With one viral line on cable TV – “these guys are just weird” – Tim Walz vaulted into contention for the job of Kamala Harris’s running mate.

The 60-year-old brings with him a folksy, plain-spoken and sharp-tongued approach to taking on the Republican opposition.

He also comes with a compelling resume – a public school teacher, football coach and National Guardsman before he entered politics.

His political experience, representing a Republican-leaning district in Congress and then later passing left-wing policies as Minnesota’s governor, could have broad appeal at a time when American politics is so polarised.

A native of rural Nebraska, Mr Walz farmed and hunted in his summertimes and enlisted in the Army National Guard at 17. He would serve in the volunteer force for 24 years.

His father, a public school administrator, encouraged him to join the military before he died from lung cancer when Mr Walz was 19.

The Minnesota governor has spoken of how Social Security survivor benefits sustained his mother, and how the GI Bill paid for his college education.

Armed with teaching degrees, Mr Walz took on a one-year teaching post in China around the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

He later honeymooned in the country with wife Gwen Whipple and also organised summer educational trips to China for US students.

After returning home to Nebraska, Mr Walz became a teacher and American football coach until his wife – another teacher at the school – drew him back to her native Minnesota. They now have two children.

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As a coach at Mankato West High School, Mr Walz helped build up an American football programme that led the school to its first state championship.

He also earned plaudits for agreeing to be the faculty adviser for the school’s gay-straight alliance at a time when homosexuality was largely frowned upon.

He first ran for office in a largely agricultural district that spans across southern Minnesota, which is fairly rural and Republican-leaning.

But Mr Walz campaigned as a moderate who cared about public service and veterans’ advocacy, leading to an election upset.

Over his 12 years in Congress, it was hard to label his ideology.

He voted in favour of the Affordable Care Act, co-sponsored pro-labour measures, including a bill to raise the minimum wage, and backed an unsuccessful cap-and-trade effort for reducing carbon emissions.

But he also found common cause with Republicans.

He voted to continue funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, supported tighter vetting of refugees entering the US, and tried to block the Obama-era bailout of banks and car companies after the 2008 financial crash.

Once endorsed by the pro-gun National Rifle Association (NRA), which donated to his campaign, he spoke out in favour of an assault weapons ban after the Parkland school shooting and lost their backing.

Mr Walz won the 2018 Minnesota governor’s race by more than 11 points but his first term was overshadowed by the Covid pandemic and the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.

Republicans heavily criticised Mr Walz for being slow to deploy the National Guard even as some protests grew violent.

But the governor won re-election and his second term has overseen a busy period with Democrats controlling the state legislature by a single seat.

Democrats have enshrined abortion rights, enacted paid family and sick leave, strengthened gun laws, funded universal free school meals and invested in affordable housing.

The frenetic activity caught the eye of former President Barack Obama who wrote: “If you need a reminder that elections have consequences, check out what’s happening in Minnesota.”

Largely unknown on the national scene, Mr Walz has quickly gathered buzz in recent weeks for his acerbic descriptions of Republicans.

“These are weird people on the other side,” he recently told MSNBC, a label that has been widely repeated. “They want to ban books. They want to be in your [doctor’s] exam room.”

But Republicans have been quick to characterise what he has done in Minnesota as too radical for ordinary Americans.

Tom Emmer, the third-highest ranking Republican in the US House of Representatives, accused Mr Walz of trying “to turn Minnesota into Kamala Harris’ home state of California”.

But allies, including labour leaders, believe Mr Walz can broaden Ms Harris’s appeal to rural and working class voters.

Angie Craig, a House Democrat locked in a competitive race for re-election, praised Mr Walz as “a battle-tested leader”.

As “a proven winner who has never lost an election across many tough races”, she told the BBC she believed he would be the best possible addition to the Harris ticket.

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An Australian father-of-three was killed by a crocodile after falling into a river when a path gave way, his family have said.

Dr Dave Hogbin was on holiday in Queensland with his wife and three boys when a riverbank gave way and he fell into the Annan River in Cooktown.

His wife tried to pull him out of the water, but she too began slipping down the river bank, prompting him to let go of her arm. His family called him a “hero”, hailing his “final selfless act”.

Queensland Police said they believed human remains found in a crocodile in Cooktown to be of a 40-year-old man, from New South Wales, who went missing on Saturday. The remains are yet to be formally identified.

Writing for News.com.au, journalist Alexis Carey, sister-in-law of Dr Hogbin, said his family wanted to speak out to raise awareness over how dangerous the area is and so his children “know exactly how amazing a man he really was”.

The GP, from Newcastle, New South Wales, had been on a camping holiday with his wife Jane and three sons – aged seven, five and two – when he was taken by a 4.9m (16ft) crocodile on Saturday afternoon, she wrote.

Clearing up an initial suggestion from police that he had been fishing, Ms Carey said the family had been walking along a path on a 5m high (16ft) river bank when a portion of it gave way and he was unable to get out of the water.

She said his wife, also a GP, slid down to pull Dr Hogbin out and was able to grab his arm, but she also began slipping into the river herself.

“Dave’s final, decisive act was to let go of Jane’s arm when he realised she was falling in, despite knowing she was his only lifeline. Within moments, he was taken,” Ms Carey said.

“Dave’s brave decision in that terrifying moment very likely saved his wife’s life, ensuring she was able to return to their boys.”

She said the fact his children did not witness their dad’s final moments was a “small piece of consolation”.

Dr Hogbin’s wife, Jane, said: “We were just enjoying a standard day of our holiday and everything just changed within 30 seconds. He wasn’t doing anything wrong – in fact, he was doing everything right, and this still happened…

“He saved me – his last act was to not pull me in with him.”

Paying tribute to her husband, she described him as a dedicated father and “fiercely loyal and protective”.

A GoFundMe page set up to help support the family has raised more than A$56,600 (£28,880).

Queensland Police said the remains found in the crocodile would be tested further to aid identification.

A report for the coroner is being prepared and the search has been suspended.

Sir Keir Starmer has become embroiled in a war of words with Elon Musk, after the tech billionaire suggested that “civil war is inevitable” following violent unrest in the UK.

The owner of X, formerly Twitter, posted the remarks on the platform in response to a video showing people aiming fireworks at police.

The prime minister’s spokesperson said there was “no justification” for Mr Musk’s comments, adding there was more that social media companies “can and should be doing”.

Mr Musk then replied to a post on X from the prime minister – in which Sir Keir said he would not tolerate attacks on mosques or Muslim communities – asking: “Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?”

Mr Musk also shared a video of a person purportedly being arrested for offensive comments online, asking: “Is this Britain or the Soviet Union?”

He also replied to a post criticising UK policing, suggesting the police’s response “does seem one-sided”.

Justice Minister Heidi Alexander has also weighed in against Mr Musk, who has a long history of making controversial remarks online, for his “totally unjustifiable” and “pretty deplorable” comments.

Disorder has now lasted almost a week, following the fatal stabbing of three girls in Southport. The subsequent unrest in towns and cities across England and in parts of Northern Ireland has been fuelled by misinformation online, the far-right and anti-immigration sentiment.

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When asked about accusations of two-tier policing in the UK, Ms Alexander said that was a “baseless assertion” that does a “disservice to police men and women who go out to do their jobs and uphold the rule of law”.

She added social media companies had a “moral responsibility” to call for calm and help clamp down on misinformation.

The PM’s spokesperson also said social media firms “have a responsibility” to ensure criminal activity – including from those outside the UK – is not being shared online and state actors may be amplifying misinformation.

But they would not say which countries the government believes are behind the posts.

Meanwhile, BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, has urged media regulator Ofcom to consider fining X after this weekend’s disorder.

Adam Leon Smith, a fellow of BCS, said: “When misinformation leads to riots and unrest, there must be consequences. It is easy to argue that X has shown disregard for public safety in hosting such content.

“We urge Ofcom to enforce the Online Safety Act as soon as they can, with the full weight of the law and levy significant fines if they find mismanagement on the platform.”

On Monday, Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said he had met representatives from TikTok, Facebook’s parent company Meta, Google and X “to make clear their responsibility to continue to work with us to stop the spread of hateful misinformation and incitement”.

The Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has also said the government would not tolerate “arm chair thuggery” and social media companies need to “take responsibility” over online posts encouraging criminality.

The BBC has approached X, Meta, TikTok, Snap, Telegram and Signal for comment.

A well-placed source at Snap, the company which runs the social media platform Snapchat, told BBC News it has not been contacted by the UK government following the disorder.

Snapchat says it has 21 million monthly users in the UK.

Offences concerning incitement under UK law predate social media, and are listed under the Public Order Act 1986.

This may include provoking violence and harassment, as well as engaging in rioting.

The Online Safety Act, which became law in 2023 but has not yet fully come into effect, will require social media firms to “take robust action against illegal content and activity”, including “racially or religiously aggravated” offences as well as inciting violence.

The criminal offences introduced by the act will cover sending “threatening communications” online, and sharing “false information intended to cause non-trivial harm”.

On Monday, Sir Keir emphasised that “criminal law applies online as well as offline”.

Mr Musk’s comments have drawn criticism from some online, with satirist Armando Iannucci saying the Tesla and Space X CEO had been “taken in by your own platform, which amplifies noise at the expense of facts”.

Sunder Katwala, director of think tank British Future, said the post was “spreading a narrative that is crucial to socialising people with fairly extreme view towards condoning violence to protect their group”.

He said there needs to be “strong responses from government, Ofcom, and parliament” to the comments.

An Ofcom spokesperson told BBC News it is “moving quickly” to implement the Online Safety Act, so it can be enforced “as soon as possible”.

“When it comes fully into force, tech firms will have to assess the risk of illegal content on their platforms, take steps to stop it appearing and act quickly to remove it when they become aware of it,” they said.

“We expect the illegal harms duties to come into force from around the end of the year… and the additional duties on the largest services in 2026.”

Bangladesh’s parliament has been dissolved, a day after prime minister Sheikh Hasina was forced from power.

Ms Hasina resigned and fled the country after weeks of student-led protests spiralled into deadly unrest.

The dissolution of parliament, a key demand of protesters, paves the way for establishing an interim government.

Bangladeshis are waiting to see what comes next, as the country’s military chief is holding talks with political leaders and protest organisers.

According to local media, more than 100 people died in violent clashes across Bangladesh on Monday, the single deadliest day since mass demonstrations began.

Hundreds of police stations were also torched, with the Bangladesh Police Service Association (BPSA) declaring a strike “until the security of every member of the police is secure”.

The group also sought to place the blame at the door of authorities, saying they were “forced to fire”.

Overall, more than 400 people are believed to have died, as protests were met with harsh repression by government forces.

The protests began in early July with peaceful demands from university students to abolish quotas in civil service jobs, but snowballed into a broader anti-government movement.

Weeks of unrest culminated in the storming of the prime minister’s official residence, not long after Ms Hasina had fled to neighbouring India, ending nearly 15 years of rule.

Bangladeshi leaders are under pressure to establish an interim government to avoid a power vacuum that could lead to further clashes.

Within hours of her resignation, Bangladesh’s army chief Gen Waker-uz-Zaman pledged that an interim administration would be formed, adding on state television that “it is time to stop the violence”.

Student leaders have been clear they will not accept a military-led government, pushing for Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus to become the interim government’s chief adviser.

Mr Yunus, who agreed to take up the role, said: “When the students who sacrificed so much are requesting me to step in at this difficult juncture, how can I refuse?”

He is returning to Dhaka from Paris, where he is undergoing a minor medical procedure, according to his spokesperson.

Meanwhile, ex-prime minister and key opposition leader Khaleda Zia was released from years of house arrest, a presidential statement said.

She chairs the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which boycotted elections in 2014 and again in 2024, saying free and fair elections were not possible under Ms Hasina.

The BNP wanted the polls to be held under a neutral caretaker administration. This has now become a possibility after the departure of Ms Hasina, who had always rejected this demand.

Ms Zia, 78, served as prime minister of Bangladesh from 1991 to 1996, but was imprisoned in 2018 for corruption, although she said the charges were politically motivated.

She was not the only opposition figure to be released after years of detention.

Activist Ahmad Bin Quasem was also released from detention, according to his lawyer Michael Polak.

Rights groups say Mr Quasem was taken away by security forces in 2016, just one of hundreds of forced disappearances in the country under Ms Hasina’s rule.

“There were many points during his detention that he was feared dead, and the uncertainty was one of the many tools of repression utilised by the regime,” Mr Polak explained, adding they hoped the decision to release political prisoners “is a positive sign of their intentions”.

“Unfortunately, the good news won’t be shared by all,” he told the BBC, stating that a number of political prisoners had died in custody.

At least 20 other families of political prisoners gathered outside a military intelligence force building in the capital Dhaka earlier in the day, still desperately waiting for news about their loved ones, AFP news agency reports.

“We need answers,” Sanjida Islam Tulee, a co-ordinator of Mayer Daak (The Call of the Mothers) campaign group, told the news agency.

Across the border in India, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said he was “deeply concerned till law and order is visibly restored” in Bangladesh, with which India shares a 4,096-km (2,545-mile) border and has close economic and cultural ties.

He gave the first official confirmation that Ms Hasina made a request to travel to India at “very short notice” and “arrived yesterday evening in Delhi”.

India also deployed additional troops along its border with Bangladesh.

“Our border guarding forces have also been instructed to be exceptionally alert in view of this complex situation,” Mr Jaishankar said.

“Any doubt is just a joke. Stress only makes us stronger,” Qin Haiyang – a part of China’s history-making men’s 4x100m medley quartet posted after their unprecedented victory over the US on Monday.

Qin’s seeming defiance came at the tail end of what has been a challenging time for China in the pool.

Some of the country’s top swimmers – including Qin and his relay teammate Sun Jiajun- have been in the spotlight after a slew of doping allegations, followed by contentious US claims that the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) was covering it up.

They were among 23 Chinese swimmers who reportedly returned positive doping tests prior to the Tokyo Olympics.

And although Chinese swimmers have been drug-tested twice as much as some other nations this year before heading to Paris, their performances have been met with scepticism.

Right after the medley event on Monday, Team GB’s Adam Peaty opened his fire on the Chinese team, saying “there’s no point winning if you’re not winning fair”.

Swim legend Michael Phelps who has been vocal about doping issues also doubled down. “If you test positive, you should never be allowed to come back and compete again, cut and dry,” he told news agency Associated Press. “I believe one and done.”

To the Chinese swimming team and their millions of fans back home, however, the victory brought joy and vindication.

The hashtag “China winning gold medal at 4x100m medley relay” was viewed 760 million times on Weibo.

“China’s gold medal are squeaky clean, we won it with our competence!” A comment racked up more than 8,000 likes on Weibo reads.

“It’s been so hard for the Chinese swimming team,” read another top comment.

The pressure has indeed been immense.

And this has been reflected in comments by China’s new breakout star Pan Zhanle, who swam the crucial anchor leg of the relay and also won the men’s 100m freestyle final with a new world record.

After his 100m win last week, Pan – who had not been among the revealed names of positive test results – told Chinese media that he felt that the team was “looked down on” by some foreign swimmers, adding that Australia’s Kyle Chalmers had snubbed him when he tried to say hello.

And although Pan was not among those who tested positive, his record-breaking performance was questioned by former Australian Olympic swimmer Brett Hawke who posted on Instagram that it’s not “humanly possible to beat that field”.

German athlete Angelina Köhler also questioned the bronze-winning performance of China’s Zhang Yufei – who was also among the 23 who had previously tested positive . Köhler who did not make the podium, reportedly told reporters after the swim that “stories like that always have a bad flavour”.

Zhang, who won a silver and five bronzes in Paris, was also defiant.

“Why should Chinese swimmers be questioned when they swim fast? Why did no one dare to question USA’s Michael Phelps when he got eight gold medals?” she asked in a press conference.

The tension has spilled beyond the pool too. China’s anti-doping agency (Chinada) released a statement on Tuesday, accusing its US counterpart Usada of displaying double standards.

The press release highlighted the case of US sprinter Erriyon Knighton. Knighton, a world silver medallist who is competing in the men’s 200m sprint this week, was not suspended after testing positive for the banned substance trenbolone earlier this year. Like in the case of the Chinese swimmers, the arbitrator had found the result was likely caused by contaminated meat.

Meanwhile Chinese fans are also taking matters to their own hands.

Adam Peaty’s Instagram account was flooded with angry comments in the past day. Even his girlfriend’s account was not spared. “Curious why you’re only attacking China but none of the other countries that won ahead of you as well… pretty weird,” a top comment under Peaty’s most recent post reads.

Brett Hawke, who is now a swimming coach, has also been hit with angry comments on his Instagram account. He has now deleted the video he first posted about Pan and limited comments on his posts.

Instead, on a recent post about the men’s medley results, his caption simply said: “Chinese men are victorious!”

US President Joe Biden met his senior national security team on Monday as concerns 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.

During Monday’s briefing, Mr Biden was told the timing and nature of an Iranian attack remained unclear, according to US news site Axios. A day earlier, Mr Blinken reportedly told his G7 counterparts that Iran and Hezbollah could attack Israel within 24 to 48 hours.

In a statement released after the briefing, Mr Biden said: “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 added that steps were being taken to respond to attacks on US forces “in a manner and place of our choosing”. On Monday, several US personnel were injured in a suspected rocket attack on a US military base in Iraq.

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.

Earlier in the day, Mr Biden spoke to King Abdullah II of Jordan about “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 the events of recent weeks.

On 27 July, 12 children and teenagers were killed in a strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel accused Hezbollah of carrying out the strike, though Hezbollah denied any involvement.

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.

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.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview with Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that the killing would have a “negative impact on the ongoing negotiations”.

Israel has not commented on the assassination, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said afterwards that Israel had 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 is 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.

On Monday, Jordan asked all airlines planning to land at its airports to carry an additional 45 minutes’ worth of fuel, a move thought 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 UK 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.

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 39,600 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Hezbollah and Israeli forces have also exchanged near-daily attacks since the conflict began, with hundreds of people killed and thousands displaced on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border.

Hezbollah and Hamas are both backed by Iran and form part of what Iran calls the “axis of resistance”, a loose alliance of militant and political groups across the region that oppose Israel and its key ally, the US.

Israel says it has carried out an air strike against what it said was a “military structure” used by the armed group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese health ministry said four people were killed in the strike on a house in the town of Maifadoun, around 30km from the Israeli border.

Security sources told the AFP news agency that the four men were Hezbollah fighters. In an apparent response, the group launched drone strikes on towns in northern Israel, injuring two people.

It comes amid increasing tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, and with Iran which backs the group.

Last week, an Israeli air strike killed senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital Beirut, in what Israeli officials called an “intelligence-based elimination”.

Israeli officials say he was responsible for a rocket attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights last month which killed 12 children and teenagers. Hezbollah has denied any involvement in that attack.

Hours after Shukr was assassinated, the Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in the Iranian capital Tehran – Iran blamed the attack on Israel.

Hezbollah and Iran have vowed to retaliate over the deaths, sparking fears that the tit-for-tat blows could ignite a broader regional conflict.

Several countries, including the US, have urged citizens to leave Lebanon as soon as possible. The country’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that he was working to ensure that Hezbollah did not trigger a major escalation with its response to Shukr’s death.

The Israeli attack on Maifadoun was carried out by fighter jets, and was guided by intelligence agencies, the Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement posted to social media. Officers from the internal security agency Shin Bet and military intelligence agency Aman provided assistance to the military.

In response, Hezbollah fired what it called a “swarm” of drones at Israel, injuring two people in the northern town of Mazra’a. But a source in the group told the Reuters news agency that the attack was not part of its response to the death of Shukr.

US President Joe Biden met his senior national security team on Monday as concerns of a 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.

The United Nations’ rights chief Volker Turk called on “all parties, along with those states with influence, to act urgently to de-escalate what has become a very precarious situation”.

Elsewhere, several US military personnel have been injured in a strike on a base in Iraq. The rocket fire on the Ain al-Assed base is the latest in a series of attacks on the facility, which hosts American forces fighting the Islamic State group.

Israeli forces have killed at least 10 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The Israeli military says it carried out two separate air strikes in the north of the territory targeting members of armed groups.

There has been a surge in violence in the West Bank since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered by Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel on 7 October.

The local health ministry says at least 600 Palestinians – members of armed groups, attackers and civilians – have been killed in conflict-related incidents in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

At least 17 Israelis, including 12 security forces personnel, have also been killed in the West Bank, according to a UN tally.

Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeinah condemned the recent violence, as well as alleged torture and abuse of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, as the “crossing of all red lines”.

Footage from Aqaba, near Tubas, shows a house stained with blood. Locals say that a boy of 14 was among four killed after a dawn raid by Israeli forces resulted in violent confrontations.

Meanwhile, in Jenin – a regular flashpoint – an Israeli aircraft attacked what the Israeli military described as “terrorist cells” killing at least five.

A column of Israeli armoured personnel carriers was filmed entering the city, while armoured bulldozers dug up roads.

Tensions remain very high across the West Bank. In the south of the territory, a Palestinian was killed after allegedly stabbing an Israeli soldier in Beit Jala, at a main checkpoint on a road to Jerusalem.

About 40 people have been arrested in northern Nigeria for waving Russia’s national flag during protests against the high cost of living and what they feel is “bad governance”.

Amid this crackdown, army chief Christopher Musa warned that it is a “treasonable offence” to fly the flags of foreign countries.

Nigeria has seen six days of nationwide protests, in which at least seven people have died and more than 700 have been arrested.

Demonstrators have been chanting slogans such as “we are hungry”, while a minority have been pictured waving Russia’s flag and voicing support for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to local media, some of these protesters have called on Moscow to “rescue” them.

The subsequent arrests are seen as an attempt to stifle any fledgling support for Russia in Nigeria, a leading oil producer and a key ally of Western powers.

Several countries in the wider region of West Africa – including Nigeria’s neighbour, Niger – have pivoted away from the West and towards Russia after recent military coups.

Civilian governments backed by the likes of France and the US had rapidly lost popularity – critics accused them of failing to tackle insecurity, corruption and economic problems.

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu came to power in May 2023 after winning fiercely contested elections.

Satisfaction with his leadership has plummeted, with many blaming his policies for the sharp increase in the cost of living.

He scrapped a long-standing state subsidy on fuel in his inauguration speech, causing pump prices to rise. The move also had a knock-on effect on the cost of food and other basic commodities.

Mr Tinubu has urged frustrated Nigerians to be patient, insisting his policies would bear fruit.

He has appealed for an end to the protests and held a meeting with security chiefs on Monday to assess their scale.

Afterwards, army chief Christopher Musa said: “We are warning in clear terms that we will not accept anybody, any individual flying any foreign flag in Nigeria. That is a treasonable offence, and it will be viewed and treated as such.”

The Russian embassy in Nigeria has distanced itself from the demonstrations, saying that the flags were the “personal choices” of protesters.

“As always, we emphasise that Russia does not interfere in the domestic affairs of foreign states, including Nigeria,” it added.

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On Monday, the north-western states of Kaduna and Zamfara saw a massive turnout of demonstrators.

Kaduna police spokesman Mansir Hassan said 39 people were arrested there, including a tailor who was “sewing the foreign flags for the group”.

Close to 40 Russian flags were confiscated, as well as a Chinese one, he added.

A curfew has now been imposed in Kaduna – the sixth state to take such action since last week, forcing millions of people to stay at home.

In a statement, Nigeria’s secret service said tailors have also been arrested in Kano state for “making Russian flags”.

“Some of their sponsors have also been picked. Investigation is ongoing,” it said.

Rights group Amnesty International says 13 people have been killed since protests began last week and accused security forces of using excessive force against demonstrators.

Mr Tinubu addressed the nation on Sunday and said his government was committed to addressing the concerns of protesters.

He added that the protests had been hijacked by looters in some areas, and ending the unrest would create room for dialogue.

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The Venezuelan attorney general, a close ally of President Nicolás Maduro, has announced he is investigating opposition leaders María Corina Machado and Edmundo González for alleged “incitement to insurrection”.

The opposition leaders had earlier called on the security forces to “side with the people” and ignore any orders to repress anti-government protests.

Tension has been running high since the electoral authority, which is closely aligned with the government, declared Mr Maduro the winner without making detailed voting tallies public.

The opposition has uploaded copies of the voting tallies as evidence that it was Mr González and not President Maduro who won the election.

On Sunday, the Washington Post said it had reviewed more than 23,000 of the tally sheets collected by the opposition – which amounts to 80% of voting machines across Venezuela.

The Post concluded that Mr González had “likely received more than twice as many votes as President Nicolás Maduro”.

On Monday, the opposition published a statement on X stating that Mr González had won 67% of the vote compared to Mr Maduro’s 30%.

The statement, signed by both Mr González and Ms Machado, said the opposition had achieved an “overwhelming victory”.

It is at odds with the result announced by the government-dominated CNE, which declared Mr Maduro the winner with 52% of the vote against 43% for Mr González.

The opposition statement elicited an immediate response from Attorney General Tarek William Saab, who accused the pair of “falsely announcing an election winner different to the one proclaimed by the National Electoral Council (CNE)”.

He said the statement also “openly incited officials from the police and military to disobey the laws”.

Mr Saab added that he had decided to open a criminal investigation against both opposition leaders.

Mr González and Ms Machado have been in hiding since last week after a leading government figure said they should be jailed.

Ms Machado emerged briefly from hiding on Saturday to address a mass opposition rally in the capital, Caracas, telling them that the Maduro government had “lost all legitimacy”.

Her supporters greeted her with shouts of “freedom, freedom”.

Reacting to Mr Saab’s statement, the European Union urged Venezuela on Tuesday to cease intimidating the opposition.

“This needs to stop. We are calling on the authorities to stop this, this campaign of intimidation of the opposition and judicial intimidation,” and EU spokesman said.

The EU had earlier called “on Venezuelan authorities to put an end to arbitrary detentions, repression and violent rhetoric against members of the opposition and civil society, and to release all political prisoners”.

The EU had stated on Sunday that “without evidence to support them, the results published on 2nd August by the CNE cannot be recognised”.

It is just one in a long list of organisations and countries which have demanded that the CNE make the detailed voting tallies public.

Last week, Mr Maduro asked Venezuela’s top court, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ), to audit the voting tallies with a view to confirming the results provided by the CNE which handed him another six-year term in power.

But this move has caused concern as the TSJ’s justices are overwhelmingly government loyalists.

The opposition fears that it is a delaying tactic aimed at deflecting pressure from the CNE.

On Monday, CNE head Elvis Amoroso said he had handed over “all the documents requested from him him” by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ).

When Nazmul Arefin caught wind that Sheikh Hasina – the woman who had led Bangladesh with an iron fist for 15 years – was about to flee the country, he dropped everything and ran onto the streets of Dhaka.

Outside, thousands of anti-government protesters were already marching across the capital, although none knew what awaited them.

A weeks-long nationwide campaign of civil disobedience – which erupted over civil service job quotas – had triggered a violent crackdown, leaving hundreds dead in its wake.

And whether more bloodshed would follow remained an open question: “We were sceptical about whether the army would support the people, or side with the government – that was the doubt in the mind of everyone,” Mr Arefin says.

“If law enforcement and the army had turned on us yesterday, it could have become a massacre.”

But the 38-year-old’s fear was quickly replaced with ecstasy, after news spread like wildfire that Ms Hasina had resigned, and citizens began to declare Bangladesh “free again”.

As scenes of protesters storming her official residence and looting everything from velvet chairs to domesticated animals were broadcast around the world, Mr Arefin was witnessing something else.

“It was like a festival on the streets,” he tells the BBC.

“It was amazing – people of all ages and classes came out, from rickshaw pullers to high society people, there were families taking selfies with army officers. We were shouting and celebrating for a new Bangladesh.”

The prime minister’s downfall was one that few saw coming and the shock was palpable.

“The internet had been out for most of the day, so when we heard the army chief was addressing the nation on television, that was our first hint,” Shariful Islam, who was at home with his family when the news broke, told the BBC.

When it became clear what was unfolding, he says everyone “lost it” – his elderly parents and four-year-old daughter included.

“Oh my god, we were all shouting, dancing, clapping, celebrating, it was a taste of freedom, like something you barely experience.”

Ms Hasina, who had been in power since 2009 and ruled the South Asian nation for more than 20 years in total, had started her career as a symbol of democracy, overcoming military rule to usher in a new era of hope.

In the beginning, she was celebrated as a secular Muslim who had brought stability and economic reform to Bangladesh, lifting millions out of poverty in the process.

But when her long tenure finally came to an end on Monday, most were remembering her as an autocrat, who had sought to entrench her authority by silencing dissent.

“This was a dictatorship that lasted 15 years, no-one could speak their minds, people were thrown in jail for expressing their views, there were gross human rights violations, people disappeared. The fact that this is ending – that’s why the streets were full,” Mr Islam says.

As Bangladeshis wait to see how the vacuum created in the wake of Ms Hasina’s departure will be filled, hope and trepidation loom large.

“People are happy a dictator has stepped down, but there’s uncertainty [over] what will happen… the law-and-order situation is making people anxious,” Avirup Sarkar – a development professional in Dhaka, tells the BBC.

Sayem Faruk – an entrepreneur who runs an AI firm in the city – says that the first thing that needs to happen is an end to any looting and violence.

“We are going to exercise vigilance in the next few days as the caretaker government is formed and as the army starts taking control of the situation.”

The need for calm and peace on the streets has also been a top-down message from some of the students who started the protest movement back in July and have become its de facto leaders.

“Freedom is harder to defend than to gain,” Asif Mahmud, a leading figure in the demonstrations, wrote in a message to his tens of thousands of social media followers on Tuesday.

And another student who has been marching for weeks – 22-year-old Sazid Islam – told the BBC that although there’s a feeling that “freedom of speech has been restored” in Bangladesh, many who have been on the frontlines know the situation remains fragile.

“The fears I have now are that, since we have suddenly gained our political rights, if the situation deteriorates, we could face suppression again. Especially if we fail to uphold the values of the revolution.”

Whether everyday Bangladeshis will meet this moment by banding together and not allowing old religious or political divisions to take hold is also a topic of conversation.

“If you can call this a revolution. The issue now is how soon can you manage this?” Sumon Rahman, a journalism professor at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, told the BBC.

“I live quite close to the PM’s residence and I brought my kids there to see what’s happening. There was a lot of vandalism.”

Prof Rahman’s house in the Dhanmondi area is a short walk from the former residence of the nation’s founder, the toppled prime minister’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which had been turned into a museum. It was set ablaze in Monday’s protests.

“The protesters burned it down totally. I also saw many pictures of the burned house shared on Facebook. The vandalism happened late into the night,” said Prof Rahman.

“There have also been reports of attacks on religious minorities, but it is unclear now if they have been attacked because they are minorities or because they are supporters of [Ms Hasina’s] Awami League.

“If you look at the history of Bangladesh… When there is a revolution, there will be counter-revolutions, coups, counter-coups. If you really want to reform the system, it is a huge duty, and you cannot just instantly remove the machinery as the country will simply fall apart,” he adds.

Samiul Haque, a strategic consultant from Dhaka, says many of his peers are going to want to see a completely new style of politics in Bangladesh, one which is built “from the ground up”.

“Young people feel that there should not be a return of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami,” the 32-year-old explains, referencing the nation’s opposition parties.

“Inequality had grown so much in Bangladesh as political and economic elites had cosied up to the government. They were reaping so much benefit that what we saw was a class-based movement – students started it, but even rickshaw pullers and normal people joined it. We all felt enough is enough.”

For some in the country, though, the most immediate concern is one of safety.

An Indian worker in a Bangladeshi garments factory in Dhaka told the BBC that he was worried his family, who form part of Bangladesh’s minority Hindu community, could be targeted because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s close alliance with Ms Hasina’s now fallen government.

“I am hearing about some Hindu properties being attacked but I am not sure if it’s true. But my area is peaceful. Many Muslim neighbours have assured us about our safety,” he says.

“I am hoping to get out along with my family as soon as I can. But I do hope to return – my life is here; my career is here. Bangladesh has given me everything.”

But Mr Arefin hopes that the country’s better angels will win out in the next few days and weeks.

“From this point, we are calling it Bangladesh 2.0 and we want to have a diversified and corruption-free country, where everyone can have freedom of speech, and no one will be afraid to raise their voices.”

And Mr Faruk says that he has faith that the demonstrations – which have unified many in the country of 170 million – will stamp out divisions, rather than amplifying them.

“This began as a movement against discrimination and this discrimination applies not only to jobs but everywhere in Bangladesh – attacks on minorities, the fundamentalist forces. We need to control those as well if we don’t want to turn into a failed state.”

Bangladesh is at a historic turning point.

Weeks of anti-government protests have toppled its long-serving prime minister Sheikh Hasina, and an interim government is expected to be formed.

After Ms Hasina resigned and fled the country on Monday, huge crowds stormed her official residence in Dhaka amid reports of looting and disorder in the capital.

At least 20 people were killed in the violence, adding to the more than 90 deaths on Sunday – which already marked the worst single-day casualty figure from any demonstrations in Bangladesh’s recent history.

Now, Ms Hasina – a former pro-democracy icon, who critics say had become increasingly autocratic during her 15-year reign – is in India. It’s not yet clear if she will stay there or head elsewhere.

The protests began in early July as peaceful demands from university students to abolish quotas in civil service jobs – a third of these are reserved for relatives of veterans from Bangladesh’s war for independence from Pakistan in 1971.

The campaigners had argued the system was discriminatory and needed to be overhauled. Although their request was largely met, the protests soon transformed into a wider anti-government movement.

“It’s not [just] students anymore, it seems that people from all walks of life have joined the protest movement,” Dr Samina Luthfa, assistant professor of sociology in the University of Dhaka, told the BBC last month.

As the movement expanded, clashes followed, and over 300 people were killed in the unrest.

Bangladeshi media and protesters blamed police for the spiralling death toll. The government, though, maintained that officers only ever opened fire out of self-defence or to protect state property.

Ms Hasina repeatedly cut off internet access in parts of the country, imposed a nationwide curfew, and described those demonstrating against her as “terrorists” seeking to “destabilise the nation”.

But the campaign of civil disobedience that had taken hold showed little signs of abating. And there were growing fears that a prolonged standoff could lead to more bloodshed.

Discontent was brewing for a long time in Bangladesh, and the protests didn’t happen in a vacuum.

Though the South Asian nation – which is home to 170 million people – was one of the fastest growing economies in the world, experts pointed out that growth had not translated into jobs for university graduates.

Estimates suggested that around 18 million young Bangladeshis were looking for jobs and university graduates faced higher rates of unemployment than their less-educated peers.

Bangladesh had become a powerhouse of ready-to-wear clothing exports. The country sold around $40 billion worth of clothes to the global market. The sector employed more than four million people, many of them women. But factory jobs were not sufficient for the aspiring younger generation.

And that’s partly why they wanted the quotas in government jobs to go – because that meant there would be more jobs for them.

Even after the top courts scrapped the quotas, the protests continued, spreading beyond students, because the brutal crackdown unleashed more anger against Ms Hasina’s government.

Her rule had transformed Bangladesh with new roads, bridges, factories and even a metro rail, but there were also allegations of rampant corruption.

Per capita income tripled in the last decade as more than 25 million people were lifted out of poverty over 20 years, accordng to the World Bank. But many felt that the growth was mostly helping those close to the PM’s Awami League.

“We are witnessing so much corruption,” Dr Luthfa said. “Especially among those close to the ruling party. Corruption has been continuing for a long time without being punished.”

Social media in Bangladesh in recent months was dominated by discussions about corruption allegations against some of Ms Hasina’s former top officials – including a former army chief, ex-police chief, senior tax officers and state recruitment officials.

The anti-corruption commission had began investigating former police chief Benazir Ahmed – once seen as a close ally of Ms Hasina – for amassing millions of dollars. He denied the allegations.

Even as Ms Hasina promised to tackle corruption, she admitted that she had sacked a household assistant for allegedly stealing $34 million of state funds.

Such shocking revelations didn’t escape ordinary Bangladeshis, who had been struggling with the escalating cost of living.

Rights activists pointed out that space for democratic activity too had shrunk on Ms Hasina’s watch – the government was accused of stifling dissent, silencing the media and government critics, and jailing or disappearing its strongest critics. But ministers denied the charges.

“The anger against the government and the ruling party have been accumulating for a long time,” Dr Luthfa said. “People are showing their anger now. People resort to protest if they don’t have any recourse left.”

It’s too early to say what Bangladesh’s immediate future holds.

Ms Hasina’s long tenure, although contentious, also brought some stability and economic growth. So amid the hope, there is concern about the political vaccum her sudden resignation has created.

The release of jailed former PM Khaleda Zia was ordered, along with student protesters.

The main opposition – Ms Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) – boycotted elections in 2014 and again in 2024, saying free and fair elections were not possible under Ms Hasina.

They wanted the polls to be held under a neutral caretaker administration. Ms Hasina had always rejected this demand but this is now a possibility.

Political parties and protest leaders began talks on Monday as international governments called for an orderly and democratic transition of power.

Bangladesh’s army chief Gen Waker-uz-Zaman – who announced the plan to form an interim government in the country – offered few details on what it could look like, or who might lead it.

Ousted Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina made a request to come to India “at very short notice”, the Indian foreign minister told parliament.

Ms Hasina fled from Bangladesh to India on Monday evening after a political crisis toppled her government.

Foreign Minister S Jaishankar did not mention how long she would stay in the country or what her next steps would be.

In his first official comments since the crisis peaked in Bangladesh, he said India had been in regular contact with authorities in Dhaka over the past 24 hours.

Ms Hasina resigned on Monday after weeks of deadly anti-government protests. The country’s army chief has promised that an interim government will be formed and new elections will be announced.

India shares a 4,096km (2,545 miles)-border with Bangladesh and has close economic and cultural ties with the country. There are worries that prolonged tensions in Bangladesh could spill over into India, which is seen as having supported Ms Hasina through her 15-year-long tenure despite her clamping down on dissent and jailing opposition leaders.

On Monday, India deployed additional troops along its border with Bangladesh.

Mr Jaishankar said the situation there was “still evolving” and that the government was in “close and continuous touch with the Indian community” through its diplomatic missions. The minister said there are 19,000 Indians, including 9,000 students, in Bangladesh and added that most of the students had returned to India in July.

He said India was monitoring the situation regarding the status of minorities in the country.

“There are reports of initiatives by various groups and organisations to ensure their protection and well-being. We welcome that but will naturally remain deeply concerned till law and order is restored,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Mr Jaishankar briefed opposition parties on India’s response to the developments in Bangladesh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also held a meeting on Monday to review the situation.

Five Indian states share a border with Bangladesh, which was formed in 1971 after a war with Pakistan. According to government data from last November, around 915.35km of the border is not fenced.

From a security perspective, Ms Hasina’s tenure was relatively peaceful for India as she had cracked down on anti-India militants in her country. She had also granted transit rights to secure trade routes for the states bordering Bangladesh.

On Monday, top officials of India’s Border Security Force (BSF) visited the Bangladesh border in the eastern state of West Bengal to review “operational preparedness and strategic deployment of BSF in these important border areas”, a spokesperson said.

The BSF said “it has received strict instruction from the government to not allow anyone into the country without valid documents”.

Train services between India and Bangladesh have been suspended “indefinitely” – they had been halted since mid-July after violent protests broke out in Bangladesh.

On Monday, following Ms Hasina’s resignation, the north-eastern state of Meghalaya imposed a night curfew along its border with Bangladesh.

In West Bengal, the state which shares the longest border with Bangladesh as well as close linguistic and cultural ties, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has appealed for peace.

Movement of goods through the Petrapole land port on the border has also been stopped. Reports say hundreds of Indian trucks are stuck on the Bangladesh side.

A senior diplomat told the BBC on Monday that India “doesn’t have too many options at this point in time”.

“We have to tighten control on our borders. Anything else would be construed as interference.”

“Any doubt is just a joke. Stress only makes us stronger,” Qin Haiyang – a part of China’s history-making men’s 4x100m medley quartet posted after their unprecedented victory over the US on Monday.

Qin’s seeming defiance came at the tail end of what has been a challenging time for China in the pool.

Some of the country’s top swimmers – including Qin and his relay teammate Sun Jiajun- have been in the spotlight after a slew of doping allegations, followed by contentious US claims that the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) was covering it up.

They were among 23 Chinese swimmers who reportedly returned positive doping tests prior to the Tokyo Olympics.

And although Chinese swimmers have been drug-tested twice as much as some other nations this year before heading to Paris, their performances have been met with scepticism.

Right after the medley event on Monday, Team GB’s Adam Peaty opened his fire on the Chinese team, saying “there’s no point winning if you’re not winning fair”.

Swim legend Michael Phelps who has been vocal about doping issues also doubled down. “If you test positive, you should never be allowed to come back and compete again, cut and dry,” he told news agency Associated Press. “I believe one and done.”

To the Chinese swimming team and their millions of fans back home, however, the victory brought joy and vindication.

The hashtag “China winning gold medal at 4x100m medley relay” was viewed 760 million times on Weibo.

“China’s gold medal are squeaky clean, we won it with our competence!” A comment racked up more than 8,000 likes on Weibo reads.

“It’s been so hard for the Chinese swimming team,” read another top comment.

The pressure has indeed been immense.

And this has been reflected in comments by China’s new breakout star Pan Zhanle, who swam the crucial anchor leg of the relay and also won the men’s 100m freestyle final with a new world record.

After his 100m win last week, Pan – who had not been among the revealed names of positive test results – told Chinese media that he felt that the team was “looked down on” by some foreign swimmers, adding that Australia’s Kyle Chalmers had snubbed him when he tried to say hello.

And although Pan was not among those who tested positive, his record-breaking performance was questioned by former Australian Olympic swimmer Brett Hawke who posted on Instagram that it’s not “humanly possible to beat that field”.

German athlete Angelina Köhler also questioned the bronze-winning performance of China’s Zhang Yufei – who was also among the 23 who had previously tested positive . Köhler who did not make the podium, reportedly told reporters after the swim that “stories like that always have a bad flavour”.

Zhang, who won a silver and five bronzes in Paris, was also defiant.

“Why should Chinese swimmers be questioned when they swim fast? Why did no one dare to question USA’s Michael Phelps when he got eight gold medals?” she asked in a press conference.

The tension has spilled beyond the pool too. China’s anti-doping agency (Chinada) released a statement on Tuesday, accusing its US counterpart Usada of displaying double standards.

The press release highlighted the case of US sprinter Erriyon Knighton. Knighton, a world silver medallist who is competing in the men’s 200m sprint this week, was not suspended after testing positive for the banned substance trenbolone earlier this year. Like in the case of the Chinese swimmers, the arbitrator had found the result was likely caused by contaminated meat.

Meanwhile Chinese fans are also taking matters to their own hands.

Adam Peaty’s Instagram account was flooded with angry comments in the past day. Even his girlfriend’s account was not spared. “Curious why you’re only attacking China but none of the other countries that won ahead of you as well… pretty weird,” a top comment under Peaty’s most recent post reads.

Brett Hawke, who is now a swimming coach, has also been hit with angry comments on his Instagram account. He has now deleted the video he first posted about Pan and limited comments on his posts.

Instead, on a recent post about the men’s medley results, his caption simply said: “Chinese men are victorious!”

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.

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?”

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.

The tech world is digesting a US judge’s potentially seismic ruling that Google illegally monopolises online search and related advertising

It took four years to get to this point, and Google-owner Alphabet’s inevitable appeal means this the legal process is likely to carry on for some time yet.

But already the potential consequences of the judge’s decision are being considered, ranging from cash fines to other, more complicated remedies.

The US government specifically wants “structural relief” – so what could that look like?

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The nuclear option would be to demand Google breaks itself into smaller chunks – a move US officials have not ruled out.

Google is much more than just search.

Just look at Android, a firm it bought for $50m (£39.3m) in 2005, which now runs on the majority of smartphones – or YouTube, a $1.65bn acquisition in 2006, which now generates many multiples of that in revenue each year.

The argument might be that all of these can remain under Google, but the actual search engine should be spun off into a separate business.

That might cause consternation for Alphabet executives. But as long as Google remained the default search engine on devices, the average consumer would be unlikely to notice the difference.

“Any such move would certainly be met with years of litigation and regulatory bun-fighting, but it seems to be far more ‘on the table’ than at any time in Google’s history,” said Gareth Mills, Partner at legal firm Charles Russell Speechlys.

“There will now be a separate hearing where the Judge will have no option to consider the divesture of Google from all or part of its search engine part of the business, or imposing other corporate governance controls to negate the anti-competitive conduct found to have already occurred.”

Another potential remedy centres on Google’s practice of paying other companies to use it.

The US said Google was currently paying firms like Apple huge amounts of money each year to be pre-installed as the default search engine on their devices or platforms.

The judge agreed.

The contention is, had Google never spent that money, the big firms might have been encouraged to develop their own search experience.

Instead, Apple’s Safari browser for example uses Google by default whenever you use it to search the web.

If remedial action significantly affected Google’s ability to pay other companies to use it, perhaps those firms might start a rival.

Here though they would run up against Google’s incredibly strong customer recognition for search. Despite its own high brand profile, it is hard to imagine telling someone to “Apple” something.

The iPhone-maker will of course be keen to keep the money from Google rolling in, which according to one analyst amounted to $20 billion in 2022.

“Any disruption to the revenue stream will have significant implications for Apple,” said Dipanjan Chatterjee from Forrester Research.

“As the case works through the legal system, and the likely outcome appears to be opening up search engine exclusivity, you can fully expect a brand as obsessed as Apple is about customer experience to have a Plan B to ensure a smooth transition for its customers.”

Something that’s easier to imagine is some kind of choice screen, where people opening a browser for the first time are asked whether they’d like to use Google or an alternative like Microsoft’s Bing.

It is somewhat harder to picture that causing people to abandon Google in their droves, however, for the simple reason that for most people it simply works well.

Those of us with grey hairs will recall Google being one of several search engines to emerge at the dawn of the internet, with familiar rivals including Yahoo and Ask (formerly AskJeeves), and possibly less-familiar rivals including Lycos and AltaVista.

But over the next decade, Google didn’t just become the dominant player in the market, it became part of the way we speak.

Despite Microsoft launching its rival, Bing, in 2009, nothing has yet knocked Google off its perch.

Microsoft boss Satya Nadella testified in Google’s trial, perhaps hoping a judgment like this could finally help give Bing wings.

“The court may seek other ways to dismantle Google’s position as a default search engine but some of those remedies likely go beyond the facts driving this case,” said Professor Anu Bradford of Columbia Law School.

“For example, the EU is going further with its recent Digital Markets Act that forces even Google’s own Android phones to present users with a ‘choice screen’ that lets the user choose one’s preferred search engine when setting up the phone.

“One question is whether this new ruling paves way for such regulatory demands in the future.”

Whatever happens next, past experience suggests it won’t happen quickly.

Back in 1999, Microsoft found itself in a very similar situation to where Google is now.

The firm had just been found by a US judge to have created a monopoly, and a year later a court ordered the firm to be broken up.

Microsoft appealed the decision, and in 2001 the original decision to break it up was overturned.

By the end of 2002 Microsoft had agreed a settlement with the US Department of Justice, which a judge accepted.

But some US states disagreed, and it wasn’t until 2004 – five years after the original ruling – that the settlement was officially signed off.

Of all the violent scenes in UK towns and cities at the weekend, one of the most shocking happened in Hull – when an angry crowd of white men surrounded and attacked a car with men the police have now identified as Eastern European inside.

Videos of the incident shared on social media show the crowd charging towards a silver BMW and forcing open its doors, and attacking those inside.

In one video, a person in the crowd can be heard shouting a racist slur and the word “foreigners” is used. In another video someone shouts “get them”.

BBC Verify initially reported in this article that the men inside the car were of Asian heritage, however Humberside Police has since told the BBC they are Eastern European.

The attack on the BMW happened in the north-west of Hull city centre on Saturday afternoon.

Analysis of social media videos by BBC Verify suggests the vehicle and its occupants were set upon at about 16:45.

In one video, large black plumes of smoke can be seen rising into the sky. The person filming moves down Hall Street and towards a car park – where a car is ablaze and a car horn is ringing out.

Then the BMW swings backwards around the corner from Milky Way, as it tries to escape a large mob.

The car is trapped on the kerb and is quickly swarmed by angry men, several of whom are masked and using what look like screwdrivers to smash the car’s tail lights and to try to prise open the car doors and grab the people inside.

Men can be seen throwing bricks and a shopping trolley at the car. Another man can be seen performing the Nazi salute.

In the background of one of the videos, you can hear someone shout, “get them lads, get the [expletive], smash that shit up”.

A man in a St George’s flag T-shirt can be seen trying to smash the BMW’s windows. Using facial recognition software and social media profiles, we have identified him as John Honey.

He appears in other videos showing looting later in the day in the city centre. He has since been charged with violent disorder, three counts of robbery, two counts of burglary and criminal damage, and is in custody. Humberside Police said on Monday afternoon that a total of 28 other people had been arrested.

Around the car, a man with a large rucksack on his back, opens the front passenger door and appears to hit a man several times.

About 10 seconds after the car is trapped, a man manages to scramble out, having lost one shoe. He is then chased by a masked man with a metal bar.

The video then pans right and riot police can be seen approaching. This appears to trigger the mob to scatter.

The men who fled the car are then seen unharmed about 20m (66ft) away from the attack.

We don’t know who they are and it is unclear whether any other people were travelling in the car with them.

The camera then pans across the chaotic scene to show there are other cars on fire with thick black smoke filling the air.

Another man BBC Verify has identified as being present at the incident – using facial recognition tools and confirmed by comparison with social media profiles – is Connor Londesborough. He can be seen in footage standing next to the car and speaking to some of the attackers but not joining in the attack.

A few days before the protest he had shared a post from the National Defence League – an anti-immigrant online group – that read ‘‘prepared for peace, ready for war”.

It has previously been reported that Londesborough had a conviction in 2019 for kidnap, arson and robbery.

He told the BBC he had been present at the protest in Victoria Square earlier, and said he was only at the car attack incident to stop others from attacking the car.

Several hours earlier, crowds had gathered in Hull city centre.

Online posters with the words “enough is enough” had been shared calling for people to meet in Victoria Square at midday.

One Facebook post suggests this had been initially organised by “Hull Patriotic Protestors”, a private group which lists a number of concerns including “the influx of illegal invaders in our city” and “the economic decline and financial neglect of our City”.

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Another Facebook advert asks for attendees to “try and be as sober as you can be” and that “it is important to remember this is not about the colour of a person’s skin”.

It says the event will start with a vigil for the three girls murdered in Southport.

Footage of the protest shows a man delivering an anti-immigrant speech and a counter-demonstration close by. The two groups are kept separate by a row of police officers.

At about 13:15, a BBC colleague saw members of the Victoria Square crowd five minutes’ walk away outside the Royal Hotel, where asylum seekers are reportedly housed. He says he saw several throw projectiles at the hotel – damaging windows.

In videos we have analysed, a large group of people can be seen behind metal barriers in front of the hotel shouting chants of “send them home” and “get them out” in front of riot police. Bottles, flares and bricks were thrown at officers.

Later, at 15:33, right-wing activist Tommy Robinson, posted on X that the hotel housed “unvetted migrant men at the taxpayers expense”.

In the hours after the BMW was surrounded and attacked, crowds would once again form in the centre of the city – and looting would start.

People gathered on Jameson Street. The earliest looting videos on social media we have identified are from 18:38 and show the O2 phone shop being ransacked.

We have also seen footage of looting in Shoezone, where a large pile of shoes was brought out and set on fire, Greggs the bakers and cosmetics retailer Lush.

It is a steep climb from the main road to 79-year-old Matlohang Moloi’s home, through the mountains that make Lesotho one of the highest countries in the world.

The mother of 10 welcomes me to her neat house, showing me photos of her large family. I am here to talk about one of her children – her firstborn son, Tlohang.

At 38 he became part of a grim statistic. Lesotho, the kingdom in the sky, is home to the world’s highest suicide rate.

“Tlohang was a good son. He had told me about his mental health struggles,” Ms Moloi says.

“Even that day he took his own life, he came to me and said ‘mother, one day you will hear that I have taken my life’.

“His death hurt me a lot. I really wish he could have explained in more detail what was troubling him in his mind. He was worried if he told people they’d think he’s a weak person who can’t solve his own problems.”

According to the World Health Organization, 87.5 people per 100,000 of the population take their own life every year in Lesotho.

By contrast that is more than double the next country on the list, Guyana in South America, where the figure is just over 40.

It is also almost 10 times the global average, which stands at nine suicides per 100,000 people.

That is a statistic that NGOs – such as HelpLesotho – are determined to change, by equipping young people with the skills to manage their mental health.

In the town of Hlotse, about two hours’ drive from the capital, Maseru, I sit in on on one of the regular group therapy sessions for young women, run by social worker Lineo Raphoka.

“People think it’s against our African principles, our cultural experiences, against our spirituality as Africans, and as a community at large,” 24-year-old Patience tells the group.

“But we are also shying away from the fact that it is happening. I’m talking from a perspective where I’ve lost three friends from suicide, I’ve personally attempted.”

Everyone here has experienced suicidal thoughts, or know someone who has died by suicide.

Thirty-five-year-old Ntsoaki becomes emotional, as she tells the group her story of being raped in hospital.

“The doctor told me I was too attractive. Then he took out a gun and told me he wanted to have pleasure with me, and if I didn’t he would kill me.

“Every time with suicide, I always thought it was the only solution. I couldn’t do it, I had no strength to do it. The only thing that kept me moving or alive were the faces of my brothers. They believe I’m strong, but I’m weak.”

The group reassures her she is strong for sharing her feelings.

As the session finishes, all the women are chatting and smiling, saying they feel better for sharing their stories.

The reasons people take their own lives are often complicated, and it is difficult to isolate a single cause.

Despite that, Ms Raphoka says she sees patterns that explain why Lesotho has such a high suicide rate.

“Mostly they go through situations such as rape, unemployment, loss because of death. They abuse drugs and alcohol.”

According to a World Population Review report in 2022, 86% of women in Lesotho have experienced gender-based violence.

Meanwhile the World Bank says two in five young people are not in employment or education.

“They’re not getting enough support from their families, friends or any kind of relationships that they have,” Ms Raphoka continues.

It is something you often hear in Lesotho. People say time and again that they do not feel comfortable talking about their mental health – and that others might judge them.

Sitting in a bar in Hlotse one evening, where the male clientele drink local beer and chat politics while football plays on the TV, I steer the conversation towards mental health.

“We do talk about it, we say let’s open up,” Khosi Mpiti tells me.

Some are afraid that if they reveal too much they could be gossiped about. Despite this, he says things are getting better.

“As a group [of friends] we’re very supportive. If I’m having a problem I tell the group, and we support each other.”

When people do seek help though, they are confronted with a struggling public health system.

The country’s only psychiatric unit was last year criticised by the ombudsman – an official whose job it is to look after the public’s interests – for not having had a psychiatrist since 2017.

She also highlighted widespread abuses, including “living conditions that violate human rights”.

There was previously also no national mental health policy to deal with the crisis, although the government – elected in October 2022 – says it is in the process of drafting one.

“Mental health has become a pandemic,” admits Mokhothu Makhalanyane, an MP who leads a parliamentary committee that deals with health issues.

“We are making sure that advocacy is intensified, from primary school, to high schools, to places where young people gather, such as football tournaments,” he tells the BBC.

“The policy will also be specific in terms of treatment, and will allow those affected to go for rehabilitation.”

He also says Lesotho can learn from its battle against HIV/Aids.

In 2016 it became the first country to introduce a “test-and-treat” strategy, meaning people can start treatment as soon as they are diagnosed. Rates of infection have consistently fallen.

“The experience that we had is that talking openly, and not blaming or criticising the people for their situation, helped turn things around.”

Back up in the mountains, Ms Moloi takes the short walk to tend to Tlohang’s grave.

His final resting place is a plot with a stunning vista, dotted with streams, greenery and small houses.

Ms Moloi is one of many people living in Lesotho who are dealing with the grief of death by suicide.

As we take in the view, she says she has a message for those who find themselves in the same headspace as her son.

“I would tell people that taking your own life is never a solution. What you have to do is to talk to people around you so they can help you.”

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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, hundreds completed the year-long programme, findings published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal reveal.

A third shed lots of weight – 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 of 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.

US shares opened higher on Tuesday as an uneasy calm returned to markets after days of wild swings.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 all saw early gains.

It followed subdued trading in the UK and Europe with London’s FTSE 100 initially rising before falling back.

Overnight, Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock index jumped by 10.23%, or 3,217 points in its biggest one-day gain in points, after the previous day’s plummet.

The Nikkei’s 12% slump at the start of the week weighed on global stock markets. Sharp share price drops in the UK, Europe and US followed.

There have been concerns that the US is facing an economic slowdown. A rare interest rate rise in Japan also affected trading.

The Nasdaq, which has experienced the most turmoil in the last couple of trading days, rose by around 1%. The S&P and the Dow Jones saw similar gains.

In London, the FTSE 100 opened higher, albeit a modest 0.33% gain, before dropping. Stock markets in France and Germany traced a similar path, with the Paris CAC-40 losing 1% by the afternoon.

Stock markets in the US had fallen on Friday and Monday following disappointing employment figures for July which showed that the jobless rate rose.

There has also been concern that shares in big technology companies – particularly those investing heavily in artificial intelligence (AI) – have been overvalued and some of those firms now face difficulties.

The worse-than-expected jobs figures stoked speculation about when – and by how much – the US Federal Reserve could cut interest rates.

Last week, it voted to hold rates while other central banks decided to cut them.

“The Federal Reserve missed an important opportunity to cut interest rates last week like the Bank of England did,” said economist Mohamed El-Erian, who is also president of Queens’ College, Cambridge.

The Fed had signalled that a rate cut in September was on the table. But Mr El-Erian told the BBC’s Today programme that by waiting, “it risks tipping the economy further towards a higher probability of recession.”

A number of experts have cautioned that it is premature to suggest the world’s largest economy is heading for a downturn.

But if it does, it would have wider implications.

“What happens in the US economically and financially does not stay in the US,” said Mr El-Erian.

“The US has been the major driver of global economic growth, the US consumer is a very important engine of economic activity so the world as a whole would suffer if the US were to go into recession.”

The wait for the Fed’s next meeting will also likely mean stock markets remain unsettled.

“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.

Trading on the Nikkei was volatile following the Bank of Japan’s decision to raise interest rates for just the second time in 17 years.

It sent the yen soaring against the dollar making Japanese stocks – and the country’s exports – more expensive for foreign investors and buyers.

Commenting on the country’s outlook, Jesper Koll, executive director of Monex Group Japan, said he still had confidence in the country.

“Japan’s fundamentals are strong, recession risks are nil and corporate leaders are dead-set on raising capital returns,” he told the BBC.

As well as Japan, stock markets in South Korea and Taiwan also regained ground, rising around 3.5% after record falls.

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.”

X (formerly Twitter)

Usha Vance is defending controversial comments made by her husband, Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance, about “childless cat ladies”, telling Fox News that she thought critics had taken the remarks too seriously.

Mr Vance initially made the controversial remarks in a 2021 interview. He argued those without children shouldn’t be leading the country and that women who don’t have kids are “miserable”.

The comments resurfaced after former President Donald Trump chose Mr Vance as his running mate. The backlash – from critics including the actress Jennifer Aniston – was swift, and so was Mr Vance’s defence of his words.

Now, Ms Vance has weighed in, telling Fox News that the remarks were a “quip” and she wished people would look at the larger context of what her husband said.

Addressing criticism that his comments were insulting to those who struggle with fertility problems, she said Mr Vance would “never, ever, ever want to say something to hurt someone who was trying to have a family, who really, was struggling with that”.

She said she understands there “are a lot of other reasons why people may choose not to have families and many of those reasons are very good”.

Mr Vance was a candidate for Senate at the time of the 2021 interview, which also happened on Fox News.

He told former channel host Tucker Carlson that the US is run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too”.

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He went on to question why a number of high-profile Democrats do not have children, including Kamala Harris who is now running to replace Joe Biden as president. Ms Harris is a step-mother to her husband Doug Emhoff’s two children.

JD Vance argued leaders without children were making choices for the future even though they “don’t really have a direct stake in it”.

He also said those without children live in small apartments, chase wealth, careers and “status” and then end up “hating” those who have families and homes, whom he said are happier and better equipped to lead the country.

Mr Vance, who has three children with Ms Vance, has since defended the remarks – particularly “childless cat ladies” – as a “sarcastic comment” in service of making his larger point.

“People are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said,” Mr Vance told the conservative media personality Megyn Kelly.

He said his remarks were not aimed at belittling people who do not have children, rather, they aimed to criticise the “Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-children,” he told the host.

Security forces in Somalia’s southern city of Kismayo have seized hundreds of Islamic face veils from female residents, the city’s police chief says.

Warsame Ahmed Gelle told state TV that authorities have been conducting operations to “fight” the veils, also known as niqabs.

The crackdown was sparked by concerns that jihadists could conceal their identity and carry out attacks, Mr Warsame said.

Large parts of southern and central Somalia are controlled by al-Shabab, which is affiliated to al-Qaeda and has waged a brutal insurgency for nearly 20 years against the UN-backed government in Somalia.

On Friday dozens were killed in an attack at a popular beachfront location in Mogadishu, the capital.

Officers in Kismayo have been confiscating the veils by stopping women in the streets and forcing them to remove the garment.

The operation began last Wednesday, Mr Wasame said.

Women caught wearing the niqab, which covers the whole face expect for the eyes, also face jail or a fine.

Because al-Shabab controls much of southern Somalia, Kismayo and its surrounding areas are the only places in the state of Jubaland where authorities can enforce the ban.

The state initially introduced the niqab ban in 2013, citing security risks, but it was rarely enforced.

Niqabs are seen as a sign of modesty in Islam – a religion which, according to government statistics, is practised by 99% of Somalia’s population.

Many women there wear the niqab and Mr Wasame said the garment had increased in popularity recently.

However most Somali women still opt for the hijab, which covers a woman’s hair but not her face.

The police said at least 37 people were killed during Friday’s beachfront attack and several more were wounded.

Al-Shabab, who claimed responsibility for the attack, said the death toll and injuries are much higher than figures released by the police.

The Somali military recently killed dozens of jihadist fighters in Jubaland so reprisal attacks are a possibility.

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Lavish opening ceremonies. Photo-finishes. Gold medal drama. All things we’ve come to expect during the Olympic Games.

But if you’ve wondered why two famous faces have been missing this time around, you’re not alone.

You might even be one of the 300,000 people who saw Lee Cocker’s post on X about them.

Mario and Sonic.

Since the Beijing Olympics, the former video game rivals have joined forces in a series of tie-in titles starring characters from both franchises.

The mascots have sprinted, jumped and thrown their way through a collection of summer and winter Olympic events every four years, and their most recent outing took them to their home country, Japan.

But the world’s favourite plumber and Earth’s fastest hedgehog haven’t paid a visit to Paris in 2024.

Is it the end of an era? BBC Newsbeat tried to find out.

Lee Cocker was an executive producer on the series for 17 years, and worked on every game from the 2008 edition to the Tokyo version.

He tells Newsbeat the idea of Mario and Sonic starring in a game together would have been unthinkable in the 1990s.

But by the early 2000s relationships between once-bitter enemies Nintendo and Sega had softened.

Lee says he presented a prototype of the game to bosses of both companies and the International Olympics Committee (IOC), and all of them were impressed.

The first game was a huge success, selling about 26 million copies, according to Lee.

“It was two of the most iconic video game characters coming together at the Olympics,” he says.

“And it was on the Wii.”

At the time, the Nintendo console with motion-control capabilities was a sensation, outselling rivals PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

It was also incredibly popular with families. So a game everyone could gather around the TV to play was an easy sell.

“It was a perfect storm,” says Lee.

While the sequels never quite matched the sales of the first game, they remained popular.

And when Lee posted on X to confirm that there would be no Paris version the response was huge.

“My Twitter blew up, my social media blew up, my emails blew up,” he says.

“Loads of people messaging me, saying: ‘We love that game. We grew up on that game’.”

Despite this, Lee says the licence wasn’t renewed for 2024, and the understanding was that the IOC wanted to work with a new partner.

“Think of it as a cake,” he says.

“Everyone has to get a piece – the IOC, Nintendo, Sega – so if they’re doing it with another company, they get a bigger percentage.”

Lee says he had expected Ubisoft, the French gaming giant known for franchises including the family friendly Rayman and Rabbids series, to be chosen.

In the end the IOC went for nWay, a developer with offices in San Francisco and South Korea.

They’ve produced a mobile game, Olympics Go!, which Lee says is “very good”, but would have been produced on a much smaller budget.

Lee says the IOC also wanted to explore the use of NFTs – the short-lived crypto-powered token – and esports.

There’s been criticism of the sports body for this, but Lee says it’s understandable that it would want to reach new audiences by using emerging technologies.

But he admits he’d have been keen to explore what could have been with a Paris 2024 edition of Mario and Sonic.

“What I always liked about Mario and Sonic and working on it was introducing new sports,” he says.

“Breakdancing is an Olympic sport this year.

“How good would it have been to see Mario and Sonic doing breakdancing? Bowser spinning on his shell or something?”

Another group of people upset by the lack of a new Mario and Sonic game are speedrunners – players who spend hours competing to log the best times in the games’ different events.

Although the series was a fun family hit, speedrunning has a dedicated community built around it.

JH2000, who holds two world records in the Winter Olympics versions, says there’s a surprising amount of depth to the titles.

“Each character has its own set of stats,” he says.

“You’ve got your speed characters, the all-around characters, the technical characters and the power characters.

“And each one has their own feel in different events.”

JH says the speedrun community was “gutted” when they learned Mario and Sonic wouldn’t be heading for Paris.

“When we heard nothing about it we were completely and utterly gutted,” he says.

“We just thought, ‘we can’t just end like this’.

“We heard nothing, so we just thought, OK, maybe it’s coming out later, until we found out it wasn’t.”

All hope might not be lost. When BBC Newsbeat asked the IOC for an explanation as to why there was no Paris version of Mario and Sonic, it blamed “tight timelines after the postponed Olympic Games Tokyo 2020”.

“However the Tokyo edition is available and very popular. Watch this space for the future,” they added.

Lee is less optimistic about the characters qualifying for another Olympics, but says the big thing for him is the legacy of the games he did get to make.

“These two videogame characters coming together for the Olympics, that’s what happens, it’s that Olympic spirit,” he says.

“It was very, very iconic, and I’m glad that people shared that. It means a lot to them, and it was a big part of their childhood.”

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays – or listen back here.

Israel says it has carried out an air strike against what it said was a “military structure” used by the armed group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese health ministry said four people were killed in the strike on a house in the town of Maifadoun, around 30km from the Israeli border.

Security sources told the AFP news agency that the four men were Hezbollah fighters. In an apparent response, the group launched drone strikes on towns in northern Israel, injuring two people.

It comes amid increasing tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, and with Iran which backs the group.

Last week, an Israeli air strike killed senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital Beirut, in what Israeli officials called an “intelligence-based elimination”.

Israeli officials say he was responsible for a rocket attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights last month which killed 12 children and teenagers. Hezbollah has denied any involvement in that attack.

Hours after Shukr was assassinated, the Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in the Iranian capital Tehran – Iran blamed the attack on Israel.

Hezbollah and Iran have vowed to retaliate over the deaths, sparking fears that the tit-for-tat blows could ignite a broader regional conflict.

Several countries, including the US, have urged citizens to leave Lebanon as soon as possible. The country’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that he was working to ensure that Hezbollah did not trigger a major escalation with its response to Shukr’s death.

The Israeli attack on Maifadoun was carried out by fighter jets, and was guided by intelligence agencies, the Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement posted to social media. Officers from the internal security agency Shin Bet and military intelligence agency Aman provided assistance to the military.

In response, Hezbollah fired what it called a “swarm” of drones at Israel, injuring two people in the northern town of Mazra’a. But a source in the group told the Reuters news agency that the attack was not part of its response to the death of Shukr.

US President Joe Biden met his senior national security team on Monday as concerns of a 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.

The United Nations’ rights chief Volker Turk called on “all parties, along with those states with influence, to act urgently to de-escalate what has become a very precarious situation”.

Elsewhere, several US military personnel have been injured in a strike on a base in Iraq. The rocket fire on the Ain al-Assed base is the latest in a series of attacks on the facility, which hosts American forces fighting the Islamic State group.

With one viral line on cable TV – “these guys are just weird” – Tim Walz vaulted into contention for the job of Kamala Harris’s running mate.

The 60-year-old brings with him a folksy, plain-spoken and sharp-tongued approach to taking on the Republican opposition.

He also comes with a compelling resume – a public school teacher, football coach and National Guardsman before he entered politics.

His political experience, representing a Republican-leaning district in Congress and then later passing left-wing policies as Minnesota’s governor, could have broad appeal at a time when American politics is so polarised.

A native of rural Nebraska, Mr Walz farmed and hunted in his summertimes and enlisted in the Army National Guard at 17. He would serve in the volunteer force for 24 years.

His father, a public school administrator, encouraged him to join the military before he died from lung cancer when Mr Walz was 19.

The Minnesota governor has spoken of how Social Security survivor benefits sustained his mother, and how the GI Bill paid for his college education.

Armed with teaching degrees, Mr Walz took on a one-year teaching post in China around the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

He later honeymooned in the country with wife Gwen Whipple and also organised summer educational trips to China for US students.

After returning home to Nebraska, Mr Walz became a teacher and American football coach until his wife – another teacher at the school – drew him back to her native Minnesota. They now have two children.

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As a coach at Mankato West High School, Mr Walz helped build up an American football programme that led the school to its first state championship.

He also earned plaudits for agreeing to be the faculty adviser for the school’s gay-straight alliance at a time when homosexuality was largely frowned upon.

He first ran for office in a largely agricultural district that spans across southern Minnesota, which is fairly rural and Republican-leaning.

But Mr Walz campaigned as a moderate who cared about public service and veterans’ advocacy, leading to an election upset.

Over his 12 years in Congress, it was hard to label his ideology.

He voted in favour of the Affordable Care Act, co-sponsored pro-labour measures, including a bill to raise the minimum wage, and backed an unsuccessful cap-and-trade effort for reducing carbon emissions.

But he also found common cause with Republicans.

He voted to continue funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, supported tighter vetting of refugees entering the US, and tried to block the Obama-era bailout of banks and car companies after the 2008 financial crash.

Once endorsed by the pro-gun National Rifle Association (NRA), which donated to his campaign, he spoke out in favour of an assault weapons ban after the Parkland school shooting and lost their backing.

Mr Walz won the 2018 Minnesota governor’s race by more than 11 points but his first term was overshadowed by the Covid pandemic and the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.

Republicans heavily criticised Mr Walz for being slow to deploy the National Guard even as some protests grew violent.

But the governor won re-election and his second term has overseen a busy period with Democrats controlling the state legislature by a single seat.

Democrats have enshrined abortion rights, enacted paid family and sick leave, strengthened gun laws, funded universal free school meals and invested in affordable housing.

The frenetic activity caught the eye of former President Barack Obama who wrote: “If you need a reminder that elections have consequences, check out what’s happening in Minnesota.”

Largely unknown on the national scene, Mr Walz has quickly gathered buzz in recent weeks for his acerbic descriptions of Republicans.

“These are weird people on the other side,” he recently told MSNBC, a label that has been widely repeated. “They want to ban books. They want to be in your [doctor’s] exam room.”

But Republicans have been quick to characterise what he has done in Minnesota as too radical for ordinary Americans.

Tom Emmer, the third-highest ranking Republican in the US House of Representatives, accused Mr Walz of trying “to turn Minnesota into Kamala Harris’ home state of California”.

But allies, including labour leaders, believe Mr Walz can broaden Ms Harris’s appeal to rural and working class voters.

Angie Craig, a House Democrat locked in a competitive race for re-election, praised Mr Walz as “a battle-tested leader”.

As “a proven winner who has never lost an election across many tough races”, she told the BBC she believed he would be the best possible addition to the Harris ticket.

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Of all the violent scenes in UK towns and cities at the weekend, one of the most shocking happened in Hull – when an angry crowd of white men surrounded and attacked a car with men the police have now identified as Eastern European inside.

Videos of the incident shared on social media show the crowd charging towards a silver BMW and forcing open its doors, and attacking those inside.

In one video, a person in the crowd can be heard shouting a racist slur and the word “foreigners” is used. In another video someone shouts “get them”.

BBC Verify initially reported in this article that the men inside the car were of Asian heritage, however Humberside Police has since told the BBC they are Eastern European.

The attack on the BMW happened in the north-west of Hull city centre on Saturday afternoon.

Analysis of social media videos by BBC Verify suggests the vehicle and its occupants were set upon at about 16:45.

In one video, large black plumes of smoke can be seen rising into the sky. The person filming moves down Hall Street and towards a car park – where a car is ablaze and a car horn is ringing out.

Then the BMW swings backwards around the corner from Milky Way, as it tries to escape a large mob.

The car is trapped on the kerb and is quickly swarmed by angry men, several of whom are masked and using what look like screwdrivers to smash the car’s tail lights and to try to prise open the car doors and grab the people inside.

Men can be seen throwing bricks and a shopping trolley at the car. Another man can be seen performing the Nazi salute.

In the background of one of the videos, you can hear someone shout, “get them lads, get the [expletive], smash that shit up”.

A man in a St George’s flag T-shirt can be seen trying to smash the BMW’s windows. Using facial recognition software and social media profiles, we have identified him as John Honey.

He appears in other videos showing looting later in the day in the city centre. He has since been charged with violent disorder, three counts of robbery, two counts of burglary and criminal damage, and is in custody. Humberside Police said on Monday afternoon that a total of 28 other people had been arrested.

Around the car, a man with a large rucksack on his back, opens the front passenger door and appears to hit a man several times.

About 10 seconds after the car is trapped, a man manages to scramble out, having lost one shoe. He is then chased by a masked man with a metal bar.

The video then pans right and riot police can be seen approaching. This appears to trigger the mob to scatter.

The men who fled the car are then seen unharmed about 20m (66ft) away from the attack.

We don’t know who they are and it is unclear whether any other people were travelling in the car with them.

The camera then pans across the chaotic scene to show there are other cars on fire with thick black smoke filling the air.

Another man BBC Verify has identified as being present at the incident – using facial recognition tools and confirmed by comparison with social media profiles – is Connor Londesborough. He can be seen in footage standing next to the car and speaking to some of the attackers but not joining in the attack.

A few days before the protest he had shared a post from the National Defence League – an anti-immigrant online group – that read ‘‘prepared for peace, ready for war”.

It has previously been reported that Londesborough had a conviction in 2019 for kidnap, arson and robbery.

He told the BBC he had been present at the protest in Victoria Square earlier, and said he was only at the car attack incident to stop others from attacking the car.

Several hours earlier, crowds had gathered in Hull city centre.

Online posters with the words “enough is enough” had been shared calling for people to meet in Victoria Square at midday.

One Facebook post suggests this had been initially organised by “Hull Patriotic Protestors”, a private group which lists a number of concerns including “the influx of illegal invaders in our city” and “the economic decline and financial neglect of our City”.

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Another Facebook advert asks for attendees to “try and be as sober as you can be” and that “it is important to remember this is not about the colour of a person’s skin”.

It says the event will start with a vigil for the three girls murdered in Southport.

Footage of the protest shows a man delivering an anti-immigrant speech and a counter-demonstration close by. The two groups are kept separate by a row of police officers.

At about 13:15, a BBC colleague saw members of the Victoria Square crowd five minutes’ walk away outside the Royal Hotel, where asylum seekers are reportedly housed. He says he saw several throw projectiles at the hotel – damaging windows.

In videos we have analysed, a large group of people can be seen behind metal barriers in front of the hotel shouting chants of “send them home” and “get them out” in front of riot police. Bottles, flares and bricks were thrown at officers.

Later, at 15:33, right-wing activist Tommy Robinson, posted on X that the hotel housed “unvetted migrant men at the taxpayers expense”.

In the hours after the BMW was surrounded and attacked, crowds would once again form in the centre of the city – and looting would start.

People gathered on Jameson Street. The earliest looting videos on social media we have identified are from 18:38 and show the O2 phone shop being ransacked.

We have also seen footage of looting in Shoezone, where a large pile of shoes was brought out and set on fire, Greggs the bakers and cosmetics retailer Lush.

An Australian father-of-three was killed by a crocodile after falling into a river when a path gave way, his family have said.

Dr Dave Hogbin was on holiday in Queensland with his wife and three boys when a riverbank gave way and he fell into the Annan River in Cooktown.

His wife tried to pull him out of the water, but she too began slipping down the river bank, prompting him to let go of her arm. His family called him a “hero”, hailing his “final selfless act”.

Queensland Police said they believed human remains found in a crocodile in Cooktown to be of a 40-year-old man, from New South Wales, who went missing on Saturday. The remains are yet to be formally identified.

Writing for News.com.au, journalist Alexis Carey, sister-in-law of Dr Hogbin, said his family wanted to speak out to raise awareness over how dangerous the area is and so his children “know exactly how amazing a man he really was”.

The GP, from Newcastle, New South Wales, had been on a camping holiday with his wife Jane and three sons – aged seven, five and two – when he was taken by a 4.9m (16ft) crocodile on Saturday afternoon, she wrote.

Clearing up an initial suggestion from police that he had been fishing, Ms Carey said the family had been walking along a path on a 5m high (16ft) river bank when a portion of it gave way and he was unable to get out of the water.

She said his wife, also a GP, slid down to pull Dr Hogbin out and was able to grab his arm, but she also began slipping into the river herself.

“Dave’s final, decisive act was to let go of Jane’s arm when he realised she was falling in, despite knowing she was his only lifeline. Within moments, he was taken,” Ms Carey said.

“Dave’s brave decision in that terrifying moment very likely saved his wife’s life, ensuring she was able to return to their boys.”

She said the fact his children did not witness their dad’s final moments was a “small piece of consolation”.

Dr Hogbin’s wife, Jane, said: “We were just enjoying a standard day of our holiday and everything just changed within 30 seconds. He wasn’t doing anything wrong – in fact, he was doing everything right, and this still happened…

“He saved me – his last act was to not pull me in with him.”

Paying tribute to her husband, she described him as a dedicated father and “fiercely loyal and protective”.

A GoFundMe page set up to help support the family has raised more than A$56,600 (£28,880).

Queensland Police said the remains found in the crocodile would be tested further to aid identification.

A report for the coroner is being prepared and the search has been suspended.

Bangladesh’s parliament has been dissolved, a day after prime minister Sheikh Hasina was forced from power.

Ms Hasina resigned and fled the country after weeks of student-led protests spiralled into deadly unrest.

The dissolution of parliament, a key demand of protesters, paves the way for establishing an interim government.

Bangladeshis are waiting to see what comes next, as the country’s military chief is holding talks with political leaders and protest organisers.

According to local media, more than 100 people died in violent clashes across Bangladesh on Monday, the single deadliest day since mass demonstrations began.

Hundreds of police stations were also torched, with the Bangladesh Police Service Association (BPSA) declaring a strike “until the security of every member of the police is secure”.

The group also sought to place the blame at the door of authorities, saying they were “forced to fire”.

Overall, more than 400 people are believed to have died, as protests were met with harsh repression by government forces.

The protests began in early July with peaceful demands from university students to abolish quotas in civil service jobs, but snowballed into a broader anti-government movement.

Weeks of unrest culminated in the storming of the prime minister’s official residence, not long after Ms Hasina had fled to neighbouring India, ending nearly 15 years of rule.

Bangladeshi leaders are under pressure to establish an interim government to avoid a power vacuum that could lead to further clashes.

Within hours of her resignation, Bangladesh’s army chief Gen Waker-uz-Zaman pledged that an interim administration would be formed, adding on state television that “it is time to stop the violence”.

Student leaders have been clear they will not accept a military-led government, pushing for Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus to become the interim government’s chief adviser.

Mr Yunus, who agreed to take up the role, said: “When the students who sacrificed so much are requesting me to step in at this difficult juncture, how can I refuse?”

He is returning to Dhaka from Paris, where he is undergoing a minor medical procedure, according to his spokesperson.

Meanwhile, ex-prime minister and key opposition leader Khaleda Zia was released from years of house arrest, a presidential statement said.

She chairs the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which boycotted elections in 2014 and again in 2024, saying free and fair elections were not possible under Ms Hasina.

The BNP wanted the polls to be held under a neutral caretaker administration. This has now become a possibility after the departure of Ms Hasina, who had always rejected this demand.

Ms Zia, 78, served as prime minister of Bangladesh from 1991 to 1996, but was imprisoned in 2018 for corruption, although she said the charges were politically motivated.

She was not the only opposition figure to be released after years of detention.

Activist Ahmad Bin Quasem was also released from detention, according to his lawyer Michael Polak.

Rights groups say Mr Quasem was taken away by security forces in 2016, just one of hundreds of forced disappearances in the country under Ms Hasina’s rule.

“There were many points during his detention that he was feared dead, and the uncertainty was one of the many tools of repression utilised by the regime,” Mr Polak explained, adding they hoped the decision to release political prisoners “is a positive sign of their intentions”.

“Unfortunately, the good news won’t be shared by all,” he told the BBC, stating that a number of political prisoners had died in custody.

At least 20 other families of political prisoners gathered outside a military intelligence force building in the capital Dhaka earlier in the day, still desperately waiting for news about their loved ones, AFP news agency reports.

“We need answers,” Sanjida Islam Tulee, a co-ordinator of Mayer Daak (The Call of the Mothers) campaign group, told the news agency.

Across the border in India, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said he was “deeply concerned till law and order is visibly restored” in Bangladesh, with which India shares a 4,096-km (2,545-mile) border and has close economic and cultural ties.

He gave the first official confirmation that Ms Hasina made a request to travel to India at “very short notice” and “arrived yesterday evening in Delhi”.

India also deployed additional troops along its border with Bangladesh.

“Our border guarding forces have also been instructed to be exceptionally alert in view of this complex situation,” Mr Jaishankar said.

Sir Keir Starmer has become embroiled in a war of words with Elon Musk, after the tech billionaire suggested that “civil war is inevitable” following violent unrest in the UK.

The owner of X, formerly Twitter, posted the remarks on the platform in response to a video showing people aiming fireworks at police.

The prime minister’s spokesperson said there was “no justification” for Mr Musk’s comments, adding there was more that social media companies “can and should be doing”.

Mr Musk then replied to a post on X from the prime minister – in which Sir Keir said he would not tolerate attacks on mosques or Muslim communities – asking: “Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?”

Mr Musk also shared a video of a person purportedly being arrested for offensive comments online, asking: “Is this Britain or the Soviet Union?”

He also replied to a post criticising UK policing, suggesting the police’s response “does seem one-sided”.

Justice Minister Heidi Alexander has also weighed in against Mr Musk, who has a long history of making controversial remarks online, for his “totally unjustifiable” and “pretty deplorable” comments.

Disorder has now lasted almost a week, following the fatal stabbing of three girls in Southport. The subsequent unrest in towns and cities across England and in parts of Northern Ireland has been fuelled by misinformation online, the far-right and anti-immigration sentiment.

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When asked about accusations of two-tier policing in the UK, Ms Alexander said that was a “baseless assertion” that does a “disservice to police men and women who go out to do their jobs and uphold the rule of law”.

She added social media companies had a “moral responsibility” to call for calm and help clamp down on misinformation.

The PM’s spokesperson also said social media firms “have a responsibility” to ensure criminal activity – including from those outside the UK – is not being shared online and state actors may be amplifying misinformation.

But they would not say which countries the government believes are behind the posts.

Meanwhile, BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, has urged media regulator Ofcom to consider fining X after this weekend’s disorder.

Adam Leon Smith, a fellow of BCS, said: “When misinformation leads to riots and unrest, there must be consequences. It is easy to argue that X has shown disregard for public safety in hosting such content.

“We urge Ofcom to enforce the Online Safety Act as soon as they can, with the full weight of the law and levy significant fines if they find mismanagement on the platform.”

On Monday, Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said he had met representatives from TikTok, Facebook’s parent company Meta, Google and X “to make clear their responsibility to continue to work with us to stop the spread of hateful misinformation and incitement”.

The Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has also said the government would not tolerate “arm chair thuggery” and social media companies need to “take responsibility” over online posts encouraging criminality.

The BBC has approached X, Meta, TikTok, Snap, Telegram and Signal for comment.

A well-placed source at Snap, the company which runs the social media platform Snapchat, told BBC News it has not been contacted by the UK government following the disorder.

Snapchat says it has 21 million monthly users in the UK.

Offences concerning incitement under UK law predate social media, and are listed under the Public Order Act 1986.

This may include provoking violence and harassment, as well as engaging in rioting.

The Online Safety Act, which became law in 2023 but has not yet fully come into effect, will require social media firms to “take robust action against illegal content and activity”, including “racially or religiously aggravated” offences as well as inciting violence.

The criminal offences introduced by the act will cover sending “threatening communications” online, and sharing “false information intended to cause non-trivial harm”.

On Monday, Sir Keir emphasised that “criminal law applies online as well as offline”.

Mr Musk’s comments have drawn criticism from some online, with satirist Armando Iannucci saying the Tesla and Space X CEO had been “taken in by your own platform, which amplifies noise at the expense of facts”.

Sunder Katwala, director of think tank British Future, said the post was “spreading a narrative that is crucial to socialising people with fairly extreme view towards condoning violence to protect their group”.

He said there needs to be “strong responses from government, Ofcom, and parliament” to the comments.

An Ofcom spokesperson told BBC News it is “moving quickly” to implement the Online Safety Act, so it can be enforced “as soon as possible”.

“When it comes fully into force, tech firms will have to assess the risk of illegal content on their platforms, take steps to stop it appearing and act quickly to remove it when they become aware of it,” they said.

“We expect the illegal harms duties to come into force from around the end of the year… and the additional duties on the largest services in 2026.”

“Any doubt is just a joke. Stress only makes us stronger,” Qin Haiyang – a part of China’s history-making men’s 4x100m medley quartet posted after their unprecedented victory over the US on Monday.

Qin’s seeming defiance came at the tail end of what has been a challenging time for China in the pool.

Some of the country’s top swimmers – including Qin and his relay teammate Sun Jiajun- have been in the spotlight after a slew of doping allegations, followed by contentious US claims that the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) was covering it up.

They were among 23 Chinese swimmers who reportedly returned positive doping tests prior to the Tokyo Olympics.

And although Chinese swimmers have been drug-tested twice as much as some other nations this year before heading to Paris, their performances have been met with scepticism.

Right after the medley event on Monday, Team GB’s Adam Peaty opened his fire on the Chinese team, saying “there’s no point winning if you’re not winning fair”.

Swim legend Michael Phelps who has been vocal about doping issues also doubled down. “If you test positive, you should never be allowed to come back and compete again, cut and dry,” he told news agency Associated Press. “I believe one and done.”

To the Chinese swimming team and their millions of fans back home, however, the victory brought joy and vindication.

The hashtag “China winning gold medal at 4x100m medley relay” was viewed 760 million times on Weibo.

“China’s gold medal are squeaky clean, we won it with our competence!” A comment racked up more than 8,000 likes on Weibo reads.

“It’s been so hard for the Chinese swimming team,” read another top comment.

The pressure has indeed been immense.

And this has been reflected in comments by China’s new breakout star Pan Zhanle, who swam the crucial anchor leg of the relay and also won the men’s 100m freestyle final with a new world record.

After his 100m win last week, Pan – who had not been among the revealed names of positive test results – told Chinese media that he felt that the team was “looked down on” by some foreign swimmers, adding that Australia’s Kyle Chalmers had snubbed him when he tried to say hello.

And although Pan was not among those who tested positive, his record-breaking performance was questioned by former Australian Olympic swimmer Brett Hawke who posted on Instagram that it’s not “humanly possible to beat that field”.

German athlete Angelina Köhler also questioned the bronze-winning performance of China’s Zhang Yufei – who was also among the 23 who had previously tested positive . Köhler who did not make the podium, reportedly told reporters after the swim that “stories like that always have a bad flavour”.

Zhang, who won a silver and five bronzes in Paris, was also defiant.

“Why should Chinese swimmers be questioned when they swim fast? Why did no one dare to question USA’s Michael Phelps when he got eight gold medals?” she asked in a press conference.

The tension has spilled beyond the pool too. China’s anti-doping agency (Chinada) released a statement on Tuesday, accusing its US counterpart Usada of displaying double standards.

The press release highlighted the case of US sprinter Erriyon Knighton. Knighton, a world silver medallist who is competing in the men’s 200m sprint this week, was not suspended after testing positive for the banned substance trenbolone earlier this year. Like in the case of the Chinese swimmers, the arbitrator had found the result was likely caused by contaminated meat.

Meanwhile Chinese fans are also taking matters to their own hands.

Adam Peaty’s Instagram account was flooded with angry comments in the past day. Even his girlfriend’s account was not spared. “Curious why you’re only attacking China but none of the other countries that won ahead of you as well… pretty weird,” a top comment under Peaty’s most recent post reads.

Brett Hawke, who is now a swimming coach, has also been hit with angry comments on his Instagram account. He has now deleted the video he first posted about Pan and limited comments on his posts.

Instead, on a recent post about the men’s medley results, his caption simply said: “Chinese men are victorious!”

The tech world is digesting a US judge’s potentially seismic ruling that Google illegally monopolises online search and related advertising

It took four years to get to this point, and Google-owner Alphabet’s inevitable appeal means this the legal process is likely to carry on for some time yet.

But already the potential consequences of the judge’s decision are being considered, ranging from cash fines to other, more complicated remedies.

The US government specifically wants “structural relief” – so what could that look like?

• Google’s online search monopoly is illegal, US judge rules

The nuclear option would be to demand Google breaks itself into smaller chunks – a move US officials have not ruled out.

Google is much more than just search.

Just look at Android, a firm it bought for $50m (£39.3m) in 2005, which now runs on the majority of smartphones – or YouTube, a $1.65bn acquisition in 2006, which now generates many multiples of that in revenue each year.

The argument might be that all of these can remain under Google, but the actual search engine should be spun off into a separate business.

That might cause consternation for Alphabet executives. But as long as Google remained the default search engine on devices, the average consumer would be unlikely to notice the difference.

“Any such move would certainly be met with years of litigation and regulatory bun-fighting, but it seems to be far more ‘on the table’ than at any time in Google’s history,” said Gareth Mills, Partner at legal firm Charles Russell Speechlys.

“There will now be a separate hearing where the Judge will have no option to consider the divesture of Google from all or part of its search engine part of the business, or imposing other corporate governance controls to negate the anti-competitive conduct found to have already occurred.”

Another potential remedy centres on Google’s practice of paying other companies to use it.

The US said Google was currently paying firms like Apple huge amounts of money each year to be pre-installed as the default search engine on their devices or platforms.

The judge agreed.

The contention is, had Google never spent that money, the big firms might have been encouraged to develop their own search experience.

Instead, Apple’s Safari browser for example uses Google by default whenever you use it to search the web.

If remedial action significantly affected Google’s ability to pay other companies to use it, perhaps those firms might start a rival.

Here though they would run up against Google’s incredibly strong customer recognition for search. Despite its own high brand profile, it is hard to imagine telling someone to “Apple” something.

The iPhone-maker will of course be keen to keep the money from Google rolling in, which according to one analyst amounted to $20 billion in 2022.

“Any disruption to the revenue stream will have significant implications for Apple,” said Dipanjan Chatterjee from Forrester Research.

“As the case works through the legal system, and the likely outcome appears to be opening up search engine exclusivity, you can fully expect a brand as obsessed as Apple is about customer experience to have a Plan B to ensure a smooth transition for its customers.”

Something that’s easier to imagine is some kind of choice screen, where people opening a browser for the first time are asked whether they’d like to use Google or an alternative like Microsoft’s Bing.

It is somewhat harder to picture that causing people to abandon Google in their droves, however, for the simple reason that for most people it simply works well.

Those of us with grey hairs will recall Google being one of several search engines to emerge at the dawn of the internet, with familiar rivals including Yahoo and Ask (formerly AskJeeves), and possibly less-familiar rivals including Lycos and AltaVista.

But over the next decade, Google didn’t just become the dominant player in the market, it became part of the way we speak.

Despite Microsoft launching its rival, Bing, in 2009, nothing has yet knocked Google off its perch.

Microsoft boss Satya Nadella testified in Google’s trial, perhaps hoping a judgment like this could finally help give Bing wings.

“The court may seek other ways to dismantle Google’s position as a default search engine but some of those remedies likely go beyond the facts driving this case,” said Professor Anu Bradford of Columbia Law School.

“For example, the EU is going further with its recent Digital Markets Act that forces even Google’s own Android phones to present users with a ‘choice screen’ that lets the user choose one’s preferred search engine when setting up the phone.

“One question is whether this new ruling paves way for such regulatory demands in the future.”

Whatever happens next, past experience suggests it won’t happen quickly.

Back in 1999, Microsoft found itself in a very similar situation to where Google is now.

The firm had just been found by a US judge to have created a monopoly, and a year later a court ordered the firm to be broken up.

Microsoft appealed the decision, and in 2001 the original decision to break it up was overturned.

By the end of 2002 Microsoft had agreed a settlement with the US Department of Justice, which a judge accepted.

But some US states disagreed, and it wasn’t until 2004 – five years after the original ruling – that the settlement was officially signed off.

US President Joe Biden met his senior national security team on Monday as concerns 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.

During Monday’s briefing, Mr Biden was told the timing and nature of an Iranian attack remained unclear, according to US news site Axios. A day earlier, Mr Blinken reportedly told his G7 counterparts that Iran and Hezbollah could attack Israel within 24 to 48 hours.

In a statement released after the briefing, Mr Biden said: “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 added that steps were being taken to respond to attacks on US forces “in a manner and place of our choosing”. On Monday, several US personnel were injured in a suspected rocket attack on a US military base in Iraq.

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.

Earlier in the day, Mr Biden spoke to King Abdullah II of Jordan about “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 the events of recent weeks.

On 27 July, 12 children and teenagers were killed in a strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel accused Hezbollah of carrying out the strike, though Hezbollah denied any involvement.

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.

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.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview with Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that the killing would have a “negative impact on the ongoing negotiations”.

Israel has not commented on the assassination, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said afterwards that Israel had 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 is 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.

On Monday, Jordan asked all airlines planning to land at its airports to carry an additional 45 minutes’ worth of fuel, a move thought 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 UK 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.

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 39,600 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Hezbollah and Israeli forces have also exchanged near-daily attacks since the conflict began, with hundreds of people killed and thousands displaced on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border.

Hezbollah and Hamas are both backed by Iran and form part of what Iran calls the “axis of resistance”, a loose alliance of militant and political groups across the region that oppose Israel and its key ally, the US.

Ousted Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina made a request to come to India “at very short notice”, the Indian foreign minister told parliament.

Ms Hasina fled from Bangladesh to India on Monday evening after a political crisis toppled her government.

Foreign Minister S Jaishankar did not mention how long she would stay in the country or what her next steps would be.

In his first official comments since the crisis peaked in Bangladesh, he said India had been in regular contact with authorities in Dhaka over the past 24 hours.

Ms Hasina resigned on Monday after weeks of deadly anti-government protests. The country’s army chief has promised that an interim government will be formed and new elections will be announced.

India shares a 4,096km (2,545 miles)-border with Bangladesh and has close economic and cultural ties with the country. There are worries that prolonged tensions in Bangladesh could spill over into India, which is seen as having supported Ms Hasina through her 15-year-long tenure despite her clamping down on dissent and jailing opposition leaders.

On Monday, India deployed additional troops along its border with Bangladesh.

Mr Jaishankar said the situation there was “still evolving” and that the government was in “close and continuous touch with the Indian community” through its diplomatic missions. The minister said there are 19,000 Indians, including 9,000 students, in Bangladesh and added that most of the students had returned to India in July.

He said India was monitoring the situation regarding the status of minorities in the country.

“There are reports of initiatives by various groups and organisations to ensure their protection and well-being. We welcome that but will naturally remain deeply concerned till law and order is restored,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Mr Jaishankar briefed opposition parties on India’s response to the developments in Bangladesh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also held a meeting on Monday to review the situation.

Five Indian states share a border with Bangladesh, which was formed in 1971 after a war with Pakistan. According to government data from last November, around 915.35km of the border is not fenced.

From a security perspective, Ms Hasina’s tenure was relatively peaceful for India as she had cracked down on anti-India militants in her country. She had also granted transit rights to secure trade routes for the states bordering Bangladesh.

On Monday, top officials of India’s Border Security Force (BSF) visited the Bangladesh border in the eastern state of West Bengal to review “operational preparedness and strategic deployment of BSF in these important border areas”, a spokesperson said.

The BSF said “it has received strict instruction from the government to not allow anyone into the country without valid documents”.

Train services between India and Bangladesh have been suspended “indefinitely” – they had been halted since mid-July after violent protests broke out in Bangladesh.

On Monday, following Ms Hasina’s resignation, the north-eastern state of Meghalaya imposed a night curfew along its border with Bangladesh.

In West Bengal, the state which shares the longest border with Bangladesh as well as close linguistic and cultural ties, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has appealed for peace.

Movement of goods through the Petrapole land port on the border has also been stopped. Reports say hundreds of Indian trucks are stuck on the Bangladesh side.

A senior diplomat told the BBC on Monday that India “doesn’t have too many options at this point in time”.

“We have to tighten control on our borders. Anything else would be construed as interference.”