Ukrainian troops have advanced up to 30km inside Russia, in what has become the the deepest and most significant incursion since Moscow began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had engaged Ukrainian troops near the villages of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez, as the offensive in the Kursk region entered a sixth day.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Kyiv of “intimidating the peaceful population of Russia”.

Overnight, President Volodymyr Zelensky directly acknowledged the attack for the first time, saying Ukraine was pushing the war to “the aggressor’s territory”.

“Ukraine is proving that it can indeed restore justice and ensure the necessary pressure on the aggressor,” Mr Zelensky told the country in his nightly address from Kyiv.

He went on to thank Ukraine’s “warriors” and said he had discussed the operation in Russia with the country’s top military commander – Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi.

A senior Ukrainian official told the AFP news agency that thousands of troops were engaged in the operation, far more than the small incursion initially reported by Russian border guards.

While Ukrainian-backed sabotage groups have launched intermittent cross-border incursions, the Kursk offensive marks the biggest co-ordinated attack on Russian territory by Kyiv’s conventional forces.

“We are on the offensive. The aim is to stretch the positions of the enemy, to inflict maximum losses and to destabilise the situation in Russia as they are unable to protect their own border,” the official said.

Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its forces had “foiled attempts by enemy mobile groups with armoured vehicles to break through deep into Russian territory”.

But in an apparent admission that Kyiv’s forces have now advanced deep into the Kursk border region, the defence ministry reported engaging Ukrainian forces near the villages of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez – which are about 25km and 30km from the Russia-Ukraine border.

Ukrainian troops have claimed to have captured a number of settlements in the Kursk region. In Guevo, a village about 3km inside Russia, soldiers filmed themselves removing the Russian flag from an administrative building.

Clips have also emerged of Ukrainian troops seizing administrative buildings in Sverdlikovo and Poroz, while intense fighting has been reported in Sudzha – a town of about 5,000 people.

Ukrainian troops have already filmed themselves outside Sudzha at a major gas facility involved in the transit of natural gas from Russia to the EU via Ukraine, which has continued despite the war.

In Sumy, which borders the Kursk region, BBC reporters witnessed a steady stream of armoured personnel carriers and tanks moving towards Russia.

The armoured convoys are sporting white triangular insignias, seemingly to distinguish them from hardware used within Ukraine itself. Meanwhile, aerial photos have appeared to show Ukrainian tanks engaged in combat inside Russia.

Photos analysed by BBC Verify also appeared to show Russia constructing new defensive lines near the Kursk nuclear power plant. Ukrainian forces are said to have advanced within 50km (31 miles) of the facility.

Contrasting satellite imagery of the same location captured yesterday with imagery from a few days earlier, images show several newly constructed trench lines in the vicinity, with the nearest roughly 8km (5 miles) from the plant.

Russia says 76,000 people have been evacuated from border areas in the Kursk region, where a state of emergency has been declared by local authorities.

Acting regional governor Aleksei Smirnov also said 15 people were injured late on Saturday when the wreckage of a downed Ukrainian missile fell on a multi-storey building in Kursk’s regional capital, Kursk.

Oleksiy Goncharenko – a Ukrainian MP – hailed the operation and said it was “taking us much closer to peace than one hundred peace summits”.

“When Russia needs to fight back on their own territory, when Russian people are running, when people care, that’s the only way to show them stop this war,” he told the BBC.

The Kursk offensive comes after weeks of Russian advances in the east, where a succession of villages have been captured by the Kremlin’s forces.

Some analysts have suggested that the Kursk attack is part of an effort to force Russia to redeploy forces away from eastern Ukraine and relieve pressure on the beleaguered Ukrainian defences.

But the Ukrainian official told AFP there had been little let-up to date in Russian operations in the east.

Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the offensive was a “major provocation”.

Moscow has already retaliated against the Ukrainian attack. Emergency services in Kyiv said a man and his four-year-old son were killed in a missile strike on the capital overnight.

Air defences also destroyed 53 out of 57 attack drones launched by Russia during its overnight airstrikes, air force officials said. Four North Korean-manufactured missiles were also fired as part of the barrage, they said.

Russia has been forced to turn to the isolated Asian state to re-stock its munitions, with the US alleging that vast amounts of military hardware have been shipped by Pyongyang.

All the sporting action has now finished at the Olympics in Paris, and the famous five-ringed flag is being handed on to the 2028 host city, Los Angeles.

US citizens who travelled to Paris for this year’s Games told the BBC they have high hopes for 2028.

LA resident Marisa was confident the event would be appropriately sprinkled with local “Hollywood glamour”. But she maintained Paris had set a very high bar.

Fellow Americans who spoke to the BBC had concerns Los Angeles would not be able to match France’s impressive public transport network.

With the countdown to LA now under way, here is what we know so far about the next summer Games – which will also mark LA’s first Paralympics.

The Los Angeles Olympics opening ceremony will take place on 14 July 2028, with the closing ceremony just over two weeks later, on 30 July.

The Paralympic opening ceremony will be on 15 August, and the closing event will be on 27 August.

In all, more than 50 Olympic and Paralympic sports will be contested across more than 800 events.

The 2028 Games marks the third time LA has hosted the Olympics, and organisers – who have been eager to emphasise their sustainability credentials – have said no new, permanent constructions will be needed for the event.

Instead, dozens of existing sites have been earmarked for use, including the home stadium of football team LA Galaxy and the LA Memorial Coliseum, which will host the athletics events as it did in LA’s two previous Olympics.

Perhaps unsurprisingly in a city that is famous for its palm-fringed shoreline, beach volleyball is expected to be hosted on an actual beach – something that was not possible in Paris this year.

But some venues will need to be adapted. For example, the SoFi Stadium, as it is currently known, in the suburb of Inglewood, will be converted to host the swimming races, with a resplendent Olympic pool added.

Meanwhile, student housing at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) will be turned into the athletes’ village for the summer, and provide training facilities.

From a sustainability perspective, it remains to be seen whether LA can pull off the “car-free” Games it pledged after winning the bid in 2017.

Moving thousands of spectators across the sprawling Californian city poses a huge challenge for organisers – with current hopes for car-free transit pinned on a fleet of buses, after plans for a major rail network upgrade fizzled out, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Nor will it come cheap.

The most recent budget forecasts expenditure of nearly $7bn (£5.5bn) on the Games themselves, in addition to any transport upgrades.

In addition to the more familiar Olympic sports, the Los Angeles Games will see a revival of some disciplines not seen for a while, as well as some new additions.

• Cricket will be played at the Olympics for the first time since 1900. In LA, we can expect to see tournaments in T20 – a shortened format that sees both teams limited to bowling and batting for no more than 20 overs each. Great Britain will fancy its medal chances, as it has some of the world’s top cricketers
• Lacrosse is also making a comeback. Despite being one of the oldest sports to be played in North America, lacrosse has not been played at Olympic level for more than a century. A new format will be introduced in 2028, which will see teams of six using their lacrosse sticks to fire a ball into a goal
• Baseball/softball – bat-and-ball sports of a similar type, played by men and women respectively, will also return, having been omitted in Paris in 2024
• Squash is due to make its first appearance at an Olympics after years of campaigning from aficionados
• Flag football will also make its Olympic debut. This is a non-contact version of gridiron (American) football, played on a smaller pitch with smaller teams, in which tackles are made by removing a flag from an opponent. It is the fastest-growing variant of the sport in the UK, according to the British American Football Association
• There will also be one new Paralympic discipline: Paraclimbing. This challenges athletes in different classifications to scale a 15m (50ft) wall using hand-holds

Certain other Olympic sports that are relatively new to the line-up will continue, including surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing.

But breaking, which debuted at the Paris Games, has not been picked as one of the disciplines – to the disappointment of some, given that this type of street dance was pioneered by the US.

We can expect to see some of the biggest names from Paris 2024 in Los Angeles, too.

Keely Hodgkinson stormed to gold in the women’s 800m in France. She will be 26 come the next Olympics – still in her athletics prime.

One of the breakout stars from this year’s Games has been swimmer Léon Marchand, cheered to four gold medals by the Parisian crowds with cries of “allez!” whenever his head emerged above water.

Marchand, too, will be 26 in 2028, and looks likely to be in LA to fend off any challengers to his Olympic crown in the pool.

The majority of contenders in this year’s skateboarding event will remain in contention for 2028, particularly given the remarkable youth of the athletes in Paris, such as 11-year-old Zheng Haohao of China and Britain’s Sky Brown.

Brown, twice an Olympic bronze medallist, will still only be 20 by the next Games – the question will be whether she skates, or qualifies for surfing next time.

However, the participation of other global stars is less certain. Simone Biles, arguably the most recognisable name at Paris, will be 31. Few gymnasts continue competing into their 30s, but megastar Biles may fancy an Olympics in front of a home crowd, and a bid to add to her 11 medals.

Newly-crowned men’s 100m champion Noah Lyles will also be 31 come LA 2028 – but should still be fit and well primed to emulate US compatriot Carl Lewis in his defence of that most celebrated of Olympic titles.

But there may be a changing of the guard for Team GB. Swimmer Adam Peaty has hinted that Paris was his last Games, and diver Tom Daley only came out of retirement, to win silver in Paris, at his young son’s request.

However, GB rower Helen Glover has not ruled out a fourth Games and a bid for a fourth medal in LA – when she will be 42.

During one lunch break, fans gathered at 3rd Base Sports Bar in Los Angeles to watch the US women’s Olympic basketball team compete in Paris. Loud cheers erupted as soon as the US team walked out on court.

In just four years, many of those sporting events will be held just a few miles away.

The excitement here, though, is mixed with concern – and some dread.

The city is no stranger to hosting big-scale events, from the Oscars to the Super Bowl, but it is also well acquainted with the downsides of hosting major spectacles.

LA is also known to have some of the worst traffic in the US, and its poor transit system is bemoaned nationally and internationally.

At the time of the bid, it was hoped the Games would force the city to fix some of its transport woes, but the scrapping of plans to extend the train network, and the decision to add a fleet of buses instead, has not thrilled residents.

Nor does it bode well for the millions of tourists the Olympics typically brings to a host city.

“There’s already a lot of traffic every day,” said Cory, while enjoying a burger in the bar. “And then you’re bringing people here who don’t know where they’re going…”

Los Angeles also has one of the highest concentrations of homelessness in the US.

Elisha told the BBC she was “hopeful” the 2028 Games might be a catalyst to finally addressing homelessness in the city and finding a long-term solution.

The Games will celebrate LA’s dramatic and picturesque coastline and the legendary Hollywood sign that hangs over the city’s skyline, but the West Coast metropolis can’t boast the same extravagant, historic backdrop as Paris.

But while Los Angeles might not offer iconic sites like the Eiffel Tower or the Palace of Versailles, the city has its own charms, Elisha stressed.

“It’s not Paris, but LA has Hollywood – and we can make anything happen in Hollywood.”

The last time Los Angeles hosted the Olympics, in 1984, Prince topped the US Billboard singles’ chart and the Games were boycotted by a Cold War-era Soviet Union over commercialisation and security issues.

Great Britain won five gold medals. Among its champions were decathlete Daley Thompson, javelin thrower Tessa Sanderson, a young rower named Steve Redgrave, and 1,500m runner Seb Coe – who went to lead the World Athletics body.

But the undoubted sporting superstar of Los Angeles 1984 was home talent Carl Lewis, who won gold in the men’s 100m, 200m, long jump and 4x100m relay events.

The US dominated the medals table, and – unlike today – was unrivalled by China.

Among a number of historic moments, the 1984 Games saw the first women’s Olympic marathon.

That year’s Paralympics were jointly hosted in Stoke Mandeville, England, and New York – marking the final time that a single host city did not host both the Olympics and Paralympics.

The 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles took place under the cloud of the Great Depression, in a California that was much less built-up than it is today.

There was no event equivalent to the modern-day Paralympics.

The Games were significantly shorter than previous editions, and saw fewer competitors than previously.

But the crowds are reported to have been huge – including a turnout of approximately100,000 people at the opening ceremony.

The year also marked the debut of the now-familiar medals podium.

The state of Assam in India has launched a mobile phone app aimed at reducing deaths caused by wild elephants.

The Haati app will warn people of approaching herds of elephants to allow them to get out of the way.

Assam has one of the biggest elephant populations in India and a high number of elephant and human deaths caused by their interactions.

Conservationists say elephants are becoming more aggressive in Assam because their habitats are shrinking, and even their traditional natural corridors are being encroached upon.

As many as 1,701 people were killed by elephants in India from 2020 to 2024, according to official data cited by the Hindustan Times in March.

The app launched in Assam has been developed by Aaranyak, a biodiversity organisation in north-east India.

It also contains a form enabling victims and their relatives to seek compensation from the local government in cases of injury or death as a result of an attack by the animals.

Aaranyak has also unveiled a handbook on solar-powered fences which can deter elephants.

According to wildlife charity WWF, there are fewer than 50,000 Asian elephants left in the wild. The group estimates that half-a-million families in India are affected by crop-raiding elephants each year.

A man was arrested for climbing the Eiffel Tower on Sunday, hours before the Olympics closing ceremony, Paris police told the BBC.

The man was spotted climbing the tower at about 14:45 local time (13:45 BST) and officers immediately intervened and arrested him, police said. No more details were immediately available on the man’s motivation and nationality.

Videos on social media show a shirtless man scaling the tower just above the Olympic rings that have adorned it during the summer games.

In another video, the man is escorted away by police, hands cuffed behind his back, and says to a bystander: “Bloody warm, innit?”

The Associated Press reported that French police evacuated the area around the Eiffel Tower during the incident, while CNN also reported the tower was evacuated, citing police.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify any evacuations or whether they were still in place at 16:00.

The Eiffel Tower was the centrepiece of the grand finale of the Olympics opening ceremony, but was not expected to feature in the closing ceremony later on Sunday.

A lingering fragrance of bun maska (bread and butter), plates loaded with freshly cooked samosas and cups of piping hot and creamy Irani chai.

These are some of the sights you would typically find at a Persian-style cafe in India.

Popularly known as Irani cafes, these iconic restaurants – with their signature marble-topped tables, old-style clocks, chequered floors and a distinctive menu – have been a part of India’s culture for more than 100 years.

And their influence has spread beyond India: Dishoom, one of London’s most recognisable restaurant chains, was inspired by these cafes.

They came up in cities like Mumbai and Pune in the 18th and 19th centuries when there was an influx of Persian immigrants from Iran.

There’s a third lesser known pocket of the country – the southern city of Hyderabad – where these cafes have been an intrinsic part of the local culture for decades.

But despite their many charms and the rich cultural heritage, the cafes of this city – like their counterparts in Pune and Mumbai – are on the verge of dying out, with owners blaming rising prices, competition from fast-food restaurants and changing consumer tastes.

Hyderabad has the most number of Irani cafes after Mumbai even today. That’s because the city was a centre for Iranian trade in the late 19th Century.

Persian was widely spoken under the rule of a Muslim Nizam, or prince. The Niloufer café, located in the old quarters of the city, was actually named after the Nizam’s daughter-in-law, an Ottoman princess.

This was also a period when parts of modern-day Pakistan were still in Hyderabad, with Iran as its neighbour, making the city easily accessible to Persian traders.

Most of the families who moved to Hyderabad – and other Indian cities – came to escape persecution and famine back home. Some came in search of better jobs and business.

Their arrival coincided with colonial rule when the British were actively promoting a tea drinking culture in the country.

When the Iranians arrived, they brought their own style of making tea – with cream and condensed milk – giving rise to a distinct Iranian chai culture in the cities.

“At first, the tea was sold under the name Chai Khana and only Muslims drank it,” Hyderabad-based historian Mohammed Safiullah says. “But soon, people from all religions caught on to its distinct flavour.”

By the 20th Century, Irani cafes were present in every nook and corner of Hyderabad.

The customers would sip on the lip-smacking tea as they would spend hours chatting away at the coffee shops.

At some cafes, patrons would also be able to play their favourite songs on a jukebox for a small fee.

Historians say these cafes played a crucial role in breaking down social barriers and religious taboos and became an important part of the city’s public life.

“Irani cafes in Hyderabad have stood as symbols of secularism,” historian Paravastu Lokeshwar said. “The names didn’t have any religious connotations. People of all religions and castes patronised them.”

Now they are under threat.

From an estimated 450 cafes over two decades ago, Hyderabad now has only 125 left, said Jaleel Farooq Rooz, owner of The Grand Hotel, a famous Irani cafe.

Mr Rooz’s maternal grandfather came from Iran in 1951 and took over the hotel that was started by 12 Iranians in 1935.

“We used to sell 8,000-9,000 cups a day once. Now we sell just 4,000 cups a day,” he told the BBC.

He cites competition from fast-food chains as one of the reasons. Now one of the most rapidly developing Indian cities, Hyderabad was a quiet little town until the early 1990s. Things changed in the mid-90s, when the city joined the IT boom in India and became a powerhouse of the industry.

The transformation was accompanied by a slew of economic reforms in the country, which allowed global fast-food chains and cafes to penetrate the Indian market. Similar to Iranian cafes, these food joints also offered extended seating options, but with far better amenities and more options.

Mr Rooz said most Irani cafes operated from rented premises as they required large spaces where patrons could relax and unwind over tea.

But rising real estate prices in Hyderabad have forced many owners to move to other work.

“Inflation also took a toll. Tea powder and milk prices have risen three times compared to five years ago,” he added.

Others say the number of Iranian families entering the business has also gone down.

“The current generation is not interested in the café and restaurant business. They prefer other jobs and many migrate to other countries,” said the owner of popular Farasha Restaurant, Mahmood, who goes by only one name.

But despite the challenges, there are still a few in the business who continue to swim against the tide.

Syed Mohammed Razak manages the Red Rose Restaurant in Hyderabad. His grandfather migrated from Tehran and established the City Light Hotel in the 1970s. Later, Mr Razak’s father started the Red Rose Restaurant.

An engineer and graphic designer by profession, Mr Razak admits that “selling just chai and biscuits” is neither easy, nor profitable.

He has now introduced new dishes to the menu to attract more customers and is using his graphic designing skills to expand business and promote it online.

“I want to continue my family’s legacy,” he said.

And it’s not just the owners, there are also loyal customers – many of whom have been frequenting these cafes for generations – who say they would always come back for “another cup of Irani chai”.

“Irani tea is a part of my life, I love the taste and drink it every time I step out,” said Yanni, who goes by only one name and is a regular at the Grand Hotel.

“There is nothing like it even today.”

The elusive artist Banksy has confirmed he painted swimming fish on to a City of London Police sentry box, which was first spotted on Sunday morning.

The glass-fronted box on Ludgate Hill – near The Old Bailey and St Paul’s Cathedral – has been transformed to look like an aquarium.

This is his seventh new artwork to be revealed in the capital in as many days, following a goat, monkeys, elephants, a wolf, pelicans and a cat.

Crowds gathered to take photos throughout the day until barriers were installed, preventing people going inside.

This work differs from the previous works by Banksy unveiled this week in that it is a detailed painting that appears to have been created with translucent spray paint.

The City of London Police said it was aware of “criminal damage” to the police box and were liaising with City of London Corporation which owns it.

A corporation worker was earlier seen barricading it off and asking spectators not to stand in the road near it.

A spokesperson said: “We are currently working through options to preserve the artwork.”

The sentry box is among many installed in the 1990s used by police officers monitoring traffic to prevent IRA attacks.

A local resident who came to take pictures of the fish artwork said she thought it was “rather beautiful in the sun.”

“I like it, it’s got a charm to it somehow. It’s not in your face, it’s quite subtle.

Artist Daniel Lloyd-Morgan, who has painted most of Banksy’s new pieces of art this week said: “It’s really uplifting for people in London at the moment.

“There’s a buzz around his work. It’s nice to capture that as I do the people as well.

“It’s not just about the artwork, it’s about the whole environment he’s creating, it becomes a sort of work of art itself – what happens to it, people steal it or take it away.”

Mr Lloyd-Morgan added that he was due to go on holiday on Monday but has postponed it in case Banksy’s art revelations continue next week.

Banksy’s translucent fish swimming around a 1990s police sentry box form the seventh piece in a surprise animal-themed art series.

On Monday, a goat appeared on the side of a building near Kew Bridge, followed by a sweet image of two elephants touching trunks on the side of a house in Chelsea on Tuesday.

Three monkeys hanging from a bridge in Brick Lane then drew crowds on Wednesday.

On Thursday, a howling wolf on a satellite dish – which looked like the wolf was howling at the moon – was installed onto a garage roof in Peckham.

On Friday, locals in Walthamstow woke up to find two pelicans fishing above a fish shop.

And on Saturday, a stencil of a cat having a stretch appeared on an empty billboard in Cricklewood.

In total, three of these works have since been removed or defaced.

The billboard, along with the cat, was taken down by contractors citing safety reasons, hours after it was revealed.

Crowds who had gathered to look at the work booed as it was dismantled by three men.

• Video: Banksy’s howling wolf satellite dish removed by masked men

The affectionate elephants were pictured having been painted over with stripes on Friday. And earlier in the week, the satellite dish and its wolf were apparently stolen by masked men within hours of being revealed.

Each day, the artist officially announced the works on his Instagram page.

As investigations continue into the plane crash in Brazil that killed 62 people, more details have emerged about the victims.

Those who died included cancer doctors, a three-year-old child, a lawyer specialising in lawsuits against airlines and a Venezuelan family and their dog, local media have reported.

All bodies have now been recovered from the site of Friday’s plane crash in the state of São Paulo.

The twin-engine turboprop was flying from Cascavel in the southern state of Paraná to Guarulhos airport in São Paulo city when it came down on Friday in the town of Vinhedo.

Footage circulating on social media showed a plane descending vertically, spiralling as it fell.

The aircraft crashed in a residential area, but no-one on the ground was injured. Officials said only one home in a local condominium complex was damaged.

Two doctors from the Uopeccan Cancer Hospital in Cascavel, Mariana Belim and Ariane Risso, were among the passengers who died.

They were among eight doctors on their way to attend a medical conference.

Three-year-old Liz Ibba dos Santos, the youngest victim of the disaster, was travelling with her father, Rafael Fernando dos Santos. Her mother, a journalist, was not on the flight.

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Other victims included a family returning to their native Venezuela after their dreams of a new life in Brazil were frustrated.

Josgleidys Gonzalez was travelling with her mother, Maria Gladys Parra Holguin, and her young son, Joslan Perez.

According to a family friend writing on social media, the three had left economic hardship in Venezuela and moved to Cascavel, but had been unable to sort out Joslan’s documentation, as he was born in Venezuela but grew up in Brazil.

As a result, they were heading back to their homeland. Their plan was to change planes in São Paulo and fly to northern Brazil before completing their journey by bus.

Their dog, Luna, boarded the plane with them, because Joslan’s mother could not stand to see him separated from their pet, said the family friend. The family had the dog vaccinated as required by the airline.

The death toll also included a lawyer, Laiana Vasatta, who worked as a lay judge at the Court of Justice of Paraná and also represented clients in lawsuits against airlines. She posted videos on social media offering consumer guidance.

The state of São Paulo said it concluded its operation to remove the victims’ bodies from the crash site on Saturday evening.

It added that the bodies – 34 males and 28 females – were being moved to a police morgue in the city of São Paulo, where they will be identified and released to the families.

The authorities are still trying to determine what caused the plane’s dramatic plunge.

Analysis of the plane’s flight recorders has already begun and the Brazilian Air Force said a preliminary report would be issued in 30 days.

The plane crash is Brazil’s worst since 2007, when a TAM Express plane crashed and burst into flames at São Paulo’s Congonhas airport, killing 199 people.

The ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, will return to the country when elections are declared, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy says.

Ms Hasina, who resigned and fled the country earlier this week following a massive unrest, is currently in India.

Bangladeshi media say more than 500 people were killed in weeks of demonstrations against Ms Hasina. Many of them were shot by the police.

Thousands were injured in the worst violence Bangladesh has seen since its war of independence in 1971.

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“Absolutely, she will come [to Bangladesh],” Mr Wazed tells the BBC, saying his mother will return as and when the interim government decides to hold the polls.

The military-backed interim government, headed by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, was sworn in on Thursday along with 16 advisers.

Two of the student protest leaders are among the advisers.

Mr Wazed is an information technology expert who now lives in the US.

He worked as an IT adviser for Ms Hasina for several years during her tenure as prime minister from 2009 to 2024.

“She will certainly go back,” her son says.

“Whether she comes back into politics or not, that decision has not been made. She is quite fed up with how she was treated.”

The student-led movement started as a protest against quotas in civil service jobs last month before becoming massive unrest to oust Ms Hasina following a brutal police crackdown.

Mr Joy is confident that when the polls are held, the Awami League, the party of Ms Hasina, will emerge victorious.

“I am convinced that If you have elections in Bangladesh today, and if they are free and fair and if there’s a level playing field, then the Awami League will win,” he says.

Ms Hasina became prime minister for a fourth consecutive term in a controversial election held in January 2024.

The main opposition parties boycotted the election saying under Ms Hasina’s government there could not be “any free and fair election”.

Her son termed the current interim government as unconstitutional and said elections should be held within 90 days.

However, he was a bit circumspect about his political ambitions or whether he would return to the country to stand for the leadership of the Awami League, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding leader of Bangladesh, and Ms Hasina.

“No decision has been made in this regard. I never had political ambitions,” he says.

But he adds that he was upset over the way the protesters had ransacked and set fire to their ancestral homes, including the museum dedicated to his grandfather in Dhaka.

“Under these circumstances, I am quite angry, I will do whatever it takes,” he says.

He says he is in touch with party supporters who are very upset and outraged over what happened in the past few weeks.

“If 40,000 protesters or so can force the government to resign, then what happens if protests are held by the Awami League, which has millions of supporters?” he asserts.

Ms Hasina and her sister (Rehana Siddiq) have been stranded in Delhi since Monday.

India has been a strong supporter of the Bangladeshi leader.

There have been reports she is trying to seek asylum in the UK, the United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia.

“Those questions about her visa and asylum, they are all rumours,” her son says.

“She’s not applied anywhere. She’s staying put for the time being, watching how the situation unfolds in Bangladesh.

“Her ultimate goal is always to go back home in Bangladesh.”

Asked about well-documented human rights violations and extra-judicial killings during his mother’s 15-year tenure, he says some mistakes were made.

“Of course, there were individuals in our government who made mistakes, but we always righted the ship,” he adds.

“We had one minister’s son, who was a member of the special police force. He is in jail convicted of extra-judicial killings. That’s unprecedented.”

“My mother tried to do the right thing in terms of arrests,” her son insists.

Last week, Damion Bailey posted on Instagram that he had just achieved his “personal best” – a 13-and-a-half hour flight between Shanghai and Dallas without any in-flight entertainment, films, books or music.

“It’s quite tough, honestly,” the 34-year-old from Miami, Florida tells BBC News. But he keeps doing it.

Mr Bailey is part of a new travel trend, known as “raw-dogging”, where passengers spend long hours mid-air just staring straight ahead.

The longer you do it, the tougher you have apparently proven yourself to be.

“Just raw-dogged it, 15 hour flight to Melbourne,” boasts Australian music producer Torren Foot on TikTok, blinking hard as if to stay awake.

“No music, no movies, just flight map.”

Some also avoid eating or drinking. A few say they won’t get up at all, even to use the toilet. But health experts warn that more extreme versions of the trend can pose serious risks.

Manchester City footballer Erling Haaland recently joined the trend, posting that he had got through a seven-hour flight with “no phone, no sleep, no water, no food” and had found it “easy”.

Responses on social media questioned if he had really stuck to his own rules (a common question on similar posts from others). Some wondered if he was a robot.

And some simply asked “why”?

Posts about “raw-dogging” have grown steadily over the last year.

Increasing numbers of young men – and it is mostly athletic-looking young men – are posting videos of themselves on board, staring at the in-flight map or the safety instructions card, vowing to use the “power of the mind” to get them through.

As for the term “raw-dogging”, it might have carnal origins, but increasingly it is used for anything being done without protection or support.

For these men, the appeal seems to be the opportunity to prove their resilience and self-control.

Some medical experts warn of the significant health risks of taking long flights without food, water or moving around.

“They’re idiots,” says Dr Gill Jenkins, a GP who also works as a medical escort in air ambulance work. “A digital detox might do you some good, but all the rest of it is against medical advice,” she says.

“The whole thing about the risk of long-haul flying is that you’re at risk of dehydration.

“If you’re not moving you’re at risk of deep vein thrombosis, which is compounded by dehydration. Not going to the toilet, that’s a bit stupid. If you need the loo, you need the loo.”

But on the trend as a whole, business psychologist Danielle Haig says she can see why people would want to spend time in quiet reflection, allowing their mind to wander, in our increasingly fast-paced, technology-driven world.

“It offers an opportunity to recharge mentally, gain new perspectives,” she says.

She thinks the trend signifies “a collective yearning for balance as people seek to reclaim their mental space and foster a deeper connection with their inner selves”.

And she reckons that raw-dogging allows young men, in particular, the chance to showcase their ability to handle solitude and discomfort with stoicism.

Mr Bailey says he enjoys the “challenge”.

“The first time I did it was on a shorter flight, out of necessity,” he says.

“I forgot my headphones, and there wasn’t anything on the entertainment that I wanted to watch.”

But he has carried on doing it. “I like the challenge, for sure. I fly so often. Why not challenge myself?”

Allowing yourself to be bored for a few hours is actually quite good for us, argues Sandi Mann, academic and author of The Science of Boredom. “It can really improve our relaxation and creativity.”

People have to find ways to wean themselves off the constant “highs” they get from modern technology, she says.

“We need to reduce our need for novelty and stimulation and whizzy-whizzy bang-bang dopamine, and just take time out to breathe and stare at the clouds – literally, if you’re on a flight,” she says.

But she acknowledges all the current advice stresses the importance of staying mobile, particularly on longer flights, and also suggests avoiding food and water would pose added health risks.

“I think people need to understand this is not ideal for a seven-hour flight,” says Ms Mann. “You’ve got to get the balance right.”

Clearly, it is not for everyone.

“Sounds like self-inflicted torture with literally no incentive,” says one social media user. “Give me my in-flight wi-fi, my sleep mask and let’s throw in some snacks.”

Others doubt whether all of the people posting about their 10-hour flights really have stuck to their self-imposed rules.

And some who have tried raw-dogging themselves haven’t come away impressed.

“Big mistake,” says a user on TikTok called Brenda. “Pretty sure the only thing that took off was my sanity.

“Note to self, won’t be doing that again. Definitely an overrated experience. Not at all enlightening as people make out.”

Mia le Roux has become the first deaf woman to be crowned Miss South Africa following a divisive competition which saw one finalist withdraw after being trolled over her Nigerian heritage.

In her acceptance speech, Ms Le Roux said she hoped her victory would help those who felt excluded from society to achieve their “wildest dreams, just like I am”.

She said she wanted to help those who were “financially excluded or differently abled”.

Last week 23-year-old law student Chidimma Adetshina pulled out of the competition following allegations that her mother may have stolen the identity of a South African woman.

Ms Adetshina was born in South Africa to a Nigerian father and a mother of Mozambican origin.

She had been at the centre of a social media storm for several weeks, with many people, including a cabinet minister, questioning her right to represent the country.

She said she had been the victim of “black-on-black hate”, highlighting a particular strain of xenophobia in South Africa known as “afrophobia”, which targets those from other African countries.

Ms Le Roux, 28, was diagnosed with profound hearing loss at the age of one and has a cochlear implant to help her perceive sound.

She said it had taken two years of speech therapy before she was able to say her first words.

After winning, the model and marketing manager said: “I am a proudly South African deaf woman and I know what it feels like to be excluded.

“I know now that I was put on this planet to break boundaries and I did it tonight.”

• Miss South Africa contestant pulls out amid nationality row
• Beauty contest sparks row over who counts as South African
• Tyla’s racial identity: South African singer sparks culture war
• Nigerian anger over South African xenophobia

Elaine Foo’s legs are streaked with thick, purple scars – each one a reminder of a leg-lengthening procedure which went badly wrong.

Since 2016, the 49-year-old has had five surgical procedures and three bone grafts, exhausted her life savings and brought a legal action against her surgeon, which was finally settled in July, with no admission of liability.

At one point, Elaine had a metal nail break through a bone and on another occasion, she says her legs felt like they were being “roasted from the inside”.

“My  journey has been a trial of fire – but I survived,” she says.

Her doctor consistently denied any negligence and says that some of the issues arose from complications she had been warned of, and others arose through her own actions.

Elaine always hated her height.

“At 12, I was taller than most girls,” she says. “By 14, I was suddenly shorter than everyone. Over time it became an obsession. Taller means better. Taller means more beautiful. I just felt that taller people had more chances.”

By adulthood the obsession was overwhelming.

Elaine believes she had body dysmorphia, a mental health condition where a person sees a flaw in their appearance no matter how others see them. The impact of the condition can be devastating.

At the age of 25, Elaine came across an article about a Chinese clinic where people were having surgery to make their leg bones longer. The piece contained grisly details of medieval-looking leg cages and rampant infection. It sounded nightmarish but left Elaine intrigued.

“I know people will question the vanity of it,” she says. “But when you face body dysmorphia, there’s no rational explanation for why you feel so overwhelmingly bad.”

Sixteen years later, Elaine discovered a private clinic offering the procedure in London. It was being provided by the orthopaedic surgeon Jean-Marc Guichet, a limb-lengthening specialist who had even created his own lengthening device – the Guichet Nail.

“That was really a hallelujah moment, because I could do it in London and could recover at home,” she recalls.

“Dr Guichet was open about the kinds of things that could go wrong. Nerve injuries, blood clots, the possibility of bones not fusing back together.

“But I’d done my research, was going to a very expensive doctor and I expected commensurate medical care. My dream was to grow from 5ft 2in (1.57m) to 5ft 5in (1.65m).”

On 25 July, at a cost of around £50,000, she went in for surgery and set in motion a process which would change her life.

Leg-lengthening procedures are relatively uncommon, but available at private clinics around the world. Depending on where it’s carried out, it can cost anything from £15,000 to upwards of £150,000.

“Waking up was very exciting, because it felt like nothing happened. No pain. But 90 minutes later, it starts. It felt like someone was cooking my legs. Like being roasted from the inside. That first night I screamed until 6am, until I fell asleep screaming.”

With this procedure, some pain is to be expected. During the operation, the leg bones are broken in two and a metal rod is fitted inside.

The metal rods are gradually extended to increase their length and pull the two halves of bone apart. This process is meant to increase the patient’s height. The broken bones should gradually heal back together, to fill the gap in between.

The operation is complex, and it’s only the start of a long process.

“The lengthening process takes about two or three months and then you have at least double that time before you’ve recovered reasonable function,” warns Prof Hamish Simpson, former council member of the British Orthopaedic Association. “For most people, it’s going to take a year out of your life.”

Once surgery was over, Elaine’s lengthening process began. Several times a day she carried out an uncomfortable regimen, rotating her legs to trigger the rod’s ratchet mechanism. This is what makes the nail lengthen and her legs grow. But two weeks later, she says disaster struck.

“I’d been feeling a lot of pain in my left leg. Then one night, while I was moving around in bed, I heard what sounded like a Kit Kat crunch, followed by severe pain.”

Elaine went in for a scan, which confirmed her fears. The nail in her left leg had broken through her femur – the thigh bone – the strongest bone in the human body. She was distraught, but she says she was reassured by Dr Guichet.

“He told me that all you need to do now is not worry. Wait for it to heal and once it’s healed, we’ll begin the process again.”

They would continue lengthening Elaine’s right leg, while scheduling another operation to deal with her left leg – which would eventually be lengthened the same amount as the right.

Elaine says she was told the extra operation would cost thousands of pounds, but was happy to pay if it meant she could see the process through.

By September, her right leg had reached its 7cm target. But things weren’t quite right. The discrepancy between her right and left leg was causing problems, curving her spine and leaving her in constant pain.

Six weeks later, scans of her right leg showed an alarming lack of bone growth. Her femur was essentially two bits of bone held together by the metal rod.

Elaine turned to Dr Guichet for help, who scheduled another operation at a clinic he worked at in Milan. In April 2017, they restarted the lengthening process in Elaine’s left leg, while also injecting bone marrow into the right leg – to stimulate bone growth there. After the operation, Elaine woke to more bad news.

“Dr Guichet told me the nail had broken while he was taking it out,” she says. “He had a nail from another patient which he was able to insert.” She adds that this was going to cost even more money.

Three days later, hardly able to move, but desperate to be home, Elaine returned to London. She says communication with Dr Guichet had soured and feels that by summer the doctor-patient relationship had broken down.

She didn’t know where else to turn and by July 2017 she managed to see a specialist orthopaedic surgeon on the NHS.

She says the specialist told her “this will not be a short journey.”

“I had to prepare myself for at least five years of treatment before healing fully,” she says.

Eight years on from the initial surgery Elaine says she is still recovering from her mental and physical scars. She has a range of mobility issues and says she suffers from PTSD.

“From 2017 to 2020 I hid from the world. I was single, unemployed, penniless and disabled.”

But recently she’s begun to get closure. A four-year legal battle was finally settled in July when  Dr Guichet agreed to pay Elaine a “substantial” sum to settle her claim against him – without any admission of liability.

• Watch: Leg-lengthening – the people having surgery to be a bit taller

The surgeon’s lawyer denied any negligence on Dr Guichet’s part, telling the court: “Dr Guichet’s case is that there was no negligence, that the fracture and delayed bone healing were unfortunate non-negligent complications that Ms Foo was warned of before surgery, and that the limited right-sided bone regeneration was aggravated by Ms Foo’s undisclosed use of anti-depressants and by her deliberately extending the nail in her right leg beyond the agreed length.”

He also claimed in court that Ms Foo had “frequently declined” to follow Guichet’s advice and had neglected her rehabilitation and physiotherapy.

Elaine contests all of these claims. She says the anti-depressants were not linked to the complications and holds the doctor responsible for what happened to her.

Elaine assumed she was safe because she was paying so much. But she has paid more than just a financial price.

“I lost the best years of my life. I know people like to hear the word regret and if someone asked me today, would you have done it, if you knew you were going to go through all this? I would say a definite, ‘No, thank you very much’.”

Donald Trump’s campaign has said some of its internal communications have been hacked and suggested it was targeted by Iranian operatives.

US news website Politico reported on Saturday that it had been emailed campaign documents including internal research carried out on Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance.

“These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election,” a campaign spokesman told the BBC.

Politico said it had confirmed the authenticity of the documents. The BBC has not independently verified the claims.

The campaign did not give any further details or any evidence linking the document leak to Iranian hackers or the Iranian government.

Its statement came one day after Microsoft released a report indicating that Iranian hackers targeted the campaign of an unnamed US presidential candidate in June.

Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) said that the campaign was sent a spear phishing email – a message designed to look trustworthy in order to get the target to click on a malicious link.

“Over the past several months, we have seen the emergence of significant influence activity by Iranian actors,” the MTAC report said.

Trump campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung said the June hacking attempt mentioned in the MTAC report “coincides with the close timing of President Trump’s selection of a vice presidential nominee”.

“The Iranians know that President Trump will stop their reign of terror just like he did in his first four years in the White House,” Mr Cheung said.

Politico said that in late July it began receiving emails from a person who identified themselves only as “Robert” using an AOL email account.

The news outlet said the Vance file was 271 pages long and based on publicly available information about Vance’s past record and statements. The email account also sent part of a research document about Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who was also a vice presidential contender, it said.

Presidential campaigns routinely research potential vice-presidential nominees in order to ferret out any potentially embarrassing revelations. Politico reported that some of Mr Vance’s previous – and well-known – criticisms of Trump were labelled in the document as “potential vulnerabilities”.

The Microsoft report noted: “Iranian cyber-enabled influence operations have been a consistent feature of at least the last three US election cycles.”

Microsoft had released a similar report during the 2020 election saying Iranian hackers had targeted presidential campaigns.

US security sources have also warned of an Iranian plot to assassinate Trump, unconnected to last month’s attempted shooting in Pennsylvania. And on Tuesday, the US justice department charged a Pakistani man alleged to have ties to Iran with plotting to assassinate US officials, potentially including the former president.

The BBC has contacted Iranian officials for comment.

On the face of it, the earthquake that struck southern Japan on Thursday was not a big deal.

The magnitude 7.1 quake did little damage and the tsunami warning was quickly scaled back.

But the earthquake was swiftly followed by a warning – one which had never been given before.

There was, Japan’s meteorological agency said, an increased risk of a “major earthquake”. Japan’s prime minister has cancelled a planned trip to a summit in Central Asia to be in the country for the next week.

For many in Japan, thoughts turned to the “big one” – a once-in-a-century quake that many had grown up being warned about.

Worst-case scenarios predict more than 300,000 dead, with a wall of water potentially 30m (100ft) striking along the East Asian nation’s Pacific coast.

Which sounds terrifying. And yet, the overwhelming feeling that Masayo Oshio was left with was confusion.

“I am baffled with the advisory and don’t know what to make of it,” she admitted to the BBC from her home in Yokohama, south of the capital, Tokyo.

“We know we cannot predict earthquakes and we have been told the big one is coming one day for so long, so I kept asking myself: is this it? But it does not seem real to me.”

So, what is the “big one”, can it be predicted – and is it likely to strike any time soon?

Japan is a country used to earthquakes. It sits on the Ring of Fire and, as a result, experiences about 1,500 earthquakes a year.

The vast majority do little damage, but there are some – like the one which struck in 2011 measuring magnitude 9.0, sending a tsunami into the north-east coast and killing more than 18,000 people.

But the one that authorities fear may strike in this more densely populated region to the south could – in the absolute worst-case scenario – be even more deadly.

Earthquakes along the Nankai Trough – an area of seismic activity which stretches along Japan’s Pacific coast – have already been responsible for thousands of deaths.

In 1707, a rupture along its entire 600km length caused the second-biggest earthquake ever recorded in Japan and was followed by the eruption of Mount Fuji.

These so-called “megathrust” earthquakes tend to strike every hundred years or so, often in pairs: the last ones were in 1944 and 1946.

Experts say there is a 70% to 80% chance of a magnitude 8 or 9 quake striking somewhere along the trough in the next 30 years, with worst-case scenarios suggesting it would cause trillions in damage, and potentially kill hundreds of thousands.

And this long-anticipated event is, according to geologists Kyle Bradley and Judith A Hubbard, “the original definition of the ‘Big One’”.

“The history of great earthquakes at Nankai is convincingly scary” so as to be concerning, the pair acknowledged in their Earthquake Insights newsletter on Thursday.

Not according to Robert Geller, professor emeritus of seismology at the University of Tokyo.

“The issuance of the warning yesterday has almost nothing to do with science,” he told the BBC.

This, he argues, is because while earthquakes are known to be a “clustered phenomenon”, it is “not possible to tell in advance whether a quake is a foreshock or an aftershock”.

Indeed, only about 5% of earthquakes are “foreshocks”, say Bradley and Hubbard.

However, the 2011 earthquake was preceded by a 7.2 magnitude foreshock, they note – one which was largely ignored.

The warning system was drawn up after 2011 in an attempt to prevent a disaster of this scale again, and Thursday was the first time the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) used it.

But, crucially, while it told people to be prepared, it did not tell anyone to evacuate. Indeed, they were keen to play down any massive imminent risk.

“The likelihood of a new major earthquake is higher than normal, but this is not an indication that a major earthquake will definitely occur,” the JMA said.

Even so, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced he had cancelled his plans to travel out of Japan to “ensure our preparations and communications are in order”.

He added that he feared people would be “feeling anxious”, given it was the first time such an advisory had been issued.

Masayo Oshio does not seem to be, however.

“I feel that the government is overplaying it,” she said.

Prof Geller was more scathing, saying the advisory was “not a useful piece of information”.

The system allows for either a warning or a lower-level alert to be sent out. Thursday was an alert, advising people to be prepared to evacuate.

And, anecdotally, it seems to have worked. Even in a country used to receiving alerts on their phones, the “Nankai Trough” effect – and threat of the “Big One” – made people stop and take notice.

“One thing I did when I saw the advisory was to check what we have at home and make sure we are prepared, since I have not done that for a while,” admitted Masayo Oshio.

And this has been replicated along the Pacific coast.

In Nichinan, Miyazaki Prefecture, near the epicentre of Thursday’s 7.1, officials were inspecting the conditions of already-opened evacuation shelters. In Kochi Prefecture, western Japan, 10 municipalities opened at least 75 evacuation shelters by Friday morning , according to Kyodo news agency.

The thermal plant operator Jera Co., a joint venture between Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. and Chubu Electric Power Co., said it was on emergency alert, reaffirming communication routes with fuel carriers and evacuation protocols for piers.

In the town of Kuroshio, also in Kochi, elderly residents and others were urged to evacuate voluntarily to safer locations. Officials of Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan, confirmed evacuation routes in co-operation with local municipalities.

Prof Geller – for all his scepticism – says it is a good opportunity to “make sure you’re doing all the routine precautions you should be doing anyway”.

“Have a week’s worth of water on hand, some canned food, and then maybe have some batteries for your flashlight,” he advises.

For decades, many new mothers have heard the message “breast is best”.

It’s meant to encourage breastfeeding, but it can also create immense pressure for those who struggle with the practicalities.

Some women are desperate to breastfeed but are forced, for various reasons, to stop earlier than planned.

A number of them spoke to the BBC to discuss “breastfeeding grief” – a period of immense sadness, and even shame, following their decision to stop.

Jemma Munford, who gave birth to her son Max in 2017, had planned to exclusively breastfeed. By the third day, however, she was finding it hard.

“I was sitting on the sofa, holding my baby, and I couldn’t stop crying,” she recalls.

She describes the next two weeks as “hell” and says she dreaded every feed. Her son had a tongue-tie, a condition where the strip of skin connecting the tongue to the mouth is tighter than usual, making it almost impossible for him to latch on to her breast.

At her lowest point Jemma asked visitors to leave her house as she hid in her bedroom with the curtains closed, trying desperately to get her baby to latch.

“I found the experience of breastfeeding exhausting and embarrassing,” she adds.

After a couple of weeks, her baby started losing weight. Faced with the possibility of returning to the hospital, she decided to switch to feeding him exclusively with formula milk.

Her second child was born two years later – and even though her newborn daughter didn’t suffer from a tongue-tie she decided early on that she “couldn’t face” attempting to breastfeed longer than a couple of days.

She still grapples with the decision today. “I wasn’t able to do the most natural and unique thing a mother can do, and I felt ashamed – I still do,” she says.

She believes she may have been suffering from postnatal depression, though it wasn’t diagnosed at the time.

Professor Amy Brown, a public health researcher who has written a book on breastfeeding grief, explains that feelings of sadness about breastfeeding experiences are common.

“Many women stop breastfeeding much earlier than they wanted to and feel let down or that they missed out on an experience,” she says.

Research shows that many women still want to breastfeed. In the UK, 81% of women initiate exclusive breastfeeding, but after six months, only about 1% are still exclusively feeding their babies breast milk.

Currently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, while UNICEF notes that breastfeeding reduces the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), childhood diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.

Globally, the percentage of infants under six months exclusively breastfed has reached 48%, a 10% increase on the last decade.

Deepti, who is seven months pregnant with her second child, hopes her breastfeeding journey will be better than her previous one.

She gave birth to her son in 2021 and struggled with getting him to latch due to a tongue-tie. Even after the condition was corrected, she continued to have issues.

Deepti decided to express her milk and feed him with a bottle, but found the routine to be impractical and “relentless”.

“It was every two hours, including during the night and I felt like a failure – like I was doing a bad job,” she says.

The feeding schedule kept her from getting out of the house almost entirely. By the time her son was 12 weeks old, she had switched to formula so she could enjoy time with him outside and attend baby classes, important for his development.

A month later, Deepti learned the tongue-tie procedure had been done wrong and needed more treatment due to scar tissue – but by then, it was too late to return to breastfeeding.

Deepti felt a sense of shame and “mum guilt” when using a bottle among her breastfeeding friends. “No one ever judged me, but I felt ashamed I was bottle-feeding and sad that I couldn’t breastfeed like them,” she says.

While Jemma and Deepti’s babies both had a tongue-tie, there are several reasons why a mother can struggle to breastfeed. Sore, cracked or bleeding nipples due to latching issues, and low or high milk supply are common problems.

Engorgement – when breasts can become overly full with milk – can in some cases lead to mastitis, an infection caused by a blocked milk duct resulting in soreness and pain when breastfeeding.

Lisa Mandell from the International Lactation Consultant Association provides counselling and advice to women experiencing issues with breastfeeding. She says it’s vital that women get expert lactation advice and breastfeeding support as early as possible.

“There may be multifaceted issues, for example if a mother with low milk production has thyroid issues then that can be identified and treated, it is likely to improve her milk production,” she says.

She points out that breastfeeding “should never be painful” and is a sign that a baby is not positioned or attached well.

“Breastfeeding cessation should never be considered a failure on the part of the mother,” she adds.

Clare Murphy, director of Feed UK, says that infant feeding isn’t straightforward and that we should be focussing on supporting women, however they choose to feed their baby.

“No one – least of all mothers and their babies – benefit from an environment in which women feel guilty and their mental health suffers because they have needed to use formula when they hoped to avoid it,” she says.

Deepti plans to attempt breastfeeding again but says she won’t put herself under the same pressure next time. “I will 100% try again and I feel much more equipped now as I’ve already been through it once.”

Jemma’s son Max is seven now but she says she still gets upset. She tearfully admits she has “a deep and overwhelming regret that breastfeeding didn’t work out” – but hopes that there is now more awareness in supporting all women, regardless of their feeding choices.

What to do if you are struggling with breastfeeding:

• The NHS has a useful guide and advice on common breastfeeding issues such as sore nipples, latching and positioning and high or low milk supply.

• Video tutorials and other resources can be found on the UNICEF website

• Feed UK supports all forms of feeding, whether it’s breast, formula or a combination.

Mosques in at least four English cities were targeted in the recent far-right disorder – one was pelted with bricks, bottles and rocks.

Several community groups sprang up in response. One of them is “Protect”, which deploys people to places of worship that are potentially under threat.

Within 48 hours of being set up, more than 1,500 people had signed up in the north-west of the country, where the group is based.

Protect put out a call in Accrington on Wednesday, after a mosque asked for help – a viral video later showed pubgoers hugging some of the young men who had come to defend the building.

Though the mood has become much calmer in recent days, those running the group say it will continue as a means of remaining vigilant.

Given concerns about how they would be perceived, organisers were initially reluctant to speak, but agreed to do so anonymously.

“The group is there to notify each other of problems in our areas so we can tell people to be careful. But if they do come towards our places of worship, the community will come out and we protect those places,” says the group’s founder.

He says that communities were caught out by the scale and suddenness of the trouble, and fear it could return any time, so part of the group’s function is to check the many rumours of further unrest to see if there is basis to them.

But when help is asked for by a mosque or community centre, he says the word will go out.

“We will go there to defend, not with weapons, but just physically standing in front (of places). If anyone is attacking the mosque, we won’t allow it,” says Protect’s founder.

“If I’ve got family members inside that mosque and it’s getting attacked, then by all means – even if I do get injured, by a brick or a firebomb or whatever it is – I’ll protect them,” he says.

But why not leave the protection of communities and mosques completely to the police?

“The police are doing an amazing job, and they’re trying their utmost to keep us safe, but they’re already understaffed and they’ve got their hands full with these riots,” the Protect founder says.

“We’ve seen what happened in some other places, the police couldn’t cover it, they weren’t ready for it. Somebody needs to be there just by having a presence with the police as well,” adds one of those running the group.

We approached local police forces but they said they could not specifically comment on the group’s actions.

Earlier this week, in response to fears of threats to the mosque in Accrington, Lancashire Constabulary acknowledged concerns and promised they had a “robust policing response in place to tackle possible disorder”.

The founder of Protect says he had been unhappy at incidents, unrelated to the group, in Stoke-on-Trent and in Birmingham where Muslim men had shown up with weapons, saying it was a central rule of Protect that people neither turn up with weapons or with face coverings.

He, and many other Muslim groups, also condemned an attack on a man who was punched and kicked outside a pub in Birmingham.

“We’ve not made (the group) to incite racial hatred or start riots, but to protect ourselves and be vigilant,” says the Protect founder, who says creation of the group has been purely driven by the fear of further violence, particularly among Muslim women, some of whom have reported having headscarves pulled off or having faced abuse or assault.

“We keep saying if there’s a protest going on, don’t go there. Don’t be stupid. Let them protest. As long as they’re not coming to our places to cause damage, don’t put yourself where you don’t need to be,” he says.

During the week we saw some of the group’s rules in action. One evening Protect had made its members aware that a mosque in Accrington had put out a call for help because of concerns of violence.

We saw dozens of young men gathered outside the mosque. They were repeatedly told by organisers not to wear masks or balaclavas, there was no evidence of any weapons as they stood alongside police.

In fact, the evening passed off peacefully, with some of the evening’s most viral video moments playing out in Accrington, as pubgoers came out to hug the young Muslim men as they walked away from the mosque when it was clear there would be no trouble.

The young men had been with the police throughout and had been chatting with officers.

“We don’t want war, and we’re not asking for all this to happen,” says Protect’s founder.

“But this country belongs to us as much to them. We were born here, our parents were born here. Some of our grandparents or great-grandparents fought in the World War II.

“So I think we’ve got as much right as anybody else to call this country.”

It was 07:30 in the morning in late January when Khaled Ifranji received the phone call he had always feared. He had just passed through an Israeli military checkpoint on his way from his home in occupied East Jerusalem to his work in the occupied West Bank, when one of his employees rang to say the Israeli army was “demolishing the stables”.

Khaled had spent the last seven years building the Palestine Equestrian Club – pouring all his money and every waking hour into the project.

The club was built on West Bank land in the Palestinian territories, but in an area which is under full Israeli control.

When Khaled arrived, it was a scene of destruction. There were four diggers demolishing everything.

Khaled says his first concern was that there were still horses inside the stables. A video he shared with the BBC shows a digger striking a building while horses can be seen inside.

When the horses were eventually released, they ran scared across the hillside. Khaled says one was hit by a car.

Khaled asked the soldiers, “Why are you destroying my place?” He says they ignored him. He told them they should be thanking him for the work he does with Palestinian children. “I take away their anger…There’s no guns here. Just sport.”

The Israeli army has confirmed to the BBC the demolition took place on 30 January but disputes Khaled’s allegation that horses were still inside when it happened, despite the video evidence.

They said Israeli security forces and civil administration officials had “removed all the equipment from the compound and evacuated approximately 20 horses”.

They also said the structures had been built illegally, but many Palestinians, like Khaled, say permits are impossible to obtain in this part of the West Bank.

Khaled, who has ridden horses for nearly 30 years, was once a member of the Palestine Equestrian Team, and competed both locally and internationally.

“There’s a connection that can be established between you and horses, often deeper than those formed with humans,” he says.

At the time of its demolition, the equestrian club was just beginning to reach a point Khaled was happy with. He and his team had built a watering system and many of the 30 horses had their own individual stables. They had constructed two arenas, a cafe and a toilet block and the centre was being powered by solar panels and was beginning to be profitable.

One of his younger clients – Shams – has been riding since she was six years old and training with Khaled for nine months now.

“This place is home for me,” she says. “When I’m riding Calypso I feel freedom. The second I ride on him every single stress I have is gone.”

When Shams’ father told her that the centre had been demolished, she was terrified for Calypso.

“I was scared…We have such a strong connection. He’s my whole world.”

The stables were built on a desolate hill a few kilometres south of Ramallah, the Palestinian administrative capital of the West Bank. It sits out on its own, not close to anything, a feeling of no-man’s land.

As part of the Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians in the 1990s, occupied West Bank land was split into three categories – Area A under full Palestinian control, Area B under partial Palestinian control and Area C under full Israeli control.

Khaled’s equestrian club is located in Area C, which makes up 60% of the West Bank.

This agreement was supposed to be temporary, but nearly 30 years later it seems to have cemented an Israeli presence.

The Israeli military continues to operate in all areas of the West Bank and settlements have expanded throughout the territory, something most of the international community considers an obstacle to peace and in contravention of international law.

In July, anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now revealed Israel had approved the advance of plans for 5,295 new homes in 12 West Bank settlements as well a seizure of 5 sq miles of West Bank land, making it one of the largest land seizures in 30 years.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has said Israel should stop settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and end its “illegal” occupation of those areas and the Gaza Strip as soon as possible.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the court had made a “decision of lies”.

Khaled says Area C is the only place where there is enough space to build something like his club, away from built up areas of cities. Despite renting the land from the Palestinian ministry of religious affairs, he has been unable to get a permit to build as this is controlled by Israel.

In a statement to the BBC, a representative of Cogat, the military division that co-ordinates Israeli government activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, described the demolition of the centre as an “enforcement operation… on a spot where an order forbade construction” and that Khaled’s buildings were in an area “designated as an archaeological site”.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says it’s “virtually impossible” for Palestinians to obtain building permits, with Peace Now saying that between 2009 and 2018 only 2% of all such requests were permitted in Area C.

This means it is not uncommon for Palestinians to build without an Israeli issued building permit. Many of these unauthorised buildings are at risk of Israeli demolitions.

In 2023, Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem logged 554 demolitions of Palestinian houses and structures in the West Bank.

Shai Parnes, a spokesperson for the group, said: “Israel’s planning and building policy in the West Bank is aimed at preventing Palestinian development and dispossessing Palestinians of their land.”

The relevant Israeli authority did not respond to this specific allegation.

Just a few days after the demolition, Khaled’s friends at the club threw a birthday party for him amongst the wreckage as they began to clear the destruction. It was there and then that they decided they would rebuild. A crowdfunder was quickly set up to raise money for new, temporary structures.

“They began saying to me, ‘We want to build a better club… They demolished this place so we can build a new club even more beautiful than before.'”

Part of Khaled’s busy summer programme involves running activities for kids from low-income families, as well as children with learning difficulties.

Khaled is determined that these sessions will go ahead using the rudimentary structures and arenas they have begun to rebuild.

But as well as this they have had to think of new solutions in case the Israeli authorities do come to demolish again.

Thirty-year-old Reem, who runs the club’s café, has had to improvise. After the demolition of the cafeteria in January, she came up with a plan to set up a café on wheels, “something mobile that can move from place to place, minimising our losses in case they… demolish the place again”, she says.

With Calypso now safely back in the stables, Shams is undeterred by what has happened and has big ambitions.

“I want to compete in the Olympics for Palestine,” she says.

Khaled continues to coach Palestinian children and is determined to stay on this piece of land whatever happens.

“There is nothing left for me to lose” he says. “If they destroy it today, I will build again tomorrow. If they destroy it tomorrow I will build again the next day. This is my life. I have to continue.”

Mosques attacked with bricks and stones. Marchers chanting “we want our country back.” And a man’s head reportedly stamped on during a racist attack.

These scenes from the past week in England and Northern Ireland have sparked painful memories among British Asians who remember the 1970s and 80s, when racist violence was widespread and the National Front was on the rise.

Harish Patel, in his 70s, says it broke his heart.

He says teenagers will have heard from their parents and grandparents about what life could be like in this country.

“They’ll have thought it was all over. And now they are experiencing it for themselves.”

The disorder was triggered by the fatal stabbing of three young girls in Southport – followed by false speculation that the suspect was a Muslim asylum seeker.

It sent a thunderbolt of fear down Asian and minority communities.

Mungra, an elderly Asian woman who arrived from Kenya 50 years ago, was taken back to her early days in London.

She worried the escalating violence would make it too frightening to get milk from the corner shop. “That’s how we felt in those days, and I worry.”

Tens of thousands of South Asians came to work in the the UK’s factories and public services in the 1950s, as the country rebuilt its post-war economy.

By the early 1970s, the population had grown to around half a million – because of family reunions and Asians fleeing East Africa, many of whom had been expelled from Uganda.

Immigration became a politically charged issue. In 1968, Conservative MP Enoch Powell had given his explosive “rivers of blood” speech, in which he said that by permitting mass immigration, the country was “heaping up its own funeral pyre”.

The extreme right-wing National Front was at its most vocal and regularly held rallies. Asians had to contend with day-to-day harassment and police brutality.

“The climate and fear of racism was so profound that it was hard to ignore that I was of coloured skin,” Mungra says.

“It was the usual name-calling when walking on the street, the p-word.“

Mungra witnessed the riots in Southall, a predominantly Asian part of west London. They took place in 1979, three years after the racist murder of local Sikh teenager Gurdip Singh Chaggar.

Weeks before a general election, the National Front decided to hold a meeting in Southall’s town hall.

Thousands – mainly Asians, but also anti-racist allies – took to the streets in protest against the far-right and police brutality.

Forty were injured, including 21 police, 300 were arrested and a teacher was killed, probably by an officer who struck a fatal blow, according to a Met Police report.

These were brutal times which left a lasting trauma on those who lived through them. And they bring me back to my own childhood.

I was only a toddler when a lit firework was put through the letterbox of my parents’ home in Hampshire. Our neighbours didn’t like Asians living on the street.

My mum recalls grabbing my brother – a hyperactive child a few years older than me – as he ran towards the front door.

She was shaking for hours afterwards. She’ll never forget how frightened she felt in that moment.

It happened months after the p-word was scrawled on our garage door. We were living with my Gujarati sari-wearing grandmother at the time, and my parents felt incredibly vulnerable.

They felt they were being targeted for looking different when all they were doing was trying to live a happy life in 1980s Britain. We moved shortly afterwards.

It’s striking that decades later, I’ve heard Asians – including members of my own family – saying they were again scared to leave their homes.

Nervously tugging his fingers, Iqbal, a father from Bolton in his 50s, told me he was terrified and that his children had told him to not go outside.

“I thought these days of race hatred were over,” he said.

Over the seven days of riots, hotels housing asylum seekers were attacked, minority-owned businesses were looted and cars and buildings set alight. More than 400 arrests were made.

Muslims were particularly targeted – with missiles hurled at mosques, Islamophobic chants and Muslim gravestones in Burnley vandalised.

• The pool of blood that changed my life
• BBC Sounds: Three Pounds in My Pocket
• After Enoch

Police patrols were ramped up, but some younger people said they didn’t trust officers to protect them.

“We don’t feel like they’ve got our back when they haven’t protected us so far. We feel vulnerable and feel like we’ve got to protect ourselves,” said Mohammad, in his 20s.

But Wednesday felt like a turning point.

As communities braced for a night of disorder, after names and addresses of immigration lawyers were spread online, the unrest largely failed to materialise.

Instead, thousands of anti-racism protesters rallied in cities and towns across England. People chanted “racism off our streets”.

In Accrington, Lancashire, Muslim anti-fascist protesters who went to protect a local mosque were embraced by pubgoers, in a “massive” moment of unity.

“There were a few shouts of ‘respect’ which was fantastic; we need to see unity to stop all this far-right violence,” said Haddi Malik, who was in the group.

The show of force has offered people a moment of hope and courage, and a sense of relief.

But the ripples of intimidation haven’t yet settled. Some have been left wondering whether they’re really accepted in this country.

“I don’t want to be made to feel like that,” says 20-year-old Muslim Hamza Moriss. “I’m a part of this country as much as they are.”

Meanwhile, Mungra feels a deep sense of unease.

“The last week has made me think that not much has really changed, that racism is still very much alive and we won’t ever actually be seen as the same… not really.”

“This could have been so much worse,” a Downing Street adviser tells me. “People were trying to set fire to a hotel with people inside.”

But the prime minister, they insist, is “focussed” – and after a career spent largely in the criminal justice system “knows which levers to pull”.

Sir Keir Starmer was the chief prosecutor of England and Wales during the last major outbreak of civil unrest in the UK in 2011, overseeing the prosecution of thousands of people involved in five days of rioting.

Rapid and well-publicised action by the courts was key in bringing the unrest to an end, he said then. And this time ministers have emphasised “strong policing and swift prosecutions” to deter others joining the violence.

How best to get that message across to the public has been a regular discussion at emergency COBR (Cabinet Office Briefing Room) meetings.

Just as government scientists were front and centre in the pandemic, police chiefs and prosecutors have been wheeled out to land core messages with authority in this crisis.

Stephen Parkinson, the otherwise low-profile Director of Public Prosecutions, was put before the cameras. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley made regular appearances.

Yet the prime minister and his aides have pointedly avoided answering questions about the underlying causes of the riots.

I’m told the reason for this message discipline is a concern that discussing causes might be misinterpreted as suggesting some of the unrest was justified.

What happens, though, when the violence stops, the guilty rioters have been sentenced and the COBR meetings are over?

“We are starting work on the longer term challenges,” sources say.

Tackling these challenges – even deciding what they are – is set to be a crucial test for the new government, with consequences stretching far beyond the communities affected by this week’s disorder.

As police cars were burning in the UK, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves was in the US trying to burnish the government’s reputation and encourage investment.

On Monday, she insisted the TV images of far-right mobs clashing with police would not damage the UK’s international reputation as a “safe haven for investment”, dismissing the protests as “thuggery”.

But the optics could hardly have been worse for a politician trying to project stability and order under a newly-elected government with a huge majority.

It is likely the towns and cities affected in the riots will receive government money to smooth their recoveries. Local community cohesion projects have also been mooted.

But money is tight. The challenging economic outlook and the chancellor’s reputation for fiscal discipline may be reasons why government sources tell me an expensive public inquiry is unlikely.

After the 1981 Brixton riots, Lord Scarman led one. But David Cameron and Nick Clegg resisted doing likewise after the unrest in 2011. They instead commissioned a cross-party panel to learn lessons.

The role of social media will be the subject of a Whitehall review, with ministers conceding that only nine months after the Online Safety Act became law, it already needs updating and strengthening.

Yvette Cooper’s Home Office will be tasked with many of the longer-term policy challenges highlighted by the events of the past week.

Proscribing extreme right wing organisations has been discussed, but groups like the English Defence League (EDL) haven’t formally existed for almost a decade.

Instead social media has transformed the extremism ecosystem into amorphous communities which are harder to police, but which can reach hundreds of thousands more people.

For now the government has avoided discussing immigration, again for fear of suggesting any of the unrest was justified.

But in time they are likely to remind voters that the prime minister believes many people do have legitimate concerns about legal and illegal migration.

Gradually reducing the use of hotels to house migrants remains this government’s policy. But it was the last government’s policy too – with little success.

With parliament in recess and many Conservatives focussed on their own leadership campaigns, much of the pressure over policy responses has come from within Labour, including interventions from London mayor Sadiq Khan and ex-shadow cabinet minister Thangham Debbonaire.

Some in the Labour Party want their leader to call out racism as a major factor. Others diagnose poverty and a lack of opportunity as a root cause.

Mental health and addiction are repeatedly mentioned in mitigation in courtrooms this week, but others were drunk or carried by the moment.

Men in their fifties and sixties have appeared before judges, as well as 13- and 14-year-old boys.

Most of the towns and cities affected in recent days have high levels of deprivation and above average levels of asylum seeker housing, according to analysis of Home Office statistics.

Regional inequality has hardly changed over decades, according to a report this week from the Resolution Foundation.

“Poor places are tending to remain poor and rich places remain rich,” its author Charlie McCurdy told me.

“The one place that has made progress on regional equality is Germany. But that’s taken three decades and spending the equivalent of the UK’s furlough scheme each year.”

Rachel Reeves seems unlikely to copy Germany’s example, but recent events may reignite the debate over scrapping the two-child benefit cap.

Poverty campaigners argue it could be one of the quickest ways to alleviate inequality.

One low-budget proposal is for the party to use some of its bumper crop of 404 MPs to become community champions and heavily engage with their constituents.

The inspiration is Margaret Hodge’s local campaigning to battle the far-right, anti-immigrant BNP in Barking, East London, between 2006 and 2010.

The election of 12 BNP councillors in 2006 sent shockwaves through the local political establishment, sparking a change of approach from the council and the area’s Labour MPs.

“Immigration and housing were the big two issues back then,” Mrs Hodge says, as she recounts her tactics of organising local meetings, listening to local concerns and trying to solve constituents’ problems.

“Everything I did was about reconnecting with voters to build trust. The American senator Tip O’Neill said ‘all politics is local’ and that is the lesson I learnt.”

• ‘My Southport shop was looted by rioters, then saved by strangers’

It was an effort in which Morgan McSweeney, now Sir Keir’s election mastermind and strategy director, played a part as a young community campaigner.

Allies say Mr McSweeney is convinced MPs in areas affected by unrest must focus their time on engaging and listening.

Some argue the approach of Mr McSweeney’s mentor – the Labour thinker and former Dagenham MP Jon Cruddas – may also be deployed. He has long warned against the party becoming too metropolitan and middle class, and drifting from its working-class roots.

The violence and looting of the past 10 days has led the prime minister to postpone his summer family holiday.

Instead he will spend next week working between the buzz of Downing Street and the peace of Chequers, the prime minister’s official country residence in Buckinghamshire.

Swift criminal justice may have quelled the immediate threat of violence. But Sir Keir knows that he’ll be judged on tackling the root causes.

Top picture credit: Getty images

A lingering fragrance of bun maska (bread and butter), plates loaded with freshly cooked samosas and cups of piping hot and creamy Irani chai.

These are some of the sights you would typically find at a Persian-style cafe in India.

Popularly known as Irani cafes, these iconic restaurants – with their signature marble-topped tables, old-style clocks, chequered floors and a distinctive menu – have been a part of India’s culture for more than 100 years.

And their influence has spread beyond India: Dishoom, one of London’s most recognisable restaurant chains, was inspired by these cafes.

They came up in cities like Mumbai and Pune in the 18th and 19th centuries when there was an influx of Persian immigrants from Iran.

There’s a third lesser known pocket of the country – the southern city of Hyderabad – where these cafes have been an intrinsic part of the local culture for decades.

But despite their many charms and the rich cultural heritage, the cafes of this city – like their counterparts in Pune and Mumbai – are on the verge of dying out, with owners blaming rising prices, competition from fast-food restaurants and changing consumer tastes.

Hyderabad has the most number of Irani cafes after Mumbai even today. That’s because the city was a centre for Iranian trade in the late 19th Century.

Persian was widely spoken under the rule of a Muslim Nizam, or prince. The Niloufer café, located in the old quarters of the city, was actually named after the Nizam’s daughter-in-law, an Ottoman princess.

This was also a period when parts of modern-day Pakistan were still in Hyderabad, with Iran as its neighbour, making the city easily accessible to Persian traders.

Most of the families who moved to Hyderabad – and other Indian cities – came to escape persecution and famine back home. Some came in search of better jobs and business.

Their arrival coincided with colonial rule when the British were actively promoting a tea drinking culture in the country.

When the Iranians arrived, they brought their own style of making tea – with cream and condensed milk – giving rise to a distinct Iranian chai culture in the cities.

“At first, the tea was sold under the name Chai Khana and only Muslims drank it,” Hyderabad-based historian Mohammed Safiullah says. “But soon, people from all religions caught on to its distinct flavour.”

By the 20th Century, Irani cafes were present in every nook and corner of Hyderabad.

The customers would sip on the lip-smacking tea as they would spend hours chatting away at the coffee shops.

At some cafes, patrons would also be able to play their favourite songs on a jukebox for a small fee.

Historians say these cafes played a crucial role in breaking down social barriers and religious taboos and became an important part of the city’s public life.

“Irani cafes in Hyderabad have stood as symbols of secularism,” historian Paravastu Lokeshwar said. “The names didn’t have any religious connotations. People of all religions and castes patronised them.”

Now they are under threat.

From an estimated 450 cafes over two decades ago, Hyderabad now has only 125 left, said Jaleel Farooq Rooz, owner of The Grand Hotel, a famous Irani cafe.

Mr Rooz’s maternal grandfather came from Iran in 1951 and took over the hotel that was started by 12 Iranians in 1935.

“We used to sell 8,000-9,000 cups a day once. Now we sell just 4,000 cups a day,” he told the BBC.

He cites competition from fast-food chains as one of the reasons. Now one of the most rapidly developing Indian cities, Hyderabad was a quiet little town until the early 1990s. Things changed in the mid-90s, when the city joined the IT boom in India and became a powerhouse of the industry.

The transformation was accompanied by a slew of economic reforms in the country, which allowed global fast-food chains and cafes to penetrate the Indian market. Similar to Iranian cafes, these food joints also offered extended seating options, but with far better amenities and more options.

Mr Rooz said most Irani cafes operated from rented premises as they required large spaces where patrons could relax and unwind over tea.

But rising real estate prices in Hyderabad have forced many owners to move to other work.

“Inflation also took a toll. Tea powder and milk prices have risen three times compared to five years ago,” he added.

Others say the number of Iranian families entering the business has also gone down.

“The current generation is not interested in the café and restaurant business. They prefer other jobs and many migrate to other countries,” said the owner of popular Farasha Restaurant, Mahmood, who goes by only one name.

But despite the challenges, there are still a few in the business who continue to swim against the tide.

Syed Mohammed Razak manages the Red Rose Restaurant in Hyderabad. His grandfather migrated from Tehran and established the City Light Hotel in the 1970s. Later, Mr Razak’s father started the Red Rose Restaurant.

An engineer and graphic designer by profession, Mr Razak admits that “selling just chai and biscuits” is neither easy, nor profitable.

He has now introduced new dishes to the menu to attract more customers and is using his graphic designing skills to expand business and promote it online.

“I want to continue my family’s legacy,” he said.

And it’s not just the owners, there are also loyal customers – many of whom have been frequenting these cafes for generations – who say they would always come back for “another cup of Irani chai”.

“Irani tea is a part of my life, I love the taste and drink it every time I step out,” said Yanni, who goes by only one name and is a regular at the Grand Hotel.

“There is nothing like it even today.”

Model Chloe Ayling was kidnapped after being lured to a fake photo shoot in Milan. She was released six days later, but her ordeal was far from over – seven years on, she is still being called a liar.

“Headlines really stick in people’s minds, even years later,” Ms Ayling tells the BBC, explaining that she still receives online abuse from people questioning her account.

Her story is being told in a new six-part BBC series, Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story. The series, which follows Chloe’s experience being kidnapped and the media storm that followed, is based on police interviews, court transcripts and personal accounts – with some scenes created for dramatic purposes.

Ms Ayling faced years of doubts about her ordeal with people accusing her of faking her abduction, profiting from it and being involved in a publicity stunt.

But she’s since worked with the drama’s writer Georgia Lester and producers to tell her story.

“All I wanted was [the] facts to be laid out and everyone to know what actually happened,” Ms Ayling says.

She hopes her experience will help others. “This should be a lesson for people not to judge victims based on the way they act or react,” she adds.

Ms Ayling’s ordeal began in July 2017 when she was lured from London to Italy on the promise of a photo shoot by Lukasz Herba, who drugged her and took her to a remote farmhouse in a holdall bag.

Lukasz Herba said she would be sold online if she could not provide a $300,000 (approximately £230,000) ransom fee. He released her to the British consulate in Milan six days later.

When Ms Ayling, then 20 years old, returned to the UK she came under fire – she was accused of posing for the cameras and smiling.

Finding herself at the centre of so much media attention, Ms Ayling remembers: “It was just so big and overpowering.

“It was blown out of proportion, there were things that were missed out and it was going in a direction that was not true.”

On the topic of smiling when she arrived home from Italy, Ms Ayling says: “That was genuinely how I was feeling at the time. I was happy to be home. I was happy this was over, so why shouldn’t I be smiling?”

Even after Lukasz Herba, a Polish national, was jailed for 16 years and nine months for her kidnapping, people continued to accuse her of not telling the truth.

Ms Ayling feels her work as a model contributed to how she was treated: “I do believe if my job was different, it wouldn’t be the same reaction,” adding that the way a victim dresses, acts or shows emotion shouldn’t be a reason not to believe them.

After her kidnapping, Ms Ayling published a book and appeared as a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother.

Despite the backlash she received, she wouldn’t change anything about how she behaved, she says.

“I was true to myself and did what I want[ed] to do, so I don’t have any regrets.”

The BBC drama comes as her kidnapper’s brother, Michal Herba, who was also involved in Ms Ayling’s abduction, has been released from prison. He was sentenced to 16 years and eight months in prison but had his sentence reduced after an appeal.

“I think he should have been in prison for a lot longer,” Ms Ayling says of Michal Herba.

“The fact that they still don’t take accountability and still want to make lies and not be responsible for what they did [is] even more annoying,” she adds.

Now, years on from her abduction, Ms Ayling is trying to put what happened behind her.

“I don’t get flashbacks or anything like that,” she says, but in making this drama the 27-year-old had to relive the experience.

“I [had] to put myself back in that position to remember key details and how I felt at the time,” she says.

The series writer, Georgia Lester – who has also worked on dramas Killing Eve and Skins – says: “I think the wider story here is about how we treat victims, specifically women.”

She adds: “It feels like a timely and important drama.”

In July, the National Police Chiefs’ Council outlined the scale of violence against women and girls across the nation in a report – and the body estimates that one in every 12 women will be a victim of violence every year.

Amanda Rowe, the lead for violence against women and girls at the Independent Office for Police Conduct, acknowledges some people “do not have a good experience” when it comes to reporting violence against women and girls.

“Fear of being made to feel responsible for what has happened to them can put people off reporting these crimes,” she says.

Ms Lester says she was enraged to learn how Ms Ayling had been treated following her kidnapping. She hopes the BBC drama “encourages people to believe women” and that it will “vindicate” Ms Ayling in “the eyes of people who judged her”.

Ms Ayling adds: “I want the world to know that what I’m saying is true.”

You can watch Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story on BBC iPlayer on Wednesday 14 August.

Donald Trump continues to insist that he once took a scary helicopter trip with former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, even as Mr Brown dismissed the story as “fiction”.

But it turns out another California politician, Nate Holden, did accompany Trump decades ago on a turbulent chopper ride, US media report.

Both Mr Brown and Mr Holden are black.

The former president said during a news conference that he and Mr Brown had gone “down” in a helicopter together and Mr Brown had been “a little concerned”.

The story became an issue after Trump recounted it on Thursday, in response to a question about Mr Brown’s relationship with Kamala Harris. The pair dated in the 1990s.

Trump was asked whether he thought the relationship had played a role in Ms Harris’s career journey. At the time, Ms Harris was a prosecutor and in 2002 was elected district attorney in San Francisco.

“Well, I know Willie Brown very well,” Trump said, before speaking about his memories of the flight.

“We thought maybe this was the end,” Trump said. “We were in a helicopter… and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing.”

He then claimed the former mayor had told him “terrible things” about Ms Harris.

“He had a big part in what happened with Kamala,” Trump said.

Mr Brown, 90, told US media he had never shared a helicopter with Trump, adding: “I don’t think I’d want to ride on the same helicopter with him.”

He also denied he said anything disparaging about Ms Harris.

“That’s so far-fetched, it’s unbelievable,” he told local TV station KRON. “I could not envision thinking of Kamala Harris in any negative way.

“She’s a good friend a long time ago, absolutely beautiful woman, smart as all hell, very successful, electorally speaking.

“He was doing what Donald does best, his creative fiction.”

Despite a flat denial from the former San Francisco mayor, Trump insisted the story was true in a call to the New York Times, saying he was “probably going to sue” without elaborating.

Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung posted a photo of a page of Trump’s book “Letters to Trump” showing the former president pictured with Mr Brown and including a caption mentioning the helicopter incident.

Meanwhile Mr Holden, 95, a former Los Angeles city councilman and state senator, told US media outlets he had a distinct recollection of a helicopter trip with Trump.

In the 1990s, Trump was attempting to develop property in Los Angeles.

Mr Holden said that they took a very turbulent helicopter ride around 1990, during a visit with Trump to his Atlantic City casino.

The helicopter experienced mechanical trouble and was forced to make an emergency landing in New Jersey.

Others speculated that Trump, 78, may have confused Willie Brown with Jerry Brown, California’s former governor, with whom he shared a helicopter in 2018 to visit the aftermath of the Paradise wildfires. Gavin Newsom, the current state governor, was also on the flight.

But both men told US media there had been no emergency landing or danger on that flight.

Trump’s remarks at an hour-long news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate come as recent polls show him slipping against Ms Harris.

A survey conducted by the New York Times and Siena College from 5 to 9 August puts Ms Harris ahead of Trump by 50% to 46% in three key battleground states – Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

The RealClearPolitics polling average gives Ms Harris a slight edge in the popular vote, although Mr Trump retains a lead in a number of the most important swing states.

Details of new films including the title of the third instalment of Avatar, an addition to the Star Wars franchise and a sequel to Freaky Friday have been announced at a giant Disney fan event.

Filmmaker James Cameron told a 12,000-strong audience that Avatar: Fire And Ash will “not be what you expect” while US actor Jon Favreau teased a new Star Wars film titled The Mandalorian And Grogu, starring Pedro Pascal.

Actors Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, stars of the 2003 comedy Freaky Friday, also appeared on stage to promote Freakier Friday, which is set for 2025.

The announcements were made at D23, the biennial convention for members of the official Disney fan club, in California on Friday.

Avatar director Cameron made a surprise appearance alongside the film’s stars Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington.

The science fiction epic, set for release on 19 December 2025, comes after 2009’s Avatar and its sequel Avatar: The Way Of Water, which was released in 2022.

“The new film is not what you expect, but definitely what you want,” Cameron told the audience.

He said it was “too soon” to share footage but let the audience look at “cool concept art” which featured the characters in the sky and surrounded by fire.

“There are new cultures and settings and creatures, and new biomes,” he said.

“You will see a lot more of Pandora, the planet, that you’ve never seen before.”

Lohan and Curtis were greeted with a standing ovation at the eighth D23 event, which is being held from 9 to 11 August at the Anaheim Convention Centre in California.

Curtis described Freakier Friday – about a mother and daughter who switch bodies thanks to a magical Chinese fortune cookie – as “more fun and more emotional” than their 2003 film.

“We’ve stayed in touch throughout the years and we’re very close to each other so it feels like we are picking up from where we left off, which is really beautiful,” Lohan said.

Oscar-winner Curtis told the audience: “We love these characters, we love each other, we love you and you love us and the movie and the story and what it means to you – that’s why we’re here.”

The pair confirmed One Tree Hill’s Chad Michael Murray and NCIS actor Mark Harmon are reprising their roles in the sequel.

The audience was shown a trio of pictures from the new film including an image of Curtis sporting a silver bobbed hairdo while driving Lohan in an open top car.

In the new film, Lohan’s character Anna Coleman has a daughter of her own.

Freaky Friday, based on a 1972 novel by Mary Rodgers, was also made into a movie in 1976, starring Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris.

As for the new Star Wars film, The Mandalorian, executive producer Dave Filoni said production started “a few weeks ago” and it is due for release in May 2026.

“We are putting Star Wars back on the big screen,” Mr Filoni said.

The announcement came after Pixar’s chief creative officer Pete Docter announced The Incredibles 3 was also in the works.

He confirmed Brad Bird, the writer and director behind the first two films, has returned for the next adventure from the beloved undercover super-family.

Frozen director Jennifer Lee also appeared to confirm there will be two more films added to the Frozen franchise.

“Coming out of Frozen 2, we still have some questions… Now you see why it will take two films to answer them,” she teased.

Lee shared a first look at concept art for Frozen 3, which is slated for 2027.

Fans also got a teaser of a new song for the upcoming Lion King prequel called I Always Wanted a Brother.

Lin-Manuel Miranda – creator of the hit musical Hamilton – composed the tune for Mufasa: The Lion King, and said it was “such a joy” to work with the film’s director, Oscar-winner Barry Jenkins.

Also at the event, Toy Story star Tom Hanks joined a group of the original film’s creators including Pete Docter, now chief creative officer at the animation studio behind it, Pixar, on a panel.

Since the film’s initial release in November 1995, Toy Story has become a celebrated franchise with three sequels and a fourth due in 2026.

Hanks voices pull-string cowboy toy character Woody.

And during the panel, the audience was shown a printed list titled “ideas for Woody’s pull-string dialogue lines” dated 3 February 1993.

There were three handwritten phrases at the bottom, including Hanks’s famous line “there’s a snake in my boot”.

Susan Wojcicki, the former boss of YouTube and one of Google’s earliest employees, has died aged 56.

Google’s chief executive Sundar Pichai announced that Ms Wojcicki had passed away after two years of living with lung cancer.

Mr Pichai, who is also the boss of Google’s parent company Alphabet, said on X/Twitter he was “unbelievably saddened” and Ms Wojcicki was “as core to the history of Google as anyone”.

Once described as the “most important Googler you’ve never heard of”, Ms Wojcicki was present at the company’s beginnings when, in 1998, she rented out her Menlo Park garage to the search engine firm’s founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

She was later persuaded to leave her job at chip giant Intel to join Google, becoming the firm’s 16th employee.

Ms Wojcicki would go on to lead YouTube, the online video sharing company owned by Google, for nine years until 2023 when she stepped down to focus “on my family, health and personal projects I’m passionate about”.

Ms Wojcicki was one of relatively few women to hold a senior role in the technology industry.

She wanted to encourage more girls to go into the field, telling the BBC’s Newshour in 2013 that the future was going to be “increasingly digitally influenced”.

“But then I see there are very few women in the industry,” she said. “Overall the tech industry has, on average, probably about 20% women and I also look at the pipeline of girls coming out of technical degrees and it is very small.”

While Ms Wojcicki rose to become the boss of YouTube, her tenure was not without controversy. The platform faced criticism over its handling of online disinformation, including during the Covid pandemic.

In 2022, a number of fact-checking organisations wrote to her accusing YouTube of being “one of the major conduits of online disinformation and misinformation worldwide”.

Ms Wojcicki stepped down a year later to focus on her personal life and health.

Announcing her death “with profound sadness”, her husband Dennis Troper said: “My beloved wife of 26 years and mother to our five children left us today after two years of living with non-small-cell lung cancer.”

The ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, will return to the country when elections are declared, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy says.

Ms Hasina, who resigned and fled the country earlier this week following a massive unrest, is currently in India.

Bangladeshi media say more than 500 people were killed in weeks of demonstrations against Ms Hasina. Many of them were shot by the police.

Thousands were injured in the worst violence Bangladesh has seen since its war of independence in 1971.

• Sheikh Hasina’s final hours as a hated autocrat
• The Nobel winner tasked with leading a nation out of chaos

“Absolutely, she will come [to Bangladesh],” Mr Wazed tells the BBC, saying his mother will return as and when the interim government decides to hold the polls.

The military-backed interim government, headed by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, was sworn in on Thursday along with 16 advisers.

Two of the student protest leaders are among the advisers.

Mr Wazed is an information technology expert who now lives in the US.

He worked as an IT adviser for Ms Hasina for several years during her tenure as prime minister from 2009 to 2024.

“She will certainly go back,” her son says.

“Whether she comes back into politics or not, that decision has not been made. She is quite fed up with how she was treated.”

The student-led movement started as a protest against quotas in civil service jobs last month before becoming massive unrest to oust Ms Hasina following a brutal police crackdown.

Mr Joy is confident that when the polls are held, the Awami League, the party of Ms Hasina, will emerge victorious.

“I am convinced that If you have elections in Bangladesh today, and if they are free and fair and if there’s a level playing field, then the Awami League will win,” he says.

Ms Hasina became prime minister for a fourth consecutive term in a controversial election held in January 2024.

The main opposition parties boycotted the election saying under Ms Hasina’s government there could not be “any free and fair election”.

Her son termed the current interim government as unconstitutional and said elections should be held within 90 days.

However, he was a bit circumspect about his political ambitions or whether he would return to the country to stand for the leadership of the Awami League, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding leader of Bangladesh, and Ms Hasina.

“No decision has been made in this regard. I never had political ambitions,” he says.

But he adds that he was upset over the way the protesters had ransacked and set fire to their ancestral homes, including the museum dedicated to his grandfather in Dhaka.

“Under these circumstances, I am quite angry, I will do whatever it takes,” he says.

He says he is in touch with party supporters who are very upset and outraged over what happened in the past few weeks.

“If 40,000 protesters or so can force the government to resign, then what happens if protests are held by the Awami League, which has millions of supporters?” he asserts.

Ms Hasina and her sister (Rehana Siddiq) have been stranded in Delhi since Monday.

India has been a strong supporter of the Bangladeshi leader.

There have been reports she is trying to seek asylum in the UK, the United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia.

“Those questions about her visa and asylum, they are all rumours,” her son says.

“She’s not applied anywhere. She’s staying put for the time being, watching how the situation unfolds in Bangladesh.

“Her ultimate goal is always to go back home in Bangladesh.”

Asked about well-documented human rights violations and extra-judicial killings during his mother’s 15-year tenure, he says some mistakes were made.

“Of course, there were individuals in our government who made mistakes, but we always righted the ship,” he adds.

“We had one minister’s son, who was a member of the special police force. He is in jail convicted of extra-judicial killings. That’s unprecedented.”

“My mother tried to do the right thing in terms of arrests,” her son insists.

Paul Kagame has been sworn in for a fourth term as Rwanda’s president after winning 99% of the vote in last month’s election.

While some hail Mr Kagame for bringing peace and stability to his country after the 1994 genocide, others accuse him of running a repressive regime in a country where ordinary people are afraid to openly criticise him.

Rights groups say the margin of his electoral victory is proof of the lack of democracy in Rwanda.

Only two candidates were allowed to stand against Mr Kagame in the 15 July election.

In his four presidential elections, he has always gained at least 93% of the vote.

Several African heads of states were among the many thousands who attended the ceremony in the packed 45,000 capacity Amahoro National Stadium in the capital, Kigali.

In his oath of office, Mr Kagame vowed to preserve peace and national sovereignty, and to consolidate national unity.

He also pledged to “never use the powers conferred upon me for personal interests”.

“Should I fail to honour this oath, may I be subjected to the rigours of the law,” he said.

Mr Kagame has been the real power in Rwanda since his then rebel forces came to power at the end of the genocide in which some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered, ousting the genocidal regime.

Since then, Rwanda has been relatively stable, with Mr Kagame seeking to turn the country into the “Singapore of Africa”.

The capital is one of Africa’s cleanest cities and is home to the African Basketball League, which is a partnership with the NBA. It hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2022 and international stars like Kendrick Lamar have played concerts there.

Mr Kagame often criticises the West, yet he has also sought to build alliances, for example with the UK over the now scrapped policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda, agreed with the former Conservative government.

While life has improved in Rwanda, Mr Kagame is accused of destabilising the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Just days before the July election, a UN report said there were some 4,000 Rwandan troops in DR Congo, where they are accused of backing the M23 rebel group, fuelling a bitter row between the two countries.

Under Mr Kagame, Rwandan troops have twice invaded DR Congo, saying they were pursuing Hutu militias linked to the 1994 genocide.

• Rwanda’s 99% man who wants to extend his three decades in power
• BBC reporter returns to Rwanda after fleeing genocide
• World failed us in 1994, President Paul Kagame says
• Rwanda genocide: ‘I forgave my husband’s killer – our children married’

“They’re weird.”

With that simple diss – as well as an overall more streamlined message – Vice-President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign has shifted the conversation away from the weaknesses of her boss, President Joe Biden, and shone a spotlight on her opponent, Donald Trump.

The change of tone was on full display at rallies this week, where she appeared with her new vice-presidential pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. With Beyonce’s Freedom as their soundtrack, the pair made the case that they were out to protect American freedoms while their “weird” Republican opponents, Trump and his running mate JD Vance, threatened to take them away.

“We’re not going back,” Ms Harris told an enthusiastic crowd in Philadelphia, leading a chorus of what has become the campaign’s de-facto slogan.

It is a stripped-back version of Mr Biden’s 2020 message – that Trump is a “threat to democracy” – that casts the former president as out of touch with American life.

Even the vice-president’s press releases, sent from a campaign that once served Mr Biden, have reflected the tone shift from deeply serious to something more light-touch.

Just five days after Mr Biden stepped aside, a Harris spokesperson quipped that a Trump speech made him sound “like someone you wouldn’t want to sit near at a restaurant”.

Campaign strategists say this new messaging appears to be cutting through with Democrat-leaning voters because it makes voting for Ms Harris sound more like a common-sense choice, and less like a civic chore. But it is too early to tell if this fresh goodwill for a vice-president who, until recently, struggled to grab the attention of American voters will last until November’s election day.

California Lieutenant Gov Eleni Kounalakis, a Democrat who considers the vice-president a close friend, said the campaign’s fresh rhetoric reflects Ms Harris’s “great sense of humour” and her ability to be “a good communicator on a very basic level”.

“The fact is, these things are proving to be her strengths, and her joyfulness is breaking through the dark, menacing undertones of Donald Trump and his running mate.”

Meanwhile, Trump, who has long been known as an effective mudslinger and energetic campaigner since he entered politics during the 2016 presidential campaign, has struggled to punch back – especially against the “weird” framing.

“They’re the weird ones. Nobody’s ever called me weird. I’m a lot of things, but weird I’m not,” Trump said last week in an interview with conservative radio host Clay Travis.

He returned to the theme at a rally on Friday in Montana, telling the crowd: “We’re very solid people. We want to have strong borders, we want to have good elections, we want low interest rates, we want to be able to buy a house.”

“I think we’re the opposite of weird, they’re weird.”

Ms Harris, who once trailed Trump, is now on the front foot, polls suggest.

David Polyansky, who served as deputy campaign manager for Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’s 2024 presidential campaign, said that this shift could be because Ms Harris was beating Trump at his own game.

Since he first ran for president, Trump has benefited from being the main political story in the country, enjoying what political insiders like to call “earned media”, or free press.

But it is Ms Harris’s dramatic swing to the top of the Democratic ticket just weeks before the Democratic National Convention that has dominated headlines and airwaves in recent weeks – and she has done it without sitting down for a major media interview.

To upstage the former president, who only recently faced an assassination attempt, is no small feat, said Mr Polyansky.

“It’s really pretty remarkable,” he said.

Her campaign appears further buoyed by picking Mr Walz as her running mate.

A survey conducted by the New York Times and Siena College from 5 to 9 August puts Ms Harris ahead of Trump by 50% to 46% in three key battleground states – Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

It comes after a recent YouGov poll, conducted on 4-6 August, which suggested she would win the popular vote, with 45% of respondents saying they would vote for her in November, compared to 43% for Trump.

That is a reversal of fortunes. A similar poll by YouGov, conducted almost three weeks ago, showed her losing by three points.

It was, in fact, Mr Walz who was the first to use the “weird” label when making media appearances last month in support of Ms Harris’s fledgling candidacy. He was quick to use it again at that Philadelphia rally with Ms Harris when speaking of their Republican opponents: “These guys are creepy and yes, just weird as hell.”

Mr Walz’s folksy ways seemed to resonate with several voters who spoke to the BBC. They said they liked the Minnesota governor because he was plainspoken.

Between drags of a cigarette, Tyler Engel – an independent Ohio voter on vacation in St Augustine, Florida – said that Mr Walz “seems like a normal guy, a family man”.

“And if there is one thing that we are starved for in this country, it’s normal people,” Mr Engel added.

Another voter, John Patterson of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, said he found Mr Walz to be “a very genuine person”.

“What you see is what you get with him,” he added.

Some political consultants marveled at the “weird” label’s effectiveness. Many said that it broke through because it felt authentic, was not an audience-tested catchphrase or cliche, and it came about “fast and organically”.

Calling Trump and JD Vance “weird” effectively repackaged President Biden’s “threat to democracy” theme in a “very understandable – almost light-hearted – way that was maybe less severe and more colloquial”, said Brian Brokaw, who worked on several of Ms Harris’ campaigns and ran a Super PAC that supported her presidential campaign in 2020.

He said the term immediately helped to recast the race from a referendum on Mr Biden’s four years in office to a question of “do we really want to go back to what we were doing during the Trump era?”

Republican pollster Frank Luntz was more sceptical.

On BBC Newsnight on Tuesday, he declared Ms Harris the new front runner, noting she had captured fresh “momentum”.

But he dismissed the “weird” label as “weird in itself”, saying it didn’t resonate with voters.

The catchphrase did seem to land with several undecided voters interviewed by the BBC. Jacob Fisher, an independent voter from Atlanta, said he thought calling Trump and Mr Vance “weird” was appropriate and only mildly insulting in an age of political name-calling.

“I think it’s fair,” Mr Fisher said. “You can’t say that it’s very harsh because you have the other guy talking about how his opponents are vermin. So ‘weird’? I don’t know, but you can’t really complain if you’re Donald Trump.”

Still, voters who said they were backing Trump were unimpressed with the campaign’s recent messaging.

Frank and Theresa Walker of Illinois shared the view that the US was “going to hell” under the Biden-Harris administration, and Gem Lowery – a Trump voter in Florida – said she did not like Harris’s pick for vice-president or the “weird” label they have used when discussing Trump, Mr Vance and the Republican platform.

“I think the Democrats are the weird ones,” Lowery told the BBC. “So no, I don’t think that’s right to call Republicans ‘weird.’”

Ms Harris’s “brat summer” will not last forever.

While the pick of Mr Walz and the upcoming Democratic National Convention will be certain to maintain Ms Harris’s media dominance, experts agree that the campaign will have to change gears soon.

Mr Brokaw, a long-time adviser to Ms Harris, said that her campaign will need to work to bottle the enthusiasm it has enjoyed since the vice-president became the Democratic nominee.

“The peak of the honeymoon period is the convention, and then it’s going to be a grind for two months probably with some debates,” Mr Brokaw said. “This is an exciting period of time, but at a certain point it’s going to come back to reality and then it’s go time.”

“If we’re still talking about Trump and Vance being weird in October, I think I’d be surprised,” he added.

David Polyansky, the Republican strategist, said the label “works well from a 60,000 foot view”, but he believed a message on the economy and immigration would ultimately sway voters in November.

“So for Trump, it’s key he doesn’t take the bait, he focuses on his message and he reminds folks of his record and the administration’s failures on both of those issues.”

• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
• ANALYSIS: Three ways Trump will try to end Harris honeymoon
• SWING STATES: Where the election could be won and lost
• EXPLAINER: RFK Jr and others running for president
• VOTERS: US workers in debt to buy groceries

Taxi drivers are often hoping to pick up a five star review, but Olympic chauffeur Elisabeth Lomholdt is hoping she gets a chance to pick up real life stars.

The volunteer driver from Denmark is spending the summer behind the wheel, zig-zagging between venues across Paris.

So far she hasn’t seen a medallist, instead taking officials to and from the Games but says she’s had no shortage of interesting conversations.

“The longer the ride, the better,” the 25-year-old tells BBC Newsbeat. “I feel so inspired after hearing people’s stories.”

Elisabeth, who lives in Copenhagen, says: “Every time I have passengers, I have one question, because I’m really interested in learning what the biggest sports are from their country.

“Because in Denmark, it’s mostly soccer and handball and in all other countries, those are not the main sports.”

Elisabeth has been living in Paris for five weeks and says when she first arrived, “a lot of people told me, ‘you’re crazy that you want to drive in Paris’.”

Traffic in the French capital can be notoriously difficult to navigate.

“When you drive in Paris, people, mostly the motorcycles, put on the light and just go beep, beep, beep, and they just continue in between cars,” says Elisabeth.

“What I’m used to is like roundabouts with lanes, stuff like that. Here, there are no lanes.

“You just have to kind of adapt.”

Lots of people volunteer straight after graduating but Elisabeth might have the best stories.

She loves sport, but more than that she says she was drawn to the opportunity to see behind the scenes at such an enormous event when she first applied more than a year-and-a-half ago.

“It’s not what you see on televisions, it’s all that, all the things that are in the back,” she says.

“Like, how is it structured? I think that’s really interesting.”

Elisabeth is one of 45,000 people volunteering at the Paris Olympics out of more than 300,000 who applied.

“It’s really inspiring how our help is such a big part of the Olympics,” she says.

“The Olympics wouldn’t be the Olympics without volunteers.”

Paris 2024 pledged to be the most sustainable Games yet.

That’s why TikTok has been full of videos of athletes bouncing on cardboard beds and vegan options in the canteen.

Organisers also made plans when it came to getting around the city, making all the venues accessible by public transport and creating 400km (250 miles) of new bike lanes.

Elisabeth’s taxi has had a sustainable makeover. The car she drives is part of an electric fleet and fewer vehicles have been commissioned overall than in previous Games.

The 25-year-old hopes to see more people inspired to volunteer their time.

“I know we don’t get paid, but it gives you so much more than what money is,” she says.

“It gives you perspectives on life.”

And with the closing ceremony on Sunday, Elisabeth still has a chance to pick up her dream passengers.

“I think it would be fun to have some of the Danish athletes,” she says.

“But I am biased.”

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

Last week, Damion Bailey posted on Instagram that he had just achieved his “personal best” – a 13-and-a-half hour flight between Shanghai and Dallas without any in-flight entertainment, films, books or music.

“It’s quite tough, honestly,” the 34-year-old from Miami, Florida tells BBC News. But he keeps doing it.

Mr Bailey is part of a new travel trend, known as “raw-dogging”, where passengers spend long hours mid-air just staring straight ahead.

The longer you do it, the tougher you have apparently proven yourself to be.

“Just raw-dogged it, 15 hour flight to Melbourne,” boasts Australian music producer Torren Foot on TikTok, blinking hard as if to stay awake.

“No music, no movies, just flight map.”

Some also avoid eating or drinking. A few say they won’t get up at all, even to use the toilet. But health experts warn that more extreme versions of the trend can pose serious risks.

Manchester City footballer Erling Haaland recently joined the trend, posting that he had got through a seven-hour flight with “no phone, no sleep, no water, no food” and had found it “easy”.

Responses on social media questioned if he had really stuck to his own rules (a common question on similar posts from others). Some wondered if he was a robot.

And some simply asked “why”?

Posts about “raw-dogging” have grown steadily over the last year.

Increasing numbers of young men – and it is mostly athletic-looking young men – are posting videos of themselves on board, staring at the in-flight map or the safety instructions card, vowing to use the “power of the mind” to get them through.

As for the term “raw-dogging”, it might have carnal origins, but increasingly it is used for anything being done without protection or support.

For these men, the appeal seems to be the opportunity to prove their resilience and self-control.

Some medical experts warn of the significant health risks of taking long flights without food, water or moving around.

“They’re idiots,” says Dr Gill Jenkins, a GP who also works as a medical escort in air ambulance work. “A digital detox might do you some good, but all the rest of it is against medical advice,” she says.

“The whole thing about the risk of long-haul flying is that you’re at risk of dehydration.

“If you’re not moving you’re at risk of deep vein thrombosis, which is compounded by dehydration. Not going to the toilet, that’s a bit stupid. If you need the loo, you need the loo.”

But on the trend as a whole, business psychologist Danielle Haig says she can see why people would want to spend time in quiet reflection, allowing their mind to wander, in our increasingly fast-paced, technology-driven world.

“It offers an opportunity to recharge mentally, gain new perspectives,” she says.

She thinks the trend signifies “a collective yearning for balance as people seek to reclaim their mental space and foster a deeper connection with their inner selves”.

And she reckons that raw-dogging allows young men, in particular, the chance to showcase their ability to handle solitude and discomfort with stoicism.

Mr Bailey says he enjoys the “challenge”.

“The first time I did it was on a shorter flight, out of necessity,” he says.

“I forgot my headphones, and there wasn’t anything on the entertainment that I wanted to watch.”

But he has carried on doing it. “I like the challenge, for sure. I fly so often. Why not challenge myself?”

Allowing yourself to be bored for a few hours is actually quite good for us, argues Sandi Mann, academic and author of The Science of Boredom. “It can really improve our relaxation and creativity.”

People have to find ways to wean themselves off the constant “highs” they get from modern technology, she says.

“We need to reduce our need for novelty and stimulation and whizzy-whizzy bang-bang dopamine, and just take time out to breathe and stare at the clouds – literally, if you’re on a flight,” she says.

But she acknowledges all the current advice stresses the importance of staying mobile, particularly on longer flights, and also suggests avoiding food and water would pose added health risks.

“I think people need to understand this is not ideal for a seven-hour flight,” says Ms Mann. “You’ve got to get the balance right.”

Clearly, it is not for everyone.

“Sounds like self-inflicted torture with literally no incentive,” says one social media user. “Give me my in-flight wi-fi, my sleep mask and let’s throw in some snacks.”

Others doubt whether all of the people posting about their 10-hour flights really have stuck to their self-imposed rules.

And some who have tried raw-dogging themselves haven’t come away impressed.

“Big mistake,” says a user on TikTok called Brenda. “Pretty sure the only thing that took off was my sanity.

“Note to self, won’t be doing that again. Definitely an overrated experience. Not at all enlightening as people make out.”

The elusive artist Banksy has confirmed he painted swimming fish on to a City of London Police sentry box, which was first spotted on Sunday morning.

The glass-fronted box on Ludgate Hill – near The Old Bailey and St Paul’s Cathedral – has been transformed to look like an aquarium.

This is his seventh new artwork to be revealed in the capital in as many days, following a goat, monkeys, elephants, a wolf, pelicans and a cat.

Crowds gathered to take photos throughout the day until barriers were installed, preventing people going inside.

This work differs from the previous works by Banksy unveiled this week in that it is a detailed painting that appears to have been created with translucent spray paint.

The City of London Police said it was aware of “criminal damage” to the police box and were liaising with City of London Corporation which owns it.

A corporation worker was earlier seen barricading it off and asking spectators not to stand in the road near it.

A spokesperson said: “We are currently working through options to preserve the artwork.”

The sentry box is among many installed in the 1990s used by police officers monitoring traffic to prevent IRA attacks.

A local resident who came to take pictures of the fish artwork said she thought it was “rather beautiful in the sun.”

“I like it, it’s got a charm to it somehow. It’s not in your face, it’s quite subtle.

Artist Daniel Lloyd-Morgan, who has painted most of Banksy’s new pieces of art this week said: “It’s really uplifting for people in London at the moment.

“There’s a buzz around his work. It’s nice to capture that as I do the people as well.

“It’s not just about the artwork, it’s about the whole environment he’s creating, it becomes a sort of work of art itself – what happens to it, people steal it or take it away.”

Mr Lloyd-Morgan added that he was due to go on holiday on Monday but has postponed it in case Banksy’s art revelations continue next week.

Banksy’s translucent fish swimming around a 1990s police sentry box form the seventh piece in a surprise animal-themed art series.

On Monday, a goat appeared on the side of a building near Kew Bridge, followed by a sweet image of two elephants touching trunks on the side of a house in Chelsea on Tuesday.

Three monkeys hanging from a bridge in Brick Lane then drew crowds on Wednesday.

On Thursday, a howling wolf on a satellite dish – which looked like the wolf was howling at the moon – was installed onto a garage roof in Peckham.

On Friday, locals in Walthamstow woke up to find two pelicans fishing above a fish shop.

And on Saturday, a stencil of a cat having a stretch appeared on an empty billboard in Cricklewood.

In total, three of these works have since been removed or defaced.

The billboard, along with the cat, was taken down by contractors citing safety reasons, hours after it was revealed.

Crowds who had gathered to look at the work booed as it was dismantled by three men.

• Video: Banksy’s howling wolf satellite dish removed by masked men

The affectionate elephants were pictured having been painted over with stripes on Friday. And earlier in the week, the satellite dish and its wolf were apparently stolen by masked men within hours of being revealed.

Each day, the artist officially announced the works on his Instagram page.

A lingering fragrance of bun maska (bread and butter), plates loaded with freshly cooked samosas and cups of piping hot and creamy Irani chai.

These are some of the sights you would typically find at a Persian-style cafe in India.

Popularly known as Irani cafes, these iconic restaurants – with their signature marble-topped tables, old-style clocks, chequered floors and a distinctive menu – have been a part of India’s culture for more than 100 years.

And their influence has spread beyond India: Dishoom, one of London’s most recognisable restaurant chains, was inspired by these cafes.

They came up in cities like Mumbai and Pune in the 18th and 19th centuries when there was an influx of Persian immigrants from Iran.

There’s a third lesser known pocket of the country – the southern city of Hyderabad – where these cafes have been an intrinsic part of the local culture for decades.

But despite their many charms and the rich cultural heritage, the cafes of this city – like their counterparts in Pune and Mumbai – are on the verge of dying out, with owners blaming rising prices, competition from fast-food restaurants and changing consumer tastes.

Hyderabad has the most number of Irani cafes after Mumbai even today. That’s because the city was a centre for Iranian trade in the late 19th Century.

Persian was widely spoken under the rule of a Muslim Nizam, or prince. The Niloufer café, located in the old quarters of the city, was actually named after the Nizam’s daughter-in-law, an Ottoman princess.

This was also a period when parts of modern-day Pakistan were still in Hyderabad, with Iran as its neighbour, making the city easily accessible to Persian traders.

Most of the families who moved to Hyderabad – and other Indian cities – came to escape persecution and famine back home. Some came in search of better jobs and business.

Their arrival coincided with colonial rule when the British were actively promoting a tea drinking culture in the country.

When the Iranians arrived, they brought their own style of making tea – with cream and condensed milk – giving rise to a distinct Iranian chai culture in the cities.

“At first, the tea was sold under the name Chai Khana and only Muslims drank it,” Hyderabad-based historian Mohammed Safiullah says. “But soon, people from all religions caught on to its distinct flavour.”

By the 20th Century, Irani cafes were present in every nook and corner of Hyderabad.

The customers would sip on the lip-smacking tea as they would spend hours chatting away at the coffee shops.

At some cafes, patrons would also be able to play their favourite songs on a jukebox for a small fee.

Historians say these cafes played a crucial role in breaking down social barriers and religious taboos and became an important part of the city’s public life.

“Irani cafes in Hyderabad have stood as symbols of secularism,” historian Paravastu Lokeshwar said. “The names didn’t have any religious connotations. People of all religions and castes patronised them.”

Now they are under threat.

From an estimated 450 cafes over two decades ago, Hyderabad now has only 125 left, said Jaleel Farooq Rooz, owner of The Grand Hotel, a famous Irani cafe.

Mr Rooz’s maternal grandfather came from Iran in 1951 and took over the hotel that was started by 12 Iranians in 1935.

“We used to sell 8,000-9,000 cups a day once. Now we sell just 4,000 cups a day,” he told the BBC.

He cites competition from fast-food chains as one of the reasons. Now one of the most rapidly developing Indian cities, Hyderabad was a quiet little town until the early 1990s. Things changed in the mid-90s, when the city joined the IT boom in India and became a powerhouse of the industry.

The transformation was accompanied by a slew of economic reforms in the country, which allowed global fast-food chains and cafes to penetrate the Indian market. Similar to Iranian cafes, these food joints also offered extended seating options, but with far better amenities and more options.

Mr Rooz said most Irani cafes operated from rented premises as they required large spaces where patrons could relax and unwind over tea.

But rising real estate prices in Hyderabad have forced many owners to move to other work.

“Inflation also took a toll. Tea powder and milk prices have risen three times compared to five years ago,” he added.

Others say the number of Iranian families entering the business has also gone down.

“The current generation is not interested in the café and restaurant business. They prefer other jobs and many migrate to other countries,” said the owner of popular Farasha Restaurant, Mahmood, who goes by only one name.

But despite the challenges, there are still a few in the business who continue to swim against the tide.

Syed Mohammed Razak manages the Red Rose Restaurant in Hyderabad. His grandfather migrated from Tehran and established the City Light Hotel in the 1970s. Later, Mr Razak’s father started the Red Rose Restaurant.

An engineer and graphic designer by profession, Mr Razak admits that “selling just chai and biscuits” is neither easy, nor profitable.

He has now introduced new dishes to the menu to attract more customers and is using his graphic designing skills to expand business and promote it online.

“I want to continue my family’s legacy,” he said.

And it’s not just the owners, there are also loyal customers – many of whom have been frequenting these cafes for generations – who say they would always come back for “another cup of Irani chai”.

“Irani tea is a part of my life, I love the taste and drink it every time I step out,” said Yanni, who goes by only one name and is a regular at the Grand Hotel.

“There is nothing like it even today.”

Ukrainian troops have advanced up to 30km inside Russia, in what has become the the deepest and most significant incursion since Moscow began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had engaged Ukrainian troops near the villages of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez, as the offensive in the Kursk region entered a sixth day.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Kyiv of “intimidating the peaceful population of Russia”.

Overnight, President Volodymyr Zelensky directly acknowledged the attack for the first time, saying Ukraine was pushing the war to “the aggressor’s territory”.

“Ukraine is proving that it can indeed restore justice and ensure the necessary pressure on the aggressor,” Mr Zelensky told the country in his nightly address from Kyiv.

He went on to thank Ukraine’s “warriors” and said he had discussed the operation in Russia with the country’s top military commander – Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi.

A senior Ukrainian official told the AFP news agency that thousands of troops were engaged in the operation, far more than the small incursion initially reported by Russian border guards.

While Ukrainian-backed sabotage groups have launched intermittent cross-border incursions, the Kursk offensive marks the biggest co-ordinated attack on Russian territory by Kyiv’s conventional forces.

“We are on the offensive. The aim is to stretch the positions of the enemy, to inflict maximum losses and to destabilise the situation in Russia as they are unable to protect their own border,” the official said.

Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its forces had “foiled attempts by enemy mobile groups with armoured vehicles to break through deep into Russian territory”.

But in an apparent admission that Kyiv’s forces have now advanced deep into the Kursk border region, the defence ministry reported engaging Ukrainian forces near the villages of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez – which are about 25km and 30km from the Russia-Ukraine border.

Ukrainian troops have claimed to have captured a number of settlements in the Kursk region. In Guevo, a village about 3km inside Russia, soldiers filmed themselves removing the Russian flag from an administrative building.

Clips have also emerged of Ukrainian troops seizing administrative buildings in Sverdlikovo and Poroz, while intense fighting has been reported in Sudzha – a town of about 5,000 people.

Ukrainian troops have already filmed themselves outside Sudzha at a major gas facility involved in the transit of natural gas from Russia to the EU via Ukraine, which has continued despite the war.

In Sumy, which borders the Kursk region, BBC reporters witnessed a steady stream of armoured personnel carriers and tanks moving towards Russia.

The armoured convoys are sporting white triangular insignias, seemingly to distinguish them from hardware used within Ukraine itself. Meanwhile, aerial photos have appeared to show Ukrainian tanks engaged in combat inside Russia.

Photos analysed by BBC Verify also appeared to show Russia constructing new defensive lines near the Kursk nuclear power plant. Ukrainian forces are said to have advanced within 50km (31 miles) of the facility.

Contrasting satellite imagery of the same location captured yesterday with imagery from a few days earlier, images show several newly constructed trench lines in the vicinity, with the nearest roughly 8km (5 miles) from the plant.

Russia says 76,000 people have been evacuated from border areas in the Kursk region, where a state of emergency has been declared by local authorities.

Acting regional governor Aleksei Smirnov also said 15 people were injured late on Saturday when the wreckage of a downed Ukrainian missile fell on a multi-storey building in Kursk’s regional capital, Kursk.

Oleksiy Goncharenko – a Ukrainian MP – hailed the operation and said it was “taking us much closer to peace than one hundred peace summits”.

“When Russia needs to fight back on their own territory, when Russian people are running, when people care, that’s the only way to show them stop this war,” he told the BBC.

The Kursk offensive comes after weeks of Russian advances in the east, where a succession of villages have been captured by the Kremlin’s forces.

Some analysts have suggested that the Kursk attack is part of an effort to force Russia to redeploy forces away from eastern Ukraine and relieve pressure on the beleaguered Ukrainian defences.

But the Ukrainian official told AFP there had been little let-up to date in Russian operations in the east.

Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the offensive was a “major provocation”.

Moscow has already retaliated against the Ukrainian attack. Emergency services in Kyiv said a man and his four-year-old son were killed in a missile strike on the capital overnight.

Air defences also destroyed 53 out of 57 attack drones launched by Russia during its overnight airstrikes, air force officials said. Four North Korean-manufactured missiles were also fired as part of the barrage, they said.

Russia has been forced to turn to the isolated Asian state to re-stock its munitions, with the US alleging that vast amounts of military hardware have been shipped by Pyongyang.

As investigations continue into the plane crash in Brazil that killed 62 people, more details have emerged about the victims.

Those who died included cancer doctors, a three-year-old child, a lawyer specialising in lawsuits against airlines and a Venezuelan family and their dog, local media have reported.

All bodies have now been recovered from the site of Friday’s plane crash in the state of São Paulo.

The twin-engine turboprop was flying from Cascavel in the southern state of Paraná to Guarulhos airport in São Paulo city when it came down on Friday in the town of Vinhedo.

Footage circulating on social media showed a plane descending vertically, spiralling as it fell.

The aircraft crashed in a residential area, but no-one on the ground was injured. Officials said only one home in a local condominium complex was damaged.

Two doctors from the Uopeccan Cancer Hospital in Cascavel, Mariana Belim and Ariane Risso, were among the passengers who died.

They were among eight doctors on their way to attend a medical conference.

Three-year-old Liz Ibba dos Santos, the youngest victim of the disaster, was travelling with her father, Rafael Fernando dos Santos. Her mother, a journalist, was not on the flight.

• All bodies recovered after 62 die in Brazil plane crash
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• In pictures: Brazil’s deadly plane crash

Other victims included a family returning to their native Venezuela after their dreams of a new life in Brazil were frustrated.

Josgleidys Gonzalez was travelling with her mother, Maria Gladys Parra Holguin, and her young son, Joslan Perez.

According to a family friend writing on social media, the three had left economic hardship in Venezuela and moved to Cascavel, but had been unable to sort out Joslan’s documentation, as he was born in Venezuela but grew up in Brazil.

As a result, they were heading back to their homeland. Their plan was to change planes in São Paulo and fly to northern Brazil before completing their journey by bus.

Their dog, Luna, boarded the plane with them, because Joslan’s mother could not stand to see him separated from their pet, said the family friend. The family had the dog vaccinated as required by the airline.

The death toll also included a lawyer, Laiana Vasatta, who worked as a lay judge at the Court of Justice of Paraná and also represented clients in lawsuits against airlines. She posted videos on social media offering consumer guidance.

The state of São Paulo said it concluded its operation to remove the victims’ bodies from the crash site on Saturday evening.

It added that the bodies – 34 males and 28 females – were being moved to a police morgue in the city of São Paulo, where they will be identified and released to the families.

The authorities are still trying to determine what caused the plane’s dramatic plunge.

Analysis of the plane’s flight recorders has already begun and the Brazilian Air Force said a preliminary report would be issued in 30 days.

The plane crash is Brazil’s worst since 2007, when a TAM Express plane crashed and burst into flames at São Paulo’s Congonhas airport, killing 199 people.

Elaine Foo’s legs are streaked with thick, purple scars – each one a reminder of a leg-lengthening procedure which went badly wrong.

Since 2016, the 49-year-old has had five surgical procedures and three bone grafts, exhausted her life savings and brought a legal action against her surgeon, which was finally settled in July, with no admission of liability.

At one point, Elaine had a metal nail break through a bone and on another occasion, she says her legs felt like they were being “roasted from the inside”.

“My  journey has been a trial of fire – but I survived,” she says.

Her doctor consistently denied any negligence and says that some of the issues arose from complications she had been warned of, and others arose through her own actions.

Elaine always hated her height.

“At 12, I was taller than most girls,” she says. “By 14, I was suddenly shorter than everyone. Over time it became an obsession. Taller means better. Taller means more beautiful. I just felt that taller people had more chances.”

By adulthood the obsession was overwhelming.

Elaine believes she had body dysmorphia, a mental health condition where a person sees a flaw in their appearance no matter how others see them. The impact of the condition can be devastating.

At the age of 25, Elaine came across an article about a Chinese clinic where people were having surgery to make their leg bones longer. The piece contained grisly details of medieval-looking leg cages and rampant infection. It sounded nightmarish but left Elaine intrigued.

“I know people will question the vanity of it,” she says. “But when you face body dysmorphia, there’s no rational explanation for why you feel so overwhelmingly bad.”

Sixteen years later, Elaine discovered a private clinic offering the procedure in London. It was being provided by the orthopaedic surgeon Jean-Marc Guichet, a limb-lengthening specialist who had even created his own lengthening device – the Guichet Nail.

“That was really a hallelujah moment, because I could do it in London and could recover at home,” she recalls.

“Dr Guichet was open about the kinds of things that could go wrong. Nerve injuries, blood clots, the possibility of bones not fusing back together.

“But I’d done my research, was going to a very expensive doctor and I expected commensurate medical care. My dream was to grow from 5ft 2in (1.57m) to 5ft 5in (1.65m).”

On 25 July, at a cost of around £50,000, she went in for surgery and set in motion a process which would change her life.

Leg-lengthening procedures are relatively uncommon, but available at private clinics around the world. Depending on where it’s carried out, it can cost anything from £15,000 to upwards of £150,000.

“Waking up was very exciting, because it felt like nothing happened. No pain. But 90 minutes later, it starts. It felt like someone was cooking my legs. Like being roasted from the inside. That first night I screamed until 6am, until I fell asleep screaming.”

With this procedure, some pain is to be expected. During the operation, the leg bones are broken in two and a metal rod is fitted inside.

The metal rods are gradually extended to increase their length and pull the two halves of bone apart. This process is meant to increase the patient’s height. The broken bones should gradually heal back together, to fill the gap in between.

The operation is complex, and it’s only the start of a long process.

“The lengthening process takes about two or three months and then you have at least double that time before you’ve recovered reasonable function,” warns Prof Hamish Simpson, former council member of the British Orthopaedic Association. “For most people, it’s going to take a year out of your life.”

Once surgery was over, Elaine’s lengthening process began. Several times a day she carried out an uncomfortable regimen, rotating her legs to trigger the rod’s ratchet mechanism. This is what makes the nail lengthen and her legs grow. But two weeks later, she says disaster struck.

“I’d been feeling a lot of pain in my left leg. Then one night, while I was moving around in bed, I heard what sounded like a Kit Kat crunch, followed by severe pain.”

Elaine went in for a scan, which confirmed her fears. The nail in her left leg had broken through her femur – the thigh bone – the strongest bone in the human body. She was distraught, but she says she was reassured by Dr Guichet.

“He told me that all you need to do now is not worry. Wait for it to heal and once it’s healed, we’ll begin the process again.”

They would continue lengthening Elaine’s right leg, while scheduling another operation to deal with her left leg – which would eventually be lengthened the same amount as the right.

Elaine says she was told the extra operation would cost thousands of pounds, but was happy to pay if it meant she could see the process through.

By September, her right leg had reached its 7cm target. But things weren’t quite right. The discrepancy between her right and left leg was causing problems, curving her spine and leaving her in constant pain.

Six weeks later, scans of her right leg showed an alarming lack of bone growth. Her femur was essentially two bits of bone held together by the metal rod.

Elaine turned to Dr Guichet for help, who scheduled another operation at a clinic he worked at in Milan. In April 2017, they restarted the lengthening process in Elaine’s left leg, while also injecting bone marrow into the right leg – to stimulate bone growth there. After the operation, Elaine woke to more bad news.

“Dr Guichet told me the nail had broken while he was taking it out,” she says. “He had a nail from another patient which he was able to insert.” She adds that this was going to cost even more money.

Three days later, hardly able to move, but desperate to be home, Elaine returned to London. She says communication with Dr Guichet had soured and feels that by summer the doctor-patient relationship had broken down.

She didn’t know where else to turn and by July 2017 she managed to see a specialist orthopaedic surgeon on the NHS.

She says the specialist told her “this will not be a short journey.”

“I had to prepare myself for at least five years of treatment before healing fully,” she says.

Eight years on from the initial surgery Elaine says she is still recovering from her mental and physical scars. She has a range of mobility issues and says she suffers from PTSD.

“From 2017 to 2020 I hid from the world. I was single, unemployed, penniless and disabled.”

But recently she’s begun to get closure. A four-year legal battle was finally settled in July when  Dr Guichet agreed to pay Elaine a “substantial” sum to settle her claim against him – without any admission of liability.

• Watch: Leg-lengthening – the people having surgery to be a bit taller

The surgeon’s lawyer denied any negligence on Dr Guichet’s part, telling the court: “Dr Guichet’s case is that there was no negligence, that the fracture and delayed bone healing were unfortunate non-negligent complications that Ms Foo was warned of before surgery, and that the limited right-sided bone regeneration was aggravated by Ms Foo’s undisclosed use of anti-depressants and by her deliberately extending the nail in her right leg beyond the agreed length.”

He also claimed in court that Ms Foo had “frequently declined” to follow Guichet’s advice and had neglected her rehabilitation and physiotherapy.

Elaine contests all of these claims. She says the anti-depressants were not linked to the complications and holds the doctor responsible for what happened to her.

Elaine assumed she was safe because she was paying so much. But she has paid more than just a financial price.

“I lost the best years of my life. I know people like to hear the word regret and if someone asked me today, would you have done it, if you knew you were going to go through all this? I would say a definite, ‘No, thank you very much’.”

All the sporting action has now finished at the Olympics in Paris, and the famous five-ringed flag is being handed on to the 2028 host city, Los Angeles.

US citizens who travelled to Paris for this year’s Games told the BBC they have high hopes for 2028.

LA resident Marisa was confident the event would be appropriately sprinkled with local “Hollywood glamour”. But she maintained Paris had set a very high bar.

Fellow Americans who spoke to the BBC had concerns Los Angeles would not be able to match France’s impressive public transport network.

With the countdown to LA now under way, here is what we know so far about the next summer Games – which will also mark LA’s first Paralympics.

The Los Angeles Olympics opening ceremony will take place on 14 July 2028, with the closing ceremony just over two weeks later, on 30 July.

The Paralympic opening ceremony will be on 15 August, and the closing event will be on 27 August.

In all, more than 50 Olympic and Paralympic sports will be contested across more than 800 events.

The 2028 Games marks the third time LA has hosted the Olympics, and organisers – who have been eager to emphasise their sustainability credentials – have said no new, permanent constructions will be needed for the event.

Instead, dozens of existing sites have been earmarked for use, including the home stadium of football team LA Galaxy and the LA Memorial Coliseum, which will host the athletics events as it did in LA’s two previous Olympics.

Perhaps unsurprisingly in a city that is famous for its palm-fringed shoreline, beach volleyball is expected to be hosted on an actual beach – something that was not possible in Paris this year.

But some venues will need to be adapted. For example, the SoFi Stadium, as it is currently known, in the suburb of Inglewood, will be converted to host the swimming races, with a resplendent Olympic pool added.

Meanwhile, student housing at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) will be turned into the athletes’ village for the summer, and provide training facilities.

From a sustainability perspective, it remains to be seen whether LA can pull off the “car-free” Games it pledged after winning the bid in 2017.

Moving thousands of spectators across the sprawling Californian city poses a huge challenge for organisers – with current hopes for car-free transit pinned on a fleet of buses, after plans for a major rail network upgrade fizzled out, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Nor will it come cheap.

The most recent budget forecasts expenditure of nearly $7bn (£5.5bn) on the Games themselves, in addition to any transport upgrades.

In addition to the more familiar Olympic sports, the Los Angeles Games will see a revival of some disciplines not seen for a while, as well as some new additions.

• Cricket will be played at the Olympics for the first time since 1900. In LA, we can expect to see tournaments in T20 – a shortened format that sees both teams limited to bowling and batting for no more than 20 overs each. Great Britain will fancy its medal chances, as it has some of the world’s top cricketers
• Lacrosse is also making a comeback. Despite being one of the oldest sports to be played in North America, lacrosse has not been played at Olympic level for more than a century. A new format will be introduced in 2028, which will see teams of six using their lacrosse sticks to fire a ball into a goal
• Baseball/softball – bat-and-ball sports of a similar type, played by men and women respectively, will also return, having been omitted in Paris in 2024
• Squash is due to make its first appearance at an Olympics after years of campaigning from aficionados
• Flag football will also make its Olympic debut. This is a non-contact version of gridiron (American) football, played on a smaller pitch with smaller teams, in which tackles are made by removing a flag from an opponent. It is the fastest-growing variant of the sport in the UK, according to the British American Football Association
• There will also be one new Paralympic discipline: Paraclimbing. This challenges athletes in different classifications to scale a 15m (50ft) wall using hand-holds

Certain other Olympic sports that are relatively new to the line-up will continue, including surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing.

But breaking, which debuted at the Paris Games, has not been picked as one of the disciplines – to the disappointment of some, given that this type of street dance was pioneered by the US.

We can expect to see some of the biggest names from Paris 2024 in Los Angeles, too.

Keely Hodgkinson stormed to gold in the women’s 800m in France. She will be 26 come the next Olympics – still in her athletics prime.

One of the breakout stars from this year’s Games has been swimmer Léon Marchand, cheered to four gold medals by the Parisian crowds with cries of “allez!” whenever his head emerged above water.

Marchand, too, will be 26 in 2028, and looks likely to be in LA to fend off any challengers to his Olympic crown in the pool.

The majority of contenders in this year’s skateboarding event will remain in contention for 2028, particularly given the remarkable youth of the athletes in Paris, such as 11-year-old Zheng Haohao of China and Britain’s Sky Brown.

Brown, twice an Olympic bronze medallist, will still only be 20 by the next Games – the question will be whether she skates, or qualifies for surfing next time.

However, the participation of other global stars is less certain. Simone Biles, arguably the most recognisable name at Paris, will be 31. Few gymnasts continue competing into their 30s, but megastar Biles may fancy an Olympics in front of a home crowd, and a bid to add to her 11 medals.

Newly-crowned men’s 100m champion Noah Lyles will also be 31 come LA 2028 – but should still be fit and well primed to emulate US compatriot Carl Lewis in his defence of that most celebrated of Olympic titles.

But there may be a changing of the guard for Team GB. Swimmer Adam Peaty has hinted that Paris was his last Games, and diver Tom Daley only came out of retirement, to win silver in Paris, at his young son’s request.

However, GB rower Helen Glover has not ruled out a fourth Games and a bid for a fourth medal in LA – when she will be 42.

During one lunch break, fans gathered at 3rd Base Sports Bar in Los Angeles to watch the US women’s Olympic basketball team compete in Paris. Loud cheers erupted as soon as the US team walked out on court.

In just four years, many of those sporting events will be held just a few miles away.

The excitement here, though, is mixed with concern – and some dread.

The city is no stranger to hosting big-scale events, from the Oscars to the Super Bowl, but it is also well acquainted with the downsides of hosting major spectacles.

LA is also known to have some of the worst traffic in the US, and its poor transit system is bemoaned nationally and internationally.

At the time of the bid, it was hoped the Games would force the city to fix some of its transport woes, but the scrapping of plans to extend the train network, and the decision to add a fleet of buses instead, has not thrilled residents.

Nor does it bode well for the millions of tourists the Olympics typically brings to a host city.

“There’s already a lot of traffic every day,” said Cory, while enjoying a burger in the bar. “And then you’re bringing people here who don’t know where they’re going…”

Los Angeles also has one of the highest concentrations of homelessness in the US.

Elisha told the BBC she was “hopeful” the 2028 Games might be a catalyst to finally addressing homelessness in the city and finding a long-term solution.

The Games will celebrate LA’s dramatic and picturesque coastline and the legendary Hollywood sign that hangs over the city’s skyline, but the West Coast metropolis can’t boast the same extravagant, historic backdrop as Paris.

But while Los Angeles might not offer iconic sites like the Eiffel Tower or the Palace of Versailles, the city has its own charms, Elisha stressed.

“It’s not Paris, but LA has Hollywood – and we can make anything happen in Hollywood.”

The last time Los Angeles hosted the Olympics, in 1984, Prince topped the US Billboard singles’ chart and the Games were boycotted by a Cold War-era Soviet Union over commercialisation and security issues.

Great Britain won five gold medals. Among its champions were decathlete Daley Thompson, javelin thrower Tessa Sanderson, a young rower named Steve Redgrave, and 1,500m runner Seb Coe – who went to lead the World Athletics body.

But the undoubted sporting superstar of Los Angeles 1984 was home talent Carl Lewis, who won gold in the men’s 100m, 200m, long jump and 4x100m relay events.

The US dominated the medals table, and – unlike today – was unrivalled by China.

Among a number of historic moments, the 1984 Games saw the first women’s Olympic marathon.

That year’s Paralympics were jointly hosted in Stoke Mandeville, England, and New York – marking the final time that a single host city did not host both the Olympics and Paralympics.

The 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles took place under the cloud of the Great Depression, in a California that was much less built-up than it is today.

There was no event equivalent to the modern-day Paralympics.

The Games were significantly shorter than previous editions, and saw fewer competitors than previously.

But the crowds are reported to have been huge – including a turnout of approximately100,000 people at the opening ceremony.

The year also marked the debut of the now-familiar medals podium.

A man was arrested for climbing the Eiffel Tower on Sunday, hours before the Olympics closing ceremony, Paris police told the BBC.

The man was spotted climbing the tower at about 14:45 local time (13:45 BST) and officers immediately intervened and arrested him, police said. No more details were immediately available on the man’s motivation and nationality.

Videos on social media show a shirtless man scaling the tower just above the Olympic rings that have adorned it during the summer games.

In another video, the man is escorted away by police, hands cuffed behind his back, and says to a bystander: “Bloody warm, innit?”

The Associated Press reported that French police evacuated the area around the Eiffel Tower during the incident, while CNN also reported the tower was evacuated, citing police.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify any evacuations or whether they were still in place at 16:00.

The Eiffel Tower was the centrepiece of the grand finale of the Olympics opening ceremony, but was not expected to feature in the closing ceremony later on Sunday.

On the face of it, the earthquake that struck southern Japan on Thursday was not a big deal.

The magnitude 7.1 quake did little damage and the tsunami warning was quickly scaled back.

But the earthquake was swiftly followed by a warning – one which had never been given before.

There was, Japan’s meteorological agency said, an increased risk of a “major earthquake”. Japan’s prime minister has cancelled a planned trip to a summit in Central Asia to be in the country for the next week.

For many in Japan, thoughts turned to the “big one” – a once-in-a-century quake that many had grown up being warned about.

Worst-case scenarios predict more than 300,000 dead, with a wall of water potentially 30m (100ft) striking along the East Asian nation’s Pacific coast.

Which sounds terrifying. And yet, the overwhelming feeling that Masayo Oshio was left with was confusion.

“I am baffled with the advisory and don’t know what to make of it,” she admitted to the BBC from her home in Yokohama, south of the capital, Tokyo.

“We know we cannot predict earthquakes and we have been told the big one is coming one day for so long, so I kept asking myself: is this it? But it does not seem real to me.”

So, what is the “big one”, can it be predicted – and is it likely to strike any time soon?

Japan is a country used to earthquakes. It sits on the Ring of Fire and, as a result, experiences about 1,500 earthquakes a year.

The vast majority do little damage, but there are some – like the one which struck in 2011 measuring magnitude 9.0, sending a tsunami into the north-east coast and killing more than 18,000 people.

But the one that authorities fear may strike in this more densely populated region to the south could – in the absolute worst-case scenario – be even more deadly.

Earthquakes along the Nankai Trough – an area of seismic activity which stretches along Japan’s Pacific coast – have already been responsible for thousands of deaths.

In 1707, a rupture along its entire 600km length caused the second-biggest earthquake ever recorded in Japan and was followed by the eruption of Mount Fuji.

These so-called “megathrust” earthquakes tend to strike every hundred years or so, often in pairs: the last ones were in 1944 and 1946.

Experts say there is a 70% to 80% chance of a magnitude 8 or 9 quake striking somewhere along the trough in the next 30 years, with worst-case scenarios suggesting it would cause trillions in damage, and potentially kill hundreds of thousands.

And this long-anticipated event is, according to geologists Kyle Bradley and Judith A Hubbard, “the original definition of the ‘Big One’”.

“The history of great earthquakes at Nankai is convincingly scary” so as to be concerning, the pair acknowledged in their Earthquake Insights newsletter on Thursday.

Not according to Robert Geller, professor emeritus of seismology at the University of Tokyo.

“The issuance of the warning yesterday has almost nothing to do with science,” he told the BBC.

This, he argues, is because while earthquakes are known to be a “clustered phenomenon”, it is “not possible to tell in advance whether a quake is a foreshock or an aftershock”.

Indeed, only about 5% of earthquakes are “foreshocks”, say Bradley and Hubbard.

However, the 2011 earthquake was preceded by a 7.2 magnitude foreshock, they note – one which was largely ignored.

The warning system was drawn up after 2011 in an attempt to prevent a disaster of this scale again, and Thursday was the first time the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) used it.

But, crucially, while it told people to be prepared, it did not tell anyone to evacuate. Indeed, they were keen to play down any massive imminent risk.

“The likelihood of a new major earthquake is higher than normal, but this is not an indication that a major earthquake will definitely occur,” the JMA said.

Even so, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced he had cancelled his plans to travel out of Japan to “ensure our preparations and communications are in order”.

He added that he feared people would be “feeling anxious”, given it was the first time such an advisory had been issued.

Masayo Oshio does not seem to be, however.

“I feel that the government is overplaying it,” she said.

Prof Geller was more scathing, saying the advisory was “not a useful piece of information”.

The system allows for either a warning or a lower-level alert to be sent out. Thursday was an alert, advising people to be prepared to evacuate.

And, anecdotally, it seems to have worked. Even in a country used to receiving alerts on their phones, the “Nankai Trough” effect – and threat of the “Big One” – made people stop and take notice.

“One thing I did when I saw the advisory was to check what we have at home and make sure we are prepared, since I have not done that for a while,” admitted Masayo Oshio.

And this has been replicated along the Pacific coast.

In Nichinan, Miyazaki Prefecture, near the epicentre of Thursday’s 7.1, officials were inspecting the conditions of already-opened evacuation shelters. In Kochi Prefecture, western Japan, 10 municipalities opened at least 75 evacuation shelters by Friday morning , according to Kyodo news agency.

The thermal plant operator Jera Co., a joint venture between Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. and Chubu Electric Power Co., said it was on emergency alert, reaffirming communication routes with fuel carriers and evacuation protocols for piers.

In the town of Kuroshio, also in Kochi, elderly residents and others were urged to evacuate voluntarily to safer locations. Officials of Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan, confirmed evacuation routes in co-operation with local municipalities.

Prof Geller – for all his scepticism – says it is a good opportunity to “make sure you’re doing all the routine precautions you should be doing anyway”.

“Have a week’s worth of water on hand, some canned food, and then maybe have some batteries for your flashlight,” he advises.

Mia le Roux has become the first deaf woman to be crowned Miss South Africa following a divisive competition which saw one finalist withdraw after being trolled over her Nigerian heritage.

In her acceptance speech, Ms Le Roux said she hoped her victory would help those who felt excluded from society to achieve their “wildest dreams, just like I am”.

She said she wanted to help those who were “financially excluded or differently abled”.

Last week 23-year-old law student Chidimma Adetshina pulled out of the competition following allegations that her mother may have stolen the identity of a South African woman.

Ms Adetshina was born in South Africa to a Nigerian father and a mother of Mozambican origin.

She had been at the centre of a social media storm for several weeks, with many people, including a cabinet minister, questioning her right to represent the country.

She said she had been the victim of “black-on-black hate”, highlighting a particular strain of xenophobia in South Africa known as “afrophobia”, which targets those from other African countries.

Ms Le Roux, 28, was diagnosed with profound hearing loss at the age of one and has a cochlear implant to help her perceive sound.

She said it had taken two years of speech therapy before she was able to say her first words.

After winning, the model and marketing manager said: “I am a proudly South African deaf woman and I know what it feels like to be excluded.

“I know now that I was put on this planet to break boundaries and I did it tonight.”

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