Eighteen people were killed after a plane crashed and caught fire while it was taking off from Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu.

The pilot, who is currently receiving treatment in hospital, is the only survivor of Wednesday’s fatal accident after being rescued from the burning wreckage.

The Saurya Airlines flight was carrying 17 company employees, including technical staff, as well as two crew members. It was bound for the Himalayan tourism hub of Pokhara in the country’s west.

Nepal’s aviation industry has a poor safety record that has been attributed to multiple factors over the years, from unpredictable weather to lax regulations.

The flight, which was heading for Pokhara as part of a routine maintenance check, crashed at about 11:15 local time (05:30 GMT), a few minutes after it took off from Tribhuvan International Airport, according to a statement by the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority’s search and rescue co-ordination centre.

Police spokesperson Dan Bahadur Karki told BBC Nepali that the pilot sustained injuries to his eyes and forehead, but said his life was not in danger.

One man who was inside a nearby shop when the accident occurred said: “There was a very loud noise, it sounded like maybe a truck had overturned on the road.

“We ran after we saw [the crash]. The plane then hit the ground and caught fire. We were about to run to the site but then there was an explosion so we ran away again,” he told AFP news agency.

Airport chief Jagannath Niraula told BBC Nepali that the accident “happened as soon as it left the ground, in not even a minute”, though airport authorities have not been able to confirm the cause of the disaster.

However, the head of Tribhuvan International Airport said that an initial assessment showed that the plane had flown in the wrong direction.

“As soon as it took off, it turned right, [when it] should have turned left,” Mr Niraula told BBC Nepali.

Footage of the incident showed the plane tilting above the runway before crashing into the ground, into flames. It quickly became enveloped in fire and smoke.

Photos showed rescue workers making their way through the wreckage, with large parts of the plane completely blackened and charred. Photos of the aftermath also appeared to show parts of the plane inside an air freight container.

Fire engines and ambulances were rushed to the spot after the incident.

Seventeen of those who died were Nepali, while one was a Yemeni national, who was working as an engineer.

“The plane was scheduled to undergo maintenance for a month beginning Thursday… It is unclear why it crashed,” said Saurya Airlines marketing head Mukesh Khanal, Reuters news agency reports.

Kathmandu’s airport closed temporarily after the crash, but reopened within hours, Reuters said.

Nepal has been criticised for its poor air safety record. In January 2023, at least 72 people were killed in a Yeti Airlines crash that was later attributed to its pilots mistakenly cutting the power.

It was deadliest air crash in Nepal since 1992, when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane died when it crashed on approach to Kathmandu Airport.

Saruya Airlines operates flights to five destinations within Nepal, with a fleet of three Bombardier CRJ-200 jets, according to the company’s website.

Anti-government protests have sparked nationwide clashes in Bangladesh between police and university students. At least 150 people have been killed – and some of those caught up in the bloodshed have described to the BBC what happened.

One student said demonstrators in the capital Dhaka just wanted to hold a peaceful rally, but the police “ruined” it by attacking them as they were gathering.

A student leader now recovering in hospital described how he was blindfolded and tortured by people claiming to be police.

Meanwhile, an emergency department doctor said they were overwhelmed as dozens of young people with gunshot wounds were brought in at the height of the clashes.

Security forces are accused of excessive force but the government has blamed political opponents for the unrest, which erupted after quotas were imposed on government jobs. Most of these have now been scrapped on Supreme Court orders.

A nationwide internet blackout since Thursday has restricted the flow of information in the country, where a curfew is being enforced by thousands of soldiers.

Limited connectivity was restored on Tuesday night, with priority given to companies such as banks, technology firms and media outlets. Mobile phones have started pinging with WhatsApp messages between friends and families, but users say the internet is slow, while mobile internet and sites such as Facebook remain suspended.

The violence is the most serious challenge in years to Sheikh Hasina, 76, who secured her fourth straight term as prime minister in January, in a controversial election boycotted by the country’s main opposition parties.

Raya (not her real name), a student at the private BRAC university, told BBC Bangla she first joined the protests on Wednesday 17 July, but it was the following day that clashes with police got “really horrible”.

“Police attacked students by throwing tear gas shells after 11:30am. At that moment, a few students picked up those tear gas shells and threw them back towards the policemen,” was how she described it.

She said the police later started using rubber bullets and at one point trapped the students in their campus, even stopping them from taking the badly injured to hospital.

Then, in the afternoon, the police ordered them to leave.

“On that day, we just wanted to do a peaceful rally, but the police ruined the whole environment before we could do anything,” Raya said.

Things took an even darker turn on 19 July, the day when most of the fatalities happened.

By 10:00, hundreds of protesters were battling police at Natun Bazaar near Rampura, not far from a normally secure district that’s home to numerous embassies which now resembled a war zone.

The protesters were hurling bricks and stones at police who responded with shotgun fire, tear-gas and sound grenades, while a helicopter was firing from the air.

BBC reporters saw fires everywhere, burnt and vandalised vehicles left on the street, barricades – set up by police as well as protesters – dismantled steel road barriers and broken branches scattered on the road.

The police could be seen asking for reinforcements and ammunition which was quickly running out.

By this time hospitals in the city were starting to see large numbers of injured, many arriving on foot drenched in blood.

Emergency departments were overwhelmed as hundreds of patients flooded in over a short span of time.

“We referred critically injured patients to Dhaka Medical College Hospital as we could not manage them here,” one doctor who did not want to be named told BBC Bangla, saying most of the victims had been shot with rubber bullets.

Also speaking on condition of anonymity, another doctor at a government hospital said for a few hours it seemed like every other minute someone injured came in.

“On Thursday and Friday, most of the patients came with injury from gunshots,” the doctor said. “On Thursday we performed 30 surgeries on a single six-hour shift.

“It was unnerving even for an experienced doctor… some of my colleagues and I were really nervous to treat so many injured young people.”

The situation got worse by Friday evening with the government declaring a nationwide curfew and deploying the army on the streets.

It was after Friday’s violence that one of the student leaders, Nahid Islam, went missing.

His father said he was taken from a friend’s house at midnight on Friday, and reappeared more than 24 hours later.

Nahid himself then described how he had been picked up and taken to a room in a house, interrogated and subjected to physical and mental torture by people claiming to be detectives.

He says he fainted and only regained consciousness early on Sunday morning, at which point he walked home and sought hospital treatment for blood clots on both shoulders and his left leg.

In response to his allegations, Information Minister Mohammad Ali Arafat told the BBC the incident would be investigated but that he suspected “sabotage” – that someone was trying to discredit the police.

“My question is, if someone from the government has gone, why would they pick him up, detain him for 12 hours and release him somewhere, so that he can come back and make such a complaint?”

There are also questions about those who died, some of whom do not seem to have a proven connection to the protest movement.

BBC Bangla spoke to relatives of Maruf Hossain, 21, who was jobhunting in Dhaka after finishing his studies.

His mother said she told him not to go out during the protests but he was shot in the back while trying to escape the fighting, and later died in hospital.

Another of the dead, Selim Mandal, a construction worker, was trapped in a fire which broke out in the early hours of Sunday morning after violence in the area at a site where he was both working and living.

His charred body was found with those of two others. The cause of the fire is unknown.

Hasib Iqbal, 27, who died in the violence, was said to be a member of the protest movement but not deeply involved. His family said he wasn’t really a part of it, but they’re not sure how he died.

His father was shocked to learn of the death of his son, who had gone to Friday prayers. “We were supposed to go to prayers together, but since I was a little late, he went to the mosque alone,” Mr Razzaq told BBC Bengali.

Mr Razzaq later went out to look for him but only found out he had died hours later. His death certificate said he died of asphyxiation but relatives at his funeral found black marks on his chest.

Mr Razzaq does not plan to file a complaint with the police because “my son will never come back”.

“My only son,” he said, “I never dreamed of losing him like this.”

Bodycam footage captured shortly after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump shows Secret Service and local law enforcement officers near the lifeless body of the gunman.

A trail of blood can be seen near the body of the deceased gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was able to fire at the former president from a roof overlooking the outdoor rally in Pennsylvania 10 days ago.

One audience member, Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed and two others – David Dutch, 57 and James Copenhaver, 57 – were badly wounded but are in a stable condition.

The new footage emerged hours after US Secret Service director Kim Cheatle resigned over security failures surrounding the assassination attempt.

The bodycam video captured by Butler County Emergency Services Unit was posted on X by the office of Republican Senator Chuck Grassley.

“A Beaver County sniper seen and sent the pictures out, this is him,” one Secret Service agent can be heard saying in the video, referring to the shooter’s body.

“I don’t know if you got the same ones I did?” an officer asks the agent of the photos.

“I think I did, yeah, he’s [the shooter] got his glasses on,” the agent replies.

The officer adds the sniper “sent the original pictures, and seen him (the shooter) come from the bike, and set the book bag down, and then lost sight of him”.

• Secret Service boss resigns over Trump shooting
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The agent also asks about whether an abandoned bike that was found in the area belonged to the shooter.

“We don’t know,” an officer replies.

Discussions can also be heard about “victims in the crowd” and “people detained who were filming”.

Senator Grassley is one of many members of Congress demanding a full investigation into the incident.

Lawmakers questioned Ms Cheatle about security preparations ahead of the campaign rally during a six-hour House of Representatives Oversight Committee hearing on Monday.

Ms Cheatle said she took responsibility for the security lapses, but during the hearing she pushed back on calls to resign.

She called the shooting “the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades”.

Witnesses reported seeing a suspicious man – suspect Crooks – with a rifle on a rooftop at the rally minutes before shots were fired.

Crooks was killed by a counter-sniper shortly after getting a volley of shots off.

Trump was injured in the right ear. He later said he felt the bullet “ripping through the skin”.

Blood was visible on Trump’s face as protection officers rushed him away.

On Tuesday night, Ms Cheatle resigned in a letter sent to staff saying as director she took “full responsibility for the security lapses”.

Ayelet Levy Shachar turned down an invitation to get on Benjamin Netanyahu’s plane to Washington. Her daughter, Naama Levy, was kidnapped by Hamas gunmen from an Israeli army observation post near the Gaza border on 7 October.

It was not a political decision, she told me, saying she’d been “honoured” to be asked by the Israeli prime minister, but the timing was wrong.

Ayelet’s face lights up when she talks about Naama, who turned 20 years old in captivity, describing her as a determined and fun-loving young woman, a good student and athlete.

She’s hopeful her nine-month nightmare might be coming to an end.

“We have heard from defence and security forces that they’re reaching the point of breaking a deal,” she says. “And we have never before been in such a promising point at that sense.”

“Nothing should be distracting [us] at this point… this is what we should be dealing with right now. I’m asking and hoping that our prime minister’s commitment to this will be his first priority.”

Some relatives of men and women still held captive in Gaza did travel to Washington with the Israeli prime minister. They were joined by Noa Argamani, the 26-year-old woman who was rescued by Israeli forces in June.

It was a controversial decision, as those campaigning for the hostage release deal had been holding protests urging Mr Netanyahu not to go before bringing their loved ones home.

When the Israeli prime minister arrived in the US on Monday, he told families of the hostages that an agreement could be nearing, but that military pressure on Hamas must continue.

“We see that the enemy’s spirit is starting to break,” he said at the first meeting of his visit. “I believe if we are steadfast in this, we can achieve a deal.”

“I am not prepared in any way to give in on the victory over Hamas.”

Israel launched a campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to the attack on southern Israel last October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 39,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Mr Netanyahu has been resisting pressure to accept a proposed ceasefire deal that would allow an exchange of the remaining 116 hostages, 44 of whom are believed to be dead, for Palestinian prisoners.

Israel’s security establishment has been signalling that an agreement is possible since Hamas recently dropped its demand for an upfront guarantee of a permanent ceasefire.

According to Israeli media reports and BBC sources close to the indirect talks, the negotiations have since bogged down again on Israeli demands that soldiers maintain supervision of corridors along the Egyptian border and in the centre of Gaza, in particular on Mr Netanyahu’s insistence for a mechanism to prevent armed fighters from returning to the northern part of the strip.

“Now is the money time,” Col Lior Lotan, a close adviser to Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, told Israel’s Channel 12 News on Friday.

“The terms of the deal includes risks that the defence establishment can tolerate… All the heads of the security services say this. To counter them with a hypothetical, as if it were possible to get more through more military pressure, would be wrong.”

Warning: Some readers may find the image below disturbing.

This week, Israel confirmed that two more of the hostages had died in captivity several months ago, one of them possibly killed by Israeli military fire – a reminder of the cost of delaying a deal.

Ayelet told us that Naama had arrived at the observation post just two days before the Hamas attack on Israel last year, after completing her basic training.

“I don’t think she knew where the safe room was,” her mother said.

She did find it and sent a message from there, the last her family heard before a video surfaced showing her with tied hands and bloodied sweatpants being forced into the back of a jeep.

Last week, the families of the five female soldiers kidnapped from the observation post published photos of them in their early days of captivity, to remind the world about their daughters’ fate.

These were screenshots taken from a Hamas video retrieved by the Israeli army during operations in Gaza. One photo shows four of the young women sitting on mattresses, some of them with bandages. Naama is not among them.

She is not being held with the others, said Ayelet. There is an image of her with one of her eyes discoloured and swollen shut.

Based on information from hostages released during a previous ceasefire and exchange deal in November, Naama’s family understand that her captors moved her from place to place to avoid Israeli military action, and that she had shrapnel injuries in her legs, but was able to walk.

They’ve been told by Israeli security forces since then there is “proof of life” without being given details. The latest information they have is that she’s being held in Hamas tunnels.

Mr Netanyahu is sending the Israeli negotiating team to Doha on Thursday to continue the talks. The process keeps Ayelet’s hope alive, mixed with desperation as a resolution remains elusive.

“Both sides are coming closer with their demands,” she says. “Even saying that it sounds wrong to me, because how can you be talking about demands when you’re talking about my daughter’s life? We are over nine months so I’m actually feeling desperate. It has to happen. It has to happen.”

Thinking about her daughter helps give her strength to cope with the grinding fear and uncertainty.

“I wake up in the morning and she’s still there. I count the days, I count the minutes. How can I stop?” she says.

“I think she’s very strong. And maybe I’m, you know, focusing on that, on that belief that she’s very strong and determined, and smart. And she can survive this.”

Israel’s prime minister will address a joint session of the US Congress in a bid to bolster support for his country’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Benjamin Netanyahu was invited by the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, whose Republican Party is trying to show unflinching support for Israel.

But dozens of Democratic lawmakers plan to boycott the address in protest at the huge numbers of Palestinians killed by Israel’s offensive.

Mr Netanyahu arrived in the US on Monday. After addressing Congress on Wednesday, he will meet President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, then have a separate meeting with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

“Looking forward to welcoming Bibi Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida,” Mr Trump said in a post on Truth Social, using a common nickname for the Israeli prime minister.

Mr Netanyahu has said he would “present the truth about our just war” during his address to Congress, in what is his first trip to the US since the conflict with Hamas began.

Israel’s PM faces growing international and domestic pressure over his handling of the war, which started nearly 10 months ago.

In May, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan applied for arrest warrants against Mr Netanyahu, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes. Both Israel and Hamas reacted with outrage to the move.

And last week, the International Court of Justice said Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories was “illegal” – a conclusion Israel rejected.

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• Israel Gaza war: History of the conflict explained

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters are also expected to descend on Washington for a “day of rage“.

Speaker Johnson has warned against protests inside the House of Representatives chamber, saying there would be arrests “if we have to do it”.

On Tuesday, about 200 Jewish American peace activists held a protest in the Capitol building complex.

Police eventually removed the protesters, who all wore red T-shirts proclaiming “Not in our name” and “Jews say stop arming Israel”.

Mr Netanyahu’s Washington visit comes as his relationship with the US has grown tense, especially among leading Democrats.

President Biden has also grown more critical of Israel as the war continues and the death toll in Gaza climbs.

Mr Biden, who dropped out of the presidential election on Sunday, has come under political pressure from his party’s left flank to do more to convince Israel to limit its war in Gaza.

Vice-President Harris, who is now the presumptive Democratic nominee, will not preside in her constitutional role as president of the Senate during Mr Netanyahu’s address.

More than 30 Democratic lawmakers have said they will skip Netanyahu’s speech.

Illinois Senator Dick Durban is among them. He said he stood by Israel, but would not stand and cheer its current leader.

Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, also said he would skip the speech in protest at the “total war” waged by Mr Netanyahu’s government in the Gaza Strip.

“His policies in Gaza and the West Bank and his refusal to support a two-state solution should be roundly condemned,” Mr Sanders said in a social media post.

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen said: “It sends a terrible message to bring him here now to address a joint session of Congress.”

Israel launched a campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 39,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry, whose figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization said it was “extremely worried” about the possibility of an outbreak of the highly infectious polio virus in Gaza after traces were found in wastewater.

Some 200,000 children, young people and vulnerable adults suffered abuse while in state and faith-based care in New Zealand over the last 70 years, a landmark investigation has found.

It means almost one in three children in care from 1950 to 2019 suffered some form of abuse, including being subject to rape, electric shocks and forced labour, according to the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry.

The publication of the commission’s final report follows a six-year investigation into the experiences of nearly 3,000 people.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon apologised for the findings, calling it “a dark and sorrowful day in New Zealand’s history as a society”.

The inquiry was New Zealand’s biggest and most expensive to date, costing about NZ$170m ($101m; £78m).

Many of those abused have come from disadvantaged or marginalised communities, including Māori and Pacific people, as well as those with disabilities.

More than 2,300 survivors spoke to the inquiry, which found that in most cases, “abuses and neglect almost always started from the first day”.

One survivor, Anna Thompson, told the commission how she was physically and verbally abused at a faith-based orphanage.

“At night, the nuns would strip my clothes off, tie me to the bed face down, and thrash me with a belt with the buckle. It cut into my skin until I bled and I couldn’t sit down afterwards for weeks,” she said in testimony published in the report.

Jesse Kett spoke of how he was beaten and raped by staff in a residential school in Auckland when he was eight years old – recounting in his testimony that other staff members would sometimes watch the abuse happen.

Moeapulu Frances Tagaloa was abused by a priest for two years from the age of five in the 1970s.

“He was a popular, well-known teacher,” she said.

“But he was also a paedophile and unfortunately there were other little girls that he abused.”

Ms Tagaloa now works to help other survivors and has called for all 138 recommendations included in the report to be implemented.

The report found that Māori and Pacific survivors endured higher levels of physical abuse, and were often “degraded because of their ethnicity and skin colour”.

It also found that children and people in foster care experienced the highest levels of sexual abuse among various social welfare care settings.

“It is a national disgrace that hundreds of thousands of children, young people and adults were abused and neglected in the care of the state and faith-based institutions,” the report said.

“Many survivors died while they were in care or by suicide following care. For others, the impacts of abuse are ongoing and compounding, making everyday activities and choices challenging,” it added.

Mr Luxon said: “We should have done better, and I am determined we will do so.

“To every person who took part, I say thank you for your exceptional strength, your incredible courage and your confronting honesty. Because of you, we know the truth about the abuse and trauma you have endured,” he said, describing many of the stories as horrific and harrowing.

“I cannot take away your pain, but I can tell you this: you are heard and you are believed.”

He added that it was too soon to reveal how much the government expected to pay victims in compensation. He said he would offer a formal apology on 12 November.

According to the report, the economic cost of this abuse and neglect has been estimated to be anywhere from NZ$96bn to $217bn, taking into consideration negative outcomes including increased mental and physical healthcare costs, homelessness and crime.

On Wednesday, dozens of care abuse survivors took part in a march to parliament before the inquiry was released.

One survivor called the report “historic”.

“For decades they told us we made it up,” Toni Jarvis told news agency Reuters. “So this today is historic and it’s an acknowledgement. It acknowledges all the survivors that have been courageous enough to share their stories.”

Academic Dr Rawiri Waretini-Karena, who was a witness in the inquiry, had earlier spoken about the “pipeline from state care to prison”.

“When I walked into the prison yard for the first time as a teenager, having never been there before – I already knew 80% of the men in there. We’d spent the last 11 years growing up together in state care,” he wrote in an opinion piece for Radio New Zealand.

“That’s when I knew there was a pipeline to prison; a pipeline that has spent decades sweeping up and funnelling Māori children from state care to prison.”

Dr Waretini-Karena added that the Royal Commission’s report acknowledged “that whilst we are responsible for our actions, we are not responsible for the hidden mechanisms that operate within the environment we are born into, privileging one faction at the expense of the other”.

The severed leg of a surfer who was attacked by a shark has washed up on an Australian beach, with doctors now racing to see if it can be reattached.

Kai McKenzie, 23, was surfing near Port Macquarie in New South Wales (NSW) on Tuesday, when a 3m (9.8ft) great white shark bit him.

He managed to catch a wave into shore, where an off-duty police officer used a makeshift tourniquet to stem his bleeding, according to authorities.

His leg washed up a short time later and was put on ice by locals before being taken to hospital, where a medical team is now assessing surgery options.

Mr McKenzie – who is a sponsored surfer – remains in a serious but stable condition, according to emergency services, who have thanked the off-duty officer for his rapid response to the incident.

“He used the lead off his dog as a tourniquet… and essentially saved his life until the paramedics got there,” said NSW Ambulance’s Kirran Mowbray.

She described Mr McKenzie as “calm” and “able to talk” following the attack. “He’s just a really brave and courageous young man,” she added.

Mr McKenzie was rushed to a local hospital shortly after the incident, before being flown to the John Hunter Hospital – which is a major trauma centre – in Newcastle some 200km (124 miles) away. His severed leg also made the long journey.

The keen surfer had only recently returned to the water after suffering a significant neck injury which forced him to take time off from the sport, according to local media reports.

A GoFundMe page to help Mr McKenzie’s family with his medical and rehabilitation costs has been created, attracting over A$75,000 ($49,000; £38,000) as of Wednesday.

While Australia has more shark attacks than any other country except the US, fatal attacks remain relatively rare.

Typhoon Gaemi has made landfall on Taiwan’s east coast, bringing gusts of around 240kmh (150mph).

Gaemi, which has landed near the city of Hualien, is expected to be the most powerful storm to hit the island in eight years.

Taiwanese officials said two people had been killed and hundreds more injured.

The island’s largest annual military drills have been cancelled, along with almost all domestic flights and more than 200 international flights, according to the transport ministry.

Authorities are warning one of biggest risks comes from the typhoon’s potential to cause landslides and flash flooding, especially on mountainsides destabilised by a large earthquake in April.

On its way to Taiwan, Gaemi also brought relentless rains to large swathes of the Philippines, with floods turning streets into rivers in the capital Manila.

The typhoon is seeing winds of up to 240kmh (150 mph), the equivalent of a category four hurricane in terms of wind strength and destructive potential.

The government has declared Wednesday a typhoon day, suspending work and classes across the island except for the Kinmen islands.

However, chip manufacturing giant TSMC told the BBC that their plants would maintain normal operations.

The storm was originally expected to hit further north, but the mountains of northern Taiwan steered the typhoon slightly south towards the city of Hualien.

The typhoon is expected to weaken as it tracks over the mountainous terrain of Taiwan before re-emerging in the Taiwan Strait towards China.

A second landfall is expected in Fujian Province, China, later on Thursday. 300mm of rain is forecast there and is expected to lead to extensive flooding as the typhoon moves inland and breaks up.

Despite the very strong winds, officials say the main threat from Gaemi is from the huge amount of moisture it is carrying.

The island’s Central Weather Administration has issued a land warning for all of Taiwan, expecting wind and rain to be at their worst on Wednesday and Thursday.

Taiwanese authorities are warning that between one and two metres of rainfall can be expected across the central and southern mountains of the island in the next 24 hours.

In the capital Taipei, shelves in supermarkets were left bare on Tuesday evening as people stocked up ahead of what are expected to be sharp rise in prices after the typhoon passes.

The threat of the typhoon has also forced the government to call off parts of its planned week-long Hang Kuang military drills on Tuesday and Wednesday, although they had repeatedly said the drills would be “the most realistic ever”.

Gaemi and a southwest monsoon also brought heavy rain on Wednesday to the Philippine capital region and northern provinces. Work and classes have been halted there while stock and foreign exchange trading were suspended.

Metro Manila, home to nearly 15 million people, was placed under a state of calamity as rivers and creeks overflowed.

Footage circulating on social media showed small cars floating in chest-deep waters and commuters trapped on the roofs of buses.

The state weather bureau said the rains, which are typical at this time of the year, could persist until Thursday.

Balloons carrying rubbish sent by North Korea have landed in South Korea’s presidential compound in the capital city of Seoul, say officials.

It is the first time the South Korean leader’s office, which is a designated no-fly zone, has been hit by balloons launched by Pyongyang.

A chemical, biological and radiological warfare response team was sent to collect the balloons, the presidential security service said.

They were found to pose no contamination or safety risk.

According to a news report by local news site Yonhap, the military did not shoot down the balloons as they feared it would cause their contents to spread further.

The balloons also landed in other parts of Seoul, with officials telling residents to avoid touching the balloons and to “report them to the nearest military unit or police station”.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff told Reuters that with wind blowing from the west, balloons aimed at the South were likely to land in the northern Gyeonggi province, the country’s most populous province, where the capital city is located.

The latest incident comes days after South Korea’s military reacted to the escalating launches by restarting propaganda broadcasts from loudspeakers along the border.

North and South Korea have both used balloons in their propaganda campaigns since the Korean War in the 1950s.

The launches have escalated this year, with thousands of balloons being sent by the North across the border since May.

Wednesday’s balloons marked the North’s tenth launch this year, in what it claims is retaliation for balloons sent by South Korean activists.

These allegedly contained anti-Pyongyang leaflets, alongside food, medicine, money and USB sticks loaded with K-pop videos and dramas.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy has arrived in India for talks with ministers and business leaders.

The visit is being billed as an attempt to reset Britain’s relationship with the country and the Global South.

Mr Lammy has called India “an indispensable partner” in the government’s efforts to grow the economy and tackle climate change.

With the country’s economy soon to be the third largest in the world, the new Labour government is eager to secure a free trade agreement.

Just three week’s old, Sir Keir Starmer’s administration has set its sight on India early. If Labour wants growth, British firms will need to do more business in the country.

Talks about a free trade agreement with India have been stalled for months, following negotiations over the last two years.

In March, India signed a free trade agreement with Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein, which are all non-European Union states.

The foreign secretary said reinforcing the UK’s commitment to secure a deal would be a floor, not a ceiling, to Britain’s ambitions.

Last year, sources from the former Conservative government said trade talks with India were reaching their “final but trickier” stages.

A trade deal with India has long been seen in government as one of the biggest prizes of all deals the UK could strike with other nations following Brexit.

Earlier this month, Mr Lammy’s first foreign trip as a cabinet member saw him meeting with various European leaders across the continent in an effort to improve relations between the UK and the EU.

But this latest trip is about more than economics.

India sees itself as a key player in the Global South and Mr Lammy said he wanted to reset Britain’s relations with these developing countries.

With political instability in Europe and the US, the government is looking to improve relations with other allies and that includes a country Mr Lammy calls the emerging superpower of the 21st century.

Five years ago, Australian striker Michelle Heyman retired from international football with a little more than a whimper.

But on Thursday, the 36-year-old will walk onto the field with the Matildas as they open their Olympic campaign, a feat being called one of the greatest comebacks in Australian sport.

After a record-breaking performance in the domestic football league this season, where she became the first A-League Women (ALW) player to ever surpass 100 goals, Heyman caught the eye of a Matildas coach desperate to fill the hole left by an injured Sam Kerr.

But not only is Heyman back in the squad, she is being seen as Australia’s best shot at finding the net in France.

“There’s always some haters thinking I’m too old to be back,” she told the BBC before the tournament.

“But it’s kind of fun to prove points to people… age is just a number.”

Much like her return to the team in 2024, it was a stellar performance in the A-League – Australia’s domestic football offering – which catapulted a 21-year-old Heyman into the national team back in 2010.

Heyman would go on to play 61 games and score 20 goals for the Matildas, including appearances at the 2015 World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympics, but her early international career was marred by constant struggle.

The Matildas of that era were paid miserably and worked under constant fear and stress, a team culture allegedly so toxic it resulted in the sacking of coach Alen Stajcic in early 2019.

But if there was little support from officials, there was even less from the public. Many of the Matildas games weren’t even open to spectators – the cost would outweigh ticket sales.

And then there were Heyman’s battles with both her physical and mental health: in interviews she spoke about anxiety and regular panic attacks, then back-to-back ankle and knee injuries which only made them worse.

By May 2019, Heyman was burnt out, injured and stressed.

Her starting position on the team was long gone and she hadn’t played even a minute in six months.

“I really wanted to fight [on]… but my body isn’t going to allow me to do that. My mind isn’t going to allow me to do that,” Heyman told Fox Sports when announcing her retirement from international football.

She’d achieved everything she set out to, except an Olympic gold medal, she said.

Years later she would admit she was trying to save face, telling Australian media she was actually dropped from the team.

“I had to just pretend that I wanted to retire but it was mainly because I got fired,” she told Code Sports.

Heyman was so shattered she also exited the A-League and it seemed like the final pages of her storied career had been written.

But just 18 months later, a recharged Heyman returned to the A-League in a blaze of glory, netting a hat-trick in her first match back for Canberra United.

“I missed being part of something bigger than myself,” she said at the time.

Since then, she has overtaken Kerr as the leading ALW goal scorer and become the first to earn a third Golden Boot award. These achievements, combined with her two Julie Dolan medals – the competition’s highest honour – arguably make her the league’s most decorated player.

So when Olympic selection came around, Heyman was ready and waiting, at the top of her game.

“She’s in tremendous form, she’s scoring for fun,” head coach Tony Gustavsson said in February when recalling her to the squad.

The announcement quickly made waves around the country. “Just quietly, this might be one of Australian sport’s greatest comeback stories in recent memory,” wrote Sydney Morning Herald football journalist Vince Rugari.

“Was it something that I thought would ever happen again? Probably not,” Heyman says with a smile.

“I still remember the day – just like, tears. And I don’t cry!”

Adding to the emotion is the fact the country she’s playing for barely resembles the one she competed for just five years ago.

The Matildas are the hottest sporting team in Australia, more well liked and well known than even the Australian men’s cricket team, experts say.

Players are now household names, every match on home soil since the start of the World Cup has sold out and they hold the record for the most watched television event in Australian history.

It’s hard to reconcile that with Heyman’s debut on “a back field in Queensland somewhere”.

“I reckon there was 12 people at the game, if we were lucky,” she says.

“And then now you look at it and our last game, 77,000 people [have] come, cheering you on. That’s the feeling that I wanted for so many years, and it’s something that I never thought was ever going to happen in Australia.”

That awe and a bittersweet joy has rippled through the previous ranks of Matildas too, she says.

“I bring that emotion from every other ex-player, and I want to do it for them. I want to show them ‘look what we all created’.”

Does that – and the spectre of Kerr, the nation’s biggest sporting idol – add to the pressure to perform in France?

Heyman answers with a confident no.

She and Kerr are “very different” forwards but can both deliver, she says. In her few months back in the team, she has already scored six goals, twice as many as any of her teammates over the same period.

“I don’t think anyone remembers the other, numerous amounts of goals I’ve scored for Australia, because they were done back in the day when no one cared about them,” she says with a chuckle.

“[But] I’m good at my job, and I’ll continue to work hard and to win games.”

Hard work will certainly be required. The Matildas have drawn a difficult group – going up against the powerhouse USA team, Rio 2016 gold medallists Germany, and Zambia for the two guaranteed spots in the next round.

The team has also suffered a slew of injuries. Apart from Kerr, co-captain Steph Catley and key winger Caitlin Foord have both been under a cloud the past month. And midfielder Katrina Gorry and defender Clare Hunt have only just returned from injury.

And though their World Cup campaign – most of which Kerr spent on the bench – would argue otherwise, pundits say the team often struggles to perform without her.

So what does Heyman say to the people who have already written the Matildas off?

“They can be quiet,” she says cheekily.

“The more people we have supporting us the better we’re going to do.

“And we’re doing it for you – we’re playing to win for our country.”

China’s economic slowdown and a crackdown by Beijing on displays of wealth are taking a toll on some of the world’s top luxury brands.

LVMH says its sales in Asia, which include China but not Japan, fell by 14% in the three months to the end of June, worsening from a 6% decline in the first quarter.

The Paris-based firm is not alone, as many of its competitors are also seeing sales slow in the world’s second largest economy.

It comes as Chinese shoppers cut back on expensive purchases and government censors shut down social media accounts of influencers who have shown off their luxury goods online.

LVMH, which is the world’s largest luxury group, also said its overall revenue growth had slowed to 1% for the period.

Still, the group’s chairman and chief executive Bernard Arnault remained cautiously optimistic.

“The results for the first half of the year reflect LVMH’s remarkable resilience… in a climate of economic and geopolitical uncertainty.”

“While remaining vigilant in the current context, the Group approaches the second half of the year with confidence,” he told investors.

Shares in the the company – home to 75 high-end brands including Louis Vuitton, Dior and Tiffany & Co – have fallen by almost 20% over the last year.

LVMH is not the only big name feeling a slowdown of luxury goods sales in China.

In its latest financial figures, upmarket British fashion label Burberry said its sales in mainland China had fallen by more than 20%, compared to a year earlier.

Swatch Group – the Swiss watchmaker which owns Blancpain, Longines and Omega – said weak demand in China helped push down its sales by 14.4% for the first six months of 2024, compared to the same time the previous year.

Richemont, which owns Cartier, saw sales in China, Hong Kong and Macau, fall 27% year-on-year in the quarter ending on 30 June.

And German fashion giant, Hugo Boss, downgraded its sales forecasts for the year on concerns about weak consumer demand in markets like China and the UK.

Other major luxury goods industry players, including Hermes and Gucci-owner Kering, are due to report their latest financial results this week.

Recent data out of China suggest the economy is still struggling to recover from the pandemic downturn, as both second quarter growth and June retail sales figures came in below expectations.

Flaunting luxury brands online has also come under the scrutiny of Chinese authorities.

In May, state-controlled newspaper Global Times reported that an internet celebrity called Wanghongquanxing was banned from social media “amid a crackdown on online wealth show-offs.”

His account on Douyin, China’s equivalent of TikTok, had more than four million followers.

Several other popular influencers have also seen their accounts deleted in a campaign that China’s internet watchdog has said was aimed at banning “vulgar” and deliberately ostentatious content.

Thulasendrapuram, a tiny village around 300km from the south Indian city of Chennai (formerly Madras) and 14,000 km from Washington DC, is where Kamala Harris’ maternal grandparents were from.

The centre of the village is currently proudly displaying a large banner of Ms Harris, 59.

Special prayers are being offered to the local deity for her success – Ms Harris and her maternal grandfather’s names are on the list of donors to the village temple – and sweets are being distributed.

Villagers have been closely observing the US presidential race following Joe Biden’s withdrawal and Ms Harris’ rise as the possible nominee.

“It is not an easy feat to be where she has reached in the most powerful country in the world,” says Krishnamurthi, a retired bank manager.

“We are really proud of her. Once Indians were ruled by foreigners, now Indians are leading powerful nations.”

There is also a sense of pride, especially among women. They see Ms Harris as one of their own, a symbol of what is possible for women everywhere.

“Everybody knows her, even the children. ‘My sister, my mother’ – that is how they address her,” said Arulmozhi Sudhakar, a village local body representative.

“We are happy that she has not forgotten her roots and we express our happiness.”

The excitement and spectacle is a reminder of how villagers took to the streets with fireworks, posters and calendars when Ms Harris became the vice president.

There was a communal feast where hundreds enjoyed traditional south Indian dishes like sambar and idli which, according to one of Ms Harris’ relatives, are among her favourite foods to eat.

Ms Harris is the daughter of Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer researcher, who hailed from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, before moving to the US in 1958. Gopalan’s parents were from Thulasendrapuram.

“My mother, Shyamala, came to the US from India alone at 19. She was a force – a scientist, a civil rights activist, and a mother who infused a sense of pride in her two daughters,” Ms Harris said in a social media post last year.

Ms Harris visited Chennai with her sister Maya after their mother died and immersed her ashes in the sea in keeping with Hindu traditions, according to this report in The Hindu newspaper .

Ms Harris comes from a family of high achievers. Her maternal uncle Gopalan Balachandran is an academic. Her grandfather PV Gopalan rose to become an Indian bureaucrat and was an expert on refugee resettlement.

He also served as an advisor to Zambia’s first president in the 1960s.

“She [Kamala] has been a prominent figure for quite a while now. It’s not a great surprise. Something like this was on the cards for many years,” said R Rajaraman, an emeritus professor of theoretical physics at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University and a classmate of Ms Harris’ mother.

Prof Rajaraman says he lost touch with Shyamala but met her again in the mid-1970s when he travelled to Berkeley in the US.

“Shyamala was there. She gave me a cup of tea. These two children [Kamala and her sister Maya] were there. They paid no attention,” he recalled.

“Both of them were enterprising. There was positivity in her mother, which is there in Kamala also.”

Back in Thulasendrapuram, villagers are anticipating the announcement of her candidature soon.

“Kamala’s chithi [Tamil for mother’s younger sister] Sarala visits this temple regularly. In 2014 she donated 5,000 rupees ($60; £46) on behalf of Kamala Harris,” said Natarajan, the temple priest.

Natarajan is confident that their prayers will help Ms Harris win the election.

The villagers say they might be thousands of miles away from the US, but they feel connected with her journey. They hope she would visit them some day or the village would find a mention in her speech.

Donald Trump, whose time in office made him a pariah to many in the business world, has found new champions among tech leaders as his path back to the White House takes shape.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, became the biggest name yet to throw his weight behind the former president this month, endorsing him and getting involved in fundraising efforts.

The move capped weeks of mounting support from the tech world, as influential venture capitalists and tech leaders, including former Democratic donor Allison Huynh, investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz and the Winklevoss twins, players in the world of crypto, rallied publicly around Trump.

Support for Trump is hardly universal.

But it marks a sharp turn from just a few years ago, when companies rushed to distance themselves from Trump in the weeks after the 2021 US Capitol riot.

Coming from Silicon Valley, where backing a ban on gay marriage – a Republican cause – once cost an executive his job, the change is especially striking.

At a cryptocurrency event at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Nicholas Longo, 27, of wealth management firm Fortuna Investors, said when he voted for Trump four years ago he felt there was stigma attached.

“In 2020, it would have been inadvisable for me to express support for Donald Trump,” he said. Now, all that has changed.

The shift in the political winds has long been evident on social media, where Mr Musk and investor David Sacks are among those to regularly scorn President Joe Biden.

But their decision to open their wallets to the Trump campaign is poised to significantly expand their influence beyond their traditional circle – with major consequences for the election.

The support from tech leaders has helped Trump close the fundraising gap that he faced against Mr Biden a few months ago.

“He was pretty far behind and struggling at the end of April,” said Sarah Bryner, research director at OpenSecrets. “In the last eight weeks, it’s a completely different campaign.”

She said the pledges sent a strong signal on how the tide is turning, noting that signs of victory at the polls often help push potential donors off the fence.

“Success begets success,” she said.

Data from OpenSecrets shows Democrats claiming the larger share of venture capitalist donations in recent elections – and Mr Biden’s decision to bow out of the race is expected to ignite further interest.

However, Trump’s new friends remain committed.

According to the Wall Street Journal earlier this month, Mr Musk pledged $45m a month to the Trump campaign – which would make him one of the biggest donors this year.

The billionaire has acknowledged his work on fundraising efforts tied to the campaign, but denied the sum, saying his contributions will be at a “much lower level“.

“I believe in an America that maximizes individual freedom and merit. That used to be the Democratic Party, but now the pendulum has swung to the Republican Party,” Mr Musk wrote on X, the social media platform he owns that was formerly known as Twitter, after Mr Biden dropped out.

Analysts said the backing from key figures in the tech world suggested that Trump was widening his appeal.

“He’s convinced Republicans he’s not as bad as they say… and now we’re seeing that’s broadening out,” said Sal Russo, a veteran Republican consultant based in California.

“Do I think he’s going to win Santa Clara County? No, but he’s going to do better,” said Mr Russo.

Tech leaders have said they are concerned about the Biden administration’s crackdown on crypto, and cautious approach to artificial intelligence. For example, a recent executive order requires firms to comply with government AI safety standards.

“Bad government policies are now the #1 threat to Little Tech,” Mr Andreessen and Mr Horowitz, whose firm invests in start-ups and is a big player in crypto and AI, wrote in a recent essay. “The time has come to stand up.”

Mr Musk’s decision to back Trump might appear a startling shift for a man who had historically shunned political donations.

He reportedly once waited in line for six hours to shake Barack Obama’s hand, and as recently as 2018 described himself as politically moderate.

In 2017, he was among the first members to quit a White House business council, parting ways with Trump over climate change policies.

His company, Tesla, makes electric cars, which Trump has repeatedly criticised as expensive and impractical.

However, Mr Musk has long bristled at oversight by financial regulators.

His criticism of Mr Biden ramped up two years ago, after he did not get an invite to a White House business meeting, a snub that led him to tell CNBC he felt unfairly “ignored”.

On social media, he has increasingly waded into other debates over Covid lockdowns, the war in Ukraine, China policy and transgender issues.

Mr Musk, whose SpaceX rocket firm does billions of dollars of government business, has a relationship with a possible Trump administration to consider as well.

Democrats said the shift in the tech world has been motivated by self-interest, noting that Mr Biden has proposed new taxes on multi-millionaires and unrealised capital gains.

He has also alienated some with his embrace of organised labour, and his administration’s pursuit of tech companies in anti-monopoly and other cases.

Businessman Mark Cuban, who supports Democrats, suggested that the gravitation towards Trump was a “bitcoin play” – a bet that cryptocurrency value could be boosted by high inflation and political chaos that Democrats say would result under a Trump administration.

Stanford Business School professor Neil Malhotra, who has studied the political views of tech founders, said it would be a mistake to conflate the “most vocal people on Twitter” with the industry overall – or even its elites, whose views historically have straddled both parties.

A 2017 survey he and colleagues conducted found that as a group, tech leaders were aligned with Democrats on issues such as gay marriage and abortion – even taxes. However, they swung Republican in strongly opposing regulation.

He noted that since the survey, new social issues such as policing, schooling and transgender rights have come to the fore. San Francisco has been a key battleground in those debates, driving some of the tech world backlash.

“The suspicion is that most people in venture capital are still centre-left,” Prof Malhotra said. But, he added: “There’s definitely a movement to the Republican Party.”

Evan Swarztrauber, an adviser to the Foundation for American Innovation thinktank, said tech leaders were betting Trump would be more hands-off on crypto and AI.

But the gamble is not without risk.

As president, Trump won praise from the business community by cutting taxes, putting anti-labour officials in charge of labour rights and generally veering away from regulation.

But he also took a markedly more interventionist approach to the economy – and to tech – than previous administrations – starting a trade war with China, ordering a TikTok ban, and launching some of the ongoing anti-monopoly lawsuits against tech companies.

Since then, he has pushed the Republican party further in that direction – while at the same time moderating or reversing himself on issues such as the TikTok ban and crypto.

Jennifer Huddleston, a senior fellow in tech policy for the libertarian Cato Institute, said Trump may be shifting his stance on some tech issues, noting that he is now the owner of a social media platform.

JD Vance, Trump’s choice for vice-president, also previously worked in venture capital and got key support from PayPal’s Peter Thiel during his 2022 senate campaign.

But she warned that the effort to distinguish between the interests of “big” tech and “little” tech would prove difficult when it comes time to govern.

David Broockman, a political science professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said Trump was finding success in the business world by presenting himself as more moderate than other members of his party on social issues such as abortion.

After boasting of being “proudly the person responsible” for removing Roe v Wade protections, Trump has rejected claims he will back a national ban pushed by many conservatives, and says the matter should be left up to the states.

But Prof Broockman noted that Trump also ran a relatively moderate campaign in 2016, only to adopt more extreme policies once in office.

Those hurt his public approval and eventually frayed Republican ties to Wall Street, a traditional source of support for the party.

“Tech and other business leaders are banking on a lot of Trump’s more eccentric policy ideas … just not happening,” Prof Broockman said. “But they really could happen.”

Outside of tech, Trump has backed radical changes including mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, a dramatic reduction in the government workforce and a 10% tariff on all goods coming into the country.

But Garrett Johnson, co-founder of the Foundation for American Innovation and now an executive at a venture-backed tech firm, said he thought that as time had passed more tech and business elites have come around to Trump’s views.

“Trump singlehandedly made the threat that China poses to our country a national topic,” he said. “He was right and everyone else had to come along.”

“So absolutely I think that is part of the dynamic, of the vibe shift,” he said. “Was he right on everything? No, but on many big issues Trump was right.”

When President Nicolás Maduro took to the stage on 4 February this year to mark the anniversary of a failed coup lead by his mentor, Hugo Chávez, his rhetoric was always going to be fiery.

The fourth of February is the day when followers of Chavismo, the political movement created by the late Chávez, celebrate its foundation in 1992.

Speaking to a loyal crowd of Chavistas dressed in their traditional red T-shirts, he urged them to show “nerves of steel” ahead of this July’s presidential election.

He had good reason to do so. Last October, 2.4 million Venezuelans cast their vote in a primary organised by a coalition of opposition parties.

It was won by María Corina Machado with 93% of the vote.

Ms Machado has since become Mr Maduro’s most formidable opponent, managing what had eluded others before her – to unite the notoriously divided Venezuelan opposition behind one leader.

During his 11 years in power, Mr Maduro has managed to run rings around the opposition time and time again, aided by the fact that opposition leaders often seemed to spend more time attacking each other than concentrating on beating him.

And maybe it was that nervousness which led Mr Maduro not just to predict a victory in the upcoming election – something many candidates do – but to add that he would win “by hook or by crook”.

To opposition activists who have long bemoaned being the victims of government harassment, the president’s remark came as no surprise.

But it is nevertheless a telling slip of the tongue from the leader of a movement which likes to portray itself as representing a mass of Venezuelans, whose loyal support, they argue, has afforded it many an election victory and kept it in power without interruption since 1999.

It is not the first time Mr Maduro’s words have raised eyebrows.

Mr Maduro’s detractors have long made fun of his verbal gaffes and his humble beginnings as a bus driver.

But the 61-year-old has used his past to his advantage, cultivating his image as a “man of the people”, dancing salsa with his wife during his rambling TV shows and never missing an occasion to whack a baseball, throw a basketball or spar with a boxer.

And while he never achieved the popularity among Chavistas that his predecessor Hugo Chávez had, he has so far managed to remain the movement’s uncontested leader.

This was far from a given when he was picked by Hugo Chávez in 2012 as his heir after the latter was diagnosed with cancer.

Many had thought Chávez would choose Diosdado Cabello, a fiery and combative military man, for the role of acting president while the ailing leader was receiving treatment in Cuba.

But Chávez instead anointed Mr Maduro, whom he had just named vice-president after serving six years as Chávez’s foreign minister.

Following Chávez’s death in March 2013, Mr Maduro narrowly won the election the president’s death had triggered, defeating opposition candidate Henrique Capriles by 1.6 percentage points – a result Mr Capriles disputed.

In 2018, Mr Maduro sailed to victory by a wide margin in elections which were roundly dismissed as neither free nor fair.

The main opposition coalition had decided to boycott the polls after a raft of candidates were arrested or had fled the country, leaving the field virtually empty for Mr Maduro.

Arguably, one of Mr Maduro’s main achievements has been how he has managed over the past 11 years not only to prevent any challenges to his rule within his PSUV party, but also to form strong alliances with those who have backed him.

His defence minister, Vladimir Padrino, has been in the post for almost a decade, ensuring that the armed forces remain behind him.

The support of the armed forces was key when the then leader of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, declared himself the rightful president in January 2019, arguing that Mr Maduro’s re-election in 2018 had been fraudulent.

The hope of the opposition that Mr Guaidó would replace Mr Maduro in the presidential palace was soon quashed, with all the major institutions remaining under the firm control of the government.

Allies of Mr Maduro also control the main electoral body, the Supreme Court and the Attorney-General’s office, among others.

Suspicious of outsiders, he surrounds himself with a close-knit group of trusted politicians, whom he rotates through different high-ranking posts.

Among them is Delcy Rodríguez, who has served as his communications minister, his foreign minister and most recently, as his vice-president.

Her brother Jorge is another close Maduro ally, who currently heads the government-controlled National Assembly.

Mr Maduro and some in his inner circle – including his defence minister – have been further welded together by being charged by the US authorities in 2020 with “narco-terrorism” and drug trafficking.

The president used the indictment to portray himself as a fighter against “US imperialist forces”, which he claims are targeting him because he “stands up for the people”.

He also blames US sanctions for the dire economic crisis which Venezuela has suffered under his leadership.

Almost eight million Venezuelans have left the country over the past decade, driven out by a combination of widespread shortages and increasing political repression.

To stop the economy’s freefall, in 2019 Mr Maduro relaxed some of the strict foreign currency regulations brought in by Chávez.

Shortages have eased since then, but those without access to foreign currency continue to struggle.

Opinion polls suggest Mr Maduro’s popularity has plummeted over the years, in large part because of the economic downturn he has presided over.

Nevertheless, his socialist PSUV party can still draw on a hard core of supporters, as well as considerable number of people who have benefited financially from his rule.

His government’s actions in recent months, however, appear to betray his worry that his powerful party machine may not be able to win the election if the vote is free and fair.

First, the comptroller-general, a government ally, banned his foremost rival, María Corina Machado, from running for office – a decision which was later confirmed by the government-controlled Supreme Court.

Then, the woman whom the opposition coalition had chosen to replace her on the ballot was prevented from registering.

Finally, a relatively unknown former diplomat, Edmundo González, was confirmed as the opposition coalition’s unity candidate in April.

Mr González has sailed past Mr Maduro in the opinion polls in record time, with some giving the 74-year-old a lead of 40% over the president.

In response, Mr Maduro’s rhetoric has become more belligerent, even evoking the risk of a “civil war” should he lose.

“If you don’t want a bloodbath in Venezuela, a civil war brought about by the fascists, then let’s strive for the biggest success, the biggest victory in the electoral history of our people,” he told voters less than two weeks before the election.

Invoking a bloodbath may seem extreme, but Mr Maduro has much to lose, were he to be defeated at the polls.

Not only has the US offered a $15m reward (£11.6m) for his capture on “narcoterrorism” charges, but he is also under investigation at the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity committed by the security forces during the crackdown on a wave of anti-government protests in 2017.

No one should be surprised if, faced with an election defeat, the former bus driver refuses to accept that he has reached the end of the line.

Many fear he will not go quietly.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the US this week under pressure to end the Gaza war, from both Israelis and the US administration. How might the political turbulence in Washington shape the trip and future relations?

Mr Netanyahu is set to meet Joe Biden – if the president has recovered from Covid-19 – and address a joint session of Congress, the only foreign leader to do so for a fourth time.

The trip offers him a platform for a reset with Washington after months of tensions over his hardline approach to the war, and an opportunity to try and convince Israelis that he hasn’t undermined relations with their most important ally.

But it is overshadowed by President Biden’s decision not to seek re-election, highlighting political uncertainties about Israel’s next partner in the White House and possibly eclipsing some of the attention on Mr Netanyahu’s visit.

The prime minister got a lot of unwelcome attention in Israel until the moment he boarded the plane.

A drumbeat of protests demanded that he stay home and focus on a ceasefire deal with Hamas to free Israeli hostages.

“Until he has signed the deal that’s on the table, I do not see how he picks up and flies across the Atlantic to address the American political chaos,” said Lee Siegel, one of the family members who has come out to demonstrate. His 65-year-old brother Keith is a captive in Gaza.

The trip is a political move, he added, unless Mr Netanyahu stops being a “hurdle” and signs the ceasefire agreement.

Mr Siegel reflected a widespread view that Mr Netanyahu is slow-rolling the process for his own political reasons, roiling his negotiators when he recently threw new conditions into talks that seemed to be making progress.

The prime minister has been accused of bowing to pressure from two far-right cabinet ministers who’ve threatened to bring down his government if he makes concessions to Hamas.

These perceptions have added to frustrations in the White House, which announced the latest formula for talks and had been expressing optimism an agreement could be achieved.

Mr Biden remains one of the most pro-Israel presidents to sit in the Oval Office, a self-declared Zionist who’s been lauded by Israelis for his support and empathy, cemented by his flight to Israel just days after the Hamas attacks on 7 October.

But since then, he’s grown alarmed at the cost of Mr Netanyahu’s demand for a “total victory” against Hamas in Gaza.

The administration is frustrated with the Israeli prime minister for rejecting a post war solution that involves pursuing a Palestinian state.

It’s angry with him for resisting appeals to do more to protect Palestinian civilians and increase the flow of aid to them. It’s facing a domestic backlash over the mounting death toll in Gaza. And it’s worried that the conflict is spreading to the region.

As Joe Biden’s presidency weakened in the swirl of controversy over his abilities, analysts said there might be less room for him to keep up the pressure on the Israeli prime minister.

But Mr Biden’s decision to drop out of the race could actually have strengthened his hand, says Ehud Barak, a former Israeli prime minister and a critic of Mr Netanyahu.

“He is not a lame duck in regard to foreign policy, in a way he’s more independent (because) he doesn’t have to take into account any impact on the voters,” Mr Barak told the BBC.

“With regard to Israel probably he feels more of a free hand to do what really needs to be done.”

Mr Barak believes it was a mistake for Congress to invite Mr Netanyahu to speak, saying that many Israelis blame him for policy failures that allowed the Hamas attack to happen, and three out of four want him to resign.

“The man does not represent Israel,” he said. “He lost the trust of Israelis…And it kind of sends a wrong signal to Israelis, probably a wrong signal to Netanyahu himself, when the American Congress invites him to appear as if he is saving us.”

Whatever politics he may be playing, Mr Netanyahu insists military pressure must continue because it has significantly weakened Hamas after a series of strikes against the military leadership.

In comments before departing Israel, he suggested that would be the tone of his meeting with President Biden.

“It will also be an opportunity to discuss with him how to advance in the months ahead the goals that are important for both our countries,” he said, “achieving the release of all our hostages, defeating Hamas, confronting the terror axis of Iran and its proxies and ensuring that all Israel’s citizens return safely to their homes in the north and in the south.”

He’s expected to bring the same message to congress, “seeking to anchor the bipartisan support that is so important to Israel”.

The reality is that Mr Netanyahu’s policies have dented that bipartisan support. The Republicans are rallying around him, but criticism from Democrats has grown.

The Democratic Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer caused a small earthquake in Washington recently when he stood up in the chambers and said Mr Netanyahu was one of the obstacles standing in the way of a lasting peace with Palestinians.

“I hope the prime minister understands the anxiety of many members in congress and addresses them,” the former US ambassador to Israel, Thomas Nides, told the BBC at the weekend. He’d been addressing one of the many rallies demanding a hostage release.

That includes “on humanitarian issues and to articulate that this fight isn’t with the Palestinian people, it’s with Hamas.”

It’s a message that Kamala Harris would repeat if she were to become the Democratic nominee. There’d be no change in US policy: a commitment to Israel’s security while pushing for an end to the Gaza conflict and a plan for the Day After embedded in a regional peace with Arab states.

But there might be a difference in tone.

Ms Harris does not share Mr Biden’s long history with and emotional ties to Israel. She’s from a different generation and “could more closely align with the sentiments of younger elements of the Democratic party,” says Mick Mulroy, a former deputy assistant secretary of defence for the Middle East.

“That’s a stance more likely to include restrictions on weapons, on munitions from the United States for use in Gaza,” he said.

Mr Netanyahu could very well use the visit to steer the conversation from the controversy over Gaza to the threat from Iran, a topic with which he’s far more comfortable, especially after the recent escalation with Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

But his main audience will be domestic, says Tal Shalev, the diplomatic correspondent at Israel’s Walla News.

He wants to revive his image as “Mr America,” she says, the man who can best present Israel to the US, and to restore his image which was shattered by the October 7 attacks.

“When he goes to the US and speaks in front of Congress and [has] a meeting in the White House, for his electoral base, it’s the old Bibi is back again,” she says, referring to the prime minister by his nickname. “This is not the failed Bibi who was responsible for the seventh of October. This is the old Bibi who goes to the Congress and gets the standing ovations.”

It also gives him an opportunity to pursue connections with the former President Donald Trump at a time of great political flux in Washington.

“Netanyahu wants President Trump to win,” she says, “And he wants to make sure that he and President Trump are on good terms before the election.”

There is a widespread view that Mr. Netanyahu is playing for time, hoping for a Trump win that might ease some of the pressure he’s been facing from the Biden administration.

“There is a near-universal perception that Netanyahu is eager for a Trump victory, under the assumption that he will then be able to do whatever he wants,” writes Michael Koplow of Israel’s Policy Forum.

“No Biden pressuring him on a ceasefire or on West Bank settlements and settler violence… There are many reasons to doubt this reading of the landscape under a Trump restoration, but Netanyahu likely subscribes to it.”

The question is whether that pressure from Biden will ease as he steps away from the presidential race, or whether he will in fact use his remaining months in office to focus on achieving an end to the Gaza war.

On 9 June, Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir saw one of its deadliest attacks in years.

Nine Hindu pilgrims were killed and more than 30 people were injured after militants opened fire on a bus that was making its way to a shrine in the region.

The firing that took place in Reasi – one of 10 districts in Jammu – is among numerous attacks on the army and civilians in the region in recent months.

Violence is not new to the scenic region, but a recent trend has worried experts – the centre of militant activity seems to be shifting from Kashmir Valley to the relatively less-affected Jammu area.

The Himalayan region of Kashmir has long been a flashpoint between India and Pakistan. Since 1947, the nuclear-armed neighbours have fought two wars and a limited conflict over the Muslim-majority territory, which both claim but only partly control.

An armed insurgency against Delhi’s rule in the Indian-administered region since 1989 has claimed thousands of lives.

The Indian government says that violence has reduced since 2019, when it revoked a constitutional provision that gave the region special autonomy.

But there seems to be a sharp uptick in violence in recent months, particularly in Jammu, stoking fears of militancy returning to that region.

Since 2021, there have been 33 militant-related attacks in Jammu, according to official data. In 2024 alone, the region has seen eight attacks, in which 11 soldiers have been killed and 18 injured. Civilian deaths in Jammu in the first six months of this year were 12, the same number as the whole of 2023.

The attacks occurred in Rajouri, Poonch, Doda, Kathua, Udhampur, Reasi and other areas of the Jammu division. Like the Kashmir valley, Jammu too is near the Line of Control, the de facto border with Pakistan. Delhi has accused Islamabad of supplying militants with weapons, drugs, and money via drones. Pakistan has not officially responded to these allegations.

• India Supreme Court upholds repeal of Kashmir’s special status
• Article 370: What happened with Kashmir and why it matters

Experts say the recent spate of attacks in Jammu suggests that militant activity has spread deeper into the federal territory.

One reason, some say, could be the high concentration of security forces and intelligence activity in the valley, which may have forced militants to move southwards. Others think it is a deliberate attempt to divert the army’s attention from other strategic areas in Jammu and Kashmir.

Since the insurgency began, the valley has been the epicentre of the conflict. Militancy had spilled over into Jammu in the late 1990s, but the region has been relatively calm since 2002.

So, the rise in militant activity in Jammu since 2021 (two years after India scrapped the region’s special status) and the back-to-back strikes in the past few months have deeply unsettled the entire security apparatus in Jammu and Kashmir.

Reports indicate that militants, armed with sophisticated assault rifles and well-trained in jungle warfare, have been using the forests and treacherous terrain of Jammu to hide from the security forces.

The attacks took place in areas of the Jammu province where the terrain is tough and road connectivity is poor, making it hard for security forces to reach the spot on time.

Retired Colonel Bhuwanesh Thapa, father of a soldier who was killed in Doda last week, told reporters that his son had called him before leaving for the search operation and that his team had been preparing to undertake a six to seven-hour trek to reach the location.

Shesh Paul Vaid, a former police chief who had been involved in anti-insurgency operations in the valley, believes that the spike in militant attacks in Jammu is a ploy to “divert attention” from Kashmir.

He also attributes the spurt in violence to a “well-thought-out policy” by China and Pakistan to stretch out India’s armed forces.

Like Pakistan, China too shares a disputed border with India in the Himalayan region. Known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC), it falls close to Ladakh, a mountainous territory to the east of Jammu and Kashmir.

According to reports, India’s stand-off with China in the Ladakh region since 2020 has compelled it to send additional troops to the cold desert. These forces were reportedly pulled out from Jammu, leaving the region vulnerable to militant activities.

For long, India’s strategic community has feared the prospect of a two-front war along its northern and western borders. Experts believe that any military collusion between Pakistan and China will stretch India’s defences.

“The thinning of troops [in Jammu] is making an impact. The militants are taking advantage of it,” said Lt Gen Deependra Singh Hooda, a former military commander.

Lt Col Suneel Bartwal, an army spokesperson in Jammu, told the BBC that the army had been conducting a series of “joint and co-ordinated operations” with police to eliminate “foreign terrorists”. He added that a number of measures had been taken to enhance synergy between various security agencies in the region.

Some experts also point out that India’s intelligence network in Jammu is less developed than in Kashmir due to its relative calm and fewer incidents of violence since 2002.

Political analyst Zafar Choudhary says for the past three decades, counter-insurgency specialists have been stationed in Kashmir and not in Jammu.

“They [forces] have understood the terrain and topography of the Kashmir valley over the years, [but] not much of Jammu,” he says.

In the days since Kamala Harris announced her candidacy for US president, young people across the US have had a lot to explain.

The increasing popularity of coconut trees. A British pop superstar becoming a sudden American political force. The resurgence of chartreuse green.

Social media was abuzz last Sunday after President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign and instead endorsed Vice-President Harris. And in the hours that followed, the Harris campaign leaned in to the excitement.

The Biden-Harris campaign Twitter account changed its username to KamalaHQ, using British pop superstar Charli XCX’s apparent endorsement of her as its new (similarly green) banner.

The campaign’s biography on X reads, “providing context”, a reference to much-lampooned remarks made by Ms Harris in May 2023.

While the president’s abrupt exit and Ms Harris’ subsequent rise have injected uncertainty into the election, social media users, particularly young people, have been enthralled. But it’s unclear if the newfound enthusiasm will help engage younger voters, a key group for Democrats in November, and whether the political momentum will continue.

So far, the online flurry has proved fruitful: The campaign has raised more than $100 million in the roughly two days since Mr Biden decided to step aside, it hosted a fundraising call attracting more than 44,000 black women and recruited about 58,000 new volunteers.

Republicans have long used video clips of Ms Harris’ verbal slip-ups or awkward interviews against her. But in recent weeks, supporters have used those same clips to paint her as endearing, relatable and candid.

One video features Ms Harris at a White House event sharing an anecdote about her mother.

“She would say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” Harris said as she laughed. “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”

But the video – panned by detractors – has been embraced by Harris supporters who now use coconut and palm tree emojis to signal their allegiance on social media.

“When your opponent says something, you just take it and you make it your thing, and then you’ve taken the power away from them,” said Katherine Haenschen, a Northeastern University professor who researches the effect of digital communications on voter turnout.

“Memes matter. Memes are actually a complex way of conveying infomation to people,” she said.

Charli XCX’s apparent endorsement of Ms Harris also fuelled the online frenzy. In the hours after Mr Biden threw his support behind Ms Harris, the singer said “kamala IS brat” in a tweet on X, a reference to the singer’s popular new album.

Ms Haenschen said the term refers to women of contradictions who “can kind of choose their own path and they can kind of set their own agenda”.

The tweet, in turn, was viewed 50 million times by Tuesday afternoon.

David Hogg, a 24-year-old Democratic activist who founded the March for Our Lives Movement after the 2018 mass shooting at his high school in Parkland, Florida, shared the post.

“The amount this single tweet may have just done for the youth vote is not insignificant,” Mr Hogg wrote.

It will reach more young people than a million dollar cable advertisement, said Annie Wu Henry, a digital political strategist who has worked on Democratic campaigns.

Of the more than 300 videos the Biden-Harris campaign has put out on TikTok, the three videos released since Mr Biden stepped aside have amassed 20% of the likes on the entire page, according to Ms Henry.

Some experts say the Harris campaign’s social strategy is not unlike former President Barack Obama’s in 2008.

“It’s been a while that we’ve had someone to top the ticket who’s got the pulse of younger voters and is very involved and conversant in popular culture,” said Philip de Vellis, a political advertising consultant who worked on the Obama campaign.

But, Mr de Vellis cautioned, that does not mean it will translate into votes.

While some point out that online political enthusiasm traditionally has been crafted by a campaign then filtered down to voters and social media users, this push for Ms Harris feels more grassroots, Ms Haenschen said.

Mr Obama’s success was result of a grassroots effort, but in a different context. TikTok did not exist and Facebook was just becoming popular outside of college campuses, she said.

Americans want to be part of a Zeitgeist and the Harris campaign, in its current very online iteration, allows them a chance to do that, she said.

The campaign should allow the Harris meme moment to run its course or risk losing steam, Dr Haenschen said.

The virality of Ms Harris in this moment allows her to embrace her many identities, according to Rachel Grant, a professor of cultural scholar studies, media activism and social movements at the University of Florida.

Younger voters can find clips of her speaking about something that resonates, like her experience attending Howard University or abortion rights.

For now, the millions Ms Harris raised in a few days has energised voters in a tight election now four months away. Still, the Democrats will have to strike a balance of leaning into the virality and key issues to ensure voter turnout.

“Her campaign shouldn’t be focused on coconuts and context and unburdened and all of that,” Ms Henry, the digital political strategist said. “It should be focused on what she can do for the American people.”

Five years ago, Australian striker Michelle Heyman retired from international football with a little more than a whimper.

But on Thursday, the 36-year-old will walk onto the field with the Matildas as they open their Olympic campaign, a feat being called one of the greatest comebacks in Australian sport.

After a record-breaking performance in the domestic football league this season, where she became the first A-League Women (ALW) player to ever surpass 100 goals, Heyman caught the eye of a Matildas coach desperate to fill the hole left by an injured Sam Kerr.

But not only is Heyman back in the squad, she is being seen as Australia’s best shot at finding the net in France.

“There’s always some haters thinking I’m too old to be back,” she told the BBC before the tournament.

“But it’s kind of fun to prove points to people… age is just a number.”

Much like her return to the team in 2024, it was a stellar performance in the A-League – Australia’s domestic football offering – which catapulted a 21-year-old Heyman into the national team back in 2010.

Heyman would go on to play 61 games and score 20 goals for the Matildas, including appearances at the 2015 World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympics, but her early international career was marred by constant struggle.

The Matildas of that era were paid miserably and worked under constant fear and stress, a team culture allegedly so toxic it resulted in the sacking of coach Alen Stajcic in early 2019.

But if there was little support from officials, there was even less from the public. Many of the Matildas games weren’t even open to spectators – the cost would outweigh ticket sales.

And then there were Heyman’s battles with both her physical and mental health: in interviews she spoke about anxiety and regular panic attacks, then back-to-back ankle and knee injuries which only made them worse.

By May 2019, Heyman was burnt out, injured and stressed.

Her starting position on the team was long gone and she hadn’t played even a minute in six months.

“I really wanted to fight [on]… but my body isn’t going to allow me to do that. My mind isn’t going to allow me to do that,” Heyman told Fox Sports when announcing her retirement from international football.

She’d achieved everything she set out to, except an Olympic gold medal, she said.

Years later she would admit she was trying to save face, telling Australian media she was actually dropped from the team.

“I had to just pretend that I wanted to retire but it was mainly because I got fired,” she told Code Sports.

Heyman was so shattered she also exited the A-League and it seemed like the final pages of her storied career had been written.

But just 18 months later, a recharged Heyman returned to the A-League in a blaze of glory, netting a hat-trick in her first match back for Canberra United.

“I missed being part of something bigger than myself,” she said at the time.

Since then, she has overtaken Kerr as the leading ALW goal scorer and become the first to earn a third Golden Boot award. These achievements, combined with her two Julie Dolan medals – the competition’s highest honour – arguably make her the league’s most decorated player.

So when Olympic selection came around, Heyman was ready and waiting, at the top of her game.

“She’s in tremendous form, she’s scoring for fun,” head coach Tony Gustavsson said in February when recalling her to the squad.

The announcement quickly made waves around the country. “Just quietly, this might be one of Australian sport’s greatest comeback stories in recent memory,” wrote Sydney Morning Herald football journalist Vince Rugari.

“Was it something that I thought would ever happen again? Probably not,” Heyman says with a smile.

“I still remember the day – just like, tears. And I don’t cry!”

Adding to the emotion is the fact the country she’s playing for barely resembles the one she competed for just five years ago.

The Matildas are the hottest sporting team in Australia, more well liked and well known than even the Australian men’s cricket team, experts say.

Players are now household names, every match on home soil since the start of the World Cup has sold out and they hold the record for the most watched television event in Australian history.

It’s hard to reconcile that with Heyman’s debut on “a back field in Queensland somewhere”.

“I reckon there was 12 people at the game, if we were lucky,” she says.

“And then now you look at it and our last game, 77,000 people [have] come, cheering you on. That’s the feeling that I wanted for so many years, and it’s something that I never thought was ever going to happen in Australia.”

That awe and a bittersweet joy has rippled through the previous ranks of Matildas too, she says.

“I bring that emotion from every other ex-player, and I want to do it for them. I want to show them ‘look what we all created’.”

Does that – and the spectre of Kerr, the nation’s biggest sporting idol – add to the pressure to perform in France?

Heyman answers with a confident no.

She and Kerr are “very different” forwards but can both deliver, she says. In her few months back in the team, she has already scored six goals, twice as many as any of her teammates over the same period.

“I don’t think anyone remembers the other, numerous amounts of goals I’ve scored for Australia, because they were done back in the day when no one cared about them,” she says with a chuckle.

“[But] I’m good at my job, and I’ll continue to work hard and to win games.”

Hard work will certainly be required. The Matildas have drawn a difficult group – going up against the powerhouse USA team, Rio 2016 gold medallists Germany, and Zambia for the two guaranteed spots in the next round.

The team has also suffered a slew of injuries. Apart from Kerr, co-captain Steph Catley and key winger Caitlin Foord have both been under a cloud the past month. And midfielder Katrina Gorry and defender Clare Hunt have only just returned from injury.

And though their World Cup campaign – most of which Kerr spent on the bench – would argue otherwise, pundits say the team often struggles to perform without her.

So what does Heyman say to the people who have already written the Matildas off?

“They can be quiet,” she says cheekily.

“The more people we have supporting us the better we’re going to do.

“And we’re doing it for you – we’re playing to win for our country.”

Katy Perry’s comeback has faltered after Woman’s World, the first single from her new album, debuted at number 63 in the US chart and at 47 in the UK.

It’s a disappointing return for the pop star, who will release her seventh album 143 in September.

As well as being torn apart on social media, Woman’s World – and its video – have been critically panned, with many feeling its feminist messaging is out of touch.

The Guardian asked “what regressive, warmed-over hell is this?”, The Cut stated that “Perry is stuck in 2016”, and Rolling Stone raised the question: “Did Katy Perry release the worst comeback single of all time?”

On the song, Perry sings about women being sisters, mothers, champions, winners and superheroes all while being sexy and confident – with a catchy chorus of ““.

The video goes one step further, with Perry (dressed as Rosie the Riveter) and other women dancing around a construction site in tiny outfits.

Scenes from the video include the women using urinals, brandishing sex toys, and Perry being hit by an anvil – which prompts her to grow bionic legs.

There’s also an appearance from YouTuber Trisha Paytas, dragging a monster truck.

Later, in a behind-the-scenes video posted on Instagram, Perry explained that the video was meant to be “satire”, “slapstick” and “very on the nose”.

But in her review, the Guardian’s Laura Snapes said Perry was struggling to match her pop star peers at the top of the charts, such as Chappell Roan.

“Roan – along with Sabrina Carpenter and Charli xcx – is modelling how to be a pop star in 2024: they’re inventive, self-aware, silly, deep, some of the qualities Perry had at the peak of her promise but seems to have lost for ever,” she wrote.

Perry has also drawn criticism for working with producer Dr Luke on the single, particularly given that the track is about female empowerment.

Fellow singer Kesha sued Dr Luke in 2014, seeking to void their contract because, her lawyers claimed, he had “sexually, physically, verbally, and emotionally abused [Kesha] to the point where [she] nearly lost her life”.

Dr Luke denied the claims. They reached an agreement to settle a years-long defamation lawsuit last year.

When Perry announced the collaborators for her new album, Kesha – who has just released her first track as an independent artist – tweeted “lol”, widely seen as a jibe at her fellow pop star. Kesha was later pictured in a vest top bearing the same message.

With 2010 album Teenage Dream, Perry became the first female artist to have five number one songs from the same album on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

She has also had five number one singles in the UK, but these were spread out over a decade – from 2008’s I Kissed A Girl through to Feels, her 2017 collaboration with Calvin Harris, Pharrell Williams and Big Sean.

Perry’s last album, Smile, was released in 2020 and – while it had mixed reviews – hit the top five in the UK and US. Its first single Daisies peaked at number 37 on the UK chart.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has ordered the shutdown of a sprawling network of online casinos that have been linked to a slew of criminal activities.

Known locally as Pogos, short for Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators, these online casinos largely cater to players in mainland China, where gambling is illegal.

But they have also increasingly been found to have been used as a cover for illicit activities, from telephone scams to human trafficking.

They flourished under Mr Marcos’ predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who pushed for friendly ties with China during his term.

In his annual address to parliament on Monday, Mr Marcos called for the “desecration of our country [to] stop”.

“Disguising as legitimate entities, their operations have ventured into illicit areas furthest from gaming such as financial scamming, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture, even murder,” he said.

On Tuesday, the Philippines’ gaming regulator said it would cancel the licenses of Pogos and wind down the sector by the end of the year.

The Pogo industry is made up of over 400 licensed and unlicensed outfits, employing 40,000 people directly and indirectly, according to government estimates.

The industry brings in an estimated 166.5bn pesos ($2.9bn; £2.2bn) of revenue a year, factoring in tax and gaming revenues – lower than its estimated economic costs of 266bn pesos annually.

The BBC has reached out businesses and employees connected to Pogos, but they have declined to comment.

The alleged link between Pogos and criminal rings came under national spotlight recently after a Pogo in a small town was found to have been a front for a scam centre.

The mayor of the town, Alice Guo, is accused of being a spy for China and is currently believed to be in hiding.

Pogos have also been linked to clandestine hospitals, with authorities saying such hospitals were offering their services to those working in such online casinos, offering plastic surgery services to fugitives and scam centre workers to help them evade arrest.

Since taking over from Mr Duterte, Mr Marcos has reversed Manila’s pivot to China and moved closer to the US, the Philippines’ historic ally.

Some analysts say the ban could also be viewed by some as another attempt to further distance the Philippines from China.

Both countries are currently locked in a territorial dispute over the South China Sea, with tensions increasingly escalating in recent months.

“Pogos’ presence has ceased to be a mere law and order problem. It has been linked to China’s creeping ‘occupation’ of the Philippines for ordinary Filipinos,” Jean Encinas-Franco, a professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman told the BBC.

She added that Mr Marcos’ move will also be seen as a “rebuke to the open Pogo policy of the previous administration”, which could drum up his approval ratings ahead of a crucial mid-term election in 2025.

Locally, the ban has been cheered as being good for business.

Philippines Trade Secretary Alferdo Pascual told local media that it makes the country “more attractive to those who are seeking leisure… because Pogo creates a bad impression, resulting in violence”.

George Barcelon, the chairman of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Pogos is a business “that brings in the kind of people we don’t want. It endangers the moral fibre of our nation”.

China will gradually raise its statutory retirement age in the next five years to try to cope with its ageing population and buckling pension system.

Life expectancy in the country has now risen above the United States, to 78 years, from just 36 years at the time of the Communist revolution in 1949.

But China’s retirement age remains one of the lowest in the world – at 60 for men, 55 for women in white-collar jobs and 50 for working-class women.

The plan to raise retirement ages is part of a series of resolutions adopted last week at a five-yearly top-level Communist party meeting, known as the Third Plenum.

“In line with the principle of voluntary participation with appropriate flexibility, we will advance reform to gradually raise the statutory retirement age in a prudent and orderly manner,” the party’s central committee said in a key policy document highlighting the reforms.

It did not specify how much the age of retirement would be raised and by when, but a China Pension Development Report released at the end of 2023 wrote that “65 years old may be the final result after adjustment”.

The plan has been on the cards for a few years, as China’s pension budget dwindles.

The state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in 2019 that the country’s main state pension fund will run out of money by 2035 – and that was an estimate before the Covid-19 pandemic, which hit China’s economy hard.

At the same time, the country’s huge population has fallen for a second consecutive year in 2023 as the birth rate continues to decline.

The state-run Global Times newspaper quoted demographers in China saying that the plan to raise the age of retirement highlights “voluntariness” and “flexibility”, which shows that the authorities acknowledge there is no one-size-fits-all policy when it comes to retirement.

However the plan has drawn some scepticism on the Chinese internet.

“Those who wish to retire early are burnt out from their laborious jobs, but those who are in comfortable, lucrative roles will not choose to retire. What kind of jobs will the younger generation end up with?” one user wrote on Weibo, an X-like platform.

Some said a delayed retirement would only mean delayed access to their pensions. “There is no guarantee that you would still have a job before the statutory retrement age,” one user wrote.

A breaching whale has capsized a boat and sent two people flying into the water.

Video shows how a humpback whale suddenly appeared out of the water before flipping over a small, 23-foot (7m) vessel.

Two people can be seen falling into the ocean as the huge mammal turns their boat upside down.

The footage was filmed by Colin Yanger, who says he was on a nearby boat whose occupants pulled the individuals to safety.

The US Coast Guard says no one sustained injuries, and it has reported the incident to the Center of Coastal Studies Marine Animal Hotline and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Bob Menendez is to resign from the US Senate after being convicted of accepting bribes including gold bars to help foreign governments.

The New Jersey Democrat had been resisting calls to step down, including from Democratic Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer. His resignation comes a day after the Senate’s ethics committee began a review on his expulsion.

The former head of the Senate foreign relations committee was found guilty on 16 counts of taking bribes to aid the Qatari and Egyptian governments, and faces a lengthy prison term when he is sentenced on 29 October.

Jurors were told that FBI agents discovered more than $480,000 (£370,452) in cash stuffed in envelopes and coats in Menendez’s home, along with gold bars worth more than $100,000. Some of the bullion was presented as evidence.

The 70-year-old maintains his innocence, saying after his conviction that he “never violated my public oath”.

In his resignation letter to Phil Murphy, New Jersey’s governor, Menendez said he was proud of his accomplishments in the Senate and that while he intended to appeal his conviction, “I do not want the Senate to be involved in a lengthy process that will detract from its important work”.

The resignation notice, effective on August 20, was also read on the Senate floor.

Menendez was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1993. He was later appointed to the Senate in 2006 by John Corzine, who resigned his seat after being elected governor of New Jersey.

A previous bribery and conspiracy charges ended in a mistrial in 2017. However, a nine-trial this year ended in a guilty verdict.

Two businessmen, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, are also being tried on accusations that they sought out the senator to illegally aid the Egyptian government and secure millions of dollars from a Qatari investment fund. They deny the charges.

A third businessman, Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty and gave evidence against Menendez in the trial.

New Jersey Representative Andy Kim won the Democratic nomination to run for Senate in June, beating Tammy Murphy, the wife of New Jersey’s governor.

The New York Times reported that Menendez could theoretically run for re-election as an independent, potentially siphoning votes from the Democrats at a time when the party is heavily focused on maintaining the Senate and White House.

A trial against his wife on bribery and obstruction charges has been postponed indefinitely while she recovers from breast cancer surgery.

Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah have signed a declaration agreeing to form an interim “national reconciliation government” for the occupied West Bank and Gaza after the war with Israel, in a meeting brokered by China, China’s foreign minister and Hamas officials have said.

Representatives from the groups, along with 12 other Palestinian factions, pledged to work for unity after three days of talks in Beijing.

It is the latest of several reconciliation deals Hamas and Fatah have agreed on in their long fractured relationship, none of which have yet led to the end of the schism.

Israel has also ruled out a role for Hamas or Fatah in governing Gaza after the end of hostilities there.

The deep split began in 2007 when Hamas became the sole ruler in Gaza after violently ejecting Fatah from the territory. This came after Palestinian President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas dissolved the Hamas-led unity government formed when Hamas won national elections the year before.

Since then, the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority has been left in charge of only parts of the West Bank.

Hamas has lost control in Gaza since the war with Israel began on 7 October with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel, in which it killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others back to Gaza as hostages. More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza as a result of the Israeli offensive, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

In a statement posted on Telegram, Hamas spokesman Hossam Badran said the declaration was an “additional positive step on the path to achieving Palestinian national unity”.

He said the groups were in agreement on “Palestinian demands relating to ending the war… which are: a ceasefire, complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, relief and reconstruction.”

He said “the most important” part of what was agreed was to form a Palestinian national consensus government “that would manage the affairs of our people in Gaza and the West Bank, supervise reconstruction, and prepare the conditions for elections”.

The declaration is in effect an expression of intent as there are major obstacles to making such an agreement work. Fatah has yet to comment on it, though its representative Mahmoud al-Aloul thanked China for its support of the Palestinian cause following the announcement.

Israel, which has vowed to destroy Hamas before it will end the war, swiftly dismissed the Beijing declaration.

“Instead of rejecting terrorism, Mahmoud Abbas embraces the murderers and rapists of Hamas, revealing his true face,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on X.

“In reality, this won’t happen because Hamas’s rule will be crushed, and Abbas will be watching Gaza from afar. Israel’s security will remain solely in Israel’s hands.”

But the lack of success of past deals has not deterred China, which wants to broker peace in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict and sees Palestinian unity as key to that outcome. Beijing previously hosted talks between Hamas and Fatah in April.

“China and Palestine are trustworthy brothers and good partners,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Tuesday, adding that China would “work tirelessly with all relevant parties” towards unity and reconciliation.

“Reconciliation is an internal matter for the Palestinian factions, but at the same time, it cannot be achieved without the support of the international community,” said foreign minister Wang Yi after the declaration was signed, in remarks reported by Reuters news agency.

He also outlined a three-step plan to address the Gaza war: promoting a lasting ceasefire; upholding the “principle of Palestinians governing Palestine”; and recognising the state of Palestine as part of a two-state solution and giving them full UN membership.

China’s support of Palestinian causes stretches back to the era of Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong, who sent weapons to Palestinians in support for so-called “national liberation” movements around the world. Mao even compared Israel to Taiwan – both backed by the US – as bases of Western imperialism.

In their remarks on the latest conflict, Chinese officials and even President Xi Jinping have stressed the need for an independent Palestinian state. Mr Xi has also sent his top diplomats to the Middle East for talks and recently hosted Arab leaders for a conference in Beijing.

The conflict has also erupted at a time when China has ambitions to play a more direct role in international politics and has presented itself as a better suitor for the world than the US. Last year it brokered a deal between Middle East rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia to restore ties for the first time since 2016.

Since then, it has promoted a vision of a Chinese-led world order while criticising what it sees as the failures of US “hegemonic” leadership.

Eighteen people were killed after a plane crashed and caught fire while it was taking off from Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu.

The pilot, who is currently receiving treatment in hospital, is the only survivor of Wednesday’s fatal accident after being rescued from the burning wreckage.

The Saurya Airlines flight was carrying 17 company employees, including technical staff, as well as two crew members. It was bound for the Himalayan tourism hub of Pokhara in the country’s west.

Nepal’s aviation industry has a poor safety record that has been attributed to multiple factors over the years, from unpredictable weather to lax regulations.

The flight, which was heading for Pokhara as part of a routine maintenance check, crashed at about 11:15 local time (05:30 GMT), a few minutes after it took off from Tribhuvan International Airport, according to a statement by the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority’s search and rescue co-ordination centre.

Police spokesperson Dan Bahadur Karki told BBC Nepali that the pilot sustained injuries to his eyes and forehead, but said his life was not in danger.

One man who was inside a nearby shop when the accident occurred said: “There was a very loud noise, it sounded like maybe a truck had overturned on the road.

“We ran after we saw [the crash]. The plane then hit the ground and caught fire. We were about to run to the site but then there was an explosion so we ran away again,” he told AFP news agency.

Airport chief Jagannath Niraula told BBC Nepali that the accident “happened as soon as it left the ground, in not even a minute”, though airport authorities have not been able to confirm the cause of the disaster.

However, the head of Tribhuvan International Airport said that an initial assessment showed that the plane had flown in the wrong direction.

“As soon as it took off, it turned right, [when it] should have turned left,” Mr Niraula told BBC Nepali.

Footage of the incident showed the plane tilting above the runway before crashing into the ground, into flames. It quickly became enveloped in fire and smoke.

Photos showed rescue workers making their way through the wreckage, with large parts of the plane completely blackened and charred. Photos of the aftermath also appeared to show parts of the plane inside an air freight container.

Fire engines and ambulances were rushed to the spot after the incident.

Seventeen of those who died were Nepali, while one was a Yemeni national, who was working as an engineer.

“The plane was scheduled to undergo maintenance for a month beginning Thursday… It is unclear why it crashed,” said Saurya Airlines marketing head Mukesh Khanal, Reuters news agency reports.

Kathmandu’s airport closed temporarily after the crash, but reopened within hours, Reuters said.

Nepal has been criticised for its poor air safety record. In January 2023, at least 72 people were killed in a Yeti Airlines crash that was later attributed to its pilots mistakenly cutting the power.

It was deadliest air crash in Nepal since 1992, when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane died when it crashed on approach to Kathmandu Airport.

Saruya Airlines operates flights to five destinations within Nepal, with a fleet of three Bombardier CRJ-200 jets, according to the company’s website.

The severed leg of a surfer who was attacked by a shark has washed up on an Australian beach, with doctors now racing to see if it can be reattached.

Kai McKenzie, 23, was surfing near Port Macquarie in New South Wales (NSW) on Tuesday, when a 3m (9.8ft) great white shark bit him.

He managed to catch a wave into shore, where an off-duty police officer used a makeshift tourniquet to stem his bleeding, according to authorities.

His leg washed up a short time later and was put on ice by locals before being taken to hospital, where a medical team is now assessing surgery options.

Mr McKenzie – who is a sponsored surfer – remains in a serious but stable condition, according to emergency services, who have thanked the off-duty officer for his rapid response to the incident.

“He used the lead off his dog as a tourniquet… and essentially saved his life until the paramedics got there,” said NSW Ambulance’s Kirran Mowbray.

She described Mr McKenzie as “calm” and “able to talk” following the attack. “He’s just a really brave and courageous young man,” she added.

Mr McKenzie was rushed to a local hospital shortly after the incident, before being flown to the John Hunter Hospital – which is a major trauma centre – in Newcastle some 200km (124 miles) away. His severed leg also made the long journey.

The keen surfer had only recently returned to the water after suffering a significant neck injury which forced him to take time off from the sport, according to local media reports.

A GoFundMe page to help Mr McKenzie’s family with his medical and rehabilitation costs has been created, attracting over A$75,000 ($49,000; £38,000) as of Wednesday.

While Australia has more shark attacks than any other country except the US, fatal attacks remain relatively rare.

Bodycam footage captured shortly after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump shows Secret Service and local law enforcement officers near the lifeless body of the gunman.

A trail of blood can be seen near the body of the deceased gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was able to fire at the former president from a roof overlooking the outdoor rally in Pennsylvania 10 days ago.

One audience member, Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed and two others – David Dutch, 57 and James Copenhaver, 57 – were badly wounded but are in a stable condition.

The new footage emerged hours after US Secret Service director Kim Cheatle resigned over security failures surrounding the assassination attempt.

The bodycam video captured by Butler County Emergency Services Unit was posted on X by the office of Republican Senator Chuck Grassley.

“A Beaver County sniper seen and sent the pictures out, this is him,” one Secret Service agent can be heard saying in the video, referring to the shooter’s body.

“I don’t know if you got the same ones I did?” an officer asks the agent of the photos.

“I think I did, yeah, he’s [the shooter] got his glasses on,” the agent replies.

The officer adds the sniper “sent the original pictures, and seen him (the shooter) come from the bike, and set the book bag down, and then lost sight of him”.

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The agent also asks about whether an abandoned bike that was found in the area belonged to the shooter.

“We don’t know,” an officer replies.

Discussions can also be heard about “victims in the crowd” and “people detained who were filming”.

Senator Grassley is one of many members of Congress demanding a full investigation into the incident.

Lawmakers questioned Ms Cheatle about security preparations ahead of the campaign rally during a six-hour House of Representatives Oversight Committee hearing on Monday.

Ms Cheatle said she took responsibility for the security lapses, but during the hearing she pushed back on calls to resign.

She called the shooting “the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades”.

Witnesses reported seeing a suspicious man – suspect Crooks – with a rifle on a rooftop at the rally minutes before shots were fired.

Crooks was killed by a counter-sniper shortly after getting a volley of shots off.

Trump was injured in the right ear. He later said he felt the bullet “ripping through the skin”.

Blood was visible on Trump’s face as protection officers rushed him away.

On Tuesday night, Ms Cheatle resigned in a letter sent to staff saying as director she took “full responsibility for the security lapses”.

US Vice-President Kamala Harris has gone on the offensive against Donald Trump in the first rally of her White House campaign, portraying November’s election as a choice between a former prosecutor and a convicted felon.

Speaking to a crowd of about 3,000 in the battleground state of Wisconsin, Ms Harris likened her Republican opponent to fraudsters she said she had prosecuted.

Trump, meanwhile, assailed her record on the border, and posted on social media: “Lyin’ Kamala Harris destroys everything she touches!”

It comes a day after she secured the support of a majority of Democratic delegates, paving the way for her to become the party’s nominee.

On Sunday afternoon, President Joe Biden announced he was withdrawing from the race and endorsed his vice-president amid mounting pressure from top Democrats and donors following his disastrous debate against Trump in late June.

The fledgling Harris campaign raised a staggering $100m plus (£77m) in the 36 hours after Mr Biden’s exit.

Adding to her momentum, a new national poll from Reuters and Ipsos shows her with a two-point lead over Trump, 44% to 42%.

Taking the stage to applause at a high school in a suburb of Milwaukee on Tuesday, Ms Harris highlighted her experience as California’s attorney general.

“I took on perpetrators of all kinds,” she said. “Predators who abused women. Fraudsters who ripped off consumers. Cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain.”

“So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type,” Ms Harris added. “In this campaign, I promise you, I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week.”

In response, the crowd shouted “Kamala! Kamala!” Some observers noted that the audience’s enthusiasm contrasted with that seen at Biden events this electoral cycle.

When her Republican opponent’s name was mentioned, many attendees chanted “lock him up”, echoing a similar refrain at Trump events when he was running against Hillary Clinton in 2016.

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Trump, meanwhile, posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, about a poll finding that Ms Harris was the most unpopular vice-president in US history.

He also shared a post noting that she was rated by the non-partisan congressional scorekeeper GovTrack as one of the most left-wing among dozens of Democratic senators during her tenure.

Ms Harris laid out a number of liberal priorities in her speech, on gun control and abortion access, as well as child poverty, union rights and affordable healthcare.

“Do we want to live in a country of freedom, compassion and rule of law, or a country of chaos, fear and hate?” she said.

Whether Ms Harris can maintain her momentum is unclear. In a memo released Tuesday, pollster Tony Fabrizio predicted her “honeymoon” period with voters would end and that there would be a “refocus on her role as Biden’s partner and co-pilot”.

The Trump campaign is attacking Ms Harris’ “failure” to stem a record influx of illegal immigrants at the US-Mexico border. It has also signalled that it will slam the Biden-Harris administration’s record on crime and inflation.

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A Tuesday afternoon email from the Republican nominee’s team accused her of bailing out “accused murderers, rapists and other violent offenders”, insulting Israel and deceiving the US public about Mr Biden’s “cognitive decline”.

During a call with reporters, Trump said of Ms Harris: “She’s a radical left person, but this country doesn’t want a radical left person to destroy it.

“I think she should be easier than Biden, because he was slightly more mainstream, but not much.”

Trump also said he was open to debating her in September, when he was originally due to face Biden on ABC News.

“I haven’t agreed to anything,” he said. “I agreed to a debate with Joe Biden. But I want to debate her. She’ll be no different.”

Most Democratic lawmakers – including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer – have already endorsed Ms Harris’ candidacy.

Entertainers George Clooney, Barbra Streisand and Jamie Lee Curtis and other Hollywood stars have also endorsed her, potentially unlocking further substantial donations to her campaign.

Her campaign is still vetting potential running mates.

Historically, vice-presidents are picked to complement a candidate and strategists believe for that reason she may pick a white man from a swing state.

On Wednesday, President Biden will deliver an Oval Office speech explaining his decision to withdraw. He arrived back at the White House on Tuesday after several days away from the public eye as he recovered from Covid.

In Washington, a Republican member of the US House of Representatives introduced articles of impeachment against Ms Harris.

The resolution, written by Tennessee’s Andy Ogles, accuses her of high crimes and misdemeanours over her handling of immigration at the border.

It is considered unlikely to advance.

Typhoon Gaemi has made landfall on Taiwan’s east coast, bringing gusts of around 240kmh (150mph).

Gaemi, which has landed near the city of Hualien, is expected to be the most powerful storm to hit the island in eight years.

Taiwanese officials said two people had been killed and hundreds more injured.

The island’s largest annual military drills have been cancelled, along with almost all domestic flights and more than 200 international flights, according to the transport ministry.

Authorities are warning one of biggest risks comes from the typhoon’s potential to cause landslides and flash flooding, especially on mountainsides destabilised by a large earthquake in April.

On its way to Taiwan, Gaemi also brought relentless rains to large swathes of the Philippines, with floods turning streets into rivers in the capital Manila.

The typhoon is seeing winds of up to 240kmh (150 mph), the equivalent of a category four hurricane in terms of wind strength and destructive potential.

The government has declared Wednesday a typhoon day, suspending work and classes across the island except for the Kinmen islands.

However, chip manufacturing giant TSMC told the BBC that their plants would maintain normal operations.

The storm was originally expected to hit further north, but the mountains of northern Taiwan steered the typhoon slightly south towards the city of Hualien.

The typhoon is expected to weaken as it tracks over the mountainous terrain of Taiwan before re-emerging in the Taiwan Strait towards China.

A second landfall is expected in Fujian Province, China, later on Thursday. 300mm of rain is forecast there and is expected to lead to extensive flooding as the typhoon moves inland and breaks up.

Despite the very strong winds, officials say the main threat from Gaemi is from the huge amount of moisture it is carrying.

The island’s Central Weather Administration has issued a land warning for all of Taiwan, expecting wind and rain to be at their worst on Wednesday and Thursday.

Taiwanese authorities are warning that between one and two metres of rainfall can be expected across the central and southern mountains of the island in the next 24 hours.

In the capital Taipei, shelves in supermarkets were left bare on Tuesday evening as people stocked up ahead of what are expected to be sharp rise in prices after the typhoon passes.

The threat of the typhoon has also forced the government to call off parts of its planned week-long Hang Kuang military drills on Tuesday and Wednesday, although they had repeatedly said the drills would be “the most realistic ever”.

Gaemi and a southwest monsoon also brought heavy rain on Wednesday to the Philippine capital region and northern provinces. Work and classes have been halted there while stock and foreign exchange trading were suspended.

Metro Manila, home to nearly 15 million people, was placed under a state of calamity as rivers and creeks overflowed.

Footage circulating on social media showed small cars floating in chest-deep waters and commuters trapped on the roofs of buses.

The state weather bureau said the rains, which are typical at this time of the year, could persist until Thursday.

Israel’s prime minister will address a joint session of the US Congress in a bid to bolster support for his country’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Benjamin Netanyahu was invited by the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, whose Republican Party is trying to show unflinching support for Israel.

But dozens of Democratic lawmakers plan to boycott the address in protest at the huge numbers of Palestinians killed by Israel’s offensive.

Mr Netanyahu arrived in the US on Monday. After addressing Congress on Wednesday, he will meet President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, then have a separate meeting with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

“Looking forward to welcoming Bibi Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida,” Mr Trump said in a post on Truth Social, using a common nickname for the Israeli prime minister.

Mr Netanyahu has said he would “present the truth about our just war” during his address to Congress, in what is his first trip to the US since the conflict with Hamas began.

Israel’s PM faces growing international and domestic pressure over his handling of the war, which started nearly 10 months ago.

In May, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan applied for arrest warrants against Mr Netanyahu, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes. Both Israel and Hamas reacted with outrage to the move.

And last week, the International Court of Justice said Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories was “illegal” – a conclusion Israel rejected.

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Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters are also expected to descend on Washington for a “day of rage“.

Speaker Johnson has warned against protests inside the House of Representatives chamber, saying there would be arrests “if we have to do it”.

On Tuesday, about 200 Jewish American peace activists held a protest in the Capitol building complex.

Police eventually removed the protesters, who all wore red T-shirts proclaiming “Not in our name” and “Jews say stop arming Israel”.

Mr Netanyahu’s Washington visit comes as his relationship with the US has grown tense, especially among leading Democrats.

President Biden has also grown more critical of Israel as the war continues and the death toll in Gaza climbs.

Mr Biden, who dropped out of the presidential election on Sunday, has come under political pressure from his party’s left flank to do more to convince Israel to limit its war in Gaza.

Vice-President Harris, who is now the presumptive Democratic nominee, will not preside in her constitutional role as president of the Senate during Mr Netanyahu’s address.

More than 30 Democratic lawmakers have said they will skip Netanyahu’s speech.

Illinois Senator Dick Durban is among them. He said he stood by Israel, but would not stand and cheer its current leader.

Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, also said he would skip the speech in protest at the “total war” waged by Mr Netanyahu’s government in the Gaza Strip.

“His policies in Gaza and the West Bank and his refusal to support a two-state solution should be roundly condemned,” Mr Sanders said in a social media post.

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen said: “It sends a terrible message to bring him here now to address a joint session of Congress.”

Israel launched a campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 39,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry, whose figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization said it was “extremely worried” about the possibility of an outbreak of the highly infectious polio virus in Gaza after traces were found in wastewater.

Anti-government protests have sparked nationwide clashes in Bangladesh between police and university students. At least 150 people have been killed – and some of those caught up in the bloodshed have described to the BBC what happened.

One student said demonstrators in the capital Dhaka just wanted to hold a peaceful rally, but the police “ruined” it by attacking them as they were gathering.

A student leader now recovering in hospital described how he was blindfolded and tortured by people claiming to be police.

Meanwhile, an emergency department doctor said they were overwhelmed as dozens of young people with gunshot wounds were brought in at the height of the clashes.

Security forces are accused of excessive force but the government has blamed political opponents for the unrest, which erupted after quotas were imposed on government jobs. Most of these have now been scrapped on Supreme Court orders.

A nationwide internet blackout since Thursday has restricted the flow of information in the country, where a curfew is being enforced by thousands of soldiers.

Limited connectivity was restored on Tuesday night, with priority given to companies such as banks, technology firms and media outlets. Mobile phones have started pinging with WhatsApp messages between friends and families, but users say the internet is slow, while mobile internet and sites such as Facebook remain suspended.

The violence is the most serious challenge in years to Sheikh Hasina, 76, who secured her fourth straight term as prime minister in January, in a controversial election boycotted by the country’s main opposition parties.

Raya (not her real name), a student at the private BRAC university, told BBC Bangla she first joined the protests on Wednesday 17 July, but it was the following day that clashes with police got “really horrible”.

“Police attacked students by throwing tear gas shells after 11:30am. At that moment, a few students picked up those tear gas shells and threw them back towards the policemen,” was how she described it.

She said the police later started using rubber bullets and at one point trapped the students in their campus, even stopping them from taking the badly injured to hospital.

Then, in the afternoon, the police ordered them to leave.

“On that day, we just wanted to do a peaceful rally, but the police ruined the whole environment before we could do anything,” Raya said.

Things took an even darker turn on 19 July, the day when most of the fatalities happened.

By 10:00, hundreds of protesters were battling police at Natun Bazaar near Rampura, not far from a normally secure district that’s home to numerous embassies which now resembled a war zone.

The protesters were hurling bricks and stones at police who responded with shotgun fire, tear-gas and sound grenades, while a helicopter was firing from the air.

BBC reporters saw fires everywhere, burnt and vandalised vehicles left on the street, barricades – set up by police as well as protesters – dismantled steel road barriers and broken branches scattered on the road.

The police could be seen asking for reinforcements and ammunition which was quickly running out.

By this time hospitals in the city were starting to see large numbers of injured, many arriving on foot drenched in blood.

Emergency departments were overwhelmed as hundreds of patients flooded in over a short span of time.

“We referred critically injured patients to Dhaka Medical College Hospital as we could not manage them here,” one doctor who did not want to be named told BBC Bangla, saying most of the victims had been shot with rubber bullets.

Also speaking on condition of anonymity, another doctor at a government hospital said for a few hours it seemed like every other minute someone injured came in.

“On Thursday and Friday, most of the patients came with injury from gunshots,” the doctor said. “On Thursday we performed 30 surgeries on a single six-hour shift.

“It was unnerving even for an experienced doctor… some of my colleagues and I were really nervous to treat so many injured young people.”

The situation got worse by Friday evening with the government declaring a nationwide curfew and deploying the army on the streets.

It was after Friday’s violence that one of the student leaders, Nahid Islam, went missing.

His father said he was taken from a friend’s house at midnight on Friday, and reappeared more than 24 hours later.

Nahid himself then described how he had been picked up and taken to a room in a house, interrogated and subjected to physical and mental torture by people claiming to be detectives.

He says he fainted and only regained consciousness early on Sunday morning, at which point he walked home and sought hospital treatment for blood clots on both shoulders and his left leg.

In response to his allegations, Information Minister Mohammad Ali Arafat told the BBC the incident would be investigated but that he suspected “sabotage” – that someone was trying to discredit the police.

“My question is, if someone from the government has gone, why would they pick him up, detain him for 12 hours and release him somewhere, so that he can come back and make such a complaint?”

There are also questions about those who died, some of whom do not seem to have a proven connection to the protest movement.

BBC Bangla spoke to relatives of Maruf Hossain, 21, who was jobhunting in Dhaka after finishing his studies.

His mother said she told him not to go out during the protests but he was shot in the back while trying to escape the fighting, and later died in hospital.

Another of the dead, Selim Mandal, a construction worker, was trapped in a fire which broke out in the early hours of Sunday morning after violence in the area at a site where he was both working and living.

His charred body was found with those of two others. The cause of the fire is unknown.

Hasib Iqbal, 27, who died in the violence, was said to be a member of the protest movement but not deeply involved. His family said he wasn’t really a part of it, but they’re not sure how he died.

His father was shocked to learn of the death of his son, who had gone to Friday prayers. “We were supposed to go to prayers together, but since I was a little late, he went to the mosque alone,” Mr Razzaq told BBC Bengali.

Mr Razzaq later went out to look for him but only found out he had died hours later. His death certificate said he died of asphyxiation but relatives at his funeral found black marks on his chest.

Mr Razzaq does not plan to file a complaint with the police because “my son will never come back”.

“My only son,” he said, “I never dreamed of losing him like this.”

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters will descend on Washington for a “day of rage” over the war in Gaza as Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks in Congress on Wednesday, organisers have warned.

The message comes after Mr Netanyahu said he would “present the truth about our just war”, during his first trip outside Israel since the Israel-Hamas conflict began.

Ahmad Abuznaid, executive director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights and a chief organiser, said protesters would “make the statement that war criminals like Netanyahu are not welcome” in the United States.

Mr Netanyahu was invited by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to give his first address to Congress in nine years. Mr Johnson has warned against protests inside the House chamber, saying there would be arrests “if we have to do it”.

But organisers say the streets will be filled with furious demonstrations.

Reem Assil, a member of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, said she was travelling from California to protest against the the deaths of family members and other civilians in the “mass slaughter” in Gaza.

“The idea of the man responsible for these atrocities being allowed to come here, channels my rage,” she said.

“I’ve lost over 40 members of my family and work through grief every day to remain committed to showing up for my people. This is a huge moment.”

The war in Gaza was sparked when Hamas invaded Israel on 7 October last year, killed approximately 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 Israelis and foreigners.

The Hamas-run health ministry says that more than 39,000 Palestinians have since been killed in the Israeli response. Israel denies accusations of war crimes.

Mr Netanyahu is also due to meet President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris at the White House, and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Jinan Deena, a Palestinian-American from the Washington area, said she and others were “gearing up for a day of rage” against Mr Netanyahu’s visit.

“To know [Mr Netanyahu] is going to be sharing air with us in our own city… it’s like a slap in the face,” she said.

Another organiser from Michigan, who did not give their name, said “more people are willing to get arrested this time” compared to previous protests.

More than 300 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested for wrongfully gathering inside and outside of the US Capitol complex in October.

An estimated 400,000 gathered in Washington to protest against the war in January.

“All the protests have shown a tone of rage, but this time is definitely different,” Ayah, an organiser with the Palestinian Youth Movement, told the BBC. “It is our enemy, our primary enemy, they are inviting into the White House.”

Mr Netanyahu faces both international and domestic pressure for his handling of the war.

His US trip also follows a ruling by the International Court of Justice that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories was “illegal”. Israel rejects the ruling.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in May applied for arrest warrants for Mr Netanyahu, as well as senior Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed al-Deif and Ismail Haniyeh, alleging war crimes on both sides.

Mr Netanyahu condemned the application as “a complete distortion of reality” that equated Israel to the “mass murderers of Hamas”. Hamas, meanwhile, accused the prosecutor of trying to “equate the victim with the executioner”.

Polling by Israel’s Channel 12 says that 72% of Israelis think Mr Netanyahu should resign over security lapses on 7 October and the failure to free hostages that still remain in the hands of Hamas.

Mr Netanyahu will also face protests in the US from Israelis.

Maya Roman, whose cousin spent 54 days in captivity after being kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October, is among those travelling from Israel.

She told the BBC that Mr Netanyahu was “leaving behind” hostages still in captivity, and ignoring the more pressing issue of a ceasefire deal that would free them.

“By leaving without a signed deal, he makes the hostages and the families feel abandoned,” she said.

Pro-Israel protesters will also be in Washington. Ira Stoll, a Jewish-American who has family in Israel, said he was happy Mr Netanyahu was coming.

“America needs to show it stand with its friends, and Netanyahu is the elected leader of one of our friends,” Mr Stoll, who is not coming, said.

Some 200,000 children, young people and vulnerable adults suffered abuse while in state and faith-based care in New Zealand over the last 70 years, a landmark investigation has found.

It means almost one in three children in care from 1950 to 2019 suffered some form of abuse, including being subject to rape, electric shocks and forced labour, according to the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry.

The publication of the commission’s final report follows a six-year investigation into the experiences of nearly 3,000 people.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon apologised for the findings, calling it “a dark and sorrowful day in New Zealand’s history as a society”.

The inquiry was New Zealand’s biggest and most expensive to date, costing about NZ$170m ($101m; £78m).

Many of those abused have come from disadvantaged or marginalised communities, including Māori and Pacific people, as well as those with disabilities.

More than 2,300 survivors spoke to the inquiry, which found that in most cases, “abuses and neglect almost always started from the first day”.

One survivor, Anna Thompson, told the commission how she was physically and verbally abused at a faith-based orphanage.

“At night, the nuns would strip my clothes off, tie me to the bed face down, and thrash me with a belt with the buckle. It cut into my skin until I bled and I couldn’t sit down afterwards for weeks,” she said in testimony published in the report.

Jesse Kett spoke of how he was beaten and raped by staff in a residential school in Auckland when he was eight years old – recounting in his testimony that other staff members would sometimes watch the abuse happen.

Moeapulu Frances Tagaloa was abused by a priest for two years from the age of five in the 1970s.

“He was a popular, well-known teacher,” she said.

“But he was also a paedophile and unfortunately there were other little girls that he abused.”

Ms Tagaloa now works to help other survivors and has called for all 138 recommendations included in the report to be implemented.

The report found that Māori and Pacific survivors endured higher levels of physical abuse, and were often “degraded because of their ethnicity and skin colour”.

It also found that children and people in foster care experienced the highest levels of sexual abuse among various social welfare care settings.

“It is a national disgrace that hundreds of thousands of children, young people and adults were abused and neglected in the care of the state and faith-based institutions,” the report said.

“Many survivors died while they were in care or by suicide following care. For others, the impacts of abuse are ongoing and compounding, making everyday activities and choices challenging,” it added.

Mr Luxon said: “We should have done better, and I am determined we will do so.

“To every person who took part, I say thank you for your exceptional strength, your incredible courage and your confronting honesty. Because of you, we know the truth about the abuse and trauma you have endured,” he said, describing many of the stories as horrific and harrowing.

“I cannot take away your pain, but I can tell you this: you are heard and you are believed.”

He added that it was too soon to reveal how much the government expected to pay victims in compensation. He said he would offer a formal apology on 12 November.

According to the report, the economic cost of this abuse and neglect has been estimated to be anywhere from NZ$96bn to $217bn, taking into consideration negative outcomes including increased mental and physical healthcare costs, homelessness and crime.

On Wednesday, dozens of care abuse survivors took part in a march to parliament before the inquiry was released.

One survivor called the report “historic”.

“For decades they told us we made it up,” Toni Jarvis told news agency Reuters. “So this today is historic and it’s an acknowledgement. It acknowledges all the survivors that have been courageous enough to share their stories.”

Academic Dr Rawiri Waretini-Karena, who was a witness in the inquiry, had earlier spoken about the “pipeline from state care to prison”.

“When I walked into the prison yard for the first time as a teenager, having never been there before – I already knew 80% of the men in there. We’d spent the last 11 years growing up together in state care,” he wrote in an opinion piece for Radio New Zealand.

“That’s when I knew there was a pipeline to prison; a pipeline that has spent decades sweeping up and funnelling Māori children from state care to prison.”

Dr Waretini-Karena added that the Royal Commission’s report acknowledged “that whilst we are responsible for our actions, we are not responsible for the hidden mechanisms that operate within the environment we are born into, privileging one faction at the expense of the other”.

MrBeast’s YouTube co-host Ava Kris Tyson has quit the channel after grooming allegations, which she denies.

The 28-year-old US YouTuber, who has more than 22,000 subscribers on her own channel, was accused of sending inappropriate messages to a minor, reportedly then 13, when she was 20.

On X, Ava denied the claims saying, “I never groomed anyone”, but apologised for her “past behaviour” in a statement.

She said that she and MrBeast – real name Jimmy Donaldson – have “mutually decided it’s best I permanently step away from all things MrBeast and social media to focus on my family and mental health”.

Ava rose to fame after appearing alongside MrBeast on his channel, which has more than 300m subscribers, since 2012.

In 2022 he became the most subscribed YouTuber on the platform and is known for huge stunts and his philanthropic videos.

Ava revealed last year that she was a transgender woman and that she was undergoing gender-affirming therapy while changing her pronouns to she/her.

Allegations first surfaced against her last month in videos shared by other YouTubers which accuse her of messaging a minor when she was 20.

Ava responded by saying: “To create a narrative that my behaviour extended beyond bad edgy jokes is disgusting and did not happen.

“In past years, I have learned that my old humour is not acceptable. I cannot change who I was, but I can continue to work on myself.

“I humbly apologise to anyone I have hurt with my unacceptable social media posts, past actions, and to those who may feel betrayed by how I used to act online.”

The alleged victim – who was named online – has come out to defend Ava saying: “These videos are massive lies and twisting the truth.

“Ava never did anything wrong and just made a few edgy jokes. I was never exploited or taken advantage of.”

BBC Newsbeat has contacted representatives for Ava Kris Tyson and MrBeast for comment.

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