A rescue mission is under way off the coast of Sicily after the British-flagged luxury yacht Bayesian sank during freak weather early on Monday morning.

One man, the vessel’s cook, has died and his body has been recovered, according to Sicily’s civil protection agency.

Some 15 people have been rescued from the boat, while six remain missing.

Specialist divers from the Italian fire brigade resumed their search early on Tuesday morning.

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The six people who are unaccounted for have all been named.

Among them are British businessman Mike Lynch, who was recently acquitted of fraud in the US.

Several people on the boat, including some who are missing, were involved in his recent trial and there have been reports that the yacht trip was a celebration of Mr Lynch’s acquittal.

Mr Lynch is a tech entrepreneur who was once regarded by some as “Britain’s Bill Gates”.

Raised in Essex, he went on to study at the University of Cambridge, before co-founding software company Autonomy in 1996.

The 59-year-old made his riches by selling the company to US tech giant Hewlett-Packard in 2011 for $11bn (£8.6bn).

Mr Lynch became embroiled in a decade-long legal battle following the acquisition. He was acquitted in the US in June on multiple fraud charges, over which he had been facing two decades in jail.

He told BBC Radio 4 in August that he believed he had only been able to prove his innocence in US court because he was rich enough to pay the enormous legal fees involved.

“You shouldn’t need to have funds to protect yourself as a British citizen,” he said.

Mr Lynch was travelling with his daughter Hannah, who is also missing.

The 18-year-old is reportedly the younger of Mr Lynch’s two daughters.

She had just completed her A-levels and secured a place to read English at Oxford University, according to the Times.

Chris Morvillo is a lawyer who represented Mr Lynch in his US trial. Since 2011, he has been a partner at the Clifford Chance law firm in New York.

His biography on the firm’s website says that he served as assistant attorney for the southern district of New York from 1999 to 2005.

During his tenure, he worked on the criminal investigation surrounding the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.

American jewellery designer Neda Morvillo, wife of Mr Morvillo, is also unaccounted for.

Mr Morvillo’s employer, Clifford Chance, confirmed the news.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the law firm said: “We are in shock and deeply saddened by this tragic incident.”

Ms Morvillo designs jewellery under the name Neda Nassiri. Her website says she “has been designing and hand-crafting fine jewelry in New York City for over 20 years”.

Jonathan Bloomer is the chairman of the Morgan Stanley International bank and insurance company Hiscox.

The 70-year-old Briton was educated at Imperial College London and has previously served on a number of company boards.

Mr Bloomer appeared at trial as a defence witness for Mr Lynch, according to the the Financial Times. Media reports suggest the pair are close friends.

Aki Hussain, group chief executive of Hiscox, which Mr Bloomer has chaired since 2023, said: “We are deeply shocked and saddened by this tragic event.

“Our thoughts are with all those affected, in particular our chair, Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife Judy, who are among the missing.”

Judy, the wife of Jonathan Bloomer, is also among the six people missing.

Ms Bloomer is listed as a former director of property developer Change Real Estate along with her husband.

She has been called a “brilliant champion for women’s health” by a charity she has worked closely with.

Ms Bloomer has been a trustee and supporter of gynaecological cancer research charity the Eve Appeal for more than 20 years.

The charity’s chief executive, Athena Lamnisos, said she was “deeply shocked to hear the news that our very dear friend and her husband Jonathan, are among those missing”.

“Our thoughts are with Judy and Jonathan’s family, as well as all those who are still waiting for news after this tragic event,” she added in a statement.

Among the 15 people who were rescued are nine members of the yacht’s crew.

This means every member of the crew is accounted for minus the chef, who local authorities say has died.

Eight of the 15 who were rescued have been taken to hospital.

A British mother, named locally as Charlotte Golunski, was travelling on the yacht with her partner and baby girl. All three have been rescued from the boat.

In an interview, she described holding her infant daughter above the surface of the sea to save her from drowning.

Ms Golunski is a partner at Mr Lynch’s company, Invoke Capital, where she has worked since 2012, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The Times has reported that she has previously worked for Autonomy, the company at the centre of Mr Lynch’s recent court case.

Another lawyer, Ayla Ronald, was also rescued along with her partner.

The New Zealand national works for Clifford Chance, where Mr Morvillo is a partner, and was part of Mr Lynch’s legal team for his June trial.

Her father told the Telegraph that she was “invited to go sailing as a result of the success in the recent United States court case”.

Angela Bacares, Mr Lynch’s wife and Hannah Lynch’s mother, is also among those who have been rescued.

On Monday, Ms Bacares was using a wheelchair after suffering ­abrasions on her feet, according to the newspaper La Repubblica.

India’s top court has said the recent rape and murder of a trainee doctor in West Bengal state has “shocked the conscience of the nation” and criticised authorities for their handling of the investigation.

The 31-year-old woman’s body was found earlier this month in the seminar room of a state-run hospital in Kolkata where she worked.

A hospital volunteer worker has been arrested in connection with the crime, and the Central Bureau of Investigation has now taken over the case.

The crime has sparked huge protests in the country.

On Tuesday, Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, who was hearing the case, ordered the setting up of a National Task Force (NTF) to reccommend safety protocols for healthcare professionals at workplaces.

He listed out a range of problems plaguing medical institutions, including a lack of resting rooms and toilets, functional CCTV cameras, security personnel and adequate screening for arms at entrances.

The court asked the task force, which would include top doctors and government officials, to look into the situation and file an interim report in three weeks and a final report in two months.

During the hearing, the CJI also criticised the West Bengal government and police force and questioned why there was a delay in registering the initial complaint – known as a First Information Report (FIR) – in the case?

He added that he was “deeply concerned” that the name of the victim and her photographs were shared on social media. Indian laws prohibit naming of a rape victim and those guilty can be fined or sentenced to up to two years in prison.

The court also condemned the attack on RG Kar Medical College – the site of the crime – and questioned why adequate security measures hadn’t been put in place to control the violence.

A mob had vandalised the emergency ward of the hospital during last week’s Reclaim the Night protest in which tens of thousands of women had participated.

“The power of the state should not be unleashed on peaceful protesters,” the chief justice said.

The woman’s murder has sparked an outpouring of anger across India, especially in West Bengal state of which Kolkata is the capital.

At the weekend, doctors across hospitals in India observed a nation-wide strike called by the Indian Medical Association (IMA). Elective surgeries and outpatient treatments were suspended with only emergency services available at major hospitals.

The IMA issued a list of demands, including the strengthening of the law to better protect medical staff against violence, increasing security at hospitals and creation of safe spaces for rest.

The case has also sparked a political row with the West Bengal state government, led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, accused of mishandling the aftermath of the murder. Leaders of the India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in the opposition in the state, have accused Ms Banerjee’s government of cracking down on peaceful protests.

Last week, the Kolkata High Court criticised the local police for lapses and transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) .

The parents of the doctor, who declined compensation offered by the state government, have criticised the management of the medical college for failing to ensure safety at the workplace.

They told local media they had lost trust in the chief minister and accused her of attempting to stifle public outrage.

Ms Banerjee has defended the actions of her government, saying state police had completed 90% of the investigation before it was handed over to the CBI. She has also accused opposition parties of exploiting the incident for political gain.

Ms Banerjee said she wanted the investigation to be completed quickly and called for the culprits to be hanged.

On Saturday, the state government announced a slew of measures for women’s safety at workplaces, including designated retiring rooms and CCTV-monitored “safe zones” at state-run hospitals.

Meanwhile, the Kolkata police have served notices to more than 200 students, activists and political party members for allegedly spreading “false information” about the case and for revealing the victim’s identity.

A trial has begun in California to decide whether Stanford University can keep the diaries of a top Chinese official, in a case that is being framed as a fight against Chinese government censorship.

The diaries belong to the late Li Rui, a former secretary to Communist China’s founder Mao Zedong.

Following Li’s death in 2019, his widow sued for the documents to be returned to Beijing, claiming they belong to her.

Stanford rejects this. It says Li, who had been a critic of the Chinese government, donated his diaries to the university as he feared they would be destroyed by the Chinese Communist Party.

The diaries, which were written between 1935 and 2018, cover much of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) rule. In those eight tumultuous decades, China emerged from impoverished isolation to become indispensable to the global economy.

“If [the diaries] return to China they will be banned… China does not have a good record in permitting criticism of party leaders,” Mark Litvack, one of Stanford’s lawyers, told the BBC before the trial began.

The BBC has contacted lawyers representing Zhang Yuzhen, Mr Li’s widow, for comment.

A prominent CCP figure known for his reformist views, Mr Li was both venerated and shunned by the party.

As a young outspoken cadre he caught the eye of Mao who made him one of his personal secretaries in the mid-1950s. But the position was shortlived.

When Li criticised Mao’s views at a political meeting, he was ousted from the party and spent years in prison. He was among hundreds of party officials and public figures, including close allies of Mao, who fell foul of the mercurial leader.

Like some of them, Li returned to prominence after Mao died in 1976. He oversaw the ministry of hydroelectric power and a CCP department that selected officials for key positions. Within the party, he was allied with the more liberal, open-minded faction advocating for reform.

After his retirement, he continued to lobby the party for reform. But his unsparing, sharp-tongued criticism of leaders, including President Xi Jinping – whom he dismissed as “lowly-educated” – needled the government. His writings were censored and his books banned in China.

As a party elder, however, he continued to be treated with respect and enjoyed privileges. When he died he was given a state funeral.

Throughout, as he navigated the echelons of power, he meticulously recorded observations about party politics and key events in his diaries.

These include his account of the Tiananmen Massacre, which he witnessed from a balcony overlooking the square and labelled as “Black Weekend” in English in his diary. It is a highly sensitive issue that is rarely discussed in China.

His daughter, Li Nanyang, began donating his documents, including the diaries, to Stanford’s Hoover Institution in 2014, when he was still alive.

In a 2019 interview with BBC Chinese after his death, she said this fulfilled her father’s wishes.

That year Ms Zhang filed a lawsuit against Li Nanyang – her stepdaughter – in China.

Ms Zhang, who was Li Rui’s second wife, argued that he wanted her to decide which of his documents would be made public and they were wrongfully given to Stanford, according to reports.

The widow said the diaries contained “deeply personal and private affairs” of her life with Li. As the diaries can be accessed by the public at Stanford, she said their display caused her “personal embarrassment and emotional distress”.

A Beijing court ruled in Ms Zhang’s favour and ordered the diaries to be handed over to her.

Stanford has rejected this ruling. Its lawyers have argued that “Chinese courts are not impartial in politically-charged cases such as this” and that the university was not given a chance to defend itself.

The trial that began in California on Monday is over a separate lawsuit launched by the university against Ms Zhang in the US.

Stanford is asking the California court to declare the university as the lawful owner of the diaries.

Its lawyers argue that Li Rui wanted to donate his papers to Stanford because “he understood that the regime would seek to suppress his account of modern Chinese history” and he “feared that the materials would be destroyed”.

Stanford has been allowed to retain copies of the diaries, but it is arguing to keep the original documents as well, to comply with Li’s wishes.

“Li Rui wanted his diaries, including his originals, at Hoover,” Mr Litvack said. “That’s why they are at Hoover and we have fought to keep them at Hoover.”

In the cloudy skies and on the choppy waters, the emergency operation is continuing here in Porticello, where a luxury yachting holiday turned to horror.

As a coastguard helicopter whirls overhead, divers are being despatched from the port, continuing their search for the six missing passengers of the Bayesian, which capsized before dawn on Monday and whose wreckage now lies some 50m (165ft) underwater on the seabed.

Luca Cari from Italy’s fire and rescue department said that, given the depth, divers were only allowed 10 minutes underwater before resurfacing, limiting their work.

Divers trained to work in small spaces have been flown in from Rome and Sardinia. Strong winds are making the conditions even harder.

The divers found no bodies on the bridge – the room in which the captain controlled the vessel – and have made it into the lounge, from where they are working to gain access to the rest of the yacht.

It’s expected that the six missing passengers will be trapped in the cabins, where they were likely sleeping when it capsized.

Among the missing are the British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch along with his 18-year-old daughter Hannah; his lawyer, Mike Corvillo and his wife Neda; and the president of Morgan Stanley international Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy.

The body of the yacht’s chef has already been found. His identity is yet to be confirmed.

Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, is among the 15 people rescued, when they scrambled into a life raft and set off a flare, that drew the attention of another boat captain.

The tragedy began on Sunday night with violent storms buffeting the boats here.

In the early hours of Monday, that prompted a waterspout – a tornado-like rotating column of cloud and water that engulfed the Bayesian. Witnesses say it snapped the 76m (249ft) tall aluminium mast and quickly engulfed it.

Recent searing heat and heavy winds had reportedly prompted a weather warning prior to the capsizing. The temperature of the Mediterranean was 30C – higher than normal – amplifying the likelihood of an extreme weather event.

Among the survivors are several British nationals, who are staying at a local hotel, to which journalists were denied access.

They include Charlotte Golunski, who clutched her one-year-old daughter above the water to keep her alive, telling how all she could hear were the screams around her.

The British ambassador to Italy, Ed Llewellyn, told me he had visited the survivors and heard their anguish.

“It underlines what a desperately sad and distressing situation they found themselves in,” he said.

“My heart, and I’m sure that of the whole country, goes out to them. We will do whatever we can practically to help in this very difficult and heartbreaking situation.”

He confirmed that marine investigators sent from the UK had arrived in Sicily and were working with their Italian counterparts on a preliminary assessment.

Local prosecutors have also opened an investigation into the circumstances of the tragedy – and if anything could have been done to mitigate it, including closing the ship’s hatches overnight.

The yacht’s captain, James Catfield, from New Zealand, told Italian media of the suddenness of the waterspout that turned a luxury super yacht into a death trap. “We just didn’t see it coming”, he said.

Fayaz and his wife believed they were moments from safety when the bombs began to fall: “We were getting on the boat one after another – that’s when they started bombing us.”

Wails and shouts filled the air around 17:00 local time on 5 August, Fayaz* says, as thousands of scared Rohingyas made their way to the banks of the Naf river in the town of Maungdaw.

Attacks on villages earlier in the area meant this was what hundreds of families, including Fayaz’s, saw as their only option – that to get to safety, they had to escape from western Myanmar to Bangladesh’s safer shores.

Fayaz was carrying bags stuffed with whatever they had managed to grab. His wife was carrying their six-year-old daughter, their eldest was running alongside them. His wife’s sister was walking ahead, with the couple’s eight-month-old son in her arms.

The first bomb killed his sister-in-law instantly. The baby was badly injured – but alive.

“I ran and carried him… But he died while we were waiting for the bombing to stop.”

Nisar* had also made it to the riverbank by about 17:00, having decided to escape with his mother, wife, son, daughter and sister. “We heard drones overhead and then the loud sound of an explosion,” he recalls. “We were all thrown to the ground. They dropped bombs on us using drones.”

Nisar was the only one of his family to survive.

Fayaz, his wife and daughters escaped and would eventually make it across the river. Despite his pleas, the boatman refused to allow Fayaz to bring the baby’s body with them. “He said there was no point in carrying the dead, so I dug a hole by the river bank and hastily buried him.”

Now they’re all in the relative safety of Bangladesh, but if they are caught by authorities here they could be sent back. Nisar clutches a Quran, unable still to process how his world was shattered in a single day.

“If I’d known what would happen, I would never have tried to leave that day,” Nisar says.

It is notoriously difficult to piece together what is happening in Myanmar’s civil war. But the BBC has managed to construct a picture of what happened on the evening of 5 August through a series of exclusive interviews with more than a dozen Rohingya survivors who escaped to Bangladesh, and the videos they shared.

All of the survivors – unarmed Rohingya civilians – recount hearing many bombs exploding over a period of two hours. While most described the bombs being dropped by drones, a weapon increasingly being used in Myanmar, some said they were hit by mortars and gunfire. The MSF clinic operating in Bangladesh has said it saw a big surge in wounded Rohingya in the days that followed – half of the injured were women and children.

Survivors’ videos analysed by BBC Verify show the river bank covered in bloodied bodies, many of them women and children. There’s no verified count of the number of people killed, but multiple eyewitnesses have told the BBC they saw scores of bodies.

Survivors told us they were attacked by the Arakan Army, one of the strongest insurgent groups in Myanmar which in recent months has driven the military out of nearly all of Rakhine State. They said they were first attacked in their villages, forcing them to flee, and then were attacked again by the river bank as they sought to escape.

The AA declined to be interviewed but its spokesman Khaing Tukha denied the accusation and responded to the BBC’s questions with a statement which said “the incident did not occur in areas controlled by us”. He also accused Rohingya activists of staging the massacre and falsely accusing the AA.

Nisar stands by his account, however.

“The Arakan Army are lying,” he says. “The attacks were done by them. It was only them in our area on that day. And they have been attacking us for weeks. They don’t want to leave any Muslim alive.”

Most of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims live as a minority in Rakhine – a Buddhist-majority state, where the two communities have long had a fraught relationship. In 2017, when the Myanmar military killed thousands of Rohingyas in what the UN described as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”, local Rakhine men also joined the attacks. Now, amid a spiralling conflict between the junta and the AA, which has strong support in the ethnic Rakhine population, Rohingyas once again find themselves trapped.

Despite the risk of being caught and returned to Myanmar by the Bangladeshi authorities, Rohingya survivors told the BBC they wished to share details of the violence they faced so it would not go undocumented, especially as it unfolded in an area that is no longer accessible to rights groups or journalists.

“My heart is broken. Now, I’ve lost everything. I don’t know why I survived,” Nisar says.

A wealthy Rohingya trader, he sold his land and house as the shelling increased near his home in Rakhine. But the conflict intensified faster than he expected, and on the morning of 5 August, the family decided to leave Myanmar.

He is crying as he points to his daughter’s body in one of the videos: “My daughter died in my arms saying Allah’s name. She looks so peaceful, like she’s sleeping. She loved me so much.”

In the same video, he also points to his wife and sister, both severely injured but alive when the video was filmed. He could not carry them out as bombs were still falling, so he made the agonising choice to leave them behind. He found out later they had died.

“There was nowhere left that was safe, so we ran to the river to cross over to Bangladesh,” Fayaz says. The gunfire and bombs had followed them from village to village, and so Fayaz gave all his money to a boatman to carry them across the river.

Devastated and angry, he holds up a photo of his son’s bloodied body.

“If the Arakan Army didn’t fire at us, then who did?” he asks. “The direction that the bombs came from, I know the Arakan Army was there. Or was it thunder falling from the sky?”

These accusations raise serious questions about the Arakan Army, which describes itself as a revolutionary movement representing all the people of Rakhine.

Since late last year, the AA, part of the larger Three Brotherhood Alliance of armed insurgents in Myanmar, has made huge gains against the military.

But the army’s losses have brought new dangers for Rohingyas, who have previously told the BBC they were being forcibly recruited by the junta to fight the AA.

This, together with the decision by the Rohingya militant group ARSA to ally itself with the junta against the Rakhine insurgents, has soured already poor relations between the two communities and left Rohingya civilians vulnerable to retribution.

One survivor of the 5 August attack told the BBC that ARSA militants who had aligned themselves with the junta had been among the fleeing crowd – and that might have provoked the attack.

“Even if there was any military target, there was a disproportionate use of force. There were children, women, the elderly that were killed that day. It was also indiscriminate,” says John Quinley, a director of the human rights group Fortify Rights, which has been investigating the incident.

“So that would leave us to believe that there are reasonable grounds to believe that a war crime did happen on 5 August. The Arakan Army should be investigated for these crimes and Arakan Army senior commanders should be held accountable.”

This is a precarious moment for the Rohingya community. More than a million of them fled to Bangladesh in 2017, where they continue to be restricted to densely-packed, squalid camps.

More have been arriving in recent months as the war in Rakhine reaches them but, it’s no longer 2017, when Bangladesh opened its borders. This time, the government has said it cannot allow any more Rohingyas into the country.

So survivors who can find the money to pay boatmen and traffickers – the BBC was told it costs 600,000 Burmese kyat ($184; £141) per person – then have to slip past Bangladeshi border guards and chance their luck with locals, or hide in Rohingya camps.

When Fayaz and his family arrived in Bangladesh on the 6 August, the border guards gave them a meal but then put them on a boat and sent them back.

“We spent two days afloat with no food or water,” he says. “I gave my daughters water from the river to drink, and pleaded with some of the others on the boat to give them a few biscuits from the packets they had.”

They got into Bangladesh on their second attempt. But at least two boats have capsized because of overcrowding. One woman, a widow with 10 children, said she had managed to hide her family during the bombing, but five of her children drowned when their boat overturned.

“My children were like pieces of my heart. When I think of them, I want to die,” she says, weeping.

Her grandson, a wide-eyed eight-year-old boy, sits beside her. His parents and younger brother also died.

But what of those who were left behind? Phone and internet networks in Maungdaw have been down for weeks but after repeated attempts, the BBC contacted one man, who wished to remain anonymous for his own safety.

“The Arakan Army has forced us out of our homes and are holding us in schools and mosques,” he said. “I am being kept with six other families in a small house.”

The Arakan Army told the BBC that it rescued 20,000 civilians from the town amid fighting against the military. It said it was providing them with food and medical treatment, and add that “these operations are conducted for the safety and security of these individuals, not as forced relocations”.

The man on the phone rejected their claims. “The Arakan Army has told us they will shoot us if we try to leave. We are running out of food and medicines. I am ill, my mother is ill. A lot of people have diarrhoea and are vomiting.”

He broke down, pleading for help: “Tens of thousands of Rohingya are under threat here. If you can, please save us.”

Across the river in Bangladesh, Nisar looks back at Myanmar. He can see the shore where his family was killed.

“I never want to go back.”

It was not the speech Joe Biden wanted to give. At least, not this year, under these circumstances.

But if anyone knows how quickly fortunes can change, it’s this president – whose personal and professional life has been scarred by tragedy and adversity.

Speaking to a packed arena in Chicago on the first night of the Democratic National Convention, Mr Biden offered a full-throated defence of his presidency – touching on many of the themes that he campaigned on in 2020 and again this year before abandoning his re-election bid in mid-July, a few weeks after a catastrophic debate performance.

“Like many of you, I gave my heart and soul to this nation,” he said, towards the end of a nearly hour-long address punctuated by raucous shouts of “Thank you, Joe”.

Mr Biden had walked out onto the stage after being introduced by his daughter Ashley and wife, Jill, who told the audience she “saw him dig deep into his soul” when he decided to exit the presidential race.

After hugging Ashley, he put a tissue to his eyes to dab away the tears.

The president touched his heart, and stood a little straighter at the lectern, flashing a toothy smile as the crowd continued to cheer.

His speech had a keen eye on his place in history but he spent time singing the praises of his vice-president – the woman he hopes will succeed him in the White House.

“Selecting Kamala was the very first decision I made when I became our nominee and it’s the best decision I made my whole career,” he said. “She’s tough, she’s experienced, and she has enormous integrity.”

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Unlike his Oval Office address four weeks ago, Mr Biden did not speak directly of passing the torch to a new generation – but the message was clear enough. After the president concluded his remarks, Ms Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff came out to embrace Mr Biden and his wife, Jill.

“I love you,” the vice-president mouthed to Mr Biden after their hug.

While Mr Biden spent much of the end of his speech focusing on Ms Harris – a tacit acknowledgment that how she fares against Donald Trump in November’s vote could make or break how history, and his party, remembers him – many of the evening’s earlier speakers directed their tributes to the current White House resident.

It started with a planned – but unannounced – appearance by Ms Harris herself, who took the stage to thunderous applause.

“Joe, thank you for your historic leadership and for your lifetime of service to our nation and for all you continue to do,” she said. “We are forever grateful to you.”

Later, Delaware Senator Chris Coons – one of Mr Biden’s closest allies – took his turn singing the president’s praises.

“I’ve never known a more compassionate man than Joe Biden,” he said. “I’ve never known a man who has taken from his own loss and his own faith and delivered so much for the future of so many others.”

Hillary Clinton offered her own tribute when she appeared on stage earlier in the evening, telling the crowd that Mr Biden had “brought dignity, decency and competence back to the White House”.

The 2016 Democratic nominee received an extended ovation, and she noted that while she did not break the “highest, hardest glass ceiling” by becoming the first woman president, “on the other side of that glass ceiling is Kamala Harris taking the oath of office”.

The reception Mr Biden received from the packed Democratic convention hall was equally electric. The Democrats here in Chicago have been jubilant all day. But the cheers for the president could be as much a sign of gratitude for his grudging decision to step aside as it was a tribute to a storied political career that began in 1972 when he was first elected to Congress at the age of 29.

Tomorrow, Barack Obama will address the convention crowd. On Wednesday, Bill Clinton will have his turn. Both are former presidents who stood for – and won – re-election.

Mr Biden will not have that opportunity. Instead, he was left to define and defend his legacy as a one-term president in a speech that, barring a major national event in the next five months, will be his final address to a massive American television audience.

Toward the end of the speech, he quoted a line from a song, American Anthem.

“Let me know in my heart when my days are through, that America, America, I gave my best to you,” he said.

The crowd erupted in another round of applause.

Eight years ago, Mr Biden passed up a presidential bid in favour of Mrs Clinton – under some not so subtle pressure from Mr Obama. Four years ago, he won the nomination, but the Covid pandemic denied him an opportunity to bask in adulation of a packed Democratic convention hall and the celebratory post-speech balloon drop.

This, then, was as close to a Democratic convention moment in the spotlight Mr Biden will get.

After his speech concluded – past midnight on the US east coast – the president left the arena and headed to Air Force One for a flight to California for a holiday. His time in Chicago, at this Democratic National Convention, was measured in hours, not days. And despite his desires just a few months ago, his remaining time as president will be measured in months, not years.

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Mpox is “not the new Covid”, because authorities clearly know how to control its spread, a leading World Health Organization expert has said.

Despite real concern about a new variant of the virus, and a global alert, Europe regional director Dr Hans Kluge told journalists, together we could – and must – tackle mpox.

And strong action now – including ensuring vaccines reach the areas most in need – could stop another cycle of panic and neglect.

A case of the new variant, Clade Ib, was confirmed in Sweden last week and linked to a growing outbreak in Africa.

Mpox has killed at least 450 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the former Zaire, in recent months, linked to Clade Ib.

There is still a lot to learn about the new variant, experts say, but it may be spreading more easily, causing more serious disease.

No Clade Ib cases have been seen in the UK – but experts warn it can spread unless international action is taken.

A different variant, Clade II, was behind the 2022 outbreak that initially affected Europe and continues to circulate in many parts of the world.

But experts know how to control mpox, regardless of the variant – through non-discriminatory public-health action and equitable access to vaccines, Dr Kluge says.

The virus, which causes a fever and rash, can be spread by skin-to-skin contact with lesions, including during sex.

Dr Kluge said the risk to the general population was low.

“Are we going to go in lockdown in the WHO European region, it’s another Covid-19? The answer is clearly: ‘no’,” he said.

“Two years ago, we controlled mpox in Europe thanks to the direct engagement with the most affected communities of men who have sex with men,” Dr Kluge said.

“In 2022, mpox showed us it can spread quickly around the world.

“We can, and must, tackle mpox together – across regions and continents.

“Will we choose to put the systems in place to control and eliminate mpox globally or will we enter another cycle of panic, then neglect?”

About 100 new Clade II cases were now being reported in the European region every month, Dr Kluge added.

Travellers to affected areas in Africa have been advised to consider vaccination.

WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said the WHO was not recommending the use of masks.

“We are not recommending mass vaccination. We are recommending to use vaccines in outbreak settings for the groups who are most at risk,” he added.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said it has a “clear plan” to get 10 million doses of vaccine for the continent and urged .

The DRC and Nigeria will begin vaccinating from next week.

Danish vaccine manufacturer, Bavarian Nordic, will transfer its technology to African manufacturers so the vaccine can be made locally in order to increase the supply and reduce the cost, it added.

Speaking in a press briefing, Director General of Africa CDC, Dr Jean Kaseya, also pleaded countries not to punish Africa with travel bans, saying: “We need solidarity and we need support for medical counter-measures.”

Disney has withdrawn its claim that a man could not sue it over the death of his wife because of terms he signed up to in a free trial of Disney+.

Jeffrey Piccolo filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Disney and the owners of a restaurant after his wife died in 2023 from a severe allergic reaction following a meal at Disney World, in Florida.

Disney had argued the case should instead go to arbitration because of a clause in the terms and conditions of its Disney+ streaming service, which Mr Piccolo had briefly signed up for in 2019.

But, following a backlash, it has decided the matter can now be heard in court.

“We believe this situation warrants a sensitive approach to expedite a resolution for the family who have experienced such a painful loss,” Disney’s Josh D’Amaro told the BBC in a statement.

“As such, we’ve decided to waive our right to arbitration and have the matter proceed in court.”

In arbitration, a dispute is overseen by a neutral third party. It benefits those wanting to avoid a lengthy trial, but means evidence would not be put in front of a jury.

Jamie Cartwright, partner at the law firm Charles Russell Speechlys, suggested Disney’s change of heart was motivated by the “adverse publicity” its initial approach had generated.

“In attempting to push the claim into a confidential setting on what were very tenuous grounds, it succeeded only in creating the very publicity and attention it likely wanted to avoid,” he told the BBC.

Mr Piccolo and his wife, Dr Kanokporn Tangsuan, ate a meal at Raglan Road, an Ireland-themed pub located at the Disney Springs site, in Orlando, but operated by an independent company.

He alleges that the restaurant did not take enough care over his wife’s severe allergies to dairy and nuts, despite being repeatedly told about them.

She died in hospital later that day.

According to the legal filing, her death was confirmed by a medical examiner “as a result of anaphylaxis due to elevated levels of dairy and nut in her system.”

Mr Piccolo is suing Disney for a sum in excess of $50,000 (£38,400), in addition to other damages relating to suffering, loss of income, and medical and legal costs.

Disney has argued it had no control over the management and operation of the restaurant.

Lawyers for Mr Piccolo had said Disney’s argument that the lawsuit should not be heard in court “borders on the surreal.” They are yet to respond to its U-turn.

It is not known whether Disney would have been successful had a judge ruled on its arbitration claim.

Disney argued that the legal circumstances surrounding the case were unique.

But legal experts told the BBC they were “pushing the envelope of contract law”.

“Disney’s argument that accepting their terms and conditions for one product covers all interactions with that company is novel and potentially far-reaching,” Ernest Aduwa, partner at Stokoe Partnership Solicitors, who are not involved in the proceedings, said.

Meanwhile, Jibreel Tramboo, barrister at Church Court Chambers, said the terms in the Disney+ trial were a “weak argument for Disney to rely on”.

Disney says it is in the process of submitting a filing to the court to withdraw its call for arbitration.

Hundreds of protesters have gathered at a railway station in the western state of Maharashtra to protest against the alleged sexual assault of two children.

The girls were allegedly abused last week when they went to use the toilet in their nursery school in Thane district’s Badlapur city.

Police have arrested a male employee of the school, but the parents of the children have alleged there was a delay in action.

On Tuesday, train services at the Badlapur railway station were stopped as angry protesters blocked the tracks, demanding justice for the children.

Local reports say that some protesters also pelted stones at the police.

Videos shared on social media showed huge crowds jostling against each other at a railway platform.

The state’s Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced that a special investigation team (SIT) has been formed to look into the matter and that action would be taken against the school.

“We are in the process of fast-tracking this case, and no-one will be spared if found guilty,” he said.

The school’s management has also come under scrutiny after the parents of the children alleged various safety lapses, including the lack of functional CCTV cameras at campus.

Priyank Kanungo, chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, called the school’s attitude towards the case “insensitive” and alleged that it had tried to “suppress the case”.

“The concerned police station did not register an FIR [First Information Report or an initial complaint] in due time,” he added.

The police and the school’s management has not responded to these allegations.

But the school has suspended its principal, a class teacher and a female employee over the incident, according to the Times of India newspaper.

The protest is taking place in the aftermath of an outpouring of anger across India over the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in the eastern state of West Bengal.

The 31-year-old woman’s body was found earlier this month in the seminar room of a state-run hospital in Kolkata where she worked.

Panama on Tuesday started repatriating undocumented migrants on flights financed by the United States.

The move comes less than two months after José Raúl Mulino was sworn in as Panama’s president.

Mr Mulino campaigned on a promise to “close” the Darién Gap, the dangerous stretch of jungle which more than half a million migrants crossed last year on their way north from South America.

The Biden administration said it had agreed to pay for the flights as part of its efforts to deter irregular migration.

A group of 29 Colombians with criminal records were the first to be returned on Tuesday.

Under an agreement jointly signed by the Panamanian foreign minister and US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the US has committed to helping Panama with $6m (£4.6m) for equipment, transportation and logistics to “remove foreign nationals who do not have a legal basis to remain in Panama”.

Immigration is a hot topic ahead of November’s presidential election in the US and the stream of migrants arriving at its border with Mexico is being closely monitored.

The agreement with Panama aims to drive down the number of people making it to the US border by stopping them further south.

The Darién Gap, an expanse of jungle which straddles Colombia and Panama, is a natural bottleneck for those heading from South to North America.

In 2023, an estimated 520,000 people made the perilous journey on foot, many of whom had to pay gangs who prey on those embarking on the crossing.

President Mulino, who has promised to reduce the number of migrants transiting through Panama, described their situation as “sad”.

“Most of them are from Venezuela,” he explained. “They’re human beings… there are families torn apart, children of five or six years of age whose parents have died during the crossing. We don’t even know who they are or what their names are.”

The president had earlier said that the flights would in the first instance take migrants to Colombia, the country from which they entered Panama.

It is not yet clear if flights will be organised from Colombia to repatriate them to their homelands.

According to Panamanian government figures, Venezuelans form the largest share of migrants trekking through the Darién Gap, followed by Colombians, Ecuadoreans and Haitians.

There is widespread concern in the region that the flow of those fleeing Venezuela could increase in the months to come if the political crisis triggered by the announcement of disputed election results is not solved.

Ahead of the election, polls had suggested that large numbers of Venezuelans were planning on migrating should President Nicolás Maduro win.

Tension has been high since he was declared the winner by the government-dominated National Electoral Council, with the result being rejected as fraudulent by the opposition and questioned by the US, the EU and many Latin American countries.

Panamanian President Mulino earlier this month offered Mr Maduro “safe passage” so that the Venezuelan leader could leave to a third country, but his offer was rejected by Mr Maduro, who warned his Panamanian counterpart not to “mess” with Venezuela.

US singer Chappell Roan has called out the “creepy behaviour” she’s experienced in person and online as her star status continues to build.

In two TikToks, she says she feels “harassed” and mentions her family being “stalked”, bullied online and being yelled at from car windows.

Chappell’s debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess reached number one on the Official Chart earlier in August.

Her pair of posts on the app have since been viewed more than 12 million times in total.

“I don’t care that abuse and harassment is a normal thing to do to people who are famous or a little famous,” she says in one of the videos.

“I don’t care that it’s normal. I don’t care that this crazy type of behaviour comes along with the job, the career field I’ve chosen. That does not make it OK.”

Chappell is one of the year’s most successful popstars with Good Luck, Babe! becoming a breakout hit at home in the US and around the world.

Established stars including Adele and Lady Gaga have fuelled her popularity with the former describing her as “phenomenal” and “spectacular”.

“It’s weird how people think that you know a person just because you see them online and you listen to the art they make,” she continues in her post.

“I’m allowed to say no to creepy behaviour.

“[Being a singer] doesn’t mean that I want it. It doesn’t mean that I like it.

“I don’t [care] if you think it’s selfish of me to say no for a photo or for your time or for a hug. That’s not normal, that’s weird.”

In her caption, she said her post wasn’t about a specific person or experience.

“This is just my side of the story and my feelings.”

Chappell is not the only famous name to warn fans about overstepping the line, or to set boundaries for their fans based on difficult experiences.

In 2022, actress and singer Keke Palmer posted on social media that “no means no, even when it doesn’t pertain to sex,” describing being filmed against her will in a bar.

Justin Bieber has previously said he was “done taking pictures” with fans in an Instagram post.

The Canadian star said he wanted to “keep his sanity”, with demands for selfies leaving him feeling like a “zoo animal”.

Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke has also decided to say no to requests for photos.

Speaking on the podcast Table Manners in 2019, she described two encounters with fans: one woke her on a plane to ask for a selfie and another asked for a photo while she was crying and having a panic attack in an airport.

At the time, Emilia said she prefers instead to sign something: “When you do that, you have to have an interaction with that person, as opposed to someone just going, ‘Give us a selfie, goodbye.’

“Then you have a chat and you’re actually having a truthful human-to-human thing.”

What we’re seeing with Chappell and her fans is known as a parasocial relationship.

Dr Veronica Lamarche, a social psychologist and relationships researcher at the University of Essex, describes it as a “one-sided relationship”.

Dr Lamarche tells Newsbeat we often turn to celebrities and “feel like they can help us fulfil our emotional needs” – even more perhaps than our real friends.

“It can become dangerous when we don’t set healthy boundaries in terms of those expectations,” she says.

When a chance comes to cross paths in real life, “you’re imagining that when you meet them, they’re going to be your best friend, they’re going to like you as much as you like them.

“But the reality is this celebrity that you’ve been projecting onto doesn’t have any idea who you are.

“So for them, it can be really destabilising because they feel you’re being too familiar with them.”

Parasocial relationships are “nothing new”, Dr Lamarche says, but social media means we have a “constant sense of interaction”.

“If your favourite celebrity posts on Instagram and you comment on those pictures, it really feels like you’re having a two-sided conversation when at the end of the day it really is still one-sided.

“A lot of fans might be feeling hurt or disappointed by what Chappell Roan has come out to say,” she says.

“It’s natural because this is someone we admire telling us we’re doing something wrong and that feels rejecting and hurtful.

“But also it’s important to be mindful of the healthy boundaries these people are trying to set for themselves.”

Newsbeat’s been asking Chappell Roan fans about her TikTok posts, including 20-year-old Leah from Birmingham.

“I honestly praise her for it,” she says.

“You have no idea what they’re going through or what it takes to be famous and because stans (super fans) put them on pedestals, we expect them to be perfect, all the time.”

Olivia, who’s 25 and lives in London, told Newsbeat: “Chappell’s gone from zero to a hundred incredibly quickly. It must be overwhelming.

“I can see why some fans might think she’s maybe a bit too forceful with it but it’s her life and she’s allowed to feel passionate about protecting her safety and her boundaries.”

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

At least 12 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a school housing displaced people in Gaza City, the Hamas-run Civil Defence authority says.

A spokesman said rescuers were struggling to recover a number of missing people believed to be trapped under the rubble at Mustafa Hafez school in the western Rimal neighbourhood.

The Israeli military said it had targeted a Hamas command and control centre inside the school, and that it had taken steps to mitigate risk of harming civilians.

Earlier, it announced that troops had recovered the bodies of six Israeli hostages being held in the Khan Younis area.

The men were among the 251 people kidnapped by Hamas-led gunmen in the 7 October attacks on southern Israel last year, when about 1,200 people were also killed.

Israel launching an air and ground campaign to destroy Hamas in response, during which more than 40,170 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Women and children can be heard screaming and seen running from the dust-enveloped Mustafa Hafez school in a video posted on social media showing the immediate aftermath of Tuesday morning’s strike.

The camera then pans to show rubble on the ground beside the completely flattened remains of a two-storey building.

“We were sitting safely, we did not see the explosion,” witness Umm Mohammed later told Reuters news agency.

“The people are gone, they’re dead. They are under the rubble.”

Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said in the afternoon that rescue crews had so far recovered the bodies of 12 people.

He said the strike had targeted the entire wing of the school, where he estimated that 700 displaced people had been living.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said aircraft had conducted a “a precise strike on terrorists who were operating within a Hamas command and control centre” which had been embedded inside the school and used to plan and launch attacks against its troops and Israel.

“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence,” it added.

The IDF accused Hamas of violating international law by operating within civilian infrastructure and exploiting Gaza’s civilian population – allegations which Hamas has previously denied.

Earlier this month, the UN Human Rights Office condemned what it called the “increasing frequency” of Israeli strikes on schools sheltering displaced people and accused the IDF of conducting them “with apparent disregard for the high rate of civilian fatalities”.

The warning after at least 70 Palestinians were killed in an air strike on al-Taba’een school in Gaza City, according to the director of a local hospital.

The IDF said the school had “served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility”, and that it had confirmed the identities of 31 “terrorists” who were killed.

The UN said at the time that it had been at least the 21st strike on a school serving as a shelter since 4 July and that they had resulted in at least 274 fatalities.

With just three months to go before the 2024 election, thousands of people are gathering in Chicago this week for the Democratic National Convention.

It’s a tradition dating back to the 1830s, when a group of Democratic delegates supporting President Andrew Jackson gathered in Baltimore to nominate him for a second term.

This year will look slightly different from others, as the party has already officially nominated Vice-President Kamala Harris in a virtual roll call after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

But many of the other DNC traditions – including appearances from celebrities and memorable speeches from party leaders – will remain the same. Here’s what to know.

This year’s convention is taking place at the United Center Arena in Chicago. It started on Monday 19 August and will continue until Thursday 22 August.

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Because Ms Harris and Mr Walz have already been nominated, this year’s convention will focus on speeches from prominent Democrats and the adoption of the party’s platform.

Delegates work during the day to finalise the platform, a draft of which has already been released.

It focuses on a broad range of issues, including plans to lower inflation, mitigate climate change and tackle gun violence.

In the draft, Democrats contrast each of the party positions with Project 2025, an ultra-conservative blueprint for what a second Trump administration could look like, authored by the Heritage Foundation. Trump has sought to distance himself from the project, though several of his allies were involved in writing it.

On Tuesday, former President Barack Obama is expected to deliver remarks, as is former First Lady Michelle Obama. Several senators are taking the stage: Majority Leader Chuck Schumer; Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth.

Other key speakers include Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, Mesa, Arizona Mayor John Giles and Ms Harris’s husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.

Wednesday’s line-up reportedly features former President Bill Clinton and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, among others.

Ms Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, will give the prime-time speech that night after his nomination.

The most important night of the convention is Thursday, when Vice-President Harris will take the stage. She will formally accept the presidential nomination and give her speech on the final night of the convention dedicated “For the Future”.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will also take the stage at some point during the week.

Several prominent Democrats and celebrities have already taken the stage in Chicago.

The convention has heard from President Joe Biden, who was the headline speaker on Monday. He was introduced by his wife Jill and daughter Ashley. During an emotional defence of his presidency, he said: “America, I gave my best to you.”

2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton offered her own tribute to Mr Biden the same evening, and voiced her hope that Kamala Harris could finally break the “highest, hardest glass ceiling” in the US by becoming the first female president.

Others who spoke on Monday included progressive lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Americans affected by abortion bans in Republican-controlled states, and voices from the labour movement, including United Auto Workers head Shawn Fain.

Around 50,000 people are expected to attend this year’s convention in Chicago. This includes thousands of delegates chosen by state Democratic parties as well as super delegates, who are major elected officials, notable members of the Democratic Party and some members of the Democratic National Committee.

Thousands of members of the media will also be in attendance.

It will be a star-studded convention with appearances from several celebrities. In 2020, actors Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Eva Longoria attended the convention, while Elizabeth Banks and America Ferrera appeared in 2016.

Rumours have swirled about whether mega-stars Beyoncé and Taylor Swift will attend this year, but neither has confirmed.

Demonstrations have been planned outside the DNC venue – many of them centred around opposition to US support of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Thousands of marchers took to the streets for a mostly peaceful protest on Monday, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to US support for Israel. Several were arrested when dozens of them broke through a security fence.

The turnout appeared to be well below the tens of thousands that organisers had hoped for and short of the 15,000 they claimed were there.

In that night’s address, Mr Biden acknowledged that the activists “have a point”, going on to say that “a lot of innocent people are being killed, on both sides”.

Members of the public can only attend the convention in person by becoming volunteers. But as with the Republican convention, there will be plenty of national media coverage, and the convention itself will offer live-streams on social media platforms.

You’ll be able to follow BBC News coverage – featuring on-site reporting and analysis – across the website and app, and on our live-stream.

The BBC News Channel will carry special coverage from 20:00 ET (01:00 BST) each night. You can find special episodes of The Global Story and Americast podcasts on BBC Sounds and other podcast platforms.

Sign up to North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s election newsletter US Election Unspun for his take on the week’s events direct to your inbox.

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Dozens of workers from around the world may have been trafficked into the UK to work for a small family-owned Scottish fishing firm, a BBC investigation has revealed.

Thirty-five men from the Philippines, Ghana, India and Sri Lanka were recognised as victims of modern slavery by the Home Office after being referred to it between 2012 and 2020.

The workers were employed by TN Trawlers and its sister companies, owned by the Nicholson family, based in the small town of Annan on the southern coast of Scotland.

The TN Group denied any allegation of modern slavery or human trafficking and said its workers were well treated and well paid.

The company was the focus of two long-running criminal investigations but no cases of human trafficking or modern slavery have come to trial, although some of the men waited years to give evidence.

While TN Trawlers’ lead director, Thomas Nicholson, was under active investigation, TN Group companies continued recruiting new employees from across the world.

Experienced fisherman Joel Quince was 28 when he landed at Heathrow Airport in 2012, thrilled to have secured a job as a deckhand with TN trawlers.

Joel had a young family back home in the Philippines, thousands of miles away. He had been expecting to earn a good income working in the UK. He was to be paid $1,012 (£660) a month for a 48-hour week.

He caught a bus from London to Carlisle, where, he says, he was picked up by the owner’s son, Tom Nicholson Jr.

“On our way to go to the boat he told us: ‘You have to give me your documents’ – so without hesitation I gave all my documents to them,” he said.

Joel says he was then taken straight to the fishing ground to start working.

But he was surprised to find that his boat was the Philomena rather than the Mattanja, which was the only vessel he was authorised to work on under the terms of his visa. “This was already something fishy for me,” he said

He claims that instead of the 48-hour week he had been told about, he was working 18 hours a day, seven days a week while the Philomena was out fishing.

On his monthly wage of £660, it meant Joel was earning less than the UK minimum wage – although at that time there was no legal requirement to pay it to fishermen like him.

Joel was one of about 30 seafarers who arrived in the UK to join TN Trawlers between 2011 and 2013, mostly from the Philippines. They joined dredgers trawling for scallops along the UK coastline.

These dredgers, built in the 1970s and 80s, work by towing metal nets along the seabed. They scrape up shellfish, as well as stones and bycatch – the other marine life which gets caught in the nets. Deckhands throw back the stones and pack the scallops in ice below deck.

Several of the men the BBC spoke to had little or no fishing experience. All describe working shift patterns as gruelling as Joel’s or worse.

Joel said he struggled to get up to go to work because he was so exhausted – but he didn’t complain because his colleagues were also suffering.

“If I stop working, there’s three people suffering, not getting their rest, because the operation keeps continuing. They won’t stop.”

He said there was not enough drinking water on board the vessels, and the crew were reduced to eating tomatoes from the stores to wet their throats. He also said that on one occasion a skipper threw an empty Coke can at the crew.

All the men the BBC spoke to described shortages of proper clothing, food and water.

Jaype Rubi was a young Filipino when he worked on board the TN dredger Sea Lady in 2012.

“Picking up and throwing out rocks is really tiring,” he said.

“The boat had CCTV, so the skipper could watch us. If we stop, he’d pull down the window and say: ‘Why are you resting’?”

Jaype said it was “super cold” and there was not enough food.

When he spoke to his mum on the phone, he started crying. “I said: ‘I want to go home because it’s a nightmare working on that boat’.”

Jaype said he was subjected to verbal abuse and was treated “like a slave”.

Other men said that, despite arriving in the UK on 48-hour transit visa, they were told to work onshore in the TN yard at Annan, in breach of their visa entitlement.

One man, Jovito Abiero, told the BBC he was sometimes sent to the home of the company owner Tom Nicholson to do gardening.

On 22 August 2012, Joel was aboard the Philomena off the coast of Northern Ireland during rough weather.

He was fixing a broken link in the metal nets when the towing bar swung up. He leapt out of the way – but fell and hit his head on the deck.

His crew mates estimated he was unconscious for up to 15 minutes.

When Joel woke up with a bandage on his head, he asked his skipper – Tom Nicholson Jr – if they were going to hospital.

“He said: ‘No, we’re not going to the hospital. We continue fishing’,” said Joel.

Joel was given paracetamol by the skipper and his head was bandaged. The Philomena didn’t turn around and head for the port of Troon in Ayrshire until 11 hours after the accident.

Joel got off the Philomena, never to return. He found support at the Fishermen’s Mission, a harbourside charity that supports seafarers.

At that time the mission was run by two sisters, Paula Daly and Karen Burston, who helped Joel get medical help. They had been hearing rumours about TN boats for some time.

“In 2012, it became really quite abundantly clear that we were getting the same message from quite a few different crew,” said Paula.

“There were so many things that were so wrong,” added Karen.

Police forces on several UK coasts had long been aware of allegations about TN Trawlers.

The company had been prosecuted in 2007 for illegal catches worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. Tom Nicholson and TN Trawlers were ordered to pay £473,000 under proceeds of crime laws.

They were also ordered to pay almost £150,000 in fines and costs after the Maritime and Coastguard Agency found a string of defects and safety breaches on vessels between 2009 and 2011.

A 2012 police briefing, seen by the BBC, also noted six Filipino fishermen swam ashore from TN boats and complained of mistreatment.

That year, police in Dumfries and Galloway launched Operation Alto, an investigation into human trafficking and labour abuse at TN Trawlers.

Eighteen former TN Trawlers employees – including Joel – passed into the Home Office’s National Referral Mechanism, a system which identifies and supports victims of human trafficking.

File on 4: Invisible Souls

Fishermen from the Philippines, Ghana and Sri Lanka speak out for the first time about how badly they say they were treated by a Scottish fishing company.

Listen on BBC Radio 4 at 20:00 on Tuesday 20 August or on BBC Sounds.

Modern slavery is a term that can encompass human trafficking and slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour.

The Home Office defines the essence of human trafficking as a situation where a person is “coerced or deceived into a situation where they are exploited”.

Under this guidance, the men were all given recognition by the Home Office that they had been trafficked.

They were taken to a safe house somewhere in Scotland, then police asked them to stay in the UK to help with further enquiries and act as witnesses when the case came to court.

TN Trawlers continued to recruit, switching its main recruitment operation from East Asia to West Africa.

In June 2013, Gideon Mensah from Ghana signed up to work on the TN scalop dredger Noordzee. He said he soon found himself in the same situation as the Filipinos – overworked and undernourished.

Gideon told the BBC his wages were diverted to his recruitment agent back home, leaving him with £50 cash in hand each month – just £1.66 per day.

He was later recognised as a victim of modern slavery by the Home Office and spent several years on file as a witness for forthcoming prosecutions.

In 2017, five years after Joel Quince stepped off the Philomena at Troon harbour, 25-year old Vishal Sharma left India and arrived in London on a transit visa.

He’d signed a contract with a different company to work in the engine room of a Belgian tanker for 15 months.

But his agent in India then told him to travel to a different meeting point in the south of England, and he was taken to the Noordzee.

“I asked: ‘Why am I working there? It’s not my ship… I am not a fisherman’.”

Vishal claims he was threatened with deportation if he didn’t comply.

He spent three weeks on the trawler and says he was never paid.

He claims he worked 22-hour days, had little food, and that his boots began to fall apart in the seawater.

Men continued to arrive from Ghana, including Augustus Mensah and Gershon Norvivor. They both described being put to work in the Nicholsons’ compound before being shipped out, and both ended up working on a vessel called on the Sea Lady.

The BBC has seen payment schedules given to both men upon employment. Both were to earn £850 per month, with an additional cash payment of £50.

Based on a 48-hour working week, they would receive £4.68 an hour.

The conditions they alleged were similar to those described to the BBC by the workers from 2012.

“We were short of food and short of water,” says Gershon.

He claimed deckhands would drink washing water from the ship’s rusty tank. When the tank was empty, they’d melt the ice used to pack the scallops.

“We went to the fish room with a bucket or a sack and you put an ice block in… you put it on the stove… and the guys would make coffee with it.”

On 6 December 2017, a dredge net full of scallops swung and crashed into Augustus’ head and knocked him out. Gershon did what he could to help his friend, rinsing away the blood.

The crew managed to get word to the police onshore in Portsmouth.

“When we were rescued by the police we were very happy,” said Augustus.

Augustus, Gershon and Vishal, along with six other crew members from Ghana, India and Sri Lanka, were taken into the National Referral Mechanism system and recognised by the Home Office as victims of modern slavery. They were asked to stay in the UK as potential witnesses in the ongoing investigation into Thomas Nicholson Snr and TN Trawlers.

After a five-year wait, the case was dropped after some of the men failed to identify suspects during an identity parade.

In a letter from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) this year, Vishal was told that, while prosecutors said there was evidence a crime had been committed, there was not enough evidence to prove the identity of the perpetrator.

Disclosure: Slavery at Sea

A three-year investigation uncovers allegations of modern slavery aboard UK fishing vessels.

Watch on BBC iPlayer or on BBC Scotland at 21:00 on Monday.

The Filipinos’ case finally reached Hamilton Sheriff Court in October 2022, some 10 years after the men were removed from the boats.

Thomas Nicholson Snr and TN Trawlers pleaded guilty to failing to get adequate care for Joel Quince. The Crown accepted his not guilty plea to withholding some of the Filipino crewmen’s passports without reasonable excuse.

Despite the Home Office’s conclusion that the men were trafficking victims, the case did not involve charges of trafficking or modern slavery.

Thomas Nicholson Snr was fined £13,500 and ordered to pay Joel £3,000 in compensation.

Text message exchanges between Nicholson Snr and the vessel’s skipper Tom Nicholson Jr on the day of the accident were read out in court, in which the father instructed his son not to take Joel ashore for medical treatment.

After hearing the messages, Joel told the BBC: “He was a devil with a human image. He doesn’t see me as a person… he doesn’t see us.”

Thomas Nicholson Snr was the director of TN Trawlers, TN Enterprises, Sea Lady Trawlers, and Olivia Jean. The companies owned at least six scallop dredgers.

A spokesman for TN Group said it disputed suggestions that workers were mistreated.

It said it always provided food and accommodation to workers and that they were “always free to come and go when ashore”.

He said: “The overwhelming experience of our workers was that they were well treated and well remunerated. We dispute many of the accounts put to us, in some cases over a decade on.

“We absolutely refute any allegation of modern slavery or human trafficking and our many testimonials and long-term employees are testament to that.”

He said the company regretted the delay in bringing Joel Quince ashore for medical treatment.

“We fell short on that occasion. We have accepted responsibility, compensated and we apologise to that individual,” said the spokesman.

“Working conditions on the high seas, sometimes in dangerous waters and in a confined environment, are extremely difficult.”

The Crown Office said it was fully committed to tackling human trafficking.

“We recognise that the time taken in dealing with these complex and challenging matters has been difficult for those affected,” said a spokesperson.

“COPFS deal with every case on its own individual facts and circumstances and takes action where it assesses there is sufficient admissible evidence that a crime has been committed and it is in the public interest to do so.”

Life after TN Trawlers has seen mixed fortunes for its former crewmen.

Many of those involved in Operation Alto have had their permission to remain in the UK extended, some indefinitely. This enables them to work in the UK and support their families – something they had always wanted.

The men from Ghana interviewed by the BBC have seen their leave to remain expire, meaning they face the possibility of leaving the UK.

However, all the men spoke of their bitterness at working for the company – and their experience of the justice system in the UK.

Joel Quince said his eyes had been opened.

“I see now how it works,” he said.

“This is how your UK law is done… You favour the wealthy people, and you don’t care about the poor.”

Nibha Kumari, a resident of Bihar, India’s poorest state, recalls how a bicycle transformed her life when she turned 15.

For two years, six days a week, she cycled two hours daily from home to school and coaching classes and back, using a bicycle provided by the state government.

“If I didn’t have a cycle, I don’t think I could have finished high school. It changed my life,” says Nibha, now 27.

The daughter of a farmer from Begusarai district, Nibha was sent to live with her aunt 10km (six miles) away to attend a nearby primary school. Mobility was challenging for girls and public transport was unreliable.

When Nibha returned home for high school, she hopped on a bicycle, navigating the rough village roads to pursue her education.

“Girls have gained a lot of confidence after they began using bicycles to go to schools and coaching classes. More and more of them are going to school now. Most of them have free bicycles,” says Bhuvaneshwari Kumari, a health worker in Begusarai.

She’s right. A new peer-reviewed study published in Journal of Transport Geography reveals remarkable insights about school-going children and cycling in rural India.

The study by Srishti Agrawal, Adit Seth and Rahul Goel found that the most notable rise in cycling in India had occurred among rural girls – increasing more than two times from 4.5% in 2007 to 11% in 2017 – reducing the gender gap in the activity.

“This is a silent revolution. We call it a revolution because cycling levels increased among girls in a country which has high levels of gender inequality in terms of female mobility outside the home, in general, and for cycling, in particular,” says Ms Agrawal.

State-run free bicycle distribution schemes since 2004 have targeted girls, who had higher school dropout rates than boys due to household chores and exhausting long walks. This approach isn’t unique to India – evidence from countries like Colombia, Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe also shows that bicycles effectively boost girls’ school enrolment and retention. But the scale here is unmatched.

The three researchers – from Delhi’s Indian Institute of Technology and Mumbai’s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies – analysed transport modes for school-going children aged 5-17 years from a nationwide education survey, looked at the effectiveness of state-run schemes that provide free bicycles to students and tested their influence on the cycling rate.

Nationally, the percentage of all students cycling to school rose from 6.6% in 2007 to 11.2% in 2017, they found.

Cycling to school in rural areas doubled over the decade, while in urban areas, it remained steady. Indian city roads are notoriously unsafe, with low urban cycling to school linked to poor traffic safety and more cars on the road.

India’s cycling revolution is most substantial in villages, with states like Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, and Chhattisgarh leading the growth. These states have populations comparable to some of the largest European countries. Cycling was most common for longer distances in rural areas than in urban areas, the study found.

India began reporting cycling behaviour for the first time only in the last Census in 2011. Only 20% of those travelling to work outside home reported cycling as their main mode of transport. But people in villages cycled more (21%) than in the cities (17%).

Also, more working men (21.7%) than their female counterparts (4.7%) cycled to work. “Compared to international settings, this level of gender gap in cycling is among the highest in the world,” says Ms Agrawal.

American suffragist Susan B Anthony famously said that the bicycle “has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance”.

Researchers wonder if women cycle less as they age due to shrinking job opportunities and workforce dropout. Nibha stopped cycling after marriage and moving to her in-laws’ home. While she still travels outside the house as she trains to become a teacher, when asked about her commute, she simply says, “I don’t need the cycle anymore.”

The religious composition of Indians who emigrate differs significantly from those who stay in India, analysis by the US-based Pew Research Center has found.

About 80% of people in India are Hindu, but they form only 41% of emigrants from the country, the survey on the religious composition of the world’s migrants says.

In contrast, about 15% of people living in India are Muslim, compared with 33% of those who were born in India and now live elsewhere.

Christians make up only about 2% of the Indian population, but 16% who have left India are Christian.

“Many more Muslims and Christians have left India than have moved there. People of other, smaller religions, like Sikhs and Jains, are also disproportionately likely to have left India,” Stephanie Kramer, a lead researcher of the analysis, told me.

More than 280 million people, or 3.6% of the world’s population, are international migrants.

As of 2020, Christians comprised 47% of the global migrant population, Muslims 29%, Hindus 5%, Buddhists 4% and Jews 1%, according to Pew Research Center’s analysis of UN data and 270 censuses and surveys.

The religiously unaffiliated, including atheists and agnostics, made up 13% of global migrants who have left their country of birth.

The migrant population in the analysis includes anyone living outside their birthplace, from babies to oldest adults. They could have been born at any time as long as they are still alive.

As far as India is concerned, the analysis found that the religious make-up of the population who have moved to India is much more similar to that of the country’s overall population.

Also, Hindus are starkly under-represented among international migrants (5%) compared with their share of the global population (15%). There are about one billion Hindus around the world.

“This seems to be because Hindus are so concentrated in India and people born in India are very unlikely to leave,” said Ms Kramer.

“More people who were born in India are living elsewhere than from any other country of origin, but these millions of emigrants represent a small fraction of India’s population.”

About 99% of Hindus lived in Asia back in 2010, almost entirely in India and Nepal, and researchers say they wouldn’t expect that share to drop much, if at all.

Since partition, India hasn’t experienced a mass migration event, and many of those who migrated then are no longer alive.

“In contrast, other religious groups are more dispersed globally and face more push factors that drive emigration,” Ms Kramer said.

So are Hindus some sort of a global outlier in this respect?

Researchers say Hindus do stand out in comparison to the other religious groups analysed.

“They’re less likely to leave home than people of other faiths, and their global migration patterns mostly depend on who leaves and arrives in India, rather than a broad collection of countries like other major religions,” says Ms Kramer.

The analysis found that Hindus have the longest average migration distance of 4,988km (3,100 miles), often moving from India to distant places like the US and the UK.

Researchers attribute this to the lack of recent crises forcing Hindus to flee to nearby countries. Instead, most are economic migrants seeking job opportunities, often in distant locations.

India certainly isn’t unique in having an emigrant population with a religious make-up different from those still living in the country.

Hindus are over-represented among emigrants from Bangladesh, according to the survey.

The study estimates that fewer than 10% of residents of Bangladesh are Hindu but 21% of the people who have left Bangladesh are Hindu.

Around 90% of people living in Bangladesh are Muslim, but 67% of emigrants from Bangladesh are Muslim.

Hindus make up only about 2% of Pakistan’s population, and 8% of people who were born in Pakistan and now live elsewhere are Hindu.

Myanmar has a lower percentage of Muslims in its population of residents compared with its emigrant population. Muslims make up about 4% of Myanmar’s resident population and 36% of its emigrant population.

Clearly, Muslims also migrate out of majority-Muslim countries. But religious minorities in those countries often migrate more.

So what does the Pew report broadly reveal about the religious composition of the world’s migrants?

“We find that people often go to places where their religion is common, and that those from minority religious groups within their country of birth are more likely to leave,” says Ms Kramer.

In January 2015, Abdullah, the 90-year-old king of Saudi Arabia, was dying in hospital. His half-brother, Salman, was about to become king – and Salman’s favourite son, Mohammed bin Salman, was preparing for power.

The prince, known simply by his initials MBS and then just 29 years old, had big plans for his kingdom, the biggest plans in its history; but he feared that plotters within his own Saudi royal family could eventually move against him. So at midnight one evening that month, he summoned a senior security official to the palace, determined to win his loyalty.

The official, Saad al-Jabri, was told to leave his mobile phone on a table outside. MBS did the same. The two men were now alone. The young prince was so fearful of palace spies that he pulled the socket out of the wall, disconnecting the only landline telephone.

According to Jabri, MBS then talked about how he would wake his kingdom up from its deep slumber, allowing it to take its rightful place on the global stage. By selling a stake in the state oil producer Aramco, the world’s most profitable company, he would begin to wean his economy off its dependency on oil. He would invest billions in Silicon Valley tech startups including the taxi firm, Uber. Then, by giving Saudi women the freedom to join the workforce, he would create six million new jobs.

Astonished, Jabri asked the prince about the extent of his ambition. “Have you heard of Alexander the Great?” came the simple reply.

MBS ended the conversation there. A midnight meeting that was scheduled to last half-an-hour had gone on for three. Jabri left the room to find several missed calls on his mobile from government colleagues worried about his long disappearance.

The Kingdom: The World’s Most Powerful Prince

The story of the extraordinary rise to power of the man who runs Saudi Arabia and whose control of oil affects everyone, starting with how he outwitted hundreds of rivals to become crown prince.

Watch on BBC iPlayer

For the past year, our documentary team has been talking to both Saudi friends and opponents of MBS, as well as senior Western spies and diplomats. The Saudi government was given the opportunity to respond to the claims made in the BBC’s films and in this article. They chose not to do so.

Saad al-Jabri was so high up in the Saudi security apparatus that he was friends with the heads of the CIA and MI6. While the Saudi government has called Jabri a discredited former official, he’s also the most well-informed Saudi dissident to have dared speak about how the crown prince rules Saudi Arabia – and the rare interview he has given us is astonishing in its detail.

By gaining access to many who know the prince personally, we shed new light on the events that have made MBS notorious – including the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the launch of a devastating war in Yemen.

With his father increasingly frail, the 38-year-old MBS is now de facto in charge of the birthplace of Islam and the world’s biggest exporter of oil. He’s begun to carry out many of the groundbreaking plans he described to Saad al-Jabri – while also being accused of human rights violations including the suppression of free speech, widespread use of the death penalty and jailing of women’s rights activists.

The first king of Saudi Arabia fathered at least 42 sons, including MBS’s father, Salman. The crown has traditionally been passed down between these sons. It was when two of them suddenly died in 2011 and 2012 that Salman was elevated into the line of succession.

Western spy agencies make it their business to study the Saudi equivalent of Kremlinology – working out who will be the next king. At this stage, MBS was so young and unknown that he wasn’t even on their radar.

“He grew up in relative obscurity,” says Sir John Sawers, chief of MI6 until 2014. “He wasn’t earmarked to rise to power.”

The crown prince also grew up in a palace in which bad behaviour had few, if any, consequences; and that may help explain his notorious habit of not thinking through the impact of his decisions until he had already made them.

MBS first achieved notoriety in Riyadh in his late teens, when he was nicknamed “Abu Rasasa” or “Father of the Bullet”, after allegedly sending a bullet in the post to a judge who had overruled him in a property dispute.

“He has had a certain ruthlessness,” observes Sir John Sawers. “He doesn’t like to be crossed. But that also means he’s been able to drive through changes that no other Saudi leader has been able to do.”

Among the most welcome changes, the former MI6 chief says, has been cutting off Saudi funding to overseas mosques and religious schools that became breeding grounds for Islamist jihadism – at huge benefit to the safety of the West.

MBS’s mother, Fahda, is a Bedouin tribeswoman and seen as the favourite of his father’s four wives. Western diplomats believe the king has suffered for many years from a slow-onset form of vascular dementia; and MBS was the son he turned to for help.

Several diplomats recalled for us their meetings with MBS and his father. The prince would write notes on an iPad, then send them to his father’s iPad, as a way of prompting what he would say next.

“Inevitably I wondered whether MBS was typing out his lines for him,” recalls Lord Kim Darroch, National Security Adviser to David Cameron when he was British prime minister.

The prince was apparently so impatient for his father to become king that in 2014, he reportedly suggested killing the then-monarch – Abdullah, his uncle – with a poisoned ring, obtained from Russia.

“I don’t know for sure if he was just bragging, but we took it seriously,” says Jabri. The former senior security official says he has seen a secretly recorded surveillance video of MBS talking about the idea. “He was banned from court, from shaking hands with the king, for a considerable amount of time.”

In the event, the king died of natural causes, allowing his brother, Salman, to assume the throne in 2015. MBS was appointed Defence Minister and lost no time in going to war.

Two months later, the prince led a Gulf coalition into war against the Houthi movement, which had seized control of much of western Yemen and which he saw as a proxy of Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran. It triggered a humanitarian disaster, with millions on the brink of famine.

“It wasn’t a clever decision,” says Sir John Jenkins, who was British ambassador just before the war began. “One senior American military commander told me they had been given 12 hours’ notice of the campaign, which is unheard of.”

The military campaign helped turn a little-known prince into a Saudi national hero. However, it was also the first of what even his friends believe have been several major mistakes.

A recurring pattern of behaviour was emerging: MBS’s tendency to jettison the traditionally slow and collegiate system of Saudi decision-making, preferring to act unpredictably or upon impulse; and refusing to kowtow to the US, or be treated as head of a backward client state.

Jabri goes much further, accusing MBS of forging his father the king’s signature on a royal decree committing ground troops.

Jabri says he discussed the Yemen war in the White House before it started; and that Susan Rice, President Obama’s National Security Advisor, warned him that the US would only support an air campaign.

However, Jabri claims MBS was so determined to press ahead in Yemen that he ignored the Americans.

“We were surprised that there was a royal decree to allow the ground interventions,” Jabri says. “He forged the signature of his dad for that royal decree. The king’s mental capacity was deteriorating.”

Jabri says his source for this allegation was “credible, reliable” and linked to the Ministry of Interior where he was chief of staff.

Jabri recalls the CIA station chief in Riyadh telling him how angry he was that MBS had ignored the Americans, adding that the invasion of Yemen should never have happened.

The former MI6 chief Sir John Sawers says that while he doesn’t know if MBS forged the documents, “it is clear that this was MBS’s decision to intervene militarily in Yemen. It wasn’t his father’s decision, although his father was carried along with it.”

We’ve discovered that MBS saw himself as an outsider from the very beginning – a young man with much to prove and a refusal to obey anybody’s rules other than his own.

Kirsten Fontenrose, who served on President Donald Trump’s National Security Council, says that when she read the CIA’s in-house psychological profile of the prince, she felt it missed the point.

“There were no prototypes to base him on,” she says. “He has had unlimited resources. He has never been told ‘no’. He is the first young leader to reflect a generation that, frankly, most of us in government are too old to understand.”

MBS’s purchase of a famous painting in 2017 tells us much about how he thinks, and his willingness to be a risk-taker, unafraid to be out of step with the religiously conservative society that he governs. And above all, determined to outplay the West in conspicuous displays of power.

In 2017, a Saudi prince reportedly acting for MBS spent $450m (£350m) on the Salvator Mundi, which remains the world’s most expensive work of art ever sold. The portrait, reputed to have been painted by Leonardo da Vinci, depicts Jesus Christ as master of heaven and Earth, the saviour of the world. For almost seven years, ever since the auction, it has completely disappeared.

Bernard Haykel, a friend of the crown prince and Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, says that despite rumours that it hangs in the prince’s yacht or palace, the painting is actually in storage in Geneva and that MBS intends to hang it in a museum in the Saudi capital that has not yet been built.

“I want to build a very large museum in Riyadh,” Haykel quotes MBS as saying. “And I want an anchor object that will attract people, just like the Mona Lisa does.”

Similarly, his plans for sport reflect someone who is both hugely ambitious and unafraid to disrupt the status quo.

Saudi Arabia’s incredible spending spree on world-class sport – it is the sole bidder to host the FIFA World Cup in 2034, and has made multimillion-dollar investments in staging tournaments for tennis and golf – has been called “sportswashing”. But what we found is a leader who cares less about what the West thinks of him than he does about demonstrating the opposite: that he will do whatever he wants in the name of making himself and Saudi Arabia great.

“MBS is interested in building his own power as a leader,” says Sir John Sawers, the former Chief of MI6, who has met him. “And the only way he can do that is by building his country’s power. That’s what’s driving him.”

Jabri’s 40-year career as a Saudi official did not survive MBS’s consolidation of power. Chief of staff for the former Crown Prince Muhammed bin Nayef, he fled the kingdom as MBS was taking over, after being tipped off by a foreign intelligence service that he could be in danger. But Jabri says MBS texted him out of the blue, offering him his old job back.

“It was bait – and I didn’t bite,” Jabri says, convinced he would have been tortured, imprisoned or killed if he returned. As it was, his teenage children, Omar and Sarah, were detained and later jailed for money laundering and for trying to escape – charges that they deny. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has called for their release.

“He planned for my assassination,” Jabri says. “He will not rest until he sees me dead, I have no doubt about that.”

Saudi officials have issued Interpol notices for Jabri’s extradition from Canada, without success. They claim he is wanted for corruption involving billions of dollars during his time at the interior ministry. However, he was given the rank of major-general and credited by the CIA and MI6 with helping to prevent al-Qaeda terrorist attacks.

The killing of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 implicates MBS in ways that are very hard to refute. The 15-strong hit squad was travelling on diplomatic passports and included several of MBS’s own bodyguards. Khashoggi’s body has never been found and is believed to have been hacked into pieces with a bone saw.

Professor Haykel exchanged WhatsApp messages with MBS not long after the murder. “I was asking, ‘how could this happen?’,” Haykel recalls. “I think he was in deep shock. He didn’t realise the reaction to this was going to be as deep.”

Dennis Ross met MBS shortly afterwards. “He said he didn’t do it and that it was a colossal blunder,” says Ross. “I certainly wanted to believe him, because I couldn’t believe that he could authorise something [like] that.”

MBS has always denied knowledge of the plot, although in 2019 he said he took “responsibility” because the crime happened on his watch. A declassified US intelligence report released in February 2021 asserted that he was complicit in the killing of Khashoggi.

I asked those who know MBS personally whether he had learned from his mistakes; or whether having survived the Khashoggi affair, it had in fact emboldened him.

“He’s learned lessons the hard way,” says Professor Haykel, who says MBS resents the case being used as cudgel against him and his country, but that a killing like Khashoggi’s would not happen again.

Sir John Sawers cautiously agrees that the murder was a turning point. “I think he has learned some lessons. The personality, though, remains the same.”

His father, King Salman, is now aged 88. When he dies, MBS could rule Saudi Arabia for the next 50 years.

However, he has recently admitted he fears being assassinated, possibly as a consequence of his attempts to normalise Saudi-Israeli ties.

“I think there are lots of people who want to kill him,” says Professor Haykel, “and he knows it.”

Eternal vigilance is what keeps a man like MBS safe. It was what Saad al-Jabri observed at the beginning of the prince’s rise to power, when he pulled the telephone socket out of the wall before speaking to him in his palace.

MBS is still a man on a mission to modernise his country, in ways his predecessors would never have dared. But he’s also not the first autocrat who runs the risk of being so ruthless that nobody around him dares prevent him from making more mistakes.

Prince Harry and Meghan may no longer be working royals.

But on their tour to Colombia, they still received a stately welcome.

They were there on the invitation of the country’s vice-president, Francia Márquez.

That also meant they received a heavy government-backed security operation throughout their trip.

They no longer get this in the UK, something they have argued to the UK government and Royal Family that they should, especially given they have been targeted by threats and abuse in the past.

It was their second overseas visit in just a few months, having travelled to Nigeria earlier this year.

So, what was it for?

Primarily, they say this was about promoting their charity work trying to make the internet safer for children.

They spent the first two days talking to activists, experts and school children about the impact of social media on young people and took part in a summit on internet safety.

At the event, Prince Harry criticised the impact of AI and false news on the internet, saying: “We are no longer debating facts.”

He added: “For as long as people are allowed to spread lies, abuse, harass – then social cohesion as we know it has completely broken down. Ten years ago we could say what happens online stays online, now what happens online within a matter of minutes transfers to the streets.”

Meghan also said that while the internet could be a “connective and harmonious” space, it had created a culture where people could be very “cruel.”

Part of the visit was also to learn about Colombia’s culture and history.

Ms Márquez is the first black woman to be vice-president of the country and explained that she had first invited Meghan for an International Day of Afro-Descendent Women last year which she could not attend – so this trip was then planned instead.

The couple joined her at events including watching an indigenous dance performance, visiting a percussion school, and attending an Afro-Colombian festival.

They also met the country’s Invictus Games team – the competition for current and former injured or sick service people that Prince Harry founded.

Events involving members of the Royal Family don’t draw quite the same crowds in South America as they may in other parts of the world.

There were modest groups of people at some events who stopped to try to catch a glimpse of the couple.

One Venezuelan tourist in Bogotá, Jacqueline Romero, told me: “I saw them close; I thought my heart was going to come out. Since I was a child, my grandmother educated me about royalty. I never imagined I would find them visiting Bogotá like me.”

At another event at a percussion school on the beach, though, most of the people enjoying the sunshine seemed unfazed – despite the heavy armed military presence and gaggle of journalists.

That may be, in part, because much of this tour – including the events – were very private and controlled. These strict controls are often very typical of all royal tours too.

The couple and government only allowed their own videographers and photographers into most of the events which they say was to make sure events were represented “accurately”.

Footage was released daily, with no sound.

They took with them only one “pool” reporter from Harper’s Bazaar who released daily updates to the media about what they were doing, copying in their spokespeople and publicity team.

The BBC chose not to rely on this material alone, as we could not be present to verify what was said and described, but we were able to attend the summit and watch some events from the sidelines.

At their visit to a village with strong African connections, San Basilio de Palenque, a square was cordoned off where some stalls and a stage with music had been set up for them to visit. Some locals from their visit were allowed to come in, but many watched bemused from their houses nearby.

Prince Harry and Meghan have been explicit about their concerns about press intrusion on their lives, particularly from British tabloids.

They have received threats online and had many legal battles with newspapers about invasions of privacy.

But as a result, some royal watchers did raise questions like: why do such a high-profile visit which seems, in part, about publicity too for both the hosts and the guests?

For Prince Harry and Meghan, this was about promoting their campaigns to make the internet safer, and some of their initiatives like a new parent’s network to support parents of children who had suffered harm online.

It is also about maintaining their influence and visibility on the world stage, and showing they can still attract audiences with global leaders.

For the government here, it was clear the vice-president hopes their charitable foundation – Archewell – may consider supporting some of the social projects they visited.

It is also good publicity for Ms Márquez ahead of elections next year. Some speculate she may run for president, with the current president, Gustavo Petro, suffering from poor approval ratings.

While there was certainly a big buzz in local media about the visit, there was some criticism too about the cost of the heavy security presence accompanying them.

Crowds of armed military lined the streets in vast numbers, in part because Ms Márquez herself has had threats on her life.

The Sussexes have said they fear doing similarly high-profile events back in the UK after suffering violent threats online and because they no longer receive the government-funded security they did as working royals.

They have asked the Royal Family and UK government if this could change.

This second international tour in just a few months, though, suggests perhaps international campaigning is where their focus may now turn instead.

The invitation from government figures like Ms Márquez, who come with their own security operation, suggests a future model for how the couple could work safely and on their own terms outside the royal structure.

The co-defendant of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch – who is currently missing in Italy – has died after being hit by a car.

Stephen Chamberlain, 52, was Mr Lynch’s co-defendant in his US fraud trial in which both men were acquitted following the $11bn (£8.64bn) sale of the software giant Autonomy.

Mr Chamberlain died after being struck by the vehicle while out running in Cambridgeshire on Saturday and his family has now paid tribute to him.

Mr Lynch and his daughter are currently missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily on Monday.

Mr Chamberlain’s family described him as a “much loved husband, father, son, brother and friend”.

“He was an amazing individual whose only goal in life was to help others in any way possible,” they added.

“He made a lasting impression on everyone who had the privilege of knowing him.

“He will be deeply missed but forever in the hearts of his loved ones.”

Mr Chamberlain died in hospital after the crash on the A1123 at Stretham in Cambridgeshire at about 10:10 BST on Saturday.

The driver of the car, a 49-year-old woman from Haddenham, remained at the scene and is assisting with enquiries.

Gary Lincenberg, Mr Chamberlain’s lawyer, also described his client as a “courageous man”.

“Our dear client and friend Steve Chamberlain was fatally struck by a car on Saturday while out running,” he said.

“He was a courageous man with unparalleled integrity. We deeply miss him.

“Steve fought successfully to clear his good name at trial earlier this year, and his good name now lives on through his wonderful family.”

Mr Chamberlain was the former vice-president of finance at Autonomy.

Prior to his US trial he was the former chief operating officer of British cyber security company Darktrace.

A spokesperson for Darktrace said he was a “substantial contributor” to the team in its early years.

“Steve was much loved by his colleagues and leaves many friends at Darktrace,” they added.

“We extend our deepest condolences to his wife and the rest of his family who are very much in our thoughts at this challenging time.”

Mr Lynch similarly had connections to Cambridgeshire after studying Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge.

He was raised near Chelmsford in Essex and more recently has been living in the Loudham Hall estate in Suffolk.

Searches for those missing from the yacht off the coast of Sicily have resumed on Tuesday.

Six tourists – including Mr Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter – remain missing from the yacht named Bayesian.

It was hit during intense storms in the early hours of Monday.

Morgan Stanley International Bank chairman, Jonathan Bloomer, and Clifford Chance lawyer, Chris Morvillo, are also among those missing.

A British mother on board a yacht which sank off the coast of Sicily has described holding her baby girl above the surface of the sea to save her from drowning.

The mother, named as Charlotte Golunski, her partner and one-year-old daughter are reported to be among 15 people to have been rescued from the luxury yacht Bayesian early on Monday.

Six people – including British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch – are missing with one man found dead outside the wreckage.

Charlotte told Italian newspaper La Repubblica her family survived only because they were on deck when the yacht sank after encountering a heavy storm.

She said they were woken by “thunder, lightning and waves that made our boat dance”, and it felt like “the end of the world” before they were thrown into the water.

The 56m (183ft) vessel, which was carrying 10 crew and 12 passengers, sank half a mile off the coast of Palermo after the storm caused waterspouts, or rotating columns of air, to appear over the sea.

• LIVE: Morgan Stanley boss among missing in Sicily yacht disaster as search continues
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“For two seconds I lost my daughter in the sea then quickly hugged her amid the fury of the waves,” the paper quoted her as saying.

Charlotte said she held her baby “afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning”.

“It was all dark. In the water I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others,” she added.

A lifeboat inflated and she said 11 people were able to climb in. All three of the family were unharmed and taken to hospital for check-ups.

Karsten Borner, captain of a nearby boat, said his crew took on board some survivors on a life raft, including three who were seriously injured.

Describing the moment, the storm hit, he told Italian news outlet Rai the superyacht tipped to its side and sank within “a few minutes”

“It all happened in really little time,” he said.

A local fisherman, Giuseppe, told Reuters he was on board a motorboat when he saw “mats and T-shirts floating in the sea”.

Another witness, Fabio Cefalù, captain of a trawler, says he was about to go out on a fishing trip when he saw flashes of lightning so he stayed in the harbour.

“At about 4:15am we saw a flare in the sea,” he said, according to the EVN news agency reports.

“We waited for this waterspout to pass. After 10 minutes we went out to the sea and we saw cushions and all the rest of the boat [that had sunk], and everything which was on the deck, at sea. However, we did not see any people in the sea.”

Another fisherman described seeing the yacht “sinking with my own eyes”.

Speaking to the newspaper Giornale di Sicilia, the witness said he was at home when the tornado hit.

“Then I saw the boat, it had only one mast, it was very big,” he said.

Shortly afterwards he went down to the Santa Nicolicchia bay in Porticello, the fishing village near Palermo where the disaster unfolded, to get a better look at what was happening.

He added: “The boat was still floating, then all of a sudden it disappeared. I saw it sinking with my own eyes.”

One man has died and six people are missing after a luxury yacht sank in freak weather conditions off the coast of Sicily.

The 56m British-flagged Bayesian was carrying 22 people – 12 passengers and 10 crew – when a heavy storm that created waterspouts struck early on Monday.

Fifteen people were rescued and a search operation for those unaccounted for – who include the British tech tycoon Mike Lynch – is continuing.

Here is what we know about the tragedy so far and how it unfolded.

The Bayesian was struck by a sudden and powerful storm in the early hours of Monday morning, witnesses say.

It was reportedly anchored to the sea bed outside the harbour at Porticello, a small fishing village to the east of Palermo, when what the Italian coastguard described as a “violent storm” hit.

The storm was so fierce that it caused waterspouts, or rotating columns of air and mist, to appear over the sea.

The vessel disappeared beneath the water at about 05:00 local time (04:00 BST).

A doctor treating survivors said the ship “capsized within a few minutes”.

Witnesses told Italian news agency Ansa that the Bayesian’s anchor was down when the storm struck, causing the 72m (236ft) aluminium mast to break in half and the ship to lose its balance and sink.

However, divers on the search and rescue team have said the ship was “practically intact” on the seabed, raising questions as to whether the mast was broken.

The ship’s unusually tall mast may have contributed to its sinking, according to Matthew Schanck, chair of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the mast acted almost like a sail in the strong wind “especially with it being so high”.

The extreme winds could have caught the mast and pushed the yacht over, he said.

Karsten Borner, captain of a nearby boat, said after the storm had passed, the crew noticed the yacht that had been behind them had disappeared.

“We saw a red flare, so my first mate and I went to the position, and we found this life raft drifting,” he told Reuters.

His crew took on board some survivors, including three who were seriously injured.

Another witness, Fabio Cefalù, captain of a trawler, said he was about to go out on a fishing trip when he saw flashes of lightning so he stayed in the harbour.

“At about 04:15 we saw a flare in the sea,” he said, according to the EVN news agency reports.

“We waited for this waterspout to pass. After 10 minutes we went out to the sea and we saw cushions and all the rest of the boat [that had sunk], and everything which was on the deck, at sea. However, we did not see any people in the sea.”

Another fisherman described seeing the yacht sinking “with my own eyes”.

Speaking to the newspaper Giornale di Sicilia, the witness said he was at home when the tornado hit.

“Then I saw the boat, it had only one mast, it was very big,” he said.

Shortly afterwards he went down to the Santa Nicolicchia bay in Porticello to get a better look at what was happening.

He added: “The boat was still floating, then all of a sudden it disappeared. I saw it sinking with my own eyes.”

One of the survivors, British tourist Charlotte Golunski, told Italian newspaper La Repubblica how she held up her one-year-old daughter Sofia to stop her from drowning.

She said the two of them and her partner James survived only because they were up on deck when the yacht sank.

They were woken by “thunder, lightning and waves that made our boat dance”, and it felt like “the end of the world” before they were thrown into the water.

Charlotte said: “For two seconds I lost my daughter in the sea, then quickly hugged her amid the fury of the waves.”

She added: “I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning.

“It was all dark. In the water I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help, but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.”

Six passengers remain missing and the Palermo coastguard says the search and rescue operation is continuing “incessantly”.

The search began on Monday and specialist divers have been working at the site since early on Tuesday morning.

One diver told Italian media the yacht was “practically intact” on its side at the ocean’s basin, about 50m below the surface.

The ship’s hull is obstructed with furniture and various objects, the Italian fire and rescue service has said.

Divers are looking for ways to access the yacht’s cabins, but they have just 10 minutes to search on each dive before they need to return to the surface, the Italian news agency Ansa has reported.

A 1cm thick glass window is also being considered as an entry point.

Francesco Venuto, a spokesperson for Sicily’s civil protection agency, told the BBC on Monday rescue teams fear the bodies of those missing “must be” in the boat.

“We’ve been searching all day with helicopters and boats, we’ve found nothing. That wouldn’t make sense. In these conditions, we should have found something by now,” he added.

A specialist caving search and rescue diving team arrived from Rome on Monday, hoping to “achieve results” either during the night or by Tuesday morning at the latest, the director general of Sicily’s civil protection agency, Salvatore Cocina, said.

On Monday, the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch sent a team of four investigators to carry out a preliminary assessment of the Bayesian’s sinking, the BBC understands.

There were 22 people on board when the storm hit, including 12 passengers and 10 crew.

The body of one man has been recovered. He has not been formally identified, but the Palermo coastguard said he was the ship’s cook. His nationality has not been confirmed.

Among the six people still missing is 59-year-old tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, known by some as the “British Bill Gates”.

Mr Lynch founded software giant Autonomy in 1996 and was awarded an OBE for services to enterprise in 2006.

In June, he was cleared of conducting a massive fraud relating to an $11bn (£8.64bn) sale to US company Hewlett Packard.

Afterwards, he told the BBC in an interview he had been able to prove his innocence only because he had the wealth to pay the enormous legal fees required.

The other missing people include Mr Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer, and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo.

Mr Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares is among the 15 people to have been rescued, with eight of those receiving treatment in hospital, the Italian coastguard said.

Charlotte Golunski, her husband and daughter Sofia were also rescued and were unharmed, but taken to hospital for check-ups.

She said they had been on the yacht with a group of colleagues.

The daily Il Giornale di Sicilia newspaper reported the vessel had mostly British passengers on board, but also people from New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Ireland and British-French citizens.

A doctor based in Palermo said the “very tired” survivors were “constantly asking about the missing people”.

Dr Domenico Cipolla told Reuters that one woman he treated described the trip as a “corporate holiday”, with some of those on board “very young”.

“There were a lot of work colleagues, friends, a few husbands, wives, or a couple of friends who had joined in,” he adds.

A waterspout is similar to a tornado and can form over oceans, seas or large lakes.

The western half of the Mediterranean has experienced severe storms since the middle of last week.

Through Sunday night and into Monday morning, a zone of bad weather passed by the north coast of Sicily.

BBC Weather forecaster Matt Taylor said: “A waterspout is a tornado that has occurred over water rather than land.

“They can form during intense storms, on the base of cumulonimbus/thunder clouds.

“Turbulence, and the wind blowing in slightly different directions around the cloud, can cause rotation under the base of the cloud and the spout to form.

“Like tornadoes, they bring powerful winds, but instead of picking up dust and debris they cause a water mist around the column of rotating air.”

The superyacht can accommodate up to 12 guests in six suites, and is listed for rent for up to €195,000 (£166,000) a week.

It was built in 2008 by Italian company Perini Navi.

The Bayesian’s registered owner is listed as Revtom Ltd, which is based on the Isle of Man.

The yacht’s name is understood to derive from the Bayesian theory, which Mr Lynch’s PhD thesis and the software that made his fortune was based on.

Mr Lynch’s wife Ms Bacares is named as the sole legal owner of Revtom, which is registered in the Isle of Man.

The Bayesian completed a number of sailings in recent days, calling at various ports in Sicily, according to ship-tracking website VesselFinder.

A spokesperson for Camper and Nicholsons International, the firm that manages the 2008-built boat, told BBC Verify: “Our priority is assisting with the ongoing search and providing all necessary support to the rescued passengers and crew.”

Mike Lynch, a British tech entrepreneur, and his daughter Hannah are missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of the Italian island of Sicily.

After co-founding British tech firm Autonomy in 1996, and backing several successful tech firms, the businessman was regarded by some as the UK’s answer to Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

One person is dead and six are missing after a 56m superyacht called Bayesian, which has been linked to Mr Lynch’s family, sank following bad weather.

His wife, Angela Bacares, has been rescued.

• LIVE: Morgan Stanley boss among missing in Sicily yacht disaster as search continues
• ‘For two seconds I lost my baby in the sea’ – Sicily yacht survivor
• How sinking of luxury yacht off Sicily unfolded

The British tech tycoon made his riches by selling his company Autonomy to US computing giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011 for $11bn (£8.6bn).

But an intense legal battle following the high-profile acquisition loomed over Mr Lynch for more than a decade.

He was acquitted in the US in June on multiple fraud charges, over which he had been facing two decades in jail.

In an interview on BBC Radio 4 in August, Mr Lynch said that he believed he had only been able to prove his innocence in a US court due to his wealth.

The sinking of the yacht came on the same day that Mr Lynch’s co-defendant in the fraud case, Stephen Chamberlain, was confirmed by his lawyer as having died after being hit by a car in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.

Born on 16 June 1965, Mr Lynch is the son of a nurse and a fireman, and was raised near Chelmsford in Essex.

He studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, where he earned a PhD in mathematical computing, and later undertook a research fellowship.

In 1991, Mr Lynch helped establish Cambridge Neurodynamics – a firm which specialised in using computer-based detection and recognition of fingerprints.

His tech firm Autonomy was created five years later, using a statistical method known as “Bayesian inference” at the core of its software.

The company’s fast-paced growth and success throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s saw Mr Lynch earn a number of awards and accolades.

In 2006 he was awarded an OBE in recognition of his service to UK enterprise.

He served on the board of the BBC as a non-executive director, and in 2011 was appointed to the government’s council for science and technology – advising then-Prime Minister David Cameron on the risks and possibilities of AI development.

After Autonomy’s sale to HP in 2011 – from which Mr Lynch is believed to have netted £500m – he went on to establish tech investment firm Invoke Capital.

The venture capital fund invested in the creation of British cyber security company Darktrace in 2013.

Mr Lynch, a shareholder in the firm, held a seat on its board until earlier this year.

Mr Lynch and his wife Angela Bacares have two daughters, and live at the Loudham Hall estate in Suffolk.

His daughter Hannah, 18, was also on the yacht which sank.

The director general of Sicily’s civil protection agency, Salvatore Cocina, told the BBC that Mr Lynch, his daughter and the yacht’s chef were among the missing.

BBC Verify looked at corporate records and found the Bayesian’s ownership is tied to the family.

Sources close to the matter have confirmed to the BBC that Ms Bacares has been rescued.

Meanwhile, Stephen Chamberlain, Mr Lynch’s co-defendant in the Autonomy trial, has also died, after being hit by a car.

Mr Chamberlain was out running in Cambridgeshire on Saturday when he was fatally struck by the vehicle.

Autonomy became successful for its software’s ability to extract useful information from data such as phone calls, emails and video.

It would then use this data to do things like suggest answers to a call-centre operator or monitor TV channels for words or subjects.

Prior to its purchase by HP in 2011, Autonomy had headquarters in San Francisco and Cambridge.

But the price tag came under scrutiny following the sale and Autonomy’s value was written down by billions just a year later.

In 2018, US prosecutors brought charges against Mr Lynch – accusing him of artificially inflating the company’s value.

They said he had concealed the firm’s loss-making business reselling hardware, and also accused him of intimidating or paying off people who raised concerns.

Mr Lynch told BBC Radio 4 at the start of August that while convinced of his innocence throughout the lengthy trial, he felt he was only able to prove his this in US court due to his wealth.

“You shouldn’t need to have funds to protect yourself as a British citizen,” he said.

“The reason I’m sitting here, let’s be honest, is not only because I was innocent… but because I had enough money not to be swept away by a process that’s set up to sweep you away.”

He added that following the lengthy legal saga, he wanted “to get back to what I love doing, which is innovating”.

A Milwaukee woman has been jailed for 11 years for killing the man that prosecutors said had sex trafficked her as a teenager.

The sentence, issued on Monday, ends a six-year legal battle for Chrystul Kizer, now 24, who had argued she should be immune from prosecution.

Kizer was charged with reckless homicide for shooting Randall Volar, 34, in 2018 when she was 17. She accepted a plea deal earlier this year to avoid a life sentence.

Volar had been filming his sexual abuse of Kizer for more than a year before he was killed.

Kizer said she met Volar when she was 16, and that the man sexually assaulted her while giving her cash and gifts. She said he also made money by selling her to other men for sex.

An investigation by the Washington Post found that authorities had evidence, including video, that Volar was abusing about a dozen girls including Kizer – all of whom appeared to be underage.

Four months before Volar died, police arrested him on charges of sexual assault but released him the same day.

Police said that Kizer travelled from Milwaukee to Volar’s home in Kenosha in June 2018 armed with a gun. She shot him twice in the head, set his house on fire and took his car.

Prosecutors said the killing was pre-meditated, and part of a scheme to steal Kizer’s car. Lawyers for Kizer argued that she acted in self-defence.

Kizer’s case had tested the leniency granted to victims of sex trafficking. Some states have implemented laws – called “affirmative defence” provisions – that protect victims from some charges including prostitution or theft, if those actions were the result of being trafficked.

Kizer had tested whether an “affirmative defence” for trafficking victims could be used for homicide. In 2022, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled she could.

The ruling allowed Kizer to use evidence to demonstrate her abuse at the time of the crime. The case attracted widespread attention and Kizer received support from activists in the #MeToo movement.

She ultimately chose a plea deal to avoid risking a possible life sentence at trial.

“I get to try to move on,” Kizer told the Washington Post in an interview from jail this year.

She has already served more than a year and half of her sentence. She will face five years of extended supervision after her eventual release.

Nasty – a slinky, innuendo-laden jam by US R&B star Tinashe – has beaten hit songs by Sabrina Carpenter and Billie Eilish to be named the UK’s TikTok song of the summer.

The song soundtracked more than 10 million videos on the video sharing app, where the standout lyric “match my freak” became a popular catchphrase.

But in a sign that TikTok’s stranglehold on the music industry may be waning, the song only got to number 66 in the UK charts, and 61 in the US.

By contrast, last year’s song of the summer on TikTok, Dave and Central Cee’s Sprinter, sold 1.2 million copies and spent 10 weeks at number one.

Tinashe’s song became a viral sensation in April, when its sensuous groove was superimposed on a video of bespectacled British dancer Nate de Winer.

That edit has been watched more than 13 million times, with De Winer’s dance recreated by everyone from Christina Aguilera to Janet Jackson.

It was even spliced into footage of King Charles revealing his official portrait at Buckingham Palace in May.

Tinashe, whose career was held back by record label shenanigans, suddenly found herself with a hit, 10 years after her debut single.

“I was saying this to my mom the other day, 10 years later, who would have thought?” she told Variety magazine.

“I definitely think that everything that I’ve done up to now, all those grinding it out moments where I just had my head down and was just putting out the best music I could and being really consistent and making great visuals and things like that, it’s all led up to this.”

Other artists who had breakout success on TikTok this summer included British singer-songwriter Blood Orange, whose vibey 2011 single Champagne Coast enjoyed an unexpected resurgence; and pop star Sabrina Carpenter, whose breakout hits Espresso and Please Please Please both made the app’s Top 10.

TikTok’s Top 10 songs of the summer (UK)

1. Tinashe – Nasty
2. Blood Orange – Champagne Coast
3. Tommy Richman – Million Dollar Baby
4. Leostaytrill & Mr Reload It – Pink Lemonade (Str8 Reload)
5. Sabrina Carpenter – Please Please Please
6. Billie Eilish – Birds Of A Feather
7. Central Cee & Lil Baby – Band4Band
8. Myles Smith – Stargazing
9. Jordan Adetunji – Kehlani
10. Sabrina Carpenter – Espresso

Tinashe’s song was also TikTok’s second-biggest song of the summer globally.

The number one spot in that chart went to Chilean artists’ Cris MJ and Floyymenor for their infectious reggaeton track, Gata Only, which was used in more than 15 million videos.

TikTok’s Top 10 songs of the summer (Global)

1. FloyyMenor and Cris MJ – Gata Only
2. Tinashe – Nasty
3. Tommy Richman – Million Dollar Baby
4. Billie Eilish – Birds Of A Feather
5. Sevdaliza – Alibi
6. Sabrina Carpenter – Please Please Please
7. El Alfa, Nfasis – Este
8. Lay Bankz – Tell Ur Girlfriend
9. Luis R Conriquez, Neton Vega – Si No Quieres No
10. Karol G – Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido

TikTok’s list, based on its own data, shows how viral success doesn’t always translate to wider success.

Tinashe’s song has yet to sell the equivalent of 200,000 copies in the UK – the threshold for a silver disc.

Three other tracks featured in the UK’s “songs of the summer” have failed to crack the official Top 40.

The shift reflects TikTok’s declining emphasis on music, as it focuses more on long-form videos and directing users to its shopping platform.

“Breakout music virality has become rare,” wrote the New York Times’ pop critic Jon Caramanica earlier this year.

“When marketers and publicists realized that TikTok was their best hope for attention, they swarmed, turning the app into a conventional promotional dust bowl.”

The app has also been harmed by a spat with Universal, one of the world’s three largest record companies.

In January, the company pulled millions of songs from TikTok after talks over royalty payments broke down.

Suddenly, users (and Universal’s own artists) found that their most popular videos had gone silent.

Although the dispute was resolved in May, the experience made some creators cautious about using commercial music in their videos.

TikTok is stil vital for artists promoting their work – and the roll-out of Charli XCX’s zeitgeist-gobbling Brat album was masterfully conducted on the app.

But, crucially, it was only one component of a bigger marketing campaign.

The days of TikTok breaking another artist like Lil Nas X, Doja Cat or PinkPantheress may not be over, but the likelihood has diminished.

Donald Trump appears to have falsely implied he has Taylor Swift’s endorsement, posting fake images on social media of the singer and her fans supporting him.

The Republican presidential candidate posted the message “I accept!” alongside the images, which were taken from other social media accounts. Many appear to have been created using artificial intelligence.

The post sparked a backlash among Swift’s fans, known as Swifties, who accused Trump of spreading misinformation.

The singer has not endorsed a candidate in the 2024 election but backed the Democrats in 2020 and criticised Trump while he was president.

One of the photos shared by Trump depicted Swift fans wearing t-shirts that read: “Swifties for Trump”.

The post appeared to have a label of “satire” with a headline that read: “Swifties turning to Trump after ISIS foiled Taylor Swift concert”.

Swift recently cancelled three concerts in Vienna following a possible security threat. Police arrested two people on suspicion of planning attacks inspired by the Islamic State group.

Another re-posted photo mimicked a World War One US army recruiting poster, which replaced Uncle Sam’s face with Swift’s and read: “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump”.

NBC News reported two of the images Trump re-posted feature real women who are Trump supporters.

Swift supported the Democratic Party in the 2020 election, and criticised Trump during the nationwide protests over the police murder of George Floyd.

“After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence?,” she posted on Twitter/X. “We will vote you out in November.”

Earlier this year, the BBC discovered dozens of deepfakes portraying black people supporting Trump. There was no evidence linking the images to Trump’s campaign.

US actor Michael Madsen was arrested on Saturday on a charge of domestic battery, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has said.

In a statement sent to the BBC, it said its deputies responded to a “family disturbance” incident shortly after midnight in the city of Malibu, California.

The department said a woman alleged “her husband pushed her and locked her out of their residence”.

Madsen, who starred in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill films, was later released from custody on a $20,000 (£15,400) bond. The 66-year-old has not publicly commented on the issue.

“The investigation is ongoing and will be forwarded to the Van Nuys Superior Court House for filing,” the sheriff’s department said.

The statement provided no further details.

A representative for Madsen said in a statement to Variety website that “it was a disagreement between Michael and his wife, which we hope resolves positively for them both”.

Michael Madsen and DeAnna Madsen have been married for 28 years.

Madsen is best known for his roles as psychopath Mr Blonde in Reservoir Dogs and assassin Budd in Kill Bill: Volume 2.

US talk show host Phil Donahue has died at the age of 88, his family has confirmed to the US media.

The presenter died at his home on Sunday after a long illness and surrounded by family, according to a statement issued to NBC’s Today show.

Donahue, who created and hosted The Phil Donahue Show, was considered the “king of daytime talk” in the US.

Over his career, Donahue interviewed well-known figures including Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali, Sammy Davis Jr, Sir Elton John, Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, Dolly Parton and Michael J Fox.

Donahue is considered a trailblazer in the daytime television landscape.

His TV show was the first to include many elements familiar to viewers today, including participation from the studio audience.

He hosted more than 6,000 editions of his talk show between 1967 and 1996.

Born in Cleveland in 1935, Donahue began his media career in the late 1950s in talk radio and television, launching his eponymous talk show in 1967.

In 1974, the show relocated from Ohio to Chicago and changed its name to simply Donahue.

The show got into its groove soon after, once Donahue began involving the studio audience in discussions and the programme more widely.

Donahue married his second wife, actress Marlo Thomas, in 1980 after the two first met three years earlier when she was a guest on his talk show.

For its last decade on air, the show was hosted from New York City. The final episode was broadcast in September 1996.

Donahue was credited with changing the face of daytime television and challenging assumptions about what female audiences in particular wanted from talk shows.

“If there had been no Phil Donahue show, there would be no Oprah Winfrey Show,” Winfrey wrote in the September 2002 issue of O, the Oprah Magazine.

“He was the first to acknowledge that women are interested in more than mascara tips and cake recipes – that we’re intelligent, we’re concerned about the world around us and we want the best possible lives for ourselves.”

Donahue himself once said: “I honestly believe we have spoken more thoughtfully, more honestly, more often to more issues about which women care than any other show.”

He won 20 Emmy Awards across his career, 10 of which were for outstanding host and 10 for the talk show itself.

Earlier this year, he was awarded the medal of freedom, the highest civilian honour in the US, by President Joe Biden.

Donahue is survived by Thomas and four children from his first marriage.

India’s top court has said the recent rape and murder of a trainee doctor in West Bengal state has “shocked the conscience of the nation” and criticised authorities for their handling of the investigation.

The 31-year-old woman’s body was found earlier this month in the seminar room of a state-run hospital in Kolkata where she worked.

A hospital volunteer worker has been arrested in connection with the crime, and the Central Bureau of Investigation has now taken over the case.

The crime has sparked huge protests in the country.

On Tuesday, Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, who was hearing the case, ordered the setting up of a National Task Force (NTF) to reccommend safety protocols for healthcare professionals at workplaces.

He listed out a range of problems plaguing medical institutions, including a lack of resting rooms and toilets, functional CCTV cameras, security personnel and adequate screening for arms at entrances.

The court asked the task force, which would include top doctors and government officials, to look into the situation and file an interim report in three weeks and a final report in two months.

During the hearing, the CJI also criticised the West Bengal government and police force and questioned why there was a delay in registering the initial complaint – known as a First Information Report (FIR) – in the case?

He added that he was “deeply concerned” that the name of the victim and her photographs were shared on social media. Indian laws prohibit naming of a rape victim and those guilty can be fined or sentenced to up to two years in prison.

The court also condemned the attack on RG Kar Medical College – the site of the crime – and questioned why adequate security measures hadn’t been put in place to control the violence.

A mob had vandalised the emergency ward of the hospital during last week’s Reclaim the Night protest in which tens of thousands of women had participated.

“The power of the state should not be unleashed on peaceful protesters,” the chief justice said.

The woman’s murder has sparked an outpouring of anger across India, especially in West Bengal state of which Kolkata is the capital.

At the weekend, doctors across hospitals in India observed a nation-wide strike called by the Indian Medical Association (IMA). Elective surgeries and outpatient treatments were suspended with only emergency services available at major hospitals.

The IMA issued a list of demands, including the strengthening of the law to better protect medical staff against violence, increasing security at hospitals and creation of safe spaces for rest.

The case has also sparked a political row with the West Bengal state government, led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, accused of mishandling the aftermath of the murder. Leaders of the India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in the opposition in the state, have accused Ms Banerjee’s government of cracking down on peaceful protests.

Last week, the Kolkata High Court criticised the local police for lapses and transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) .

The parents of the doctor, who declined compensation offered by the state government, have criticised the management of the medical college for failing to ensure safety at the workplace.

They told local media they had lost trust in the chief minister and accused her of attempting to stifle public outrage.

Ms Banerjee has defended the actions of her government, saying state police had completed 90% of the investigation before it was handed over to the CBI. She has also accused opposition parties of exploiting the incident for political gain.

Ms Banerjee said she wanted the investigation to be completed quickly and called for the culprits to be hanged.

On Saturday, the state government announced a slew of measures for women’s safety at workplaces, including designated retiring rooms and CCTV-monitored “safe zones” at state-run hospitals.

Meanwhile, the Kolkata police have served notices to more than 200 students, activists and political party members for allegedly spreading “false information” about the case and for revealing the victim’s identity.

Thirty six flights were cancelled and 201 delayed at a Japanese airport on the weekend after a pair of scissors went missing in a store near the boarding gates.

Security checks at Hokkaido’s New Chitose Airport domestic terminal were suspended for about two hours on Saturday morning, leaving hundreds of travellers temporarily stranded.

There were huge bottlenecks and queues as passengers in the departure lounge were forced to retake security checks.

Authorities tried to locate the missing scissors, which were found at the same store the following day.

Although the scissors weren’t located on Saturday, the day they went missing, security checks and flights eventually resumed that day.

Hokkaido Airport, the operator of New Chitose airport, announced on Monday that the scissors had been found by a worker at the store on Sunday.

Authorities explained that they held off on making the announcement until they had confirmed that the scissors were the same as the ones that were lost.

Many travellers affected by the cancellations and delays were flying home after Japan’s annual Bon holiday.

“I don’t think we have any choice (but to wait),” one traveller told local media at the time. “But I do hope they are bit more careful about it.”

Another traveller said there were “So many things to worry about these days… it never ends. And I don’t feel safe until I get home.”

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has asked Hokkaido Airports to investigate the cause and prevent it from happening again.

“We recognise that this occurred as a result of insufficient storage and management systems at the store,” Hokkaido Airport said. “We are aware that this is also an incident that could be linked to hijacking or terrorism, and will once again work to ensure thorough management awareness.”

Social media users on X praised the airport’s response to the incident, with several saying it reaffirmed their confidence in Japanese air safety.

“This incident showcased the safety of Japanese aviation and the thoroughness of its manuals!” one user wrote.

Another said it “made me realise once again that New Chitose Airport is a safe airport to use.”

New Chitose is one of Japan’s busiest airports, serving the world’s second-most travelled domestic air route – between Tokyo and Sapporo – according to aviation analytics company OAG.

More than 15 million travellers used the airport in 2022.

In January 2015, Abdullah, the 90-year-old king of Saudi Arabia, was dying in hospital. His half-brother, Salman, was about to become king – and Salman’s favourite son, Mohammed bin Salman, was preparing for power.

The prince, known simply by his initials MBS and then just 29 years old, had big plans for his kingdom, the biggest plans in its history; but he feared that plotters within his own Saudi royal family could eventually move against him. So at midnight one evening that month, he summoned a senior security official to the palace, determined to win his loyalty.

The official, Saad al-Jabri, was told to leave his mobile phone on a table outside. MBS did the same. The two men were now alone. The young prince was so fearful of palace spies that he pulled the socket out of the wall, disconnecting the only landline telephone.

According to Jabri, MBS then talked about how he would wake his kingdom up from its deep slumber, allowing it to take its rightful place on the global stage. By selling a stake in the state oil producer Aramco, the world’s most profitable company, he would begin to wean his economy off its dependency on oil. He would invest billions in Silicon Valley tech startups including the taxi firm, Uber. Then, by giving Saudi women the freedom to join the workforce, he would create six million new jobs.

Astonished, Jabri asked the prince about the extent of his ambition. “Have you heard of Alexander the Great?” came the simple reply.

MBS ended the conversation there. A midnight meeting that was scheduled to last half-an-hour had gone on for three. Jabri left the room to find several missed calls on his mobile from government colleagues worried about his long disappearance.

The Kingdom: The World’s Most Powerful Prince

The story of the extraordinary rise to power of the man who runs Saudi Arabia and whose control of oil affects everyone, starting with how he outwitted hundreds of rivals to become crown prince.

Watch on BBC iPlayer

For the past year, our documentary team has been talking to both Saudi friends and opponents of MBS, as well as senior Western spies and diplomats. The Saudi government was given the opportunity to respond to the claims made in the BBC’s films and in this article. They chose not to do so.

Saad al-Jabri was so high up in the Saudi security apparatus that he was friends with the heads of the CIA and MI6. While the Saudi government has called Jabri a discredited former official, he’s also the most well-informed Saudi dissident to have dared speak about how the crown prince rules Saudi Arabia – and the rare interview he has given us is astonishing in its detail.

By gaining access to many who know the prince personally, we shed new light on the events that have made MBS notorious – including the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the launch of a devastating war in Yemen.

With his father increasingly frail, the 38-year-old MBS is now de facto in charge of the birthplace of Islam and the world’s biggest exporter of oil. He’s begun to carry out many of the groundbreaking plans he described to Saad al-Jabri – while also being accused of human rights violations including the suppression of free speech, widespread use of the death penalty and jailing of women’s rights activists.

The first king of Saudi Arabia fathered at least 42 sons, including MBS’s father, Salman. The crown has traditionally been passed down between these sons. It was when two of them suddenly died in 2011 and 2012 that Salman was elevated into the line of succession.

Western spy agencies make it their business to study the Saudi equivalent of Kremlinology – working out who will be the next king. At this stage, MBS was so young and unknown that he wasn’t even on their radar.

“He grew up in relative obscurity,” says Sir John Sawers, chief of MI6 until 2014. “He wasn’t earmarked to rise to power.”

The crown prince also grew up in a palace in which bad behaviour had few, if any, consequences; and that may help explain his notorious habit of not thinking through the impact of his decisions until he had already made them.

MBS first achieved notoriety in Riyadh in his late teens, when he was nicknamed “Abu Rasasa” or “Father of the Bullet”, after allegedly sending a bullet in the post to a judge who had overruled him in a property dispute.

“He has had a certain ruthlessness,” observes Sir John Sawers. “He doesn’t like to be crossed. But that also means he’s been able to drive through changes that no other Saudi leader has been able to do.”

Among the most welcome changes, the former MI6 chief says, has been cutting off Saudi funding to overseas mosques and religious schools that became breeding grounds for Islamist jihadism – at huge benefit to the safety of the West.

MBS’s mother, Fahda, is a Bedouin tribeswoman and seen as the favourite of his father’s four wives. Western diplomats believe the king has suffered for many years from a slow-onset form of vascular dementia; and MBS was the son he turned to for help.

Several diplomats recalled for us their meetings with MBS and his father. The prince would write notes on an iPad, then send them to his father’s iPad, as a way of prompting what he would say next.

“Inevitably I wondered whether MBS was typing out his lines for him,” recalls Lord Kim Darroch, National Security Adviser to David Cameron when he was British prime minister.

The prince was apparently so impatient for his father to become king that in 2014, he reportedly suggested killing the then-monarch – Abdullah, his uncle – with a poisoned ring, obtained from Russia.

“I don’t know for sure if he was just bragging, but we took it seriously,” says Jabri. The former senior security official says he has seen a secretly recorded surveillance video of MBS talking about the idea. “He was banned from court, from shaking hands with the king, for a considerable amount of time.”

In the event, the king died of natural causes, allowing his brother, Salman, to assume the throne in 2015. MBS was appointed Defence Minister and lost no time in going to war.

Two months later, the prince led a Gulf coalition into war against the Houthi movement, which had seized control of much of western Yemen and which he saw as a proxy of Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran. It triggered a humanitarian disaster, with millions on the brink of famine.

“It wasn’t a clever decision,” says Sir John Jenkins, who was British ambassador just before the war began. “One senior American military commander told me they had been given 12 hours’ notice of the campaign, which is unheard of.”

The military campaign helped turn a little-known prince into a Saudi national hero. However, it was also the first of what even his friends believe have been several major mistakes.

A recurring pattern of behaviour was emerging: MBS’s tendency to jettison the traditionally slow and collegiate system of Saudi decision-making, preferring to act unpredictably or upon impulse; and refusing to kowtow to the US, or be treated as head of a backward client state.

Jabri goes much further, accusing MBS of forging his father the king’s signature on a royal decree committing ground troops.

Jabri says he discussed the Yemen war in the White House before it started; and that Susan Rice, President Obama’s National Security Advisor, warned him that the US would only support an air campaign.

However, Jabri claims MBS was so determined to press ahead in Yemen that he ignored the Americans.

“We were surprised that there was a royal decree to allow the ground interventions,” Jabri says. “He forged the signature of his dad for that royal decree. The king’s mental capacity was deteriorating.”

Jabri says his source for this allegation was “credible, reliable” and linked to the Ministry of Interior where he was chief of staff.

Jabri recalls the CIA station chief in Riyadh telling him how angry he was that MBS had ignored the Americans, adding that the invasion of Yemen should never have happened.

The former MI6 chief Sir John Sawers says that while he doesn’t know if MBS forged the documents, “it is clear that this was MBS’s decision to intervene militarily in Yemen. It wasn’t his father’s decision, although his father was carried along with it.”

We’ve discovered that MBS saw himself as an outsider from the very beginning – a young man with much to prove and a refusal to obey anybody’s rules other than his own.

Kirsten Fontenrose, who served on President Donald Trump’s National Security Council, says that when she read the CIA’s in-house psychological profile of the prince, she felt it missed the point.

“There were no prototypes to base him on,” she says. “He has had unlimited resources. He has never been told ‘no’. He is the first young leader to reflect a generation that, frankly, most of us in government are too old to understand.”

MBS’s purchase of a famous painting in 2017 tells us much about how he thinks, and his willingness to be a risk-taker, unafraid to be out of step with the religiously conservative society that he governs. And above all, determined to outplay the West in conspicuous displays of power.

In 2017, a Saudi prince reportedly acting for MBS spent $450m (£350m) on the Salvator Mundi, which remains the world’s most expensive work of art ever sold. The portrait, reputed to have been painted by Leonardo da Vinci, depicts Jesus Christ as master of heaven and Earth, the saviour of the world. For almost seven years, ever since the auction, it has completely disappeared.

Bernard Haykel, a friend of the crown prince and Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, says that despite rumours that it hangs in the prince’s yacht or palace, the painting is actually in storage in Geneva and that MBS intends to hang it in a museum in the Saudi capital that has not yet been built.

“I want to build a very large museum in Riyadh,” Haykel quotes MBS as saying. “And I want an anchor object that will attract people, just like the Mona Lisa does.”

Similarly, his plans for sport reflect someone who is both hugely ambitious and unafraid to disrupt the status quo.

Saudi Arabia’s incredible spending spree on world-class sport – it is the sole bidder to host the FIFA World Cup in 2034, and has made multimillion-dollar investments in staging tournaments for tennis and golf – has been called “sportswashing”. But what we found is a leader who cares less about what the West thinks of him than he does about demonstrating the opposite: that he will do whatever he wants in the name of making himself and Saudi Arabia great.

“MBS is interested in building his own power as a leader,” says Sir John Sawers, the former Chief of MI6, who has met him. “And the only way he can do that is by building his country’s power. That’s what’s driving him.”

Jabri’s 40-year career as a Saudi official did not survive MBS’s consolidation of power. Chief of staff for the former Crown Prince Muhammed bin Nayef, he fled the kingdom as MBS was taking over, after being tipped off by a foreign intelligence service that he could be in danger. But Jabri says MBS texted him out of the blue, offering him his old job back.

“It was bait – and I didn’t bite,” Jabri says, convinced he would have been tortured, imprisoned or killed if he returned. As it was, his teenage children, Omar and Sarah, were detained and later jailed for money laundering and for trying to escape – charges that they deny. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has called for their release.

“He planned for my assassination,” Jabri says. “He will not rest until he sees me dead, I have no doubt about that.”

Saudi officials have issued Interpol notices for Jabri’s extradition from Canada, without success. They claim he is wanted for corruption involving billions of dollars during his time at the interior ministry. However, he was given the rank of major-general and credited by the CIA and MI6 with helping to prevent al-Qaeda terrorist attacks.

The killing of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 implicates MBS in ways that are very hard to refute. The 15-strong hit squad was travelling on diplomatic passports and included several of MBS’s own bodyguards. Khashoggi’s body has never been found and is believed to have been hacked into pieces with a bone saw.

Professor Haykel exchanged WhatsApp messages with MBS not long after the murder. “I was asking, ‘how could this happen?’,” Haykel recalls. “I think he was in deep shock. He didn’t realise the reaction to this was going to be as deep.”

Dennis Ross met MBS shortly afterwards. “He said he didn’t do it and that it was a colossal blunder,” says Ross. “I certainly wanted to believe him, because I couldn’t believe that he could authorise something [like] that.”

MBS has always denied knowledge of the plot, although in 2019 he said he took “responsibility” because the crime happened on his watch. A declassified US intelligence report released in February 2021 asserted that he was complicit in the killing of Khashoggi.

I asked those who know MBS personally whether he had learned from his mistakes; or whether having survived the Khashoggi affair, it had in fact emboldened him.

“He’s learned lessons the hard way,” says Professor Haykel, who says MBS resents the case being used as cudgel against him and his country, but that a killing like Khashoggi’s would not happen again.

Sir John Sawers cautiously agrees that the murder was a turning point. “I think he has learned some lessons. The personality, though, remains the same.”

His father, King Salman, is now aged 88. When he dies, MBS could rule Saudi Arabia for the next 50 years.

However, he has recently admitted he fears being assassinated, possibly as a consequence of his attempts to normalise Saudi-Israeli ties.

“I think there are lots of people who want to kill him,” says Professor Haykel, “and he knows it.”

Eternal vigilance is what keeps a man like MBS safe. It was what Saad al-Jabri observed at the beginning of the prince’s rise to power, when he pulled the telephone socket out of the wall before speaking to him in his palace.

MBS is still a man on a mission to modernise his country, in ways his predecessors would never have dared. But he’s also not the first autocrat who runs the risk of being so ruthless that nobody around him dares prevent him from making more mistakes.

Ukrainian authorities have ordered the evacuation of a key city in the Donbas region as Russian forces continue to make gains in the east of the country, despite Ukraine’s ongoing offensive into Russia’s Kursk region.

Officials said families with children living in Pokrovsk and surrounding villages would be forced to leave.

The head of the city’s military government, Serhii Dobriak, said residents had at most two weeks to flee the Russian advance.

The strategically important city is one of Ukraine’s main defensive strongholds and a key logistical hub for Kyiv’s troops on the eastern front.

Donetsk region head Vadym Filashkin said over 53,000 people, including almost 4,000 children, remained in the city.

He said authorities had taken the decision to forcibly evacuate children and their parents or guardians.

“When our cities are within range of virtually any enemy weapon, the decision to evacuate is necessary and inevitable.”

Mr Dobriak said the rate of evacuations from the city had risen to about 500 to 600 people a day. He said that while basic services continued to operate, they would likely soon cease to function as the Russian army closes in.

The evacuation order came even as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his forces were continuing to make gains during their incursion of Russia’s Kursk region.

On Monday, President Zelensky said Ukraine had gained control of over 1,250 sq km of Kursk’s territory and 92 settlements.

“The Russian border area opposite our Sumy region has been mostly cleared of Russian military presence,” he said on X.

“A few months ago, many people around the world would have said this was impossible and crossed Russia’s strictest ‘red line’,” he added.

One of the aims of the incursion is reportedly to divert Russia’s troops away from the Donbas region, relieving pressure on beleaguered Ukrainian troops there.

On Monday, Russian military bloggers claimed Ukraine had blown up a third bridge over the River Seym in the Kursk region. Kyiv did not claim responsibility but the destruction of the bridge would likely further hinder Russian military logistics and help Ukraine consolidate its control over the territory it has seized from Moscow.

But BBC Verify has identified new pontoon bridges – temporary, floating crossings, quickly constructed and used in the absence of permanent structures – over the river, apparently constructed by Russian forces.

In these satellite images taken on Saturday, the two recently built crossings, near Glushkovo, can be seen.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank said that while Russia appeared committed to a strategy of “gradual creeping advances” in the east, Ukraine’s surprise advance into Kursk showed that seizing the initiative had allowed Kyiv to make significant gains rather than slowly losing a “war of attrition”.

The ISW said it had assessed Ukraine to be present across 800 sq km of Russian territory, though it added that presence did not necessarily equate to control. By contrast, the think tank estimates that Russia gained about 1,175 sq km between January and July.

It was not the speech Joe Biden wanted to give. At least, not this year, under these circumstances.

But if anyone knows how quickly fortunes can change, it’s this president – whose personal and professional life has been scarred by tragedy and adversity.

Speaking to a packed arena in Chicago on the first night of the Democratic National Convention, Mr Biden offered a full-throated defence of his presidency – touching on many of the themes that he campaigned on in 2020 and again this year before abandoning his re-election bid in mid-July, a few weeks after a catastrophic debate performance.

“Like many of you, I gave my heart and soul to this nation,” he said, towards the end of a nearly hour-long address punctuated by raucous shouts of “Thank you, Joe”.

Mr Biden had walked out onto the stage after being introduced by his daughter Ashley and wife, Jill, who told the audience she “saw him dig deep into his soul” when he decided to exit the presidential race.

After hugging Ashley, he put a tissue to his eyes to dab away the tears.

The president touched his heart, and stood a little straighter at the lectern, flashing a toothy smile as the crowd continued to cheer.

His speech had a keen eye on his place in history but he spent time singing the praises of his vice-president – the woman he hopes will succeed him in the White House.

“Selecting Kamala was the very first decision I made when I became our nominee and it’s the best decision I made my whole career,” he said. “She’s tough, she’s experienced, and she has enormous integrity.”

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Unlike his Oval Office address four weeks ago, Mr Biden did not speak directly of passing the torch to a new generation – but the message was clear enough. After the president concluded his remarks, Ms Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff came out to embrace Mr Biden and his wife, Jill.

“I love you,” the vice-president mouthed to Mr Biden after their hug.

While Mr Biden spent much of the end of his speech focusing on Ms Harris – a tacit acknowledgment that how she fares against Donald Trump in November’s vote could make or break how history, and his party, remembers him – many of the evening’s earlier speakers directed their tributes to the current White House resident.

It started with a planned – but unannounced – appearance by Ms Harris herself, who took the stage to thunderous applause.

“Joe, thank you for your historic leadership and for your lifetime of service to our nation and for all you continue to do,” she said. “We are forever grateful to you.”

Later, Delaware Senator Chris Coons – one of Mr Biden’s closest allies – took his turn singing the president’s praises.

“I’ve never known a more compassionate man than Joe Biden,” he said. “I’ve never known a man who has taken from his own loss and his own faith and delivered so much for the future of so many others.”

Hillary Clinton offered her own tribute when she appeared on stage earlier in the evening, telling the crowd that Mr Biden had “brought dignity, decency and competence back to the White House”.

The 2016 Democratic nominee received an extended ovation, and she noted that while she did not break the “highest, hardest glass ceiling” by becoming the first woman president, “on the other side of that glass ceiling is Kamala Harris taking the oath of office”.

The reception Mr Biden received from the packed Democratic convention hall was equally electric. The Democrats here in Chicago have been jubilant all day. But the cheers for the president could be as much a sign of gratitude for his grudging decision to step aside as it was a tribute to a storied political career that began in 1972 when he was first elected to Congress at the age of 29.

Tomorrow, Barack Obama will address the convention crowd. On Wednesday, Bill Clinton will have his turn. Both are former presidents who stood for – and won – re-election.

Mr Biden will not have that opportunity. Instead, he was left to define and defend his legacy as a one-term president in a speech that, barring a major national event in the next five months, will be his final address to a massive American television audience.

Toward the end of the speech, he quoted a line from a song, American Anthem.

“Let me know in my heart when my days are through, that America, America, I gave my best to you,” he said.

The crowd erupted in another round of applause.

Eight years ago, Mr Biden passed up a presidential bid in favour of Mrs Clinton – under some not so subtle pressure from Mr Obama. Four years ago, he won the nomination, but the Covid pandemic denied him an opportunity to bask in adulation of a packed Democratic convention hall and the celebratory post-speech balloon drop.

This, then, was as close to a Democratic convention moment in the spotlight Mr Biden will get.

After his speech concluded – past midnight on the US east coast – the president left the arena and headed to Air Force One for a flight to California for a holiday. His time in Chicago, at this Democratic National Convention, was measured in hours, not days. And despite his desires just a few months ago, his remaining time as president will be measured in months, not years.

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The bodies of six hostages being held by Hamas have been retrieved from an “underground tunnel route” inside the Gaza Strip, Israel’s military has said.

A statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the bodies of Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Chaim Peri and British-Israeli Nadav Popplewell were recovered from the Khan Younis area on Monday.

Five of their deaths had already been announced by Israel, though it was thought Avraham Munder could still be alive.

The overnight recovery operation was carried out by the IDF alongside the security agency Shin Bet.

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During the operation, the IDF said its forces located a 10m (33ft) deep tunnel shaft which led to an “underground tunnel route”, inside which the bodies were found.

They were retrieved after “prolonged combat in a built-up area and in multi-story buildings”.

The six men were all kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz and Kibbutz Nirim, near Israel’s border fence with Gaza, during Hamas’s attacks on southern Israel on 7 October.

In June, Israel confirmed the deaths of Mr Popplewell, 51, Mr Peri, 79, and Mr Metzger, 80. The IDF stated the three men had died during an Israeli operation in Khan Younis.

In July, the IDF also confirmed the deaths of Mr Buchshtab, 35, and Mr Dancyg, 76, stating an investigation was being carried out into how they died. Israeli media, citing military sources, reported at the time there was a “high probability” that at least one of the men was killed by Israeli fire.

Alexander Dancyg’s son, Mati Dancyg, said on Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had chosen to “abandon the hostages in order to survive”.

“Netanyahu chose to sacrifice the hostages. Karma will judge him and he will pay for it, big time,” he told Israeli public broadcaster Kan.

Government estimates suggest there are 105 hostages remaining in Gaza, 71 of whom are thought to be alive. An additional four hostages were already in Gaza prior to 7 October, two of whom are believed to be dead.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement the bodies were retrieved after a “complex operation”, adding that Israel would keep working on “dismantling Hamas”.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he sent “heartfelt condolences and a warm embrace” to the families of those whose bodies were returned.

“We must not stop for a moment from working in every way possible to bring back all the hostages,” he added.

In a statement, the Hostage Families Forum said the recovery of the bodies had provided the families with “necessary closure”, adding that the return of the remaining hostages from Gaza “can only be achieved through a negotiated deal”.

The group called on the Israeli government to “do everything in its power to finalize the deal currently on the table”.

Negotiations over a long-sought-after ceasefire and hostage release deal are ongoing, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arriving in Egypt on Tuesday to discuss a potential deal with Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.

On Monday, Mr Blinken said Mr Netanyahu had agreed to a US “bridging proposal” for a deal, after the pair met in Jerusalem. Mr Netanyahu described the discussion as “positive”.

The IDF said on Monday that it had expanded its operation in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, and the outskirts of the central town of Deir al-Balah.

Five people were killed in an Israeli air strike on an internet distribution facility in western Khan Younis on Monday, according to local health officials.

A medical source also told AFP news agency that three people were killed in Abasan, east of the city.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October by Hamas gunmen, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

More than 40,173 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

A rescue mission is under way off the coast of Sicily after the British-flagged luxury yacht Bayesian sank during freak weather early on Monday morning.

One man, the vessel’s cook, has died and his body has been recovered, according to Sicily’s civil protection agency.

Some 15 people have been rescued from the boat, while six remain missing.

Specialist divers from the Italian fire brigade resumed their search early on Tuesday morning.

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The six people who are unaccounted for have all been named.

Among them are British businessman Mike Lynch, who was recently acquitted of fraud in the US.

Several people on the boat, including some who are missing, were involved in his recent trial and there have been reports that the yacht trip was a celebration of Mr Lynch’s acquittal.

Mr Lynch is a tech entrepreneur who was once regarded by some as “Britain’s Bill Gates”.

Raised in Essex, he went on to study at the University of Cambridge, before co-founding software company Autonomy in 1996.

The 59-year-old made his riches by selling the company to US tech giant Hewlett-Packard in 2011 for $11bn (£8.6bn).

Mr Lynch became embroiled in a decade-long legal battle following the acquisition. He was acquitted in the US in June on multiple fraud charges, over which he had been facing two decades in jail.

He told BBC Radio 4 in August that he believed he had only been able to prove his innocence in US court because he was rich enough to pay the enormous legal fees involved.

“You shouldn’t need to have funds to protect yourself as a British citizen,” he said.

Mr Lynch was travelling with his daughter Hannah, who is also missing.

The 18-year-old is reportedly the younger of Mr Lynch’s two daughters.

She had just completed her A-levels and secured a place to read English at Oxford University, according to the Times.

Chris Morvillo is a lawyer who represented Mr Lynch in his US trial. Since 2011, he has been a partner at the Clifford Chance law firm in New York.

His biography on the firm’s website says that he served as assistant attorney for the southern district of New York from 1999 to 2005.

During his tenure, he worked on the criminal investigation surrounding the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.

American jewellery designer Neda Morvillo, wife of Mr Morvillo, is also unaccounted for.

Mr Morvillo’s employer, Clifford Chance, confirmed the news.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the law firm said: “We are in shock and deeply saddened by this tragic incident.”

Ms Morvillo designs jewellery under the name Neda Nassiri. Her website says she “has been designing and hand-crafting fine jewelry in New York City for over 20 years”.

Jonathan Bloomer is the chairman of the Morgan Stanley International bank and insurance company Hiscox.

The 70-year-old Briton was educated at Imperial College London and has previously served on a number of company boards.

Mr Bloomer appeared at trial as a defence witness for Mr Lynch, according to the the Financial Times. Media reports suggest the pair are close friends.

Aki Hussain, group chief executive of Hiscox, which Mr Bloomer has chaired since 2023, said: “We are deeply shocked and saddened by this tragic event.

“Our thoughts are with all those affected, in particular our chair, Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife Judy, who are among the missing.”

Judy, the wife of Jonathan Bloomer, is also among the six people missing.

Ms Bloomer is listed as a former director of property developer Change Real Estate along with her husband.

She has been called a “brilliant champion for women’s health” by a charity she has worked closely with.

Ms Bloomer has been a trustee and supporter of gynaecological cancer research charity the Eve Appeal for more than 20 years.

The charity’s chief executive, Athena Lamnisos, said she was “deeply shocked to hear the news that our very dear friend and her husband Jonathan, are among those missing”.

“Our thoughts are with Judy and Jonathan’s family, as well as all those who are still waiting for news after this tragic event,” she added in a statement.

Among the 15 people who were rescued are nine members of the yacht’s crew.

This means every member of the crew is accounted for minus the chef, who local authorities say has died.

Eight of the 15 who were rescued have been taken to hospital.

A British mother, named locally as Charlotte Golunski, was travelling on the yacht with her partner and baby girl. All three have been rescued from the boat.

In an interview, she described holding her infant daughter above the surface of the sea to save her from drowning.

Ms Golunski is a partner at Mr Lynch’s company, Invoke Capital, where she has worked since 2012, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The Times has reported that she has previously worked for Autonomy, the company at the centre of Mr Lynch’s recent court case.

Another lawyer, Ayla Ronald, was also rescued along with her partner.

The New Zealand national works for Clifford Chance, where Mr Morvillo is a partner, and was part of Mr Lynch’s legal team for his June trial.

Her father told the Telegraph that she was “invited to go sailing as a result of the success in the recent United States court case”.

Angela Bacares, Mr Lynch’s wife and Hannah Lynch’s mother, is also among those who have been rescued.

On Monday, Ms Bacares was using a wheelchair after suffering ­abrasions on her feet, according to the newspaper La Repubblica.

Disney has withdrawn its claim that a man could not sue it over the death of his wife because of terms he signed up to in a free trial of Disney+.

Jeffrey Piccolo filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Disney and the owners of a restaurant after his wife died in 2023 from a severe allergic reaction following a meal at Disney World, in Florida.

Disney had argued the case should instead go to arbitration because of a clause in the terms and conditions of its Disney+ streaming service, which Mr Piccolo had briefly signed up for in 2019.

But, following a backlash, it has decided the matter can now be heard in court.

“We believe this situation warrants a sensitive approach to expedite a resolution for the family who have experienced such a painful loss,” Disney’s Josh D’Amaro told the BBC in a statement.

“As such, we’ve decided to waive our right to arbitration and have the matter proceed in court.”

In arbitration, a dispute is overseen by a neutral third party. It benefits those wanting to avoid a lengthy trial, but means evidence would not be put in front of a jury.

Jamie Cartwright, partner at the law firm Charles Russell Speechlys, suggested Disney’s change of heart was motivated by the “adverse publicity” its initial approach had generated.

“In attempting to push the claim into a confidential setting on what were very tenuous grounds, it succeeded only in creating the very publicity and attention it likely wanted to avoid,” he told the BBC.

Mr Piccolo and his wife, Dr Kanokporn Tangsuan, ate a meal at Raglan Road, an Ireland-themed pub located at the Disney Springs site, in Orlando, but operated by an independent company.

He alleges that the restaurant did not take enough care over his wife’s severe allergies to dairy and nuts, despite being repeatedly told about them.

She died in hospital later that day.

According to the legal filing, her death was confirmed by a medical examiner “as a result of anaphylaxis due to elevated levels of dairy and nut in her system.”

Mr Piccolo is suing Disney for a sum in excess of $50,000 (£38,400), in addition to other damages relating to suffering, loss of income, and medical and legal costs.

Disney has argued it had no control over the management and operation of the restaurant.

Lawyers for Mr Piccolo had said Disney’s argument that the lawsuit should not be heard in court “borders on the surreal.” They are yet to respond to its U-turn.

It is not known whether Disney would have been successful had a judge ruled on its arbitration claim.

Disney argued that the legal circumstances surrounding the case were unique.

But legal experts told the BBC they were “pushing the envelope of contract law”.

“Disney’s argument that accepting their terms and conditions for one product covers all interactions with that company is novel and potentially far-reaching,” Ernest Aduwa, partner at Stokoe Partnership Solicitors, who are not involved in the proceedings, said.

Meanwhile, Jibreel Tramboo, barrister at Church Court Chambers, said the terms in the Disney+ trial were a “weak argument for Disney to rely on”.

Disney says it is in the process of submitting a filing to the court to withdraw its call for arbitration.

Mpox is “not the new Covid”, because authorities clearly know how to control its spread, a leading World Health Organization expert has said.

Despite real concern about a new variant of the virus, and a global alert, Europe regional director Dr Hans Kluge told journalists, together we could – and must – tackle mpox.

And strong action now – including ensuring vaccines reach the areas most in need – could stop another cycle of panic and neglect.

A case of the new variant, Clade Ib, was confirmed in Sweden last week and linked to a growing outbreak in Africa.

Mpox has killed at least 450 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the former Zaire, in recent months, linked to Clade Ib.

There is still a lot to learn about the new variant, experts say, but it may be spreading more easily, causing more serious disease.

No Clade Ib cases have been seen in the UK – but experts warn it can spread unless international action is taken.

A different variant, Clade II, was behind the 2022 outbreak that initially affected Europe and continues to circulate in many parts of the world.

But experts know how to control mpox, regardless of the variant – through non-discriminatory public-health action and equitable access to vaccines, Dr Kluge says.

The virus, which causes a fever and rash, can be spread by skin-to-skin contact with lesions, including during sex.

Dr Kluge said the risk to the general population was low.

“Are we going to go in lockdown in the WHO European region, it’s another Covid-19? The answer is clearly: ‘no’,” he said.

“Two years ago, we controlled mpox in Europe thanks to the direct engagement with the most affected communities of men who have sex with men,” Dr Kluge said.

“In 2022, mpox showed us it can spread quickly around the world.

“We can, and must, tackle mpox together – across regions and continents.

“Will we choose to put the systems in place to control and eliminate mpox globally or will we enter another cycle of panic, then neglect?”

About 100 new Clade II cases were now being reported in the European region every month, Dr Kluge added.

Travellers to affected areas in Africa have been advised to consider vaccination.

WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said the WHO was not recommending the use of masks.

“We are not recommending mass vaccination. We are recommending to use vaccines in outbreak settings for the groups who are most at risk,” he added.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said it has a “clear plan” to get 10 million doses of vaccine for the continent and urged .

The DRC and Nigeria will begin vaccinating from next week.

Danish vaccine manufacturer, Bavarian Nordic, will transfer its technology to African manufacturers so the vaccine can be made locally in order to increase the supply and reduce the cost, it added.

Speaking in a press briefing, Director General of Africa CDC, Dr Jean Kaseya, also pleaded countries not to punish Africa with travel bans, saying: “We need solidarity and we need support for medical counter-measures.”

US singer Chappell Roan has called out the “creepy behaviour” she’s experienced in person and online as her star status continues to build.

In two TikToks, she says she feels “harassed” and mentions her family being “stalked”, bullied online and being yelled at from car windows.

Chappell’s debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess reached number one on the Official Chart earlier in August.

Her pair of posts on the app have since been viewed more than 12 million times in total.

“I don’t care that abuse and harassment is a normal thing to do to people who are famous or a little famous,” she says in one of the videos.

“I don’t care that it’s normal. I don’t care that this crazy type of behaviour comes along with the job, the career field I’ve chosen. That does not make it OK.”

Chappell is one of the year’s most successful popstars with Good Luck, Babe! becoming a breakout hit at home in the US and around the world.

Established stars including Adele and Lady Gaga have fuelled her popularity with the former describing her as “phenomenal” and “spectacular”.

“It’s weird how people think that you know a person just because you see them online and you listen to the art they make,” she continues in her post.

“I’m allowed to say no to creepy behaviour.

“[Being a singer] doesn’t mean that I want it. It doesn’t mean that I like it.

“I don’t [care] if you think it’s selfish of me to say no for a photo or for your time or for a hug. That’s not normal, that’s weird.”

In her caption, she said her post wasn’t about a specific person or experience.

“This is just my side of the story and my feelings.”

Chappell is not the only famous name to warn fans about overstepping the line, or to set boundaries for their fans based on difficult experiences.

In 2022, actress and singer Keke Palmer posted on social media that “no means no, even when it doesn’t pertain to sex,” describing being filmed against her will in a bar.

Justin Bieber has previously said he was “done taking pictures” with fans in an Instagram post.

The Canadian star said he wanted to “keep his sanity”, with demands for selfies leaving him feeling like a “zoo animal”.

Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke has also decided to say no to requests for photos.

Speaking on the podcast Table Manners in 2019, she described two encounters with fans: one woke her on a plane to ask for a selfie and another asked for a photo while she was crying and having a panic attack in an airport.

At the time, Emilia said she prefers instead to sign something: “When you do that, you have to have an interaction with that person, as opposed to someone just going, ‘Give us a selfie, goodbye.’

“Then you have a chat and you’re actually having a truthful human-to-human thing.”

What we’re seeing with Chappell and her fans is known as a parasocial relationship.

Dr Veronica Lamarche, a social psychologist and relationships researcher at the University of Essex, describes it as a “one-sided relationship”.

Dr Lamarche tells Newsbeat we often turn to celebrities and “feel like they can help us fulfil our emotional needs” – even more perhaps than our real friends.

“It can become dangerous when we don’t set healthy boundaries in terms of those expectations,” she says.

When a chance comes to cross paths in real life, “you’re imagining that when you meet them, they’re going to be your best friend, they’re going to like you as much as you like them.

“But the reality is this celebrity that you’ve been projecting onto doesn’t have any idea who you are.

“So for them, it can be really destabilising because they feel you’re being too familiar with them.”

Parasocial relationships are “nothing new”, Dr Lamarche says, but social media means we have a “constant sense of interaction”.

“If your favourite celebrity posts on Instagram and you comment on those pictures, it really feels like you’re having a two-sided conversation when at the end of the day it really is still one-sided.

“A lot of fans might be feeling hurt or disappointed by what Chappell Roan has come out to say,” she says.

“It’s natural because this is someone we admire telling us we’re doing something wrong and that feels rejecting and hurtful.

“But also it’s important to be mindful of the healthy boundaries these people are trying to set for themselves.”

Newsbeat’s been asking Chappell Roan fans about her TikTok posts, including 20-year-old Leah from Birmingham.

“I honestly praise her for it,” she says.

“You have no idea what they’re going through or what it takes to be famous and because stans (super fans) put them on pedestals, we expect them to be perfect, all the time.”

Olivia, who’s 25 and lives in London, told Newsbeat: “Chappell’s gone from zero to a hundred incredibly quickly. It must be overwhelming.

“I can see why some fans might think she’s maybe a bit too forceful with it but it’s her life and she’s allowed to feel passionate about protecting her safety and her boundaries.”

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