The Philippines is in a race against time to contain an oil spill after a tanker carrying close to 1.5 million litres (400,000 gallons) of industrial fuel capsized and sank off the country’s coast, officials say.

There are fears the “enormous” spill – which is already stretching out over several kilometres – could reach the shore of the capital, Manila, coast guard spokesman Rear Admiral Armando Balilo told reporters.

The ship was one of two which sank in the region on Thursday, with the second going down just off Taiwan’s south-western coast.

Both Taiwan and the Philippines are seeing large amounts of rain as Typhoon Gaemi moves through the area, causing widespread flooding.

The typhoon made landfall in mainland China on Thursday evening local time, with authorities declaring the highest tier disaster warning.

It first struck Taiwan on Wednesday evening, killing three as it made its way across the island.

Four counties and cities in Taiwan saw more than a thousand millimetres of rainfall during a 14-hour period ending Thursday afternoon.

The Philippines avoided a direct hit by Gaemi, but the storm intensified seasonal monsoon rains, triggering widespread flooding across large swathes of Metro Manila and its suburbs.

Despite the heavy rains, the MT Terra Nova, which sails under the Philippines’ flag, had not broken any regulations around travelling in heavy weather, according to Rear Admiral Balilo.

The tanker was heading for the central Philippine city of Iloilo when it sank, with 17 crew members on board.

One died, but 16 were successfully rescued, officials said. Authorities are investigating whether bad weather was a factor.

The coast guard is now “racing against time” to contain the spill, which could – if all of the oil leaks – become the biggest in the country’s history.

High winds and rough seas were hampering their attempts, however.

Even if they managed to avoid a catastrophe of that magnitude, Rear Admiral Balilo said it would “definitely affect the marine environment”.

Pando Hicap, chairman of local fishing group Pamalakaya, said the spill was “alarming” because fishermen’s livelihoods were “dependent on the waters”.

“They don’t have any alternative,” he told news agency AFP.

Meanwhile, to the north in Taiwan, all nine sailors were initially reported missing after their Tanzania-flagged cargo ship Fu Shun went down.

The Myanmar nationals were forced to abandon the sinking ship, Hsiao Huan-chang, head of the fire agency, told AFP.

“They fell into the sea and were floating there,” he said.

The first attempts to reach the crew, who were wearing lifejackets, were hampered by the low visibility and high winds, but by the end of Thursday three had been reported rescued.

The typhoon was originally expected to hit further north, but the mountains of northern Taiwan steered it 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 the Fujian province in southeastern China later on Thursday. Several rail operators in China have also suspended operations.

The black box sits on the army truck dashboard like a talisman, its tiny screen lighting up with warnings when Russian drones are above us. We are driving fast along a country road in the darkness near the front lines outside Kharkiv.

Like many in this war, the soldiers inside have come to revere the little cube they call “sugar”; it warns of the unseen dangers above.

On the vehicle’s roof are three mushroom-shaped antennas that make up separate drone-jamming equipment. The car emits an invisible aura of protection that will thwart some, but not all, of the Russian attack drones patrolling the skies above this battlefield.

“It has detected the Zala Lancet Russian drones,” says Senior Lt Yevhenii, 53, from the front passenger seat, describing one of the most powerful long-range Russian drones and its targeting drone. “Is that why we’re driving so fast?” I ask, aware that the drone-jamming antenna is useless against a Lancet.

“We’re not a priority for them, but it’s still better not to slow down because it’s very dangerous,” says Yevhenii, from the Khartia Brigade of Ukraine’s National Guard.

The jamming equipment blocks roughly 75% of frequencies that drones use to communicate with their operators, but some like the Lancet are difficult to block because they are entirely autonomous once their target has been marked. Because of the Lancet’s power, it tends to be used on larger targets, such as armoured vehicles or infantry positions, the Ukrainians say.

Almost none of this technology was here in Ukraine a year ago; now it is commonplace. Drones, which were once peripheral to the war, are a central component for both sides, alongside infantry and artillery as Ukraine struggles to hold back Russian advances.

Ukraine has been thrown into the bleak future of war, where within minutes individual soldiers, fast-moving vehicles and trench positions can be precisely targeted. Drones have civilians in their sights too: about 25 from Russia attacked Kharkiv on Tuesday night, although most were intercepted.

Ukraine’s army is fighting back with its own drones, and there are dozens across this stretch of front line. One Ukrainian soldier tells me every day they kill 100 Russians.

The last images from drone cameras are usually of men panicking, their arms flailing, weapons firing before they are killed. The brigade’s 37-year-old drone commander, who goes by the call sign Aeneas, says that without shelter in a building there is little chance of survival – for Russians, and his men too.

“It’s the new way or a new path in modern war. In 2022 it was only infantry war and today one half is only a war of drone, a battle between Russian drones and ours,” he says.

The move to drone warfare is a combination of necessity and innovation. Drones are in plentiful supply, even though when armed they lack the explosive fire power of artillery.

Ukraine has consistently run short of artillery shells, and its allies have been slow to produce and supply them. But a Drone Coalition of Ukrainian allies has pledged to supply the country with a million drones this year.

Russia has made its own innovations on the battlefield too, using an older technology, and the village of Lyptsi, just six miles (10km) from the Russian border, has paid the price.

It was devastated by glide bombs – Soviet-era “dumb bombs” fitted with fins and a satellite guidance system. Some are as large as 3,000kg (6,600lbs) and, when launched from aircraft, glide onto Ukrainian infantry positions and towns to highly destructive effect.

One woman named Svitlana, who was driven out of Lyptsi by these attacks, told us: “Everything was exploding all around. Everything was burning. It was scary there. It was impossible to even get out of the cellar.”

Aeneas takes us on a tour of his drone teams, embedded along the front line in Lyptsi. Every vehicle we encountered near there was fitted with drone-jamming equipment; but the jammer’s protection ends when you exit the vehicle.

It’s dangerous to be caught out in the open, so we follow Aeneas running across the rubble for cover.

• Listen: 5 Minutes On – Ukraine’s Drone Hunters

Out of breath, we make it to the drone unit’s underground base beneath a ruined building, where we are introduced to two operators, Yakut and Petro. There are drones on every surface, next to a frying pan with their evening meal.

They get through many hundreds of drones in a month, as most are single-use and detonate on their target.

Their weapon of choice is the First Person View (FPV) drone, which carries a payload of between 1kg (2.2lbs) and 2kg of explosive, packed with shrapnel. The drones are modified off-the-shelf models which have cameras to send video back to their remote operators. “We call them celebration drones in Ukraine. They were used to film weddings and parties before the war,” Aeneas says.

I watch on a screen in real time beside Yakut who is fixed in concentration flying a drone manually to a target, across open fields and woodland. “He knows every puddle, every tree in the area,” Petro says.

The FPV drone approaches a building where a Russian soldier is believed to be hiding. It flies through an open window and detonates, the operator’s screen turning to static as the signal is lost. At the same time, another drone team is targeting a Russian Tigr light-armoured vehicle and scores a direct hit, captured by a second surveillance drone that’s watching from above.

The men stay on these positions, flying missions day and night, for up to five days at a stretch and spend as little time outside as possible. Their biggest fear is glide bombs: one landed nearby earlier that week, and the whole building shook. What happens if there’s a direct hit? I ask Petro. “We die,” he replies.

Aeneas shows me a recording from earlier in the week: a Russian soldier is caught in the open and the unit’s drone has him in its sights. The soldier notices it and runs for cover, hiding in a drainage culvert by the roadside. Slowly the drone lowers to its level, checking one side of the drainage pipe, then going around the other side, where the soldier is hiding. It detonates and the man is blown out, dying by the roadside. “He was divided into two parts,” explains Aeneas.

The operators are cool and dispassionate, almost clinical in their targeting and killing. They are as far as three miles (5km) away from their targets, one step removed from the immediate blood and guts of the battlefield. But encountering these weapons on the frontline is nerve-wracking.

A few days later, after dark, at an infantry trench close to Russian positions, a unit commander tells me he believes the Ukrainians have the upper hand in drone warfare, the Russians the advantage with glide bombs.

Russia also has the advantage in drone numbers: six for every Ukrainian one, although the drone teams I was with say they have the technological edge and are quicker at finding ways to counter-attack and jam Russian drones.

The trench is in a wooded copse, surrounded by fields, a thick canopy of trees provides cover.

But as we are speaking a Russian FPV drone is detected and begins to move closer to the position. The few dim lights, mostly phone screens, are turned off in the trench, and the men sit silently as the drone’s approach gets louder. We hold our breath as it hovers overhead. For what seems like an age, no one dares move. But then the drone moves on, in search of another target.

The largest drone in the brigade’s arsenal is the Vampire, which with its six rotors is the size of a coffee table. Again we join Aeneas on another mission in Lyptsi after dark, under the sound of constant artillery fire, where we meet the heavy bomber team. They work to attach the bomb to the drone.

“[Weighing] 10kg (22lb), the Russians call this drone the Bogeyman,” says Aeneas. Its payload is powerful enough to take out their intended target, a Russian command post, they say.

As the men work, a Russian drone makes a number of passes overhead: each time it does, the soldiers retreat into the basement, wait for the all-clear, then resume the assembly. As the drone takes off into the night in a cloud of dust, they watch its progress again from a second surveillance drone.

Just then, with barely any warning, we see on the drone’s thermal camera three Russian glide bombs detonating over the Ukrainian position, over a kilometre away. The shock waves are visible: seconds later they reach our location and the house around us shudders violently.

Ukraine’s allies know that by supporting the drone effort, they are helping the country’s cause, but it isn’t simply an act of charity.

The head of the British military, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, has said that the UK’s armed forces can learn from Ukraine how to fight future wars. He said in a speech on Tuesday that he wants the Army to have “battalions of one-way attack drones”.

Aeneas and his men know this. As we leave their position, a Russian drone returns and we drive off at speed into the darkness. In the truck he tells me: “No one is fighting war this way – they are learning from us. This will be the future war.”

An Indian labourer’s fortunes have changed overnight after he found a massive diamond in a mine in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.

The 19.22-carat diamond is expected to fetch about 8m rupees ($95,570; £74,000) in a government auction.

Raju Gound said he had been leasing mines in Panna city for more than 10 years in the hope of finding a diamond.

Panna is famed for its diamond reserves and people often lease cheap, shallow mines from the government to hunt for the precious stone.

The federal government’s National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) runs a mechanised diamond mining project in Panna.

It also leases out shallow mines to individuals, families and co-operative groups who look for diamonds, usually with basic tools and equipment.

Any finds are handed over to the government diamond office, which then evaluates the stone.

“These mines can be leased for about 200-250 rupees [for a specific period],” Anupam Singh, an official at the state government’s diamond office, told the BBC.

In 2018, a labourer from Bundelkhand found a diamond worth 15m rupees in a mine in Panna. However, such discoveries are rare.

Mr Singh said that while many people have found smaller stones, Mr Gound’s find was notable because of its size.

Mr Gound told the BBC that his father had leased the mine in Krishna Kalyanpur Patti village near Panna about two months ago.

He said his family leases mines mostly during the monsoon season when agricultural and masonry work dry up.

“We are very poor and have no other source of income. So we do this in the hope of making some money,” he said.

He had heard stories of people chancing upon diamonds and hoped that he too would get lucky one day.

On Wednesday morning, he went to the site to perform his daily task of manually searching for the precious stone.

“It’s tedious work. We dig a pit, pull out chunks of soil and rock, wash them in a sieve and then carefully sift through thousands of dried, tiny stones to look for diamonds,” he said.

And that afternoon, all that hard work paid off and his luck turned.

“I was sifting through the stones and saw something that resembled a piece of glass. I held it up to my eyes and saw a faint glint. That’s when I knew I had found a diamond,” he said.

Mr Gound then took his prized find to the government diamond office, where it was evaluated and weighed.

Mr Singh said the diamond would be sold in the next government auction and that Mr Gound would receive his compensation after the government royalty and taxes were deducted.

Mr Gound hopes to build a better house for his family with the money and even pay for his children’s education. But first, he wants to pay off his debt of 500,000 rupees.

He says he’s not afraid of people finding out about the diamond as he plans to divide the money between 19 relatives who live with him.

For now, he’s content just knowing that the money will come to him.

“Tomorrow, I’ll go to the mine again to look for diamonds,” he said.

Russia and China have staged a joint patrol over the north Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea near the coast of Alaska.

The two countries have carried out several joint patrols in the past, and Russia regularly flies its bombers over the Bering Sea.

But Wednesday’s joint patrol was the first that brought together bombers from both countries in the north Pacific area.

Moscow and Beijing said it was “not aimed at any third party”, while the US-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said the bombers, which it intercepted, stayed in international airspace and were “not seen as a threat”.

But Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski described the event as an “unprecedented provocation by our adversaries”, adding that it was “the first time they have been intercepted operating together.”

China has said the patrol has “nothing to do with the current international and regional situation”.

Russian TU-95MS strategic missile carriers and the Chinese air force’s Xian H-6 strategic bombers were deployed, according to Russia.

China and Russia have developed closer ties since Moscow was placed under sanctions by the West following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Any display of deepening cooperation is watched with apprehension by the US and European countries.

Earlier this month, Moscow and Beijing wrapped up their fourth joint naval patrol in the northern and western Pacific Ocean.

Nato countries issued a joint statement at the end of a recent summit in Washington accusing China of being a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war in Ukraine and urging it to “cease all material and political support” to the country’s war effort.

In a report on Arctic security published on Monday, the US Department of Defence expressed concern over the two countries’ “growing alignment”, and predicted that their military cooperation would continue to increase.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected this, saying Russian-Chinese cooperation in the Arctic could only contribute to an atmosphere of “stability and predictability” in the area.

Jennifer Aniston has criticised Donald Trump’s vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, for resurfaced comments calling Democrats a “bunch of childless cat ladies with miserable lives”.

The Friends actress, 55, posted a 2021 interview with Mr Vance that has been widely shared since his selection as Mr Trump’s running mate for November’s presidential election.

“I truly can’t believe that this is coming from a potential VP of the United States,” she wrote on Instagram.

“All I can say is… Mr Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day.”

Mr Vance has a two-year-old daughter, and two sons.

“I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option,” Ms Aniston wrote.

“Because you are trying to take that away from her, too.”

The actress has previously spoken openly about her struggles while trying to have children through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).

Last month, Mr Vance voted to block Democrat-proposed legislation to guarantee access to IVF nationwide.

In the clip, Mr Vance criticised Vice-President Kamala Harris because she has no biological children.

Ms Harris is stepmother to her husband Doug Emhoff’s two children.

But Mr Vance told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson the US was run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too”.

“Look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” he said.

“How does it make any sense we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”

The BBC has contacted the Trump-Vance campaign team for comment.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also addressed the comments earlier this week, speaking about adopting twins with his husband, Chasten.

“The really sad thing is he said that after Chasten and I had been through a fairly heartbreaking setback in our adoption journey,” Mr Buttigieg told CNN’s The Source programme.

“He couldn’t have known that – but maybe that’s why you shouldn’t be talking about other people’s children.”

There has also been backlash from fans of singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, who has no children – and three cats.

“It’s bold, for someone seeking votes, to hone in on ‘childless cat ladies’ when the leader of Childless Cat Ladies is Taylor Swift,” British writer Caitlin Moran posted on X.

Another X user shared the Time magazine cover where Swift posed with one of her cats, writing: “Hell hath no fury like a certain childless cat lady who has yet to endorse a presidential candidate.”

In 2022, Aniston told Allure she wished someone had told her to freeze her eggs.

“It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road,” she said.

“All the years and years of speculation… it was really hard.

“I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it.”

But she had “zero regrets”.

“I would’ve given anything if someone had said to me, ‘Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favour.’ You just don’t think it. So here I am today,” she told the magazine.

“The ship has sailed.”

US President Joe Biden has told Americans in a televised address that he decided to end his faltering re-election campaign in a bid to save US democracy.

Mr Biden, 81, said he felt his record as president “merited a second term” but that “nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy”.

He said he endorsed US Vice-President Kamala Harris to unite their fellow Democrats and the country.

The White House speech marked his first public appearance since he left the race on 21 July, paving the way for Ms Harris to run for the party’s nomination.

Pressure had been building on him from colleagues and donors to step aside over doubts about his ability to serve another term following a disastrous debate with Republican Donald Trump.

It was notable that he did not address how his campaign unravelled and the fact that defeat to Mr Trump looked more likely the longer he resisted calls for him to quit.

He also did not mention the questions raised about his frailty and mental competence, issues which have dominated the race for months.

Opinion polls so far suggest a Ms Harris bounce since she took over Mr Biden’s mantle, making it a tight race between her and the former president if she wins the nomination, which looks likely.

The president began his address with the words: “I revere this office, but I love my country more.”

He spoke for 11 minutes from the Oval Office, with his wife, Jill, son, Hunter, and daughter, Ashley, in the room alongside some key White House staff.

“I have decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation,” added Mr Biden, who has been in public office for over half a century. “That is the best way to unite our nation.”

The president vowed to “finish the job for the American people” before the end of his term in January next year and called Ms Harris, 59, an “experienced, tough, capable” partner.

Mr Biden said he believed his record warranted a second term but personal ambition should not “come in the way of saving our democracy”.

“The great thing about America is here, kings and dictators do not rule. The people do. History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands.”

As they were being ushered out of the room, the White House press corps heard applause from family members and staff as the president spoke softly.

Trump, 78, posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Wednesday night that the president “was barely understandable, and sooo bad!”

Speaking earlier in the day at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Republican attacked both Ms Harris and Mr Biden, whom he called the most damaging president in US history.

“For three-and-a-half years lying Kamala Harris has been the ultraliberal driving force behind every single Biden catastrophe,” he said.

“She is a radical left lunatic who will destroy our country if she ever gets the chance to get into office.”

At a White House news briefing earlier in the day, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Mr Biden’s exit was “not about his health”, but declined to give further details.

She also denied to reporters there had been any “cover-up” over Mr Biden’s cognitive abilities.

Ms Harris, for her part, is hitting the campaign trail.

Earlier on Wednesday, she addressed the historically black Zeta Phi Beta sorority in Indianapolis, telling members that her new campaign is “not playing around” and asked for their help to get elected.

“In this moment, I believe we face a choice between two different visions for our nation, one focused on the future, the other focused on the past,” she said. “And with your support, I am fighting for our nation’s future.”

She would be the first black, South-Asian American and woman president, though she needs black voters to turn out in November.

However, Black Lives Matter, the activist group, said in a statement on Tuesday that Democrats were seeking to “manipulate Black voters” by installing Ms Harris at the behest of billionaire donors in a “blatant disregard for democratic principles”.

Mr Biden is the first sitting president not to seek re-election since 1968 when Lyndon Johnson halted his campaign as his popularity sank during the Vietnam War.

Some Republicans have called for Mr Biden to step down now as president, arguing that he cannot run the country if he cannot run for office – a charge the White House has rejected.

On Thursday, Mr Biden is expected to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, as well as with the families of US hostages still being held in Gaza.

• Has Kamala Harris got what it takes to beat Trump?
• Kamala Harris: From prosecutor to possible president
• Who could be Kamala Harris’s running mate?
• What happens next in the US election?
• Kamala Harris is counting on her sorority sisters
• The internet is enthralled with Harris. Will that get her more votes?

Buildings in the Canadian tourist town of Jasper have been burning after wildfires forced 25,000 people to evacuate the area earlier this week, officials said.

The blaze has spread through Jasper National Park, causing “significant loss” within the local town, according to park officials on X, formerly Twitter.

Hundreds of wildfires have sparked in the western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia (BC).

The region has been hit by more than 58,000 lightning strikes within the last week, sparking new blazes after a three-week heat wave, according to BC Wildfire Service.

Around 1,900 Alberta firefighters have been deployed, assisted by personnel from Alaska and Australia, and are working to save local infrastructure.

That includes the Trans Mountain Pipeline, a Canadian government-owned pipeline that runs through Jasper National Park. As of Wednesday it was still operating, with sprinklers being used to protect it.

There have been more than 400 fires recorded in British Columbia and 176 in the neighbouring province of Alberta.

Fires were first reported in Jasper last week. The town’s mayor, Richard Ireland, told CBC that the town was facing its “worst nightmare”.

“I write to you today with profound sorrow as we begin to come to terms with the devastating impact of last night’s wildfire that has ravaged our beloved community,” Mr Ireland wrote on Facebook on Thursday morning.

“The destruction and loss that many of you are facing and feeling is beyond description and comprehension; my deepest sympathies go out to each of you.”

Mr Ireland noted first responders were still working to protect the town from further destruction.

The wildfire reached the grounds of Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge on Wednesday night, Anastasia Martin-Stilwell, a spokesperson for the historic resort said.

While all guest were safely evacuated, the extent of the damage, if any, remains unclear.

“We are devastated by the situation,” Ms Martin-Stilwell said. “The dedication of our first responders and those coming to our aid cannot fully be expressed.”

Eleonor Dumlao told the Edmonton Journal she was filled with panic when her family received the evacuation order. They left Jasper on Monday night and headed to an evacuation centre in Edmonton.

“It was so very terrible experience for us, and I was so panicking that time. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to get first,” she told the newspaper.

Jasper National Park said on X that “air quality had deteriorated” in the area. The park is the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies.

After evacuations were issued, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told residents to “leave safely” on Wednesday. In a post on Facebook, she said she was in “constant contact” with the authorities.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government has approved a request for federal assistance for Alberta.

“We’re deploying @CanadianForces resources, evacuations support, and more emergency wildfire resources to the province immediately — and we’re coordinating firefighting and airlift assistance,” Mr Trudeau said on X.

Daniel Turner also recounted how he evacuated the wildfires to the Edmonton Journal, saying he followed evacuation orders with three of his friends but hit bumper-to-bumper traffic fleeing Jasper and turned around.

The group slept in a Canadian Tire parking lot.

“You could see it deteriorating, like ash falling,” he said of the wildfire smoke.

Meanwhile, others like Jim Campbell and Shawn Cornett were asleep in their tent at a campsite in Jasper’s backcountry when the evacuation order was issued, they told the Globe and Mail newspaper.

As word about the evacuation spread they packed up their belongings and hit the road with another 20 people who were leaving the site.

“We were the last ones out,” Mr Campbell said. “Because we were the last ones to know.”

Earlier in the week, several US states including California and Utah were hit by wildfires.

More than 30 million people in the US have been affected by heat warnings since early July, according to the National Weather Service. The warnings are in place in California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state.

Dozens of villagers have reportedly been killed after a gang of young men launched a series of attacks in a remote region of Papua New Guinea.

Survivors of the massacre have described hearing their neighbours’ cries of pain, and watching as others were speared as they tried to flee the gang in canoes.

At least 26 people – including 16 children – were killed, local media reported, with fears the death toll may yet rise to 50 as the search for survivors continues.

United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk said the “shocking” violence seemed to be “the result of a dispute over land and lake ownership and user rights” and appealed to officials to “ensure those responsible are held to account”.

Governor Allan Bird told Australia’s ABC News there were just 20 police officers for the 100,000 people who live in the Angoram district of East Sepik province where the attack took place.

National police have now arrived in the region to help with the investigation – more than a week after the violence took place.

But according to local media, police already know the identity of the more than 30 men who carried out the attacks between 16 and 18 July.

The gang – who Angoram police Inspector Peter Mandi said called themselves “I don’t care”, according to the Guardian – were armed with guns, knives and axes, attacking in the early hours.

They allegedly raped and killed their victims, setting numerous homes alight.

One woman described how she had floated for hours clinging to a log, trying to remain quiet while the attack went on around her.

“I could hear women wailing in pain, children crying out. I was lucky the men didn’t see me,” she told The National newspaper.

Another survivor said simply of the “surprise” attack: “We were helpless.”

The villagers who could escaped into the surrounding bush, leaving behind the dead.

Provincial police commander Senior Inspector James Baugen described to the Post Courier how bodies had been left “rotting” in the village, while others had been taken by crocodiles after floating down the river.

He added that many of the dead were mothers and their children.

Gov Bird said law and order had been on the decline in the region for the last six months.

It was thought land ownership was also the cause of a similarly shocking attack in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands in February, in which another 26 people were killed.

A year ago, escalating tribal conflict over land and wealth led to a three-month lockdown in Enga province, during which police imposed a curfew and travel restrictions.

Fifty-five years after it sank, killing 21 men, Australia has found the shipwreck of the MV Noongah.

The 71m (233ft) freighter was carrying steel off the coast of New South Wales when it ran into stormy weather in 1969, sparking one of the biggest maritime searches in Australian history.

Five of the 26 crewmen were plucked from the water in the hours after the vessel sank, but only one body was ever recovered from those lost at sea.

The location of the wreck has now been confirmed by Australia’s science agency, using high resolution seafloor mapping and video footage.

Only minutes after sending a distress signal on 25 August, the ship had sunk in heavy seas.

Royal Australian Navy destroyers, minesweepers, planes, helicopters and a number of other vessels launched a massive search, as rescue crews also combed the shore for any sign of survivors.

Over the next 12 hours, they found two men at sea in two separate life rafts, and three more clinging to a plank of wood, according to local media.

The fate of the rest of the crew and the ship itself have been a mystery ever since.

Locals first spotted a wreck years ago – in deep water off the coast of South West Rocks, about 460km (286 miles) north of Sydney – and reported its coordinates to authorities.

There have long been suspicions that it may be the Noongah, but the technology or diving knowledge needed to identify the ship was not available.

But last month, a high-tech ship owned by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) was sent to investigate further.

They found the wreck, largely intact and sitting upright on the sea floor, 170m below the surface. All its key dimensions matched the Noongah, the CSIRO said.

The Sydney Project – which finds and documents the wrecks of lost ships – is now planning a dive to collect additional vision from the site, in the hope of shedding light on why the ship sank.

“This tragedy is still very much in the memory of many in the community,” CSIRO’s Matt Kimber said.

“We hope that knowing the resting place of the vessel brings some closure for all.”

Surviving family members of the crew told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the discovery is a relief.

“It’s always been in the back of my mind,” Pamela Hendy – the widow of captain Leo Botsman – said.

India can be tricky territory for Labour.

Prime Minister Clement Attlee was criticised for allowing partition to be rushed at terrible cost in human life.

Foreign Secretary Robin Cook caused a storm by offering to mediate between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.

And the party led by Jeremy Corbyn angered even more here when it passed a motion calling for international intervention in the disputed region.

So it must have been with some trepidation that David Lammy arrived in a warm and damp New Delhi on Wednesday morning, a newly-minted foreign secretary stepping away for the first time from the more familiar turf of Europe and the United States.

His trip oozed caution. The announcements were uncontroversial; both countries agreed a new tech security partnership.

His words in interviews were safe and measured, eulogising India as a “superpower” and “indispensable partner”.

Mr Lammy’s programme even included a tree planting ceremony at the British residence. Radical this was not.

Yet the nature of the trip was less important than the sheer fact of it.

This was a British foreign secretary in a new government, making a point of visiting India in his third week in office.

Mr Lammy held talks with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

More than that, he also secured a prized meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a head of government who rarely deigns to trouble himself with mere foreign ministers.

And all this while Mr Modi’s new coalition government was busy dealing with the fallout from its first budget.

In other words, this was a meeting both sides wanted and were prepared to make time for.

For Labour, the primary focus was trade. If it wants the UK’s economy to grow, then it will need British firms to do more business with Indian partners.

India’s economy is on course to become the world’s third largest by the end of the decade. Yet it is only the UK’s 12th largest trading partner.

“There is so much we can do with this global superpower,” Mr Lammy told me.

“We have a long-standing history, a longstanding relationship, and it is a win-win for both of our economies.”

He said Britain would work with India to agree a new free trade deal “in the coming months”, negotiations that have been stalled for much of the year as both countries held elections.

“Being here in India is essential. We have shared interest with India. It is a growing economy. It is going to be the third largest by the end of this decade. It is hugely important that we deepen and grow our ties.”

But this trip was not just about economics. There was broader geopolitics too.

Mr Lammy wants to reset Britain’s relations with the so-called Global South. India sees itself as key player in this loose group of developing nations.

And that, Mr Lammy says, involves less lecturing by Britain and more listening.

He was keen to talk about shared interests on green technology and shared threats in the Indo-Pacific, namely China.

He was less keen to talk about his hosts subsidising Russia’s war machine in Ukraine by buying many tanker loads of cheap Russian oil and gas.

“Across the democratic community, there will always be differences of opinion,” he averred. Which is one way of excusing an ally for aiding an enemy.

The subtext to all this – implicit rather than explicit – was that with so much political instability among Britain’s traditional allies on both sides of the Atlantic, the government was keen to revive and reset – to use Mr Lammy’s favoured phrase – its relations with other allies. And India is the biggest prize.

He said Britain’s relationship with India had been “underperforming” but both countries’ interests were aligned on many issues. He said the UK must cooperate with India “in this tough, geopolitically-challenging time”.

For Indian ministers, Mr Lammy’s trip was seen as good moment to invest in a British government that may be in power for some time.

It was also a chance to refocus the UK on the possibility of a trade deal between the two countries – which India hopes would force the UK to relax its visa regime for Indian students and business professionals.

They clearly welcomed the fact Mr Lammy had made an early visit, and had brought a plane-load of tech entrepreneurs with him.

Away from the economics, there was also some unstated politics.

India has just lost in Rishi Sunak a British prime minister of Asian origin with close family links to the country.

Labour was aware of that, and wanted to fill the gap quickly.

The Jeremy Corbyn era is also still fresh is some Indian minds, and Mr Lammy’s early trip will come as some reassurance.

This trip to the subcontinent was hot and humid. Mr Lammy’s suit was too dark and thick. But the great-grandson of a lady from Calcutta will probably think it was worth the sweat in diplomatic gain.

Several athletes have complained about a shortage of food at the Olympic Village in Paris, according to reports.

Competitors have said the amount of food available, specifically eggs, which were rationed at breakfast on Wednesday, and grilled meats, is insufficient, according to the French newspaper L’Équipe.

The official catering partner to the Olympic Village, Sodexo Live!, confirmed “a very high demand” for certain products and said that “volumes will be increased” to “satisfy the needs of the athletes”.

The Olympic Village is set to serve approximately 13 million meals during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“It was requested to revise upwards the quantities initially planned, which the group will be able to satisfy,” a spokesman for the Carrefour group, which is in charge of supplying fresh products to the Olympic Village, confirmed.

Feeding 15,000 international athletes from 208 territories and nations, plus support teams, officials and volunteers, is a gargantuan task.

During the two 15-day periods of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, more than 13 million meals will be served – the equivalent of the amount of food provided at 10 football World Cups.

Athletes have access to six main areas devoted to French, Asian, Afro-Caribbean and world cuisine, with 500 different recipes catering to a wide variety of tastes.

A strict quality charter also governed the food at the Paris Olympics. It was developed over the course of four years of work with the goal of halving the carbon footprint of meals produced during the Games, in comparison to London 2012.

As a result, a quarter of all ingredients will be sourced in a 250km radius from Paris, and 20% will be certified organic.

All meat, milk and eggs will be from France, and a third of the food will be plant-based.

Two hundred water, juice and soda fountains have been installed in the Olympic Village, and only reusable cups and crockery will be offered.

CrowdStrike is facing fresh backlash after giving staff and firms they work with a $10 UberEats voucher to say sorry for a global IT outage that caused chaos across airlines, banks and hospitals last week.

The cybersecurity company – whose software update on Friday affected 8.5 million computers worldwide – said in an email to its partners that it recognised the incident had caused extra work.

“To express our gratitude, your next cup of coffee or late night snack is on us!” CrowdStrike wrote, directing people to use a code to access the $10 credit.

But the gesture was greeted by derision by some. One Reddit user branded it an “absolute clown show” while another said: “I literally wanted to drive my car off a bridge this weekend and they bought me coffee. Nice.”

One LinkedIn user claiming to be a CrowdStrike partner, said: “The gesture of a cup of coffee or Uber Eats credit as an apology doesn’t seem to make up for the tens of thousands lost in man hours and customer trust due to the July 19 incident.”

CrowdStrike confirmed to the BBC that it sent the vouchers to “teammates and partners” who had helped customers deal with the impact of the outage.

But some people who said they had received a voucher also took to social media to say it did not work.

“Uber flagged it as fraud because of high usage rates,” CrowdStrike admitted.

It comes amid growing questions over what financial compensation CrowdStrike customers and people impacted by the outage will be able to claim.

The firm has pledged to improve its software tests after a faulty content update for Windows systems caused the mass IT outage.

Its mistake resulted in problems for banks, hospitals and airlines as millions of PCs displayed “blue screens of death”.

In a detailed review of the incident published on Wednesday CrowdStrike said there was a “bug” in a system designed to ensure software updates work properly.

Crowdstrike said the glitch meant “problematic content data” in a file went undetected.

The company said it could prevent the incident from happening again with better software testing and checks, including more scrutiny from developers.

The faulty update crashed 8.5 million Microsoft Windows computers around the world and George Kurtz, Crowdstrike’s boss, has apologised for the impact of the outage.

But cybersecurity experts told BBC News that the review revealed the firm made “major mistakes”.

“What’s clear from the post mortem is they didn’t seem to have the right guardrails in place to prevent this type of incident or to reduce the risk of it occurring,” said cyber-security consultant Daniel Card.

His thoughts were echoed by cybersecurity researcher Kevin Beaumont, who said the key lesson from CrowdStrike’s review was that the firm doesn’t “test in waves”.

“They just deploy to all customers at once in a so called ‘rapid response update’ which was obviously a huge mistake,” he said.

But Sam Kirkman from cybersecurity firm NetSPI told the BBC the review showed CrowdStrike “took steps” to prevent the outages.

He said these steps “have likely been effective to prevent incidents on countless occasions prior to last week”.

According to insurance firm Parametrix, the top 500 US companies by revenue, excluding Microsoft, had faced some $5.4bn (£4.1bn) in financial losses from the outage.

It said that only $540m (£418m) to $1.08bn (£840m) of these losses were insured.

The US government has opened an investigation into Delta Airlines‘ handling of the outage after it continued to cancel hundreds of flights.

Delta chief executive Ed Bastian said in a letter to customers on Wednesday it expects the airline to make a full recovery on Thursday.

Crowdstrike is set to face further scrutiny – with Mr Kurtz called to testify in front of Congress about the outage.

“This incident must serve as a broader warning about the national security risks associated with network dependency,” wrote the House Committee on Homeland Security in a letter to the company on Monday.

It gave CrowdStrike until Wednesday evening to schedule a hearing.

It was Joe Biden’s first chance to define how he will be judged by history.

In a rare televised address from the Oval Office on Wednesday night, his first public comments since he abruptly ended his re-election bid on Sunday, he spoke of his accomplishments. He spoke of his humble roots. He sang the praises of the American people. He said the future of American democracy lies in their hands.

What he didn’t do, despite saying he would always level with Americans, was provide a direct explanation for the biggest question of the day.

He didn’t say why he has become the first incumbent president to abandon a re-election bid, just a few months before voting begins.

And that is what the history books will be most interested in.

He hinted at it. He talked around it. But he never tackled it head on. It was left for the American people to read between the lines.

“In recent weeks,” Mr Biden said, “it’s become clear to me that I need to unite my party.”

He then echoed what has become a growing chorus among Democrats – that it was time to “pass the torch” to a new generation.

While he said his accomplishments, which he listed in detail, merited a second term in office, he added that “nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy – and that includes personal ambition.”

Left unsaid was the cold, hard reality that he resigned because it was becoming increasingly clear that he was going to lose to Donald Trump in November. And that is an outcome that those in his party universally view as catastrophic.

Trailing in the polls, embarrassed by a miserable debate performance and with a growing chorus in the Democratic Party calling for him to step aside, there was no clear path to a Biden victory.

While the president may not have said it, his Republican predecessor – and now former rival for the White House – had no such qualms.

At a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, a few hours before the address, Donald Trump said Mr Biden dropped out because he was losing badly.

Then he went on the attack against Kamala Harris, the party’s new presumptive nominee, claiming that she was a “radical left lunatic” and the “ultra-liberal driving force behind every single Biden catastrophe”.

Republican groups have been flooding the airwaves in key battleground states, in an attempt to define Ms Harris in their terms, not hers. According to research by the Associated Press, Trump’s side is slated to outspend their Democratic counterparts 25-to-1 over the course of the next month.

One advertisement had been saying Ms Harris was complicit in covering up the president’s “obvious mental decline”.

Mr Biden’s speech offered a nationally televised, primetime opportunity to provide a rebuttal to the attacks against his vice-president and to firmly address concerns about his ability to continue to fulfil his presidential duties.

It was an opportunity he mostly passed on.

Towards the end of his speech, the president did talk up his running mate. He said Ms Harris was “experienced, tough, capable” and an “incredible partner for me and a leader for our country”.

They were strong words, but there weren’t many of them. He spent more time discussing Benjamin Franklin than he did his vice-president – the person he endorsed on Sunday, and the one who will be the most important torch-carrier for his legacy in the months ahead.

With little cover from the president, Ms Harris and her team will have to decide whether, and how, to respond to the withering Republican attacks in the coming days.

Mr Biden may have another chance to tout his former running mate at the Democratic convention in Chicago next month, but this is a delicate time for the new presumptive nominee, as her campaign is just lifting off the ground and Americans are still getting to know her.

The president may have been uncomfortable being overly political in this what could be his final Oval Office address. But if he is concerned about his legacy, Harris’s success or failure, more than anything else he does from here on out, matters.

It will determine whether history judges him as man who made a noble sacrifice, or one who put his party at risk by selfishly holding on to power for too long.

Namibian Michelle Nehoya has spent nearly $500 (£390) on the application process for a visa to visit Canada – but almost two years later it has yet to materialise.

The 38-year-old, who lives in Namibia’s capital, Windhoek, is desperate to get to Quebec to see her aunt and cousins whom she has not seen for almost a decade.

The visa application has involved filling in multiple forms – and among other requirements, she has also had to provide six months of bank statements, an invitation letter plus a detailed travel history.

There is no way to apply in Namibia, so this has also meant travelling to South Africa to submit her biometric data, which involves giving her fingerprints and having a photo taken.

Her experience is not uncommon for Africans travelling to Western countries.

In 2022, seven of the top 10 countries with the highest visa rejection rates in the bloc of European countries known as the Schengen area were African, according to consultancy firm Henley and Partners.

“It has been lengthy and frustrating. I haven’t been given any reason why it’s taken so long,” Ms Nehoya tells the BBC.

However, if her family in Quebec decide to travel to Namibia on Canadian passports, they will not face anything like the challenges and costs she encountered. Canadian citizens can currently enter Namibia without a visa.

But this will change in eight months’ time.

From next April, Canadian nationals, along with those from Germany, the US, the UK and 29 other countries, will require a visa for entry.

These include all “non-reciprocating countries” – meaning the new visa rules will affect citizens from all countries that require Namibian passport holders to have visas.

“Namibia has extended gestures of goodwill and favourable treatment to nationals of various countries. However, despite these efforts, certain nations have not reciprocated,” Namibia’s immigration ministry said in May.

“In light of this disparity, the government has deemed it necessary to implement a visa requirement to ensure parity and fairness in diplomatic interactions.”

But these visitors will be able to buy their 90-day visa, costing $90, on arrival in Namibia – unlike the onerous requirements placed on African passport holders who need to get their visas beforehand.

The British High Commissioner to Namibia, Charles Moore, said he respected the right of Namibia to impose new regulations.

“[The UK] unfortunately imposed a visa regime on Namibia last year due to the number of asylum seekers we were receiving. That was impacting on our relationship with Namibia,” he said.

A statement from the UK government further explained there had been a sustained and significant increase in the number of asylum applications from Namibians at the UK border since 2016.

“This constitutes an abuse of the provision to visit the UK for a limited period as non-visa nationals,” it said.

For Ms Nehoya, Namibia’s visa announcement is long overdue: “I think it is fair. It feels like Namibia is standing up for itself.”

The reactions on social media to the news echo her sentiments.

“Finally. I hope they also require them to submit a bible of documents, take medical tests, [and] Namibian language tests,” wrote one commenter.

Another said: “If I need to bring bank statements… and all sort of documents and still buy visa just to gain entry to a country, that country should also do the same to gain entry to my country.”

And visas for the Schengen area, the US and Canada do not come cheap for African passport holders.

The European Union made more than €53m ($58m; £45m) on rejected visa applications from African countries in 2023, according to a recent report by the Lago Collective, a think-tank that focuses on migration.

Visas can be rejected for multiple reasons. The report says most rejections are based on “reasonable doubt about the visa applicant’s intention to return home”.

In June 2024, the price of Schengen short-term visas went up from €80 to €90 for adults, and in October 2023, the UK visa fee rose from £100 to £115.

The report also showed that nearly a third of Africans applying for a visa to the Schengen area were rejected, higher than the global average.

Even when visas are approved, African travellers say their experiences at border security make them feel uncomfortable and unwanted.

Winnie Byanyima, the head of UNAids and who is herself Ugandan, drew attention to this when she tweeted in 2022: “I’m at Geneva airport, I’m almost refused to board, all documents scrutinised over and over again, calls made… I board last.”

Despite Namibia’s visa initiative receiving praise on social media, the tourism industry is less enthusiastic.

The Hospitality Association of Namibia said it was “very concerned” about the message it “sends to the global travel trade”.

In 2022, the tourism sector accounted for 7% of GDP, making it the third largest contributor to the economy – with most tourists coming countries such as Germany and the US.

Though Soni Nrupesh, a tourism expert based in Windhoek, believes the visa move will not deter visitors: “It will not change much; you can still get on a plane without a visa.

“It’s just when you get to the airport you will fill a form pay the fees and enter.”

Prospective travellers like Ms Nehoya hope this kind reciprocity will be the future for everyone.

“People come to Namibia, and they love it. But we also want to see what is happening on the other side,” she says.

“It would be nice to go to Canada, the US or the UK and just get a visa on arrival. But right now, we must plan everything so far in advance.”

• Kenya’s vision of visa-free entry proves tricky for some
• Why is it so hard for Africans to visit other African countries?
• Should Africa have a single passport?
• Why Namibian town wants to change its name to ǃNamiǂNûs
• Fishrot: The corruption scandal entwining Namibia and Iceland

Moscow’s Europe Square is no more.

The city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, has signed an order renaming this place Eurasia Square.

It’s a little change that says a lot about the direction in which Russia is moving: away from the West.

It’s not the prettiest square in the Russian capital. It’s certainly no match for Red Square, with the breathtaking onion domes of St Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin.

Eurasia Square is built beside the bustling “Kyiv Railway Station” and a hotel, where the BBC’s Moscow Office was once located. There’s a fountain and an unusual composition created by a Belgian sculptor entitled The Abduction of Europa.

I remember when this square was constructed just over 20 years ago. It was built as a symbol of unity on the continent of Europe. There were once dozens of flags of different European countries flying here.

They were removed last year, and now the name’s gone too.

Goodbye Europe; hello Eurasia.

But what exactly is Eurasia?

Different countries have different concepts of Eurasia. President Vladimir Putin officially terms Russia a Eurasian power. He uses the word to mean Russia is geographically in Europe and Asia but civilisationally distinct from both.

Europe Square’s commemorative plaque still stands. It reads:

“As a token of stronger friendship and unity between the European countries, the government of Moscow has decided to create the ensemble of the Square of Europe in the Russian capital.”

The reality is that Russia’s war in Ukraine and Western sanctions have put enormous strain on relations between Moscow and Europe. The Russian authorities talk constantly now of the need to tilt east and look towards China, North Korea, Asia as a whole.

Europe isn’t just out of fashion – it is portrayed by the Russian authorities as the enemy.

It’s not the first time that the Moscow authorities have played politics with street names after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In June 2022 the street where the US embassy is located was renamed “Donetsk People’s Republic Square,” a reference to the self-proclaimed breakaway region of Ukraine, which Russia later claimed to have annexed.

In similar fashion, the following month the area around the British embassy became “Luhansk People’s Republic Square”.

Back on (former) Europe Square, what do passers-by make of the change to Eurasia?

“It’s the right decision,” Olga tells me. “We’re not friends with Europe right now. I don’t want to be in Europe.”

“Eurasia is good,” says Anna. “Russia borders Europe and Asia. I was born in Kazakhstan, so this is fine with me.”

“Europe has different standards now,” Pasha tells me. “They think in a different way. We’re gradually splitting away.”

But Yevgeniya is disappointed. She sees the name change as “a sign of conflict between different countries.”

“It’s so sad,” she adds.

But at the end of the day, does a name really matter?

Following the 1917 Russian Revolution so many streets and squares in Russia were renamed to feature the word “communism”. Did it help the Soviet Union build communism? Not in the slightest.

The decision to ditch the word Europe from a square doesn’t mean that Russia won’t one day, once again, look West.

It is fair to say few had heard of Edmundo González when he registered as a candidate for Venezuela’s presidential election back in March.

The 74-year-old had never run for public office before and was not even widely known in opposition circles.

And yet, in the four months since he decided to run for the top office, the low-key former diplomat has overtaken incumbent President Nicolás Maduro in the opinion polls.

He has become the man the main opposition coalition, PUD, is pinning its hopes on to oust Mr Maduro, who has been in office for the past 11 years.

A large part of his appeal stems from the fact that he has the backing of María Corina Machado, the woman who won an opposition primary in October by a landslide.

Ms Machado received 93% of the votes in the open primary despite being banned from running for office.

When the ban was upheld by the Supreme Court, a body which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, Ms Machado first picked 80-year-old academic Corina Yoris to replace her on the ballot.

When Ms Yoris was thwarted from registering her candidacy by computer problems the opposition blamed on the government, Mr González became the opposition’s surprise “provisional” candidate.

For the next three weeks, Mr González was referred to by his own coalition members as a “placeholder”, who was widely expected to be replaced by a candidate with more name recognition.

Finally, a day before the deadline to change the names on the presidential ballot expired, the PUD announced it would stick with the former diplomat.

But far from thrusting its candidate into the limelight, the opposition coalition kept Mr González in the background, while Ms Machado criss-crossed the country calling on people to vote for him.

This may have seemed an unusual strategy in most countries, but in Venezuela, where opposition activists have been harassed and in some cases jailed, it was considered a wise precaution by many.

According to non-governmental group Foro Penal, 72 opposition campaign workers have been arrested since 4 July, when the election campaign officially kicked off.

Despite these attacks on the opposition campaign, Mr González’s tone and rhetoric have been calm and measured, in keeping with his past as an ambassador.

“I never imagined I would be in this position,” he told BBC News Mundo about becoming the opposition’s unity candidate.

In a change from the infighting which has hampered the Venezuelan opposition in the past, he has appeared shoulder-to-shoulder with María Corina Machado, whom he continues to refer to as “the opposition leader”.

He has also struck a conciliatory tone when addressing those who support Mr Maduro, promising “reconciliation” were he to win on Sunday.

“We aim for those who support the government – which is a dwindling number of people – to listen to our call for a coming together of all Venezuelans,” he told BBC News Mundo in June.

It is a message he has repeated time and time again.

“Enough of the shouting and the insults, it’s time to come together,” he urged in a prayer meeting just a week before the polls.

His reconciliatory tone in a country which has seen divisions between government and opposition supporters get ever deeper over the past 11 years is in stark contrast to that of his rival, President Maduro, who has warned of a “bloodbath” should Mr González win.

Senior members of the Maduro administration have repeatedly dismissed Mr González as “a poor old man” who “is part of a perverse plan to inflict harm on our people”.

Despite these personal attacks on him, Mr González has steadfastly insisted that reaching out to those who are on the other side of the political divide is the only way to forge “national reconciliation”.

Asked about widespread fears that the result of the election may be tampered with – the 2018 re-election of Mr Maduro was widely dismissed as neither free nor fair – Mr González has insisted that he is hopeful that the opposition will win with such a majority that it will make his victory hard to contest.

“They have wanted to spread fear of change, they want you to be afraid to express yourselves on Sunday, but what they’re not counting on is the bravery of the Venezuelan people,” he said a week before the polls.

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.

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.”

Valerie Penso-Cuculich knows a thing or two about picking contestants for reality TV shows.

She’s a casting director for such programmes as Love Island USA, The Real Housewives of Dubai, and The Millionaire Matchmaker.

Ms Penso-Cuculich says that AI has made her first contact with applicants far more complicated.

“Potential contestants are increasingly using AI on the photos they post on their social media,” she says. As a result, there is a big uptick in over-filtered images, and people not looking real.

“My main mission is to cast real people, and that makes it hard to wade through that excessiveness. When people show up on Zoom for an audition, I’m not necessarily getting what I expected to see.”

On a positive note, Ms Penso-Cuculich adds that AI has greatly sped up the process of transcribing the raw footage from the interviews of applicants.

Traditionally, this was a time-consuming experience, with a person having to type out the spoken words. Now it can be done automatically using AI.

“And if I am looking for a specific soundbite, I don’t have to listen to the whole contestant interview, I can use an AI app to do a search for what I need. This definitely has saved me time.”

As the reality TV sector increasingly has to deal with the good and bad impacts of AI, lawyer John Delaney says there are growing legal and regulatory issues.

“For example, AI could be used to suggest scenarios or storylines, to edit episodes and to anticipate and assess audience reactions to in-show developments,” says Mr Delaney, who is a partner at commercial law firm Perkins Coie, and who advises companies on AI and other technology issues.

“However, production companies will need to consider to what extent the new Writers Guild of America agreement [to strictly restrict the use of AI] might limit their ability to use AI in connection with their reality TV programs.”

He adds that away from making the shows a growing issue that reality TV producers and contestants are facing is a proliferation of unauthorized, AI-generated images and videos.

Mr Delaney points to generative AI tools such as chatbot ChatGPT being used to create new content from reality TV footage.

“AI tools will allow both well-intentioned fans, and bad actors, to manipulate reality TV clips and entire episodes, and ultimately, to even create new works featuring reality TV stars and other celebrities,” he says.

One major hurdle for reality TV stars, and other celebrities, seeking to stop unauthorised, AI-created usage of their persona is that there is currently no comprehensive US federal law addressing deepfakes.

It is a similar situation around the world.

Mr Delaney highlights reality TV star Kyland Young who took part in the US version of Big Brother and The Challenge.

Mr Young is suing an AI-powered app called Reface, which allowed users to make photos that swapped their face for his. The lawsuit has yet to go to trial.

Mandy Stadmiller writes a Substack called Ignore Previous Directions, which focuses on “how to thrive and survive in the creator economy with AI”.

She says that Mr Young’s legal case is “important, because it centres around the right of publicity… and allowing reality stars to be able to control the exploitation of their identity”.

Where Ms Stadmiller says things get more complicated is the increasing use of AI as a plot tool within reality TV shows.

She points to recent Netflix dating show Deep Fake Love, which used deepfake technology to convince contestants that their partners were cheating on them.

“I can’t help but wonder what other forms of psychological trauma and torment will be deemed acceptable to deepfake in just a few years from now for the sake of entertainment,” she says.

However, grim as this all sounds, Ms Stadtmiller points out that it is important to look at the difference between “good deepfakes” and “bad deepfakes”.

“While a bad deepfake makes people do horrifying things like, say, cheat on someone they love, a good deepfake would be a video that can, for instance, instantly translate a reality star’s voice into another language,” she says.

“This is a helpful use of the AI technology for bridging language barriers.”

Meanwhile, the latest season of the US version of Big Brother has an AI focus. This includes a talking AI participant who appears in human form on a screen.

“Reality TV is almost always about reflecting our worries, obsessions and aspirations,” says David Nussbaum, whose firm Proto is behind the AI technology.

“We see AI tech all over the news… but its use on a show of this scale puts it in the minds of millions who will experience it, debate it, learn about it in a new way.”

Jill Zarin is a reality TV star who has now embraced AI. Ms Zarin, who appeared in three seasons of The Real Housewives of New York City, has gone on to own a number of lifestyle brands.

Ms Zarin recently created a digital twin of herself thanks to AI cloning website Delphi.

Members of the public can go to her page on the Delphi website, and ask her questions for free. Her clone will then reply in via text, or, if you prefer, out loud in a copy of her voice.

Ms Zarin described the AI as a “walking encyclopedia” of her own thoughts and advice.

“It’s amazing to see how consistent my messages have been, even though my thoughts on different topics have evolved over the years.”

Delphi enables celebrities to monetise their clone in a number of ways. They can make it a paid-for service, or use the replies to advertise products, or include links to retail sites.

“Reality stars are people who get a ton of inbound – from media and from fans,” says Delphi chief executive Dara Ladjevardian.

“Digital clones can handle a lot of the outreach for these stars, answer questions that have already been answered several times. The clones also may remember things that reality stars might not remember in the middle of an interview.”

Yet while some in the reality TV community are embracing AI, others such as veteran producer Alex Baskin are not.

“At its best, reality TV captures the human experience, and I don’t see that changing,” says Mr Baskin, who is behind such shows as Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and Real Housewives of Orange County.

“Reducing entertainment to an algorithm hasn’t worked over time, and I don’t see it working going forward.

“Human beings, with all of their interests, quirks and imperfections, are featured in the shows, and on the production side, and they come up with and make the shows in the first place. And that will continue.”

One of Switzerland’s most stunning spots has become the latest to try to limit tourist access, in a bid to protect the environment from becoming overrun by Instagrammers.

Above the famous resort of Zermatt, the Riffelsee lake is more than picture perfect. Not only can you see the iconic Matterhorn in all its glory, you can capture its reflection in the glacial waters of the lake.

In high season, the rack railway takes thousands of tourists up there every single day, all of them intent on the ultimate shot.

And in June and July, when spring finally arrives in the high Alps, tourists can also see the alpine flowers that thrive up there at 2,800m (9,200ft): edelweiss, gentian, and alpine golden primrose.

At least they could.

But now the hordes of tourists disgorged by the railway every few minutes are taking their toll, tramping across the pastures towards the lake and crushing the flowers.

Edelweiss has not been seen around the Riffelsee for some years.

The Zermatt authorities have decided enough is enough.

Tourists can still come, but now they are shepherded towards the lake on marked paths, with the pastures fenced off.

The aim is not to deter visitors – after all Zermatt’s tourist office advertises the Riffelsee as a photo opportunity on its website – but to educate them about the alpine environment.

Inside the fences an alpine garden – Europe’s highest – has been created; narrow walkways allow visitors to take a closer look at the flowers, with QR codes explaining what they are.

It’s a fascinating glimpse of the biodiversity of the high Alps. Planning the garden, botanists found 148 different plant species.

Many tourists clearly appreciate it, taking time to examine the garden. Others though stream on by towards the lake, their selfie sticks aloft.

Zermatt’s problem is shared by other famous, or uniquely beautiful, parts of Europe.

In Florence there was fury after a tourist posted pictures of herself miming a lewd act with the Roman statue of Bacchus.

The beautiful southern Swiss village of Lavertezzo, famous for the emerald waters of the Verzasca river running through it, was overrun with cars, visitors, and litter after a video comparing it to the Maldives was posted on Facebook.

Meanwhile in the east of the country, Canton Glarus has witnessed a surge of wild campers, driven by Instagram, looking for clickable high mountain shots.

It’s dangerous for them, because many are not experienced hikers or climbers, but it’s worse for the alpine flora and fauna. The tents crush the pastures, the campers leave rubbish and human waste behind them.

Switzerland’s economy does very well out of tourism, but now some Swiss are asking if there can be too much.

Tourist offices report that the only question many visitors ask is “where is the best photo opportunity?”

It is disappointing for locals to realise that tourists might not really be coming to experience the beauty and culture their region has to offer, but to get more likes and shares on social media.

But Zermatt’s compromise with the alpine garden may be the right solution. The edelweiss has been replanted and, perhaps, next spring, its small white flowers will look happy to meet the next batch of tourists.

The record for the world’s hottest day has tumbled twice in one week, according to the European climate change service.

On Monday the global average surface air temperature reached 17.15C, breaking the record of 17.09C set on Sunday.

It beats the record set in July 2023, and it could break again this week.

Parts of the world are experiencing powerful heatwaves including the Mediterranean, Russia and Canada.

Climate change is driving up global temperatures as greenhouse gas emissions released when humans burn fossil fuels warm the Earth’s atmosphere.

“While fluctuations are to be expected, as the climate continues to warm, we are likely to keep seeing records being broken, and each new record is taking us further into uncharted territory,” says Prof Rebecca Emerton, a climate scientist at the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

The naturally-occurring climate phenomenon El Niño also added heat to the climate in the first six months of this year but its effects have now waned.

Extreme heat is a serious health hazard, with thousands of deaths attributed to high temperatures every year.

In 2000-2019, almost half a million heat-related deaths around the world occurred each year, according to the World Health Organization.

China has issued heat alerts this week, with central and northwestern areas of the country recording temperatures higher than 40C.

Russia has been battling wildfires in Siberia, and Spain and Greece also endured days of high temperatures.

In the US, more than 40 million people on Tuesday faced dangerous temperatures, and wildfires have broken out in western areas of the country.

The global average temperature usually peaks in July or August during summer in the northern hemisphere.

The northern hemisphere has large land masses – like the US or Russia – that warm up faster than the oceans that dominate the southern hemisphere.

The recent sudden rise in temperatures is also down to significantly-above-average temperatures over large parts of Antarctica, according to Prof Emerton.

Large swings in temperature are not unusual in Antarctica at this time of year – they also contributed to record temperatures in 2023.

Sea ice in the region is almost as low as this time last year, which also leads to above-average sea temperatures in the Southern Ocean.

“The hottest day record has been broken once again because the world continues to burn huge amounts of oil, gas, and coal,” says Friederike Otto, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science at Grantham Institute at Imperial College London.

“Every broken record is a warning that our climate is heating to dangerous levels. These warnings are becoming much more frequent; however, we have all the tools, technology and knowledge to stop things from getting worse – replace fossil fuels with renewable energy and get emissions down to net zero as quickly as possible,” she added.

The Duke of Sussex has said his decision to fight against intrusion from the tabloid press has been a “central piece” behind the breakdown of his relationship with the rest of the Royal Family.

In December a High Court judge ruled that Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) had unlawfully gathered information for stories published about Prince Harry – and he has since been awarded hundreds of thousands of pounds in damages.

Speaking for the first time since the four-year legal battle concluded, he said he felt “vindicated” by the ruling, calling it a “monumental victory”.

But in comments due to be aired as part of an ITV documentary on Thursday, Prince Harry added “it would be nice if we did it as a family”.

Prince Harry, who became the first British royal in 130 years to give evidence in a court, told the programme his decision to fight these cases had “caused… part of a rift” with the rest of his family.

He and his wife, Meghan, stepped back as senior royals in 2020 after publicly revealing their struggles under the media spotlight.

The prince, who now lives in the US state of California, also said he believed there was evidence his mother – the late Princess Diana – was hacked, claiming she “was probably one of the first” victims.

This has never been proven in court.

“The press, the tabloid press very much enjoy painting her as being paranoid, but she wasn’t paranoid, she was absolutely right of what was happening to her,” he said.

Referring to one headline from the Daily Mirror brought up in his case against MGN which claimed his then-girlfriend Chelsy Davy was preparing to break up with him, the prince said it “seems as though they knew something before I even did”.

“I think there’s a lot of… paranoia, fear, worry, concern, distrust in the people around you, clearly a headline like that has absolutely no public interest whatsoever,” he said.

The interview is due to air in a new ITV documentary, Tabloids on Trial, on Thursday evening.

The programme speaks to other famous faces – including Hugh Grant, Charlotte Church and Paul Gascoigne – whose lives have been impacted by the press.

In response to the documentary, an MGN spokesperson said: “We welcomed the judgment in December 2023 that gave the business the necessary clarity to move forward from events that took place many years ago.

“Where historical wrongdoing took place, we apologise unreservedly, have taken full responsibility and paid compensation,” the spokesperson added.

The case was just one of a series of legal challenges the prince has brought against parts of the British press.

Cases against Associated Newspapers – the publisher of the Daily Mail – and News Group Newspapers – now News UK, which publishes the Sun – are currently making their way through the courts.

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.

Inside Out 2 has become the highest-grossing animated film of all time, six weeks after it was released in cinemas.

The film, a sequel to 2015’s Inside Out, has so far taken $1.46bn (£1.13bn) at box offices worldwide.

That means it has overtaken Frozen II, which made $1.45bn in 2019.

Inside Out 2’s total is likely to rise further in the coming weeks, and it is only just about to open in Japan.

The film has also overtaken last year’s most successful film, Barbie, which took $1.45bn.

However, Inside Out 2 has not yet surpassed Disney’s 2019 remake of The Lion King, which earned $1.65bn (£1.28bn).

Technically, The Lion King is computer-generated but the studio classed it as a live-action remake, which means it is not considered an animated movie.

Overall, Inside Out 2 is now the 13th highest-grossing film of all time.

It has some way to go to catch up with the films at the top of that list – Avatar ($2.9bn, £2.2bn) and Avengers: Endgame ($2.7bn, £2.1bn).

About $601m (£466m) of Inside Out 2’s running total was made in the US, while $861m (£668m) was taken in other countries, including $61m (£47m) in the UK.

Inside Out 2 is said to have cost around $200m (£155m) to make, not including additional costs such as marketing.

Its success marks something of a bounce-back for Pixar, which has struggled in recent years to reach its previous heights.

However, that is partly due to some films being released straight to streaming services during the pandemic, when many cinemas were closed.

Inside Out and its sequel focus on a group of characters, who represent emotions, inside a head of a young girl named Riley.

In the latest film, Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Anger and Fear are joined by new characters such as Anxiety, Envy and Embarrassment, as Riley becomes a teenager.

1. Inside Out 2 (2024) – $1.46bn
2. Frozen II (2019) – $1.45bn
3. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) – $1.36bn
4. Frozen (2013) – $1.27bn
5. Incredibles 2 (2018) – $1.24bn
6. Minions (2015) – $1.16bn
7. Toy Story 4 (2019) – $1.072bn
8. Toy Story 3 (2010) – $1.068bn
9. Despicable Me 3 (2017) – $1.032bn
10. Finding Dory (2016) – $1.025bn

The figures are not adjusted for inflation, which puts older films at a disadvantage in the box office top 50.

“Intimate” handwritten letters and cards from Princess Diana to her family’s former housekeeper are to be sold at auction.

The letters were sent to Violet Collison – who Diana knew simply as “Collie” – the housekeeper at Park House on the Sandringham Estate, where the princess spent her childhood years.

Collie remained close to Diana and sent gifts to both her and the princes, William and Harry, for which Diana responded with thank you letters and Christmas cards.

They are expected to sell for thousands of pounds when they go under the hammer in Stansted Mountfitchet on 30 July.

One of the letters, written on Buckingham Palace notepaper, was sent just three weeks before Diana’s wedding to Prince Charles.

“Everyone frantically busy here doing last-minute decorations,” the then Lady Diana Spencer observed, adding: “The bride-to-be has remained quite calm!”

In another letter from September 1984, Diana thanks her former housekeeper for a gift to Prince Harry.

She wrote: “William adores his little brother and spends the entire time pouring an endless supply of hugs and kisses over Harry”.

Luke Macdonald, director at Sworders auctioneers, said the letters were “so intimate”.

“They’re things that otherwise we probably would not be aware of outside the small circles of the Royal family,” he added.

“The fact that she was wanting to say a special thank you – for albeit small presents – really says how kind and generous and caring Diana was.”

Whilst in service at Park House, Violet Collison welcomed the births of Diana and her three siblings – Sarah, Jane and Charles.

After the Spencer’s marriage broke down, Violet followed Diana’s mother Frances Shand Kydd to London in 1967, before returning to Norfolk to retire.

“The lovely environment of Norfolk obviously held a very special place in her heart,” Mr Macdonald told the BBC.

“Diana would slip out under the radar without her security to visit Collie for a cup of tea.”

Ms Collison remained close to Frances and the Spencer children until her death at the age of 89 in 2013.

“She was a constant in Diana’s life, somebody she could relate to and perhaps even escape from the world she was in,” Mr Macdonald said.

“There was huge affection – she adored her.”

The auction house, based at Stansted Mountfitchet in Essex, said the Diana lots had attracted interest from across the world, especially the United States.

Also included are framed photographs and Christmas cards, as well as Ms Collison’s invitations to both Princess Diana’s wedding to Prince Charles in 1981, as well as her funeral in 1997.

Mr Macdonald said some of the individual letters had estimates of between £800 and £1,200, although he expected them to sell for more.

The lots will go under the hammer at Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers on Tuesday 30 July.

Visitors were forced to flee as a huge hydrothermal explosion shot steam and debris into the air at Yellowstone National Park

Videos show dozens of people running as a large column of grey mud shoots from the ground, sending rocks and boiling water high into the air around Biscuit Basin.

The National Parks Service reported no injuries but said the nearby boardwalk and benches were damaged in the blast on Tuesday.

The service closed the area, a few miles from the Old Faithful geyser.

A US Geological Survey photograph shows a huge grey area of debris thrown out by the eruption.

The survey said that a hydrothermal explosion is caused by water flashing to steam in a shallow hydrothermal system.

Surrounding rocks are blown apart as the steam expands. The often violent events result in the “rapid ejection of boiling water, steam, mud, and rock fragments”.

They can reach heights of 1.2 miles (2km) and leave huge craters. Most of the ejected material is called breccia – angular rocks cemented by clay.

The survey said hydrothermal explosions can pose significant local hazards and damage or destroy thermal features.

In Yellowstone, the explosions are not related to volcanic activity.

Similar eruptions occurred in Biscuit Basin in 2009, 1991 and after an earthquake in 1959.

Buildings in the Canadian tourist town of Jasper have been burning after wildfires forced 25,000 people to evacuate the area earlier this week, officials said.

The blaze has spread through Jasper National Park, causing “significant loss” within the local town, according to park officials on X, formerly Twitter.

Hundreds of wildfires have sparked in the western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia (BC).

The region has been hit by more than 58,000 lightning strikes within the last week, sparking new blazes after a three-week heat wave, according to BC Wildfire Service.

Around 1,900 Alberta firefighters have been deployed, assisted by personnel from Alaska and Australia, and are working to save local infrastructure.

That includes the Trans Mountain Pipeline, a Canadian government-owned pipeline that runs through Jasper National Park. As of Wednesday it was still operating, with sprinklers being used to protect it.

There have been more than 400 fires recorded in British Columbia and 176 in the neighbouring province of Alberta.

Fires were first reported in Jasper last week. The town’s mayor, Richard Ireland, told CBC that the town was facing its “worst nightmare”.

“I write to you today with profound sorrow as we begin to come to terms with the devastating impact of last night’s wildfire that has ravaged our beloved community,” Mr Ireland wrote on Facebook on Thursday morning.

“The destruction and loss that many of you are facing and feeling is beyond description and comprehension; my deepest sympathies go out to each of you.”

Mr Ireland noted first responders were still working to protect the town from further destruction.

The wildfire reached the grounds of Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge on Wednesday night, Anastasia Martin-Stilwell, a spokesperson for the historic resort said.

While all guest were safely evacuated, the extent of the damage, if any, remains unclear.

“We are devastated by the situation,” Ms Martin-Stilwell said. “The dedication of our first responders and those coming to our aid cannot fully be expressed.”

Eleonor Dumlao told the Edmonton Journal she was filled with panic when her family received the evacuation order. They left Jasper on Monday night and headed to an evacuation centre in Edmonton.

“It was so very terrible experience for us, and I was so panicking that time. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to get first,” she told the newspaper.

Jasper National Park said on X that “air quality had deteriorated” in the area. The park is the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies.

After evacuations were issued, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told residents to “leave safely” on Wednesday. In a post on Facebook, she said she was in “constant contact” with the authorities.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government has approved a request for federal assistance for Alberta.

“We’re deploying @CanadianForces resources, evacuations support, and more emergency wildfire resources to the province immediately — and we’re coordinating firefighting and airlift assistance,” Mr Trudeau said on X.

Daniel Turner also recounted how he evacuated the wildfires to the Edmonton Journal, saying he followed evacuation orders with three of his friends but hit bumper-to-bumper traffic fleeing Jasper and turned around.

The group slept in a Canadian Tire parking lot.

“You could see it deteriorating, like ash falling,” he said of the wildfire smoke.

Meanwhile, others like Jim Campbell and Shawn Cornett were asleep in their tent at a campsite in Jasper’s backcountry when the evacuation order was issued, they told the Globe and Mail newspaper.

As word about the evacuation spread they packed up their belongings and hit the road with another 20 people who were leaving the site.

“We were the last ones out,” Mr Campbell said. “Because we were the last ones to know.”

Earlier in the week, several US states including California and Utah were hit by wildfires.

More than 30 million people in the US have been affected by heat warnings since early July, according to the National Weather Service. The warnings are in place in California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state.

Jennifer Aniston has criticised Donald Trump’s vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, for resurfaced comments calling Democrats a “bunch of childless cat ladies with miserable lives”.

The Friends actress, 55, posted a 2021 interview with Mr Vance that has been widely shared since his selection as Mr Trump’s running mate for November’s presidential election.

“I truly can’t believe that this is coming from a potential VP of the United States,” she wrote on Instagram.

“All I can say is… Mr Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day.”

Mr Vance has a two-year-old daughter, and two sons.

“I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option,” Ms Aniston wrote.

“Because you are trying to take that away from her, too.”

The actress has previously spoken openly about her struggles while trying to have children through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).

Last month, Mr Vance voted to block Democrat-proposed legislation to guarantee access to IVF nationwide.

In the clip, Mr Vance criticised Vice-President Kamala Harris because she has no biological children.

Ms Harris is stepmother to her husband Doug Emhoff’s two children.

But Mr Vance told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson the US was run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too”.

“Look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” he said.

“How does it make any sense we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”

The BBC has contacted the Trump-Vance campaign team for comment.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also addressed the comments earlier this week, speaking about adopting twins with his husband, Chasten.

“The really sad thing is he said that after Chasten and I had been through a fairly heartbreaking setback in our adoption journey,” Mr Buttigieg told CNN’s The Source programme.

“He couldn’t have known that – but maybe that’s why you shouldn’t be talking about other people’s children.”

There has also been backlash from fans of singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, who has no children – and three cats.

“It’s bold, for someone seeking votes, to hone in on ‘childless cat ladies’ when the leader of Childless Cat Ladies is Taylor Swift,” British writer Caitlin Moran posted on X.

Another X user shared the Time magazine cover where Swift posed with one of her cats, writing: “Hell hath no fury like a certain childless cat lady who has yet to endorse a presidential candidate.”

In 2022, Aniston told Allure she wished someone had told her to freeze her eggs.

“It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road,” she said.

“All the years and years of speculation… it was really hard.

“I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it.”

But she had “zero regrets”.

“I would’ve given anything if someone had said to me, ‘Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favour.’ You just don’t think it. So here I am today,” she told the magazine.

“The ship has sailed.”

The Philippines is in a race against time to contain an oil spill after a tanker carrying close to 1.5 million litres (400,000 gallons) of industrial fuel capsized and sank off the country’s coast, officials say.

There are fears the “enormous” spill – which is already stretching out over several kilometres – could reach the shore of the capital, Manila, coast guard spokesman Rear Admiral Armando Balilo told reporters.

The ship was one of two which sank in the region on Thursday, with the second going down just off Taiwan’s south-western coast.

Both Taiwan and the Philippines are seeing large amounts of rain as Typhoon Gaemi moves through the area, causing widespread flooding.

The typhoon made landfall in mainland China on Thursday evening local time, with authorities declaring the highest tier disaster warning.

It first struck Taiwan on Wednesday evening, killing three as it made its way across the island.

Four counties and cities in Taiwan saw more than a thousand millimetres of rainfall during a 14-hour period ending Thursday afternoon.

The Philippines avoided a direct hit by Gaemi, but the storm intensified seasonal monsoon rains, triggering widespread flooding across large swathes of Metro Manila and its suburbs.

Despite the heavy rains, the MT Terra Nova, which sails under the Philippines’ flag, had not broken any regulations around travelling in heavy weather, according to Rear Admiral Balilo.

The tanker was heading for the central Philippine city of Iloilo when it sank, with 17 crew members on board.

One died, but 16 were successfully rescued, officials said. Authorities are investigating whether bad weather was a factor.

The coast guard is now “racing against time” to contain the spill, which could – if all of the oil leaks – become the biggest in the country’s history.

High winds and rough seas were hampering their attempts, however.

Even if they managed to avoid a catastrophe of that magnitude, Rear Admiral Balilo said it would “definitely affect the marine environment”.

Pando Hicap, chairman of local fishing group Pamalakaya, said the spill was “alarming” because fishermen’s livelihoods were “dependent on the waters”.

“They don’t have any alternative,” he told news agency AFP.

Meanwhile, to the north in Taiwan, all nine sailors were initially reported missing after their Tanzania-flagged cargo ship Fu Shun went down.

The Myanmar nationals were forced to abandon the sinking ship, Hsiao Huan-chang, head of the fire agency, told AFP.

“They fell into the sea and were floating there,” he said.

The first attempts to reach the crew, who were wearing lifejackets, were hampered by the low visibility and high winds, but by the end of Thursday three had been reported rescued.

The typhoon was originally expected to hit further north, but the mountains of northern Taiwan steered it 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 the Fujian province in southeastern China later on Thursday. Several rail operators in China have also suspended operations.

Russia and China have staged a joint patrol over the north Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea near the coast of Alaska.

The two countries have carried out several joint patrols in the past, and Russia regularly flies its bombers over the Bering Sea.

But Wednesday’s joint patrol was the first that brought together bombers from both countries in the north Pacific area.

Moscow and Beijing said it was “not aimed at any third party”, while the US-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said the bombers, which it intercepted, stayed in international airspace and were “not seen as a threat”.

But Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski described the event as an “unprecedented provocation by our adversaries”, adding that it was “the first time they have been intercepted operating together.”

China has said the patrol has “nothing to do with the current international and regional situation”.

Russian TU-95MS strategic missile carriers and the Chinese air force’s Xian H-6 strategic bombers were deployed, according to Russia.

China and Russia have developed closer ties since Moscow was placed under sanctions by the West following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Any display of deepening cooperation is watched with apprehension by the US and European countries.

Earlier this month, Moscow and Beijing wrapped up their fourth joint naval patrol in the northern and western Pacific Ocean.

Nato countries issued a joint statement at the end of a recent summit in Washington accusing China of being a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war in Ukraine and urging it to “cease all material and political support” to the country’s war effort.

In a report on Arctic security published on Monday, the US Department of Defence expressed concern over the two countries’ “growing alignment”, and predicted that their military cooperation would continue to increase.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected this, saying Russian-Chinese cooperation in the Arctic could only contribute to an atmosphere of “stability and predictability” in the area.

A police officer has been suspended after a video circulated online of a man being kicked and stamped on the head at Manchester Airport.

An officer had been removed from all duties after a “thorough review of further information” of the incident, which took place on Tuesday, Greater Manchester Police confirmed.

The footage showed a uniformed male officer holding a Taser over the man who was lying on the ground at Terminal 2 before kicking him twice at about 20:30 BST.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, who has met the home secretary over the incident, has appealed for calm.

After the meeting, Yvette Cooper said she understood the “the widespread distress” the footage had caused, adding she had spoken to police about the “urgent steps” they are taking.

She said it was “essential” police had the trust of communities, and the public “rightly expect high standards from those in charge of keeping us safe”.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said it understood the “deep concerns” that had been “widely raised”.

The footage sparked a protest outside Rochdale police station on Wednesday night, with hundreds of people gathered, and chants of “shame on you” heard.

In the build-up to the incident shown in the clip, a police spokesman said that firearms officers had been punched to the ground after trying to make an arrest following a fight in the airport.

There was a “clear risk” their weapons could be taken from them, the police spokesman said, adding all three had been taken to hospital, one with a broken nose.

Four men were later arrested on suspicion of assault and affray, and all have since been bailed.

It remains unclear what led to the incident, but Mr Burnham said he thought there had been “an issue on a flight coming into Manchester”.

“When the flight landed, two individuals were waiting for their mum, who said there had been an issue,” he said.

“She pointed somebody out and there was an altercation in the arrivals hall.”

He said those involved had been “followed by camera through the airport and then we get to the scene that people have seen in the car park area”.

Mr Burnham told BBC Radio Manchester he had seen “the full footage” that showed a “fast-moving and complicated situation in a challenging location – it’s not clear cut”.

“Time has been taken to get a clearer picture of what has happened,” he said, adding that an investigation needed to proceed now “in a thorough and measured way”.

• Anderson remarks on airport video irresponsible – Burnham

Amar Minhas from Leeds was travelling through the terminal with his family when he saw officers approach the man to arrest him.

“They pinned him up against a wall”, he told the BBC, before another man tried to intervene and a fight broke out, with the pinned man throwing punches until he was Tasered to the floor, when the officer kicked him.

Prime Minster Sir Keir Starmer has said he “completely understands” the public’s concern over the footage.

Sir Keir said the home secretary was being kept updated.

Former chief superintendent of the Met Police, Dal Babu, told BBC Radio 4 the police actions were “appalling and unnecessary” and in his opinion racism played a part in the incident.

He said the men were arrested for affray and assault, not offences at the “serious end” like attempted murder, gross bodily harm, or malicious wounding.

“I think racism played a significant part in this,” he said, adding GMP had been “slow out of the block in understanding the seriousness” of the incident at a time when trust in police was “so low”.

Many of those who spoke to the BBC in Rochdale about the video asked to remain anonymous.

One woman said: “If I were to kick a person in the face, I would be arrested and sentenced, not have the charges dropped and a policeman should be treated the same.”

Meanwhile, a man in the town said: “The police reaction was wrong but I don’t know what the context is.

“We need to see the full picture. But when you’re kicking a man who can’t defend himself – it’s exceeding the need for force.”

Usman Nawaz from the Rochdale Community Alliance, said the “extremely disturbing” footage was “not the policing we recognise in this country”.

Mr Nawaz said the people of Rochdale had “generally had a very good relationship with our police”, but that the force must “get a handle on this really quickly” or mistrust could grow between police and local communities.

The force said in its latest statement that it would “continue to meet” with Greater Manchester residents and elected representatives to discuss concerns raised about the footage.

It said it had referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct over the incident.

The MP of the man who was filmed being kicked told the House of Commons the video was “truly shocking and disturbing”.

Paul Waugh, Labour MP for Rochdale, said he was meeting the man’s family later today.

He said police faced a difficult job but that they had to expect the highest standards of conduct in their duties.

The Leader of the House, Lucy Powell, MP for Manchester Central, also said the footage was “incredibly disturbing”, adding that there was “understandably a lot of concern”.

IOPC Regional Director Catherine Bates said the police watchdog was investigating the “level of force” used by a GMP officer in the incident, adding it was “vitally important” all the circumstances were investigated.

She said inquiries were at an early stage, but a “significant amount of body-worn video and CCTV footage” of the incident had been secured.

“We appreciate people want answers and we will work to provide those answers as quickly as we can,” Ms Bates said.

A spokesman for GMP’s police federation said it was supporting the suspended officer, as well as “all of our colleagues who were involved in this incident”.

They added: “Everyone has the right to a fair hearing where all sides of the story are told and context is provided.”

An Indian labourer’s fortunes have changed overnight after he found a massive diamond in a mine in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.

The 19.22-carat diamond is expected to fetch about 8m rupees ($95,570; £74,000) in a government auction.

Raju Gound said he had been leasing mines in Panna city for more than 10 years in the hope of finding a diamond.

Panna is famed for its diamond reserves and people often lease cheap, shallow mines from the government to hunt for the precious stone.

The federal government’s National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) runs a mechanised diamond mining project in Panna.

It also leases out shallow mines to individuals, families and co-operative groups who look for diamonds, usually with basic tools and equipment.

Any finds are handed over to the government diamond office, which then evaluates the stone.

“These mines can be leased for about 200-250 rupees [for a specific period],” Anupam Singh, an official at the state government’s diamond office, told the BBC.

In 2018, a labourer from Bundelkhand found a diamond worth 15m rupees in a mine in Panna. However, such discoveries are rare.

Mr Singh said that while many people have found smaller stones, Mr Gound’s find was notable because of its size.

Mr Gound told the BBC that his father had leased the mine in Krishna Kalyanpur Patti village near Panna about two months ago.

He said his family leases mines mostly during the monsoon season when agricultural and masonry work dry up.

“We are very poor and have no other source of income. So we do this in the hope of making some money,” he said.

He had heard stories of people chancing upon diamonds and hoped that he too would get lucky one day.

On Wednesday morning, he went to the site to perform his daily task of manually searching for the precious stone.

“It’s tedious work. We dig a pit, pull out chunks of soil and rock, wash them in a sieve and then carefully sift through thousands of dried, tiny stones to look for diamonds,” he said.

And that afternoon, all that hard work paid off and his luck turned.

“I was sifting through the stones and saw something that resembled a piece of glass. I held it up to my eyes and saw a faint glint. That’s when I knew I had found a diamond,” he said.

Mr Gound then took his prized find to the government diamond office, where it was evaluated and weighed.

Mr Singh said the diamond would be sold in the next government auction and that Mr Gound would receive his compensation after the government royalty and taxes were deducted.

Mr Gound hopes to build a better house for his family with the money and even pay for his children’s education. But first, he wants to pay off his debt of 500,000 rupees.

He says he’s not afraid of people finding out about the diamond as he plans to divide the money between 19 relatives who live with him.

For now, he’s content just knowing that the money will come to him.

“Tomorrow, I’ll go to the mine again to look for diamonds,” he said.

The Israeli military says it has recovered the bodies of five Israelis taken back to Gaza as hostages during Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on 7 October.

The bodies of kindergarten teacher Maya Goren as well as the soldiers Sergeant Major Ravid Aryeh Katz, Master Sergeant Oren Goldin, Staff Sergeant Tomer Ahimas and Sergeant Kiril Brodski were found in a Hamas tunnel in the southern city of Khan Younis on Wednesday.

The military said the tunnel was underneath an area it had previously designated as a humanitarian zone.

It also said it had determined that Ms Goren was murdered in captivity, while the soldiers were killed in combat on 7 October and their bodies then abducted.

The announcement means 111 of the 251 people taken hostage are still being held in Gaza, including 39 who the military says are presumed dead.

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred frequently to the fate of the remaining hostages in his address to the US Congress, but he gave no clue as to whether a deal with Hamas to secure their release in return for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange was close.

“As we speak, we’re actively engaged in intensive efforts to secure their release,” he said.

His failure to give more hope to the families and friends of the missing did not go unnoticed.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid called the speech “a sham”, adding that Mr Netanyahu “spoke for an hour without saying: ‘There will be a hostage deal.’”

Hostages’ relatives who watched the speech on screens set up in what is known as Hostages Square in central Tel Aviv also reacted with anger and dismay.

Talya Dancyg, a granddaughter of Alex Dancyg, whose death in captivity was confirmed on Monday, cried: “My grandfather could still be alive with us, he was waiting for someone to come and save him. He was waiting, he was waiting for you to seal the deal!”

“Do you realise that you are becoming an accomplice to murder?” shouted Nissan Kalderon, brother of hostage Ofer Kalderon.

“You are killing our families, give up your political ambitions.”

Shortly afterwards, the kibbutzim of Nir Oz and Nir Yitzhak announced in separate statements that they had been informed of the recovery of Ms Goren and Sgt Goldin’s bodies.

On Thursday, a joint statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel Security Agency, also known as the Shin Bet, confirmed that commandos had recovered their bodies, along with those of Sgt Katz, Sgt Ahimas and Sgt Brodski, during an operation in the Khan Younis area.

“The IDF and ISA will continue to operate, using all intelligence and operational means to fulfil the supreme mission of rescuing all of the hostages,” it added.

On Thursday afternoon, the IDF revealed that the hostages’ bodies had been held underneath an area that it had previously designated as a humanitarian zone for Palestinian civilians.

“The forces located an underground tunnel shaft, leading to a tunnel approximately 200m in length and 20m deep with several rooms where the hostages were located,” it said.

“This is a further example of how Hamas cynically exploited the humanitarian area and used it to hold captive Israelis killed and abducted on 7 October.”

On Monday, the IDF ordered the evacuation of eastern neighbourhoods of Khan Younis, saying there had been “significant terrorist activity and rocket fire” from them, and told residents to head to the “adjusted” al-Mawasi humanitarian area.

The UN estimated that more than 150,000 people had fled the Khan Younis area by Tuesday evening, while the Hamas-run health ministry said more than 80 people had been killed in Israeli air and artillery strikes. At least another six people were reportedly killed on Wednesday.

The IDF said its troops were continuing operations against “terrorist infrastructure and operatives” in Khan Younis on Thursday and claimed that they had killed dozens of Palestinian fighters over the past few days.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum praised the recovery of the hostages’ bodies as a “crucial and decisive military action that provides their families with important closure and eternal rest for the murdered”.

“It is Israel’s duty to return all the murdered for honourable burial and all living hostages for rehabilitation. The immediate return of the remaining 115 hostages can only be achieved through a deal!” it said, including among their number another four Israelis who were abducted before 7 October.

The forum called on Mr Netanyahu to send Israel’s negotiating team to Qatar “without delay”.

The Israeli prime minister’s office had said the negotiators would depart on Thursday, following what it called an in-depth discussion with Mr Netanyahu over the weekend. But on Wednesday, Israeli officials said the team would head to Doha only after Mr Netanyahu had met US President Joe Biden at the White House.

Israel launched a military 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 were taken hostage.

More than 39,170 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The black box sits on the army truck dashboard like a talisman, its tiny screen lighting up with warnings when Russian drones are above us. We are driving fast along a country road in the darkness near the front lines outside Kharkiv.

Like many in this war, the soldiers inside have come to revere the little cube they call “sugar”; it warns of the unseen dangers above.

On the vehicle’s roof are three mushroom-shaped antennas that make up separate drone-jamming equipment. The car emits an invisible aura of protection that will thwart some, but not all, of the Russian attack drones patrolling the skies above this battlefield.

“It has detected the Zala Lancet Russian drones,” says Senior Lt Yevhenii, 53, from the front passenger seat, describing one of the most powerful long-range Russian drones and its targeting drone. “Is that why we’re driving so fast?” I ask, aware that the drone-jamming antenna is useless against a Lancet.

“We’re not a priority for them, but it’s still better not to slow down because it’s very dangerous,” says Yevhenii, from the Khartia Brigade of Ukraine’s National Guard.

The jamming equipment blocks roughly 75% of frequencies that drones use to communicate with their operators, but some like the Lancet are difficult to block because they are entirely autonomous once their target has been marked. Because of the Lancet’s power, it tends to be used on larger targets, such as armoured vehicles or infantry positions, the Ukrainians say.

Almost none of this technology was here in Ukraine a year ago; now it is commonplace. Drones, which were once peripheral to the war, are a central component for both sides, alongside infantry and artillery as Ukraine struggles to hold back Russian advances.

Ukraine has been thrown into the bleak future of war, where within minutes individual soldiers, fast-moving vehicles and trench positions can be precisely targeted. Drones have civilians in their sights too: about 25 from Russia attacked Kharkiv on Tuesday night, although most were intercepted.

Ukraine’s army is fighting back with its own drones, and there are dozens across this stretch of front line. One Ukrainian soldier tells me every day they kill 100 Russians.

The last images from drone cameras are usually of men panicking, their arms flailing, weapons firing before they are killed. The brigade’s 37-year-old drone commander, who goes by the call sign Aeneas, says that without shelter in a building there is little chance of survival – for Russians, and his men too.

“It’s the new way or a new path in modern war. In 2022 it was only infantry war and today one half is only a war of drone, a battle between Russian drones and ours,” he says.

The move to drone warfare is a combination of necessity and innovation. Drones are in plentiful supply, even though when armed they lack the explosive fire power of artillery.

Ukraine has consistently run short of artillery shells, and its allies have been slow to produce and supply them. But a Drone Coalition of Ukrainian allies has pledged to supply the country with a million drones this year.

Russia has made its own innovations on the battlefield too, using an older technology, and the village of Lyptsi, just six miles (10km) from the Russian border, has paid the price.

It was devastated by glide bombs – Soviet-era “dumb bombs” fitted with fins and a satellite guidance system. Some are as large as 3,000kg (6,600lbs) and, when launched from aircraft, glide onto Ukrainian infantry positions and towns to highly destructive effect.

One woman named Svitlana, who was driven out of Lyptsi by these attacks, told us: “Everything was exploding all around. Everything was burning. It was scary there. It was impossible to even get out of the cellar.”

Aeneas takes us on a tour of his drone teams, embedded along the front line in Lyptsi. Every vehicle we encountered near there was fitted with drone-jamming equipment; but the jammer’s protection ends when you exit the vehicle.

It’s dangerous to be caught out in the open, so we follow Aeneas running across the rubble for cover.

• Listen: 5 Minutes On – Ukraine’s Drone Hunters

Out of breath, we make it to the drone unit’s underground base beneath a ruined building, where we are introduced to two operators, Yakut and Petro. There are drones on every surface, next to a frying pan with their evening meal.

They get through many hundreds of drones in a month, as most are single-use and detonate on their target.

Their weapon of choice is the First Person View (FPV) drone, which carries a payload of between 1kg (2.2lbs) and 2kg of explosive, packed with shrapnel. The drones are modified off-the-shelf models which have cameras to send video back to their remote operators. “We call them celebration drones in Ukraine. They were used to film weddings and parties before the war,” Aeneas says.

I watch on a screen in real time beside Yakut who is fixed in concentration flying a drone manually to a target, across open fields and woodland. “He knows every puddle, every tree in the area,” Petro says.

The FPV drone approaches a building where a Russian soldier is believed to be hiding. It flies through an open window and detonates, the operator’s screen turning to static as the signal is lost. At the same time, another drone team is targeting a Russian Tigr light-armoured vehicle and scores a direct hit, captured by a second surveillance drone that’s watching from above.

The men stay on these positions, flying missions day and night, for up to five days at a stretch and spend as little time outside as possible. Their biggest fear is glide bombs: one landed nearby earlier that week, and the whole building shook. What happens if there’s a direct hit? I ask Petro. “We die,” he replies.

Aeneas shows me a recording from earlier in the week: a Russian soldier is caught in the open and the unit’s drone has him in its sights. The soldier notices it and runs for cover, hiding in a drainage culvert by the roadside. Slowly the drone lowers to its level, checking one side of the drainage pipe, then going around the other side, where the soldier is hiding. It detonates and the man is blown out, dying by the roadside. “He was divided into two parts,” explains Aeneas.

The operators are cool and dispassionate, almost clinical in their targeting and killing. They are as far as three miles (5km) away from their targets, one step removed from the immediate blood and guts of the battlefield. But encountering these weapons on the frontline is nerve-wracking.

A few days later, after dark, at an infantry trench close to Russian positions, a unit commander tells me he believes the Ukrainians have the upper hand in drone warfare, the Russians the advantage with glide bombs.

Russia also has the advantage in drone numbers: six for every Ukrainian one, although the drone teams I was with say they have the technological edge and are quicker at finding ways to counter-attack and jam Russian drones.

The trench is in a wooded copse, surrounded by fields, a thick canopy of trees provides cover.

But as we are speaking a Russian FPV drone is detected and begins to move closer to the position. The few dim lights, mostly phone screens, are turned off in the trench, and the men sit silently as the drone’s approach gets louder. We hold our breath as it hovers overhead. For what seems like an age, no one dares move. But then the drone moves on, in search of another target.

The largest drone in the brigade’s arsenal is the Vampire, which with its six rotors is the size of a coffee table. Again we join Aeneas on another mission in Lyptsi after dark, under the sound of constant artillery fire, where we meet the heavy bomber team. They work to attach the bomb to the drone.

“[Weighing] 10kg (22lb), the Russians call this drone the Bogeyman,” says Aeneas. Its payload is powerful enough to take out their intended target, a Russian command post, they say.

As the men work, a Russian drone makes a number of passes overhead: each time it does, the soldiers retreat into the basement, wait for the all-clear, then resume the assembly. As the drone takes off into the night in a cloud of dust, they watch its progress again from a second surveillance drone.

Just then, with barely any warning, we see on the drone’s thermal camera three Russian glide bombs detonating over the Ukrainian position, over a kilometre away. The shock waves are visible: seconds later they reach our location and the house around us shudders violently.

Ukraine’s allies know that by supporting the drone effort, they are helping the country’s cause, but it isn’t simply an act of charity.

The head of the British military, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, has said that the UK’s armed forces can learn from Ukraine how to fight future wars. He said in a speech on Tuesday that he wants the Army to have “battalions of one-way attack drones”.

Aeneas and his men know this. As we leave their position, a Russian drone returns and we drive off at speed into the darkness. In the truck he tells me: “No one is fighting war this way – they are learning from us. This will be the future war.”

Namibian Michelle Nehoya has spent nearly $500 (£390) on the application process for a visa to visit Canada – but almost two years later it has yet to materialise.

The 38-year-old, who lives in Namibia’s capital, Windhoek, is desperate to get to Quebec to see her aunt and cousins whom she has not seen for almost a decade.

The visa application has involved filling in multiple forms – and among other requirements, she has also had to provide six months of bank statements, an invitation letter plus a detailed travel history.

There is no way to apply in Namibia, so this has also meant travelling to South Africa to submit her biometric data, which involves giving her fingerprints and having a photo taken.

Her experience is not uncommon for Africans travelling to Western countries.

In 2022, seven of the top 10 countries with the highest visa rejection rates in the bloc of European countries known as the Schengen area were African, according to consultancy firm Henley and Partners.

“It has been lengthy and frustrating. I haven’t been given any reason why it’s taken so long,” Ms Nehoya tells the BBC.

However, if her family in Quebec decide to travel to Namibia on Canadian passports, they will not face anything like the challenges and costs she encountered. Canadian citizens can currently enter Namibia without a visa.

But this will change in eight months’ time.

From next April, Canadian nationals, along with those from Germany, the US, the UK and 29 other countries, will require a visa for entry.

These include all “non-reciprocating countries” – meaning the new visa rules will affect citizens from all countries that require Namibian passport holders to have visas.

“Namibia has extended gestures of goodwill and favourable treatment to nationals of various countries. However, despite these efforts, certain nations have not reciprocated,” Namibia’s immigration ministry said in May.

“In light of this disparity, the government has deemed it necessary to implement a visa requirement to ensure parity and fairness in diplomatic interactions.”

But these visitors will be able to buy their 90-day visa, costing $90, on arrival in Namibia – unlike the onerous requirements placed on African passport holders who need to get their visas beforehand.

The British High Commissioner to Namibia, Charles Moore, said he respected the right of Namibia to impose new regulations.

“[The UK] unfortunately imposed a visa regime on Namibia last year due to the number of asylum seekers we were receiving. That was impacting on our relationship with Namibia,” he said.

A statement from the UK government further explained there had been a sustained and significant increase in the number of asylum applications from Namibians at the UK border since 2016.

“This constitutes an abuse of the provision to visit the UK for a limited period as non-visa nationals,” it said.

For Ms Nehoya, Namibia’s visa announcement is long overdue: “I think it is fair. It feels like Namibia is standing up for itself.”

The reactions on social media to the news echo her sentiments.

“Finally. I hope they also require them to submit a bible of documents, take medical tests, [and] Namibian language tests,” wrote one commenter.

Another said: “If I need to bring bank statements… and all sort of documents and still buy visa just to gain entry to a country, that country should also do the same to gain entry to my country.”

And visas for the Schengen area, the US and Canada do not come cheap for African passport holders.

The European Union made more than €53m ($58m; £45m) on rejected visa applications from African countries in 2023, according to a recent report by the Lago Collective, a think-tank that focuses on migration.

Visas can be rejected for multiple reasons. The report says most rejections are based on “reasonable doubt about the visa applicant’s intention to return home”.

In June 2024, the price of Schengen short-term visas went up from €80 to €90 for adults, and in October 2023, the UK visa fee rose from £100 to £115.

The report also showed that nearly a third of Africans applying for a visa to the Schengen area were rejected, higher than the global average.

Even when visas are approved, African travellers say their experiences at border security make them feel uncomfortable and unwanted.

Winnie Byanyima, the head of UNAids and who is herself Ugandan, drew attention to this when she tweeted in 2022: “I’m at Geneva airport, I’m almost refused to board, all documents scrutinised over and over again, calls made… I board last.”

Despite Namibia’s visa initiative receiving praise on social media, the tourism industry is less enthusiastic.

The Hospitality Association of Namibia said it was “very concerned” about the message it “sends to the global travel trade”.

In 2022, the tourism sector accounted for 7% of GDP, making it the third largest contributor to the economy – with most tourists coming countries such as Germany and the US.

Though Soni Nrupesh, a tourism expert based in Windhoek, believes the visa move will not deter visitors: “It will not change much; you can still get on a plane without a visa.

“It’s just when you get to the airport you will fill a form pay the fees and enter.”

Prospective travellers like Ms Nehoya hope this kind reciprocity will be the future for everyone.

“People come to Namibia, and they love it. But we also want to see what is happening on the other side,” she says.

“It would be nice to go to Canada, the US or the UK and just get a visa on arrival. But right now, we must plan everything so far in advance.”

• Kenya’s vision of visa-free entry proves tricky for some
• Why is it so hard for Africans to visit other African countries?
• Should Africa have a single passport?
• Why Namibian town wants to change its name to ǃNamiǂNûs
• Fishrot: The corruption scandal entwining Namibia and Iceland

CrowdStrike is facing fresh backlash after giving staff and firms they work with a $10 UberEats voucher to say sorry for a global IT outage that caused chaos across airlines, banks and hospitals last week.

The cybersecurity company – whose software update on Friday affected 8.5 million computers worldwide – said in an email to its partners that it recognised the incident had caused extra work.

“To express our gratitude, your next cup of coffee or late night snack is on us!” CrowdStrike wrote, directing people to use a code to access the $10 credit.

But the gesture was greeted by derision by some. One Reddit user branded it an “absolute clown show” while another said: “I literally wanted to drive my car off a bridge this weekend and they bought me coffee. Nice.”

One LinkedIn user claiming to be a CrowdStrike partner, said: “The gesture of a cup of coffee or Uber Eats credit as an apology doesn’t seem to make up for the tens of thousands lost in man hours and customer trust due to the July 19 incident.”

CrowdStrike confirmed to the BBC that it sent the vouchers to “teammates and partners” who had helped customers deal with the impact of the outage.

But some people who said they had received a voucher also took to social media to say it did not work.

“Uber flagged it as fraud because of high usage rates,” CrowdStrike admitted.

It comes amid growing questions over what financial compensation CrowdStrike customers and people impacted by the outage will be able to claim.

The firm has pledged to improve its software tests after a faulty content update for Windows systems caused the mass IT outage.

Its mistake resulted in problems for banks, hospitals and airlines as millions of PCs displayed “blue screens of death”.

In a detailed review of the incident published on Wednesday CrowdStrike said there was a “bug” in a system designed to ensure software updates work properly.

Crowdstrike said the glitch meant “problematic content data” in a file went undetected.

The company said it could prevent the incident from happening again with better software testing and checks, including more scrutiny from developers.

The faulty update crashed 8.5 million Microsoft Windows computers around the world and George Kurtz, Crowdstrike’s boss, has apologised for the impact of the outage.

But cybersecurity experts told BBC News that the review revealed the firm made “major mistakes”.

“What’s clear from the post mortem is they didn’t seem to have the right guardrails in place to prevent this type of incident or to reduce the risk of it occurring,” said cyber-security consultant Daniel Card.

His thoughts were echoed by cybersecurity researcher Kevin Beaumont, who said the key lesson from CrowdStrike’s review was that the firm doesn’t “test in waves”.

“They just deploy to all customers at once in a so called ‘rapid response update’ which was obviously a huge mistake,” he said.

But Sam Kirkman from cybersecurity firm NetSPI told the BBC the review showed CrowdStrike “took steps” to prevent the outages.

He said these steps “have likely been effective to prevent incidents on countless occasions prior to last week”.

According to insurance firm Parametrix, the top 500 US companies by revenue, excluding Microsoft, had faced some $5.4bn (£4.1bn) in financial losses from the outage.

It said that only $540m (£418m) to $1.08bn (£840m) of these losses were insured.

The US government has opened an investigation into Delta Airlines‘ handling of the outage after it continued to cancel hundreds of flights.

Delta chief executive Ed Bastian said in a letter to customers on Wednesday it expects the airline to make a full recovery on Thursday.

Crowdstrike is set to face further scrutiny – with Mr Kurtz called to testify in front of Congress about the outage.

“This incident must serve as a broader warning about the national security risks associated with network dependency,” wrote the House Committee on Homeland Security in a letter to the company on Monday.

It gave CrowdStrike until Wednesday evening to schedule a hearing.