As the electoral authorities, which Nicolas Maduro controls, announced he’d won a third term in office, an instant crackle of fireworks rippled around the Venezuelan Caracas.

The city soundtracked in a carefully curated way, like many things in this election.

The opposition claimed instantly that they, not the president, had won.

But you wouldn’t know this from watching the news here.

Television screens up and down the country only showed jubilant crowds, draped in the Venezuelan flag, dancing and cheering on the president.

Nicolas Maduro does have some loyal supporters still, known as “Chavistas” after his mentor Hugo Chavez and the brand of socialism he created.

But their numbers are highly disputed, and this election result is far from over.

As the city hums back into life this morning, the government faces pressure from both the international community and the opposition here to explain their numbers – after the opposition were so far ahead in the polls beforehand.

• Maduro declared winner in disputed vote
• Venezuela’s economy runs on oil – and music

There are some things that are indisputable. Some which I, as an observer on the ground, was witness to.

There were the huge queues at polling stations, but only tiny amounts of people being let in at one time.

This led to accusations of deliberate delays, perhaps in the hope some people would give up and go home.

When our BBC team arrived at one polling station, the organiser of the station took a call saying the international media were there. 150 people were then suddenly allowed to be admitted.

There were some poll stations that didn’t open at all, leading to protests and clashes with the authorities.

There were allegations that some of those who work for the state, including police students, were told how to vote.

There was the fact President Maduro’s face remained emblazoned above some poll stations even on voting day.

His face lines almost every street in Caracas, with his governing party paying for incentives for people to support him – buses put on for people to attend his rallies, and free food parcels handed out.

Even prior to allegations of explicit fraud the question was asked: Is this contest fair?

Opposition candidates were banned from running, opposition aides detained, many Venezuelans overseas struggled to register to vote and many international election observers were disinvited.

All of these were seen as attempts to suppress the opposition vote. The opposition were so far ahead in opinion polls that many analysts believed these tactics were necessary as it would be hard for the government to claim a win without seeming far-fetched.

But now that they have done just that, the opposition is alleging a more specific type of fraud.

They claim they only had access to 30% of the printed “receipts” from electronic voting machines around the country, to check that the machine’s results matched those electronically sent to the electoral council.

They think this could mean more potential for the electronic figures to be tampered with and allege many of their observers were not allowed into the counts.

The government dispute any wrongdoing, and instead have accused “foreign governments” of an “intervention operation”.

So, what will happen next?

There are still a lot of unknowns. The opposition say they will announce in the coming days how they plan to challenge the results.

They and the international community have asked for proof of the numbers the government has put out, as granular as count by count.

It is hard to see how President Maduro avoids these calls without serious consequences for the country.

In his victory speech, he referenced US sanctions imposed after the last elections were seen as unfair.

They have hit the country’s already flailing economy. Millions of Venezuelans have fled, and half the country live in poverty.

How everyone else responds will be key now.

The international community has been divided for some time over how to respond to Venezuela, with some governments’ conceding privately that the sanctions haven’t “worked”, either by incentivising regime change or compelling President Maduro to hold fair elections.

They are also used as an excuse by President Maduro, and his supporters, for the country’s woes.

The future of Venezuela and whether it can rebuild matters for the rest of the world – mass emigration has fuelled a migration crisis on the US border, its vast oil reserves remain relatively unusable, and it remains an ally for Russia, China, Cuba and Iran in the West.

The opposition, meanwhile, aren’t set to back down without putting up a fight.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised that Hezbollah will pay “a heavy price” for an attack that killed 12 children at a football pitch in Majdal Shams on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday.

The costs that Mr Netanyahu, his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Israel’s military chiefs decide to inflict on Hezbollah will determine whether the war either side of the Israel-Lebanon border stays limited and relatively controlled or explodes into something much worse.

The border war started the day after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October last year, when Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel to support the Palestinians.

Since then, it has been fought within a grisly set of unspoken understandings. Israel and Hezbollah have mostly aimed at military targets, though both have also killed civilians.

As a result, the war, though highly dangerous, has stayed limited. Even so, tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border have left their homes. Busy communities have become ghost towns.

The fear from the outset has been that a big attack on either side’s civilians would cause uncontrolled escalation and in turn, cause a much worse war, as both Israel and Hezbollah bring their full force to bear.

Action against Hezbollah in the largely depopulated areas of south Lebanon might avoid escalation. Killing Lebanese civilians in Beirut or destroying infrastructure like bridges or power stations would not.

Hezbollah claims, unconvincingly, that it did not carry out the attack in Majdal Shams. Even so, it is hard to see why it would target Druze children at a football match.

Hezbollah has mostly stuck to the tacit rules of the conflict, trying to kill soldiers, not civilians since it started the border war on 8 October.

It might have been aiming for the extensive Israeli early warning stations on military positions on Mount Hermon.

Hezbollah is a much more formidable enemy of Israel than Hamas. It is more powerful than the fragile Lebanese state and operates without consulting it.

Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah is close to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Hezbollah fighters are disciplined and well trained, and Iran has supplied them with a formidable arsenal of missiles that can hit Israel’s cities.

Hezbollah fought Israel to a standstill in their last big war in 2006. Its men have extensive combat experience after fighting for years in Syria in support of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Israel’s leadership know all that. They also know that despite their vast firepower they have not yet subdued Hamas in Gaza, and the reservists their army relies on are feeling considerable strain.

Israel is also under heavy pressure from its allies, including the US – without which it cannot sustain its war effort – not to take action that would escalate the war into an all-out fight.

The Americans and the French have tried to negotiate a way of de-escalating the Israel-Hezbollah border war. The absence of a ceasefire in Gaza blights their chances of success.

The border between Israel and Lebanon remains the mostly likely place for the wider Middle East war to intensify.

Even if the crisis caused by the killing of young football players and spectators in Majdal Shams passes without a much worse conflagration, the “rules” of the border war are tattered, imperfect, unstable and continue to carry the risk that a single bloody incident will touch off another catastrophic war.

A law that bans almost all abortions after six weeks has taken effect in the US state of Iowa.

The legislation allows the procedure until early signs of cardiac activity can be detected in a foetus or embryo, with exceptions in cases of rape, incest, foetal abnormalities and when the mother’s life is in danger.

The Republican-enacted ban was blocked after its passage last year before being upheld by the state’s highest court last month.

It is among the most restrictive policies to be enforced since Americans lost the national right to abortion access two years ago.

Before Monday, abortions were allowed through the 20th week of pregnancy in Iowa.

The US Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v Wade decision had guaranteed the right to an abortion prior to foetal viability, usually between 24 and 28 weeks, before its repeal nearly a half-century later by the court’s new conservative majority.

Iowa now joins a growing list of Midwestern states, including its neighbouring Missouri and South Dakota, that have enacted restrictions since Roe’s overturn.

The ban is expected to force state residents to seek care in adjacent Democrat-led states that have taken action to maintain or expand abortion access since 2022, building pressure on providers in Illinois and Minnesota.

Iowa Republicans had passed their prohibition last summer after failing in an identical effort six years ago.

The legislation hinges on what lawmakers deemed a “detectable fetal heartbeat” – a term medical groups say mischaracterises the electronic impulses that signify early cardiac development.

But a lower court temporarily blocked the ban from going into effect after providers argued in a lawsuit that it goes against Iowans’ constitutional rights.

The Iowa Supreme Court disagreed and rejected the suit last month in a 4-3 ruling.

The state’s Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, who signed the bill into law, hailed the top court’s decision at the time as “a victory for life”.

“There is nothing more sacred and no cause more worthy than protecting innocent unborn lives,” she wrote in a statement.

But polls show that nearly two-thirds of Iowans believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases.

With the November general election barely three months away, Democrats are hoping to rally voters around support for abortion rights.

“This morning, more than 1.5 million women in Iowa woke up with fewer rights than they had last night because of another Trump Abortion Ban,” Vice-President Kamala Harris, the party’s expected presidential candidate, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Ms Harris has promised to restore reproductive rights.

Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, has said he is “proudly the person responsible” for ending Roe, arguing the issue of abortion should be decided by individual states.

Since Roe’s repeal, 22 states have enacted restrictions – affecting more than one in three American women – despite their widespread unpopularity.

An “ultra-left militant” was arrested in north-west France on Sunday after being found behaving suspiciously near a railway site, according to police sources quoted by French media.

Officers who searched the man’s car found keys to technical premises, pliers, a set of universal keys and literature “linked to the ultra-left”.

The 28-year-old suspect is currently being questioned by police in the city of Rouen, French media said.

There is no indication that the man has links with the people responsible for Friday’s suspected co-ordinated arson attack on railway lines ahead of the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympic Games.

The acts of sabotage paralysed high-speed TGV lines running to and from Paris and heavily disrupted travel in France.

On Monday morning, France’s Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin said that a “number of profiles of people who could have committed these very deliberate, very targeted acts of sabotage” had been identified.

He added that the methods employed were “traditional” of the ultra-left and said there was “likely a political claim” behind the sabotage.

“The question is whether they were manipulated or is it for their own account,” Mr Darmanin said, adding that investigators were making good progress and would find those responsible.

Although he stopped short of saying the saboteurs had accomplices within France’s national rail operator SNCF, Mr Darmanin noted the locations of the arson attacks were “extremely specific”

“It was obviously extremely well targeted, it wasn’t done randomly, and it affected three major lines,” he added.

Mr Darmanin also said that around 50 people were arrested ahead of the Olympics who, alongside others – thought to number around 150 – had “wanted to carry out either sabotage or radical protests in Paris during the first events of the Olympic Games”.

Alongside the damage to the train lines, French media also reported that fiber optic cables were found cut in six locations across France overnight Sunday into Monday, causing some isolated outages.

It is still unclear at this stage whether there are any links between the vandalism on the telecoms installations and the sabotage on the rail network last week, which affected an estimated 250,000 passengers on Friday and hundreds of thousands more over the weekend.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for either incident. One security source suggested in French media last week that the arson attacks bore all the hallmarks of the extreme left.

Transport minister Patrice Vergriete said on Monday that trains services were back up and running as normal after teams worked around the clock over the weekend to fix the damage.

He added that “considerable means”, including drones and police helicopters, were deployed to strengthen the security of the thousands of kilometres that make up France’s railway network.

Mr Vergriete also said that the acts of sabotage will likely have cost several million euros.

An endangered sperm whale – nicknamed Julio by scientists – has been killed in a collision with a vessel in the busy Strait of Gibraltar.

Researchers say this is the fifth sperm whale to die after being struck by a boat since they started monitoring the population in the area more than 10 years ago.

“It was horrible – there was a lot of blood in the water,” said whale researcher Dr Renaud de Stephanis of Friday’s incident.

The vessel hit the male sperm whale at about 18:00 local time.

Dr de Stephanis leads Conservation, Information and Research on Cetaceans (CIRCE) and is calling for ferries in the narrow strait to have marine mammal observers on board.

“If ferries had people looking out for whales and dolphins – and sharing what they see – it could help boats to avoid hotspots of the animals,” he said.

This incident highlights the danger that ship traffic poses to marine mammals. Videos captured by observers shortly after the collision showed a deep gash on the whale’s body.

Dr de Stephanis said that, every two to three years, a sperm whale in the area is killed in a similar collision. ‘We don’t have records of every incident,” he said. “There are probably more. But it’s already too much.”

Some estimates suggest there are as few as 1,000 sperm whales remaining in the Mediterranean Sea. It is a population officially classified as endangered.

This most recent ship strike was particularly shocking for marine scientists in the area, because the whale had been spotted several times over the last three weeks. The most recent sighting was the day before the accident.

“He was a vigorous, strong male and looked very, very healthy,” said Dr de Stephanis. The whale had been known to researchers at CIRCE for more than a decade and it regularly visited the Strait of Gibraltar to feed.

The animal’s name – in the official population census – was PM-GIB-88, but marine researchers nicknamed him Julio, after Julio Iglesias.

The Strait of Gibraltar – the narrow stretch between Southern Spain and Africa, which connects the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea, has been in global headlines in recent years, because a population of orcas there has deliberately rammed into several sailing boats.

While the now infamous orcas have sunk at least five small sailing vessels, collisions like this one, between marine mammals and large ships, are one of the leading causes of death for sperm whales. The number of these incidents has increased in recent decades.

CIRCE said: “This is not an isolated problem of a single ship, but a global issue that requires a comprehensive solution.”

A senior judge has issued an arrest warrant for far-right campaigner Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – better known by his alias Tommy Robinson – after learning he has left the country on the eve of a major legal case against him.

Yaxley-Lennon left the UK by a Eurotunnel train on Sunday night, despite having been arrested by Kent Police under counter-terrorism powers.

The 41-year-old had been due in court on Monday for allegedly breaching an order not to repeat lies about a Syrian refugee.

Mr Justice Johnson has ordered the warrant not to be carried out “until early October” to give Yaxley-Lennon time to confirm he would attend the next hearing voluntarily.

His departure from the UK comes after thousands of his followers gathered in central London on Saturday in his support.

In July 2021, Syrian teenager Jamal Hijazi won £100,000 in damages in a major defamation battle against Yaxley-Lennon, who had falsely accused him of being a violent thug, claims that spread across social media.

A judge ordered him never to repeat the lies, but last year he began repeating his claims, including in a film distributed online.

Yaxley-Lennon was ordered six weeks ago to come to the High Court on Monday to answer the allegation that he had ignored the judge’s order – a serious offence known as contempt of court.

Adam Payter, representing the Solicitor General, the government minister who oversees contempt of court allegations, today told Mr Justice Johnson that despite Yaxley-Lennon knowing of this morning’s case, he played the film again to his supporters on Saturday.

The barrister said this public showing had been a “flagrant” and “admitted” breach of the court order not to repeat the false claims.

On Sunday, the founder of the English Defence League went to the Channel Tunnel terminal at Folkestone, where police officers stopped him under counter-terrorism powers.

When he allegedly refused to co-operate, he was arrested and held until 10pm before being released on unconditional bail and leaving the country.

Mr Payter said: “We understand he failed to cooperate with a port stop and search.

“The implication is he was attempting to leave the country and therefore was not intending to attend this hearing this morning

“The information that we have is that he is not within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom. He has been spending significant time outside the UK since being served with the contempt application on 13 June.

“He returned for the purpose of publishing the film and sought to immediately leave the jurisdiction.”

The court heard the police officers who had held Yaxley-Lennon had no power to stop him leaving the UK.

Mr Justice Johnson said he was “entirely satisfied” that the contempt of court application should proceed in Yaxley-Lennon’s absence.

The judge issued an arrest warrant to detain the activist if, by October, he has returned to the UK but continues to refuse to cooperate.

That decision to delay executing the warrant was to give him an opportunity to return and explain why he had failed to attend this morning’s hearing or to apply to have it set aside.

If Yaxley-Lennon does not return, the case will be heard in his absence after 28 October – and could lead to a jail sentence.

2005: Jailed for assault occasioning actual bodily harm (12 months)

2011: Community order for football brawl (12 months)

2013: Travelling on another man’s passport to the USA (jailed for 10 months)

2014: Mortgage fraud (jailed for 18 months)

May 2017: Contempt of Court finding, three months jail suspended for 18 months

July 2019: Jailed for nine months for interfering with a grooming gang trial in Leeds.

July 2021: Loses defamation case and ordered to pay Syrian refugee £100,000

July 2024: Fails to attend Contempt of Court hearing for allegedly repeating false claims about the refugee

Other offences: Possession of drugs, threatening behaviour and breach of court order

The gunman who opened fire at former President Donald Trump at a rally was spotted by a local Swat team more than 90 minutes before the shooting, text messages reveal.

Thomas Matthew Crooks was seen sitting at a picnic table by a local Swat team sniper who alerted colleagues – a sighting much earlier than previously thought.

The messages, obtained by the New York Times and ABC News, will add to the list of security failures that preceded what authorities say was an assassination attempt.

One man was killed and three injured in the Pennsylvania attack, including the former president who was shot in the ear.

Multiple investigations have been launched into what went wrong in securing Butler Fair Show grounds on 13 July.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned after admitting failures.

On the day of the shooting, the agency was in charge of security within a fenced area and local law enforcement was responsible for areas beyond that.

• The plan and the botched security at Trump rally

At 16:19 local time (21:19 BST), the local police sniper texted two colleagues who were in the second floor of a warehouse overlooking the site, telling them he was clocking off.

As he left the building, he saw a young man sitting at a picnic table and notifed the others, saying in a text “someone followed our lead and snuck in and parked by our cars just so you know”.

By 17:38 Crooks had moved from the table to the warehouse, an American Glass Research (AGR) building, and pictures of him were taken and shared in a group chat.

“Kid learning around building we are in. AGR I believe it is. I did see him with a range finder looking towards stage. FYI. If you wanna notify SS snipers to look out. I lost sight of him.”

Thirty-three minutes later, Crooks was dead, shot by the Secret Service after opening fire from the roof an adjoining warehouse.

• What we know about Trump gunman

The newly published text messages extend the time period in which the 20-year-old gunman had provoked suspicion.

Previously reports established that he was on the radar of local law enforcement about an hour before the shooting.

Witnesses told the BBC moments after the shooting that they had spotted the gunman on the roof and raised the alarm.

It is still unclear why there was a communications breakdown between local law enforcement and the Secret Service.

Members of the local Swat team told ABC News on Sunday they had no contact with the agency and a face-to-face briefing failed to happen.

Israel’s security cabinet has authorised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister to decide when and how to retaliate for a deadly rocket attack Israel and the US say was carried out by the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah.

Ministers met in emergency session in the wake of the strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday evening, which killed 12 children and teenagers from the Druze community. Hezbollah has denied responsibility.

It was the deadliest cross-border incident in months of exchanges of fire between the two sides.

The attack has heightened fears that what has been relatively contained hostilities so far could spiral into all-out war.

Western governments are urging Israel to show restraint in its response.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Israel had a right to respond to Hezbollah after Saturday’s strike, but emphasised that nobody “wants a broader war”.

Mr Netanyahu, who cut short a visit to the US following the strike, went to the scene of the attack in the Druze town of Majdal Shams on Monday afternoon.

“These children are our children,” he said. “The state of Israel will not, and cannot, let this pass. Our response will come and it will be severe.”

Scores of local residents protested against the prime minister’s visit to the town, an AFP reporter there said. There has been anger against the authorities for not having prevented the strike.

The White House said it had been in “continuous discussions with Israeli and Lebanese counterparts since the horrific attack” on the playing field in Majdal Shams.

It said it was “also working on a diplomatic solution along the Blue Line [the unofficial frontier between Israel and Lebanon] that will end all attacks once and for all”.

On Monday morning an Israeli drone strike outside the Lebanese town of Shaqra, about 6.5km (four miles) from the Israeli border, killed two people, Lebanon’s state media said. Hezbollah announced that the dead men were two of its fighters. Israel has not commented on the report.

Meanwhile Air France has become the latest airline to suspend flights to and from Beirut, as anticipation of Israeli retaliation grows. Lufthansa, Swiss International Air Lines, and Eurowings have similarly suspended flights.

In Majdal Shams, the funerals of the young victims took place on Sunday amid scenes of raw grief. Thousands of people were gathered as the caskets, draped in white, were carried through the town.

The attack is the most devastating to hit the Druze community, which has lived on the Golan Heights for centuries. They are part of an Arabic-speaking ethnic and religious group based in Lebanon, Syria, the Golan Heights and northern Israel.

Those on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights have been under Israeli governance since Israel captured the area from Syria in the 1967 war, although many have retained their allegiance to Syria. There are about 21,000 who live on the rocky plateau, about 20% of whom have accepted Israeli citizenship.

The attack on Majdal Shams has caused outrage across Israel and the Druze community, about 110,000 of whom also live in Israel.

On his return from the US on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu held meetings with defence officials before convening the security cabinet.

After the hours-long meeting, the prime minister’s office issued a brief statement, saying only that the “members of the Cabinet authorised the prime minister and the defence minister to decide on the manner and timing of the response against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation”.

In a condolence call earlier to the spiritual leader of Israel’s Druze community, Sheikh Muafak Ṭarif, Mr Netanyahu said Hezbollah would “pay a heavy price for this that it has not paid to this point”.

Hezbollah has strongly denied it was behind the attack, reportedly blaming the bloodshed on a failed Israeli interceptor missile.

In a statement on Sunday, the Israeli military Chief of Staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) knew “exactly where the rocket was launched from”.

Gen Halevi identified it as an Iranian made unguided surface-to-surface Falaq rocket with a 53kg warhead. “This is a Hezbollah rocket. And whoever launches such a rocket into a built-up area wants to kill civilians, wants to kill children,” he said.

Previously sporadic fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated since Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli positions a day after Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October. Hezbollah says it is acting in support of the Palestinians.

US President Joe Biden has unveiled a sweeping proposal to reform the Supreme Court, calling on lawmakers to establish term limits and form an ethics code “to restore trust and accountability” on its nine justices.

The conservative-leaning court has become a political battlefield in recent years, with its nine justices – unelected and able to serve for life – playing a powerful role in American life on everything from abortions to the environment.

Mr Biden has also called on lawmakers to pass a constitutional amendment limiting presidential immunity, a move which would reverse a recent Supreme Court decision.

Efforts to reform the court are unlikely to be passed by the US Congress.

Democrats, however, hope that pushing for reform can help galvanise voters ahead of the November 2024 election.

The Supreme Court has ruled on a string of historic cases in the last two years, starting with ending the constitutional right to abortion in June of 2022.

At the same time, it has been dogged by allegations of judicial ethics violations, particularly after journalists investigated Justice Clarence Thomas for not reporting gifts.

• How the Supreme Court became a battlefield

In an opinion piece published in the Washington Post on Monday morning, Mr Biden said that “what is happening now is not normal”.

“It undermines the public’s confidence in the court’s decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms,” he wrote in the Post. “We now stand in a breach.”

To address these concerns, Mr Biden has proposed ending lifetime appointments to the court.

Instead, he believes that sitting presidents should appoint a new justice to the court every two years, who would then serve an 18-year period.

Reform advocates have previously suggested that staggered 18-year-term limits would help depoliticise the court and make it more balanced and representative of the population.

Additionally, Mr Biden is pressing Congress to establish a new code of ethics that would force justices to disclose gifts and avoid overt political activities.

While the court released a code of ethics for the first time in is history last year, the code does not have any enforcement mechanism.

“Every other federal judge is bound by an enforceable code of conduct,” the president wrote. “There is no reason for the Supreme Court to be exempt.”

Lastly, Mr Biden hopes to pass an amendment to the US constitution that would reverse a 1 July ruling in which the Supreme Court said that Donald Trump and other former presidents are immune from criminal prosecution.

In the controversial ruling, the court’s justices found that a president has immunity for “official acts” but is not immune from “unofficial acts”.

In his opinion piece, Mr Biden said that the proposed amendment – which he has dubbed the “No One is Above the Law” amendment” – would “make clear that there is no immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office.”

“I share our founders’ believe that the president’s power is limited, not absolute,” he wrote. “We are a nation of laws – not of kings or dictators”.

Republicans have pushed back on efforts to reform the court.

On Sunday, for example, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham told CBS, the BBC’s US partner, that Democrats made no effort to do so when a more liberal-leaning group of justices were “pumping out opinions they liked.”

Earlier this month, Trump also described efforts to reform the court as an “illegal” and “unconstitutional” attack on the “sacred” institution.

“The Democrats are attempting to interfere in our presidential election, and destroy our justice system, by attacking their political opponent, me, and our honourable supreme court,” he wrote. “We have to fight for our fair and independent courts, and protect our country.”

Mr Biden is expected to address his proposed reforms at an event in Austin, Texas later on Monday afternoon.

Former BBC News presenter Huw Edwards has been charged with three counts of making indecent images of children.

The offences are alleged to have taken place between 2020 and 2022 and relate to 37 images that were shared on a WhatsApp chat, according to the Metropolitan Police.

The broadcaster was arrested last November and charged last month, the force revealed on Monday.

He is due to appear in court in London on Wednesday.

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “Huw Edwards, 62, of Southwark, London has been charged with three counts of making indecent images of children following a Met Police investigation.

“The offences, which are alleged to have taken place between December 2020 and April 2022, relate to images shared on a WhatsApp chat.

“Edwards was arrested on 8 November 2023. He was charged on Wednesday, 26 June following authorisation from the Crown Prosecution Service.

“He has been bailed to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, 31 July.

“Media and the public are strongly reminded that this is an active case. Nothing should be published, including on social media, which could prejudice future court proceedings.”

Mr Edwards is accused of having six category A images, the most serious classification of indecent images, on a phone. He is also accused of having 12 category B pictures and 19 category C photographs.

If found guilty, he could receive a sentence of up to six months in prison and/or an unlimited fine.

The news was first reported in The Sun.

Mr Edwards left the BBC in April.

He was previously the corporation’s most high-profile and best-paid news anchor, one of the main presenters on BBC One’s Ten O’Clock News, and was often chosen to front coverage of major national events.

South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma has been expelled from the African National Congress (ANC), the party he once led, after campaigning for a rival party in the 29 May general election.

The ANC’s disciplinary committee found Mr Zuma guilty of “prejudicing the integrity” of the party by joining uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), and has given him three weeks to appeal against its ruling.

“His platform is dangerous, appeals to extremist instincts in our body politic and riles up a political base that may foment social unrest,” the ANC said in a statement.

MK has said that Mr Zuma was not informed of the decision taken by a “kangaroo court”.

Mr Zuma, 82, was an ANC veteran but fell out with the party after he was forced to quit as president in 2018 over corruption scandals. He has always denied any wrongdoing.

He had been suspended by the ANC in January after creating MK, which now sits in opposition to the ANC-led government in parliament.

In a statement, MK said it was shocked to learn from media reports that Mr Zuma had been expelled.

The disciplinary proceedings were conducted “in a manner akin to a kangaroo court”, the party said.

“It is a foundational legal principle that no person, not even those accused of a serious crime, should be punished or sentenced in their absence,” it added.

The ANC’s disciplinary committee held a virtual hearing, which Mr Zuma refused to attend, saying he wanted to be physically present.

At a press conference confirming Mr Zuma’s expulsion, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said the party had refused to agree to Mr Zuma’s presence at the party’s headquarters as he “wanted a rally”.

“Even when they [MK supporters] were told that the disciplinary hearing was virtual they still came here. So it tells you that Jacob Zuma wanted a movie,” he added.

Mr Mbalula denied that Mr Zuma had not been informed of his expulsion.

“[The] kangaroo court is that MK. Who are they to lecture people about a due process?,” Mr Mbalula said.

He added that the ANC did not think that at any point in its history it would have to deal with a former president “campaigning decisively against the party he was a member of”.

South Africa’s current President Cyril Ramaphosa replaced Mr Zuma in 2018, promising to clean up government.

But in the 29 May elections, the ANC suffered its worst result in 30 years, pushing the ruling party to form a coalition to share power.

uMkhonto we Sizwe – meaning “spear of the nation” – became the country’s third-largest party, largely by taking votes from the ANC.

It won almost 15% of the vote and obtained 58 seats in the 400-member parliament.

MK became the official opposition in parliament after the second-biggest party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), joined the coalition government.

Mr Zuma was barred from being an MP because he was given a 15-month prison sentence in 2021 for contempt of court. He defied a court order to appear before an inquiry investigating corruption during his nine-year presidency.

His arrest sparked the deadliest riots since the end of white-minority rule in 1994 and led to the deaths of more than 300 people.

And he now faces corruption charges over a 1999 arms deal.

He has chosen an ex-judge, who was impeached for gross misconduct, to lead MK in parliament.

• Impeached judge itching to take on South African president
• Behind the ‘Zuma tsunami’ in South Africa
• Unity agreement is a landmark moment in South Africa
• Why voters fall out of love with liberation movements

Olympic organisers have issued a “deep apology” after South Korea’s athletes were mistakenly introduced as North Korea at the opening ceremony in Paris.

As the excited, flag-waving team floated down the River Seine, both French and English announcers introduced them as the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” – the official name of North Korea.

The same name was then used – correctly – when North Korea’s delegation sailed past.

The two Koreas have been divided since the end of World War Two, with tensions between the states further escalating recently.

The subtitle which ran across the bottom of the television broadcast showed the correct title, however.

The South Korean sports ministry said it planned to lodge a “strong complaint with France on a government level” over the embarrassing gaffe.

In a statement, the ministry expressed “regret over the announcement… where the South Korean delegation was introduced as the North Korean team.”

The statement added that the second vice sports minister, Jang Mi-ran, a 2008 Olympic weightlifting champion, had demanded a meeting with Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued an apology on its official Korean-language X account, saying: “We would like to offer a deep apology over the mistake that occurred in the introduction of the South Korean delegation during the opening ceremony.”

South Korea, formally known as the Republic of Korea, has 143 athletes in its Olympic team this year, competing across 21 sports.

North Korea has sent 16 athletes. This is the first time it has competed in the games since Rio 2016.

A veteran sports commentator has been sacked from his Olympics role after making a sexist remark about Australian female swimmers following their gold medal win.

As the 4x100m freestyle relay team were making their way off the pool deck in Paris, Bob Ballard said they were “finishing up”, adding “you know what women are like… hanging around, doing their make-up”.

The clip quickly went viral and broadcaster Eurosport later said he had been removed from the commentary line-up.

Ballard apologised if the remarks had offended viewers and said it was not his “intention to upset or belittle anyone”, in a statement posted to X.

Mollie O’Callaghan, Emma McKeon, Meg Harris and Shayna Jack had just beaten the US and China, to make it the fourth Olympics in a row where Australia has claimed the gold medal in the event.

They were waving to crowds and celebrating the achievement when Ballard made his comments.

His co-commentator and British swimming champion Lizzie Simmonds had immediately branded his remark “outrageous”, prompting laughter from Ballard.

In his statement on X, Ballard urged users not to “pile in on” Simmons. Some had been quick to attack the ex-Olympic swimmer online.

On Sunday, Eurosport said Ballard – previously a long-time BBC reporter and presenter – would not return to their airwaves.

“During a segment of Eurosport’s coverage last night, commentator Bob Ballard made an inappropriate comment,” the broadcaster said in a statement.

“To that end, he has been removed from our commentary roster with immediate effect.”

Mr Ballard has been a stalwart of global sports coverage since the 1980s, reporting on many Olympic games and World Championships.

He has commentated on an array of sports including water polo, ice hockey and wheelchair tennis, but is best known for his coverage of swimming and diving.

Swimming Australia has been approached for comment.

Many Norwegians are feeling guilty, according to Elisabeth Oxfeldt.

The professor of Scandinavian literature at Oslo University says wealthy Norwegians are increasingly contrasting their comfortable lives with those of people who are struggling, particularly overseas.

“We’ve seen the emergence of a narrative of guilt about people’s privileged lives in a world where others are suffering,” she says.

Thanks to its significant oil reserves, the largest in Europe after Russia’s, Norway is one of the world’s richest countries.

The strength of its economy, as measured per member of its population, is almost twice that of the UK, and bigger even than that of the US.

Norway even runs a budget surplus – its national income exceeds its expenditure. This is in marked contrast to most other nations, including the UK, which have to borrow money to cover their budget deficits.

Prof Oxfeldt is an expert on how Scandinavian books, films and TV series reflect the wider culture of their time. She says she increasingly sees these mediums explore Norway’s wealth guilt.

“By looking at contemporary literature, films and TV series, I found that the contrast between the happy, fortunate or privileged self and the suffering ‘other’ brought about feelings of guilt, unease, discomfort or shame.

“Not everyone feels guilty, but many do,” adds Prof Oxfeldt, who has coined the phrase “Scan guilt”.

Plots featured in recent Norwegian dramas include members of the “leisure class” who rely on services provided by migrant workers who reside in bedsits in their basements. Or women who realise that they have achieved gender equality in the workplace by relying on low-paid au pairs from poor countries to care for their children, says Prof Oxfeldt.

Life has a habit of imitating art. In March, the Norwegian government said it put a stop to granting work permits for au pairs from the developing world. Tabloid newspaper VG had dubbed the practice “west end slavery”.

The Norwegian people’s guilt trips have also been egged on by a variety of people and organisations eager to question whether Norway’s wealth is based on ethical practices.

In January this year, The Financial Times published a special report that uncovered how fish oil made from ground whole fish caught off the coast of Mauritania in Africa was used as feed by Norway’s extensive salmon farms.

The farmed Norwegian fish, which is sold by major retailers in Europe, “is harming food security in western Africa”, the paper said.

Environmental pressure group Feedback Global insisted that “the Norwegian salmon industry’s voracious appetite for wild fish is driving loss of livelihoods and malnutrition in West Africa, creating a new type of food colonialism”.

The Norwegian government responded that it wanted “to ensure sustainable feed”, and was working towards “increased use of local and more sustainable raw materials”.

Indeed, Norway says it is eager to drive a transition to a green economy, so ensuring aquaculture is sustainable will be essential as the petroleum sector is scaled back to make way for a so-called “green shift”.

This should free up finance, technology and labour for perhaps more future-proof maritime sectors, such as offshore solar and wind power, and algae production for food and medicine.

But, for now at least, this will not be enough to silence vocal critics of Norway’s lucrative petroleum industry. Climate campaigners object to continued drilling for oil and gas. Other critics say that Norway is far too reliant upon its oil earnings.

On the one hand, thanks to the oil and gas-based wealth, Norway’s working hours tend to be shorter than most comparable economies, its worker rights stronger, and its welfare system more generous.

Unsurprisingly, Norway has long been one of the happiest in the world, according to the World Happiness Report. It is currently in seventh place.

But on the other hand, reasons Børre Tosterud, an investor and retired hotelier, Norway’s “utter reliance on oil earnings” has resulted in an excessively large government budget, an inflated public sector, and a shortage of labour that holds back the private sector.

“It’s not sustainable,” he insists.

Norway has always looked to the oceans for buoyancy. The seas have been a source of food and energy, a place of work and a generator of wealth for centuries. Yet it was only in the late 1960s when discoveries of oil and gas helped turn around the fortunes of this previously relatively underdeveloped nation.

Since then, most of Norway’s vast oil earnings have been invested internationally by Norges Bank Investment Management, which is part of Norway’s central bank.

Its main investment fund, Government Pension Fund Global, otherwise known as “the oil fund”, has assets worth about 19tn kroner ($1.7tn, £1.3tn).

Norway’s oil export earnings surged following Russia’s 2022 invasion. Critics claimed the country was profiteering from the war, or at least failing to share enough of its sudden windfall with the victims of the aggression that had caused it.

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre dismissed accusations of war profiteering, countering that Norway was able supply to much needed energy to Europe during a time of crisis.

He also points out that Norway has been one of Ukraine’s biggest financial supporters, and as such is arguably punching above its weight, given that Norway’s population is only 5.5 million.

Jan Ludvig Andreassen, chief economist at Eika Group, an alliance of independent Norwegian banks, says that Norwegians have “become much richer than we had expected”.

Yet at the same time, he says that after a period of high interest rates and painful inflation, partly caused by a historically weak krone, which makes imported goods and services expensive, ordinary Norwegians don’t feel rich.

Norway is also a world-leading donor of overseas humanitarian aid.

“I think Norwegians are generous contributors to good causes,” observes Prof Oxfeldt.

However, pointing to Norway’s additional oil exports that have come about as a result of the conflict in Ukraine, Mr Andreassen says that Norway’s charitable donations “are small fry relative to the extra earnings arising from war and suffering”. This is a view echoed by Mr Tosterud.

But do they agree with Prof Oxfeldt that many Norwegians feel guilty? “Not really, except perhaps in some circles such as the environmental movement,” says Mr Andreassen.

Mr Tosterud agrees. “I don’t have any sense of guilt, and neither do I think it is widespread in Norway.”

What do an Italian communist student of mime, a toddler with an eye for a ball and a comedian who jokes about nothing have in common?

They all went on to become members of a very select global club.

Miuccia Prada, Tiger Woods and Jerry Seinfeld are among about 2,800 people on the planet who are US-dollar billionaires.

But the list of super-rich is very international.

According to the American media firm Forbes, which tracks the fortunes of the world’s richest, the United States has 813 billionaires, China (including Hong Kong) is second with 473, and India is third with 200.

Good Bad Billionaire

The BBC World Service podcast Good Bad Billionaire is back. From celebs and CEOs to sport stars and tech titans, each episode looks at how some of the world’s billionaires made their fortunes. Presenters Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng consider their wealth, power, philanthropy and legacy, and whether they think they are good, bad or just incredibly rich.

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The size of these fortunes can be hard to comprehend. A billion is a huge number – to give an idea of scale, one million seconds is 11 days, but a billion is 32 years.

And for some, the very existence of billionaires is obscene.

Eighty-one of the world’s richest people – about a bus-full – have more combined wealth than the poorest four billion people in the world.

In a 2023 report on inequality, Oxfam concluded: “Every billionaire is a policy mistake. The very existence of booming billionaires and record profits, while most people face austerity, rising poverty, and a cost-of-living crisis, is evidence of an economic system that fails to deliver for humanity.”

That inequality has led to calls in many countries for taxes on absolute wealth rather than income. In the US, Democratic Party Senator Elizabeth Warren proposed a 2% tax on assets over $50m (£39m) and 3% on assets over $1bn (£778m).

But others argue the prospect of great wealth inspires creation and innovation that improves the lives of millions of people.

American economist Michael Strain argues we need more billionaires, not fewer, and cites Nobel prize winner William Nordhaus who found that about 2% of the returns from technological innovation go to the founders and inventors – the rest goes to society.

Strain calls billionaires “largely self-made innovators who have changed the way we live”. He cites examples such as Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer who revolutionised personal computing, legendary investor Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos who upended retail, and Elon Musk who disrupted the automotive industry and space commerce.

“None of them are ‘policy failures’,” he concludes. “Rather than wishing they did not exist, we should be thrilled that they do.”

Many billionaires also donate large sums to charity. Gates and Buffett developed “The Giving Pledge” – a commitment to give away over half one’s wealth over their lifetime.

Rapper, business mogul and billionaire Jay-Z, although not signed up to the pledge, offered this pithy defence of his wealth: “I can’t help the poor if I’m one of them. So I got rich and gave back. To me that’s the win-win.”

Billionaires don’t get rich in a vacuum. Their success also tells us something about ourselves.

It is hard to get very, very rich unless you are providing something that people either need, want or enjoy.

Whether it is the minimalist stylings of Prada, the Star Wars movies or TikTok, the billionaires we discuss on the podcast have changed the world to a greater or lesser degree – and the stories as to how they did it are compelling.

For example, the founders of Google tried to sell an early version of their search engine for $1m but there were no takers. Today Google is worth $2.3tn and cofounder Sergey Brin is personally worth $135bn – roughly the GDP of Morocco.

Maria Bianchi was a card-carrying communist in 1960s Italy studying mime at theatre school before she changed her name to Miuccia Prada.

India’s first self-made female billionaire, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, started out brewing beer before she hit gender bias and tried pharmaceuticals instead, becoming Asia’s biggest producer of insulin.

Jerry Seinfeld’s parents were both orphans and his father never hugged him. Perhaps one of the reasons that he and Larry David had a rule for the characters in their smash hit comedy Seinfeld: “No hugging and no learning.”

The individual success of these billionaires also often tells a tale of wider historical, political or technological trends.

Tech entrepreneur Jack Ma, who co-founded the Alibaba group, was the beneficiary of two powerful and simultaneous forces – the birth of online retail and China’s rising economic power and mass affluence.

Chuck Feeney, the man who invented duty-free shopping (and gave his entire fortune away) rode a wave of outbound Japanese tourism after World War Two.

There are the stories where luck played a part.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates happened to go to one of the very few schools in the US in the late 1960s that had a computer. While singer and business woman Rihanna got her break thanks to a chance audition with a record producer who happened to be on holiday in Barbados.

And let’s hear it for the parents.

Taylor Swift’s entire family moved from Pennsylvania to Nashville to further their teenage daughter’s career while Michael Jordan’s mum suggested he should “hear what Nike has to say” before signing a deal with either Adidas or Converse – paving the way for the most lucrative sports endorsement deal in history.

There are some “sliding doors” moments in these stories – small events that in retrospect changed the lives and the fortunes of these billionaires.

But when doors open, you have to walk through them, and if there is one common denominator it’s the energy, drive and commitment that these people have brought to their respective disciplines. Plus their desire to press on, when many would have checked out long ago.

My Good Bad Billionaire co-presenter Zing Tsjeng and I always joke that when we got to, say, $10m, you wouldn’t see us for dust – there would just be two revolving chairs as evidence I had gone fishing and she’d gone to yet another music festival.

I guess people like us will never make it big but we’ve been by turns fascinated, charmed, moved, appalled and terrified by those who have.

Lhakpa Sherpa has a startling life story – to the outside world she holds the record for climbing Mount Everest a staggering 10 times, the most of any woman.

But behind the scenes, her personal life has been dangerous and fearful.

While conquering the world’s highest mountain, she says she was enduring domestic abuse from her husband – including during their 2004 descent from Everest.

Now based in America, she has raised three children, supporting them by working in a grocery store and as a cleaner.

Her life – on and off the mountain – has been made into a Netflix documentary, Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa, directed by Lucy Walker.

Sherpa is proud of the film.

Eyes blazing, she tells the BBC: “I want to show people women can do it.”

What is perhaps surprising about her record-breaking climbs is that she does so with little training.

Climbing Everest can be fatal – there have been more than 300 deaths in the region since records of mountain climbing there began a century ago.

So it’s vital to be in peak condition.

In the film, we see Sherpa keep fit by walking in the Connecticut mountains. But she also carries on with her normal working life, out of necessity.

“You’re an exceptional athlete,” Walker tells Sherpa during our interview. “Very tall. Very strong.

“People underestimate it. It’s an unbelievable accomplishment that you can climb Everest from doing your day job.”

Sherpa responds: “I’m not good with being educated, but I’m very good with the mountains.”

Born in 1973 to yak farmers in the Nepalese Himalayas, she was one of 11 children.

Crucially, she was raised in an area where education for girls wasn’t a priority – she carried her brother to school for hours through the hills, but wasn’t allowed inside.

Things are now improving in Nepal – women’s literacy rocketed from 10% in 1981 to 70% by 2021.

But Sherpa’s lack of education left lasting consequences – she’s still unable to read.

Things people take for granted, like using a TV remote control, are difficult for her.

Her son Nima, born in the late 90s, and daughters Sunny, 22, and Shiny, 17, help bridge the gaps.

With no schooling, by the time she was 15, Sherpa was working as a porter on mountain expeditions – often as the only girl.

Through her climbing work she was able to avoid a traditional arranged marriage.

But life got difficult when she became pregnant after a brief relationship in Kathmandu.

An unmarried mother, she was too ashamed to return home.

Still climbing when she could, she met and fell for Romanian-US mountaineer and home-renovation contractor, George Dijmărescu.

He’d escaped Romania, under dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, by swimming across the Danube river.

Dijmărescu had already forged a new life in the US when he and Sherpa married in 2002, settling in Connecticut, where they went on to have Sunny and Shiny.

But the couple’s relationship fractured when Dijmărescu became violent, Sherpa says.

In 2004, this became apparent when they ascended Everest with a New England climbing group.

After reaching the summit they encountered bad weather.

Dijmărescu’s behaviour “took a turn almost immediately”, according to journalist Michael Kodas, who reported on the climb for a local paper.

Recalling it in the documentary, he says things around Dijmărescu got “hostile”.

Sherpa, who was in a tent with him, says on camera: “He look like thunder, look like bullet… George was yelling and he punch me.”

We then see multiple photographs taken by Kodas, of her lying unconscious afterwards.

The journalist says he witnessed Dijmărescu say “get this garbage out of here”, as he dragged his wife from the tent.

In the film, Sherpa describes being unconscious as an out-of-body experience.

“People’s voices turned to lots of birds. I saw my whole life. I fly near my mom’s house. I saw through everything… I felt ashamed of myself. I want to go die.”

Then she remembered her children, and says: “I’m not ready to die.”

Kodas included the violent incident in his 2008 book, High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in the Age of Greed.

Walker later persuaded him to release his film footage to her, including the raw tapes, calling it a “huge act of trust”.

“It’s such a difficult subject and people don’t sort of want to get involved, because it’s controversial… but I didn’t take no for an answer,” she tells the BBC.

Despite their relationship being damaged, they stayed together for several more years.

But she says she was admitted to hospital when Dijmărescu assaulted her again in 2012.

This was a turning point.

With the help of a social worker, Sherpa moved with the girls to a women’s refuge, where she started to rebuild her life.

The couple divorced in 2015, and in 2016 a court awarded Sherpa “sole legal custody of the girls”.

A report at the time, in OutsideOnline, said Dijmărescu received a six-month suspended sentence and a year of probation, after a conviction for breach of the peace.

He was found not guilty of second-degree assault because court documents stated she did not have a visible head injury.

Dijmărescu died in 2020 of cancer, but the trauma he left behind is tangible.

Sherpa found it really hard discussing their relationship for the documentary.

“I wish all the turmoil keep secret, I don’t want in my life it’s everybody know[ing],” she says.

But her son advised her to make the film with Walker, after researching her previous work.

The director says to Sherpa: “When you tell your story, you skipped bits, saying, ‘We’re not talking about these years’.

“And slowly, slowly, we go to the difficult things.

“It is very traumatic for you. You get very upset, you don’t sleep. It’s very intense.

“But actually, if you can share it, people love you more. Because when you let people know you have difficult times, other people, I think, connect much more now.”

Sunny and Shiny echo this.

They appear in the film, and found it “a bit overwhelming to watch at first, because of how vulnerable we were to have our whole life put on display”.

They agreed to take part because “the struggle we have been through as a family, and how we have used it to strengthen not weaken us, is such a crucial part of our mother’s story”.

Not surprisingly, Sherpa says life was tough after the trauma of her marriage.

“Oh my God, yeah, crying. I carry so much in my life. I work hard, I courage hard,” she says.

“Sometimes I say, ‘Why am I alive, why am I not dead, so many danger. Almost I’ve been in heaven, and come back. So difficult. But somehow I did it…

“Hurt woman is very tough. Does not give up easily. And I keep doing.”

Climbing is not only her passion – it’s also a healing process.

“My darkness I leave behind [on the mountain],” she says.

We see her begin her record-breaking 10th Everest ascent in 2022.

Whispering goodbye to Shiny, sleeping in a nearby tent in base camp, the climb begins at night, by torchlight.

This means her descent from the summit can take place in daylight.

It’s clear her daughters are proud of their mum.

Sherpa says she is creating a “better life” for her children in the US, including giving them an education.

“I really want changing my life, my daughters – I work hard,” she says.

She wants to earn her living with her own guiding company, and to find more sponsorship.

“I know the mountains, I wish I can share my expertise and experience with other people,” she says.

Sunny and Shiny add: “Women have started climbing big peaks and following our mom’s footsteps.”

It was early in the day, but already hot. As she wiped sweat from her brow, Chieko Kiriake searched for some shade. As she did so, there was a blinding light – it was like nothing the 15-year-old had ever experienced. It was 08:15 on 6 August 1945.

“It felt like the sun had fallen – and I grew dizzy,” she recalls.

The United States had just dropped an atomic bomb on Chieko’s home city of Hiroshima – the first time a nuclear weapon had ever been used in warfare. While Germany had surrendered in Europe, allied forces fighting in World War Two were still at war with Japan.

Chieko was a student, but like many older pupils, had been sent out to work in the factories during the war. She staggered to her school, carrying an injured friend on her back. Many of the students had been badly burnt. She rubbed old oil, found in the home economics classroom, onto their wounds.

“That was the only treatment we could give them. They died one after the next,” says Chieko.

“Us older students who survived were instructed by our teachers to dig a hole in the playground and I cremated [my classmates] with my own hands. I felt so awful for them.”

Chieko is now 94 years old. It is almost 80 years since the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and time is running out for the surviving victims – known as hibakusha in Japan – to tell their stories.

Many have lived with health problems, lost loved ones and been discriminated against because of the atomic attack. Now, they are sharing their experiences for a BBC Two film, documenting the past so it can act as a warning for the future.

After the sorrow, new life started to return to her city, says Chieko.

“People said the grass wouldn’t grow for 75 years,” she says, “but by the spring of the next year, the sparrows returned.”

In her lifetime, Chieko says she has been close to death many times but has come to believe she has been kept alive by the power of something great.

The majority of hibakusha alive today were children at the time of the bombings. As the hibakusha – which translates literally as “bomb-affected-people” – have grown older, global conflicts have intensified. To them, the risk of a nuclear escalation feels more real than ever.

“My body trembles and tears overflow,” says 86-year-old Michiko Kodama when she thinks about conflicts around the world today – such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Gaza war.

“We must not allow the hell of the atomic bombing to be recreated. I feel a sense of crisis.”

Michiko is a vocal campaigner for nuclear disarmament and says she speaks out so the voices of those who have died can be heard – and the testimonies passed on to the next generations.

“I think it is important to hear first-hand accounts of hibakusha who experienced the direct bombing,” she says.

Michiko had been at school – aged seven – when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

“Through the windows of my classroom, there was an intense light speeding towards us. It was yellow, orange, silver.”

She describes how the windows shattered and splintered across the classroom – the debris spraying everywhere “impaling the walls, desk, chairs”.

“The ceiling came crashing down. So I hid my body under the desk.”

After the blast, Michiko looked around the devastated room. In every direction she could see hands and legs trapped.

“I crawled from the classroom to the corridor and my friends were saying, ‘Help me’.”

When her father came to collect her, he carried her home on his back.

Black rain, “like mud”, fell from the sky, says Michiko. It was a mixture of radioactive material and residue from the explosion.

She has never been able to forget the journey home.

“It was a scene from hell,” says Michiko. “The people who were escaping towards us, most of their clothes had completely burned away and their flesh was melting.”

She recalls seeing one girl – all alone – about the same age as her. She was badly burnt.

“But her eyes were wide open,” says Michiko. “That girl’s eyes, they pierce me still. I can’t forget her. Even though 78 years have passed, she is seared into my mind and soul.”

Michiko wouldn’t be alive today if her family had remained in their old home. It was only 350m (0.21 miles) from the spot where the bomb exploded. About 20 days before, her family had moved house, just a few kilometres away – but that saved her life.

Estimates put the number of lost lives in Hiroshima, by the end of 1945, at about 140,000.

In Nagasaki, which was bombed by the US three days later, at least 74,000 were killed.

Sueichi Kido lived just 2km (1.24 miles) from the epicentre of the Nagasaki blast. Aged five at the time, he suffered burns to part of his face. His mother, who received more serious injuries, had protected him from the full impact of the blast.

“We hibakusha have never given up on our mission of preventing the creation of any more hibakusha,” says Sueichi, who is now 83 and recently travelled to New York to give a speech at the United Nations to warn of the dangers of nuclear weapons.

When he woke up after fainting from the impact of the blast, the first thing he remembers seeing was a red oil can. For years he thought it was that oil can that had caused the explosion and surrounding devastation.

His parents didn’t correct him, choosing to shield him from the fact it had been a nuclear attack – but whenever he mentioned it, they would cry.

Not all injuries were instantly visible. In the weeks and months after the blast, many people in both cities began to show symptoms of radiation poisoning – and there were increased levels of leukaemia and cancer.

For years, survivors have faced discrimination in society, particularly when it came to finding a partner.

“‘We do not want hibakusha blood to enter our family line,’ I was told,” says Michiko.

But later, she did marry and had two children.

She lost her mother, father and brothers to cancer. Her daughter died from the disease in 2011.

“I feel lonely, angry and scared, and I wonder if it may be my turn next,” she says.

Another bomb survivor, Kiyomi Iguro, was 19 when the bomb struck Nagasaki. She describes marrying into a distant relative’s family and having a miscarriage – which her mother-in-law attributed to the atomic bomb.

“‘Your future is scary.’ That’s what she told me.”

Kiyomi says she was instructed not to tell her neighbours that she had experienced the atomic bomb.

Since being interviewed for the documentary, Kiyomi has sadly died.

But, until she was 98, she would visit the Peace Park in Nagasaki and ring the bell at 11:02 – the time the bomb hit the city – to wish for peace.

Sueichi went on to teach Japanese history at university. Knowing he was a hibakusha cast a shadow on his identity, he says. But then he realised he was not a normal human being and felt a duty to speak out to save humankind.

“A sense that I was a special person was born in me,” says Sueichi.

It is something the hibakusha all feel that they share – an enduring determination to ensure the past never becomes the present.

The scene around the football pitch here in Majdal Shams, where 12 children and young people died on Saturday, is quiet and deeply sombre.

There are plenty of people here – local Druze elders in their distinctive red and white turbans and baggy trousers, military officials, visiting government ministers and of course many journalists.

But conversations around the crater where the rocket landed are hushed, respectful.

A black flag flies at the spot where the rocket landed last night, gouging a shallow crater in the pitch and blowing out the metal fence around it. There are shrapnel holes everywhere.

Wreaths have just been laid. Many people are simply standing by the crater, taking in the scene, lost in thought.

In the corner of the pitch, someone has tried to remove the bloodstains on the astroturf, but with only limited success.

Outside the fence, bicycles and scooters lie scattered, all blackened from yesterday’s brief but devastating fireball.

There’s a bomb shelter metres away, but when the siren sounded last night, the children had mere seconds to respond. They had absolutely no chance.

Israel says the rocket was fired from Shebaa, a small village just a short distance away across the western flank of Mt Hermon, which towers over Majdal Shams.

Hezbollah disputes Israel’s claim, but around the time the rocket landed here, its media outlets announced that it had fired rockets towards an Israeli military base less than two miles from the football pitch.

This is a day of funerals for those who died here, most of them boys and girls between 10 and 16. Grief hangs heavy in the summer heat.

A voice is briefly raised, furious and urgent.

“How come there’s still a Beirut?” he cries. “We’ve had 10 months of our children living in fear.”

There’s a ripple of applause, but opinion here in this Druze minority town is divided on how forcefully Israel should respond. After almost 10 months of simmering conflict, the prospect of an all-out war scares many.

When Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s hardline finance minister, arrives, the crowd swells and the sense of anger mounts.

He’s accosted by angry locals. Some are demanding a decisive response against Hezbollah. Some accuse the government of abandoning the Golan Heights.

Mr Smotrich tries to offer his condolences, even to hug those around him. But it seems not everyone is interested in his sympathy.

In the middle of a large adjacent football pitch, 12 empty black chairs commemorate the lost.

Fighting back the tears, 26-year-old Ugarit Abu Assad, from nearby Buqata, says she fears a major escalation.

“I’m afraid of the consequences of all out war,” she says. “A lot of people are going to die.”

Walking around the steep streets of this mountain community, the sense of collective shock and mourning is overwhelming.

Small groups of men, women and children, all dressed in black, are moving around silently, from one grieving household to another.

Sometimes you catch sight of people hugging or wiping away each other’s tears.

Wahim, a teacher who knew many of the young victims, was utterly distraught, unsure whether to try to express his feelings or stay silent.

“This is a disaster. How do I even start,” he said, before apologising and dissolving into sobs.

Ivan Ebrahim pulled up a picture of his 10-year-old cousin, Milar Shaar, the youngest victim. A boy who loved football and gaming.

“He is the greatest kid here. Everybody loved him,” Ivan said.

“I don’t know. It’s hard to describe.”

“We haven’t slept since yesterday,” Milar’s uncle, Nassar Ebrahim tells me. “The whole town is in mourning.”

The people of Majdal Shams are used to the sound of rockets overhead, but Saturday’s attack took them all by surprise.

“I don’t think the government needs to respond,” Nassar says. “They need to end the war, so no-one dies on either side.”

The mood up here, away from the occasional angry outbursts down at the football pitch, is extremely subdued.

But this is a part of the world where hospitality runs deep.

A group of young men call us over, offering water thimbles of strong coffee.

They’re determined to stay put, despite the danger.

“We Druze don’t leave our homes,” one tells me, echoing a quiet defiance we encounter elsewhere.

When it comes to what happens next, they’re unanimous: they don’t want a wider war.

“The children here, the children in Lebanon, the children in Gaza. They don’t need more war,” another says.

Ahead of the Olympics, some Parisians were grumbling. Security issues and overcrowding had been among locals’ top concerns in the preceding weeks, which were also an immensely turbulent period in the country’s politics.

Making matters worse was Friday’s wave of co-ordinated arson attacks on the French railway network that ruined the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of people.

But a vibrant opening ceremony and an early flurry of French medals have started to make many in the city optimistic.

And as the rain clouds clear, some of the city’s residents say the sport is starting to bring France some much-needed togetherness.

• French rail repairs completed after arson attacks
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• Olympian sorry to wife for losing ring in the Seine

The morning after France snatched its first gold of the Games, the sun finally shone on a fan zone in the city’s 13th arrondissement, where couples and families lounged in deckchairs, watching a big screen.

A man named Max was jubilant after the French victory in the men’s rugby sevens. “I was very proud,” he said. “But I was always excited about the Olympics, even if some people are not.”

The tone of the sporting extravaganza so far was perhaps set by Friday’s ambitious opening ceremony, which seemed to surprise many locals in its smooth execution.

Director Thomas Jolly appeared to pre-empt the possibility of something going wrong, as one of the pre-filmed inserts showed torchbearer Zinedine Zidane on a broken-down metro train.

“I’m pretty sure that everybody who saw the ceremony changed their minds,” said Pierre, a cyclist who had been annoyed beforehand by the vast security lockdown.

“I was not very optimistic about the Olympics. I have to say that I was a little bit grumpy,” said a rugby fan named Vincent. “But now I find the ambience very cool.”

Spirits were undampened as the downpours that characterised the ceremony continued into the weekend. Cheers and spontaneous renditions of French national anthem La Marseillaise broke out from crowds who lined the streets to watch cyclists braving treacherous conditions in the time-trial competitions.

Curious locals perched on their upper-floor window ledges, or balanced themselves precariously on street furniture to get a good view. Police officers could not resist taking photos. Even delivery cyclists, evidently perplexed by the many road closures, paused to drink in the action.

For ice-cream seller Ludwig, who had set up stall on the Boulevard Saint-Germain as the competitors whizzed past, sales were faltering in the wet weather, but all that mattered was the “beautiful atmosphere” that the global sporting contest had brought.

And as French athletes notched up some early sporting successes, it started to look like the feelgood factor might last beyond the opening ceremony. Pedestrians poked their heads into bars to watch TV screens and applaud as some of the first medals rolled in.

The Games were proving an “incredible” display of French culture and togetherness, said two judo fans who had dressed up as beloved comic characters Asterix and Obelix.

Speaking outside the Champ de Mars Arena, Thomas-Felix and Sebastien said it was disappointing that that French competitor Luka Mkheidze was defeated in the final of the men’s 60kg contest, but at least they were surrounded by plenty of compatriots and could “all cry together”.

Some Parisians are pleased to see something other than politics starting to fill the headlines. For Caroline Loire, who is organising street theatre during the Games, the sport represents “a break”.

A matter of weeks ago, a hastily-formed left-wing coalition triumphed in the second round of the snap parliamentary election – after the far-right National Rally topped the polls in the first vote. France is now in the hands of a caretaker government, its future uncertain.

“[President] Macron wants us to forget all about the politics, but we won’t,” said Adrienne, an arts student who was excited to watch the Olympic table-tennis. “We will appreciate the sportsmen and sportswomen – but we won’t forget.”

Another man, Alexandre, was doubtful that the Games would have a long-term galvanising impact, but felt it was a good chance for France to “show what it can do”. That was important, he said, in light of Friday’s attack on the railways. “It’s a heavy situation,” he lamented.

Even if the Games do manage to distract many people for a time, the enthusiasm is far from universal.

“I’m not excited. I don’t think Paris is the right place for it,” said a student, Melissa, who suggested another city would have been better equipped to deal with the crowds.

There have been fears that the Parisian infrastructure could groan under the strain of so many visitors, but some of the most central streets and even its metro stations have felt eerily quiet – perhaps as a result of many locals abandoning the city for the summer.

On Saturday, some barriers remained on the Île Saint-Louis, an island in the Seine that was cordoned off for the opening ceremony. Footfall seemed relatively low.

Some businesses that were open said it remained to be seen whether an influx of Olympic tourists would make up for the lost trade. The Games were good news for France, but “not good for business”, said one restaurateur, gesturing at a row of empty tables.

Further south, spectators and Games delegates were starting to seek out the bars and cafes of the Latin Quarter – although one Greek outlet named Olympie was conspicuously closed.

“I don’t care that the Olympics is in Paris,” said one bistro-owner, Jean-Louis, who was hustling for passing customers.

“This is just a view of France, but it’s not reality,” he said of the Games. He said poverty was a more important issue for millions of people. After all, he said, “the Olympic Games don’t give me something to eat”.

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Record-breaking rain left thousands of people stranded by floods in North Korea over the weekend, prompting leader Kim Jong Un to declare an “emergency”, state media reports.

Photographs show submerged farmland and homes after heavy rain hit Sinuiju city and Uiju county, which border China, according to the Rodong Sinmun.

State media said many were later rescued by airlift, although the BBC is unable to independently verify details of the report.

Such natural disasters are likely to compound existing issues like food scarcity and poor infrastructure in North Korea.

The secretive state – which is perhaps better known for concealing negative issues happening within its borders to the outside world – appears to have been relatively open about this latest disaster, with the official newspaper noting it was a “grave crisis”.

However, the report did not mention any casualty figures. It did say more than 4,200 North Korean residents were evacuated after “over 10 planes made as many as 20 consecutive round-trip flights”.

Even more unusual were the photographs of Mr Kim travelling through floodwaters in a black Lexus, according to Gordon Kang, a senior North Korean analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

Previously, senior leaders fronted disaster management, Mr Kang pointed out. The pictures of Mr Kim amounted to “never-before-seen imagery”.

State media were also keen to say Mr Kim had “personally directed the battle”, adding that he had declared parts of three provinces as “special disaster emergency zones”.

“Kim Jong Un is putting himself out there and demonstrating that the state is able to provide for its people,” Mr Kang explained to the BBC.

He noted the rescue efforts seen in this instance were also noticeably more extensive than those seen after previous disasters.

“North Korea is able to do more because it has strengthened its relationships with China and Russia. It now has more resources to back up its rhetoric,” he added.

It is difficult to get an accurate picture of what is happening in North Korea, as state media reports – which are almost exclusively directed at its own population – typically only publish information putting the country or its leader in a positive light.

Flooding is not uncommon in North Korea. In fact, seasonal rains and monsoons have made floods a yearly affair, according to Mr Kang.

Such floods are exacerbated by major deforestation in its mountains and hills.

There are fears these could cripple North Korea’s agricultural sector – that is already limited in size because of its mountainous terrain.

North Korea is one of the poorest countries in the world. Recent estimates are scarce, but CIA World Factbook estimates its gross domestic product per capita was around $1,700 in 2015.

That said, the actual situation and numbers are unclear, given North Korea’s opaque economy.

Venezuela’s battered economy is one of the key battlegrounds in Sunday’s presidential election, with President Nicolás Maduro hoping to convince voters that the country has turned the corner after years of strife.

Thanks to his recent efforts to push down the cost of living, the outlook is slightly rosier. In February, Venezuela finally said goodbye to the rampant hyperinflation that had seen price rises peak at more than 400,000% a year in 2019.

Now annual inflation is more manageable, but still high at about 50%.

Mr Maduro has been keen to take credit for the fall, saying it shows that he has “the correct policies”.

Unfortunately, however, those policies have done little or nothing to tackle the economy’s underlying structural problems – chiefly, its historic dependence on oil, to the detriment of other sectors.

“Since it was discovered in the country in the 1920s, oil has taken Venezuela on an exhilarating but dangerous boom-and-bust ride,” as the US Council on Foreign Relations think tank puts it.

Now opponents of President Maduro are pinning their hopes of economic revival on a change of leader, and a new beginning under his electoral rival, Edmundo González.

“An opposition victory would lead to a renewed opening of Venezuela’s trade and financial ties with the rest of the world,” says Jason Tuvey, deputy chief emerging markets economist at Capital Economics.

That would also mean the end of US economic sanctions imposed after Mr Maduro’s victory in the 2018 presidential election, which was widely dismissed as neither free nor fair.

These have made it difficult for state-run oil company PDVSA to sell its crude oil internationally, forcing it to resort to black market deals at big discounts.

But Mr Tuvey cautions that reversing the economic collapse of the past decade will be a tall order, given the enormous investment needed to raise oil production and with peak oil demand approaching.

“Venezuela’s economy can never get back to where it was 15 to 20 years ago,” he tells the BBC. “It will be starting by and large from square one.”

Venezuela’s 25-year-old Bolivarian Revolution – the name that the late President Hugo Chávez gave to his political movement – promised many things, but has failed to deliver what the country arguably most needed: a broad-based economy.

Instead of diversifying away from the oil industry, the governments of Chávez and Mr Maduro doubled down on Venezuela’s mineral wealth.

Paying little heed to the future, they treated PDVSA as a cash cow, milking its funds to finance social spending on housing, healthcare and transport.

But at the same time, they neglected to invest in maintaining the level of oil production, which has plummeted in recent years – partly, but not solely, as a result of US sanctions.

These problems were already evident when President Chávez died in 2013, but have grown worse on his successor’s watch.

“Under Chávez, Venezuela was able to ride on the coat-tails of an oil boom, up until the global financial crisis,” Mr Tuvey says.

“Fifteen to 20 years ago, Venezuela was a major oil producer. It used to produce three-and-a-half million barrels a day, along the lines of some of the smaller Gulf states.

“Now the oil sector has been completely hollowed out, and it produces less than a million barrels a day.”

GDP declined rapidly, down by 70% since 2013. But Mr Maduro resorted to compensating for lower oil prices by printing money to fund spending, resulting in the runaway inflation which the country has only recently curbed.

Economic hardship has taken its toll on the Venezuelan population, with more than 7.7 million people fleeing in search of a better life – about a quarter of the population.

But for those left behind, there have been signs of improvement. While the bolívar is still the official currency, an informal dollarisation has taken place, with US greenbacks increasingly the payment method of choice in retail transactions – at least, for those who have access to them.

That has stabilised the economy – but it has brought with it a social cost.

Residents in the capital, Caracas, now find themselves subject to a two-tier economy. While US dollars are fuelling a consumption boom in high-end shops and restaurants, those paid in bolívars feel increasingly excluded.

One symbolic event that highlighted these changes was Colombian reggaeton superstar Karol G’s recent appearance in Caracas as part of her current world tour.

Few major artists perform in Venezuela these days, but she had no trouble selling out two nights in March at the 50,000-capacity Estadio Monumental, despite ticket prices ranging from $30 to $500 (£23 to £390).

At the same time, according to Caracas-based consultancy Ecoanalítica, about 65% of Venezuelans earn less than $100 a month, while only eight or nine million of the country’s 28 million people can be seen as consumers with actual purchasing power.

“Those with a very close connection to the regime or to PDVSA have been barely affected by all this,” says Mr Tuvey.

As well as the need to raise living standards and reduce inequality, another big economic challenge for Venezuela is what to do about its massive foreign debt.

The country owes an estimated $150bn to bondholders and other foreign creditors. It has been in partial default since 2017, and although Mr Maduro has repeatedly promised talks on a restructuring, none have yet taken place.

The issue has been complicated by the fact that some of the bonds were issued by PDVSA using the company’s US refiner, Citgo, as collateral. As a result, bondholders have been able to pursue the issue through the New York courts.

Bruno Gennari, emerging markets strategist at investment bank KNG Securities, tells the BBC that because the US does not recognise Mr Maduro as president after the 2018 election, this leaves Venezuela with a “legitimacy crisis”.

This means that whoever wins Sunday’s election would have to be acceptable to Washington if a US-approved debt restructuring is to take place.

Mr Gennari does not rule out that the US “could turn a blind eye” if Mr Maduro wins the election under dubious conditions, but he believes that is rather unlikely.

“This election will have a sizeable impact on Venezuela’s future. If restructuring can go ahead, we could see the beginning of a very complex recovery process,” says Mr Gennari.

Once the richest country in South America, Venezuela now has a possible path back to stability – but whatever happens, its economic glory days are firmly behind it.

As Simone Biles eyes up a chance at another Olympic medal, a row of A-list celebrities are watching on.

The seven-time medallist is one of the most high profile athletes at the Olympics, and her stunning performance in the artistic gymnastics on Sunday drew celebrities like it was Paris Fashion Week.

Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Tom Cruise, American Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour and Snoop Dogg were in the crowd to watch the American gymnast.

Grande sat with Cynthia Erivo, the pair co-staring in their upcoming film Wicked. They were seen greeting Wintour, who was with Australian film director Baz Luhrmann.

Higher in the stands was singer Nick Jonas, seen chatting with singer John Legend and his wife, model and TV personality Chrissy Teigen. Academy Award-winning actress Jessica Chastain was also at Bercy Arena to watch Biles perform.

Biles is considered by many to be the GOAT of women’s gymnastics (the greatest of all time).

And her considerable medal haul (which includes four Olympic golds and 30 world championship medals) could have potentially been higher heading into the 2024 Olympics, if it wasn’t for her infamous case of the “twistys” at the Tokyo Games.

Biles was forced to pull out of several events at the Tokyo Olympics after suffering a disorientating mental block, and many wondered if she would compete again.

Her return to the Olympics stage is a major drawcard, and Biles rewarded the crowd with a dazzling performance.

• Biles dazzles on Olympics gymnastics return

She entered the Bercy Arena on Sunday to an eruption of cheers, with celebrities in the stands and a global television audience of millions.

An acrobatic beam routine came before an energetic floor programme that featured one of the five skills named after her. Then she delivered her big Biles II vault but decided not to attempt the new skill she is planning on uneven bars.

She scored a total of 59.566 to top the all-around standings with three sub-divisions still to go. It is hard to see that changing – that score would have won the last three World Championships.

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Acclaimed Irish author, Edna O’Brien, has died at the age of 93.

Her literary agent, PFD, and publisher, Faber, said she died peacefully on Saturday after a long illness.

They said their thoughts were with her “family and friends, in particular her sons Marcus and Carlo”.

Born in rural County Clare in 1930, O’Brien found her education by nuns suffocating and moved to Dublin to escape, subsequently spending much of her life in London.

She published her first novel The Country Girls in 1960.

The ground-breaking account of two female friends and the portrayal of female sexuality scandalised Ireland.

The novel and her two subsequent stories, The Lonely Girl and Girls in Their Married Bliss were banned by the Irish government.

Some copies were even burnt, including in O’Brien’s home village.

But the books became huge successes and were credited with challenging traditional societal views.

O’Brien wrote more than 20 novels, as well as dramas and biographies.

Many of her novels detailed the struggles of women in a male dominated world.

The writer was also the recipient of numerous awards including the Pen Nabokov prize.

Ireland’s president, Michael D Higgins said he felt “great sorrow” and described O’Brien as a “fearless teller of truths, a superb writer possessed of the moral courage to confront Irish society with realities long ignored and suppressed.

“Through that deeply insightful work, rich in humanity, Edna O’Brien was one of the first writers to provide a true voice to the experiences of women in Ireland in their different generations and played an important role in transforming the status of women across Irish society.

“While the beauty of her work was immediately recognised abroad, it is important to remember the hostile reaction it provoked among those who wished for the lived experience of women to remain far from the world of Irish literature, with her books shamefully banned upon their early publication.”

In 2020 Edna O’Brien told the Guardian newspaper that she had not had “that brilliant a life in many ways”.

She added: “It was quite difficult and that’s not said in self-pity but one thing that is true is that language and the mystery of language and the miracle of language has, as that lovely song Carrickfergus says, carried me over… the richness of great language.”

• Listen to 2015 interview O’Brien gave to the BBC as she published her novel, The Little Red Chairs

A mother has become the first person to be jailed under Australia’s forced marriage laws, for ordering her daughter to wed a man who would later murder the 21-year-old.

Sakina Muhammad Jan, who is in her late 40s, was found guilty of coercing Ruqia Haidari to marry 26-year-old Mohammad Ali Halimi in 2019, in exchange for a small payment.

Six weeks after the nuptials, Halimi killed his new bride – a crime for which he is now serving a life sentence.

On Monday, Jan – who pleaded not guilty – was sentenced to at least a year in jail, for what a judge called the “intolerable pressure” she had placed on her daughter.

Forced marriage laws were introduced in Australia in 2013 and carry a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment. There are several cases pending, but Jan is the first person to be sentenced for the offence.

An Afghan Hazara refugee who fled persecution from the Taliban and migrated to regional Victoria with her five children in 2013, Jan’s lawyers have said she suffers enduring “grief” over the death of her daughter but continues to maintain her innocence.

The trial heard that Haidari had been first forced to enter an unofficial religious marriage at the age of 15 – a union that ended after two years – and did not want to marry again until she was 27 or 28.

“She wanted to pursue study and get a job,” Judge Fran Dalziel said in her sentencing remarks.

While Jan may have believed she was acting in the best interests of her daughter, Ms Dalziel said she had repeatedly ignored Haidari’s wishes and “abused” her power as a mother.

“[Haidari] would have known that not taking part in the marriage would raise questions about you and the rest of the family.”

“She was concerned not only about your anger, but your standing in the community.”

Jan was sentenced to three years in jail, but may be released after 12 months to serve the rest of her sentence in the community.

Afterwards, she sat in the court dock and told her lawyer she refused to accept the judge’s ruling before eventually being taken away, according to local media.

During Halimi’s sentencing for Haidari’s murder in 2021, a court in Western Australia – where the couple had lived – heard that he had been violent and abusive towards his new wife, forcefully insisting that she undertake household chores.

In a statement on Monday, Attorney General Mark Dreyfus described forced marriage as “the most reported slavery-like offence” in Australia, with 90 cases brought to the attention of federal police in 2022-23 alone.

Successive governments have promised to stamp out the practice – which police say is on the rise – and in May, Australia’s parliament voted to create an Anti-Slavery Commissioner to respond to claims of exploitation.

A strong thunderstorm has caused a flash flood at Dolly Parton’s theme park, Dollywood, in the US state of Tennessee.

Video from inside the park shows fast-flowing water cascading past rides and flooding souvenir shops.

In the car park, people waded through waist-high water to get to cars that were partially submerged.

The park said in a statement that guests were “directed… to safety during the storm” and that one person with a minor injury had been reported.

“Dollywood is supporting guests whose vehicles were affected by this weather event, and clean-up crews have been deployed,” the statement said, adding that conditions would be assessed to determine whether the park would open on Monday.

Writing on X, several park visitors said they had never seen flooding that bad, and some complained that they were not directed to safety.

One X user said that patrons had to take apart a fence to get their vehicles out of the carpark, after a tree fell and blocked the road.

“I still love Dollywood… but we barely escaped today,” wrote another user. “Hope everyone gets out alright.”

The popular theme park features thrill rides, as well as arts and crafts, food, and music.

Country music star Parton, who grew up in the area and lent her name to the park in 1986, also makes occasional appearances.

This is the second water-based problem the park has encountered this month – nearly two weeks ago it had to close for a day because of a burst water main.

Knoxville Police issued a warning on its X account in the early hours of Monday morning, writing: “Periods of heavy rain are expected in our area for the next hour or more.

“Use caution on the roads, watch out for standing water, and be aware of the potential for flash flooding. And remember, as always, to never drive through flooded roads. Turn around, don’t drown.”

A surfer whose severed leg washed up on an Australian beach after it was bitten off by a shark has confirmed the limb has not been reattached.

Kai McKenzie, was surfing near Port Macquarie in New South Wales (NSW) last Tuesday, when what he describes as “the biggest shark I’ve ever seen” attacked him.

The 23-year-old managed to catch a wave into shore, where he was helped by an bystander who made a makeshift tourniquet to stem the bleeding.

His leg washed up a short time later and was put on ice by locals, before being taken to hospital, where a medical team had hoped surgery may save it.

But on Monday, almost a week after the attack, Mr McKenzie posted a picture of himself in hospital and an update on social media.

“Spot something missing? Hahah,” the post was captioned.

Detailing the “crazy shark attack”, in an earlier Instagram post he said the outpouring of public support has “meant the absolute world”.

“To be here… to be able to hold my beautiful Eve and my family is everything to me,” he wrote.

He also thanked the public for the donations that have flooded into a GoFundMe page that was set up to help him with medical bills, which has taken in over A$165,000 ($108,000; £84,000).

“I’ll be back in that water in no time!” he added.

A spokesperson for the local health district where Mr McKenzie is receiving treatment would not comment on whether reattachment surgery had been attempted, citing patient privacy.

Authorities say Mr McKenzie – who is a sponsored surfer – was bitten by a 3m great white shark and owes his life to an off-duty police officer who used a dog leash to make a tourniquet for the injured leg.

Mr McKenzie was rushed to a local hospital, before being flown to a major trauma centre in Newcastle, some 200km (124 miles) away. His severed leg also made the long journey.

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

In a statement on Thursday, the McKenzie family thanked all of the “medical staff… bystanders and first responders” who had worked to save the surfer’s life.

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

Eight people, including a number of children, have been injured in a knife attack at a dance workshop with eyewitnesses describing the scene like a “horror movie”.

Merseyside Police said officers were called to a “major incident” at a property on Hart Street in Southport at about 11:50 BST.

The force said armed police “detained a male and seized a knife” and there was “no wider threat to the public”.

North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) said they had treated eight patients with stab injuries and some had been taken to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.

• Live updates: At least eight people injured in ‘major incident’

Journalist Tim Johnson of Eye on Southport, who arrived at the scene about 20 minutes after the police had been called, said a Taylor Swift Yoga and Dance Workshop aimed at primary school children aged six to 10 had been taking place nearby.

The organisers have been approached for comment but have not yet responded.

Mr Johnson said the incident happened at the Hope of Hart children’s club, which is housed in a former warehouse building on a back street.

He said those hurt were children and he had seen one girl on a stretcher who was seriously injured.

“It was horrendous. I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said.

“There were so many police cars, it was a mass of blue lights.

“I saw ambulance men and women in tears. People were in tears in the streets.”

Alder Hey Children’s Hospital said it had declared a “major incident” and was working with other emergency services as their emergency department is currently “extremely busy”.

They said parents should only bring their children in if it was urgent, adding all other appointments and services were running as normal.

NWAS said it “dispatched 13 ambulances along with specialised resources” to the incidents and had also taken patients with stab injuries to Aintree University Hospital and Southport and Formby Hospital.

Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) confirmed their Langwathby-based critical care team worked alongside North West Air Ambulance, Midlands Air Ambulance Charity and a number of other emergency services at the scene.

A spokesman for GNAAS said: “We delivered advanced emergency care to one patient before accompanying them to hospital by road.”

A local business owner, who was one of the people who called the police, said it had been like a “scene in a horror movie”.

Colin Parry, owner of Masters Vehicle Body Repairs on Hart Street, said he believed six or seven “young girls” had been stabbed.

“It’s like something from America, not like sunny Southport,” he said.

He said neighbours in the community wanted to “get” the suspect before police arrived.

One neighbour, helped by another, took “about 10 girls to safety” in his house, Colin told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“The community was coming together, everyone was trying to help,” he said.

“Everyone was trying to save the young kids.”

He said another man, a builder, also helped some of the children leave the site of the attack.

A woman, from Liverpool, said she was on the main shopping street, Lord Street, in Southport when she realised something “horrendous and “absolutely bewildering” was happening.

“All the shops were shutting their doors and I was thinking something’s going on,” she said.

She said “terror” had set in, adding: “Things like this don’t happen around here.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the multiple stabbings were “horrendous and deeply shocking” as he thanked emergency services for their response.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said she was “deeply concerned” about the “very serious incident”, while Southport MP Patrick Hurley added that he was “hoping for the best possible outcomes to the casualties affected”.

Steve Rotheram, mayor of Liverpool City Region, has urged the public not to spread “unconfirmed speculation and false information”.

Former BBC News presenter Huw Edwards has been charged with three counts of making indecent images of children.

The offences are alleged to have taken place between 2020 and 2022 and relate to 37 images that were shared on a WhatsApp chat, according to the Metropolitan Police.

The broadcaster was arrested last November and charged last month, the force revealed on Monday.

He is due to appear in court in London on Wednesday.

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “Huw Edwards, 62, of Southwark, London has been charged with three counts of making indecent images of children following a Met Police investigation.

“The offences, which are alleged to have taken place between December 2020 and April 2022, relate to images shared on a WhatsApp chat.

“Edwards was arrested on 8 November 2023. He was charged on Wednesday, 26 June following authorisation from the Crown Prosecution Service.

“He has been bailed to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, 31 July.

“Media and the public are strongly reminded that this is an active case. Nothing should be published, including on social media, which could prejudice future court proceedings.”

Mr Edwards is accused of having six category A images, the most serious classification of indecent images, on a phone. He is also accused of having 12 category B pictures and 19 category C photographs.

If found guilty, he could receive a sentence of up to six months in prison and/or an unlimited fine.

The news was first reported in The Sun.

Mr Edwards left the BBC in April.

He was previously the corporation’s most high-profile and best-paid news anchor, one of the main presenters on BBC One’s Ten O’Clock News, and was often chosen to front coverage of major national events.

A senior judge has issued an arrest warrant for far-right campaigner Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – better known by his alias Tommy Robinson – after learning he has left the country on the eve of a major legal case against him.

Yaxley-Lennon left the UK by a Eurotunnel train on Sunday night, despite having been arrested by Kent Police under counter-terrorism powers.

The 41-year-old had been due in court on Monday for allegedly breaching an order not to repeat lies about a Syrian refugee.

Mr Justice Johnson has ordered the warrant not to be carried out “until early October” to give Yaxley-Lennon time to confirm he would attend the next hearing voluntarily.

His departure from the UK comes after thousands of his followers gathered in central London on Saturday in his support.

In July 2021, Syrian teenager Jamal Hijazi won £100,000 in damages in a major defamation battle against Yaxley-Lennon, who had falsely accused him of being a violent thug, claims that spread across social media.

A judge ordered him never to repeat the lies, but last year he began repeating his claims, including in a film distributed online.

Yaxley-Lennon was ordered six weeks ago to come to the High Court on Monday to answer the allegation that he had ignored the judge’s order – a serious offence known as contempt of court.

Adam Payter, representing the Solicitor General, the government minister who oversees contempt of court allegations, today told Mr Justice Johnson that despite Yaxley-Lennon knowing of this morning’s case, he played the film again to his supporters on Saturday.

The barrister said this public showing had been a “flagrant” and “admitted” breach of the court order not to repeat the false claims.

On Sunday, the founder of the English Defence League went to the Channel Tunnel terminal at Folkestone, where police officers stopped him under counter-terrorism powers.

When he allegedly refused to co-operate, he was arrested and held until 10pm before being released on unconditional bail and leaving the country.

Mr Payter said: “We understand he failed to cooperate with a port stop and search.

“The implication is he was attempting to leave the country and therefore was not intending to attend this hearing this morning

“The information that we have is that he is not within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom. He has been spending significant time outside the UK since being served with the contempt application on 13 June.

“He returned for the purpose of publishing the film and sought to immediately leave the jurisdiction.”

The court heard the police officers who had held Yaxley-Lennon had no power to stop him leaving the UK.

Mr Justice Johnson said he was “entirely satisfied” that the contempt of court application should proceed in Yaxley-Lennon’s absence.

The judge issued an arrest warrant to detain the activist if, by October, he has returned to the UK but continues to refuse to cooperate.

That decision to delay executing the warrant was to give him an opportunity to return and explain why he had failed to attend this morning’s hearing or to apply to have it set aside.

If Yaxley-Lennon does not return, the case will be heard in his absence after 28 October – and could lead to a jail sentence.

2005: Jailed for assault occasioning actual bodily harm (12 months)

2011: Community order for football brawl (12 months)

2013: Travelling on another man’s passport to the USA (jailed for 10 months)

2014: Mortgage fraud (jailed for 18 months)

May 2017: Contempt of Court finding, three months jail suspended for 18 months

July 2019: Jailed for nine months for interfering with a grooming gang trial in Leeds.

July 2021: Loses defamation case and ordered to pay Syrian refugee £100,000

July 2024: Fails to attend Contempt of Court hearing for allegedly repeating false claims about the refugee

Other offences: Possession of drugs, threatening behaviour and breach of court order

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised that Hezbollah will pay “a heavy price” for an attack that killed 12 children at a football pitch in Majdal Shams on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday.

The costs that Mr Netanyahu, his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Israel’s military chiefs decide to inflict on Hezbollah will determine whether the war either side of the Israel-Lebanon border stays limited and relatively controlled or explodes into something much worse.

The border war started the day after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October last year, when Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel to support the Palestinians.

Since then, it has been fought within a grisly set of unspoken understandings. Israel and Hezbollah have mostly aimed at military targets, though both have also killed civilians.

As a result, the war, though highly dangerous, has stayed limited. Even so, tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border have left their homes. Busy communities have become ghost towns.

The fear from the outset has been that a big attack on either side’s civilians would cause uncontrolled escalation and in turn, cause a much worse war, as both Israel and Hezbollah bring their full force to bear.

Action against Hezbollah in the largely depopulated areas of south Lebanon might avoid escalation. Killing Lebanese civilians in Beirut or destroying infrastructure like bridges or power stations would not.

Hezbollah claims, unconvincingly, that it did not carry out the attack in Majdal Shams. Even so, it is hard to see why it would target Druze children at a football match.

Hezbollah has mostly stuck to the tacit rules of the conflict, trying to kill soldiers, not civilians since it started the border war on 8 October.

It might have been aiming for the extensive Israeli early warning stations on military positions on Mount Hermon.

Hezbollah is a much more formidable enemy of Israel than Hamas. It is more powerful than the fragile Lebanese state and operates without consulting it.

Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah is close to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Hezbollah fighters are disciplined and well trained, and Iran has supplied them with a formidable arsenal of missiles that can hit Israel’s cities.

Hezbollah fought Israel to a standstill in their last big war in 2006. Its men have extensive combat experience after fighting for years in Syria in support of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Israel’s leadership know all that. They also know that despite their vast firepower they have not yet subdued Hamas in Gaza, and the reservists their army relies on are feeling considerable strain.

Israel is also under heavy pressure from its allies, including the US – without which it cannot sustain its war effort – not to take action that would escalate the war into an all-out fight.

The Americans and the French have tried to negotiate a way of de-escalating the Israel-Hezbollah border war. The absence of a ceasefire in Gaza blights their chances of success.

The border between Israel and Lebanon remains the mostly likely place for the wider Middle East war to intensify.

Even if the crisis caused by the killing of young football players and spectators in Majdal Shams passes without a much worse conflagration, the “rules” of the border war are tattered, imperfect, unstable and continue to carry the risk that a single bloody incident will touch off another catastrophic war.

US President Joe Biden has unveiled a sweeping proposal to reform the Supreme Court, calling on lawmakers to establish term limits and form an ethics code “to restore trust and accountability” on its nine justices.

The conservative-leaning court has become a political battlefield in recent years, with its nine justices – unelected and able to serve for life – playing a powerful role in American life on everything from abortions to the environment.

Mr Biden has also called on lawmakers to pass a constitutional amendment limiting presidential immunity, a move which would reverse a recent Supreme Court decision.

Efforts to reform the court are unlikely to be passed by the US Congress.

Democrats, however, hope that pushing for reform can help galvanise voters ahead of the November 2024 election.

The Supreme Court has ruled on a string of historic cases in the last two years, starting with ending the constitutional right to abortion in June of 2022.

At the same time, it has been dogged by allegations of judicial ethics violations, particularly after journalists investigated Justice Clarence Thomas for not reporting gifts.

• How the Supreme Court became a battlefield

In an opinion piece published in the Washington Post on Monday morning, Mr Biden said that “what is happening now is not normal”.

“It undermines the public’s confidence in the court’s decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms,” he wrote in the Post. “We now stand in a breach.”

To address these concerns, Mr Biden has proposed ending lifetime appointments to the court.

Instead, he believes that sitting presidents should appoint a new justice to the court every two years, who would then serve an 18-year period.

Reform advocates have previously suggested that staggered 18-year-term limits would help depoliticise the court and make it more balanced and representative of the population.

Additionally, Mr Biden is pressing Congress to establish a new code of ethics that would force justices to disclose gifts and avoid overt political activities.

While the court released a code of ethics for the first time in is history last year, the code does not have any enforcement mechanism.

“Every other federal judge is bound by an enforceable code of conduct,” the president wrote. “There is no reason for the Supreme Court to be exempt.”

Lastly, Mr Biden hopes to pass an amendment to the US constitution that would reverse a 1 July ruling in which the Supreme Court said that Donald Trump and other former presidents are immune from criminal prosecution.

In the controversial ruling, the court’s justices found that a president has immunity for “official acts” but is not immune from “unofficial acts”.

In his opinion piece, Mr Biden said that the proposed amendment – which he has dubbed the “No One is Above the Law” amendment” – would “make clear that there is no immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office.”

“I share our founders’ believe that the president’s power is limited, not absolute,” he wrote. “We are a nation of laws – not of kings or dictators”.

Republicans have pushed back on efforts to reform the court.

On Sunday, for example, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham told CBS, the BBC’s US partner, that Democrats made no effort to do so when a more liberal-leaning group of justices were “pumping out opinions they liked.”

Earlier this month, Trump also described efforts to reform the court as an “illegal” and “unconstitutional” attack on the “sacred” institution.

“The Democrats are attempting to interfere in our presidential election, and destroy our justice system, by attacking their political opponent, me, and our honourable supreme court,” he wrote. “We have to fight for our fair and independent courts, and protect our country.”

Mr Biden is expected to address his proposed reforms at an event in Austin, Texas later on Monday afternoon.

As the electoral authorities, which Nicolas Maduro controls, announced he’d won a third term in office, an instant crackle of fireworks rippled around the Venezuelan Caracas.

The city soundtracked in a carefully curated way, like many things in this election.

The opposition claimed instantly that they, not the president, had won.

But you wouldn’t know this from watching the news here.

Television screens up and down the country only showed jubilant crowds, draped in the Venezuelan flag, dancing and cheering on the president.

Nicolas Maduro does have some loyal supporters still, known as “Chavistas” after his mentor Hugo Chavez and the brand of socialism he created.

But their numbers are highly disputed, and this election result is far from over.

As the city hums back into life this morning, the government faces pressure from both the international community and the opposition here to explain their numbers – after the opposition were so far ahead in the polls beforehand.

• Maduro declared winner in disputed vote
• Venezuela’s economy runs on oil – and music

There are some things that are indisputable. Some which I, as an observer on the ground, was witness to.

There were the huge queues at polling stations, but only tiny amounts of people being let in at one time.

This led to accusations of deliberate delays, perhaps in the hope some people would give up and go home.

When our BBC team arrived at one polling station, the organiser of the station took a call saying the international media were there. 150 people were then suddenly allowed to be admitted.

There were some poll stations that didn’t open at all, leading to protests and clashes with the authorities.

There were allegations that some of those who work for the state, including police students, were told how to vote.

There was the fact President Maduro’s face remained emblazoned above some poll stations even on voting day.

His face lines almost every street in Caracas, with his governing party paying for incentives for people to support him – buses put on for people to attend his rallies, and free food parcels handed out.

Even prior to allegations of explicit fraud the question was asked: Is this contest fair?

Opposition candidates were banned from running, opposition aides detained, many Venezuelans overseas struggled to register to vote and many international election observers were disinvited.

All of these were seen as attempts to suppress the opposition vote. The opposition were so far ahead in opinion polls that many analysts believed these tactics were necessary as it would be hard for the government to claim a win without seeming far-fetched.

But now that they have done just that, the opposition is alleging a more specific type of fraud.

They claim they only had access to 30% of the printed “receipts” from electronic voting machines around the country, to check that the machine’s results matched those electronically sent to the electoral council.

They think this could mean more potential for the electronic figures to be tampered with and allege many of their observers were not allowed into the counts.

The government dispute any wrongdoing, and instead have accused “foreign governments” of an “intervention operation”.

So, what will happen next?

There are still a lot of unknowns. The opposition say they will announce in the coming days how they plan to challenge the results.

They and the international community have asked for proof of the numbers the government has put out, as granular as count by count.

It is hard to see how President Maduro avoids these calls without serious consequences for the country.

In his victory speech, he referenced US sanctions imposed after the last elections were seen as unfair.

They have hit the country’s already flailing economy. Millions of Venezuelans have fled, and half the country live in poverty.

How everyone else responds will be key now.

The international community has been divided for some time over how to respond to Venezuela, with some governments’ conceding privately that the sanctions haven’t “worked”, either by incentivising regime change or compelling President Maduro to hold fair elections.

They are also used as an excuse by President Maduro, and his supporters, for the country’s woes.

The future of Venezuela and whether it can rebuild matters for the rest of the world – mass emigration has fuelled a migration crisis on the US border, its vast oil reserves remain relatively unusable, and it remains an ally for Russia, China, Cuba and Iran in the West.

The opposition, meanwhile, aren’t set to back down without putting up a fight.

A veteran sports commentator has been sacked from his Olympics role after making a sexist remark about Australian female swimmers following their gold medal win.

As the 4x100m freestyle relay team were making their way off the pool deck in Paris, Bob Ballard said they were “finishing up”, adding “you know what women are like… hanging around, doing their make-up”.

The clip quickly went viral and broadcaster Eurosport later said he had been removed from the commentary line-up.

Ballard apologised if the remarks had offended viewers and said it was not his “intention to upset or belittle anyone”, in a statement posted to X.

Mollie O’Callaghan, Emma McKeon, Meg Harris and Shayna Jack had just beaten the US and China, to make it the fourth Olympics in a row where Australia has claimed the gold medal in the event.

They were waving to crowds and celebrating the achievement when Ballard made his comments.

His co-commentator and British swimming champion Lizzie Simmonds had immediately branded his remark “outrageous”, prompting laughter from Ballard.

In his statement on X, Ballard urged users not to “pile in on” Simmons. Some had been quick to attack the ex-Olympic swimmer online.

On Sunday, Eurosport said Ballard – previously a long-time BBC reporter and presenter – would not return to their airwaves.

“During a segment of Eurosport’s coverage last night, commentator Bob Ballard made an inappropriate comment,” the broadcaster said in a statement.

“To that end, he has been removed from our commentary roster with immediate effect.”

Mr Ballard has been a stalwart of global sports coverage since the 1980s, reporting on many Olympic games and World Championships.

He has commentated on an array of sports including water polo, ice hockey and wheelchair tennis, but is best known for his coverage of swimming and diving.

Swimming Australia has been approached for comment.

Israel’s security cabinet has authorised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister to decide when and how to retaliate for a deadly rocket attack Israel and the US say was carried out by the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah.

Ministers met in emergency session in the wake of the strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday evening, which killed 12 children and teenagers from the Druze community. Hezbollah has denied responsibility.

It was the deadliest cross-border incident in months of exchanges of fire between the two sides.

The attack has heightened fears that what has been relatively contained hostilities so far could spiral into all-out war.

Western governments are urging Israel to show restraint in its response.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Israel had a right to respond to Hezbollah after Saturday’s strike, but emphasised that nobody “wants a broader war”.

Mr Netanyahu, who cut short a visit to the US following the strike, went to the scene of the attack in the Druze town of Majdal Shams on Monday afternoon.

“These children are our children,” he said. “The state of Israel will not, and cannot, let this pass. Our response will come and it will be severe.”

Scores of local residents protested against the prime minister’s visit to the town, an AFP reporter there said. There has been anger against the authorities for not having prevented the strike.

The White House said it had been in “continuous discussions with Israeli and Lebanese counterparts since the horrific attack” on the playing field in Majdal Shams.

It said it was “also working on a diplomatic solution along the Blue Line [the unofficial frontier between Israel and Lebanon] that will end all attacks once and for all”.

On Monday morning an Israeli drone strike outside the Lebanese town of Shaqra, about 6.5km (four miles) from the Israeli border, killed two people, Lebanon’s state media said. Hezbollah announced that the dead men were two of its fighters. Israel has not commented on the report.

Meanwhile Air France has become the latest airline to suspend flights to and from Beirut, as anticipation of Israeli retaliation grows. Lufthansa, Swiss International Air Lines, and Eurowings have similarly suspended flights.

In Majdal Shams, the funerals of the young victims took place on Sunday amid scenes of raw grief. Thousands of people were gathered as the caskets, draped in white, were carried through the town.

The attack is the most devastating to hit the Druze community, which has lived on the Golan Heights for centuries. They are part of an Arabic-speaking ethnic and religious group based in Lebanon, Syria, the Golan Heights and northern Israel.

Those on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights have been under Israeli governance since Israel captured the area from Syria in the 1967 war, although many have retained their allegiance to Syria. There are about 21,000 who live on the rocky plateau, about 20% of whom have accepted Israeli citizenship.

The attack on Majdal Shams has caused outrage across Israel and the Druze community, about 110,000 of whom also live in Israel.

On his return from the US on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu held meetings with defence officials before convening the security cabinet.

After the hours-long meeting, the prime minister’s office issued a brief statement, saying only that the “members of the Cabinet authorised the prime minister and the defence minister to decide on the manner and timing of the response against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation”.

In a condolence call earlier to the spiritual leader of Israel’s Druze community, Sheikh Muafak Ṭarif, Mr Netanyahu said Hezbollah would “pay a heavy price for this that it has not paid to this point”.

Hezbollah has strongly denied it was behind the attack, reportedly blaming the bloodshed on a failed Israeli interceptor missile.

In a statement on Sunday, the Israeli military Chief of Staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) knew “exactly where the rocket was launched from”.

Gen Halevi identified it as an Iranian made unguided surface-to-surface Falaq rocket with a 53kg warhead. “This is a Hezbollah rocket. And whoever launches such a rocket into a built-up area wants to kill civilians, wants to kill children,” he said.

Previously sporadic fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated since Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli positions a day after Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October. Hezbollah says it is acting in support of the Palestinians.

An “ultra-left militant” was arrested in north-west France on Sunday after being found behaving suspiciously near a railway site, according to police sources quoted by French media.

Officers who searched the man’s car found keys to technical premises, pliers, a set of universal keys and literature “linked to the ultra-left”.

The 28-year-old suspect is currently being questioned by police in the city of Rouen, French media said.

There is no indication that the man has links with the people responsible for Friday’s suspected co-ordinated arson attack on railway lines ahead of the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympic Games.

The acts of sabotage paralysed high-speed TGV lines running to and from Paris and heavily disrupted travel in France.

On Monday morning, France’s Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin said that a “number of profiles of people who could have committed these very deliberate, very targeted acts of sabotage” had been identified.

He added that the methods employed were “traditional” of the ultra-left and said there was “likely a political claim” behind the sabotage.

“The question is whether they were manipulated or is it for their own account,” Mr Darmanin said, adding that investigators were making good progress and would find those responsible.

Although he stopped short of saying the saboteurs had accomplices within France’s national rail operator SNCF, Mr Darmanin noted the locations of the arson attacks were “extremely specific”

“It was obviously extremely well targeted, it wasn’t done randomly, and it affected three major lines,” he added.

Mr Darmanin also said that around 50 people were arrested ahead of the Olympics who, alongside others – thought to number around 150 – had “wanted to carry out either sabotage or radical protests in Paris during the first events of the Olympic Games”.

Alongside the damage to the train lines, French media also reported that fiber optic cables were found cut in six locations across France overnight Sunday into Monday, causing some isolated outages.

It is still unclear at this stage whether there are any links between the vandalism on the telecoms installations and the sabotage on the rail network last week, which affected an estimated 250,000 passengers on Friday and hundreds of thousands more over the weekend.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for either incident. One security source suggested in French media last week that the arson attacks bore all the hallmarks of the extreme left.

Transport minister Patrice Vergriete said on Monday that trains services were back up and running as normal after teams worked around the clock over the weekend to fix the damage.

He added that “considerable means”, including drones and police helicopters, were deployed to strengthen the security of the thousands of kilometres that make up France’s railway network.

Mr Vergriete also said that the acts of sabotage will likely have cost several million euros.

A group of scientists say they have found new evidence to back up their theory that complex life on Earth may have begun 1.5 billion years earlier than thought.

The team, working in Gabon, say they discovered evidence deep within rocks showing environmental conditions for animal life 2.1 billion years ago.

But they say the organisms were restricted to an inland sea, did not spread globally and eventually died out.

The ideas are a big departure from conventional thinking and not all scientists agree.

Most experts believe animal life began around 635 million years ago.

The research adds to an ongoing debate over whether so-far unexplained formations found in Franceville, Gabon are actually fossils or not.

The scientists looked at the rock around the formations to see if they showed evidence of containing nutrients like oxygen and phosphorus that could have supported life.

Professor Ernest Chi Fru at Cardiff University worked with an international team of scientists.

He told BBC News that, if his theory is correct, these life forms would have been similar to slime mould – a brainless single-cell organism that reproduces with spores.

But Professor Graham Shields at University College London, who was not involved in the research, says he had some reservations.

“I’m not against the idea that there were higher nutrients 2.1 billion years ago but I’m not convinced that this could lead to diversification to form complex life,” he said, suggesting more evidence was needed.

Prof Chi Fru said his work helped prove ideas about the processes that create life on Earth.

“We’re saying, look, there’s fossils here, there’s oxygen, it’s stimulated the appearance of the first complex living organisms,” he said.

“We see the same process as in the Cambrian period, 635 million years ago – it helps back that up. It helps us understand ultimately where we have all come from,” he added.

The first hint that complex life could have begun earlier than previously thought came about 10 years ago with the discovery of something called the Francevillian formation.

Prof Chi Fru and his colleagues said the formation was made up of fossils which pointed to evidence of life that could “wiggle” and move of its own accord.

The findings were not accepted by all scientists.

To find more evidence for their theories, Prof Chi Fru and his team have now analysed sediment cores drilled from the rock in Gabon.

The chemistry of the rock showed evidence that a “laboratory” for life was created just before the formation appeared.

They believe that the high levels of oxygen and phosphorus were made by two continental plates colliding under water, creating volcanic activity.

The collision cut off a section of water from the oceans, creating a “nutrient-rich shallow marine inland sea.”

Prof Chi Fru says this protected environment had the conditions to allow photosynthesis, leading to significant amounts of oxygen in the water.

“This would have provided sufficient energy to promote increases in body size and greater complex behaviour observed in primitive, simple animal-like life forms such as those found in the fossils from this period,” he said.

But he says that the isolated environment also led to the demise of the life forms because there were not enough new nutrients fed in to sustain a food supply.

PhD student Elias Rugen at the Natural History Museum, who was not involved in the research, agreed with some of the findings, saying it’s clear that “oceanic carbon, nitrogen, iron and phosphorus cycles were all doing something a little bit unprecedented at this point in Earth’s history.”

“There’s nothing to say that complex biological life couldn’t have emerged and thrived as far back as 2 billion years ago,” he said, but added that more evidence was needed to support the theories.

The findings are published in the scientific journal Precambrian Research.