
• The taoiseach later confirms the travel ban has been lifted and she is preparing to travel to the airport and home to Ireland
• The Dubai Public Prosecution confirms the case against Ms Towey has been dropped
• 11 July – Ms Towey and her mother return to their home in the Republic of Ireland

In 2007, a young Lionel Messi posed for photos with a baby in the dressing room of the Camp Nou in Barcelona for a charity calendar photoshoot.

Messi, who was 20, was already making a name for himself and would go on to become arguably the greatest of all time.

But little did the photographer know that the baby would also make waves in international football less than 17 years later.

Messi was bathing Lamine Yamal – the 16-year-old who is taking the European Championships by storm.

His goal against France in the semi-final on Tuesday is one that will be talked about for decades.

At 16 years and 362 days, the strike also made him the youngest man to score in the tournament’s history.

The long-forgotten photo of Messi and Yamal resurfaced after Yamal’s father posted it on Instagram last week with the text: “The beginning of two legends.”

The photos were taken by Joan Monfort, who works as a freelance photographer for the Associated Press.

The shoot came about after Unicef did a raffle in the town of Mataró where Lamine’s family lived, he said.

“They signed up for the raffle to have their picture taken at the Camp Nou with a Barça player. And they won the raffle,” Mr Monfort told the Associated Press.

The assignment wasn’t a straightforward one, the photographer said.

“Messi is a pretty introverted guy, he’s shy,” he said.

“He was coming out of the locker room and suddenly he finds himself in another locker room with a plastic tub full of water and a baby in it. It was complicated. He didn’t even know how to hold him at first.”

Like Messi, Yamal went on to play for Barcelona, where he became the club’s youngest ever starter and goalscorer, as well as the youngest scorer in the Spanish league.

Mr Monfort said it was only when the photo started going viral online last week that he realised that the baby was Yamal.

“It’s very exciting to be associated with something that has caused such a sensation,” he said.

“To tell you the truth it’s a very nice feeling.”

Facing an alarming rise in bear attacks, Japan wants to make it easier to shoot the animals in residential areas – but hunters say it is too risky.

In the year to April, there were a record 219 bear attacks in the country – six of them fatal, according to official data.

Deadly attacks have continued to occur in recent months, as bears increasingly venture into populated areas. Some are now even thought to see humans as prey.

Bear numbers have revived as Japan’s human population ages and shrinks, especially outside cities. The consequences have been dangerous, although usually resulting in injury not death.

Under the current law, licensed hunters can fire their guns only after the approval of a police officer.

The government plans to revise the law at its next parliamentary session so the weapons can be used more freely. For instance, hunters will be allowed to shoot if there is a risk of human injury, such as when a bear enters a building.

But hunters are wary. “It is scary and quite dangerous to encounter a bear. It is never guaranteed that we can kill a bear by shooting,” said Satoshi Saito, executive director of the Hokkaido Hunters’ Association.

“If we miss the vital point to stop the bear from moving… it will run away and may attack other people,” he added. “If it then attacks a person, who will be responsible for that?”

Hokkaido has come to exemplify Japan’s growing bear problem.

The country’s northernmost major island is sparsely populated – but its bear population has more than doubled since 1990, according to government data. It now has around 12,000 brown bears, which are known to be more aggressive than black bears, of which there are around 10,000 in Japan by experts’ estimates.

Local governments have tried different strategies to keep bears away.

Some have turned to odd guardians – robot wolves, complete with red eyes and spooky howls, while elsewhere in the country they are testing an artificial intelligence warning system.

The town of Naie in Hokkaido has been trying to hire hunters for 10,300 yen ($64; £50) a day to patrol the streets, lay traps and kill the animals if necessary.

But there are few takers – it’s a high-risk job, the pay is not attractive enough and many of the hunters are elderly.

“It is not worth the trouble because confronting a bear will put our lives on the line,” a 72-year-old hunter from the area told The Asahi Shimbun newspaper, likening an encounter with a brown bear to “fighting a US military commando”.

In May, two police officers in northern Akita prefecture were seriously injured by a bear while trying to retrieve a body from the woods after a suspected fatal bear attack.

“The bears know humans are present and attack people for their food, or recognise people themselves as food,” local government official Mami Kondo said.

“There is a high risk that the same bear will cause a series of incidents.”

As bear numbers have grown, more of them have moved from the mountains into flatlands closer to human populations. Over time, they have become used to the sights and sounds of humans, and less afraid of them.

There are also fewer humans around as young people move to big cities, leaving whole towns nearly empty. When bears do encounter humans, it can turn violent.

“Bears that enter urban areas tend to panic, increasing the risk of injury or death to people,” said Junpei Tanaka from the Picchio Wildlife Research Center in Japan.

Bear sightings and incidents usually happen around April when they awake from hibernation in search of food, and then again in September and October when they eat to store fat for the winter months.

But their movements have become more unpredictable as yields of acorn – the biggest food source for bears – fall because of climate change.

“This amendment to the law is unavoidable, but it is only a stopgap measure in an emergency,” Mr Tanaka said.

Capturing and killing the animals is not the way forward, he adds. Rather, the government needs to protect the bears’ habitat so they are not compelled to venture too far.

“In the long-term, it is necessary to implement national policy to change the forest environment, to create forests with high biodiversity.”

He added that the government also needs to clarify who should take responsibility for bears that wander into residential zones – local officials or hunters.

“Ideally, there should be fully trained shooters like government hunters who respond to emergencies, but at present there are no such jobs in Japan.”

Residential areas are a vastly different terrain for hunters, who are used to killing bears in unpopulated regions, Mr Saito said.

“If we don’t shoot, people will criticise us and say ‘Why didn’t you shoot when you have a shotgun?’ And if we shoot, I am sure people will be angry and say it might hit someone.

“I think it is unreasonable to ask hunters who are probably just ordinary salarymen to make such a decision.”

Nigerian graduate Olotu Olanrewaju is facing a choice between remaining in the country he loves and the possibility of a better life elsewhere.

He adores the culture, food, music and family mentality at home, especially how people look out for each other and share common goals.

But the 24-year-old electrical engineer feels he is being held back professionally.

“I’m looking for greener pastures and better opportunities, rather than getting stuck here in Nigeria,” he tells the BBC’s What in the World podcast, adding that he thinks his degree would be “more appreciated” abroad.

There is also the feeling that the lack of reliable basic infrastructure – causing things like power cuts – as well as security concerns, corruption and poor governance, all create unnecessary barriers to getting on with life.

Mr Olanrewaju is one of tens of thousands of young, disenchanted Nigerians contemplating the move to join many others overseas. It’s a trend known by the Yoruba word “japa” meaning “to escape”.

The BBC contacted several government officials for a response to what he and other young Nigerians told us but has not received a reply.

• LISTEN: What in the World japa episode
• The UK taxi driver still being paid as a Nigerian civil servant

The idea of emigrating from Nigeria is not new.

Since the 1980s, many middle-class Nigerians have sought economic opportunities abroad, but the scale and urgency now feels different and japa is becoming increasingly popular with Gen Z and millennials.

An African Polling Institute survey from 2022 found that 69% of Nigerians aged 18-35 would relocate given the opportunity – despite a slight fall from 2021. In 2019 the figure was just 39%.

On social media, young Nigerians have taken to posting about their japa experiences.

While some describe how they miss home, others show off the appeal of relocating, and encourage their peers to do the same.

But leaving is a pricey venture.

The rising cost of living, and the depreciation of the currency, the naira, has made an expensive process even harder – but also pushed more people to try to leave.

It is far easier for professionals and university graduates who have the skills and qualifications needed to secure well-paying jobs and visas in the West, as well as the finances to start a new life in a country where the cost of living is far higher than at home.

As well as those seeking legal routes, many Nigerians try to move abroad without visas, by crossing the Sahara Desert or the Mediterranean Sea. Thousands of people die each year on the journey and those who make it often struggle to find work or somewhere decent to live.

For years, Mr Olanrewaju and his parents have been saving up. He hopes to move to Germany or Spain and has signed up to German classes to improve his chances.

He is not the first in his family to tread this path.

Two years ago, his brother Daniel, now 27, managed to swap Nigeria’s sticky heat for the cooler shores of the Scottish city of Aberdeen.

He works there as a photographer and social worker, and although he finds it a bit expensive, he tells his brother about the benefits of Scotland’s infrastructure – including the fact that people can rely on the electricity, water and transport systems working.

Social worker Oluwatobi Abodunrin, 29, moved to London last year and also feels positive about her move. She says Nigeria is filled with “passionate, active youths” who want something more from their careers.

“I decided to leave Nigeria because I wasn’t getting what I want,” she says.

“We are highly talented, we want to be recognised, we want our voice to be heard and we want to be respected.”

She also acknowledges the difficulty of leaving friends and family behind.

“It was a tough decision to leave home. To leave people who are sweet, kind, generous and passionate. But I’m happy I made the decision and it’s going well.”

There are more than 270,000 Nigerians like Ms Abodunrin living in the UK, according to government statistics.

It is one of the most popular destinations for japa, with the number of Nigerians granted UK work visas quadrupling since 2019 as a result of post-Brexit immigration rule changes.

However, the UK has responded to this increase by tightening the rules for those seeking work visas.

The US and Canada are also highly desirable.

Canada has seen a surge in migration, with the number of Nigerians seeking residency there tripling since 2015, a phenomenon known as the “Canada Rush”.

Back in Nigeria, zoology student Elizabeth Ademuyi Anuoluwapo recognises the difficulties in leaving, but feels it is the only way to get the financial stability she needs.

“I’d miss my people, my food, my friends, my family. The vibe here is very cosy,” she says. “Maybe I’d go for a few years and then come back.”

Japa has hit the medical profession especially hard.

The Nigerian Medical Association said, in 2022, at least 50 doctors were leaving the country every single week.

This has left an already overloaded healthcare system struggling.

The government has said it will train more people to fill these gaps and backed a new bill that would require medical graduates to work in Nigeria for a minimum of five years after completing their training. It was fiercely opposed by doctors’ unions.

A similar directive has also been issued for nurses, to get them to work in the country for at least two years before trying to leave.

Some like Dr Vongdip Nankpah, from the University of Abuja teaching hospital, think it is important to stay.

He believes that career goals are about more than an individual’s interest – they should involve the community and the value that a person can contribute to society.

“If I’m going to maximise my medical practice, I’d rather remain in Nigeria to see if we can better the country and the region,” he says.

“These are the things that are still driving my reasons for remaining in the country.”

But despite the emotional attachment, Mr Olanrewaju does not feel he owes anything to Nigeria and would not feel guilty for leaving.

“Most of my personal growth and gains, I worked for them myself,” he says.

Instead, he would see himself as a representative of Nigerians abroad, standing for those who might not have the same opportunities to move overseas.

For those who can afford it, japa is the ultimate choice.

It promises a future of adventure, ambition and wealth, but also risks breaking ties with the past.

Like many Nigerian students, Mr Olanrewaju is now measuring those benefits against the cost of what he is leaving behind.

• Nigeria cost-of-living crisis sparks exodus of doctors
• Nigerian star’s drowning forces Nollywood to look at safety
• Celebrating 50 years of marriage in Nigeria’s ‘divorce capital’

A politician in South Korea is being criticised for making dangerous and unsubstantiated comments after linking a rise in male suicides to the increasingly “dominant” role of women in society.

In a report, Seoul City councillor Kim Ki-duck argued women’s increased participation in the workforce over the years had made it harder for men to get jobs and to find women who wanted to marry them.

He said the country had recently “begun to change into a female-dominant society” and that this might “partly be responsible for an increase in male suicide attempts”.

South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates among the world’s rich countries but also has one of the worst records on gender equality.

Councillor Kim’s comments have been criticised as the latest in a series of out-of-touch remarks made by male politicians.

Councillor Kim, from the Democratic Party, arrived at his assessment when analysing data on the number of suicide attempts made at bridges along Seoul’s Han river.

The report, published on the city council’s official website, showed that the number of suicide attempts along the river had risen from 430 in 2018 to 1,035 in 2023, and of those trying to take their lives the proportion who were men had climbed from 67% to 77%.

Suicide prevention experts have expressed concern over Mr Kim’s report.

“It is dangerous and unwise to make claims like this without sufficient evidence,” Song In Han, a mental health professor at Seoul’s Yonsei University, told the BBC.

He pointed out that globally more men took their lives than women. In many countries, including the UK, suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50.

Even so, Prof Song said the reasons behind the sharp rise in men attempting suicide in Seoul needed to be scientifically studied, adding it was “very regrettable” that the councillor had made it about gender conflict.

In South Korea there is a substantial gulf between the number of men and women in full-time employment, with women disproportionately working temporary or part-time jobs. The gender pay gap is slowly narrowing, but still women are paid on average 29% less than men.

In recent years an anti-feminist movement has surged, led by disillusioned young men, who argue they have been disadvantaged by attempts to improve women’s lives.

Appearing to echo such views, Councillor Kim’s report concluded that the way to overcome “the female-domination phenomenon” was to improve people’s awareness of gender equality so that “men and women can enjoy equal opportunities”.

Koreans took to the social media platform X to denounce the councillor’s remarks as “unsubstantiated” and “misogynistic”, with one user questioning whether they were living in a parallel universe.

The Justice Party accused the councillor of “easily shifting the blame to women in Korean society who are struggling to escape gender discrimination”. It has called on him to retract his remarks and instead “properly analyse” the causes of the problem.

When approached for comment by the BBC, Councillor Kim said he had “not intended to be critical of the female-dominated society”, and was merely giving his personal view about some of its consequences.

However, his comments follow a number of unscientific and sometimes bizarre political proposals aimed at tackling some of South Korea’s most pressing social issues, including mental illness, gender violence and the lowest birth rate in the world.

Last month, another Seoul councillor in his 60s published a series of articles on the authority’s website encouraging young women to take up gymnastics and practise pelvic floor exercises in order to raise the birth rate.

At the same time, a government think tank recommended that girls start school earlier than boys, so that classmates would be more attracted to each other by the time they were ready to marry.

“Such comments encapsulate just how pervasive misogyny is in South Korea,” said Yuri Kim, director of the Korean Women’s Trade Union. She accused politicians and policymakers of not even trying to understand the challenges women faced, preferring to scapegoat them instead.

“Blaming women for entering the workforce will only prolong the imbalances in our society,” she told the BBC.

Currently women account for 20% of South Korea’s members of parliament, and 29% of all local councillors.

Seoul City Council told the BBC there was no process in place to vet what politicians published on its official website unless the content was illegal. It said individuals were solely responsible for their content and would face any consequences at the next election.

If you, or someone you know, have been affected by issues in this article, the following resources may help:

BBC Action Line

Befrienders Worldwide

A selection of the week’s best photos from across the African continent:

France’s former first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, has been charged over an election funding scandal dating back to 2007 involving cash from the then Libyan dictator, Col Muammar Gaddafi.

According to French media, Ms Bruni-Sarkozy, 56, was charged with hiding evidence and associating with wrongdoers to commit fraud.

She was placed under judicial control and barred from being in contact with all those accused except her husband, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Ms Bruni-Sarkozy is also suspected of concealment of witness tampering and involvement in an attempt to bribe Lebanese judicial personnel, among other violations.

Her lawyers told AFP that Ms Bruni-Sarkozy was determined to assert her rights and challenge the “unfounded decision”.

Mr Sarkozy, who was the president of France from 2007 to 2012, is due to go on trial next year over allegations he took money from Gaddafi to finance his successful election bid.

He is accused of corruption, illegal campaign financing, benefiting from embezzled public funds and membership in a criminal conspiracy. He has always denied all the charges.

The investigation into the allegations was opened in 2013, two years after Saif al-Islam, son of the then leader Gaddafi, first accused Mr Sarkozy of taking millions of his father’s money for campaign funding.

The following year, Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, who for a long time acted as a middleman between France and the Middle East, supported the claims.

He told judges he had written proof that Mr Sarkozy’s campaign bid was “abundantly” financed by Tripoli, and that the €50m (£43m) worth of payments continued after he became president.

Years later, Mr Takieddine told French media that in 2006-07 he had personally handed over suitcases stuffed with banknotes to Mr Sarkozy and his chief of staff, Claude Guéant, who later denied this.

But in 2020, Mr Takieddine suddenly retracted his statement about handing over large amounts of money.

This raised suspicions that Mr Sarkozy and his allies – including his wife – might have paid him to change his mind.

In June, Ms Bruni-Sarkozy was found to have deleted messages exchanged with a French businesswoman who was questioned by police over accusations of witness tampering.

Since losing his re-election bid to socialist François Hollande in 2012, Mr Sarkozy has been targeted by several criminal investigations.

In 2023, he was given a suspended prison sentence for trying to bribe a judge, and earlier this year, he was found guilty of illegally funding his 2012 re-election campaign.

He and Ms Bruni-Sarkozy, an Italian-born former supermodel and singer, married in 2008. They had a daughter, Giulia, in 2011.

BBC Weather Watchers in Scotland have been captivated by the sight of rainbows at sunset over the past few days.

For some parts they brought some much-needed colour to dreich summer days.

Rwanda has said it is not required to refund the UK after a multi-million pound migrant deal between the two countries was scrapped.

New UK Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Keir Starmer announced at the weekend that the plan to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda was “dead and buried”.

The scheme was forged by the previous Conservative government, which since revealing the plan in 2022 has paid Rwanda £240m ($310m).

Legal challenges meant the scheme never took off and the UK expressed hope on Monday that some money from the deal could be recouped.

The following day, a spokesperson for Rwanda’s government told the country’s state television: “Let this be clear, paying back the money was never part of the agreement.”

Alain Mukuralinda said the agreement “did not stipulate” money should be refunded and that the UK had approached Rwanda and requested a partnership, which was “discussed extensively”.

In January, after 21 months of the scheme being stalled, Rwandan President Paul Kagame suggested some money could be returned if no asylum seekers were sent to the country.

But Rwanda’s government later specified there was “no obligation” to refund the UK.

In Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, workers hired months ago to build housing for the asylum seekers expressed concern about Mr Starmer’s decision.

The scheme’s death could “badly affect our lives”, a worker at the Gahanga site told the BBC.

Employees on the site get paid between £1.80 and £6 per day – relatively good wages for construction workers in Rwanda.

Resident Mariya Nyirahabimana said the value of houses in her neighbourhood had increased significantly since construction started, but she feared that “poverty could come back” to Gahanga.

Since his party won last week’s election in a landslide, Mr Starmer has labelled the Rwanda scheme an expensive “gimmick” and pledged to instead focus on launching a new Border Security Command to tackle people-smuggling gangs.

Opposition to the bill has also came from other quarters over the past two years – the UK’s Supreme Court ruled the plan unlawful, human rights organisations branded it cruel and draconian, while dissenters within the Conservative Party pushed for amendments that would better protect the scheme from legal challenges.

The previous government said the scheme was aimed at deterring people from crossing the English Channel in small boats.

Illegal migration is one of the major challenges facing the UK government.

So far this year, more than 13,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats.

The figure is higher than numbers for the same period last year, although in 2023 as a whole there was a drop compared to 2022.

Denmark had been mulling a similar deal with Rwanda, but it put the discussions on hold in January last year.

It said it wanted a more unified approach within Europe to tackle illegal migration.

• What was the UK’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda?
• UK asylum deal: Is Rwanda a land of safety or fear?
• What happened when Israel sent its refugees to Rwanda
• Refugees sent to Rwanda from remote UK island speak to BBC

Joe Biden took to the stage at his Thursday night press conference with everything on the line – his presidency, his re-election hopes, his political life.

If those were the stakes, he barely acknowledged them. He dismissed the concerns about his campaign that were posed again and again for a full hour by a room full of reporters, and promised that he was fighting not for his legacy, but to finish the job he started when he took office in 2021.

“If I slow down and can’t get the job done, that’s a sign I shouldn’t be doing it,” he said. “But there’s no indication of that yet.”

Depending on perspective, it was either a sign of dogged determination or of a man in denial about how dire his situation has become.

Minutes after the news conference finished, several more Democratic members of Congress publicly called on Mr Biden to step down, joining at least a dozen other lawmakers in the president’s own party who have done so.

The question for Joe Biden’s campaign is whether the floodgates will now open, or if the tide will hold.

The situation will not be helped by two excruciating gaffes that will be remembered by anyone who watched.

In his very first answer, he called his own Vice-President Kamala Harris “Vice-President Trump” – a painful faceplant in front of a national television audience.

That came just an hour after another headline-grabbing mistake at a Nato event, when Mr Biden introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin”, prompting loud gasps in the audience.

He corrected the first verbal misstep involving Ukraine’s leader quickly. The second one he didn’t catch, even as some reporters in the room murmured in surprise and several of his top Cabinet secretaries sat stone-faced in the front row of the audience.

Those moments – the only major stumbles in an otherwise steady if not vigorous, appearance – will surely prompt nervous Democrats to wonder if there are more gaffes to come if the president presses ahead with his campaign.

But for now at least, Mr Biden seemed the happy warrior, insisting he will push on. He laughed and smiled as he was peppered with questions, and said he could keep up with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping, even if the hoarseness and cough that had been on display during his debate two weeks ago still appeared to linger.

He again insisted he didn’t need cognitive tests, telling reporters that if he even saw “two doctors or seven”, his critics wouldn’t be satisfied.

The election campaign, he said, had barely started, and he again repeated that he was confident he could beat Donald Trump in November’s election.

The Democratic delegates who will back him officially as the party’s nominee at next month’s convention were free to change their minds as they pleased, he said, before mock whispering: “It’s not going to happen.”

He said he would consider stepping aside if his staff gave him data that he couldn’t win, but that polls still show the race a dead heat.

In that regard, he is on firm ground. An Ipsos survey released earlier on Thursday, for instance, had Mr Biden only one point behind his opponent – well within the margin of error. If there’s one thing that has been clear since the start of the year, support for the two candidates has remained remarkably stable despite unprecedented drama surrounding both men.

Polling alone won’t calm the panic that has set in among many Democratic officials, however, and the storm clouds that linger around Biden’s campaign won’t be so easily dispelled.

More Democratic politicians are waiting in the wings, according to reports, poised to announce their own break with the president, having waited until the conclusion of this Nato summit to voice their concerns.

And that’s just the first round of tests for the embattled president. He has another high-profile sit-down interview, with NBC’s Lester Holt, on Monday. Donors are anxious, and earlier on Thursday several reports suggested that even figures in the president’s own campaign were plotting ways to usher their candidate toward the exit.

Despite all of this, Mr Biden made clear that it will be a challenging task to pry the nomination away from him. The 81-year-old man who at times gripped the lectern with two hands and insisted he was the “best-qualified person” to run the country is not going to exit the stage quietly.

• POLICIES: Where Biden and Trump stand on key issues
• GLOBAL: What Moscow and Beijing think of rematch
• ANALYSIS: Could US economy be doing too well?
• EXPLAINER: RFK Jr and others running for president
• VOTERS: US workers in debt to buy groceries

An Australian soldier and her husband have been arrested and each charged with spying for Russia.

Investigators say the couple – both Russian-born Australian citizens – obtained Australian Defence Force (ADF) material to share with Moscow.

However, Australian police say “no significant compromise” of military secrets has been identified.

It is the first time stricter foreign interference laws – introduced by Australia in 2018 – have been used to lay espionage charges.

Kira Korolev, a 40-year-old army private, and her 62-year-old husband Igor Korolev faced court in Brisbane on Friday, each on one count of preparing for an espionage offence – which carries a maximum 15-year jail sentence.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had been “briefed extensively” by the nation’s security agencies but would not comment on the case directly as it is now before the courts.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Reece Kershaw said the couple had been in Australia for more than a decade before the alleged offending and had both become citizens several years ago.

Igor worked as a self-employed labourer, and Kira was an information systems technician in the army, a role for which she had obtained a security clearance, police say.

Mr Kershaw alleged she secretly travelled to Russia while on leave from the ADF, then instructed Igor to access her work account and send sensitive material so that she could forward it on to Russian authorities.

An investigation in to whether any of the material was ever delivered to them is still underway, Mr Kershaw said, adding that the charges could be upgraded.

Both Mr Kershaw and Australia’s spy agency boss Mike Burgess – who addressed media together on Friday – declined to answer questions about the nature of the documents or how authorities were tipped off about the alleged crimes.

But Mr Burgess said that the ongoing threat of espionage is “real”.

“Multiple countries are seeking to steal Australia’s secrets. We cannot be naive, and we cannot be complacent.”

“If you are spying in this country, we are looking for you. If you are being spied on in this country, we are looking out for you,” he added.

Mr Kershaw stressed that Australia’s allies could be “confident” that the country would “continue to identify and disrupt espionage and foreign interference activity”.

In a statement, the ADF said it was aware one of its members had been arrested and that it “takes all breaches of security seriously”.

After months of lavish celebrations spread across the world, the wedding ceremony of the son of Asia’s richest man is set to take place on Friday.

Anant Ambani, son of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, will tie the knot with Radhika Merchant, daughter of pharma tycoons Viren and Shaila Merchant.

The four-day wedding extravaganza in Mumbai city is the final stop in a string of lavish parties the family has hosted since March.

The events, which have already featured performances by popstars like Rihanna and Justin Bieber, have captured the world’s attention.

But it has also led to backlash – city dwellers have complained of traffic snarls, while others have questioned the ostentatious display of wealth at the seemingly never-ending celebrations.

• The marathon Indian wedding turning heads around the world

Mukesh Ambani, 66, is at present the world’s 10th richest man with a net worth of $115bn, according to Forbes. Reliance Industries, founded by his father in 1966, is a massive conglomerate that operates in sectors ranging from petroleum and retail, to financial services and telecoms.

Anant Ambani is the youngest of his three children, all of whom are on the board of Reliance Industries. The 29-year-old is involved in Reliance’s energy businesses and is on the board of Reliance Foundation.

On Friday, the couple will get married in a traditional Hindu ceremony at the Jio World Convention Centre.

Reports say the family will host a grand reception through the weekend, before a final reception for their household staff on Monday.

Rumours on the internet suggest that Adele could be performing at the wedding, but the family has not confirmed this.

Mumbai police have labelled the wedding a “public event” since it would be attended by several international and Indian VIPs, reports Reuters news agency.

The city police has also imposed traffic restrictions around the venue.

From Friday to Monday, roads around the convention centre will be open only for “event vehicles” between 13:00 India time (07:30 GMT) to midnight, it said.

Rajan Mehra, CEO of air charter company Club One Air, told Reuters that the family had rented three Falcon-2000 jets to ferry wedding guests to the event.

“The guests are coming from all over and each aircraft will make multiple trips across the country,” he said.

The restrictions have sparked anger among the city residents who say they are already struggling with traffic jams and monsoon flooding.

The wedding festivities began in March when the family held a three-day pre-wedding party in their home state of Gujarat.

Among the 1,200 guests to attend the celebration were international celebrities, politicians, and members of the business world – including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft’s Bill Gates.

• World’s rich in India for tycoon son’s pre-wedding gala

The party started with a performance by Rihanna on the first night. Diljit Dosanjh, the first Punjabi singer to perform at Coachella, took the stage on the second night, while rapper Akon closed the show on the final day of celebrations.

In June, the Ambanis organised another pre-wedding celebration, this time, a luxury cruise from Italy to France. The Backstreet Boys, Katy Perry and Pitbull performed for the 800 guests, which included Bollywood stars and cricketers.

Then came the final round of celebrations, which began earlier this week when Bieber landed in Mumbai.

Social media has been flooded with photos and videos of him singing in front of an ecstatic audience.

Money was also lavished on constructing 14 temples inside a sprawling complex in Jamnagar to showcase India’s cultural heritage and provide a backdrop for the wedding. As part of the celebrations, the Ambanis hosted a mass wedding for 50 underprivileged couples too.

On Wednesday, the family hosted a bhandara – a community feast for underprivileged people.

The Ambanis have not revealed how much this wedding is costing them but wedding planners estimate they’ve already spent anywhere between 11bn and 13bn rupees [$132m-$156m]. It was rumoured Rihanna had been paid $7m (£5.5m) for her performance, while the figure suggested for Bieber is $10m.

Every day, for the last seven years, Arun Kumar has set up his fruit stall on a busy Mumbai street.

It’s not an easy way to make a living.

“Being a street vendor is a challenge. There’s the fear of being robbed or, as I am not a licensed vendor, the local body can come and dismantle my store anytime,” he says.

But over the past four years at least one aspect of his work has become easier.

“Prior to Covid everything was in cash. But now everyone pays with UPI. Scan the code and the payment is done within seconds.

“No issues of handling cash, giving change to customers. It has made my life and business smooth,” he says.

UPI, or to give it its full name the Unified Payments Interface, was launched in 2016 in a collaboration between India’s central bank and the nation’s banking industry.

It’s an app-based instant payment system, which allows users to send and receive money, pay bills and authorise payments in a single step – no need to enter bank details or any other personal information. And, perhaps most importantly, it’s free.

It has become so popular that India is now the biggest real-time payments market.

In May, UPI recorded 14 billion transactions, up from nine billion the year before.

But the popularity and ease of use has made it a rich feeding ground for scammers.

“While digital payments are convenient, they do come with vulnerabilities,” says Shashank Shekhar, founder of the Delhi-based Future Crime Research Foundation.

Mr Shekhar says that scammers use a variety of ways to trick people, including persuading them to share their UPI pin number, which is needed to authorise payments.

Some scammers have also created fake UPI apps, that are clones of legitimate banking apps, and then steal login details or other valuable information.

“The pace at which digital transformation took place in the country means unfortunately digital literacy and safe internet practice could not catch up,” says Mr Shekhar.

He says that between January 2020 and June 2023 almost half of all financial fraud involved the use of the UPI system.

According to government figures there were more than 95,000 cases of fraud involving UPI in the financial year ending April 2023, up from 77,000 in the previous year.

Shivkali was one such victim. She had always wanted to own a scooter, but they were beyond her budget.

However, earlier in the year the 22-year-old, who lives in Bihar state in northeastern India, spotted one for sale on Facebook that looked like a great deal.

“I grabbed the opportunity without thinking,” she says.

A couple of clicks later and she was talking to the owner, who said that for $23 he would send over the vehicle papers.

That went smoothly, so Shivkali continued to send the owner money, via instant transfers. She eventually ended up paying $200, but the scooter (also commonly called a Scooty in India), was never delivered.

Shivkali realised she had been scammed.

“I did not think I could be cheated, as I have some education background and know what is happing in the world. But scammers are smart. They have an art of speaking to convince the opposite person,” she says.

The government and the central bank are looking at ways to protect UPI users from scammers.

But at the moment, if a victim wants compensation, they have to approach their bank.

“The problem is deep rooted,” says Dr Durgesh Pandey, an expert in financial crime.

“Most of the onus lies with banks and telecom companies. They are lax in making identity checks, that’s why the fraudster can’t be traced.

“But the challenge for banks particularly is that they have to balance between inclusivity, ease of business and enforcement of identity checks. If they are too rigid, the vulnerable section of society will remain without banking facilities.”

But Dr Pandey argues that in most cases of fraud, the bank is not totally to blame.

“It’s a complex question because the problem lies with banks, but it’s the victim who is giving his credentials in most case. I would say both victim and bank should bear the loss.”

Despite those problems, UPI is being promoted in rural areas where access to banking services can be difficult.

Poonam Untwal from Rajasthan runs a guidance centre which helps people use the internet and digital banking.

“Most of us are not that educated, nor know the proper use of smartphones. I teach them that phones are no longer a device just to talk to people but banks at their fingertips,” she says.

She believes that UPI will help develop the local economy.

“Many women like me have a small business that we run from our home. Now we can receive and send money with UPI. People who don’t have smart phones come to my centre to get their transactions done,” she says.

As well as making inroads into rural areas, UPI is spreading overseas.

Retailers in Bhutan, Mauritius, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka and UAE will take UPI payments.

And this year, France become the first European country to accept UPI payments, starting with tickets to the Eiffel Tower.

Back in Mumbai, Mr Kumar is happy that he no longer has to use cash, but remains wary.

If he can’t get a good internet connection then customers can, by accident or design, make off without paying.

“For a small vendor like me it [UPI] made receiving money very easy. But I am always scared of fraud. I keep hearing in the news how the UPI frauds are increasing. Hopefully some mechanisms are invented so a small vendor like me doesn’t face losses.”

A pod of 77 pilot whales has died after washing ashore on a beach in Orkney in what could be the biggest mass stranding for decades.

The British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) had established 12 of the animals at Tresness Beach on the island of Sanday were still alive when they came out of the water.

However the decision was taken to euthanise them after refloating efforts failed.

The pod included male whales up to seven metres (22ft) long as well as females, calves and juveniles.

Experts say it is too early to know what has caused the stranding, but it is likely one of the whales got into trouble and the rest of the pod tried to help.

Members of the public are being asked to stay away from the area while post mortem examinations are carried out.

It is thought to be the largest stranding event in Scotland since at least 1995, when the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) was founded – though strandings of a similar scale have been seen in recent years.

Last year an entire pod of 55 pilot whales died following a stranding on Lewis.

Only 15 of the whales were alive when they were washed ashore. One was successfully re-floated while the rest had to be euthanised.

Between 60-70 of the animals came into shallow waters in Sutherland in 2011.

According to the Natural History Museum, the largest UK stranding took place in 1927 when 126 out of more than 130 false killer whales died in the Dornoch Firth in the Highlands.

Experts from the BDMLR, the Scottish SPCA and marine vets from the Scottish mainland travelled to Sanday to assess whether any of the whales could be saved.

The area was cut off by the high tide and the sand on the beach where they were stranded proved too soft to allow the mammals to be righted.

The whales needed to be moved back into an upright position as quickly as possible if there is to be any chance of saving them.

But the soft sand meant the whales fell back over when the rescuers attempted to right them.

Emma Neave-Webb from the BDMLR said early on that while these experiences are difficult, the thinking had to be “realistic”.

BDMLR medics were brought in from mainland Orkney and Inverness to help with the rescue attempt, but Ms Neave-Webb said it appeared the whales had been stranded for “quite some time”.

She described the scene as “really quite horrible” and “hugely emotional”.

Rescuers attempted to keep the whales alive by pouring sea water over them, but the decision was later taken to euthanise them.

A spokesperson for Orkney Islands Council said discussions were taking place with community representatives on how best to dispose of the bodies.

They said: “In previous circumstances where whales have beached on our shores and subsequently died, the approach from our Environmental Health team around disposing of the body has been to allow nature to take its course – with the public advised to stay away from the area.

“Our assessment in this case, given the scale and the likely public health implications, is that more definite action will need to be taken, for example burying them where they are or removing the bodies to a large grave site elsewhere.”

Andrew Brownlow of the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme said mass strandings of this scale are becoming more common in Scotland.

He told BBC News: “It used to be quite unusual to have a mass stranding event, certainly of this size.

“But over the last ten years or so we have seen an increase both in the number of mass stranding events around Scotland and also the size of the mass and the number of animals that it involves.

“So that is slightly concerning and that might be because there are just more animals out there, or it could be that there are more hazards that these animals are exposed to.”

Long-range US missiles are to be deployed periodically in Germany from 2026 for the first time since the Cold War, in a decision announced at Nato’s 75th anniversary summit.

The Tomahawk cruise, SM-6 and hypersonic missiles have a significantly longer range than existing missiles, the US and Germany said in a joint statement.

Such missiles would have been banned under a 1988 treaty between the US and former Soviet Union, but the pact fell apart five years ago.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow would react with a “military reponse to the new threat”.

“This is just a link in the chain of a course of escalation,” he argued, accusing Nato and the US of trying to intimidate Russia.

The joint US-German statement made clear the “episodic” deployment of the missiles was initially seen as temporary but would later become permanent, as part of a US commitment to Nato and Europe’s “integrated deterrence”.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, who was speaking at the Nato summit in Washington, said the idea behind the US plan was to encourage Germany and other European countries to put their own investment into developing and procuring longer-range missiles.

The temporary deployment of US weapons would give Nato allies the time to prepare, he explained: “We are talking here about an increasingly serious gap in capability in Europe.”

Mr Pistorius joined colleagues from France, Italy and Poland on Thursday in signing a letter of intent aimed at developing long-range missiles in Europe. The European Long-Range Strike Approach (Elsa) was intended to improve European missile capability, which was “sorely needed to deter and defend our continent”, Italian news agency Ansa reported.

Such missiles were banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF), which was signed at the end of the Cold War and covered ground-launched missiles that could travel between 500-5,500 km (310-3,400 miles).

Russia’s Vladimir Putin felt it was too restrictive and in 2014 the US accused him of violating the pact with a new type of nuclear-capable cruise missile.

The US finally pulled out of the treaty in 2019, and Russia followed suit.

Politicians from Germany’s Greens were critical of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s agreement to allow US missiles on German soil.

The Greens are part of Mr Scholz’s ruling coalition, and their spokeswoman on security Sara Nanni made clear their frustration that he had made no comment about the decision.

“It can even heighten fears and leaves room for disinformation and incitement,” she told the Rheinische Post newspaper.

A slew of Democratic lawmakers are calling on President Joe Biden to end his re-election campaign after his botched debate against Republican challenger Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, Peter Welch of Vermont became the first Democratic senator to call for the president to end his campaign.

Hollywood actor George Clooney, a major party donor, also joined the growing chorus.

A series of opinion polls since the debate suggest Trump may be edging ahead in key states.

President Biden has continued to insist he’s staying in the race. But recent events have raised questions about how he could be replaced – and who would replace him.

Various scenarios could play out over the coming days and weeks, but there’s two main ways Mr Biden’s campaign could end: he could pull out willingly, or be forced to step aside by his own party.

The first option is more straightforward.

Mr Biden has won the support nearly all of the Democratic delegates who will vote at the party’s convention in Chicago in August. If he steps down, they would be released to vote for another candidate. Whoever is able to win a majority of delegates at the convention would be the new nominee.

The second option would be much messier.

Democrats could change the rules and turn the convention into a free-for-all against the president’s wishes.

If President Biden did voluntarily suspend his campaign, he might at the same time throw his support behind a possible successor.

Who would be the leading contenders?

Vice-President Kamala Harris, who is already on the ticket, is an obvious and increasingly popular choice within the party to replace Mr Biden.

As his deputy, she has become the face of the administration’s campaign to protect reproductive rights after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade.

Ms Harris has proved to be a loyal ally to the president and fiercely defended his debate performance. After the event, she admitted the president had a “slow start” but argued he went on to provide more substantive answers than Trump.

Days after the debate, as concern grew about the president’s ability to stay atop the ticket, Ms Harris reiterated her support for Mr Biden.

“Look, Joe Biden is our nominee. We beat Trump once and we’re going to beat him again, period,” she said Tuesday.

“I am proud to be Joe Biden’s running mate.”

Ms Harris has the strong name recognition that comes from the job of vice- president, but has struggled with low approval ratings throughout her tenure.

Fifty-one percent of Americans disapprove of Ms Harris, while 37% approve, according to polling averages tracked by FiveThirtyEight.

Gretchen Whitmer, the two-term governor of Michigan, is an increasingly popular Midwest Democrat who many pundits speculate will run for president in 2028.

She has campaigned for Mr Biden in the past and has not been shy about her political aspirations.

She told the New York Times she wants to see a Generation X president in 2028, but stopped short of suggesting that she might fill that role.

In 2022, she led a campaign that left Michigan Democrats in control of the state’s legislature and the governor’s mansion.

That political control allowed her to enact a number of progressive policies including protecting Michigan abortion access and the passage of gun safety measures.

California Governor Gavin Newsom is one of the Biden administration’s fiercest surrogates. He frequently appears on cable news networks praising Mr Biden.

But Mr Newsom has political ambitions of his own.

He is often listed as a possible 2028 candidate, but many Democratic pundits now say he could be a stand-in for Mr Biden.

Mr Newsom raised his national profile in recent years by being a key party messenger on conservative media, and via a debate against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis last year.

He was a top surrogate at Mr Biden’s disastrous debate in Atlanta in June, and dodged several questions in the spin room about whether he would replace Mr Biden.

For now, he is publicly standing by the president. He travelled to Washington to attend a Wednesday meeting with Mr Biden and other top Democratic governors, and headlined a Biden campaign event in Michigan on the 4th of July holiday.

It is no secret that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has presidential aspirations.

He ran for president in 2020 and is often touted as one of the Biden administration’s best communicators.

Mr Buttigieg has managed a number of public crises during his time as transportation secretary.

He helped to oversee the government response to the East Palestine train derailment in Ohio, the Baltimore Bridge collapse and Southwest Airlines’ scheduling crisis in 2022.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has seen high approval ratings since he was elected in 2022 in a swing state Mr Trump narrowly carried in 2016.

The governor, who previously served as the state’s attorney general, has worked across party lines during his tenure.

He made national headlines last year after quickly rebuilding a collapsed bridge on a crucial Philadelphia highway – a major political victory for a first-term governor.

The speedy repair was hailed by many as the perfect infrastructure talking point for a potential 2028 presidential candidate.

JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, has raised his profile in recent years by going after Trump and defending Mr Biden.

The billionaire businessman – heir to the Hyatt hotel chain – is quick to post criticism of Trump on social media.

After the debate he called Trump a “liar” and said he is a “34-count convicted felon who cares only about himself”.

Like Ms Whitmer, Mr Pritzker has a track record of completing agenda items on progressive Democrats’ to-do lists on issues like abortion rights and gun control.

The list of potential nominees stretches beyond these Democrats, as the party has developed a deep bench of possible future presidential candidates.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a two-term Democratic governor in a very conservative state, has earned growing national attention since his re-election last year.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore found himself in the spotlight in recent months following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.

Senators Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker have run for president in the past and have some name recognition among Democrats.

Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock, who won a closely contested Senate race in a swing state, also has been mentioned as a potential replacement for Mr Biden.

A Reuters IPSOS poll released Tuesday found the only person who could beat Trump in November was Michelle Obama. But the former first lady has repeatedly said she does not have presidential aspirations.

Tearful cheers erupted in a packed Canadian courtroom on Thursday as a judge found a serial killer guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of four indigenous women.

But in the court gallery, Jeremy Contois’ reaction was reserved.

His younger sister, Rebecca, was one of the women killed in the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba two years ago.

“I feel a little sense of relief,” Mr Contois said, but will not get full closure until the killer, Jeremy Skibicki, is formally sentenced.

In his oral verdict, Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal dismissed the argument by the defence at trial that the accused was not criminally responsible for the murders.

Lawyers for Skibicki, 37, said he was suffering from schizophrenia at the time of the killings.

Prosecutors argued that Skibicki deliberately killed Ms Contois and three other women in 2022 in crimes that were calculated and racially motivated.

The murders and the subsequent weeks-long trial sent shockwaves through Canada’s indigenous community, which has long grappled with cases of violence against their women.

Wearing a grey T-shirt and pants, Skibicki did not react as Judge Joyal read aloud the summary of his judgment.

One of Ms Contois’ family members held up a large photo of Rebecca in his direction as he left the courtroom.

“Why did I lift up her photo? Because we, as First Nations people, are not statistics,” Krista Fox said afterwards.

“Every single one of us has a name, and a family that misses us dearly.”

Skibicki’s victims are Morgan Harris, 39, Marcedes Myran, 26 and Ms Contois, who was 24. The fourth woman has yet to be identified, and has been given the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, meaning Buffalo Woman, by indigenous elders.

Throughout the trial, a buffalo head sat on a red cloth on a table near the prosecutors in tribute to the still unidentified victim.

In his verdict, Judge Joyal said the accused failed to demonstrate he was not criminally responsible for the murders, dismissing the testimony of a British psychiatrist, Dr Sohom Das, who said Skibicki was motivated by delusions when he committed the murders.

The judge added that the “mercilessly graphic” facts of the case “are largely uncontested”, given that the accused had admitted to the murders in police interviews and in court prior to the trial.

Skibicki had pleaded not guilty due to a mental disorder.

The 100-person courtroom was packed full with the four women’s families and friends for the verdict.

Judge Joyal said the case has had an “undeniable and profound impact on the entire Manitoba community, indigenous and non-indigenous”.

With Skibicki facing life behind bars, the focus is now shifting to finding the remains of two of his victims, Ms Myran and Ms Harris, which are believed to be in a Winnipeg landfill.

A formal search has been set for this autumn, after months of pressure from their families.

According to court documents, Skibicki killed the women between March and May of 2022, with Ms Contois believed to be the final victim.

He met at least two at local homeless shelters in Winnipeg, a city of 820,000 in the prairie province.

Judge Joyal agreed with prosecutors that he deliberately targeted and exploited “vulnerable” women.

Over the course of the trial, the court heard that Skibicki had assaulted the women, strangled or drowned them and then committed sex acts on them before dismembering their bodies and disposing of them in garbage bins.

The killings went undetected for months, until a man looking for scrap metal in a bin outside Skibicki’s apartment found partial human remains in May 2022 and called police.

“She’s obviously been murdered,” the man said in the 911 call, which was played in court.

Police were able to identify the remains as those of Ms Contois.

More of her remains were discovered at a city-run landfill the following month.

In police interviews shortly after his arrest, Skibicki surprised officers by admitting to killing Ms Contois as well as three others.

At that point, police had no knowledge of the other deaths.

Speaking outside court, Ms Fox said she believes that it was only because Ms Contois’ remains were found that the other families were able to get justice.

Skibicki’s lawyers tried to argue that he was not aware of the severity of his actions due to delusions driven by schizophrenia. They argued he was hearing voices that told him to commit the crimes as part of a mission from god.

Prosecutors argued that Skibicki was fully aware of his actions, saying they were “intentional, purposeful and racially motivated”.

They demonstrated this through a mix of DNA forensic evidence, surveillance footage showing Skibicki with the women in their final days, as well as testimony from his ex-wife, who detailed a history of physical abuse.

Had Skibicki been found not criminally responsible for the four murders, it would have been a relative rarity in Canadian law.

According to data from Canada’s statistics agency and reported by the Globe and Mail newspaper, between 2000 and 2022, of 8,883,749 criminal cases prosecuted across the country, only 5,178 – or 0.06% – had such verdicts.

The case unearthed deep wounds for Canada’s indigenous community, which has long grappled with a high number of cases of their women going missing or being murdered.

According to an investigation by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, Winnipeg – a city near numerous indigenous communities – had the highest number of missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada between 2018 and 2022.

Across Canada, indigenous women are 12 times more likely to be murdered or go missing than other women, according to a 2019 inquiry.

Some indigenous women in the city remain missing, sparking fears from family members that Skibicki had more victims.

The Crown, however, said they do not believe he murdered more women.

Even with the relief of a guilty verdict, Mr Contois, Rebecca’s brother, said he still wonders why his sister – who is also a mother to a young daughter – was so brutally murdered.

“Why did he have to do it?” he said. “I wish I knew that.”

Narcissistic people get more empathetic, generous and agreeable with age, according to new research into the personality trait.

But although their unreasonably high sense of self-importance may mellow, they do not fully grow out of it, the study involving more than 37,000 people suggests.

Those who were more narcissistic than their peers as children tended to remain that way as adults, investigators found.

And there are at least three types of narcissistic behaviour to look for, they say.

Narcissist has become an insult often hurled at people who are perceived as difficult or diagreeable.

We all may show some narcissistic traits at times.

Doctors use the term to describe a specific, diagnosable type of personality disorder.

Although definitions can vary, common themes shared by those who have it is an unshakeable belief they are better or more deserving than other people, which might be described by others as arrogance and selfishness.

The work, published in the journal Psychological Bulletin, comes from data from 51 past studies, involving 37,247 participants who ranged in age from eight to 77.

Researchers looked for three types of narcissist, based on behaviour traits:

• Agentic narcissists – who feel grand or superior to others and crave admiration
• Antagonistic narcissists – who see others as rivals and are exploitative and lack empathy
• Neurotic narcissists – who are shame-prone, insecure and overly sensitive to criticism

They studied what happened to these personality measures over time, based on questionnaires, and found that, generally, narcissism scores declined with age.

However, the changes were slight and gradual.

“Clearly, some individuals may change more strongly, but generally, you wouldn’t expect someone you knew as a very narcissistic person to have completely changed when you meet them again after some years,” lead researcher Dr Ulrich Orth, from the University of Bern in Switzerland, told BBC News.

He says some narcissistic traits can be helpful, at least in the short term.

It might boost your popularity, dating success, and chance of landing a top job, for example. But over longer periods, the consequences are mostly negative, because of the conflict it causes.

“These consequences do not only affect the person themselves, but also the wellbeing of individuals with whom they interact, such as partners, children, friends, co-workers, and employees,” he explained.

Dr Sarah Davies is a chartered counselling psychologist who has written a book on how to leave a narcissist.

She told the BBC that although people may be arrogant or selfish at times, that should not be confused with true clinical narcissism.

“Narcissists tend to be envious and jealous of others and they are highly exploitative and manipulative,” she said.

“They do not experience remorse or feeling bad, or have a sense of responsibility like other non-narcissistic people do.”

She says there has been a boom in interest about narcissism, driven by social media.

“To some extent that’s helpful – it helps inform more people about it and to bring more awareness of this issue. However, like many mental health terms, the clinical meaning can get a little lost.

Dr Davies says we should be more discerning with the term.

“I find it much more useful to be specific with naming behaviours and separate them. For example, a friend of mine recently called her ex a narcissist because he had ghosted her after they broke up.

“Being ghosted [suddenly cutting someone out of your life without explanation] is of course horrible, but he may not have been able to deal with a conversation after their relationship came to an end. It doesn’t necessarily mean he is a raging narcissist.

“They were together a while and there were no other indications of his ‘narcissism’.”

According to Dr Davies, some signs you may be involved with or around a narcissist include:

• Constant drama – a narcissist needs to be needed and seeks chaos and conflict
• No genuine apologies – they never really take full responsibility for their own behaviours
• Blame game – they manipulate and exploit others for their own selfish gains

Dr Tennyson Lee is a consultant psychiatrist with the Deancross Personality Disorder Service, based in the London borough of Tower Hamlets. He said the study was well-conducted and the findings were useful.

“The good news is narcissism typically reduces with age. The bad news is this reduction is not of a high magnitude.

“Do not expect narcissism will dramatically improve at a certain age – it doesn’t.

“This has implications for the long-suffering spouse who thinks ‘an improvement is just around the corner’,” he told BBC News.

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