A pilot has died after their helicopter crashed into the roof of a hotel in the northern Queensland city of Cairns.

The aircraft hit the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel at around 01:50am local time on Monday (16:50B Sunday), sparking a fire and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of guests.

Authorities say the only occupant of the helicopter died at the scene, and two hotel guests – a man in his 80s and a woman in her 70s – were taken to hospital in a stable condition.

Queensland Police and the aviation safety watchdog are investigating the circumstances of the crash, with the company who charters the helicopter saying it was on an “unauthorised” flight.

Amanda Kay, who was staying in the hotel on the main esplanade in Cairns, described seeing a helicopter flying “extra low”, without lights in rainy weather.

“[It] has turned round and hit the building,” she said, adding that the aircraft “blew up”.

Another bystander said she saw the helicopter fly past the hotel twice in the moments before the collision.

“Boy that was going fast, that helicopter. Unbelievable,” a woman said, in video showing the fiery aftermath of the crash.

“It was just going out of control, that thing was.”

Two of the helicopter’s rotor blades came off on impact, landing on the esplanade and in the hotel pool, according to Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS).

“There’s been reports it sounded like a bomb, and [that after] seeing smoke and fire from that, a lot of the occupants of the hotel were very unsure about the situation,” spokeswoman Caitlin Dennings told media.

Another tourist staying at the hotel, Alastair Salmon, described it to the ABC as “a colossal ear-deafening bang”.

Mr Salmon, from London, was among about 400 people who were evacuated from the hotel.

He described seeing the helicopter’s rotor blade on the ground nearby, and mistaking it for a lamppost.

“Then we looked up there and you could see this massive hole in the window of the building,” he told the ABC.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said it is sending investigators to the scene.

In a statement, Nautilus Aviation said it would work closely with all authorities in Queensland as they examined the “unauthorised use of one of our helicopters in the early hours of this morning”.

Streets around the hotel have been cordoned off and an emergency situation was declared by police.

Located in northern Queensland, the city of Cairns is a popular tourist destination due to its proximity to the Great Barrier Reef.

Thousands of residents are being evacuated from their homes as a large wildfire continues to rage north of Athens, with flames leaping as high as 25m (80ft).

The historic site of Marathon is among the areas where residents are being moved to safety by the emergency services.

Houses and properties in the nearby town of Varnavas were burning, according to the fire brigade. Firefighters were also evacuating people trapped by flames in a convoy of 20 to 25 vehicles that had been trying to escape the area.

Forty fires have broken out in Greece since Saturday afternoon with firefighters still battling seven.

Climate crisis and civil protection minister Vassilis Kikilias warned that extremely dangerous weather would continue. Greece has just experienced its hottest June and July on record.

Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis returned to Athens on Sunday, cutting his holiday short, to deal with the crisis.

In Varnavas, the wildfire that started on Sunday afternoon had burned 100 sq km of land by 19:00 BST.

Varnavas and Grammatiko residents were instructed to evacuate in a message from the national emergency number.

Residents of historic town Marathon were told to evacuate towards the beach town of Nea Makri.

Fire Brigade spokesperson Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said the fire was quickly fanned to a huge size by winds of up to 8 Beaufort (39-46mph).

“We are appealing to all residents of the area. For their own safety and given that the fire is advancing rapidly, it is imperative that they heed the instructions of the authorities,” Mr Vathrakogiannis said.

“At this time, the fire is advancing toward Marathon Lake with the forces against it being constantly reinforced, focusing on the flanks and dealing with flames that in some cases are higher than 25m,” he added.

A force of 165 firefighters, with nine teams on foot, plus 30 vehicles, seven firefighting aircraft and five helicopters have been deployed to put out the flames.

The strong winds were greatly hampering the work of the firefighting aircraft participating in the operation, with the fight against the fire expected to last through the night as the winds were expected to continue to be very strong.

Medical centres and hospitals in Athens remained on alert on Sunday evening. Parts of the capital were left under a cloud of brown smoke.

Venezuela’s opposition party has called for protests to be held worldwide on 17 August in support of its claim to have won the country’s presidential election.

President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner by the government-controlled electoral commission, which handed him a third consecutive term in office.

The opposition says its candidate, Edmundo González, was the real winner, and has called for the commission to release detailed data from polling stations.

This call has been backed by the European Union and the US while a number of other Latin American nations have so far held off recognising Mr Maduro as the winner of last month’s poll.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado posted a video on social media in which she said Venezuelans should “take to the streets” worldwide on Saturday 17 August in support of her party’s claim of victory.

“Let’s shout together for the world to support our victory and recognize truth and popular sovereignty”, she said on Sunday.

Her party published a data set online shortly after the 28 July election which it says proves Mr González won by a wide margin.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there was “overwhelming evidence” that Edmundo González had won the most votes.

The Maduro government, however, insists that the result announced by the National Electoral Council (CNE), which is stacked with its allies, is the only valid one.

Mr Maduro has said he will publish the vote tallies, but has not specified when.

He accused the opposition of producing fake evidence to contest the result of the election and said the US was behind what he described as a farce and a coup attempt.

Mr González, who replaced Ms Machado as the opposition’s candidate after she was banned from running, also called for national and worldwide protests in support of “the truth”.

Both have been in hiding – Ms Machado wrote in the Wall Street Journal that she is fearing for her “life” and “freedom.”

The government has said Ms Machado should be arrested.

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in Venezuela and other Latin American countries after the official poll result was contested.

The government says more than 2,000 people have been detained, some of which it accuses of “terrorism”.

Some opposition figures have also been held in the last few weeks.

María Oropeza, a campaign co-ordinator for opposition coalition Vente Venezuela, live-streamed her detention on Instagram.

In a video, loud bangs could be heard in the background as she told her followers that she had done nothing wrong. Officials from Venezuela’s military counter-intelligence agency then burst through her door and the video cuts to black.

Members of the security forces have seized Freddy Superlano and Roland Carreño – both of whom worked for the opposition party Popular Will – and Ricardo Estévez, a technical adviser for the same opposition movement as Ms Oropeza.

Last week, Mr González refused to appear at the country’s Supreme Court after it summoned all presidential candidates for an audit of the disputed vote.

He later said he would have risked his freedom and “the will of the Venezuelan people” by attending.

Venezuela’s Supreme Court, which the opposition sees as aligned with President Maduro, said on Saturday that it was continuing to assess the election and that its ruling would be “final and binding.”

When the referee raised Lin Yu-ting’s hand at the Paris 2024’s women’s 57kg final, history was made. She had won Taiwan its first ever Olympic gold medal in boxing.

Calling Lin a “daughter of Taiwan,” Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te was among millions of people celebrating her victory, saying she had made Taiwan proud.

“With admirable focus and discipline, she has overcome misinformation and cyberbullying, turning adversity into victory,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Until several weeks ago, the 28-year-old’s name had been little known to people outside of Taiwan – but the Games have thrust Lin into the spotlight, after she and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif became the centre of a gender eligibility row that engulfed the 2024 Olympics.

Lin and Khelif were allowed to compete in Paris despite being disqualified from last year’s World Championships after reportedly failing unspecified gender eligibility tests. IOC judges have justified the decision to include them saying the testing conducted on them by the sport’s now-banned governing body, the International Boxing Association, was “impossibly flawed” and that Lin and Khelif were “born and raised as women”.

However, the decision to include them has proved to be divisive and controversial and the two athletes have been subject to an outpouring of online abuse and criticism.

Some of their fellow competitors were among those criticising their participation, while high profile figures like ex-US President Donald Trump and English author JK Rowling took to social media to decry the decision to let them compete in the women’s categories.

But Taiwanese social media users have been firmly supportive of Lin throughout her Olympic campaign, celebrating her victories and vociferously coming to her defence.

President Lai has previously said that he had asked his administration to pursue legal actions over the “malicious attacks and bullying” Lin had suffered.

Online, others echoed his view, saying: “The daughter of Taiwan is protected by the people of Taiwan.”

On Saturday, hundreds of people gathered in Lin’s hometown of New Taipei City to watch the live broadcast of Lin’s final, along with her mother Liao Shiu-chen.

Speaking to the BBC, Mrs Liao said she was “grateful” for all the support given to Lin, saying: “She really held on. She did it.”

She said she wanted to tell Lin: “Mama loves you. I love my daughter.”

“We are ecstatic!”, 41-year-old Ms Yang, who watched the game with her son told the BBC.

“She has had such a hard journey. I was very angry to see her bullied by the whole world. This is a historic moment.”

Among those watching was the head of PE in Lin’s old secondary school. Ange Cha said her win would inspire young aspiring boxers.

“It gives them a goal to pursue and a role model to look up to.”

The gender eligibility row has been one of the most controversial stories from the 2024 Games, with Lin saying she had “shut herself off” from social media in a bid to avoid it.

Her cousin and previous sparring partner, Hsu Hao-xiang, earlier told the BBC that the controversy was “just a bunch of nonsense”.

“Just think about how many competitions she had participated in all these years [without problems].”

He described Lin as a “warm and thoughtful” person outside the rings, saying: “She could pick up [on] things that we boys would not notice. She would always want to do more for her mom and the family – she carries a lot by herself.”

An old resurfaced interview wher Lin says she started boxing to “protect my mum”, who was a victim of domestic violence, has also had a lot of resonance in Taiwan.

“This makes me want to cry. She has worked so hard until now, only to face this embarrassing international bullying,” read a comment under the clip.

“We will protect you as you protect your mom. You are the best Taiwanese girl,” a top comment under her most recent Instagram posts reads.

Lin’s victory means she has completed a golden “grand slam” – she previously won two World Championship gold medals in 2018 and 2022 and clinched Taiwan’s first gold medal in the 2022 Asian Games.

But her path to Gold has not been straightforward. In 2016, she failed to secure a ticket to the Rio Olympics after failing at the qualification games. In 2021, she was favoured to win a gold but was defeated in the first round of the Tokyo Olympics.

These defeats pushed Lin to go further, said Mr Hsu.

“She didn’t listen to them, strode over them, and kept breaking through,” he said.

Mr Hsu added that the people’s support made Lin “fearless”, adding that it was “really moving to see so many people cheering for my cousin, and so many places live-streaming her games simultaneously”.

And although the 2024 Olympics has now ended, the conversation of gender eligibility in sports is one that is likely to continue.

IOC President Thomas Bach had left the door open to revisiting the organisation’s own eligibility rules on Friday.

“If someone is presenting us a scientifically solid system how to identify men and women, we are the first ones to do it,” he said, stating that the IOC would not organise boxing in the upcoming 2028 Games without a reliable partner.

Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise has made a dramatic appearance at Sunday night’s Paris 2024 closing ceremony, abseiling off the Stade de France roof.

Spectators shrieked in delight as the Mission: Impossible star, dressed in leather jacket and gloves, lowered himself into the stadium while his compatriot H.E.R. performed on guitar.

To mark the handover to Los Angeles, which will host the Olympics in 2028, Cruise was seen in a pre-recorded film travelling through Paris and onto the US.

There he journeyed to the legendary Hollywood sign and unfurled the Olympic colours. The ceremony in Paris marked a formal “au revoir” from this year’s host city.

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Cruise grinned as he was mobbed by a surging crowd of athletes the moment he landed in the stadium – having rappelled about 50m (164ft).

His feat was performed as musician H.E.R. jammed on an electric guitar – having moments before delivered a rocky rendition of the US national anthem.

Cruise proceeded to take the Olympic flag from one of the stars of Paris – American gymnast Simone Biles – before the thrilled audience watched him zip away on a motorbike.

The pre-recorded clip showing his journey to LA was soundtracked by California natives Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The funk-rock hitmakers then delivered a live performance of their classic track Can’t Stop on a palm-fringed beach in Los Angeles. Other acts included Billie Eilish and Snoop Dogg, who performed with Dr Dre.

Snoop – who is from LA himself – was a regular fixture at the Games, which culminated with the US topping the medals table after a dramatic win in Sunday’s final event, the women’s basketball final.

Cruise, also known for Top Gun, is renowned for performing his own stunts.

Over the last decade or so, these have included scaling Dubai’s Burj Khalifa and dangling on the outside of a plane as it took off, both for the Mission: Impossible series.

Artistic director Thomas Jolly complemented Cruise’s feat with another cinematic-feeling segment. A hushed, darkened stadium watched as a troupe of dancers rolled five giant rings across a stage, ultimately assembling the Olympic logo.

The gloomy sci-fi aesthetic was finally punctured by an up-tempo performance from French band Phoenix, who tore into two hits. They were surrounded by athletes who climbed up on stage, to the consternation of the stadium announcer.

Cruise’s role was perhaps Paris’s worst-kept secret. Rumours had been in the press for days – even before he was photographed in the stadium itself on Sunday evening.

The 62-year-old was spotted several times in Paris during the Games fortnight, cheering on the US team in the swimming relay and watching multi-medal-winning American gymnast Simone Biles in action.

“It’s awesome,” he told Reuters news agency at the time. “Great stories, great athletes. It’s incredible what they do.”

Artistic director Jolly was also responsible for the Olympics’ ambitious curtain-raiser last month. This featured a parade of boats along the River Seine and a comeback performance from singer Céline Dion.

When a white van drew up next to the office of the Palestine Customs Police in Tubas, a town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Abdel Nasser Sarhan had no reason to be suspicious.

According to Abdel Nasser’s colleagues, the van’s driver got out and greeted him in Arabic.

It was early in the morning. The 24-year-old uniformed policeman had just come on shift.

CCTV pictures show him strolling out past a guard post, his rifle slung casually at his side.

Seconds later, a man in jeans and a dark T-shirt emerges from the direction of the white van, uniformed Israeli soldiers behind him.

He raises a handgun and shoots Abdel Nasser dead.

Soon, the street is full of Israeli soldiers. They retrieve Abdel Nasser’s rifle and, as his colleagues try to retrieve his body, continue to shoot – all captured on CCTV.

When we visited Tubas the following morning, in late July, we found a makeshift memorial of stones and wilting flowers on the ground where Abdel Nasser fell.

The guard post and adjacent walls were riddled with bullet holes, each marked with a yellow tag. Fading bloodstains smeared the ground and doorway.

In a statement released on the day of the incident, the Israeli army said the shooting occurred in the course of an operation to detain two wanted men.

Abdel Nasser’s colleagues in Tubas said those arrests took place at a nearby house.

The army said that soldiers had “encountered armed terrorists” and that “a customs officer of the Palestinian Authority was killed during exchanges of fire”.

From the evidence of the CCTV footage, this last statement is demonstrably false.

An Israeli security official contacted by the BBC two weeks later said the incident was “one of hundreds, if not thousands of special activities that are planned and carried out very precisely”.

This one was being reviewed, he said, “because it didn’t go as planned”.

It seems clear that this was an operation that went badly wrong.

No-one has suggested that Abdel Nasser or the customs office were the target of the operation.

The young guard appears to have had the misfortune to stumble across an undercover Israeli operation, during which he was shot and killed.

But for Abdel Nasser’s colleagues in the customs police, this tragic episode is part of a wider pattern of behaviour that is making it harder than ever for the Palestinian Authority – theoretically responsible for security in areas not under direct Israeli military control – to do its job.

“This rings a warning bell, especially for us in the security services,” Lt Ibrahim Ayyash, spokesman for the Palestine Customs Police, told us.

“How can we enforce law and order and offer services to the people and protect them while you’re obstructing my work and killing my officers?”

Customs officers, he said, were increasingly reluctant to pull over suspicious vehicles, for fear of stumbling across Israeli soldiers operating under cover.

“It now falls on you, as a custom officer, to take a decision about stopping a vehicle or not,” he said.

“If you stop it and it has Special Forces [inside], they could kill you.”

As fans of the Israeli TV show Fauda will know, undercover operations were already a regular feature of life in the West Bank long before the war in Gaza broke out last October.

Recent evidence suggests the frequency of such operations have increased, with multiple cases of CCTV pictures showing Israeli units, dressed as civilians, and even medics, snatching wanted Palestinians from city streets and hospital beds.

But such clandestine operations are part of a much bigger picture.

With all eyes focused on Gaza, another war is raging in the West Bank, as the Israeli military cracks down on armed groups that it says are being bankrolled by Iran.

“The situation on the ground is very, very complicated,” an Israeli security official told me, on condition of anonymity.

“You might say that it’s on the verge of an explosion.”

The emergence of a new generation of local armed groups, mostly in the refugee camps of the northern West Bank, dates back to about 2021, with the first group appearing in Jenin.

But the war in Gaza has fanned the flames of rebellion in other cities, from Tulkarem to Qalqilya and, more recently, Tubas.

Israel’s security crackdown, the actions of violent groups of Jewish settlers and the belief that the Palestinian Authority is powerless to protect them have all added to an atmosphere of mounting tension.

“They’re very frustrated with Israel, they’re very frustrated with the Palestinian Authority and they’re looking for an outlet to this frustration,” the Israeli security official said.

The PA health ministry says more than 600 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since last October. As many as 10,000 have been arrested, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society.

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

Some veteran observers fear that armed clashes could erupt into a full-scale uprising, or intifada.

“If it goes into an intifada, this is a much, much bigger problem,” Gen Israel Ziv, former head of the IDF’s Operations Division, told me.

“Militarily, we handle things better or worse. But when it goes into an intifada, it’s a totally different story. And it might go there.”

With the Israeli military still focused on the war in Gaza and its simmering conflict with Hezbollah along its northern border, Gen Ziv said there’s reluctance to recognise danger much closer to home.

“It’s a huge problem that can blow up in our face in a more sensitive area, [close] to the centres of population in Israel,” he said.

Meanwhile, in the Balata refugee camp, on the edge of Nablus, Abdel Nasser’s family is still grieving.

They’ve watched the CCTV pictures from Tubas and drawn their own conclusions about the actions of the Israeli army.

“He come to kill, just to kill,” Abdel Nasser’s uncle, Ismail Mohammed Sarhan, says.

Abdel Nasser’s father, Mohannad, can barely comprehend the loss of his son.

What was he like, I asked him.

“Ambitious, kind, always smiling,” he said, unable to hold back the tears.

The top judge of the Olympic breaking competition has thrown his support behind Rachael Gunn of Team Australia, after her unorthodox routine in Paris divided the internet.

Gunn, who competes under the name Raygun, was eliminated from the B-Girls competition after scoring zero, prompting both ridicule and praise for her unique style.

“Breaking is all about originality and bringing something new to the table… and this is exactly what Raygun was doing,” Martin Gilian said in defence of the athlete, who has also been commended by Australia’s Prime Minister for “having a go”.

Breaking, which debuted at the Paris Games, is not on the programme for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

A 36-year-old university lecturer from Sydney by day, Gunn stood out in almost every way against her competitors, many of whom are in their early 20s.

Her performances during her three rounds on Friday quickly lit up the internet, with users creating a sea of memes and video spoofs, questioning everything from her outfit to her qualification.

Mr Gilian – whose stage name is MGbility – said Raygun’s score was indicative of the “competitive judging system” adopted by the sport and shouldn’t be taken as proof “she did really bad”.

As well as defending her place in the competition, by citing her success in the Oceania qualifier, Mr Gilian praised Gunn for her innovative choreography – which included the sprinkler and, arguably her most controversial move, hopping around like a kangaroo.

“She got inspired by her surroundings, which in this case, for example, was a kangaroo.”

Gunn – who has a background as a jazz, tap and ballroom dancer – has used similar language when explaining her performance.

“I was never going to beat these girls on what they do best, the dynamic and the power moves, so I wanted to move differently, be artistic and creative because how many chances do you get in a lifetime to do that on an international stage?”

Speaking to media on Sunday, Australia’s leader Anthony Albanese said the attacks levelled at Gunn were not in keeping with the spirit of the Games.

“The Olympics is about people participating in sport… and Raygun had a crack, good on her.”

Team officials and the Olympics breakdancing community have similarly rallied around Gunn – offering her mental health support and calling out the online backlash.

“I think that what has occurred on social media with trolls and keyboard warriors… has been really disappointing,” Australian Olympic great Anna Meares, who serves as the team’s chef de mission in Paris, said on Saturday.

“I absolutely love her courage. I love her character,” she added.

Jeff ‘J-Attack’ Dunne, who represented Australia in the men’s competition on Sunday, also praised his teammate.

“All I know is she represented hard, she has been the leading breaker in Australia for the women and I acknowledge her and respect her 100%,” Dunne said.

A hip-hop inspired dance born in the boroughs of New York in the 1970s, breaking was introduced into this year’s schedule as a way to attract a younger audience to the Games.

But some critics say it should never have been included, due to the organic nature of the genre, which doesn’t necessarily suit organised competition.

Hamas has said that any resumption of ceasefire talks about the conflict in Gaza should be based on previous plans rather than holding new rounds of negotiations.

Last week, international mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the US urged Israel and Hamas to attend negotiations on a ceasefire and hostage release deal on 15 August.

Israel responded on Thursday, saying it would send a team of negotiators to take part in the meeting.

Negotiations faltered last month, after new terms were introduced to the framework presented by US President Joe Biden in May.

In a joint statement last week, mediators said talks could take place on 15 August in Doha or Cairo.

It called on Israel and Hamas “to close all remaining gaps and commence implementation of the deal without further delay”.

It said a “framework agreement” based on “principles” previously outlined by Mr Biden on 31 May was ready – which proposed a deal that would start with a full ceasefire and the release of a number of hostages.

In a statement, Hamas responded to pressure from mediators by calling for a plan to be drawn up based on Mr Biden’s “vision” from May – essentially agreeing to resume negotiations from the point where they stopped rather than on any new initiative.

“The mediators should enforce this on the occupation (Israel) instead of pursuing further rounds of negotiations or new proposals that would provide cover for the occupation’s aggression and grant it more time to continue its genocide against our people,” the Hamas statement said.

Sources told the BBC that the introduction of new Israeli conditions – that displaced Palestinians should be screened as they return to the north of Gaza, as well as the question of control of the Philadelphi corridor that borders Egypt – had been sticking points.

The BBC understands that Hamas is open to resuming talks at the point prior to which the new conditions were introduced.

Recent fighting in Gaza and the killings of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh and a senior Hezbollah commander have risked escalating tensions across the region.

On Sunday, the Israeli military ordered thousands of Palestinians in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, to relocate to what it has designated “humanitarian zones”.

The relocation order followed an Israeli air strike against a school building in Gaza on Saturday, which killed more than 70 people according to a local hospital director.

Fadl Naeem, head of al-Ahli Hospital where many of the casualties were taken, said around 70 victims were identified in the hours after the strike – with the remains of many others so badly disfigured that identification was difficult.

A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the school “served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility”, which Hamas denies.

IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said “various intelligence indications” suggest a “high probability” that the commander of Islamic Jihad’s Central Camps Brigade, Ashraf Juda, was at al-Taba’een school school when it was struck.

He said it is not yet clear whether the commander was killed in the attack.

The BBC cannot independently verify casualty figures from either side.

The air strike has been criticised by Western and regional powers, with Egypt saying it showed Israel had no desire to reach a ceasefire or end the Gaza war.

Israel claims that Hamas is using civilian infrastructure to plan and carry out attacks, and that is why it has been targeting hospitals and schools – sites protected under international law.

Hamas has consistently denied the accusations.

Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people in an attack on Israel on 7 October, taking 251 others back to Gaza as hostages.

That attack triggered a massive Israeli military offensive against Gaza and the current war.

More than 39,790 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli campaign, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other after a fire broke out at the giant Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Sunday.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces had started a fire at the plant, which has been occupied by Moscow’s forces for more than two years. Zaporizhzhia’s Kremlin-installed governor said Ukrainian shelling caused the blaze.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog said it saw “strong dark smoke” coming from the facility – but said there was “no impact reported” for nuclear safety.

The development comes as Ukrainian troops have advanced up to 30km inside Russia, in the deepest and most significant incursion since Moscow began its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

On Sunday, Yevgeny Balitsky, the Kremlin-installed governor of Zaporizhzhia, said a fire had broken out at the cooling towers of the power plant.

He blamed Ukrainian shelling, but asked for “calm”, adding that there had been no radiation spike around the plant.

Mr Zelensky also said there was no detected radiation spike or danger of a nuclear leak – but accused Russia of purposefully starting the fire in an attempt to “blackmail” Kyiv.

In the early hours of Monday, Vladimir Rogov, another Kremlin-installed official, said the fire had been “completely extinguished” in a Telegram post.

The nuclear power plant has been under the control of Russian troops and officials since 2022. It has not produced power in more than two years and all six reactors have been in cold shutdown since April.

In a statement posted on X, UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its experts had witnessed “strong dark smoke” coming from the plant following “multiple explosions”.

It said the plant had reported “an alleged drone attack” on one of the cooling towers at the site.

“No impact has been reported for nuclear safety,” the IAEA added.

In a later statement, the IAEA said it had requested “immediate access to the cooling tower to assess the damage”.

The fire comes just a day after President Zelensky acknowledged for the first time that his military is conducting a cross-border offensive inside Russia’s western Kursk region.

In his nightly video address on Saturday, Mr Zelensky said Ukraine’s military was pushing the war onto “the aggressor’s territory”.

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

Kyiv launched its surprise attack on Tuesday, rapidly advancing more than 30km (19 miles) inside Russia – the deepest raid since Moscow began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia has so far struggled to halt the Ukrainian advance, with more than 76,000 people evacuated from the Kursk region, where a state of emergency has been declared by local authorities.

Emergency trains from Kursk to Moscow have also been set up by Russia’s rail operator for those looking to flee.

The fighting appeared to be ongoing over the weekend, with Kursk Governor Aleksei Smirnov saying early on Sunday that there were injured people in a “treacherous” Ukrainian attack.

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

The government is facing calls to reverse changes which make it harder for Ukrainians to bring family to the UK. One charity supporting migrants says the “heartless” policy has “torn apart” families and left people in danger.

When Halyna Khovaiko first moved to the UK in December 2021 for work she had only been planning to stay for a few months.

After the factory she worked at in eastern Ukraine closed down she managed to get a seasonal job on a farm in the UK and left her son Ihnat, who was then 12 years old, with his grandparents in Vovchansk.

But in February 2022 Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Vovchansk – which is just 5km from the Russian border – was occupied and Halyna was suddenly unable to return.

“I have a very strong bond with my son,” she says, speaking through a translator.

“Of course I miss him. It feels like you are more dead than alive.

“Just going to work and that’s it. You exist but you don’t live.”

After the town was liberated by the Ukrainian army in the autumn of 2022 Halyna – a single mother – was able to see her son again. However, struggling to earn money to support her family she eventually decided to return to the UK for work.

Her plan was to rent a flat so she could move out of the farm caravan where she was staying and her son could join her.

In January she finally managed to find somewhere to live in Weston-super-Mare and began the process of applying for a visa for her son under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

The scheme, launched in March 2022, allows people in the UK to host those fleeing the war in Ukraine.

However, in February – without notice – the government suddenly restricted eligibility so only British or Irish citizens or those with the right to live in the UK permanently could act as sponsors.

This meant Ukrainians living in the UK without permanent residence – including Halyna – could no longer sponsor family members to join them in the UK.

At the same time the Ukraine Family Scheme, which allowed Ukrainians to join family members who already had permanent residence in the UK, was also closed.

Back in Vovchansk Russian attacks had intensified and the town was destroyed by shelling.

Halyna’s son, now 14, was forced to flee with his grandparents to the city of Kharkiv, 70km away.

For Halyna, knowing her son is in danger is almost unbearable.

“There are explosions [where he is] every day,” she says. “You go to sleep and you don’t know if you’re going to wake up in the morning.”

Work Rights Centre, a charity supporting migrants, says it has heard from nearly 200 Ukrainians who are separated from family members and trying to bring them to the UK.

Chief executive Dr Dora-Olivia Vicol says the current policy is “heartless” and has “torn apart” families.

“We have seen parents spend months fighting for a way to bring their child to the UK,” she says.

“Others have tragically endured the death of a family member in Ukraine while they were searching for a sponsor to bring them to the UK.”

The charity is calling on the new government to reverse the changes brought in by its predecessors so Ukrainians without the right to live in the UK permanently can still act as sponsors and reunite their families.

When it was in opposition Labour said the changes sent “the wrong message to the people of Ukraine about our willingness to stand with them”.

With the party now in government, the Home Office says the schemes are kept “under continual review”.

Nadiia Yashan, an immigration advisor for Work Rights Centre who is from Ukraine herself, says the changes were a huge shock.

When they were announced, she says some of her clients were in the middle of applications or about to sign leases on a flat where they had hoped their family would be able to come and live.

Like the Ukrainians she works with, Nadiia says she was “devastated” by the news as she had hoped to bring her own mother to the UK if the situation in Ukraine worsened.

As she came to the UK on a student visa, with her right to stay extended because of the war, Nadiia does not have the right to live in the UK permanently so could no longer act as a sponsor for her mother.

“I feel guilty, because maybe I should have [applied for her to come to the UK] sooner,” she says.

“I’m very, very concerned, and I’m thinking every day, what if it gets worse, and I need her to be here immediately and I can’t do anything?”

Since the Russian invasion more than 180,000 people have come to the UK under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

The number of applications has fallen since the outbreak of the war. However, Work Rights Centre says there is still substantial demand as it is common for one parent to come to the UK first to find a job and house before bringing over the rest of their family.

The charity says many Ukrainians in the UK are now struggling to find British sponsors for visa applications, with less people willing to host Ukrainians than when the war broke out.

When the changes to the scheme were announced, the previous government said they were to ensure people had appropriate accommodation and support in the UK, as the suitability of homes are checked under the scheme.

However, the charity says the current situation has the bizarre effect that a stranger could theoretically sponsor a Ukrainian child to come to the UK but their own parent could not.

Halyna, who speaks limited English, says it has been extremely difficult to find someone British to sponsor her child and people have struggled to understand why she needs a sponsor when she already has the right to live in the UK herself.

Despite settling into the UK with a job and home, she is now considering moving to a different country where it would be easier for her son to join her.

“This is not a life because my child is there, and I’m here,” she says. “I just want to be together with my child.”

US President Joe Biden says he dropped out of his re-election bid because he feared that the intraparty battle over his candidacy would be a “real distraction” for Democrats and that his highest priority was to defeat Donald Trump in November.

In his first interview since quitting the race, Mr Biden, 81, said he had “no serious problem” with his health. He blamed his poor debate performance on being sick at the time, and brushed off concerns about his age and mental acuity.

The US president pledged to campaign for Kamala Harris saying he was going to do whatever his vice-president “thinks I can do to help most”.

“We must, we must, we must defeat Trump,” he told US broadcaster CBS News.

Mr Biden said if he had continued his campaign, the presidential contest would have gone “down to the wire”.

“A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the races,” he said.

“And I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic. You’d be interviewing me about, Why did Nancy Pelosi say, why did so — and I thought it’d be a real distraction.”

Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi was widely reported to have led the push to oust Mr Biden – a claim she has not exactly denied – after his halting debate performance against Trump on 27 June.

During the pre-recorded interview broadcast Sunday, Mr Biden misspoke several times but generally seemed more coherent than during the live televised debate. He chalked up his poor debate performance to illness – previously he’s also mentioned jet lag and lack of rest as factors.

As pressure continued to ratchet up, he announced his exit from the race on 21 July.

A potential battle to replace him at the top of the Democratic ticket never materialised and party support swiftly coalesced around Vice-President Harris, who has so far outperformed Mr Biden in opinion polls.

The president has said he intended to be a bridge to the next generation when he ran for the White House in 2020.

“When I ran the first time, I thought of myself as being a transition president. I can’t even say how old I am. It’s hard for me to get it out of my mouth.”

In other US election news:

• Republican vice-presidential candidate and Ohio senator JD Vance has defended a sweeping deportation plan for undocumented migrants if he and Donald Trump are elected.
• Mr Vance told American broadcaster ABC News that a second Trump administration would start with 1 million people who are in the United States illegally. Government figures indicate that there are around 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country, a figure that has remained largely steady since 2005.
• The Ohio senator said his previous remarks suggesting parents should get additional votes were a “thought experiment” made in response to Democratic Party suggestions about lowering the voting age.
• He said that his comments in 2021 were not a policy proposal and that he did not support extra votes for people with children. “I want us to be more pro-family,” he said.
• On the Democratic side, Vice-President Kamala Harris told a crowd in Las Vegas that she supported ending taxes on tips, a proposal also backed by Trump. The battleground state of Nevada is home to a substantial number of voters who work in the hospitality and tourism industry.

In the CBS interview, Mr Biden returned to the moment he decided to run against Trump – when a gathering of far-right activists in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 turned deadly. He accused Trump of emboldening racists and the far-right.

“Every other time the Ku Klux Klan has been involved they wore hoods so they’re not identified,” he said. “Under his presidency, they came out of those woods with no hoods, knowing they had an ally.”

He also repeated his concerns about what might happen after November’s election, saying he was “not confident at all” that there will be a peaceful transfer of power if Ms Harris defeats Trump.

He went on to say that he was concerned that there would be violence if Trump loses the election.

“He means what he says,” Mr Biden said. “We don’t take him seriously. He means it. All the stuff about, ‘If we lose, it’ll be a bloodbath’.”

“He’s a genuine danger to American security,” Mr Biden said.

Trump commented at a rally in March that it would “be a bloodbath for the country” if he loses, however his campaign has repeatedly said he was referring to the economy and the auto industry and that Democrats have taken the quote out of context.

At the same time, the former president has repeatedly insisted, without evidence, that he was cheated out of victory in 2020 and has warned that there will be attempts to “rig” the vote this year. He has pledged to pardon some or all of the people convicted for rioting at the US Capitol in January 2021.

Mr Biden said he would be campaigning on behalf of Ms Harris and that he had spoken to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro about touring the state. Mr Biden was born in the working-class city of Scranton, about 120 miles (190km) north-west of New York City.

“I’m going to be campaigning in other states as well. And I’m going to do whatever Kamala thinks I can do to help most,” he said.

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The top judge of the Olympic breaking competition has thrown his support behind Rachael Gunn of Team Australia, after her unorthodox routine in Paris divided the internet.

Gunn, who competes under the name Raygun, was eliminated from the B-Girls competition after scoring zero, prompting both ridicule and praise for her unique style.

“Breaking is all about originality and bringing something new to the table… and this is exactly what Raygun was doing,” Martin Gilian said in defence of the athlete, who has also been commended by Australia’s Prime Minister for “having a go”.

Breaking, which debuted at the Paris Games, is not on the programme for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

A 36-year-old university lecturer from Sydney by day, Gunn stood out in almost every way against her competitors, many of whom are in their early 20s.

Her performances during her three rounds on Friday quickly lit up the internet, with users creating a sea of memes and video spoofs, questioning everything from her outfit to her qualification.

Mr Gilian – whose stage name is MGbility – said Raygun’s score was indicative of the “competitive judging system” adopted by the sport and shouldn’t be taken as proof “she did really bad”.

As well as defending her place in the competition, by citing her success in the Oceania qualifier, Mr Gilian praised Gunn for her innovative choreography – which included the sprinkler and, arguably her most controversial move, hopping around like a kangaroo.

“She got inspired by her surroundings, which in this case, for example, was a kangaroo.”

Gunn – who has a background as a jazz, tap and ballroom dancer – has used similar language when explaining her performance.

“I was never going to beat these girls on what they do best, the dynamic and the power moves, so I wanted to move differently, be artistic and creative because how many chances do you get in a lifetime to do that on an international stage?”

Speaking to media on Sunday, Australia’s leader Anthony Albanese said the attacks levelled at Gunn were not in keeping with the spirit of the Games.

“The Olympics is about people participating in sport… and Raygun had a crack, good on her.”

Team officials and the Olympics breakdancing community have similarly rallied around Gunn – offering her mental health support and calling out the online backlash.

“I think that what has occurred on social media with trolls and keyboard warriors… has been really disappointing,” Australian Olympic great Anna Meares, who serves as the team’s chef de mission in Paris, said on Saturday.

“I absolutely love her courage. I love her character,” she added.

Jeff ‘J-Attack’ Dunne, who represented Australia in the men’s competition on Sunday, also praised his teammate.

“All I know is she represented hard, she has been the leading breaker in Australia for the women and I acknowledge her and respect her 100%,” Dunne said.

A hip-hop inspired dance born in the boroughs of New York in the 1970s, breaking was introduced into this year’s schedule as a way to attract a younger audience to the Games.

But some critics say it should never have been included, due to the organic nature of the genre, which doesn’t necessarily suit organised competition.

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.

As Ukraine’s foreign minister completes his latest tour of Africa, his country risks paying a serious diplomatic price for helping separatist rebels in northern Mali inflict a severe defeat on the Russian military operator Wagner at the end of last month.

The ambush at Tinzaouten on 27 July reportedly killed 84 Wagner fighters and 47 Malian soldiers.

It was a painful military blow for the mercenary outfit once headed by the late Yevgeny Prigozhin, but now controlled by Russia’s official defence command structure.

Just two days later Andriy Yusov, spokesman for Kyiv’s military intelligence service (GUR), said that ethnic Tuareg rebels in Mali had “received necessary information, and not just information, which enabled a successful military operation against Russian war criminals”.

Subsequent reports suggested that Ukrainian special forces had trained the separatists in the use of attack drones.

Yet for many Africans, this was yet another case of outside powers exploiting the continent as a bloody playing field for their own rivalries.

Predictably, Mali’s ruling military junta, and the allied regime in neighbouring Niger, protested by breaking off diplomatic relations with Kyiv.

But much more significant was a statement from the regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas). Despite its own diplomatic issues with the military regimes in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, it was clear in its rebuke.

It declared its “firm disapproval and firm condemnation of any outside interference in the region which could constitute a threat to peace and security in West Africa and any attempt aiming to draw the region into current geopolitical confrontations”.

The anger will have been strengthened by suggestions that some jihadist militants joined the Tuareg separatists in mounting the Tinzaouaten attack.

The Senegalese foreign ministry summoned the Ukrainian ambassador in Dakar to protest after he posted a Facebook video about Mr Yusov’s gloating comments.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was touring Malawi, Zambia and Mauritius last week. But after the harsh words from Ecowas and Senegal he may now have to engage in some serious fence-mending in West Africa.

What many sub-Saharan African governments – even those that privately mistrust Moscow – will probably view as Kyiv’s unhelpful outside military adventurism could dispel the goodwill so painstakingly cultivated over the past two years through peaceful Ukrainian diplomacy.

Of course in narrow military terms, helping to inflict the heaviest-ever African defeat on Wagner was a success for the Ukrainians.

The mercenary contractor – now officially renamed Corps Africa after being brought under Russian state control – had doubled its manpower to an estimated 2,000 in Mali over the past two years.

So news of the heavy losses in Tinzaouaten came as a shock, particularly given that the Malian army and Wagner forces had seized Kidal, the Tuareg rebel “capital”, last November.

The Tinzaouaten incident has signalled the separatists’ return to the offensive –with, it soon became clear, the support of a new partner.

Kyiv’s hints of direct involvement confirm how far it is prepared to reach in taking its fightback against Russia’s President Vladimir Putin well beyond the home battlefield.

In fact this is not the first such direct intervention against Wagner military operations in Africa.

There were strong indications that last August and September Ukrainian special forces carried out drone raids in Sudan in support of the military regime led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

For more than a year, it has been engaged in a brutal power struggle with its former allies the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as “Hemedti”, who has been assisted by Wagner.

Some Ukrainian military commentators, such as Evgeniy Dikiy, former commander of Ukraine’s Aidar battalion, depict their country’s reported African military interventions very much in terms of a battle for survival after Russian forces invaded in February 2022.

Mr Dikiy has argued that Kyiv has no Africa policy but does have scores to settle with Russia and Wagner in particular.

But the administration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky may not see things in quite such simplistic terms.

For it knows that the fightback against Moscow is not only conducted on the battlefield. Diplomacy and trade matter too.

And in the immediate aftermath of the 2022 invasion, Kyiv was painfully reminded of this truth, particularly in regards to Africa.

In the UN General Assembly on 2 March that year, only 28 of the 54 African member states voted to condemn the invasion.

While only a few close allies of Moscow actually voted in support of Russia’s action, many other African governments, including some generally perceived as firmly pro-Western, actively abstained or absented themselves from the vote.

And later, when President Putin pulled out of the deal allowing both Ukrainian and Russia grain exports – many destined for Africa – to safely transit through the Black Sea, many sub-Saharan governments chose to view this setback in neutral terms rather than blaming Moscow.

While that particular issue has faded in significance, because Ukraine has largely recovered its freedom to ship grain after striking the Russian Black Sea fleet, the foreign ministry team in Kyiv has remained convinced of the need to rebuild their political and economic networks across Africa.

Mr Kuleba has now made four African tours. And while his campaign to earn goodwill and build partnerships south of the Sahara has not always advanced without a hitch – hopes of being received by President Cyril Ramaphosa during a visit to South Africa late last year were disappointed – there have also been important successes.

Zambia, for example, attended the Ukraine Peace Summit in Switzerland in June and, unlike some other participants, did sign the final communiqué (whose terms satisfied Kyiv).

And last week Mr Kuleba visited the Zambian capital, Lusaka, where he was received by President Hakainde Hichilema.

In reaching out to African countries now, Ukraine is seeking to make up for the diplomatic ground lost during the first three decades after its independence when it was largely preoccupied with its internal affairs.

While Russia inherited the worldwide diplomatic presence of the old Soviet Union, newly independent nations such as Ukraine had to build up their networks from scratch.

With limited resources, over 30 years Kyiv managed to open only eight embassies across the entire African continent – in Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.

But after being so uncomfortably reminded in 2022 of the need to win friends and influence people, Kyiv is pushing rapidly to expand its coverage, aiming to build a 20-embassy African network, with the first 10 extra missions already announced.

April saw Kyiv’s special envoy for the Middle East and Africa, Maksym Soubkh, in Abidjan to open the embassy in Ivory Coast.

And Kyiv is proposing more than diplomatic co-operation.

Eight sub-Saharan countries have already benefitted from its “Grain from Ukraine” food aid initiative.

It also plans to build up its development assistance, strengthen two-way trade and provide more university places for African students.

Contentious military adventures targeting Russian mercenaries look an ill-judged risk that could jeopardise all the diplomatic goodwill and economic returns that Ukraine hopes to gain from its broad-based positive sub-Saharan strategy.

• Boost for Wagner as Mali shuns UN troops, but at what cost?
• Why Wagner is winning hearts in the Central African Republic
• How the Russian mercenary group has rebranded in Africa

Zorel Morales is worried about 130,000 tonnes of toxic material.

The substance in question is partially processed copper ore, and it has been stuck at a closed copper mine in Panama since the end of last year.

“The chemical reactions that generate dangerous gases, and a rise in the material’s temperatures, pose environmental risks,” says Mr Morales, who is the head of Panama’s Chamber of Mining. He adds that it “threatens the health and safety of staff” still working at the operation.

The substance, called “copper concentrate”, is finely ground copper ore that has been treated to increase its copper content ahead of going on to be exported for smelting into refined copper.

In addition to the danger of the release of toxic sulphur dioxide gas, just being exposed to dust particles from the concentrate can damage a person’s respiratory system. And it is toxic to aquatic life.

The material has been left at the site of Cobre Panamá, a huge open pit copper mine closed since last December, when the country’s supreme court ruled that a new 20-year concession to operate the facility was unconstitutional.

After the ruling the government quickly forced the mine to shut, leaving just maintenance staff at the facility.

The order came after thousands of people took to the nation’s streets last October and November to protest against the mine, which they said was harming the environment.

The facility, one of the world’s largest copper mines, employed some 7,000 people, and accounted for 1% of the world’s copper production. It opened in 2019, and is owned by Canadian firm First Quantum Minerals.

Listen now – Panama’s troubled copper mine

Located deep in a tropical rainforest near Panama’s Caribbean Coast, First Quantum has invested $10bn (£7.8bn) in the mine, including new infrastructure like roads, buildings and machinery.

The company wants to be able to export the existing concentrate. It has filed two international arbitration claims against Panama, although it says that its preferred route is to open dialogue with the new Panamanian government that came to power in July.

The dispute over the concentrate centres on who owns it – the Canadian company or Panama.

“We look forward to continuing to work with the new government to address the situation in relation to the mine,” says First Quantum spokesperson Maru Gálvez, in a statement.

“In particular, it is important to resolve the status of the copper concentrate that remains at the mine site and which all parties have agreed is an urgent matter.”

In response, a government spokesman says they are still assessing the situation and aren’t giving interviews. The new president, José Raúl Mulino, has yet to give a clear message about how he wants to resolve the issue.

One of Panama’s former finance ministers, Dulcidio de la Guardia, says he is frustrated by the situation.

“Cobre Panamá was the most important foreign investment in the country, second to the Panama Canal,” says Mr la Guardia, who held that cabinet position from 2014 to 2019. “It accounted for 5% of the GDP, which is around $5bn in direct and indirect contributions to the economy.”

Michael Camacho is a leader of the Utramipa mining union, and one of 1,400 people still working at Cobre Panamá as part of the maintenance programme. This is costing First Quantum about $15m to $20m a month.

Mr Camacho wants to see the government approve a plan for the preservation and safe operation of the mine. “In December more than 6,000 miners were left out of work when operations stopped. I urge the new president, José Raúl Mulino, to listen to the concerns of the communities around the mine who want to go back to work.”

But, environmental activist Raisa Banfield, who was involved in the demonstrations that led to the mine’s closure, is adamant that it remaining shut is in the best interests of the country. “The future of Panama isn’t from mining. The future of Panama is its biodiversity.”

She thinks the country needs a new kind of business model. “I think we’re re-finding our identity away from big projects like the Panama Canal, and foreign companies taking our resources to satisfy their economic model.”

She and other demonstrators got support from climate activist Greta Thunberg and Hollywood actor Leonardo Di Caprio, who both shared a video calling for the “mega mine” to stop its operations.

Ms Banfield wants the new government to instead invest in infrastructure for eco-tourism so Panama can flourish like neighbouring Costa Rica.

Yet others think the mine’s closure wasn’t just about the environment. Samuel Valdés is a biologist and the owner of the Biodiversity Consultant Group, which was employed by First Quantum to do studies to help minimise the environmental impact of the vast facility.

“There’s been a lot of misinformation surrounding the mine,” he says. Mr Valdés argues that some of the opposition to the facility was an extension of suspicions about the former government.

“Many people thought the last government was corrupt, and so they started to mistrust the mine’s [perceived close] relationship with it.”

He adds that the rivers surrounding the mine are thriving due to copious rainfall and all his reports show that fish, algae and prawns flourish there and are public for anyone to see. However, he accepts that on occasion there have been isolated incidents that affected specific areas.

He thinks there are also tensions between different moral viewpoints.

“The fight against the mine was from people who live in the cities who have a fixed idea of how people who live in the countryside should be living. Having worked with local people for the last 10 years I can tell you that their lives were much better because of the mine.”

It’s estimated that about 40,000 people relied on the mine for their income, when you add firms that provided it with services. Mr Valdés had to make 60 people redundant – many of them scientists – when the facility closed.

He says the issue of leftover copper concentrate was caused by the mine having to immediately close down. “The problem here is that the mine was a bit like a busy kitchen that suddenly closed. The food was left out on the sides or in the oven. Processes had been stopped mid-cycle”.

Some argue that the mine should be opened again, but only so that it can then be closed down again in a more orderly manner. Mr Valdés, as you’d imagine, wants to see it restart production, and then remain open.

All this uncertainty isn’t helping Panama’s reputation as a country for international investment. The ratings agency Fitch stripped Panama of its investment grade credit rating because of the closure of the copper mine undermining economic growth.

It remains to be seen if Panama’s new government will both regain investors’ confidence – and permanently reopen the mine.

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 India, with Iran as its neighbour, making the country 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.”

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.

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• 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.”

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’.”

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.”

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.

Ukrainian troops have advanced up to 30km inside Russia, in what has become 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”.

President Volodymyr Zelensky, who directly acknowledged the attack for the first time in an address last night, said 2,000 cross-border attacks had been launched by Russia from Kursk this summer.

“Artillery, mortars, drones. We also record missile strikes, and each such strike deserves a fair response,” Mr Zelensky told the country in his nightly address from Kyiv.

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 troops near the villages of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez – which are about 25km and 30km from the Russia-Ukraine border.

Footage circulating online and verified by the BBC also appeared to show a Russian strike near the village of Levshinka, around 25km from the 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 region, 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 engaged at Obshchy Kolodez were 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”.

Meanwhile, emergency services in the Kyiv region said a man and his four-year-old son were killed in a missile strike near 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.

Elsewhere, Russian officials in the occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast said a fire broke out at the region’s nuclear power plant on Sunday.

Yevgeny Balitsky, the Kremlin-installed governor of Zaporizhzhia, claimed the fire erupted after shelling by Ukrainian forces. He said there had been no radiation spike around the plant.

Russia’s state Tass news agency reported that the main fire at the plant was extinguished in the early hours of Monday.

In a statement posted to X, the UN’s nuclear watchdog – the International Atomic Energy Agency – said its on-site inspectors had witnessed “strong dark smoke” coming from the north of the facility, but emphasised that there was “no impact reported” for nuclear safety.

President Zelensky said in a post to social media that Russian forces had started a fire on the territory of the plant.

The site has been under the control of Russian troops and officials since 2022. It has not produced power in more than two years and all six reactors have been in cold shutdown since April.

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 to deal with the documentation, and hoped to start a new life in neighbouring Colombia.

Their plan was to change planes in São Paulo and fly to northern Brazil before completing the journey by bus.

A friend of the family, Thaiza Evangelista, told AFP news agency that the family had friends in Colombia that would help them get set up.

Ms Evangelista received a message just as they were about to board the plane – the last she received from Josgleidys.

“I was desperate… the list (of victims) wasn’t coming out,” she told AFP.

The airline later confirmed Josgleidys, her mother and young son were among the dead.

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 elusive artist Banksy has confirmed he painted swimming piranhas 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 from 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.

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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.

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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US Vice-President Kamala Harris has condemned the loss of civilian life in an Israeli air strike against a school building in Gaza on Saturday.

More than 70 people were killed at the building which sheltered displaced Palestinians, the director of a hospital has told the BBC.

Ms Harris said “far too many” civilians had been killed “yet again”and reiterated calls for a hostage deal and a ceasefire, echoing comments made by the White House.

An Israeli military spokesman said al-Taba’een school “served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility”, which Hamas denies.

Speaking at a campaign event in Phoenix, Arizona, Ms Harris said Israel had a right to “go after Hamas” but also has “an important responsibility” to avoid civilian casualties.

Saturday’s air strike has been criticised by Western and regional powers, with Egypt saying it showed Israel had no desire to reach a ceasefire or end the Gaza war.

Fadl Naeem, head of al-Ahli Hospital where many of the casualties were taken, said around 70 victims were indentified in the hours after the strike – with the remains of many others so badly disfigured that identification was difficult.

Israel’s military said it had “precisely struck Hamas terrorists operating within a Hamas command and control centre embedded in the al-Taba’een school”.

A statement by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israeli Security Agency said “at least 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists” were “eliminated” in the attack.

IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said “various intelligence indications” suggest a “high probability” that the commander of Islamic Jihad’s Central Camps Brigade, Ashraf Juda, was at the Taba’een school when it was struck.

He said it is not yet clear whether the commander was killed in the attack.

The BBC cannot independently verify casualty figures from either side.

The Israeli spokesman said the casualty figures released by Hamas officials “do not align with the information held by the IDF, the precise munitions used, and the accuracy of the strike”.

Hamas described the attack as a “horrific crime and a dangerous escalation” in Israel’s “war of extermination against the Palestinian people”.

US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said Hamas had been using schools “as locations to gather and operate out of”.

“But we have also said repeatedly and consistently that Israel must take measures to minimise civilian harm,” he added.

Israel has attacked several such shelters in Gaza in the past few weeks.

According to the United Nations, 477 out of 564 school buildings in Gaza have been directly hit or damaged as of 6 July, with more than a dozen targeted since.

Al-Taba’een school housed more 1,000 people – having recently received dozens of displaced people from the town of Beit Hanoun, after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes.

The building also served as a mosque and the Israeli strike hit during dawn prayers, witnesses said.

Jaafar Taha, a student who lives near the school, told the BBC the sound of the bombing was followed by screaming and noise.

“‘Save us, save us,’ they were screaming,” he said.

“The scene was horrific. There were body parts everywhere and blood covering the walls.”

Salim Oweis, spokesman for the UN children’s agency, Unicef, told the BBC the attack was “really outrageous”.

“All those schools are really packed with civilians, children, mothers and families, who are taking refuge in any empty space whether it’s a school or it’s a mosque, whatever it is, even in hospital yards.”

This strike has again drawn graphic attention to a controversial dynamic of the Gaza war.

Israel claims that Hamas is using civilian infrastructure to plan and carry out attacks, and that is why it has been targeting hospitals and schools – sites protected under international law.

Hamas has consistently denied the accusations.

Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people in an attack on Israel on 7 October, taking 251 others back to Gaza as hostages.

That attack triggered a massive Israeli military offensive against Gaza and the current war.

More than 39,790 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli campaign, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

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.

A pilot has died after their helicopter crashed into the roof of a hotel in the northern Queensland city of Cairns.

The aircraft hit the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel at around 01:50am local time on Monday (16:50B Sunday), sparking a fire and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of guests.

Authorities say the only occupant of the helicopter died at the scene, and two hotel guests – a man in his 80s and a woman in her 70s – were taken to hospital in a stable condition.

Queensland Police and the aviation safety watchdog are investigating the circumstances of the crash, with the company who charters the helicopter saying it was on an “unauthorised” flight.

Amanda Kay, who was staying in the hotel on the main esplanade in Cairns, described seeing a helicopter flying “extra low”, without lights in rainy weather.

“[It] has turned round and hit the building,” she said, adding that the aircraft “blew up”.

Another bystander said she saw the helicopter fly past the hotel twice in the moments before the collision.

“Boy that was going fast, that helicopter. Unbelievable,” a woman said, in video showing the fiery aftermath of the crash.

“It was just going out of control, that thing was.”

Two of the helicopter’s rotor blades came off on impact, landing on the esplanade and in the hotel pool, according to Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS).

“There’s been reports it sounded like a bomb, and [that after] seeing smoke and fire from that, a lot of the occupants of the hotel were very unsure about the situation,” spokeswoman Caitlin Dennings told media.

Another tourist staying at the hotel, Alastair Salmon, described it to the ABC as “a colossal ear-deafening bang”.

Mr Salmon, from London, was among about 400 people who were evacuated from the hotel.

He described seeing the helicopter’s rotor blade on the ground nearby, and mistaking it for a lamppost.

“Then we looked up there and you could see this massive hole in the window of the building,” he told the ABC.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said it is sending investigators to the scene.

In a statement, Nautilus Aviation said it would work closely with all authorities in Queensland as they examined the “unauthorised use of one of our helicopters in the early hours of this morning”.

Streets around the hotel have been cordoned off and an emergency situation was declared by police.

Located in northern Queensland, the city of Cairns is a popular tourist destination due to its proximity to the Great Barrier Reef.

Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise has made a dramatic appearance at Sunday night’s Paris 2024 closing ceremony, abseiling off the Stade de France roof.

Spectators shrieked in delight as the Mission: Impossible star, dressed in leather jacket and gloves, lowered himself into the stadium while his compatriot H.E.R. performed on guitar.

To mark the handover to Los Angeles, which will host the Olympics in 2028, Cruise was seen in a pre-recorded film travelling through Paris and onto the US.

There he journeyed to the legendary Hollywood sign and unfurled the Olympic colours. The ceremony in Paris marked a formal “au revoir” from this year’s host city.

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Cruise grinned as he was mobbed by a surging crowd of athletes the moment he landed in the stadium – having rappelled about 50m (164ft).

His feat was performed as musician H.E.R. jammed on an electric guitar – having moments before delivered a rocky rendition of the US national anthem.

Cruise proceeded to take the Olympic flag from one of the stars of Paris – American gymnast Simone Biles – before the thrilled audience watched him zip away on a motorbike.

The pre-recorded clip showing his journey to LA was soundtracked by California natives Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The funk-rock hitmakers then delivered a live performance of their classic track Can’t Stop on a palm-fringed beach in Los Angeles. Other acts included Billie Eilish and Snoop Dogg, who performed with Dr Dre.

Snoop – who is from LA himself – was a regular fixture at the Games, which culminated with the US topping the medals table after a dramatic win in Sunday’s final event, the women’s basketball final.

Cruise, also known for Top Gun, is renowned for performing his own stunts.

Over the last decade or so, these have included scaling Dubai’s Burj Khalifa and dangling on the outside of a plane as it took off, both for the Mission: Impossible series.

Artistic director Thomas Jolly complemented Cruise’s feat with another cinematic-feeling segment. A hushed, darkened stadium watched as a troupe of dancers rolled five giant rings across a stage, ultimately assembling the Olympic logo.

The gloomy sci-fi aesthetic was finally punctured by an up-tempo performance from French band Phoenix, who tore into two hits. They were surrounded by athletes who climbed up on stage, to the consternation of the stadium announcer.

Cruise’s role was perhaps Paris’s worst-kept secret. Rumours had been in the press for days – even before he was photographed in the stadium itself on Sunday evening.

The 62-year-old was spotted several times in Paris during the Games fortnight, cheering on the US team in the swimming relay and watching multi-medal-winning American gymnast Simone Biles in action.

“It’s awesome,” he told Reuters news agency at the time. “Great stories, great athletes. It’s incredible what they do.”

Artistic director Jolly was also responsible for the Olympics’ ambitious curtain-raiser last month. This featured a parade of boats along the River Seine and a comeback performance from singer Céline Dion.

The top judge of the Olympic breaking competition has thrown his support behind Rachael Gunn of Team Australia, after her unorthodox routine in Paris divided the internet.

Gunn, who competes under the name Raygun, was eliminated from the B-Girls competition after scoring zero, prompting both ridicule and praise for her unique style.

“Breaking is all about originality and bringing something new to the table… and this is exactly what Raygun was doing,” Martin Gilian said in defence of the athlete, who has also been commended by Australia’s Prime Minister for “having a go”.

Breaking, which debuted at the Paris Games, is not on the programme for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

A 36-year-old university lecturer from Sydney by day, Gunn stood out in almost every way against her competitors, many of whom are in their early 20s.

Her performances during her three rounds on Friday quickly lit up the internet, with users creating a sea of memes and video spoofs, questioning everything from her outfit to her qualification.

Mr Gilian – whose stage name is MGbility – said Raygun’s score was indicative of the “competitive judging system” adopted by the sport and shouldn’t be taken as proof “she did really bad”.

As well as defending her place in the competition, by citing her success in the Oceania qualifier, Mr Gilian praised Gunn for her innovative choreography – which included the sprinkler and, arguably her most controversial move, hopping around like a kangaroo.

“She got inspired by her surroundings, which in this case, for example, was a kangaroo.”

Gunn – who has a background as a jazz, tap and ballroom dancer – has used similar language when explaining her performance.

“I was never going to beat these girls on what they do best, the dynamic and the power moves, so I wanted to move differently, be artistic and creative because how many chances do you get in a lifetime to do that on an international stage?”

Speaking to media on Sunday, Australia’s leader Anthony Albanese said the attacks levelled at Gunn were not in keeping with the spirit of the Games.

“The Olympics is about people participating in sport… and Raygun had a crack, good on her.”

Team officials and the Olympics breakdancing community have similarly rallied around Gunn – offering her mental health support and calling out the online backlash.

“I think that what has occurred on social media with trolls and keyboard warriors… has been really disappointing,” Australian Olympic great Anna Meares, who serves as the team’s chef de mission in Paris, said on Saturday.

“I absolutely love her courage. I love her character,” she added.

Jeff ‘J-Attack’ Dunne, who represented Australia in the men’s competition on Sunday, also praised his teammate.

“All I know is she represented hard, she has been the leading breaker in Australia for the women and I acknowledge her and respect her 100%,” Dunne said.

A hip-hop inspired dance born in the boroughs of New York in the 1970s, breaking was introduced into this year’s schedule as a way to attract a younger audience to the Games.

But some critics say it should never have been included, due to the organic nature of the genre, which doesn’t necessarily suit organised competition.

Ukrainian troops have advanced up to 30km inside Russia, in what has become 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”.

President Volodymyr Zelensky, who directly acknowledged the attack for the first time in an address last night, said 2,000 cross-border attacks had been launched by Russia from Kursk this summer.

“Artillery, mortars, drones. We also record missile strikes, and each such strike deserves a fair response,” Mr Zelensky told the country in his nightly address from Kyiv.

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 troops near the villages of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez – which are about 25km and 30km from the Russia-Ukraine border.

Footage circulating online and verified by the BBC also appeared to show a Russian strike near the village of Levshinka, around 25km from the 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 region, 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 engaged at Obshchy Kolodez were 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”.

Meanwhile, emergency services in the Kyiv region said a man and his four-year-old son were killed in a missile strike near 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.

Elsewhere, Russian officials in the occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast said a fire broke out at the region’s nuclear power plant on Sunday.

Yevgeny Balitsky, the Kremlin-installed governor of Zaporizhzhia, claimed the fire erupted after shelling by Ukrainian forces. He said there had been no radiation spike around the plant.

Russia’s state Tass news agency reported that the main fire at the plant was extinguished in the early hours of Monday.

In a statement posted to X, the UN’s nuclear watchdog – the International Atomic Energy Agency – said its on-site inspectors had witnessed “strong dark smoke” coming from the north of the facility, but emphasised that there was “no impact reported” for nuclear safety.

President Zelensky said in a post to social media that Russian forces had started a fire on the territory of the plant.

The site has been under the control of Russian troops and officials since 2022. It has not produced power in more than two years and all six reactors have been in cold shutdown since April.

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.”

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 India, with Iran as its neighbour, making the country 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.”

When the referee raised Lin Yu-ting’s hand at the Paris 2024’s women’s 57kg final, history was made. She had won Taiwan its first ever Olympic gold medal in boxing.

Calling Lin a “daughter of Taiwan,” Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te was among millions of people celebrating her victory, saying she had made Taiwan proud.

“With admirable focus and discipline, she has overcome misinformation and cyberbullying, turning adversity into victory,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Until several weeks ago, the 28-year-old’s name had been little known to people outside of Taiwan – but the Games have thrust Lin into the spotlight, after she and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif became the centre of a gender eligibility row that engulfed the 2024 Olympics.

Lin and Khelif were allowed to compete in Paris despite being disqualified from last year’s World Championships after reportedly failing unspecified gender eligibility tests. IOC judges have justified the decision to include them saying the testing conducted on them by the sport’s now-banned governing body, the International Boxing Association, was “impossibly flawed” and that Lin and Khelif were “born and raised as women”.

However, the decision to include them has proved to be divisive and controversial and the two athletes have been subject to an outpouring of online abuse and criticism.

Some of their fellow competitors were among those criticising their participation, while high profile figures like ex-US President Donald Trump and English author JK Rowling took to social media to decry the decision to let them compete in the women’s categories.

But Taiwanese social media users have been firmly supportive of Lin throughout her Olympic campaign, celebrating her victories and vociferously coming to her defence.

President Lai has previously said that he had asked his administration to pursue legal actions over the “malicious attacks and bullying” Lin had suffered.

Online, others echoed his view, saying: “The daughter of Taiwan is protected by the people of Taiwan.”

On Saturday, hundreds of people gathered in Lin’s hometown of New Taipei City to watch the live broadcast of Lin’s final, along with her mother Liao Shiu-chen.

Speaking to the BBC, Mrs Liao said she was “grateful” for all the support given to Lin, saying: “She really held on. She did it.”

She said she wanted to tell Lin: “Mama loves you. I love my daughter.”

“We are ecstatic!”, 41-year-old Ms Yang, who watched the game with her son told the BBC.

“She has had such a hard journey. I was very angry to see her bullied by the whole world. This is a historic moment.”

Among those watching was the head of PE in Lin’s old secondary school. Ange Cha said her win would inspire young aspiring boxers.

“It gives them a goal to pursue and a role model to look up to.”

The gender eligibility row has been one of the most controversial stories from the 2024 Games, with Lin saying she had “shut herself off” from social media in a bid to avoid it.

Her cousin and previous sparring partner, Hsu Hao-xiang, earlier told the BBC that the controversy was “just a bunch of nonsense”.

“Just think about how many competitions she had participated in all these years [without problems].”

He described Lin as a “warm and thoughtful” person outside the rings, saying: “She could pick up [on] things that we boys would not notice. She would always want to do more for her mom and the family – she carries a lot by herself.”

An old resurfaced interview wher Lin says she started boxing to “protect my mum”, who was a victim of domestic violence, has also had a lot of resonance in Taiwan.

“This makes me want to cry. She has worked so hard until now, only to face this embarrassing international bullying,” read a comment under the clip.

“We will protect you as you protect your mom. You are the best Taiwanese girl,” a top comment under her most recent Instagram posts reads.

Lin’s victory means she has completed a golden “grand slam” – she previously won two World Championship gold medals in 2018 and 2022 and clinched Taiwan’s first gold medal in the 2022 Asian Games.

But her path to Gold has not been straightforward. In 2016, she failed to secure a ticket to the Rio Olympics after failing at the qualification games. In 2021, she was favoured to win a gold but was defeated in the first round of the Tokyo Olympics.

These defeats pushed Lin to go further, said Mr Hsu.

“She didn’t listen to them, strode over them, and kept breaking through,” he said.

Mr Hsu added that the people’s support made Lin “fearless”, adding that it was “really moving to see so many people cheering for my cousin, and so many places live-streaming her games simultaneously”.

And although the 2024 Olympics has now ended, the conversation of gender eligibility in sports is one that is likely to continue.

IOC President Thomas Bach had left the door open to revisiting the organisation’s own eligibility rules on Friday.

“If someone is presenting us a scientifically solid system how to identify men and women, we are the first ones to do it,” he said, stating that the IOC would not organise boxing in the upcoming 2028 Games without a reliable partner.

When a white van drew up next to the office of the Palestine Customs Police in Tubas, a town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Abdel Nasser Sarhan had no reason to be suspicious.

According to Abdel Nasser’s colleagues, the van’s driver got out and greeted him in Arabic.

It was early in the morning. The 24-year-old uniformed policeman had just come on shift.

CCTV pictures show him strolling out past a guard post, his rifle slung casually at his side.

Seconds later, a man in jeans and a dark T-shirt emerges from the direction of the white van, uniformed Israeli soldiers behind him.

He raises a handgun and shoots Abdel Nasser dead.

Soon, the street is full of Israeli soldiers. They retrieve Abdel Nasser’s rifle and, as his colleagues try to retrieve his body, continue to shoot – all captured on CCTV.

When we visited Tubas the following morning, in late July, we found a makeshift memorial of stones and wilting flowers on the ground where Abdel Nasser fell.

The guard post and adjacent walls were riddled with bullet holes, each marked with a yellow tag. Fading bloodstains smeared the ground and doorway.

In a statement released on the day of the incident, the Israeli army said the shooting occurred in the course of an operation to detain two wanted men.

Abdel Nasser’s colleagues in Tubas said those arrests took place at a nearby house.

The army said that soldiers had “encountered armed terrorists” and that “a customs officer of the Palestinian Authority was killed during exchanges of fire”.

From the evidence of the CCTV footage, this last statement is demonstrably false.

An Israeli security official contacted by the BBC two weeks later said the incident was “one of hundreds, if not thousands of special activities that are planned and carried out very precisely”.

This one was being reviewed, he said, “because it didn’t go as planned”.

It seems clear that this was an operation that went badly wrong.

No-one has suggested that Abdel Nasser or the customs office were the target of the operation.

The young guard appears to have had the misfortune to stumble across an undercover Israeli operation, during which he was shot and killed.

But for Abdel Nasser’s colleagues in the customs police, this tragic episode is part of a wider pattern of behaviour that is making it harder than ever for the Palestinian Authority – theoretically responsible for security in areas not under direct Israeli military control – to do its job.

“This rings a warning bell, especially for us in the security services,” Lt Ibrahim Ayyash, spokesman for the Palestine Customs Police, told us.

“How can we enforce law and order and offer services to the people and protect them while you’re obstructing my work and killing my officers?”

Customs officers, he said, were increasingly reluctant to pull over suspicious vehicles, for fear of stumbling across Israeli soldiers operating under cover.

“It now falls on you, as a custom officer, to take a decision about stopping a vehicle or not,” he said.

“If you stop it and it has Special Forces [inside], they could kill you.”

As fans of the Israeli TV show Fauda will know, undercover operations were already a regular feature of life in the West Bank long before the war in Gaza broke out last October.

Recent evidence suggests the frequency of such operations have increased, with multiple cases of CCTV pictures showing Israeli units, dressed as civilians, and even medics, snatching wanted Palestinians from city streets and hospital beds.

But such clandestine operations are part of a much bigger picture.

With all eyes focused on Gaza, another war is raging in the West Bank, as the Israeli military cracks down on armed groups that it says are being bankrolled by Iran.

“The situation on the ground is very, very complicated,” an Israeli security official told me, on condition of anonymity.

“You might say that it’s on the verge of an explosion.”

The emergence of a new generation of local armed groups, mostly in the refugee camps of the northern West Bank, dates back to about 2021, with the first group appearing in Jenin.

But the war in Gaza has fanned the flames of rebellion in other cities, from Tulkarem to Qalqilya and, more recently, Tubas.

Israel’s security crackdown, the actions of violent groups of Jewish settlers and the belief that the Palestinian Authority is powerless to protect them have all added to an atmosphere of mounting tension.

“They’re very frustrated with Israel, they’re very frustrated with the Palestinian Authority and they’re looking for an outlet to this frustration,” the Israeli security official said.

The PA health ministry says more than 600 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since last October. As many as 10,000 have been arrested, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society.

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

Some veteran observers fear that armed clashes could erupt into a full-scale uprising, or intifada.

“If it goes into an intifada, this is a much, much bigger problem,” Gen Israel Ziv, former head of the IDF’s Operations Division, told me.

“Militarily, we handle things better or worse. But when it goes into an intifada, it’s a totally different story. And it might go there.”

With the Israeli military still focused on the war in Gaza and its simmering conflict with Hezbollah along its northern border, Gen Ziv said there’s reluctance to recognise danger much closer to home.

“It’s a huge problem that can blow up in our face in a more sensitive area, [close] to the centres of population in Israel,” he said.

Meanwhile, in the Balata refugee camp, on the edge of Nablus, Abdel Nasser’s family is still grieving.

They’ve watched the CCTV pictures from Tubas and drawn their own conclusions about the actions of the Israeli army.

“He come to kill, just to kill,” Abdel Nasser’s uncle, Ismail Mohammed Sarhan, says.

Abdel Nasser’s father, Mohannad, can barely comprehend the loss of his son.

What was he like, I asked him.

“Ambitious, kind, always smiling,” he said, unable to hold back the tears.

As Ukraine’s foreign minister completes his latest tour of Africa, his country risks paying a serious diplomatic price for helping separatist rebels in northern Mali inflict a severe defeat on the Russian military operator Wagner at the end of last month.

The ambush at Tinzaouten on 27 July reportedly killed 84 Wagner fighters and 47 Malian soldiers.

It was a painful military blow for the mercenary outfit once headed by the late Yevgeny Prigozhin, but now controlled by Russia’s official defence command structure.

Just two days later Andriy Yusov, spokesman for Kyiv’s military intelligence service (GUR), said that ethnic Tuareg rebels in Mali had “received necessary information, and not just information, which enabled a successful military operation against Russian war criminals”.

Subsequent reports suggested that Ukrainian special forces had trained the separatists in the use of attack drones.

Yet for many Africans, this was yet another case of outside powers exploiting the continent as a bloody playing field for their own rivalries.

Predictably, Mali’s ruling military junta, and the allied regime in neighbouring Niger, protested by breaking off diplomatic relations with Kyiv.

But much more significant was a statement from the regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas). Despite its own diplomatic issues with the military regimes in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, it was clear in its rebuke.

It declared its “firm disapproval and firm condemnation of any outside interference in the region which could constitute a threat to peace and security in West Africa and any attempt aiming to draw the region into current geopolitical confrontations”.

The anger will have been strengthened by suggestions that some jihadist militants joined the Tuareg separatists in mounting the Tinzaouaten attack.

The Senegalese foreign ministry summoned the Ukrainian ambassador in Dakar to protest after he posted a Facebook video about Mr Yusov’s gloating comments.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was touring Malawi, Zambia and Mauritius last week. But after the harsh words from Ecowas and Senegal he may now have to engage in some serious fence-mending in West Africa.

What many sub-Saharan African governments – even those that privately mistrust Moscow – will probably view as Kyiv’s unhelpful outside military adventurism could dispel the goodwill so painstakingly cultivated over the past two years through peaceful Ukrainian diplomacy.

Of course in narrow military terms, helping to inflict the heaviest-ever African defeat on Wagner was a success for the Ukrainians.

The mercenary contractor – now officially renamed Corps Africa after being brought under Russian state control – had doubled its manpower to an estimated 2,000 in Mali over the past two years.

So news of the heavy losses in Tinzaouaten came as a shock, particularly given that the Malian army and Wagner forces had seized Kidal, the Tuareg rebel “capital”, last November.

The Tinzaouaten incident has signalled the separatists’ return to the offensive –with, it soon became clear, the support of a new partner.

Kyiv’s hints of direct involvement confirm how far it is prepared to reach in taking its fightback against Russia’s President Vladimir Putin well beyond the home battlefield.

In fact this is not the first such direct intervention against Wagner military operations in Africa.

There were strong indications that last August and September Ukrainian special forces carried out drone raids in Sudan in support of the military regime led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

For more than a year, it has been engaged in a brutal power struggle with its former allies the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as “Hemedti”, who has been assisted by Wagner.

Some Ukrainian military commentators, such as Evgeniy Dikiy, former commander of Ukraine’s Aidar battalion, depict their country’s reported African military interventions very much in terms of a battle for survival after Russian forces invaded in February 2022.

Mr Dikiy has argued that Kyiv has no Africa policy but does have scores to settle with Russia and Wagner in particular.

But the administration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky may not see things in quite such simplistic terms.

For it knows that the fightback against Moscow is not only conducted on the battlefield. Diplomacy and trade matter too.

And in the immediate aftermath of the 2022 invasion, Kyiv was painfully reminded of this truth, particularly in regards to Africa.

In the UN General Assembly on 2 March that year, only 28 of the 54 African member states voted to condemn the invasion.

While only a few close allies of Moscow actually voted in support of Russia’s action, many other African governments, including some generally perceived as firmly pro-Western, actively abstained or absented themselves from the vote.

And later, when President Putin pulled out of the deal allowing both Ukrainian and Russia grain exports – many destined for Africa – to safely transit through the Black Sea, many sub-Saharan governments chose to view this setback in neutral terms rather than blaming Moscow.

While that particular issue has faded in significance, because Ukraine has largely recovered its freedom to ship grain after striking the Russian Black Sea fleet, the foreign ministry team in Kyiv has remained convinced of the need to rebuild their political and economic networks across Africa.

Mr Kuleba has now made four African tours. And while his campaign to earn goodwill and build partnerships south of the Sahara has not always advanced without a hitch – hopes of being received by President Cyril Ramaphosa during a visit to South Africa late last year were disappointed – there have also been important successes.

Zambia, for example, attended the Ukraine Peace Summit in Switzerland in June and, unlike some other participants, did sign the final communiqué (whose terms satisfied Kyiv).

And last week Mr Kuleba visited the Zambian capital, Lusaka, where he was received by President Hakainde Hichilema.

In reaching out to African countries now, Ukraine is seeking to make up for the diplomatic ground lost during the first three decades after its independence when it was largely preoccupied with its internal affairs.

While Russia inherited the worldwide diplomatic presence of the old Soviet Union, newly independent nations such as Ukraine had to build up their networks from scratch.

With limited resources, over 30 years Kyiv managed to open only eight embassies across the entire African continent – in Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.

But after being so uncomfortably reminded in 2022 of the need to win friends and influence people, Kyiv is pushing rapidly to expand its coverage, aiming to build a 20-embassy African network, with the first 10 extra missions already announced.

April saw Kyiv’s special envoy for the Middle East and Africa, Maksym Soubkh, in Abidjan to open the embassy in Ivory Coast.

And Kyiv is proposing more than diplomatic co-operation.

Eight sub-Saharan countries have already benefitted from its “Grain from Ukraine” food aid initiative.

It also plans to build up its development assistance, strengthen two-way trade and provide more university places for African students.

Contentious military adventures targeting Russian mercenaries look an ill-judged risk that could jeopardise all the diplomatic goodwill and economic returns that Ukraine hopes to gain from its broad-based positive sub-Saharan strategy.

• Boost for Wagner as Mali shuns UN troops, but at what cost?
• Why Wagner is winning hearts in the Central African Republic
• How the Russian mercenary group has rebranded in Africa

US President Joe Biden says he dropped out of his re-election bid because he feared that the intraparty battle over his candidacy would be a “real distraction” for Democrats and that his highest priority was to defeat Donald Trump in November.

In his first interview since quitting the race, Mr Biden, 81, said he had “no serious problem” with his health. He blamed his poor debate performance on being sick at the time, and brushed off concerns about his age and mental acuity.

The US president pledged to campaign for Kamala Harris saying he was going to do whatever his vice-president “thinks I can do to help most”.

“We must, we must, we must defeat Trump,” he told US broadcaster CBS News.

Mr Biden said if he had continued his campaign, the presidential contest would have gone “down to the wire”.

“A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the races,” he said.

“And I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic. You’d be interviewing me about, Why did Nancy Pelosi say, why did so — and I thought it’d be a real distraction.”

Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi was widely reported to have led the push to oust Mr Biden – a claim she has not exactly denied – after his halting debate performance against Trump on 27 June.

During the pre-recorded interview broadcast Sunday, Mr Biden misspoke several times but generally seemed more coherent than during the live televised debate. He chalked up his poor debate performance to illness – previously he’s also mentioned jet lag and lack of rest as factors.

As pressure continued to ratchet up, he announced his exit from the race on 21 July.

A potential battle to replace him at the top of the Democratic ticket never materialised and party support swiftly coalesced around Vice-President Harris, who has so far outperformed Mr Biden in opinion polls.

The president has said he intended to be a bridge to the next generation when he ran for the White House in 2020.

“When I ran the first time, I thought of myself as being a transition president. I can’t even say how old I am. It’s hard for me to get it out of my mouth.”

In other US election news:

• Republican vice-presidential candidate and Ohio senator JD Vance has defended a sweeping deportation plan for undocumented migrants if he and Donald Trump are elected.
• Mr Vance told American broadcaster ABC News that a second Trump administration would start with 1 million people who are in the United States illegally. Government figures indicate that there are around 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country, a figure that has remained largely steady since 2005.
• The Ohio senator said his previous remarks suggesting parents should get additional votes were a “thought experiment” made in response to Democratic Party suggestions about lowering the voting age.
• He said that his comments in 2021 were not a policy proposal and that he did not support extra votes for people with children. “I want us to be more pro-family,” he said.
• On the Democratic side, Vice-President Kamala Harris told a crowd in Las Vegas that she supported ending taxes on tips, a proposal also backed by Trump. The battleground state of Nevada is home to a substantial number of voters who work in the hospitality and tourism industry.

In the CBS interview, Mr Biden returned to the moment he decided to run against Trump – when a gathering of far-right activists in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 turned deadly. He accused Trump of emboldening racists and the far-right.

“Every other time the Ku Klux Klan has been involved they wore hoods so they’re not identified,” he said. “Under his presidency, they came out of those woods with no hoods, knowing they had an ally.”

He also repeated his concerns about what might happen after November’s election, saying he was “not confident at all” that there will be a peaceful transfer of power if Ms Harris defeats Trump.

He went on to say that he was concerned that there would be violence if Trump loses the election.

“He means what he says,” Mr Biden said. “We don’t take him seriously. He means it. All the stuff about, ‘If we lose, it’ll be a bloodbath’.”

“He’s a genuine danger to American security,” Mr Biden said.

Trump commented at a rally in March that it would “be a bloodbath for the country” if he loses, however his campaign has repeatedly said he was referring to the economy and the auto industry and that Democrats have taken the quote out of context.

At the same time, the former president has repeatedly insisted, without evidence, that he was cheated out of victory in 2020 and has warned that there will be attempts to “rig” the vote this year. He has pledged to pardon some or all of the people convicted for rioting at the US Capitol in January 2021.

Mr Biden said he would be campaigning on behalf of Ms Harris and that he had spoken to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro about touring the state. Mr Biden was born in the working-class city of Scranton, about 120 miles (190km) north-west of New York City.

“I’m going to be campaigning in other states as well. And I’m going to do whatever Kamala thinks I can do to help most,” he said.

• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
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