Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed has resigned and left the country after weeks of student-led protests spiralled into deadly, nationwide unrest.

The 76-year-old fled in a helicopter on Monday to India, reports said, as thousands of protesters stormed her official residence in the capital Dhaka.

This brings an unexpected end to the reign of Bangladesh’s longest-serving PM, who has been in power since 2009 and ruled the country for more than 20 years in total.

Credited with overseeing the South Asian country’s economic progress in recent years, Ms Hasina began her political career as a pro-democracy icon.

However, in recent years she has been accused of turning autocratic and clamping down on any opposition to her rule. Politically-motivated arrests, disappearances, extra-judicial killings and other abuses have all risen under her rule.

In January she won an unprecedented fourth term as PM in a January election widely decried by critics as being a sham and boycotted by the main opposition.

Born to a Muslim family in East Bengal in 1947, Ms Hasina had politics in her blood.

Her father was the nationalist leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s “Father of the Nation” who led the country’s independence from Pakistan in 1971 and became its first president.

At that time, Ms Hasina had already established a reputation as a student leader at Dhaka University.

Her father was assassinated with most of his family members in a military coup in 1975. Only Ms Hasina and her younger sister survived as they were travelling abroad at the time.

After living in exile in India, Ms Hasina returned to Bangladesh in 1981 and became the leader of the political party her father belonged to, the Awami League.

She joined hands with other political parties to hold pro-democracy street protests during the military rule of General Hussain Muhammed Ershad. Propelled by the popular uprising, Ms Hasina quickly became a national icon.

She was first elected to power in 1996. She earned credit for signing a water-sharing deal with India and a peace deal with tribal insurgents in the south-east of the country.

But at the same time, her government was criticised for numerous allegedly corrupt business deals and for being too subservient to India.

She later lost to her former ally-turned-nemesis, Begum Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), in 2001.

As heirs to political dynasties, both women dominated Bangladesh politics for more than three decades and used to be known as the “battling begums”. Begum refers to a Muslim woman of high rank.

Observers say their bitter rivalry resulted in bus bombs, disappearances and extrajudicial killings becoming regular occurrences.

Ms Hasina eventually came back to power in 2009 in polls held under a caretaker government.

A true political survivor, she endured numerous arrests while in opposition as well as several assassination attempts, including one in 2004 that damaged her hearing. She has also survived efforts to force her into exile and numerous court cases in which she has been accused of corruption.

Bangladesh under Ms Hasina presents a contrasting picture. The Muslim-majority nation, once one of the world’s poorest, has achieved credible economic success under her leadership since 2009.

It’s now one of the fastest-growing economies in the region, even surpassing its giant neighbour India. Its per capita income has tripled in the last decade and the World Bank estimates that more than 25 million people have been lifted out of poverty in the last 20 years.

Much of this growth has been fuelled by the garment industry, which accounts for the vast majority of total exports from Bangladesh and has expanded rapidly in recent decades, supplying markets in Europe, North America and Asia.

Using the country’s own funds, loans and development assistance, Ms Hasina’s government has also undertaken huge infrastructure projects, including the flagship $2.9bn Padma bridge across the Ganges.

The latest protests were the most serious challenge Ms Hasina faced since taking office, and followed a highly controversial election in which her party was re-elected for a fourth straight parliamentary term.

The unrest began with a demand to abolish quotas in civil service jobs but turned into a wider anti-government movement as she used the police to violently crack down on protesters, killing more than 200 and injuring many more.

Amid increasing calls for her to resign, she had remained defiant. She condemned the agitators as “terrorists” and appealed for support to “suppress these terrorists with a firm hand”. She also threw hundreds of people into jail and brought criminal charges against hundreds more.

The agitation against quotas came as Bangladesh struggled with the escalating cost of living in the wake of the pandemic. Inflation has skyrocketed, the country’s foreign exchange reserves have dropped precipitously, and its foreign debt has doubled since 2016.

Critics blamed this on Ms Hasina’s government’s mismanagement, and say that Bangladesh’s previous economic success only helped those close to Ms Hasina’s Awami League due to endemic corruption.

They also say the country’s economic progress came at the cost of democracy and human rights.

Ms Hasina has long been accused of enacting repressive authoritarian measures against her political opponents, detractors and the media – a remarkable turnaround for a leader who once fought for multi-party democracy.

Rights groups estimate there have been at least 600 cases of enforced disappearances, with hundreds more subject to extra-judicial killings, since Ms Hasina took power again in 2009.

Bangladesh’s security forces have also long been accused of serious abuse and torture, and in 2021 the US sanctioned the Rapid Action Battalion – a notorious elite unit of the police accused of carrying out brutal extra-judicial killings – citing human rights violations.

Many human rights activists and journalists have faced increasing attacks including arrests, surveillance and harassment. Strict laws have been used against journalists which critics say has stifled press freedom.

Ms Hasina and her government are also accused of “judicially harassing” targets with court cases, such as economist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. He was jailed earlier this year and faces more than 100 charges, in cases that his supporters say was politically motivated.

In the lead-up to this year’s election, many senior leaders from the BNP were arrested, along with thousands of supporters following anti-government protests, which rights groups say were an attempt to incapacitate the opposition.

Ms Hasina’s government has flatly denied claims of such abuses. But it has also severely restricted visits by foreign journalists wanting to investigate such allegations.

The dramatic resignation of Bangladesh’s long-serving prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her flight to India ironically underscore the close ties between the two countries.

Ms Hasina ruled Bangladesh, a nation of 170 million, for close to 15 years until a protest by students to abolish civil service quotas snowballed into a broader and violent anti-government movement. At least 280 people have died in clashes between police and anti-government protesters so far.

Back in June, Ms Hasina visited India twice in two weeks.

Her first visit was to attend Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s oath-taking ceremony. After that, she made a two-day state visit, the first by a head of government to India after Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition’s third consecutive victory in parliamentary elections.

“We have met 10 times in the last one year. However, this meeting is special because Sheikh Hasina is the first state guest after the third term of our government,” Mr Modi said at a joint news conference.

The bonhomie was unmistakable. “Bangladesh greatly values its relations with India,” said Ms Hasina. “Come to Bangladesh to witness what all we have done and plan to do”.

India has a special relationship with Bangladesh. The neighbours share a 4,096km (2,545 miles)-border and linguistic, economic and cultural ties. Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, was born after a war in 1971 with West Pakistan (now Pakistan), with India supporting Bengali nationalists. Bilateral trade between the two countries is around $16bn (£12bn), with India being Bangladesh’s top export destination in Asia.

To be sure, the ties are not perfect: differences arise over Bangladesh’s close relationship with China, border security, migration issues and some Bangladeshi officials’ discomfort with Mr Modi’s Hindu nationalist politics.

After Ms Hasina’s resignation, Bangladesh’s army chief Waker-uz-Zaman has announced plans for an interim government. He will meet President Mohammed Shahabuddin and reports say he’s hoping for a solution by the day’s end after speaking with opposition parties, led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Leadership of the interim government remains unclear.

So far, India has only described the violent protests as an “internal matter” of Bangladesh. Can it say – and do – more about the unfolding developments?

“NOTHING. Nothing for now,” wrote Happymon Jacob, an Indian foreign policy expert, on X (formerly Twitter) on what India should be doing.

“It is still unfolding. And, it’s not about India; it’s about politics in Bangladesh. Let them figure it out.”

Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center, an American think-tank, believes Ms Hasina’s resignation and flight are “close to a worst-case scenario for India, as it has long viewed any alternative to Ms Hasina and her party as a threat to Indian interests”.

Mr Kugelman told the BBC that Delhi will likely reach out to Bangladesh’s military to convey its concerns and hope its interests are taken into account in an interim government.

“Beyond that, India will have to watch and wait nervously. It may support free and fair elections in the interest of stability, but it doesn’t want the BNP – even if it has grown weak and divided – to return. Delhi likely wouldn’t oppose a long period of interim rule for that reason.”

Ms Hasina’s sudden downfall would have caught her allies off guard.

The daughter of Bangladesh’s founding president and the world’s longest-serving female head of government, Ms Hasina led her country for nearly 15 years. She had overseen one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and a major boost in living standards in South Asia.

But her rule had also been marked by accusations of forced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and repression of the opposition. She and her party Awami League denied these charges, while her government blamed opposition parties for fuelling protests.

In January, Ms Hasina won her fourth consecutive term in a controversial election. The opposition BNP boycotted the vote, and allegations of a rigged poll were compounded by mass arrests of its leaders and supporters.

Some of the anti-India sentiment in Bangladesh stems from India’s support for Ms Hasina’s government, which critics view as interference in domestic politics. Historical grievances and accusations of overreach also contribute to some of the negative perception.

Ali Riaz, a Bangladeshi-American political scientist at Illinois State University, told the BBC that India’s silence is “not surprising as it has been the principal backer of the Hasina government for the past 14 years and practically contributed to the erosion of democracy in Bangladesh”.

“The unqualified support to Sheikh Hasina has acted as a bulwark against any pressure on her for human rights transgressions. India has benefitted economically and seen Ms Hasina as the only way to keep the country within India’s sphere of influence.”

India sees the current Bangladeshi opposition and its allies as “dangerous Islamic forces”. Ms Hasina cracked down on anti-India militants on her soil and granted transit rights to secure trade routes to five Indian states which border Bangladesh.

“A peaceful, stable and prosperous Bangladesh is in India’s interests. India should do everything to ensure that those conditions are maintained. Essentially you want to keep peace and calm,” Harsh Vardhan Shringla, a former Indian foreign secretary and high commissioner to Bangladesh, told the BBC, hours before Ms Hasina resigned.

For the moment, the situation is uncertain. “India doesn’t have too many options at this point in time,” a senior diplomat told the BBC. “We have to tighten control on our borders. Anything else would be construed as interference”.

“One, two, three, four, Sheikh Hasina is a dictator!”

The words had become a rallying cry for young Bangladeshis in recent weeks – and on Monday their fury ended the prime minister’s 15-year reign.

The 76-year-old Ms Hasina had ruled the South Asian nation of 170 million with an iron fist since 2009 – just a month ago, protests demanding her resignation would have been unthinkable.

But by Monday morning, she was stuck in a deadly stalemate. It had been several days since the top court scrapped the job quotas that originally sparked the protests in early July. But the agitation continued, morphing into an anti-government movement that wanted her out of power.

What finally tipped the scales was the ferocity of the clashes between the protesters and police on Sunday. Nearly 300 people are estimated have died in the violence so far but Sunday alone saw at least 90 people, including 13 police officers, killed – the worst single day of casualties incurred during protests in Bangladesh’s recent history.

Critics called it “carnage”, even as Ms Hasina stood her ground.

Bangladesh PM resigns and flees country: Follow live

And yet, tens of thousands took to the streets on Monday, many of them marching towards the capital Dhaka, in defiance of a nationwide curfew.

Bangladeshis, it appeared, no longer feared bullets. What had been a political movement was now a mass uprising.

Ms Hasina’s decision to flee was also hastened by the military, which would have put pressure on her to step down. The army, which has ruled Bangladesh in the past and is still hugely respected, has an outsized influence over the country’s politics.

The violence from the weekend as well as the prospect of facing fresh rounds of massive protests would have made the military establishment re-think its options.

Junior officers had already raised concerns about being asked to fire on civilians in a meeting with the military chief, General Waker-Uz-Zaman, on Friday.

What lies ahead is less clear but Gen Zaman is in talks with “various stakeholders”, including opposition parties and civil society groups to find an “interim” solution, a high-level source familiar with the matter tells the BBC.

It is no surprise that Ms Hasina has fled to India. It’s unclear what counsel she received from across the border but Bangladesh’s giant neighbour has been a crucial ally of hers throughout.

It is partly why, as her popularity diminished, strong sentiment against India grew within Bangladesh.

Delhi always viewed its foothold in Bangladesh as key to the security of the seven landlocked states in India’s north-east, most of which share a border with Bangladesh. Ms Hasina has given transit rights to India to make sure goods from its mainland make it to those states.

She also clamped down on anti-India militant groups based in Bangladesh, a key issue in India.

But in recent weeks, Delhi faced a dilemma – by backing its unpopular ally, it risked alienating a mass movement and damaging its long-term relationship with Bangladesh. Ms Hasina’s resignation has solved that problem.

The daughter of Bangladesh’s founding president, Sheikh Hasina had been the world’s longest-serving female head of government.

Her father was assassinated with most of the family in a military coup in 1975 – only Ms Hasina and her younger sister survived as they were travelling abroad at the time.

After living in exile in India, she returned to Bangladesh in 1981 and joined hands with other political parties to lead a popular uprising for democracy that made her a national icon.

Ms Hasina was first elected to power in 1996 but later lost to her rival Begum Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in 2001.

She came back to power in 2009 in polls held under a caretaker government.

Her time in power was rife with accusations of forced disappearances, extra-judicial killings, and the crushing of opposition figures and her critics – she denied the charges, and her government often accused the main opposition parties of fuelling protests.

In recent weeks too, Ms Hasina and her party – the Awami League – blamed their political opponents for the unrest that gripped the country.

But this time, the anger was louder than ever before. It was certainly the most serious challenge Ms Hasina, who won a contentious election in January which the opposition boycotted, had faced during her years in office.

For weeks, she had refused to give ground, even calling the protesters “terrorists” at one point.

But the realisation that the force of the security establishment couldn’t keep people off the steets does not augur well for any leader – least of all an embattled one.

A US judge has ruled Google acted illegally to crush its competition and maintain a monopoly on online search and related advertising.

The landmark decision on Monday is a major blow to Alphabet, Google’s parent company, and could reshape how technology giants do business.

Google was sued by the US Department of Justice in 2020 over its control of about 90% of the online search market.

It is one of several lawsuits that have been filed against the big tech companies as US antitrust authorities attempt to strengthen competition in the industry.

This case has at times been described as posing an existential threat to Google and its owner given its dominance of the search and online advertising business.

It is unclear yet what penalties Google and Alphabet will face as a result of the decision. The fines or other remedies will be decided in a future hearing.

The government has asked for “structural relief” – which could, in theory at least, mean the break-up of the company.

In his decision, US District Judge Amit Mehta said Google had paid billions to ensure it is the default search engine on smartphones and browsers.

“Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” Judge Mehta wrote in his 277-page opinion.

Alphabet said it plans to appeal against the ruling.

“This decision recognises that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available,” the statement from the company said.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland, the country’s top prosecutor, hailed the ruling as a “historic win for the American people”.

“No company – no matter how large or influential – is above the law,” Mr Garland said in a statement on Monday. “The Justice Department will continue to vigorously enforce our antitrust laws.”

Federal antitrust regulators have filed other pending lawsuits against Big Tech companies – including Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook, Amazon.com and Apple Inc – accusing them of operating unlawful monopolies.

Monday’s ruling comes after a 10-week trial in Washington DC, in which prosecutors accused Google of spending billions of dollars annually to Apple, Samsung, Mozilla and others to be pre-installed as the default search engine across platforms.

The US said Google typically pays more than $10bn (£7.8bn) a year for that privilege, securing its access to a steady stream of user data that helped maintain its hold on the market.

Doing so, prosecutors said, meant other companies have not had the opportunity or resources to meaningfully compete.

“The best testimony for that, for the importance of defaults, is Google’s cheque book,” argued Department of Justice lawyer Kenneth Dintzer during the trial.

Google’s search engine is a big revenue generator for the company, bringing in billions of dollars thanks in large part to advertising displayed on its results pages.

Google’s lawyers defended the company by saying that users are attracted to their search engine because they find it useful, and that Google is investing to make it better for consumers.

“Google is winning because it’s better,” said Google’s lawyer John Schmidtlein during closing arguments earlier this year.

Mr Schmidtlein also argued during the trial that Google still faces intense competition, not just from general search engine firms, such as Microsoft’s Bing, but more specialised sites and apps that people use to find restaurants, airline flights and more.

In his ruling, Judge Mehta concluded that being the default search engine is “extremely valuable real estate” for Google.

“Even if a new entrant were positioned from a quality standpoint to bid for the default when an agreement expires, such a firm could compete only if it were prepared to pay partners upwards of billions of dollars in revenue share,” Judge Mehta wrote.

Another case against the technology company over its advertising technology is scheduled to go to trial in September. In Europe, meanwhile, Google has been fined billions in monopoly cases.

Israel’s leading human rights organisation says conditions inside Israeli prisons holding Palestinian detainees amount to torture.

B’tselem’s report entitled “Welcome to Hell”, contains testimony from 55 recently released Palestinian detainees, whose graphic testimony points to a dramatic worsening of conditions inside prisons since the start of the Gaza war 10 months ago.

It’s the latest in a series of reports, including one last week by the UN, which contain shocking allegations of abuse directed against Palestinian prisoners.

B’tselem says the testimony their researchers have gathered is remarkably consistent.

“All of them again and again, told us the same thing,” says Yuli Novak, B’tselem’s executive director.

“Ongoing abuse, daily violence, physical violence and mental violence, humiliation, sleep deprivation, people are starved.”

Ms Novak’s conclusion is stark.

“The Israeli prison system as a whole, in regard to Palestinians, turned into a network of torture camps.”

Since the deadly Hamas attacks of 7 October, in which around 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed, the number of Palestinian detainees has doubled to around 10,000.

Israel’s prisons – some run by the army, others by the country’s prison service – have become overwhelmed.

Jails are overflowing, with a dozen or more inmates sometimes sharing cells designed to accommodate no more than six.

B’tselem’s report describes overcrowded, filthy cells, where some inmates are forced to sleep on the floor, sometimes without mattresses or blankets.

Some prisoners were captured in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attacks. Others were rounded up in Gaza as Israel’s invasion got under way, or were arrested in Israel or the occupied West Bank.

Many were later released without charge.

Firas Hassan was already in jail in October, held under “administrative detention”, a measure by which suspects – though it has overwhelmingly been applied to Palestinians – can be detained, more or less indefinitely, without charge.

Israel says that its use of the policy is necessary, and compliant with international law.

Firas says he saw with his own eyes how conditions quickly deteriorated after 7 October.

“Life totally changed,” he told me when we met in Tuqu’, a West Bank village south of Bethlehem.

“I call what happened a tsunami.”

Mr Hassan has been in and out of jail since the early nineties, twice charged with membership of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an armed group designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel and much of the West.

He makes no secret of his past affiliation, saying he was “active”.

Familiar with the rigours of life in prison, he said nothing prepared him for what happened when officers entered his cell two days after 7 October.

“We were severely beaten by 20 officers, masked men using batons and sticks, dogs and firearms,” he said.

“We were tied from behind, our eyes blindfolded, beaten severely. Blood was gushing from my face. They kept beating us for 50 minutes. I saw them from under the blindfold. They were filming us while beating us.”

Mr Hassan was eventually released, without charge, in April, by which time he said he had lost 3 stone (20kg).

A video filmed on the day of his release shows a gaunt figure.

“I spent 13 years in prison in the past,” he told B’tselem researchers later that month, “and never experienced anything like that.”

But it’s not just Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank who talk about the abuse in Israeli prisons.

Israeli citizens, like Sari Khourieh, an Israeli Arab lawyer from Haifa, say it has also happened to them.

Mr Khourieh was held at the Megiddo prison in northern Israel for 10 days last November. The police said that two of his Facebook posts had glorified the actions of Hamas – a charge quickly dismissed.

But his brief experience of prison – his first – nearly broke him.

“They just lost their mind,” he says of the scenes he witnessed at Megiddo.

“There was no law. There was no order inside.”

Mr Khourieh says he was spared the worst of the abuse. But he says he was stunned by the treatment of his fellow inmates.

“They were hitting them badly for no reason,” he told us. “They were screaming, the guys, ‘we didn’t do nothing. You don’t have to hit us.’”

Speaking to other detainees, he quickly learned that what he was seeing was not normal.

“It wasn’t the best treatment before 7 October, they told me, but afterwards everything was different.”

During a brief spell in an area of isolation cells known by the prisoners as Tora Bora (a reference to al-Qaeda’s network of caves in Afghanistan), Mr Khourieh says he heard a beaten inmate pleading for medical help in an adjacent cell.

According to Mr Khourieh, doctors tried to revive him, but he died shortly afterwards.

According to last week’s UN report, “announcements by IPS (Israel Prison Service) and prisoners organisations indicate that 17 Palestinians have died in the custody of the IPS between 7 October and 15 May”.

Israel’s military advocate, meanwhile, said on 26 May that it was investigating the deaths of 35 Gaza detainees in army custody.

Several months after Mr Khourieh’s release – again, without charge – the lawyer is still struggling to make sense of what he witnessed at Megiddo.

“I’m an Israeli…I’m a lawyer,” he told us. “I’ve seen the world outside the prison. Now I’m inside. I see another world.”

His faith in citizenship and the rule of law, he says, has been shattered.

“It was all crushed after this experience.”

We put claims of the widespread mistreatment of Palestinian detainees to the authorities involved.

The army said it “rejects outright allegations of systematic abuse of detainees”.

“Concrete complaints regarding misconduct or unsatisfactory conditions of detention,” the army told us, “are forwarded to relevant bodies in the IDF, and are dealt with accordingly.”

The prison service said it “was not aware of the claims you described, and as far as we know, no such events have occurred”.

Since 7 October, Israel has refused to grant the International Committee of the Red Cross access to Palestinian detainees, as international law requires.

No explanation has been given for this refusal, but the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has frequently expressed its frustration over the ICRC’s failure to gain access to Israeli and other hostages being held in Gaza.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) has accused the government of “consciously defying international law”.

Last week, the treatment of Palestinian prisoners ignited a furious public row, as far right demonstrators – including members of Israel’s parliament – violently tried to prevent the arrest of soldiers accused of sexually abusing a prisoner from Gaza at the Sde Teiman military base.

Some of those protesting were followers of Israel’s hardline security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, the man in overall charge of the prison service.

Mr Ben Gvir has frequently boasted that under his watch, conditions for Palestinian detainees have deteriorated sharply.

“I’m proud that during my time we changed all the conditions,” he told members of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, during a rowdy session in July.

For B’Tselem, Mr Ben Gvir bears a heavy responsibility for the abuses now being reported.

“These systems were put in the hands of the most right wing, most racist minister that Israel ever had,” Yuli Novak told us.

For her, Israel’s treatment of prisoners, in the wake of the traumatic events of 7 October, is a dangerous indicator of the nation’s moral decline.

“The trauma and anxiety walks with us each and every day,” she says.

“But to let this thing turn us into something that it not human, that doesn’t see people, I think is tragic.”

Vice-President Kamala Harris is expected to announce her running mate by Tuesday morning, ending two weeks of intense speculation as the US hurtles towards November’s presidential election.

Ms Harris interviewed several top contenders in Washington DC over the weekend, including Josh Shapiro, Tim Walz and Mark Kelly.

Her choice will join her on a whirlwind five-day tour of seven cities this week as Ms Harris ramps up her campaign in key battleground states.

The most recent poll from CBS, the BBC’s US partner, shows Ms Harris and Trump in a tight race nationally, with the Democrat holding a one-point lead over her Republican challenger.

The poll released on Sunday shows Trump and Ms Harris tied in battleground states, where the former president held a five-point lead while Joe Biden remained in the race.

Following the announcement expected on Tuesday morning, a campaign video will be released before Ms Harris and her new running mate jointly hold a rally in Philadelphia that evening.

She reportedly met her vetting team – led by former US attorney general Eric Holder – over the weekend and received in-depth presentations on their findings, including potential political vulnerabilities.

She met three of those candidates – Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro – on Sunday.

She also met another top contender – Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg – on Friday and is understood to have spoken with other candidates virtually, US media report.

On Monday afternoon, in response to a report that Ms Harris had made her pick, a campaign spokesperson, Kevin Munoz, wrote on social media that she was still deciding.

“We understand the excitement and interest here, but VP Harris has made no decision on a running mate yet!” he said.

It comes as the DNC finished a virtual roll call vote that saw Ms Harris officially become the first black and South Asian American nominee for a major US party’s White House campaign.

The Harris campaign has met with a flurry of lobbying efforts on behalf of – or criticising – the candidates.

Mr Shapiro, for example, has drawn sharp opposition from some left-wing groups for his support of private school vouchers in Pennsylvania – a Republican-backed proposal to send $100m to families for private school tuition and school supplies – as well as his pro-Israel views.

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The Philadelphia event will be followed by a string of campaign events across Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona, before ending with a campaign event in Las Vegas, Nevada, on 10 August.

Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, have both suggested that Ms Harris’ choice of running mate will ultimately have no impact on the upcoming election.

In an episode of the “Full Send” podcast aired on Friday, Mr Vance said he believed the vice-presidential choice “doesn’t really matter, as much as this hits my ego”.

“People are going to vote primarily for Donald Trump or for Kamala Harris,” he said. “That’s the way these things go.”

Similarly, Trump has largely shrugged off questions about Ms Harris’s choice, arguing last week that the vice-presidential role “does not have any impact”.

On Sunday, however, Trump criticised Mr Shapiro on Fox News, saying that Ms Harris could lose “her little Palestinian base” if she chooses him.

Mr Shapiro, who during his student days wrote in a college magazine that Palestinians were “too battle minded”, told reporters on Friday that he now supported a two-state solution.

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Filipino gymnast Carlos Yulo won his second Olympic gold medal in two days, becoming only the second athlete to take home the Games’ top prize for his country.

A three-bedroom condo, thousands of dollars and a lifetime of free ramen are among the flurry of gifts that the government and local brands have pledged to reward the 24-year-old with for his historic wins in the men’s floor exercise and vault events.

Mr Yulo’s feat has also made him the country’s latest social media sensation.

“Another gold for the Philippines! History is made again! Ang galing galing mo! [You are incredible!]” wrote a user on X.

Mr Yulo scored an average of 15.116 on the vault on Sunday, ahead of Armenia’s Artur Davtyan (14.966) and Britain’s Harry Hepworth (14.949).

He punched his arms into the air and embraced fellow athletes on hearing his score. He went into the competition without high expectations, he had told reporters.

“I was just hoping to perform well. I didn’t really expect a medal,” Mr Yulo had said.

“It really felt like a bonus for me. It’s crazy, because last night I couldn’t sleep. I was so hyped because I had won that gold medal [the day before].

Barely 24 hours ago, Mr Yulo had scooped the gold for the men’s floor exercise with 15 points, edging out Artem Dolgopyat of Israel by just 0.034 of a point. Mr Dolgopyat had been the defending Olympic champion and world title holder.

Mr Yulo’s double gold feat is now the most discussed topic on X, formerly known as Twitter, in the Philippines.

“It took 100 years for us to hear Lupang Hinirang [the Philippines’ national anthem] two nights in a row while the world is watching. Thank you so much for the pride and historic moment!” wrote an X user.

A century has passed since the Philippines’ debut in the Olympics in 1924. Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz earned the country’s first Olympic gold medal in Tokyo three years ago.

Philippine celebrities and public figures, including president Ferdinand Marcos Jr and First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, also congratulated Mr Yulo.

“No words can express how proud we are of you, Caloy. You have achieved GOLD for the Philippines not once, but twice! Filipinos all over the world stood united, cheering and rooting for you,” Mr Marcos wrote on Facebook.

The Philippine government will hand the gymnast 10 million Philippine pesos ($173,300; £135,400) – a reward promised to any gold medalists – while a real estate firm has promised him a fully furnished three-bedroom unit at McKinley Hill, the largest condominium development in metropolitan Manila.

The House of Representatives has pledged to give Mr Yulo an additional 6 million pesos in cash incentives, with speaker of the lower house, Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, describing him as a “sports hero” and “national treasure”.

Even medical clinics and universities have rolled out the red carpet for the national hero – a gastroenterologist has offered Mr Yulo free consultations and colonoscopies for life while the University of Mindanao has pledged free university credits.

Also awaiting him are lifetime supplies of ramen, mac and cheese and grilled chicken offered by various restaurant chains.

Meanwhile, the capital city Manila, where Mr Yulo was born and raised, is preparing a “hero’s welcome” for him.

“The grandest welcome will greet him and all our Paris Olympians. When we meet him, we will present Carlos Yulo cash incentives, awards and symbols of the eternal gratitude of the proud capital city of the Philippines,” the city’s mayor, Honey Lacuna, said.

Japanese shares rebounded in Tuesday morning trade after plunging on Monday in a rout that sent shockwaves through global financial markets.

The Nikkei 225 stock index rose by as much as 10% after slumping by over 12% the previous day.

Monday’s market rout in Tokyo came after the Bank of Japan’s second rate hike in 17 years sent the yen soaring against the dollar making Japanese stocks – and the country’s exports – more expensive for foreign investors and buyers.

Stocks in the US, the UK and Europe also fell on Monday due to fears that the American economy is heading for a slowdown.

Shares in South Korea were also regaining ground on Tuesday. The Kospi stock index was up nearly 5% after falling 8.8% on Tuesday – its worst trading session since the global financial crisis of 2008.

Taiwan’s main stock index was trading more than 1.5% higher, after a record 8.4% drop on Monday.

• Earlier in New York, the technology-heavy Nasdaq index opened 6.3% lower but those losses eased during the day and the index ended the session down 3.4%.

• The S&P 500 fell 3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 2.6% down by the end of trading on Monday.

• In Europe, the CAC-40 in Paris trimmed earlier losses to end 1.4% lower while Frankfurt’s DAX and the UK’s FTSE 100 lost about 2% each.

Weak jobs data in the US on Friday sparked concerns about growth in the world’s largest economy.

It also stoked speculation about when, and by how much, the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates.

“Markets are very volatile at the moment and will likely stay volatile until the Fed decision in September. So we wouldn’t rule out rapid swings in both directions,” said Stefan Angrick, a senior economist with Moody’s Analytics.

There are also concerns that shares in big technology companies, particularly those investing heavily in artificial intelligence (AI), have been overvalued and are now facing difficulties.

Last week, chipmaker Intel announced major layoffs, as well as disappointing financial results.

There is also speculation that rival Nvidia, which has been one of the main beneficiaries of the boom in demand for AI technology, will delay its latest product launch.

Robert F Kennedy Jr’s independent White House bid was buoyed by Democratic Party chaos and dissatisfaction with two familiar candidates. But bizarre headlines, a new opponent and limited cash have left him struggling.

The 70-year-old’s recent confession about dumping a dead bear in Central Park is just the latest strange twist to a campaign that was already sagging in the polls.

Mr Kennedy seems determined to test the proposition that there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

In a move to get ahead of a lengthy profile published on Monday in the New Yorker magazine, he released a video where he discusses an accident involving a bear cub a decade ago – and the unlikely series of events that followed.

In the video, Mr Kennedy is speaking to actress and comedian Roseanne Barr over a half-eaten meal of takeaway beef ribs. He describes how he watched a nearby car hit and kill a bear cub while on a day trip hunting with a falcon.

He said he initially wanted to take the dead animal home and skin it. After his schedule changed, he decided to discard the carcass in New York City’s Central Park – along with an old bicycle, in an effort to make it look like a cycling accident.

When someone discovered the bear and the bicycle the next day, it became a headline story in the New York City tabloids and television news programmes.

Needless to say, the entire episode – which sounds like a youthful practical joke gone wrong, but took place when the candidate was 60 – is odd.

The falconry trip. The photograph, published in the New Yorker, of RFK Jr posing with the dead bear. The planned skinning and eating. The animal’s final resting place in New York’s famous urban park. Even the video itself with Ms Barr – who has herself been embroiled in more than a few controversies – holding a teacup and nodding along as Mr Kennedy recounted his tale.

His explanation, that the decision to pick up the dead bear was his “little bit of redneck” coming out, doesn’t quite fit for the nephew of former President John F Kennedy – a member of an American political dynasty.

All this is standard fare for Mr Kennedy, however, whose top news lines during his campaign have veered from scandalous to plain bizarre.

In May, the New York Times ran an article revealing he had told lawyers involved in his 2012 divorce proceedings that he was suffering from a memory issue relating to a dead brain parasite.

In mid-July, Mr Kennedy texted an apology to a former family nanny after Vanity Fair magazine published a story in which she accused him of unwelcome sexual advances.

“I have no memory of this incident but I apologise sincerely for anything I ever did that made you feel uncomfortable,” he wrote.

In comments to the media, he said the Vanity Fair article contained a lot of “garbage” but conceded that he had a “very, very rambunctious youth” and that he was “not a church boy”.

There was a point earlier this year when Mr Kennedy – who launched his independent presidential bid after initially running for the Democratic nomination – was averaging around 15% in presidential preference polls. He narrowly missed qualifying for the first presidential debate in late June.

Mr Kennedy appeared to be capitalising on voter dissatisfaction with both Donald Trump and Joe Biden. His pitch blended anti-establishment and anti-corporate rhetoric with liberal social positions and a heavy dose of environmentalism and controversial vaccine scepticism.

With Mr Biden’s dismal performance during that first debate, the door may have opened for Mr Kennedy to elbow his way into the American political conversation.

Instead, he virtually disappeared off the presidential campaign trial.

He has spent little on advertising and grassroots organising. His biggest headlines involved the aforementioned brain worms, sex-harassment allegations and bear-cub escapades.

Meanwhile, his polling support has dropped to the low single digits.

According to Clifford Young, president of Ipsos public affairs, Mr Kennedy’s decline was inevitable, even without all distracting headlines.

“He was a protest option,” he said. “There was a lot of indifference when it came to the two candidates. People didn’t like either choice and it was an expression of indifference or disdain.”

Now, he says, Democrats and Republicans have consolidated their political support.

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Mr Kennedy was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the Republican National Convention in late July, where he had a telephone conversation with the former president.

According to media reports, Mr Kennedy offered to endorse the former president in exchange for a role in his next administration – an offer Trump declined.

At this point, it seems unlikely that Mr Kennedy will generate much interest when Americans head to the polls in November. Even a modest performance could tip the presidential race, however, if that support comes in one of the key battleground states where the independent candidate is on the ballot.

In 2016, Green Party candidate Jill Stein received more votes than the difference between Trump and Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan – the three decisive states in that race. If a fraction of Green Party candidate Ralph Nader’s Florida support had gone to the Democrats, Al Gore would have won the White House in 2000.

Mr Young said Mr Kennedy’s appeal is different from those two notable Green Party candidates, however. He is pulling mostly from the disaffected centre of American politics – low propensity voters who tilt slightly to the right.

The Green Party candidates, on the other hand, were damaging the Democrats by pulling almost exclusively from the left.

Mr Kennedy could still play the spoiler, but it would have to be another extremely close race. And, in the meantime, his chance to shape his campaign’s direction on a larger scale seem to have been buried under an avalanche of strangeness.

A helicopter pilot from New Zealand has been killed in the Indonesian region of Papua, police have said.

Glen Malcolm Conning, 50, was killed by a pro-independence group known as Free Papua Organisation (OPM), according to police.

OPM spokesman Sebby Sambom told the BBC that he had not been able to verify the Indonesian authorities’ claim.

It comes nearly a year and a half after the abduction of another pilot from New Zealand, Phillip Mehrtens, who remains in captivity.

Authorities say the group responsible for Mr Conning’s death is the same that is holding Mr Mehrtens.

Mr Conning was killed when rebels rounded up those on board the helicopter, including four passengers, after they landed in an isolated area in the Central Papua province, police said in a statement. The passengers are reported to be safe.

The spokesperson for the police special operation in Papua, Bayu Suseno, claimed the pilot’s body was taken to the helicopter and then burned along with the aircraft in Alama District, which can only by accessed by helicopter.

Mr Conning was shuttling passengers for a private company.

OPM spokesman Mr Sambom told the BBC that despite being unable to verify the claims, “if it was true, then the pilot is a spy because we have declared that the area is a war zone”.

In February 2023, separatist fighters in Indonesia’s Papua region took another New Zealand pilot hostage. Phillip Mehrtens, 37, was captured shortly after landing his plane in the remote mountainous area of Nduga to drop off passengers.

Since then, Mr Mehrtens has been held captive by West Papua National Liberation Army fighters (TPNPB) – the armed wing of the OPM – who also attacked a number of Indonesian troops sent to rescue him, killing at least one.

These hostile acts come in the context of a long-running, often brutally violent conflict between the Indonesian government and West Papua’s indigenous people.

Papuan rebels have been seeking independence from Indonesia for decades, and have previously issued threats and attacked aircraft which they believe are carrying personnel and supplies for Jakarta, the country’s capital.

The region is divided into six provinces and is separate from independent Papua New Guinea.

Previously a Dutch colony, West Papua declared independence in 1961. However, Indonesia took over two years later and was formally given control in a UN-supervised vote in 1969.

The UN vote is widely considered illegitimate as only about 1,000 Papuans took part in it. A pro-independence movement began shortly afterwards, which continues to this day.

US President Joe Biden met his senior national security team on Monday as concerns grew of a possible Iranian retaliatory attack on Israel grew.

Mr Biden said he had been briefed on preparations to support Israel should it be attacked, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken said officials were working “around the clock” to prevent an escalation.

Tensions have risen over the last week following the assassination of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh, for which Iran has blamed Israel and vowed “severe” retaliation. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the assassination.

Numerous countries, including the US and UK, have also told their citizens to leave Lebanon, from where it is feared Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia and political movement, could play a role in any response.

Mr Blinken told his G7 counterparts in a call on Sunday that Iran and Hezbollah could launch an attack on Israel within 24 to 48 hours, according to comments cited by US news site Axios.

On Monday evening, Mr Biden said he and Vice President Kamala Harris met senior security officials to discuss the situation.

“We received updates on threats posed by Iran and its proxies, diplomatic efforts to de-escalate regional tensions, and preparations to support Israel should it be attacked again,” he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

He added that steps being taken to defend US forces and respond to any attack against its personnel “in a manner and place of our choosing” were discussed, after several US personnel were injured at a military base in Iraq on Monday.

Speaking to reporters earlier in the day, Mr Blinken said officials were “engaged in intense diplomacy pretty much around the clock with a very simple message: All parties must refrain from escalation”.

“Escalation is not in anyone’s interests. It will only lead to more conflict, more violence, more insecurity,” he said.

He added that a ceasefire would “unlock possibilities for more enduring calm not only in Gaza itself, but in other areas where the conflict can spread”.

“It is urgent that all parties make the right choices in the hours and days ahead,” he said.

His words came after Mr Biden spoke to King Abdullah II of Jordan earlier in the day. They discussed “their efforts to de-escalate regional tensions, including through an immediate ceasefire and hostage release deal,” a statement from the White House said.

A joint statement from the G7 also expressed “deep concern at the heightened level of tension in the Middle East which threatens to ignite a broader conflict in the region”.

“No country or nation stands to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East,” it said.

Talks that had brought renewed hope of a ceasefire deal to end the conflict in Gaza have faltered following Haniyeh’s death – which capped a week of soaring tensions in the Middle East.

Things first escalated with the killing of 12 children and teenagers in a strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights some days ago. Israel accused Hezbollah and vowed “severe” retaliation, though Hezbollah denied it was involved.

Days later, Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah military commander, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Four others, including two children, were also killed.

And just hours later, Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Haniyeh was killed in a “strong blast” caused by a “short-range projectile” fired from outside a house where he was staying while visiting the capital, Tehran.

Israel has not commented on the death but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said afterwards that Israel delivered “crushing blows” to Iran’s proxy groups in recent days.

Following the killings in Lebanon and Iran, the IRGC said Israel would receive a “severe punishment at the appropriate time, place and manner”, while Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the conflict had entered a “new phase”.

It marks the closest the conflict has come to escalation since April, when Iran fired some 300 drones and missiles at Israel in response to an Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate in Syria that killed a number of senior military commanders.

The conflict in Gaza began following the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas and other militant groups, which saw around 1,200 people killed and another 251 taken back to Gaza as hostages.

Since the launch of Israel’s retaliatory ground invasion in Gaza, more than 38,400 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Hundreds of people have also been killed and tens of thousands displaced from their homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border by near-daily attacks between Israeli forces and Hezbollah.

On Monday, Jordan asked all airlines planning to land at its airports to carry an additional 45 minutes’ worth of fuel, a move believed to be a precaution in case Jordan has to close its airspace in the event of a regional conflict.

German flag carrier Lufthansa has suspended all flights to Tel Aviv, Tehran, and Beirut until and including 12 August.

US airline Delta has also paused flights to Tel Aviv until at least 31 August “due to ongoing conflict in the region”.

The Foreign Office currently advises against all travel to Lebanon and has urged British citizens in the country to leave.

It also advises against all travel to the northern area of Israel that shares a border with Lebanon.

On Monday, several US personnel were injured in a suspected rocket attack on an American military base in western Iraq.

US officials have not yet said who they believe was behind the attack.

The wave of violent unrest and disorder across parts of the UK continued on Monday night as police came under attack in Belfast and Plymouth.

Six people were arrested in Plymouth while several officers suffered minor injuries in the violence, Devon and Cornwall Police said.

In South Belfast riot officers had stones and petrol bombs thrown at them in an area close to a supermarket which was set on fire at the weekend.

Earlier, a vigil was held for the victims of a mass stabbing in Southport last week which sparked the unrest.

Nearly 400 people have been arrested since the rioting began.

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In Southport, hundreds of people attended the peaceful memorial a week on from the deaths of Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Dasilva Aguiar.

Children blew bubbles and others left flowers and heart-shaped balloons in remembrance of the victims of the stabbing attack at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club.

Merseyside Police have since said one child caught up in the incident remained in hospital but all other patients had been discharged.

Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, from Banks in Lancashire, has been charged with three counts of murder, 10 attempted murders and possession of a curved kitchen knife.

The 17-year-old, who was born to Rwandan parents in Cardiff, moved to the Southport area in 2013.

Police believe the riots and unrest in towns and cities across the UK was fuelled by false rumours that the suspect was a Muslim asylum seeker.

Over the weekend the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, condemned the riots as “far-right thuggery” and on Monday he vowed to “ramp up” the law to deal with the violence.

Despite his calls the violence spread to Plymouth.

Devon and Cornwall Police said specialist officers had been deployed on Monday to the Guildhall area at 15:30 BST to deal with a far-right demonstration and a counter protest.

Later in the evening scenes in the city turned violent as a police van was damaged and several officers were injured, the force said.

Supt Russ Dawe said a number of arrests had been made for a “range of public order offences and assaults”.

Speaking at a media briefing, Supt Dawes said he wanted to reassure the community the force was “fully resourced at this time, with a strong police presence”.

Supt Dawe added that those intent on committing crimes and public order would be “dealt with robustly”.

In South Belfast, PSNI officers came under attack as riot teams were deployed to Sandy Row.

It followed a weekend of violence which saw businesses damaged after an anti-immigration protest in the city on Saturday.

Police were stood down just after midnight.

In Birmingham on Monday evening, there were disturbances after hundreds of people gathered in the Bordesley Green area of the city following false reports that a far-right march had been planned there.

Palestinian flags were waved and anti-English Defence League chants were heard.

A group of youths later broke away from the gathering and attacked several vehicles and a pub.

West Midlands Police released a statement late on Monday which said officers were investigating reports of an assault and damage to a pub.

The force said: “No arrests have been made at this stage but there were sporadic incidents and we are investigating reports of an assault, incidents of criminal damage to a pub on Stoney Lane, a car which had its windows smashed on Alcombe Grove, Stechford, and further criminal damage to a vehicle which had its tyres damaged on Belchers Lane, Bordesley Green.

“We are also investigating reports of a man who was in possession of an offensive weapon.”

Ch Supt Richard North added: “Fortunately rumours of the significant protest activity in the city didn’t materialise.

“There were several sporadic incidents of criminality during the evening and we will work hard to arrest those responsible.”

A total of 378 arrests have so far been made nationally since the rioting began on Tuesday, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council.

Police said they are working “around the clock” to identify and arrest more people.

Those who have been charged in connection with riots in parts of England appeared on Monday in various magistrates courts – including in Liverpool, South Tyneside and in Hull.

The Law Society has demanded the right support and resources for courts dealing with offenders.

After chairing an emergency Cobra meeting of ministers and senior police chiefs, Sir Keir announced a “standing army” of specialist officers to tackle the disorder.

A Downing Street spokesperson said later there were no plans for the military to be involved

The government was working with social media companies to ensure misinformation and disinformation is removed, the spokesperson said.

Elsewhere, Neil Basu – former head of counter-terrorism at the Metropolitan Police – told the BBC he felt some acts had “crossed the line into terrorism“.

But, the prime minister rejected calls for Parliament to be recalled from its summer recess in the face of the riots.

He insisted there is a focus on ensuring police are able to carry out their duties.

Sir Keir said: “My focus is on making sure that we stop this disorder, that the criminal sanctions are swift and be seen to be followed.”

Downing Street also criticised X owner Elon Musk for claiming “civil war is inevitable” in the UK, with officials suggesting online misinformation fuelling disorder on Britain’s streets might be amplified by foreign state actors.

The Northern Ireland Assembly has been recalled to Stormont early following violent protests in Belfast last weekend.

Several US personnel have been injured after a suspected rocket attack on an American military base in Iraq, US officials have said.

The attack comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Middle East was at a critical moment following the killings of senior leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah.

Officials told the BBC’s partner CBS News that the Al Asad airbase in western Iraq was attacked and that they are still assessing the damage.

They have not yet said who was behind the attack.

Security sources told CBS that two Katyusha rockets were fired at the base, and that one had fallen inside the base.

“We can confirm that there was a suspected rocket attack today against US and Coalition forces at Al Asad Airbase, Iraq,” said a Department of Defence spokesperson.

“Initial indications are that several US personnel were injured. Base personnel are conducting a post-attack damage assessment,” the spokesperson added.

It is unclear how many US personnel were injured. A senior US military official said no critical injuries, such as a loss of limbs, have been reported at this time, and no service members were killed.

President Joe Biden was briefed on the suspected attack, a White House official said.

In a statement on X, Mr Biden said he and vice-president Kamala Harris were briefed in the Situation Room on “developments on the Middle East.”

“We received updates on threats posed by Iran and its proxies, diplomatic efforts to de-escalate regional tensions, and preparations to support Israel should it be attacked again,” the president said.

“We also discussed the steps we are taking to defend our forces and respond to any attack against our personnel in a manner and place of our choosing.”

The attack comes after the US carried out a strike in Iraq last week that was described as an act of self-defence against militants who officials said were preparing to launch drones against US and coalition forces in the region.

Tensions have been escalating following the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran last Wednesday by a blast at his guesthouse.

Iran’s revolutionary guard (IRGC) has accused Israel of killing Haniyeh and said it was supported by the US. Israel has not commented on Haniyeh’s death.

Also last week, Israel said it killed a top Hezbollah commander in an air strike on a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital.

Both Iran and Hezbollah have threatened to retaliate against Israel for the killings.

The Al Asad base was attacked in January this year by Iranian-backed militias, who launched ballistic missiles and rockets – most of which were intercepted, US Central Command said at the time.

A number of US personnel were assessed for traumatic brain injuries after the attack, while at least one Iraqi service member was wounded.

The airbase has been used by the US since 2004, following the invasion of Iraq, and has been visited by former US presidents George W Bush and later Donald Trump.

At least five people have been killed after Hurricane Debby slammed into Florida before weakening to a tropical storm.

Debby is expected to bring heavy flooding to parts of Georgia and the Carolinas in the coming days.

The National Hurricane Center warned of a “life-threatening” flood threat as the “slow-moving storm” drops “torrential rains”.

Debby made landfall on Monday morning as a category one hurricane in the Big Bend region of Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Authorities said the dead included a 13-year-old boy who was killed when a tree fell on to a mobile home in the town of Levy County, located near Gainesville.

In Hillsborough County – around Tampa – an 18-wheel lorry veered into a canal during the storm. The driver was found dead.

In Dixie County, just west of Gainesville, officials reported that a woman and a 12-year-old were killed when their car crashed on Sunday night.

In southern Georgia, another death – a 19-year-old – was reported after a large tree fell on to a porch at a home in Moultrie, local media reported.

The slow-moving pace of the storm could bring “catastrophic flooding”, Jamie Rhome, the deputy director of the hurricane centre, said.

Debby’s waves and strong winds helped blow 25 packages of cocaine, worth more than $1m, ashore in the Florida Keys, according to the US Border Patrol.

In Florida, some 150,000 homes and businesses were without power on Monday night, according to PowerOutage.com. Another 36,000 residents in Georgia and South Carolina were experiencing outages.

The storm is forecast to skim the coast, drenching south-east Georgia and the Carolinas on Tuesday and Wednesday, before moving inland near the South Carolina coast on Thursday.

Before the storm made landfall, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 61 of Florida’s 67 counties.

Spyridon Aibejeris told USA Today repairs on his Keaton Beach home had just wrapped up two weeks ago from Hurricane Idalia, a category three storm that made landfall last summer.

• Why modern hurricanes are slowing down

“Man, I’ve done this so many times,” Mr Aibejeris said.

Forecasters predicted this hurricane season, which runs from 1 June to 30 November, would be a busy one.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said there could be up to 25 named storms in 2024.

Between eight and 13 of those storms could develop into hurricanes.

Debby was the fourth named storm of the year.

It is thought that climate change may be making slow-moving hurricanes like this more likely.

As the world heats unevenly, this causes changes in the atmospheric circulations that steer storms across the planet.

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Nine staff members at the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, may have been involved in the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel, the United Nations says.

All nine would have their employment terminated, said UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq.

He said the UN had completed an investigation following allegations by Israel that UNRWA staff were involved.

About 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken back to Gaza as hostages in the unprecedented assault last autumn. Since the attack, the Israeli military operation in Gaza has killed more than 38,400 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Mr Haq did not specify what the men’s precise involvement may have been.

“For us, any participation in the attacks is a tremendous betrayal of the sort of work that we are supposed to be doing on behalf of the Palestinian people,” he said.

An Israeli Defense Forces spokeperson said the report showed UNRWA had hit a “new low”.

The UN investigated 19 members of UNRWA staff in all, after Israel alleged that 12 took part in the attack.

Israel later claimed that more than 450 UNRWA staff were members of terrorist groups, but a UN review published in April found Israel had not provided evidence for its claims.

Aside from the nine employees who the UN said may have had links to the 7 October attack, its report found no evidence of involvement in one case, and insufficient evidence in the case of nine others.

UNRWA, which employs 13,000 people in Gaza, said in March that some of its employees reported being pressured by Israeli authorities into making false statements while in detention.

Most countries withdrew funding for the UN agency because of the Israeli allegations.

In July, the UK joined other countries that had resumed funding since then, leaving the US, UNRWA’s single biggest donor, as the only country not to have restarted donations.

UNRWA has provided aid for Palestinian refugees since 1949.

For the past two years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged to transform India into a high-income, developed country by 2047. India is also on course to become the world’s third largest economy in six years, according to several projections.

High-income economies have a per capita Gross National Income – total amount of money earned by a nation’s people and businesses – of $13,846 (£10,870) or more, according to the World Bank.

With a per capita income of around $2,400 (£1,885), India is among the lower middle-income countries. For some years now, many economists have been warning that India’s economy could be headed for a “middle income trap”.

This happens when a country stops being able to achieve rapid growth easily and compete with advanced economies. Economist Ardo Hannson defines it as a situation when countries “seem to get stuck in a trap where your costs are escalating and you lose competitiveness”.

A new World Bank report holds out similar fears. At the current growth rate, India will need 75 years to reach a quarter of America’s per capita income, World Development Report 2024 says. It also says more than 100 countries – including India, China, Brazil and South Africa – face “serious obstacles” that could hinder their efforts to become high-income countries in the next few decades.

Researchers looked at the numbers from 108 middle-income countries responsible for 40% of the world’s total economic output – and nearly two-thirds of global carbon emissions. They are home to three-quarters of the global population and nearly two-thirds of those in extreme poverty.

They say these countries face greater challenges in escaping the middle-income trap. These include rapidly ageing populations, rising protectionism in advanced economies and the urgent need for an accelerated energy transition.

“The battle for global economic prosperity will be largely won or lost in middle-income countries,” says Indermit Gill, chief economist of the World Bank and one of the study’s authors.

“But too many of these countries rely on outmoded strategies to become advanced economies. They depend just on investment for too long – or they switch prematurely to innovation.”

For example, the researchers say, the pace at which businesses can grow is often slow in middle-income countries.

In India, Mexico, and Peru, firms that operate for 40 years typically double in size, while in the US, they grow seven-fold in the same period. This indicates that firms in middle-income countries struggle to grow significantly, but still survive for decades. Consequently, nearly 90% of firms in India, Peru, and Mexico have fewer than five employees, with only a small fraction having 10 or more, the report says.

Mr Gill and his fellow researchers advocate a new approach: these countries need to focus on more investment, infuse new technologies from around the world and grow innovation.

South Korea exemplifies this strategy, the report says.

In 1960, its per capita income was $1,200 – it rose to $33,000 by 2023.

Initially, South Korea boosted public and private investment. In the 1970s, it shifted to an industrial policy that encouraged domestic firms to adopt foreign technology and advanced production methods.

Companies like Samsung responded. Initially a noodle-maker, Samsung began producing TV sets for domestic and regional markets by licensing technologies from Japanese firms.

This success created a demand for skilled professionals. The government increased budgets and set targets for public universities to develop these skills. Today, Samsung is a global innovator and one of the world’s largest smartphone manufacturers, the report says.

Countries like Poland and Chile followed similar paths, the report says. Poland boosted productivity by adopting Western European technologies. Chile encouraged technology transfer to drive local innovation, famously adapting Norwegian salmon farming techniques to become a top salmon exporter.

History provides enough clues about an impending middle-income trap. Researchers reveal that as countries grow wealthier, they often hit a “trap” at around 10% of US GDP per capita ($8,000 today), placing them in the middle-income range. That’s roughly in the middle of what the bank classifies as “middle-income” countries.

Since 1990, only 34 middle-income countries have transitioned to high-income status, with over a third benefiting from integration into European Union (EU) or newfound oil reserves.

Economists Raghuram Rajan and Rohit Lamba separately estimate that even at a very respectable per capita income growth rate of 4%, India’s per capita income will reach $10,000 only by 2060, which is lower than China’s level today.

“We must do better. Over the next decade, we will see a possible population dividend, that is rise in the share of our population of working age, before we, like other countries, succumb to ageing,” they write in their new book Breaking The Mould: Reimagining India’s Economic Future.

“If we can generate good employment for all our youth, we will accelerate growth and have a shot at becoming comfortably upper middle class before our population starts ageing.”

In other words, the economists wonder, “Can India become rich before it becomes old?”

Over the past few days, global stock markets have been plummeting.

Trading screens across the US, Asia and, to a certain extent, Europe are awash with blinking red numbers heading south.

The sudden turn comes as fears grow that the US economy – the world’s biggest – is slowing down.

Experts say the main reason for this fear is that US jobs data for July, released on Friday, was much worse than expected.

However, for some, talk of an economic slowdown – or even a (whisper it) recession – is a little premature.

So, what did the official figures show us? As always with economics, there is good news and bad news.

Bad news first. US employers created 114,000 jobs in July which was way below expectations of 175,000 new roles.

The rate of unemployment also rose to 4.3%, a near three-year high, which triggered something known as the “Sahm rule”.

Named after American economist Claudia Sahm, the rule says if the average unemployment rate over three months is half a percentage point higher than the lowest level over the past 12 months then the country is at the beginning of a recession.

In this case, the US unemployment rate rose in July, so the three-month average was 4.1%. That compares to the lowest level over the last year which was 3.5%.

Adding to these concerns was the fact that the US Federal Reserve voted last week not to cut interest rates.

Other central banks within developed economies, including the Bank of England and the European Central Bank, have recently cut interest rates.

The Fed held borrowing costs but its chair, Jerome Powell, signalled that a cut in September was on the table.

However, this led to speculation that the Fed had waited too long to act.

A cut in interest rates means it is cheaper to borrow money which should, in theory, act as a boost to the economy.

If the jobs figures suggest that the economy is already tipping downwards, then the fear is the Fed is too late.

Then, on top of all this, are technology companies and their share prices. There has been a long-running rally in their shares, fuelled in part by optimism over artificial intelligence (AI).

Last week, the chip-making giant Intel announced it was cutting 15,000 jobs. At the same time, market rumours suggested that rival Nvidia may have to delay the release of its new AI chip.

What followed was a bloodbath on the Nasdaq, the technology-heavy US index. After hitting a high only a few weeks ago, it plunged by 10% on Friday.

That helped pump-up the fear factor across markets and that’s where danger could lie.

If stock market panic continues and shares keep plunging the Fed could potentially step in before its next meeting in September and cut interest rates.

This could happen, according to Neil Shearing, group chief economist at Capital Economics, if there is “a market dislocation that deepens and starts to threaten systemically important institutions and/or broader financial stability”.

Now for the good(-ish) news.

“We are not in a recession now,” according to Ms Sahm herself, inventor of the rule.

She told CNBC on Monday that “the momentum is in that direction”.

But she added: “A recession is not inevitable and there is substantial scope to reduce interest rates.”

Others are equivocal about the jobs data.

“While the report was bad it wasn’t bad,” said Mr Shearing.

“It is likely that Hurricane Beryl contributed to weakness in July’s payrolls figure. Other data painted a picture of a labour market that is cooling, but not collapsing,” he said.

He added that there appeared to be “no increase in firings” while a “modest” decline in average weekly hours worked in July “does not scream ‘recession'”.

For Simon French, chief economist and head of research at Panmure Liberum, after digesting the US jobs data it’s time to take a moment.

“Stepping back, have we suddenly re-appraised the health of the world’s biggest economy? No and nor should we.”

But he added: “It is another data point at a time when liquidity is thin and you’ve got a lot of things to worry about.”

Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan has now been behind bars for a year – although there are times you would barely know it.

Mr Khan is still the dominant force of Pakistan’s opposition politics; his name still in the papers and the courts. His social media supporters have been unrelenting.

With no public appearances, the few people allowed in to see the former cricket star regularly – his lawyers and family – have become his conduit for messages to the outside world. They are keen to push the message that his 365 days behind bars have left him unbowed.

“There is still a swagger about him,” Aleema Khanum, Imran Khan’s sister, says. “He’s got no needs, no wants – only a cause.”

According to those who visit him, Mr Khan spends his days on his exercise bike, reading and reflecting. He has an hour a day to walk around the courtyard. There have been occasional disagreements about how quickly the family can provide him with new books.

“He has said ‘I’m not wasting a minute of my time in jail, it’s an opportunity for me to get more knowledge’,” Ms Khanum tells the BBC.

But the fact is Mr Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi are still trapped in prison, with no sign they will be released any time soon.

According to some, this is not a surprise.

“There was no expectation that Mr Khan was going to do anything that would make it easy for him to get out of jail,” says Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Centre think tank in Washington.

And the military – Pakistan’s powerful behind-the-scenes player – “don’t ease up when they decide there’s a political figure that they want to lock up”, says Mr Kugelman. “That has especially been the case with Khan.”

Indeed, the military has been key to many of the ups and downs of Mr Khan’s life in the last decade. Many analysts believe it was his initial close relationship with the military establishment which helped him win power.

But by 9 May last year, that was in tatters. Mr Khan – who had been ousted from power in a vote of no confidence in 2022 – had been arrested, and his supporters came out to protest.

Some of those protests turned violent, and there were attacks on military buildings – including the official residence of the most senior army official in Lahore which was looted and set alight.

In the aftermath, BBC sources said Pakistan’s media companies had been told to stop showing his picture, saying his name or playing his voice.

Mr Khan was released – but ultimately only for a few months.

He was jailed again on 5 August for failing to correctly declare the sale of state gifts – and that was just the start.

In the run-up to the election, the cases against him mounted; by the start of February – just days before the vote – the 71-year-old had acquired three long prison sentences, the last for 14 years.

By the election, many of the candidates standing for Mr Khan’s PTI party were also in prison or in hiding, the party stripped of its well-recognised symbol of a cricket bat – a vital identifier in a country with a 58% literacy rate.

Despite this, “we were determined and wanted to make a statement”, Salman Akram Raja, Mr Khan’s lawyer and a candidate in the election, says.

“It was very constrained, many couldn’t campaign at all. The loss of the cricket bat symbol was the body blow.”

All candidates stood as independents, but hopes – even within the party – weren’t high.

Yet candidates backed by Imran Khan won more seats than anyone else, forcing his political rivals to form an alliance to block them. The PTI, meanwhile, was left to fight for many of their seats in court, alleging the results were rigged.

Supporters see the election on 8 February as a turning point, proof of Mr Khan’s potent message – even from behind bars.

“There is a change, that was expressed on 8 February,” says Aleema Khanum. “Change is coming, it is in the air.”

Others say that practically, the result hasn’t changed the status quo.

“We are really where we might expect to be given past precedent,” Mr Kugelman says.

“PTI didn’t form a government, its leader is still in jail and the coalition in power is led by parties backed by the military.”

But more recently, things have certainly seemed to be looking up for Mr Khan and his supporters.

All three of the sentences handed down just before the election have fallen away, a United Nations panel declared his detention was arbitrary and Pakistan’s supreme court said PTI was an official party and should receive “reserve seats”; the seats reserved for women and non-Muslims allocated according to the proportion of seats the party has won.

But none have yet had a practical impact: Mr Khan is still in jail with new cases against his name, and the reserve seats have yet to be allocated.

His wife Bushra Bibi, whose prison sentence was dropped when the case that declared their marriage illegal was appealed, is also still in prison on new charges.

Meanwhile, the government has made it clear that it sees Mr Khan and his party as a public threat. It announced earlier this month that it intends to seek to ban PTI, despite warnings from groups like the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

The military also shows no indication it has changed its mind. On the 9 May anniversary this year, a statement from its public relations wing said there would be no compromise with the “planners, facilitators and executioners” and nor would they be allowed to “hoodwink the law of the land”.

And it is this relationship with the military that most analysts think Mr Khan really needs to smooth out to finally escape prison.

“I think we can come up with an arrangement that gives everyone a way out and allows the system to function,” says Khan’s lawyer, Mr Raja.

Meanwhile, from jail, Mr Khan has been delivering his own messages. Aleema Khanum recently said that that he had told the military to “stay neutral… to let this country run” and called it “the backbone of Pakistan”.

It has been seen as an olive branch by some commentators, although the use of the term neutral was picked up on; when the army previously declared itself neutral by not taking sides in politics, he ridiculed the expression, saying “only an animal is neutral”.

His recent call for snap elections is a move that some see as one of his conditions to the military.

“I don’t think that’s very realistic,” says Mr Kugelman. “Over time, Khan may relent a bit. It is one of the truisms of Pakistani politics: if you want to be prime minister you need to be in the good graces, or at least not the bad graces, of the military.”

For now at least, the stalemate continues.

I’m sailing down the river with an Olympic champion.

No, it’s not the Seine. And this isn’t Paris. That’s clear when we cruise past the Kremlin.

Below deck, Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Mariya Lasitskene is taking part in the launch of an unusual project: a fusion athletics-fashion show-music event.

Mariya is not in Paris defending her Olympic high jump title. Team Russia is barred from these Games because of the war in Ukraine. A World Athletics ruling means that track and field stars from Russia aren’t even allowed to compete as neutral athletes.

And, for Mariya, that hurts.

“I can’t even bring myself to follow the athletics at these Olympic Games,” she tells me. “It’s too painful. We should be there. The Olympics are a festival, the greatest event in the world.”

The Russian press doesn’t seem to think so. From the get-go, newspapers here have been pouring cold water on Paris 2024.

After an opening ceremony featuring drag artists and what some saw as a parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets dubbed the Paris Olympics “The Games of Satan”.

Another outlet, Argumenty i Fakty, has called them “The Olympics of hell”.

It’s starting to feel like Russia could win the gold… for sour grapes.

“I thought the Olympic Games were about sport. No longer,” Russian MP Mariya Butina tells me.

“It’s about politics, religion, everything. It’s very sad because the original idea of the Olympics was to create peace.”

“But Russia has invaded Ukraine,” I point out. “That’s not ‘peace’, is it?”

“Russia has been protecting its people,” Ms Butina responds, echoing the official line here that Russia’s war in Ukraine is all about self-defence.

In reality, the Kremlin’s “special military operation” amounts to the invasion of a sovereign independent nation.

In Russia, there was always huge interest in the Olympic Games.

But these Olympics are not even being shown on TV here. That hasn’t happened since the Soviet Union boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics 40 years ago.

Russia used to send hundreds of athletes to the Summer Games. This time round only 15 Russians have been competing in Paris as “neutral athletes” in sports like canoeing and tennis.

They’re not allowed to present themselves a national team, so no Russian flags, no national anthem. And the individual athletes have had to undergo a vetting procedure to establish they have no links to the Russian military or security agencies and do not actively support the war in Ukraine.

Bans in sport are nothing new for Russia.

In 2019, the country was barred from major international sporting events for state-sponsored doping offences. That suspension was later reduced to two years. At the Tokyo Games, Russian athletes competed under the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee.

There’s no vetting process at the sports festival I’m witnessing in a Moscow park.

A Russian nationalist group has organised an afternoon of what it’s presenting as traditional Russian recreations.

It is a world away from Paris 2024.

I can see two men lying on the ground engaged in “stick wrestling”, straining to pull their opponent over.

What looks more like a gang fight is raging over on the football pitch, with teams in red and blue bibs engaged in “wall-to-wall fighting”.

Some things here have nothing in common with sport at all. Over in one corner, Russians, young and old, are being invited to don army fatigues and military gear. Posing with guns, they’re having their photographs taken.

I detect little interest here in what is going on in Paris.

“I haven’t followed the Olympics for ages,” wall-to-wall fighter Vadim tells me. “Not since Russia was excluded from it. Russia’s being cancelled everywhere.”

For now, high jumper Mariya Lasitskene has her athletics-fashion show-music event to keep her busy. But Mariya concedes the Olympics are “every professional athlete’s dream”.

“Every athlete wants to compete with the best. You can only do that at international competitions,” Mariya tells me.

“Sport is the battle of the strongest. I do miss it.”

In Sunderland on Friday night, I watched a wave of criminality and thuggery engulf a proud city.

As they had done previously in Southport, Hartlepool and London, far-right activists – who claimed to be protesting at the murder of three little girls – attacked police trying to keep the peace. They set fire to an advice centre next door to a police station, threw stones at a mosque and looted shops.

But as well as the masked thugs hurling missiles at the lines of riot police, there were families in England tops cheering them on. I saw mums and dads pushing babies in pushchairs; small children draped in the St George’s flag joining the march.

One woman advised her son who was throwing stones at riot police to make sure he didn’t hurt himself.

Some, like Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, have suggested what we are seeing is evidence of a country close to boiling over, community relations on the edge.

Is he right? Are we set for a summer of racial strife, with mosques hunkering down, police preparing for the worst and deepening community tensions?

Or are those who suggest the country is at breaking point at odds with statistics that reveal a different story, one where compared with a generation ago, Britain is a low-crime and socially tolerant nation?

The spreading of lies and misinformation led by far-right extremists after the killings in Southport, is an example of their wider tactics. In Southport, they focused on the false claim that the person responsible for the attack was a Muslim asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat.

More broadly, misinformation has also been spread that wrongly suggests levels of immigration and violent crime are linked, and incorrect claims have been made that foreigners, notably Muslims, present a particular threat to children. Police and politicians are accused of failing to protect those who view themselves as the indigenous population.

Often, unevidenced claims of “two-tier policing” – that senior officers are more lenient towards ethnic minorities when they protest – are also promoted by far-right activists on social media.

“What will it take for you to be angry enough to do something about this?” asked Tommy Robinson, the former leader of the far-right English Defence League.

• Follow live updates on this story
• Hotel workers’ ‘absolute terror’ at mob violence
• Watch: Six days of violence and disorder in the UK

It is a compelling narrative to those looking for someone to blame for the struggles they face in their daily lives: the cost of living, unaffordable housing and poor-quality public services.

Rioting leaves scars on communities that already struggle with economic challenges. But visit the day after and you see a very different Britain.

After disturbances in Hartlepool last week, I went to the Salaam community centre on the street which had been targeted during the disorder on Wednesday night. The building had become the headquarters for a volunteer clean-up.

The community centre regularly delivers food parcels and other supplies to those struggling to make ends meet. Time after time people from a range of backgrounds came up to me to say the idea that the town was a racial tinderbox was ridiculous. They spoke of a close-knit community in which people from all backgrounds looked out for each other.

As if to prove the point, a group of young women arrived having just delivered chocolates and other gifts to the police station to thank the officers who had had to deal with the trouble. They were carrying packs of food and drink to be distributed to local families caught up in the violence.

A local butcher had become a Hartlepool hero for staying in his shop as the mob attempted to smash his windows, protecting his meat knives and cleavers from falling into the wrong hands.

An asylum seeker who was punched as he walked down the road during the disorder was the next day having his hand shaken by people from the many different communities which make up this deprived neighbourhood.

“Tight as a drum”, was how the local beat bobby described the people on his patch. “There’s a few idiots but I know everyone round here and most of the adults out on the street were not from Hartlepool.”

To suggest there are no tensions in the town or others affected by recent disorder would be wrong. The rhetoric of the far-right is effective because it taps into genuine frustration and disaffection.

Race relations in Hartlepool were sorely tested last year when an asylum seeker, Ahmed Alid, stabbed a pensioner to death in the town. Alid, who said he was motivated by events in Gaza, was jailed for life in May, with a minimum term of 44 years.

Beyond these relatively isolated incidents, there are, of course, legitimate concerns about the impact high levels of immigration can have on communities where healthcare and schools are under pressure. There are also questions about the effect on community cohesion.

The evidence shows there is significant worry around both current levels of legal and illegal immigration. An Ipsos survey in February found 52% of people believed current immigration levels to be too high. Two years earlier, only 42% said that.

But the Ipsos survey showed people are generally more positive about the impact of immigration than not, although that gap has tightened since 2022 too.

As for longer term attitudes, the respected European Social Survey found that in 2022 most people in the UK thought immigration had been good for the economy and the country’s cultural life. A clear majority said it had made Britain a better place to live.

Separate research by the World Values Survey found the UK the least likely country to agree that immigration causes crime or unemployment. Just 5% of Brits said they’d be unhappy to have an immigrant for a neighbour, one of the lowest proportions found anywhere.

Some areas that have seen protests, such as Middlesbrough, have crime rates significantly above the national average. And with policing facing well-documented challenges and backlogs in the courts, people don’t necessarily feel like the police or courts are dealing with things. This sense may be particularly acute in areas with the highest crime rates.

But the best evidence available from the Office for National Statistics suggests crime is a fraction of what it was a generation ago. For every five crimes in England and Wales in 1995, there is just one offence committed today.

Anti-social behaviour is also at a record low. Your chances of being a victim of violence in Britain are almost certainly lower today than at any time in history. The figures show that over a time when migration has been rising, violent crime has been falling.

Presented with a daily array of terrible crime stories, we can be forgiven for imagining the country is becoming more lawless and more dangerous. But when you ask people about their experiences of crime, it is the opposite according to responses to the Crime Survey of England and Wales.

In Sunderland, it looked like quite a few saw the unrest as a bit of a Friday night spectacle, an opportunity to demonstrate their anger at a state they believe ignores them.

For others it was less spontaneous. Shortly before the trouble kicked off in the city centre, a train pulled into the station from Glasgow, full of men draped in the union jack. Outside the station, they were greeted by a crowd with southern accents.

I noticed a few faces with links to the now defunct English Defence League – this is not the first time I’ve seen racial tensions flare in 45 years of covering the UK.

What is different this time is that self-publishing on social media means those seeking to whip up the mob can do so without worrying unduly about the facts. There is evidence of foreign-owned websites actively spreading disinformation which is lapped up and spread by extremists attached to an amorphous array of self-styled “patriot” groups.

For those seeing violence erupt in their community this is clearly a very worrying time and we don’t yet know whether we have seen the worst of it.

But I have watched the clean-up operation in Hartlepool and read the research that suggests Britain today is safer and more tolerant than it has ever been. Because of that my sense is that right now it would be a mistake to assume that orchestrated far-right hooliganism is representative of the mood in Britain.

When Frank Sinatra sang about “a city that never sleeps”, he probably wasn’t thinking about the economic boost that busy nightlife can provide to a metropolis.

Yet a growing number of cities around the world are increasingly homing in on ways to strengthen their night-time economy.

Around 100 cities now have some form of “night mayor” or “night tsar” in place, to spur this work.

But most of those cities, including London, Sydney, and Sinatra’s beloved New York, are not up all night. In other words, they don’t allow bars and nightclubs to remain open, and serve alcohol, 24 hours a day.

Nonetheless, later this year, Montreal – Canada’s second-largest city – is planning to take the leap into 24-hour nightlife.

Following in the footsteps of Berlin and Tokyo, venues in a new all-night district in Montreal’s city centre will be licensed to remain open, and serve alcohol, throughout the night.

City officials say the move will bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue. Currently bars and clubs in the city have to close by 3am.

Montreal will become the first city in Canada to allow 24-hour drinking. In Toronto venues have to close by 2am, and it is 3am in Vancouver.

In the US, Las Vegas and New Orleans have long allowed bars and clubs to stay open all night. While in New York the cut off time is 4am, and in Los Angeles it is 2am.

On the other side of the Atlantic, pubs in London still typically close at 11pm. The city does, however, have a handful of nightclubs and bars that stay open all night, thanks to flexible licensing laws.

On a warm Friday evening in July, the centre of Montreal is bustling; busy bars and restaurants line the wide, pedestrianised streets.

“This is an opportunity for economic growth,” says Ericka Alneus, the city councillor behind the 24-hour plan.

“But it’s also to present, and reinforce, the cultural scene.”

In 2022, the annual financial value of Montreal’s nightlife was estimated to be worth C$2.25bn ($1.6bn; £1.3bn), according to advocacy group MTL 24/24. It says that from this, C$121m went in tax to the government.

Clearly, Ms Alneus hopes those figures will increase when venues are allowed to stay open all night.

But not everyone is supportive of the change: “We don’t have enough security for it,” says one concerned reveller.

A fellow citizen is worried about the practical implications: “It’s nice for people who like to party, but the Metro closes at 1.30am,” she says. “There has to be some kind of way people can go back home.”

Sergio Da Silva’s live music bar, Turbo Haus Club, is located on Saint Denis Street in Old Montreal. He says the planned changes haven’t been sufficiently considered.

“You can’t just say, ‘here are some 24-hour bars, go nuts!’.

“There’s no infrastructure to uphold it. There’s no 24-hour public transport, there’s no extra security.

“Then, there’s the cost of living. If people can’t afford to go out, no matter what 24-hour policy you put in, it doesn’t change anything,” he adds.

As the sun sets outside a different bar, L’ile Noire, owner Michel Lavallée disagrees – he has a different take on the closing-time situation.

“In Montreal, we close at 3am. People are drunk at 1am – and they’re super-drunk at 3am.

“One of the problems we have is, at 3am it’s like madness. But if you expand the hours, there’s less problems, less demand for security,” he explains.

Ms Alneus agrees. She says the fact that so many bars and clubs all currently close at 3am presents problems for the police.

She believes by allowing 24-hour drinking, those venues that don’t wish to stay open all night will be able to close at different times across the night.

She maintains staggering closing time will bring “a bit more safety in nightlife areas”.

Mirik Milan, a club promoter and festival organiser, was appointed as night mayor for Amsterdam in 2012.

He says that during his six years in charge, alcohol-related violence and reports of nuisance fell by 20% and 30% respectively. Those statistics, he says, were vital for local politicians to demonstrate to voters that “we really managed the night in a better way”.

Mr Milan has gone on to co-found VibeLab, a nightlife consultancy advising governments around the world.

He says that when a city embraces nightlife as one of its key cultural assets, it can have billions of dollars of positive impact on the local economy.

“It drives tourism. It brings in a lot of creative operators and businesses that want to be located in that city. And that has a huge impact on the city as a whole.”

Lutz Leichsenring, co-founder at VibeLab, has been instrumental in promoting nightlife as part of Berlin’s Clubcommission – the organisation which, since 2000, has represented approximately 280 nightclubs in the German capital.

“One of the strongest arguments for nightlife is that it attracts talented and skilled workers,” he says.

“It’s just a very important factor why people would relocate to a city, or would like to stay in a city and not move away.”

Mr Leichsenring adds that the increased temperatures brought about by climate change will only make the nighttime economy more important during summer months for many cities.

He maintains everything “from construction, to education, and cultural gatherings” will increasingly move to cooler nighttime hours.

“The night needs to be governed better, because the more you shift to that – to the night – the more conflicts you create, because people also want to sleep at night.”

Meanwhile, efforts to transform cities into all-night zones have – in some cases – proved disappointing.

In 2017, London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced his 24-hour city proposal, appointing US comedian Amy Lamé “to champion nightlife”.

Both were criticised earlier this year after suggesting they had succeeded in their vision, with social media-users expressing their frustration with the hashtag ‘LameLondon’ on X.

The work of Sydney’s night mayor has also faced scepticism.

Sticking to a nightlife plan isn’t always easy, particularly when governments change, says Jess Reia, assistant professor of data science at the University of Virginia.

“The challenge is how to keep good policies after administration change – instead of having a pilot project for a few years, and then ending up with nothing,” she says.

Back in Montreal, there is no start date yet for 24-hour opening. Ms Alneus says the intention is to launch some time in the autumn.

“We are trying to be trailblazers, and to push forward something that everybody enjoys.” she says.

“There are venues, artists, initiatives and performances at night-time that should have the light on them – for the economic growth of the city, but also for the cultural identity of Montreal.”

The sister of Marc Fogel, an American teacher imprisoned in Russia for illegal possession of cannabis, told the BBC that she wishes her brother was among those freed during the historic US-Russia prisoner swap earlier this week.

Mr Fogel, 63, was arrested at an airport in August 2021 and charged with carrying a small amount of medical marijuana, which had been prescribed in the US.

The native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was a teacher at the Anglo-American School of Moscow.

While serving out his 14-year prison sentence, Mr Fogel has reportedly been teaching English to fellow inmates.

Anne Fogel said she last spoke to her brother on Wednesday, when their family undertook a “massive effort” to get him on the plane with the other freed US prisoners.

Reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US Marine Paul Wheelan and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva were taken to the US after they were released in the largest prisoner swap between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

Anne Fogel detailed the family’s effort in an interview with the BBC: “We were frantically calling senators and congressmen and our ambassadors, former Russian ambassadors who served there, and I had no news for him, even though he knew that something was happening.”

Anne said her brother may have been aware a prisoner swap was taking place because “they play news nonstop in the Russian penal colonies”.

“He knew that something was going on, because… Paul Whelan had been moved and Evan (Gershkovich) had been moved.”

After learning her brother was not part of the swap, she said she felt “betrayal”.

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• Watch: Putin hugs Russian prisoners as they arrive in Moscow

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Thursday, the day of the prisoner swap, that the US was still “actively working to get his (Mark Fogel’s) release”.

When asked about the American’s case the following day, President Biden said that “we’re not giving up on that”.

Asked whether that gave her hope, Anne said: “I’m playing to whatever hope I can so yes, to a certain degree.

“The administration pulled off a masterful, incredible swap and they should be congratulated… and I’m very happy for the return of Paul and Evan and Alsu.

“I just wished my brother was among them.”

Anne said her message to the White House was: “Please, please do everything you can to get him out. He’s the oldest one there, and he’s the most infirm. Please help us.”

White House National Security Council deputy adviser, Jonathan Finer, said on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday that “we worked to try to get Marc included in the deal that consummated last week”.

“And we are right back at it to try to get Marc back to the United States and unite (him) with his family.”

He said that officials work on Mr Fogel’s case “every single day”.

Mr Finer declined to predict whether the American might be returned by the end of the Biden administration in January.

People can reverse their type 2 diabetes by going on a strict 900-calorie-a-day liquid diet offered by the NHS.

Sticking to it may be challenging though, results suggest. Dieters must endure a few months of consuming only shakes, soups and meal-replacement bars, before healthy solid foods can be gradually reintroduced.

Of many thousands invited, 940 completed the year-long programme, findings published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal reveal.

A third of them shed lots of weight though – nearly two-and-a-half stone (16kg) – and put their diabetes into remission.

The programme is being offered to people around England. It is separate from the weight loss jab Wegovy that will be provided by some specialist NHS weight-loss management services.

Diabetes UK said people should be supported to find the approach that is most appropriate for them – whether that involves medication, dietary changes or bariatric surgery.

The shake and soup diet programme is fully funded by the NHS, so there is no cost for the individual. They get bespoke diet and exercise advice sessions in person or online, as well as support from their GP.

Experts say the opportunity can be truly life-changing for people – if they can stick at it.

Unmanaged, diabetes can increase the risk of getting other serious health problems and damage the eyes and nerves.

Dr Clare Hambling, NHS national clinical director for diabetes and obesity, said: “Obesity is one of the biggest threats to health in the UK and will be one of the biggest and most costly challenges for health systems globally, so seeing such encouraging outcomes from our programme shows that obesity can be tackled head-on.”

People are eligible if they are:

• between 18 and 65
• have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes within the last six years
• have a body mass index (BMI) over 27 kg/m2 (if from white ethnic groups) or over 25 kg/m2 (if from black, Asian and other ethnic groups)

Only follow a very low-calorie diet if your doctor has recommended it to you.

Marie Laing, from Frome in Somerset, told BBC News that she was able to lose more than three stone on the NHS soup and shake diet.

Mrs Laing told BBC Radio Somerset: “The GP suggested I try this after I’d tried other things myself and hadn’t succeeded, and I’m really grateful.

“This remission programme isn’t a diet – it’s a lifestyle change. Learning about your body, how food impacts you, why you crave food, how you should exercise… and it isn’t stopping you having anything.

“It’s improved my exercise and being able to be with my children and family, and being out and about and doing things that I love.”

She added: “It’s not easy, but it is well worth it to be able to have your life back.”

Another user, Juliet, told the BBC: “During the total diet replacement phase, I expected to feel hungry but I didn’t and the products actually kept me going. I enjoyed most of them too – although my particular favourites were the red Thai soup and shepherd’s pie.”

Dr Nerys Astbury, associate professor diet & obesity at the University of Oxford, said: “We don’t know how long the remission will last, or how achieving remission can affect the risk of developing diabetes in the future. But we do know that losing weight has huge health benefits in all groups, particularly people living with type 2 diabetes.”

It is a common condition where the level of sugar (glucose) in the blood becomes too high.

It happens if the body cannot make enough of, or cannot correctly use, a hormone called insulin, which controls blood sugar.

Some cases are linked to being overweight.

That is because fat can build up in and around the pancreas – the organ that makes insulin.

Losing weight can reverse the entire process.

Type 1 diabetes, meanwhile, is an autoimmune disease that is not linked to being overweight.

“Hopefully the fans will be happy because we’re trying to be as loyal to the source material as we can be.”

The season finale of House of the Dragon, a prequel to Game of Thrones, airs on Sunday, with millions of fantasy fanatics expected to tune in.

Based on George RR Martin’s novel, A Song of Ice and Fire, the HBO drama sees fiery beasts, battles and family feuds take centre stage.

Behind the photo-realistic visual effects and intricate plots lies an immense effort in production with the show’s costumes captivating audiences and critics.

Emmy award-winning designer Caroline McCall from Portadown in County Armagh joined the show for its second season and plays a crucial role in bringing the fictional kingdom of Westeros to life.

Fresh from her work on the BBC and HBO’s fantasy drama His Dark Materials, Caroline said she was “really excited to try to get my teeth stuck into another one”.

“I was excited by the scale of it, and slightly apprehensive when I got the job… [House of the Dragon] is a huge show with an amazing scope of design as a costume designer,” she told BBC News NI.

“I was very excited to get the opportunity to pitch for the job.”

Caroline was hired to replace renowned designer Jany Temime – best known for her work on the Harry Potter film series – who she said built a strong foundation for the series.

“I had the benefit that there was already a really great costume team on board,” she said.

“A lot of the team already knew the workings of the show, so that was really helpful.”

Born in County Armagh, Caroline found early inspiration at Belfast’s Grand Opera House where theatre productions sparked her interest in costume design from a young age.

After studying a foundation course at Ulster University, she then embarked on a three-year costume degree at Wimbledon College of Arts in London.

She then trained with the BBC, climbing her way up the industry before winning an Emmy in 2011 for her work on period drama Downton Abbey.

This summer, she is celebrating her 25th year in the film industry, during which she has witnessed significant changes back home.

Game of Thrones was primarily filmed on location in Northern Ireland and has sparked a film boom there.

“I’m rather jealous that there’s an industry now,” she said.

“I think it’s fantastic that it’s so well established. I have several team members from Northern Ireland who trained on Thrones.”

House of the Dragon is set 200 years before Game Of Thrones, and follows the fortunes of the Targaryens – a noble family with the power to control dragons.

With hundreds of costumes to oversee, where does a designer begin?

“It’s huge,” Caroline said.

“The fans of the show, and particularly those who have read the books, have got very firm ideas of how things should be.

“The politics and the economics of these places have changed between our show and Game Of Thrones.

“To dress people accordingly, basically in a redefined Westeros, was quite something to get my head around.”

In season two, the houses have separated, “so there’s a natural reason to redesign quite a lot of the principle characters”, Caroline explained.

Her research spanned “thousands of years of history” as she drew inspiration from cultures including the Roman and Byzantine Empires and the Mayans.

“I took all this reference and sort of divvied it up in to what aesthetically worked for each house,” she said.

“For example, the Targaryen look, it’s sort of brutalist in style, in terms of its adornment and embroidery, it’s more abstract, whereas the folks at Kings Landing are more naturalistic.”

With a team of up to 300 people, costumes are painstakingly dyed, printed and decorated, often taking months to complete.

The first series of House of the Dragon, much like its predecessor, faced some criticism for its dark cinematography, something that showrunner Ryan Condal has acknowledged and adjusted.

“We went into season two very conscious of that feedback,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.

The cinematography is something Caroline was very aware of as she produced her garments.

“We tried before filming to look at colours on camera and in the environments that they would be in, to sort of make sure the greens were reading green or the blues were reading blue,” she said.

“Some of the sets are really dark, and they should be, Dragonstone and Harrenhal don’t have a lot of natural light coming in.”

House of the Dragon was one of the few US productions that continued to shoot during the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes.

For almost three months in 2023, industry writers and actors walked out in a dispute over fair pay and the use of artificial intelligence in the industry.

But the House of the Dragon cast did not take part because the show was mainly filmed in the UK under contracts overseen by British union Equity, rather than its striking US counterpart the Screen Actors Guild.

The show’s writer Ryan Condal previously told the BBC it was a “fraught period”, but a “great privilege” to keep the cast and crew employed.

So what’s next for the designer, and the House of the Dragon?

With details on season three kept tight-lipped, Caroline revealed that she will once again be working on the show, which she said will be her main focus for the next 14 months – albeit with a brief break for award season next year, one would assume.

Could the show repeat previous successes at the Baftas, Golden Globes or Costume Designers Guild Awards? It’s not something the designer has given much thought.

“You just have to do your best work and it all depends on what other productions are out…there’s an awful lot of fantasy and science fiction shows out this year,” she said.

“We’ll see.”

On a crisp September night in 1943, a woman boarded a warplane ready to return to Poland to fight the Nazis, a parachute strapped to her back and a blue dress beneath her flight suit.

Elżbieta Zawacka had arrived in the UK in May following a perilous journey lasting several months across 1,000 miles of occupied territory.

Branded “the captain in a skirt” and “a militant female dictator” as she confronted those in charge in London, her efforts would transform the status of women in the Polish Home Army, helping to save thousands of lives.

On her return to her homeland, and having played a major role in the largest organised insurrection against Germany in World War Two, her “reward” was to be captured, tortured and jailed by her own government.

So who was the woman who went by the name of Zo, and what inspired her to acts of such defiance and bravery?

Elżbieta Zawacka was born in 1909 in the city of Toruń, a part of Poland which had been under the control of Prussia, then later Germany, for nearly a century.

At the end of World War One, the area was reclaimed by Poland. When both Germany and the Soviet Union invaded the country in September 1939, Zawacka joined the underground resistance, taking the code name Zo and building an intelligence network made up nearly entirely of women that covered the size of Wales.

Her blonde hair and perfect German made her an ideal candidate to act as its main courier, smuggling microfilms packed with military information hidden in objects such as toothpaste tins, keys and cigarette lighters – often into Berlin where the illicit cargo would be handed to another agent to be passed on to the West.

“It’s really ironic,” says Clare Mulley, historian and author of a new book, . “She has to bring information from Nazi German-occupied Poland right into the heart of the Third Reich as that’s the fastest way they can get it to London.”

In May 1942 her network was infiltrated by the Nazis and soon Gestapo officers were in hot pursuit. At one point, Mulley says, Zo leapt from the door of a moving train to evade an officer who had joined her in the carriage.

With her intelligence network compromised and her name and face known, she was handed a new mission.

Assigned by the commander of Poland’s Home Army, Gen Stefan Rowecki, as his personal representative, Zo was instructed to cross occupied Europe to pass orders to the country’s government-in-exile, which was based in London.

Departing in February 1943, the journey first took her back to Berlin and then on to Paris, where she soon feared the worst when her fake identity papers were confiscated by a hotel clerk.

“She knows they think there’s something up, but when they return them to her the next morning, they say, ‘What wonderful papers, we kept them to compare against a possible forgery,'” says Mulley.

Needing to reach Gibraltar to catch a troopship to Britain, Zo next hid herself inside a secretly adapted tender (water-tank carriage) on a train used by French politician and Nazi collaborator Pierre Laval.

This took her to the Pyrenees, almost drowning her in the process, from where she trekked across the mountain range into Spain.

Again Zo was nearly captured. At one point, Mulley says, she was thrown out of a hotel window by her guideto shake off two German officers who had picked up her resistance companions. She was later shot at as she crossed the frozen mountain passes.

Zo finally boarded a ship to Liverpool where she was immediately picked up by MI6 and taken to its south London base, amid fears she was an enemy agent.

Papers held by the National Archives show this questioning was seemingly done in the most British way possible.

“One of the very first memos is from her interrogating officer and he just says rather pathetically: ‘She was rather reluctant to pass information on to me.’

“I love that. It’s very polite,” laughs Mulley.

Zo soon moved into a hotel in Piccadilly and joined up with the Polish authorities, who were bemused by the arrival of someone who had gained legendary status – but was also a woman.

“They don’t know whether to salute her or to bow and kiss her hand,” Mulley says.

For Polish war hero Kazimierz Bilski, there was one thing for it. He declared that “out of a bachelor’s long-standing habit, I tried my best to draw her into some semblance of flirtation”.

“He takes her across St James’s Park and it’s spring and there’s bluebells and birdsong and American GIs making out with the English girls, and he pulls from his pocket these silk stockings like an amorous magician and flirts with her,” explains Mulley.

“Zo’s absolutely appalled because the only women wearing silk stockings in Poland are the wives of Gestapo officers. She could be killed if she was caught with them.

“It just shows to her how little he understands what the situation is like behind enemy lines.”

As a courier she had witnessed first hand the risks members of the resistance took when smuggling intelligence across Europe and, in her usual forthright fashion, Zo set out to inform the Polish leaders of their ignorance.

“I started to point out their mistakes… I’m quite direct in these matters,” she later recorded.

“The London end isn’t really working very well so she sorts that out,” Mulley explains.

The matter of greatest importance to Zo was a mission given to her by Gen Rowecki, to secure from Poland’s government-in-exile the same legal military rights for women in the Home Army as male soldiers had.

“He’s not a feminist or equal opportunities employer or anything like that. He’s doing it because he knows it’s of real importance to the Home Army’s effort,” Mulley says.

Poland’s Home Army was the largest resistance force in occupied Europe but with many men stuck overseas, there was a need to recruit as many women as possible and for them to have military ranks.

“The women can’t discipline soldiers and they can’t give orders; they can only ask politely, and that’s not the way an army runs,” says Mulley.

The government-in-exile “just can’t believe that women should be given military legal status”, Mulley explains, and Zo was branded “an insane feminist”.

Yet she drafted a legal decree on women’s military status that became law and which would prove lifesaving the following year.

Zo was determined to return to the fight in her homeland, and joining up with Poland’s elite paratrooper unit in Britain – known as the Cichociemni or Silent Unseen – made this possible.

During the war, several of the UK’s stately homes were requisitioned as training camps and Zo was sent to Audley End House, in Essex, to brief the troops about how to remain unnoticed in occupied Poland.

It was also where she began her own training, and on 9 September 1943 she became one of only 316 Cichociemni out of some 2,500 recruits to be flown home.

“I quite like the line she’s the only person to parachute back from Britain to Nazi German-occupied Poland in a dress because she’s the only woman to do it,” Mulley says.

Back on home soil, Zo’s underground work continued but it would be her influence during the Warsaw Uprising – a rebellion launched against the Nazis on 1 August 1944 – that proved most significant.

With the Polish fighters finally surrendering after 63 days of brutal combat, which left some 200,000 people dead, Zo’s work to gain military status for female soldiers spared countless women the fate of being executed or sent to concentration camps.

“Previously when the Nazi Germans captured women who are involved in resistance… they considered them to be basically bandits or commandos and Hitler has got this Commando Order – after a raid on the Channel Islands, he said that anyone who is found fighting not in uniform will be shot without trial,” says Mulley.

Recent estimates by Poland’s Warsaw Uprising Museum suggest up to 12,000 women took part.

“They have protections under the Geneva Convention, which means it’s the only time in the war that Nazi Germany sets up prisoner-of-war camps for women,” Mulley says.

Zo, though, managed to sneak away from her captors to continue her resistance work.

Yet along with many other resistance fighters who were considered a threat by the Soviet-backed communist authorities who took power in Poland as World War Two ended, Zo was arrested. She was tortured and sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Released after six years, she would remain closely watched, her wartime heroics kept hidden by those in charge.

In secret, Zo managed to collect the resistance stories of women who had served in the war. These were eventually used to create a museum in her hometown of Toruń.

Zo, who died aged 99 in January 2009, became only the second woman to attain the status of brigadier general in the Polish Army, a rank conferred upon her in the years after communist government fell.

So what drove this woman who was so determined to see her causes to the end?

“One of the things I like about her is that when she talks after the war, she speaks about recruiting many of her friends and she sometimes says, ‘They were so grateful to me, they were so delighted that I enabled them the chance to serve their nation,'” Mulley says.

“And then you look at some of the paperwork of her friends and they said: ‘Zo came and she terrified me. I couldn’t do anything else. I had to do it.’

“They’ve got a very different perspective on it but she sort of blithely assumes that everyone shares her very binary world vision – they’re bad, we’ve got to free Poland.

“That’s it. That’s what’s driving her.”

When Graeme Carroll started taking pictures of birds during the coronavirus pandemic, he found a natural affinity with both the art and his avian subjects. He shared some of the secrets of his success with the BBC (but don’t expect him to reveal his best locations).

Graeme suddenly stops talking mid-sentence and grabs the camera that permanently hangs on a strap from around his neck.

He crouches and points his long, camouflage-clad lens at a sudden frenzy of movement in the ferns beside the footpath.

“I’m sure it’s a wren,” he whispers.

Suddenly, the foliage stops flittering and the chirping that had accompanied it ceases. The bird has clearly gone, evading Graeme’s Sony A1 camera.

Wrens “are very flighty,” he says with a laugh.

On another day he might set up a stool and sit there for a while to see if it returns, but we’ve got other sites to scout.

Over the past four years, Graeme has become something of an expert in birds and spends many hours trying to find the best spots to see them in his native Durham dales.

“You have got to put the time in,” he says, as we push through waist-high ferns beside the Bollihope Burn, the beck that weaves through a small valley of old mine workings sandwiched between Weardale and Teesdale.

“It’s always luck when you get a good picture of a bird, but there are things you can to do to increase the chances of that good luck.”

This is one of his favourite bird-watching spots and one he is happy to share, chiefly because it is already well-known to many “twitchers and toggers”, bird watchers and photographers.

He is very protective of his sites and guards their locations fiercely, fearful that they could be spoiled and his beloved birds disturbed if the wrong people find out where they are.

For Graeme, part of the fun and satisfaction is getting a shot of a truly wild creature going about its business.

There is one spot he likes near Muggleswick where he can lie on his back among the heather and watch the red kites soar above him.

Above us swallows dart through the air, Graeme takes a picture of a damsel fly and the brook to our side continues to babble.

He really wants to find the stonechat which he knows frequent the valley, but they prove elusive – for now.

He has already got a good shot of a dipper, achieved by crawling on his belly to the side of the beck to snap away on his silent camera as the little bird skipped over the pebbles.

We reach an enclosure, where Graeme once took a bucket-list picture of a cuckoo mid-song as it perched on a dead tree.

He had scouted the spot for three years waiting to see the bird, so was delighted when it finally paid off, research being a key part of his process to get the best shots.

Cutting our losses with the stonechats, we head back to his car and on to the road over the moors to Teesdale.

Up to 80% of his time is spent in the car; some of his best shots are from his red Mazda.

He spends hours crawling along country lanes, his front windows down so as to not obscure any potential photo opportunity and his camera, fitted with a 200-600m lens, within easy reach on the passenger seat.

Graeme is, he says, a very “irritating” driver, but mindful of that, he always pulls over to let other motorists pass.

He constantly scans the skies for circling silhouettes and fence posts and branches for those that may be perched.

The first U-turn of the day came on our way to Bollihope from his home in Wolsingham, an abrupt about-face after he saw a kestrel sitting atop one of the large red and white poles used to mark the edge of the road in the winter snows.

The second arrives about 10 miles (16km) later as we crest a hill and start our descent into Middleton-in-Teesdale.

As we pass the gateway to a farm, Graeme lets out a cry.

“A curlew,” he says, and I just glimpse its long curved beak as we pass.

He swings the car round, exclaiming: “You don’t normally see them here at this time of the year. They and the lapwings are usually gone by now.”

Thankfully, it is still sitting on the gate post when Graeme pulls up and he takes a flurry of shots.

Birds are more bothered by people than cars, Graeme says, adding he can drive pretty close without disturbing them.

Keeping the disturbance of the birds to a minimum is key for Graeme, who describes himself as an “ethical photographer” who follows the birdwatcher’s code.

He won’t use baits or bird calls to try and lure his subjects (the latter being illegal for a number of species), and once he has got a picture he will leave so as to not deter a bird from hunting if it has found a place it likes.

The fun is in scouting out and researching an area to try and find the birds in their natural habitat.

It all started for Graeme during the coronavirus pandemic when his hobby of playing music for several bands, including a Deep Purple tribute act, was curtailed by the cancellation of gigs.

Graeme, who works as a website administrator for Durham County Council, needed something new to occupy him so started taking pictures of the birds visiting the feeder in his garden.

That migrated to going out for walks to take pictures of other birds and he quickly became obsessed.

“I don’t do things by halves,” he says with another laugh, recounting how he spent hours watching online tutorials to learn how to identify birds and get the best out of his new camera, which he normally has set to 30 frames a second with manual controls.

“I cannot emphasise it enough, you have got to learn how to use the gear,” he says.

Fractions of a second count and he can change apertures and focuses with a flick of his finger without taking his eyes from his quarry.

For every two or three pictures he shares on his social media or looks to sell as a print, he has probably taken up to 800, he says.

With the curlew added to his collection, we move on to Graeme’s “secret road”, one of his most-prized locations for spotting all manner of feathered friends.

We don’t see the owls he has encountered along here before, and our excitement at thinking we have spotted a meadow pipit perched on a post is rapidly doused when we realise it is just a splinter out of the wood.

But then suddenly, Graeme’s efforts pay off as we sight a stonechat, the feathered fiend who had evaded us earlier, sitting happily atop a fence post.

The adult male poses obligingly as Graeme snaps away, then moments later we see a juvenile with a caterpillar hanging from its mouth that delights Graeme even more.

As we head back into Weardale, Graeme turns off on to a side road where, he says with a mischievous laugh, we are guaranteed to find an “incredibly large bird”.

The reason for his mirth becomes apparent when we round a bend and see three peacocks swaggering around next to an old stone farmhouse.

“They are always here and are practically feral,” he says as we drive by.

We pass through the market town of Stanhope and up the steep Crawleyside Bank to the moors beyond and, after spotting red kites circling near Edmundbyers, our final stop lies near three old oak trees close to Muggleswick.

We wait in the hopes of seeing a little owl that Graeme has photographed before.

His longest stake out was a nine-hour watch for a black-crowned night heron near Wakefield, which he finally saw for three or four seconds.

“Of course it was worth it,” he says with full sincerity.

His favourite birds are the grey herons found on and around the River Wear, and the short-eared owls he has seen at several spots, including his secret road.

He also adores green woodpeckers having become infatuated with one of his grandfather’s table mats which featured an illustration of one.

There is a small population in the woods of Auckland Castle in Bishop Auckland but he is yet to photograph them, he says, although they are very much on his list.

As we watch the oaks, there is a moment of excitement when a flock of crows suddenly take flight, suggesting there is a predator, such as an owl, about.

But we fail to see what excited them and decide to call it quits, the midday sun now too bright to take a good picture in even if the birds are still around, which is not so likely at this time of the day.

“Welcome to my world,” he says with another laugh as we head back to Wolsingham where he will edit some of today’s shots.

“I just love it,” he says. “I like the peace.

“I spend my day at a computer, getting out into the beautiful County Durham countryside is fantastic for my mental health.

“I am addicted and I do have some missed opportunities that still haunt me, but I can laugh it off.

“Every time you go out you can see something different, and you can always take a better picture.”

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“I was absolutely certain I would die in Putin’s prison.”

It’s almost the first thing Vladimir Kara-Murza tells me after his surprise release in the biggest prisoner exchange since the Cold War.

The Russian opposition politician is painfully thin – from stress, he says. He’s also still reeling from his abrupt transfer from a high security jail in Siberia into forced exile, after more than two years behind bars.

“It’s surreal, like I’m watching a film,” he describes the feeling. “But it’s a good film,” in which he’s finally been reunited with the family he hasn’t seen since his arrest in Moscow in April 2022.

His youngest son has been following him everywhere, anxious not to let him out of his sight.

Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is also a British citizen, was convicted of treason and sentenced to 25 years for his fierce and persistent condemnation of Vladimir Putin and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

He has spent the past 11 months straight in solitary confinement, made to fold away his bed each morning at 05:00 and only given paper and pen for an hour or so each day.

“It’s so easy to lose your mind. You lose sense of time, space. Everything really,” he reveals, in one of his first long interviews since release. “You do nothing, speak to no one, go nowhere. Day after day after day.”

He was denied phone calls home, only allowed to speak to his children twice in over two years.

The added punishment was even tougher, physically.

Almost a decade ago, Vladimir Kara-Murza nearly died from an unknown toxin and still suffers from after-effects, including nerve damage. In September, he now reveals, a prison doctor gave him “a year, 18 months at best” to live, if he stayed behind bars.

“After two FSB poisonings, I don’t exactly have the right state of health for a strict regime prison,” he explains, with a wry smile.

Last week, Kara-Murza was one of eight Russian dissidents who went missing from their prisons.

As lawyers and relatives sounded the alarm, rumours of a looming swap began to swirl. The prisoners themselves had no idea.

Instead, when guards burst into Kara-Murza’s cell in Omsk he thought he would be “led out to be shot”, he recalls. “I actually thought they were going to execute me.”

He’d recently been instructed to sign a request for a presidential pardon but refused to beg for mercy from Vladimir Putin, who he denounces as “a dictator, usurper and a murderer”.

Kara-Murza was transferred to Moscow and the notorious Lefortovo FSB jail. Five days later he was led out to board a bus and saw the other dissidents inside, each one with an FSB guard in a balaclava.

Another guard then took the bus microphone and announced they were being taken for a prisoner swap, no details.

“No-one asked our consent,” Kara-Murza says. “We were loaded onto a plane like cattle and flown out.”

The activist landed in Germany in the only civilian clothes he owned: black long-johns and T-shirt, and the flip flops he used for the prison shower.

The Russian dissidents were part of a “bundle” of political prisoners released, along with high-profile US nationals like the journalist Evan Gershkovich.

Three were former activists from the team of Alexei Navalny, the opposition politician who died suddenly in prison earlier this year. Originally, Navalny was to be part of the complex swap.

In return for the dissidents, Russia got a handful of spies and criminals including the key prize sought by Vladimir Putin: an FSB hitman known as Vadim Krasikov who’d murdered in broad daylight in a Berlin park.

The judge sentencing him to life in prison had called the killing an act of “state terrorism”.

“To everyone who criticises this [swap], I would respectfully urge them not to think of prisoner exchanges but of saving lives,” Kara-Murza argues, in response to the controversy over freeing Krasikov.

The killer was welcomed home to a red carpet and a hug from Putin himself.

“Aren’t 16 lives worth releasing one murderer?”

For a long time, Germany wasn’t sure. The delay, Kara-Murza argues, may be what cost Alexei Navalny his life.

• Americans freed in Russia prisoner swap reunite with families
• Who are the prisoners in the swap?
• Two years, secret talks, high stakes: How deal was struck
• Spies’ children did not know they were Russian

The joy of the Kara-Murzas’ reunion is marred by thoughts of the Russian detainees who were not released.

“I’m so happy and overwhelmed to see these people free, but also very sad so many people were left behind,” his wife Evgenia tells me. “I feel guilty.”

Memorial human rights organisation lists hundreds of political prisoners and she had been campaigning hard for a priority group.

“There are people with serious medical conditions, like Alexei Gorinov who’s missing part of his lung, who don’t have a lot of time.”

Her husband talks of those “still languishing in Putin’s Gulag” and the hope of further exchanges.

He had only been free himself for five minutes, when he strayed into controversy.

In statements made soon after landing in Germany, Vladimir Kara-Murza argued that sanctions in relation to the Ukraine war should be better targeted.

There was immediate uproar from Ukrainians who claimed his priority on walking free was to soften Russia’s punishment for waging war.

Kara-Murza calls it calibration.

“I need more information,” he admits. “I realise that February 2022 changed a lot.”

But he wants to know why a Russian human rights lawyer can’t travel to the Baltic states for a conference, when a Russian missile containing a Western-made chip can slam into a residential building in Ukraine.

“The responsibility for what the Putin regime is doing there is shared by Russian society, a large part of which chose to close their eyes to the abuses and repression,” he argues.

“But let’s not forget the responsibility of those Western countries who for years preferred to deal with Vladimir Putin and do business, knowing full well who he was and what he represented.”

In 2022, Vladimir Kara-Murza was arrested because he insisted on being inside Russia and speaking out. Now he’s barred from travelling, he worries about his right to call others there to action. He thinks he’ll feel “more constrained”.

But he will continue condemning the war on Ukraine.

“Putin can’t be allowed to win this war. Ukraine must win, and there should be more support from Western countries so that happens,” he argues.

Historically, he says, “windows of opportunity” for democratic change open after “disastrous military defeat”.

When his plane out of Russia was taking off, the FSB guard next to Kara-Murza told him to look out of the window.

“He said it was the last time I was seeing my motherland.” The activist laughed. “I said, I’m a historian, so I am sure I will be back in my country.”

“And it will be much quicker than you think.”

At the age of 23, Nigerian musician Udoh Ebaide Joy survived a traumatic car accident.

It damaged her spinal cord and for months she could not get around without a wheelchair.

But alongside the pain, Ms Joy felt an overwhelming sense of clarity.

“It made me decide that I will live my life to the fullest,” she told the BBC’s Africa Daily podcast.

In the time since she recovered, Ms Joy has put her energy – and all her savings – into travelling, even converting a 1980s Nissan van into a home on wheels.

But Ms Joy’s greatest adventure took place this year when, at the age of 32, she became the first documented black African woman to travel solo from East to West Africa on a motorcycle.

The Afrobeats singer did a 9,000km (5,600 miles) trip from the Kenyan city of Mombasa to Lagos in Nigeria, and she spent more than three months travelling.

Along the way she experienced gorgeous scenery, visa problems, an underground community of African bikers, lone rides through “scary” forests and an epic, tear-jerking homecoming celebration.

“Being alone and travelling on those roads, not understanding the language, I was always travelling with fear, which was good because my fears keep me alive,” she says.

The journey began earlier this year when Ms Joy flew to Kenya and bought a 250cc motorbike, which she named Rory.

Having never even ridden a standard bicycle, let alone a motorbike, she took a one-week training course in the capital, Nairobi, to prepare for her adventure.

Then, on 8 March, Ms Joy embarked on her odyssey through Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, the Republic of Congo, Cameroon and Nigeria.

She opted to avoid the Democratic Republic of Congo because of conflict in the east and other safety issues, as well as the poor condition of the roads.

Kenya was the perfect starting point – “the people, the friendliness” were second to none, she says.

The “crazy” roads of Kampala, Uganda’s capital, naturally threw her a few challenges.

However after this experience, she rode to her next destination – Rwanda, and was very impressed by its “seamless” border crossing.

When entering numerous other countries Ms Joy faced extra costs, bureaucracy and hours-long delays.

But Rwanda is one of the few nations on the continent with visa-free travel for all Africans.

It was also “a motorcyclist’s dream” – its mountainous terrain was perfect for practising how to lean from side to side while riding. This was something Ms Joy truly embraced and enjoyed.

Tanzania provided the most memorable meal of Ms Joy’s trip.

After riding for several hours without seeing a single person, she encountered a village in the middle of a forest. Local women at an eatery served a hungry Ms Joy some soup, a huge platter of roasted chicken, and a bowl of fluffy white rice.

“They were fascinated by a girl on a motorcycle and interested in my bad Swahili,” she laughs. “The conversation was so sweet, it just felt good to eat and to see people.”

Along with curious locals, Ms Joy encountered many sites of cultural significance and natural beauty on her trip. She was enthralled by the Victoria Falls on the Zambia-Zimbabwe border.

“It felt great! I’d heard about Victoria Falls forever – for heaven’s sake, it’s one of the seven [natural] wonders in our own universe,” she says.

She met bikers from various countries on her trip, and they joined her for short legs of her journey, recommending where to stay or eat.

An app for bikers also proved invaluable, allowing her to get tips and other advice.

When she started out Ms Joy had intended to camp at night by the roadsides, but soon gave up on the idea as unsafe – and half-way through her journey sent her tent and other camping equipment back home to reduce her baggage.

From Kampala onwards she stayed in cheap hotels – sometimes staying a few days in one place to explore.

“On days I rode, I did at least 300km,” she said, explaining she would often ride overnight.

In Angola, bikers threw her a party – to celebrate the journey she had taken so far.

“It’s a small community,” she says. “No matter where you are, if you get the right connection, you can meet any biker anywhere.”

Those without the ability – or inclination – to jump on a bike and ride alongside Ms Joy, were able to travel with her virtually.

She posted dozens of slick mini-vlogs on social media, captivating viewers across the world with her humour and honesty.

When she had an internet connection, she would send her recordings to someone back home, who would edit the footage and post videos for her.

By the end of the trip, she had reached more than 100,000 followers on Instagram.

Many of these supporters were women, who were proud to see Ms Joy overcoming gender-based stereotypes.

She showed the world she was a woman on a bike, fulfilling her own adventure, doing something for herself.

“Thank you for showing the WORLD how amazing women can be!” one commented.

Ms Joy did not face any discrimination whilst meeting people on her journey.

“People ask about the negativities, but I have not experienced the negatives,” she says.

“Yes, people are fascinated about a girl on a bike, but I’ve not had any bad experiences.”

The positivity she encountered throughout the journey peaked when she reached her final destination – Lagos, the main city in Nigeria.

Fellow bikers and other members of the public crowded the street to give her a hero’s welcome in an event organised by Nigeria’s arts and culture ministry.

“When I arrived, I couldn’t hold back my tears. People were dancing and cheering. I couldn’t contain my excitement,” Ms Joy remembers.

After sleeping “non-stop for three days”, she concludes that the trek changed her outlook on life.

“The trip taught me that I am resilient and tenacious enough to overcome any challenge that life throws at me,” she says.

“I had the best time of my life.”

She has no plans to hang up her leathers though. In just over a month, she will set off on a journey from Nigeria to Morocco.

Biking is a “lifetime lesson”, she explains – it has taken her to the most sublime places and introduced her to the most wonderful people.

• LISTEN: Udoh Ebaide Joy talks to Africa Daily
• Trekking 10,000km across Africa for a football match
• ‘Born to be wild’: Kenya’s female biker gang

US President Joe Biden met his senior national security team on Monday as concerns grew of a possible Iranian retaliatory attack on Israel grew.

Mr Biden said he had been briefed on preparations to support Israel should it be attacked, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken said officials were working “around the clock” to prevent an escalation.

Tensions have risen over the last week following the assassination of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh, for which Iran has blamed Israel and vowed “severe” retaliation. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the assassination.

Numerous countries, including the US and UK, have also told their citizens to leave Lebanon, from where it is feared Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia and political movement, could play a role in any response.

Mr Blinken told his G7 counterparts in a call on Sunday that Iran and Hezbollah could launch an attack on Israel within 24 to 48 hours, according to comments cited by US news site Axios.

On Monday evening, Mr Biden said he and Vice President Kamala Harris met senior security officials to discuss the situation.

“We received updates on threats posed by Iran and its proxies, diplomatic efforts to de-escalate regional tensions, and preparations to support Israel should it be attacked again,” he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

He added that steps being taken to defend US forces and respond to any attack against its personnel “in a manner and place of our choosing” were discussed, after several US personnel were injured at a military base in Iraq on Monday.

Speaking to reporters earlier in the day, Mr Blinken said officials were “engaged in intense diplomacy pretty much around the clock with a very simple message: All parties must refrain from escalation”.

“Escalation is not in anyone’s interests. It will only lead to more conflict, more violence, more insecurity,” he said.

He added that a ceasefire would “unlock possibilities for more enduring calm not only in Gaza itself, but in other areas where the conflict can spread”.

“It is urgent that all parties make the right choices in the hours and days ahead,” he said.

His words came after Mr Biden spoke to King Abdullah II of Jordan earlier in the day. They discussed “their efforts to de-escalate regional tensions, including through an immediate ceasefire and hostage release deal,” a statement from the White House said.

A joint statement from the G7 also expressed “deep concern at the heightened level of tension in the Middle East which threatens to ignite a broader conflict in the region”.

“No country or nation stands to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East,” it said.

Talks that had brought renewed hope of a ceasefire deal to end the conflict in Gaza have faltered following Haniyeh’s death – which capped a week of soaring tensions in the Middle East.

Things first escalated with the killing of 12 children and teenagers in a strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights some days ago. Israel accused Hezbollah and vowed “severe” retaliation, though Hezbollah denied it was involved.

Days later, Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah military commander, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Four others, including two children, were also killed.

And just hours later, Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Haniyeh was killed in a “strong blast” caused by a “short-range projectile” fired from outside a house where he was staying while visiting the capital, Tehran.

Israel has not commented on the death but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said afterwards that Israel delivered “crushing blows” to Iran’s proxy groups in recent days.

Following the killings in Lebanon and Iran, the IRGC said Israel would receive a “severe punishment at the appropriate time, place and manner”, while Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the conflict had entered a “new phase”.

It marks the closest the conflict has come to escalation since April, when Iran fired some 300 drones and missiles at Israel in response to an Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate in Syria that killed a number of senior military commanders.

The conflict in Gaza began following the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas and other militant groups, which saw around 1,200 people killed and another 251 taken back to Gaza as hostages.

Since the launch of Israel’s retaliatory ground invasion in Gaza, more than 38,400 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Hundreds of people have also been killed and tens of thousands displaced from their homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border by near-daily attacks between Israeli forces and Hezbollah.

On Monday, Jordan asked all airlines planning to land at its airports to carry an additional 45 minutes’ worth of fuel, a move believed to be a precaution in case Jordan has to close its airspace in the event of a regional conflict.

German flag carrier Lufthansa has suspended all flights to Tel Aviv, Tehran, and Beirut until and including 12 August.

US airline Delta has also paused flights to Tel Aviv until at least 31 August “due to ongoing conflict in the region”.

The Foreign Office currently advises against all travel to Lebanon and has urged British citizens in the country to leave.

It also advises against all travel to the northern area of Israel that shares a border with Lebanon.

On Monday, several US personnel were injured in a suspected rocket attack on an American military base in western Iraq.

US officials have not yet said who they believe was behind the attack.

A US judge has ruled Google acted illegally to crush its competition and maintain a monopoly on online search and related advertising.

The landmark decision on Monday is a major blow to Alphabet, Google’s parent company, and could reshape how technology giants do business.

Google was sued by the US Department of Justice in 2020 over its control of about 90% of the online search market.

It is one of several lawsuits that have been filed against the big tech companies as US antitrust authorities attempt to strengthen competition in the industry.

This case has at times been described as posing an existential threat to Google and its owner given its dominance of the search and online advertising business.

It is unclear yet what penalties Google and Alphabet will face as a result of the decision. The fines or other remedies will be decided in a future hearing.

The government has asked for “structural relief” – which could, in theory at least, mean the break-up of the company.

In his decision, US District Judge Amit Mehta said Google had paid billions to ensure it is the default search engine on smartphones and browsers.

“Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” Judge Mehta wrote in his 277-page opinion.

Alphabet said it plans to appeal against the ruling.

“This decision recognises that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available,” the statement from the company said.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland, the country’s top prosecutor, hailed the ruling as a “historic win for the American people”.

“No company – no matter how large or influential – is above the law,” Mr Garland said in a statement on Monday. “The Justice Department will continue to vigorously enforce our antitrust laws.”

Federal antitrust regulators have filed other pending lawsuits against Big Tech companies – including Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook, Amazon.com and Apple Inc – accusing them of operating unlawful monopolies.

Monday’s ruling comes after a 10-week trial in Washington DC, in which prosecutors accused Google of spending billions of dollars annually to Apple, Samsung, Mozilla and others to be pre-installed as the default search engine across platforms.

The US said Google typically pays more than $10bn (£7.8bn) a year for that privilege, securing its access to a steady stream of user data that helped maintain its hold on the market.

Doing so, prosecutors said, meant other companies have not had the opportunity or resources to meaningfully compete.

“The best testimony for that, for the importance of defaults, is Google’s cheque book,” argued Department of Justice lawyer Kenneth Dintzer during the trial.

Google’s search engine is a big revenue generator for the company, bringing in billions of dollars thanks in large part to advertising displayed on its results pages.

Google’s lawyers defended the company by saying that users are attracted to their search engine because they find it useful, and that Google is investing to make it better for consumers.

“Google is winning because it’s better,” said Google’s lawyer John Schmidtlein during closing arguments earlier this year.

Mr Schmidtlein also argued during the trial that Google still faces intense competition, not just from general search engine firms, such as Microsoft’s Bing, but more specialised sites and apps that people use to find restaurants, airline flights and more.

In his ruling, Judge Mehta concluded that being the default search engine is “extremely valuable real estate” for Google.

“Even if a new entrant were positioned from a quality standpoint to bid for the default when an agreement expires, such a firm could compete only if it were prepared to pay partners upwards of billions of dollars in revenue share,” Judge Mehta wrote.

Another case against the technology company over its advertising technology is scheduled to go to trial in September. In Europe, meanwhile, Google has been fined billions in monopoly cases.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned after weeks of deadly anti-government protests, putting an end to her more than two decades dominating the country’s politics.

Ms Hasina, 76, fled the country, reportedly landing in India on Monday.

Jubilant crowds took to the streets to celebrate the news, with some storming the prime ministerial palace, reportedly looting and vandalising parts of her former residence.

Hours after Ms Hasina’s resignation, President Mohammed Shahabuddin ordered the release of jailed former prime minister Khaleda Zia and all students detained during recent protests against a quota system for government jobs.

President Shahabuddin said he had chaired a meeting of army chiefs and political representatives.

He said an interim government would be formed, new elections called and a national curfew lifted.

In Dhaka on Monday, police and other government buildings were attacked and set on fire. Protesters attempted to tear down a statue of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Ms Hasina’s father.

Army and police units were deployed across the city. Mobile phone service was reportedly cut off for several hours before being restored.

On Monday, protesters were seen carrying out furniture from the prime minister’s residence.

Dozens were reported killed on Monday, although the precise toll remained unclear. The AFP news agency reported the toll as 66 dead, though local outlet the Dhaka Tribune said as many as 135 had been killed.

Ms Hasina’s departure leaves a vacuum in Bangladeshi politics, which has long been characterised by a rivalry between her Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

The country has experienced several military coups, most recently in 2007.

The US commended the army for its “restraint” and said an interim government should be formed. The EU urged an “orderly and peaceful transition” towards a democratically elected government.

There was no official reaction from neighbour and regional power India.

Debapriya Bhattacharya, a senior economist with the Centre for Policy Dialogue in Dhaka, told the BBC that while the resignation had been met with “euphoria” in the streets, attacks on the Hindu minority had escalated, posing an immediate challenge to the new authorities.

“There is a feeling that India completely backed Sheikh Hasina’s government. Protesters make no distinction between India and Hindu citizens of Bangladesh, which has already led to attacks on temples and people.

“Now there is a power vacuum, there is nobody to implement law and order. The new government will need to protect religious minorities.”

Ms Hasina’s allies said she would not return to the country’s politics. The former prime minister has spent a total of 20 years in office, first coming to power in 1996.

Her son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, told the BBC’s Newshour programme: “She’s in her late 70s. She is so disappointed that after all her hard work, for a minority to rise up against her, I think she’s done.

“My family and I are done.”

Critics say Ms Hasina’s rule was characterised by forced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and the crushing of opposition figures and government critics.

But Mr Wazed, who also served as a adviser to the prime minister on technology, defended his mother’s record.

“She has turned Bangladesh around in the last 15 years.

“When she took over power, it was considered a failing state. It was a poor country.

“Until today, it was considered one of the rising tigers of Asia.”

About 300 people have been killed since protests broke out a month ago over a quota system for government jobs. The demonstrations, met with harsh repression by government forces, developed into a broader anti-government movement.

Dr Chietigj Bajpaee, a senior research fellow at the Chatham House think tank, said the country’s high unemployment rates had made the quotas, which reserved a third of civil service jobs for descendants of veterans of the country’s 1971 independence war with Pakistan, a particularly salient political issue.

“Public sector job quotas – with 400,000 new graduates competing for 3,000 civil service jobs – became a lightning rod for anti-government unrest,” Dr Bajpaee said.

He added that the speed of events reflected frustration among Bangladeshi youth over the country’s “one-party rule” over the last 15 years.

“In a country with such a vibrant civil society, efforts to curb political freedoms and free speech were bound to trigger a blowback.”

Most of the quota was scaled back by the government following a Supreme Court ruling last month, but students continued to protest, demanding justice for those killed and injured, and Ms Hasina’ resignation.

Mr Bhattacharya said protesters now expected the new government to go through with their demands, including democratic reforms, better jobs and improvements to the education system.

Nearly 400 people have been arrested after six days of riots in parts of England and Northern Ireland, police say.

On Monday evening police were attacked in Plymouth as they attempted to keep rival protesters apart, petrol bombs were thrown at officers in Belfast and police dealt with unrest in the east of Birmingham.

Over the past week dozens of police officers were injured and shops, cars and homes damaged in disorder in the UK.

It erupted the night after three children were killed in Southport in a stabbing attack last Monday. This followed false rumours which spread online that a suspect was a Muslim asylum seeker.

Over the weekend the prime minister condemned the riots as “far-right thuggery” and on Monday he vowed to “ramp up” the law to deal with the violence.

• Analysis: Protests reveal deep-rooted anger, but UK is not at boiling point
• Watch: Six days of violence and disorder in the UK

In Plymouth, police said on Monday night there had been a “level of violence” shown towards officers and a police van had been damaged.

“We are taking action against individuals who are intent on criminality,” Devon and Cornwall police said.

Supt Russ Dawe added “several” officers had been injured. He said a number of arrests had been made for a “range of public order offences and assaults”.

Speaking at a media briefing, Supt Dawes said he wanted to reassure the community the force was “fully resourced at this time, with a strong police presence”.

Supt Dawe added that those intent on committing crimes and public order would be “dealt with robustly”.

He said a number of arrests had been made for a “range of public order offences and assaults”.

In Birmingham on Monday evening, there were disturbances after hundreds of people gathered in the Bordesley Green area of the city following false reports that a far-right march had been planned there.

Palestinian flags were waved and anti-English Defence League chants were heard.

A group of youths later broke away from the gathering and attacked several vehicles and a pub.

West Midlands Police released a statement late on Monday which said officers were investigating reports of an assault and damage to a pub.

The force said: “No arrests have been made at this stage but there were sporadic incidents and we are investigating reports of an assault, incidents of criminal damage to a pub on Stoney Lane, a car which had its windows smashed on Alcombe Grove, Stechford, and further criminal damage to a vehicle which had its tyres damaged on Belchers Lane, Bordesley Green.

“We are also investigating reports of a man who was in possession of an offensive weapon.”

Ch Supt Richard North added: “Fortunately rumours of the significant protest activity in the city didn’t materialise.

“There were several sporadic incidents of criminality during the evening and we will work hard to arrest those responsible.”

In South Belfast, PSNI officers came under attack as riot teams were deployed to Sandy Row.

It follows a weekend of violence which saw businesses damaged after an anti-immigration protest in the city on Saturday.

On Monday, at least one petrol bomb and stones were thrown towards officers.

Police were stood down just after midnight.

On Monday, a week on from the attack in Southport in Merseyside, crowds gathered for a vigil there to remember the three young girls who were killed.

Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine were attacked as they attended a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, and 10 people were seriously injured.

Chris Rimmer, the cousin of Leanne Lucas – the yoga teacher whose dance event was attacked – told the BBC the riots should stop and were “disgusting”.

He told the BBC: “Why riot, it’s not going to help,” adding he would tell rioters to “just stop it. It’s pathetic… Just go home”.

In contrast he said tributes, flowers, vigils and support had given his family “strength” and had put “a smile” on his face.

The unrest in Belfast, Plymouth and Birmingham on Monday came after a day in which some of the first people who have been charged in connection with the riots appeared in courts across the UK.

Among those were Leanne Hodgson, 43, of Holborn Road, Sunderland, and Josh Kellett, 29, of Southcroft, Washington, who pleaded guilty to violent disorder in Sunderland at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court.

Andrew Smith, 41, of High Street East in Sunderland, also admitted the same offence at Newcastle Crown Court. All three will be sentenced next month

Following disorder in Liverpool on Saturday, a 14-year-old boy was among those who also appeared in court on Monday.

He pleaded guilty to violent disorder at a youth court in Liverpool.

A total of 378 arrests have so far been made nationally since the rioting began on Tuesday, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council

Police say they are working “around the clock” to identify and arrest more people. Arrests were made across the country:

• Southport: Ten suspects have appeared at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court in relation to disorder in Southport on 30 July and in Liverpool over the weekend.

• London: The Metropolitan Police said 111 people were arrested in central London on Wednesday evening during a demonstration in Whitehall. Offences included violent disorder, assaults on officers, possession of knives and offensive weapons, and breach of protest conditions.

• Middlesbrough: Cleveland police confirmed on Monday that a total of 43 arrests have been made so far in connection with disorder in the area.

• Sunderland: Police say 14 people have been arrested. Six people have appeared at South Tyneside Magistrate’s Court.

• Manchester: Greater Manchester Police confirmed that 19 people were arrested and eight people, including teenagers, have been charged, after rival demonstrations were held at the weekend. Charges include possessing weapons and assault.

• Bristol: Police say at least 16 people have been arrested. Two men have been charged with a Section 4 public order offence, one had an additional charge of possession of the Class A drug cocaine.

• Hartlepool: At least 11 people are reported to have been arrested. One man has pled guilty to violent disorder at Teeside Magistrates’ Court, while a woman charged with the same offence did not enter a plea.

• Rotherham: At least six people have been arrested. One person has been charged, with six still in custody.

• Hull: Humberside police confirmed on Monday that 29 people have been arrested so far. One man has appeared in court charged with violent disorder, three counts of robbery, two counts of burglary and criminal damage.

• Hampshire: Police said over the weekend that five men were arrested over disorder during a protest at a hotel housing asylum seekers in Aldershot on Wednesday.

• Belfast: Four men have been arrested and charged with a range of offences related to the disorder.

Sir Keir announced on Monday a “standing army” of specialist police officers would be ready to be deployed in the event of further riots.

Speaking after an emergency cabinet meeting Sir Keir said he wanted the “earliest” naming of those charged, and that the criminal justice system would be “ramped up”.

“Whatever the apparent motivation this is not protest this is pure violence and we will not tolerate attacks on mosques or our Muslim communities,” he said.

Sir Keir did not explain what he meant by a standing army.

A Downing Street spokesperson said later there were no plans for the military to be involved

The government was working with social media companies to ensure misinformation and disinformation is removed, the spokesperson said.

Neil Basu – former head of counter-terrorism at the Metropolitan Police – told the BBC he thought some of the rioting amounted to “serious acts of violence designed to cause terror to a section of our community”.

Mr Basu added that he felt some acts had “crossed the line into terror”.

The dramatic resignation of Bangladesh’s long-serving prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her flight to India ironically underscore the close ties between the two countries.

Ms Hasina ruled Bangladesh, a nation of 170 million, for close to 15 years until a protest by students to abolish civil service quotas snowballed into a broader and violent anti-government movement. At least 280 people have died in clashes between police and anti-government protesters so far.

Back in June, Ms Hasina visited India twice in two weeks.

Her first visit was to attend Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s oath-taking ceremony. After that, she made a two-day state visit, the first by a head of government to India after Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition’s third consecutive victory in parliamentary elections.

“We have met 10 times in the last one year. However, this meeting is special because Sheikh Hasina is the first state guest after the third term of our government,” Mr Modi said at a joint news conference.

The bonhomie was unmistakable. “Bangladesh greatly values its relations with India,” said Ms Hasina. “Come to Bangladesh to witness what all we have done and plan to do”.

India has a special relationship with Bangladesh. The neighbours share a 4,096km (2,545 miles)-border and linguistic, economic and cultural ties. Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, was born after a war in 1971 with West Pakistan (now Pakistan), with India supporting Bengali nationalists. Bilateral trade between the two countries is around $16bn (£12bn), with India being Bangladesh’s top export destination in Asia.

To be sure, the ties are not perfect: differences arise over Bangladesh’s close relationship with China, border security, migration issues and some Bangladeshi officials’ discomfort with Mr Modi’s Hindu nationalist politics.

After Ms Hasina’s resignation, Bangladesh’s army chief Waker-uz-Zaman has announced plans for an interim government. He will meet President Mohammed Shahabuddin and reports say he’s hoping for a solution by the day’s end after speaking with opposition parties, led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Leadership of the interim government remains unclear.

So far, India has only described the violent protests as an “internal matter” of Bangladesh. Can it say – and do – more about the unfolding developments?

“NOTHING. Nothing for now,” wrote Happymon Jacob, an Indian foreign policy expert, on X (formerly Twitter) on what India should be doing.

“It is still unfolding. And, it’s not about India; it’s about politics in Bangladesh. Let them figure it out.”

Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center, an American think-tank, believes Ms Hasina’s resignation and flight are “close to a worst-case scenario for India, as it has long viewed any alternative to Ms Hasina and her party as a threat to Indian interests”.

Mr Kugelman told the BBC that Delhi will likely reach out to Bangladesh’s military to convey its concerns and hope its interests are taken into account in an interim government.

“Beyond that, India will have to watch and wait nervously. It may support free and fair elections in the interest of stability, but it doesn’t want the BNP – even if it has grown weak and divided – to return. Delhi likely wouldn’t oppose a long period of interim rule for that reason.”

Ms Hasina’s sudden downfall would have caught her allies off guard.

The daughter of Bangladesh’s founding president and the world’s longest-serving female head of government, Ms Hasina led her country for nearly 15 years. She had overseen one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and a major boost in living standards in South Asia.

But her rule had also been marked by accusations of forced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and repression of the opposition. She and her party Awami League denied these charges, while her government blamed opposition parties for fuelling protests.

In January, Ms Hasina won her fourth consecutive term in a controversial election. The opposition BNP boycotted the vote, and allegations of a rigged poll were compounded by mass arrests of its leaders and supporters.

Some of the anti-India sentiment in Bangladesh stems from India’s support for Ms Hasina’s government, which critics view as interference in domestic politics. Historical grievances and accusations of overreach also contribute to some of the negative perception.

Ali Riaz, a Bangladeshi-American political scientist at Illinois State University, told the BBC that India’s silence is “not surprising as it has been the principal backer of the Hasina government for the past 14 years and practically contributed to the erosion of democracy in Bangladesh”.

“The unqualified support to Sheikh Hasina has acted as a bulwark against any pressure on her for human rights transgressions. India has benefitted economically and seen Ms Hasina as the only way to keep the country within India’s sphere of influence.”

India sees the current Bangladeshi opposition and its allies as “dangerous Islamic forces”. Ms Hasina cracked down on anti-India militants on her soil and granted transit rights to secure trade routes to five Indian states which border Bangladesh.

“A peaceful, stable and prosperous Bangladesh is in India’s interests. India should do everything to ensure that those conditions are maintained. Essentially you want to keep peace and calm,” Harsh Vardhan Shringla, a former Indian foreign secretary and high commissioner to Bangladesh, told the BBC, hours before Ms Hasina resigned.

For the moment, the situation is uncertain. “India doesn’t have too many options at this point in time,” a senior diplomat told the BBC. “We have to tighten control on our borders. Anything else would be construed as interference”.

Japanese shares rebounded in Tuesday morning trade after plunging on Monday in a rout that sent shockwaves through global financial markets.

The Nikkei 225 stock index rose by as much as 10% after slumping by over 12% the previous day.

Monday’s market rout in Tokyo came after the Bank of Japan’s second rate hike in 17 years sent the yen soaring against the dollar making Japanese stocks – and the country’s exports – more expensive for foreign investors and buyers.

Stocks in the US, the UK and Europe also fell on Monday due to fears that the American economy is heading for a slowdown.

Shares in South Korea were also regaining ground on Tuesday. The Kospi stock index was up nearly 5% after falling 8.8% on Tuesday – its worst trading session since the global financial crisis of 2008.

Taiwan’s main stock index was trading more than 1.5% higher, after a record 8.4% drop on Monday.

• Earlier in New York, the technology-heavy Nasdaq index opened 6.3% lower but those losses eased during the day and the index ended the session down 3.4%.

• The S&P 500 fell 3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 2.6% down by the end of trading on Monday.

• In Europe, the CAC-40 in Paris trimmed earlier losses to end 1.4% lower while Frankfurt’s DAX and the UK’s FTSE 100 lost about 2% each.

Weak jobs data in the US on Friday sparked concerns about growth in the world’s largest economy.

It also stoked speculation about when, and by how much, the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates.

“Markets are very volatile at the moment and will likely stay volatile until the Fed decision in September. So we wouldn’t rule out rapid swings in both directions,” said Stefan Angrick, a senior economist with Moody’s Analytics.

There are also concerns that shares in big technology companies, particularly those investing heavily in artificial intelligence (AI), have been overvalued and are now facing difficulties.

Last week, chipmaker Intel announced major layoffs, as well as disappointing financial results.

There is also speculation that rival Nvidia, which has been one of the main beneficiaries of the boom in demand for AI technology, will delay its latest product launch.

Vice-President Kamala Harris is expected to announce her running mate by Tuesday morning, ending two weeks of intense speculation as the US hurtles towards November’s presidential election.

Ms Harris interviewed several top contenders in Washington DC over the weekend, including Josh Shapiro, Tim Walz and Mark Kelly.

Her choice will join her on a whirlwind five-day tour of seven cities this week as Ms Harris ramps up her campaign in key battleground states.

The most recent poll from CBS, the BBC’s US partner, shows Ms Harris and Trump in a tight race nationally, with the Democrat holding a one-point lead over her Republican challenger.

The poll released on Sunday shows Trump and Ms Harris tied in battleground states, where the former president held a five-point lead while Joe Biden remained in the race.

Following the announcement expected on Tuesday morning, a campaign video will be released before Ms Harris and her new running mate jointly hold a rally in Philadelphia that evening.

She reportedly met her vetting team – led by former US attorney general Eric Holder – over the weekend and received in-depth presentations on their findings, including potential political vulnerabilities.

She met three of those candidates – Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro – on Sunday.

She also met another top contender – Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg – on Friday and is understood to have spoken with other candidates virtually, US media report.

On Monday afternoon, in response to a report that Ms Harris had made her pick, a campaign spokesperson, Kevin Munoz, wrote on social media that she was still deciding.

“We understand the excitement and interest here, but VP Harris has made no decision on a running mate yet!” he said.

It comes as the DNC finished a virtual roll call vote that saw Ms Harris officially become the first black and South Asian American nominee for a major US party’s White House campaign.

The Harris campaign has met with a flurry of lobbying efforts on behalf of – or criticising – the candidates.

Mr Shapiro, for example, has drawn sharp opposition from some left-wing groups for his support of private school vouchers in Pennsylvania – a Republican-backed proposal to send $100m to families for private school tuition and school supplies – as well as his pro-Israel views.

• Who might Harris pick as her running mate?
• JD Vance was once ‘never Trump’. Now he’s his running mate
• Kamala Harris formally chosen as Democratic nominee

The Philadelphia event will be followed by a string of campaign events across Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona, before ending with a campaign event in Las Vegas, Nevada, on 10 August.

Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, have both suggested that Ms Harris’ choice of running mate will ultimately have no impact on the upcoming election.

In an episode of the “Full Send” podcast aired on Friday, Mr Vance said he believed the vice-presidential choice “doesn’t really matter, as much as this hits my ego”.

“People are going to vote primarily for Donald Trump or for Kamala Harris,” he said. “That’s the way these things go.”

Similarly, Trump has largely shrugged off questions about Ms Harris’s choice, arguing last week that the vice-presidential role “does not have any impact”.

On Sunday, however, Trump criticised Mr Shapiro on Fox News, saying that Ms Harris could lose “her little Palestinian base” if she chooses him.

Mr Shapiro, who during his student days wrote in a college magazine that Palestinians were “too battle minded”, told reporters on Friday that he now supported a two-state solution.

• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
• ANALYSIS: Three ways Trump will try to end Harris honeymoon
• SWING STATES: Where the election could be won and lost
• EXPLAINER: RFK Jr and others running for president
• VOTERS: US workers in debt to buy groceries

Filipino gymnast Carlos Yulo won his second Olympic gold medal in two days, becoming only the second athlete to take home the Games’ top prize for his country.

A three-bedroom condo, thousands of dollars and a lifetime of free ramen are among the flurry of gifts that the government and local brands have pledged to reward the 24-year-old with for his historic wins in the men’s floor exercise and vault events.

Mr Yulo’s feat has also made him the country’s latest social media sensation.

“Another gold for the Philippines! History is made again! Ang galing galing mo! [You are incredible!]” wrote a user on X.

Mr Yulo scored an average of 15.116 on the vault on Sunday, ahead of Armenia’s Artur Davtyan (14.966) and Britain’s Harry Hepworth (14.949).

He punched his arms into the air and embraced fellow athletes on hearing his score. He went into the competition without high expectations, he had told reporters.

“I was just hoping to perform well. I didn’t really expect a medal,” Mr Yulo had said.

“It really felt like a bonus for me. It’s crazy, because last night I couldn’t sleep. I was so hyped because I had won that gold medal [the day before].

Barely 24 hours ago, Mr Yulo had scooped the gold for the men’s floor exercise with 15 points, edging out Artem Dolgopyat of Israel by just 0.034 of a point. Mr Dolgopyat had been the defending Olympic champion and world title holder.

Mr Yulo’s double gold feat is now the most discussed topic on X, formerly known as Twitter, in the Philippines.

“It took 100 years for us to hear Lupang Hinirang [the Philippines’ national anthem] two nights in a row while the world is watching. Thank you so much for the pride and historic moment!” wrote an X user.

A century has passed since the Philippines’ debut in the Olympics in 1924. Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz earned the country’s first Olympic gold medal in Tokyo three years ago.

Philippine celebrities and public figures, including president Ferdinand Marcos Jr and First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, also congratulated Mr Yulo.

“No words can express how proud we are of you, Caloy. You have achieved GOLD for the Philippines not once, but twice! Filipinos all over the world stood united, cheering and rooting for you,” Mr Marcos wrote on Facebook.

The Philippine government will hand the gymnast 10 million Philippine pesos ($173,300; £135,400) – a reward promised to any gold medalists – while a real estate firm has promised him a fully furnished three-bedroom unit at McKinley Hill, the largest condominium development in metropolitan Manila.

The House of Representatives has pledged to give Mr Yulo an additional 6 million pesos in cash incentives, with speaker of the lower house, Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, describing him as a “sports hero” and “national treasure”.

Even medical clinics and universities have rolled out the red carpet for the national hero – a gastroenterologist has offered Mr Yulo free consultations and colonoscopies for life while the University of Mindanao has pledged free university credits.

Also awaiting him are lifetime supplies of ramen, mac and cheese and grilled chicken offered by various restaurant chains.

Meanwhile, the capital city Manila, where Mr Yulo was born and raised, is preparing a “hero’s welcome” for him.

“The grandest welcome will greet him and all our Paris Olympians. When we meet him, we will present Carlos Yulo cash incentives, awards and symbols of the eternal gratitude of the proud capital city of the Philippines,” the city’s mayor, Honey Lacuna, said.

A helicopter pilot from New Zealand has been killed in the Indonesian region of Papua, police have said.

Glen Malcolm Conning, 50, was killed by a pro-independence group known as Free Papua Organisation (OPM), according to police.

OPM spokesman Sebby Sambom told the BBC that he had not been able to verify the Indonesian authorities’ claim.

It comes nearly a year and a half after the abduction of another pilot from New Zealand, Phillip Mehrtens, who remains in captivity.

Authorities say the group responsible for Mr Conning’s death is the same that is holding Mr Mehrtens.

Mr Conning was killed when rebels rounded up those on board the helicopter, including four passengers, after they landed in an isolated area in the Central Papua province, police said in a statement. The passengers are reported to be safe.

The spokesperson for the police special operation in Papua, Bayu Suseno, claimed the pilot’s body was taken to the helicopter and then burned along with the aircraft in Alama District, which can only by accessed by helicopter.

Mr Conning was shuttling passengers for a private company.

OPM spokesman Mr Sambom told the BBC that despite being unable to verify the claims, “if it was true, then the pilot is a spy because we have declared that the area is a war zone”.

In February 2023, separatist fighters in Indonesia’s Papua region took another New Zealand pilot hostage. Phillip Mehrtens, 37, was captured shortly after landing his plane in the remote mountainous area of Nduga to drop off passengers.

Since then, Mr Mehrtens has been held captive by West Papua National Liberation Army fighters (TPNPB) – the armed wing of the OPM – who also attacked a number of Indonesian troops sent to rescue him, killing at least one.

These hostile acts come in the context of a long-running, often brutally violent conflict between the Indonesian government and West Papua’s indigenous people.

Papuan rebels have been seeking independence from Indonesia for decades, and have previously issued threats and attacked aircraft which they believe are carrying personnel and supplies for Jakarta, the country’s capital.

The region is divided into six provinces and is separate from independent Papua New Guinea.

Previously a Dutch colony, West Papua declared independence in 1961. However, Indonesia took over two years later and was formally given control in a UN-supervised vote in 1969.

The UN vote is widely considered illegitimate as only about 1,000 Papuans took part in it. A pro-independence movement began shortly afterwards, which continues to this day.

Robert F Kennedy Jr’s independent White House bid was buoyed by Democratic Party chaos and dissatisfaction with two familiar candidates. But bizarre headlines, a new opponent and limited cash have left him struggling.

The 70-year-old’s recent confession about dumping a dead bear in Central Park is just the latest strange twist to a campaign that was already sagging in the polls.

Mr Kennedy seems determined to test the proposition that there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

In a move to get ahead of a lengthy profile published on Monday in the New Yorker magazine, he released a video where he discusses an accident involving a bear cub a decade ago – and the unlikely series of events that followed.

In the video, Mr Kennedy is speaking to actress and comedian Roseanne Barr over a half-eaten meal of takeaway beef ribs. He describes how he watched a nearby car hit and kill a bear cub while on a day trip hunting with a falcon.

He said he initially wanted to take the dead animal home and skin it. After his schedule changed, he decided to discard the carcass in New York City’s Central Park – along with an old bicycle, in an effort to make it look like a cycling accident.

When someone discovered the bear and the bicycle the next day, it became a headline story in the New York City tabloids and television news programmes.

Needless to say, the entire episode – which sounds like a youthful practical joke gone wrong, but took place when the candidate was 60 – is odd.

The falconry trip. The photograph, published in the New Yorker, of RFK Jr posing with the dead bear. The planned skinning and eating. The animal’s final resting place in New York’s famous urban park. Even the video itself with Ms Barr – who has herself been embroiled in more than a few controversies – holding a teacup and nodding along as Mr Kennedy recounted his tale.

His explanation, that the decision to pick up the dead bear was his “little bit of redneck” coming out, doesn’t quite fit for the nephew of former President John F Kennedy – a member of an American political dynasty.

All this is standard fare for Mr Kennedy, however, whose top news lines during his campaign have veered from scandalous to plain bizarre.

In May, the New York Times ran an article revealing he had told lawyers involved in his 2012 divorce proceedings that he was suffering from a memory issue relating to a dead brain parasite.

In mid-July, Mr Kennedy texted an apology to a former family nanny after Vanity Fair magazine published a story in which she accused him of unwelcome sexual advances.

“I have no memory of this incident but I apologise sincerely for anything I ever did that made you feel uncomfortable,” he wrote.

In comments to the media, he said the Vanity Fair article contained a lot of “garbage” but conceded that he had a “very, very rambunctious youth” and that he was “not a church boy”.

There was a point earlier this year when Mr Kennedy – who launched his independent presidential bid after initially running for the Democratic nomination – was averaging around 15% in presidential preference polls. He narrowly missed qualifying for the first presidential debate in late June.

Mr Kennedy appeared to be capitalising on voter dissatisfaction with both Donald Trump and Joe Biden. His pitch blended anti-establishment and anti-corporate rhetoric with liberal social positions and a heavy dose of environmentalism and controversial vaccine scepticism.

With Mr Biden’s dismal performance during that first debate, the door may have opened for Mr Kennedy to elbow his way into the American political conversation.

Instead, he virtually disappeared off the presidential campaign trial.

He has spent little on advertising and grassroots organising. His biggest headlines involved the aforementioned brain worms, sex-harassment allegations and bear-cub escapades.

Meanwhile, his polling support has dropped to the low single digits.

According to Clifford Young, president of Ipsos public affairs, Mr Kennedy’s decline was inevitable, even without all distracting headlines.

“He was a protest option,” he said. “There was a lot of indifference when it came to the two candidates. People didn’t like either choice and it was an expression of indifference or disdain.”

Now, he says, Democrats and Republicans have consolidated their political support.

• EXPLAINER: RFK Jr and others running for president
• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
• ANALYSIS: Three ways Trump will try to end Harris honeymoon
• SWING STATES: Where the election could be won and lost
• VOTERS: US workers in debt to buy groceries

Mr Kennedy was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the Republican National Convention in late July, where he had a telephone conversation with the former president.

According to media reports, Mr Kennedy offered to endorse the former president in exchange for a role in his next administration – an offer Trump declined.

At this point, it seems unlikely that Mr Kennedy will generate much interest when Americans head to the polls in November. Even a modest performance could tip the presidential race, however, if that support comes in one of the key battleground states where the independent candidate is on the ballot.

In 2016, Green Party candidate Jill Stein received more votes than the difference between Trump and Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan – the three decisive states in that race. If a fraction of Green Party candidate Ralph Nader’s Florida support had gone to the Democrats, Al Gore would have won the White House in 2000.

Mr Young said Mr Kennedy’s appeal is different from those two notable Green Party candidates, however. He is pulling mostly from the disaffected centre of American politics – low propensity voters who tilt slightly to the right.

The Green Party candidates, on the other hand, were damaging the Democrats by pulling almost exclusively from the left.

Mr Kennedy could still play the spoiler, but it would have to be another extremely close race. And, in the meantime, his chance to shape his campaign’s direction on a larger scale seem to have been buried under an avalanche of strangeness.