Russia has targeted Ukraine with another wave of strikes, a day after one of its biggest air attacks of the war.

Air raid alerts were issued early on Tuesday, as Ukrainian monitors detected Russian aircraft launching hypersonic missiles. Mass drone attacks have also been reported.

Ukraine’s air defence forces say the whole country is under threat of a ballistic weapon attack.

A statement from the Russian defence ministry said long-range air and sea-based precision weaponry had been used to strike power stations and related infrastructure across Ukraine, including in Kyiv, Lviv and the Kharkiv and Odesa regions.

At least six people died overnight Sunday to Monday and dozens were wounded as more than half of Ukraine’s regions were attacked by drones and missiles.

Power infrastructure was hit causing blackouts in many cities, with water supplies also affected.

US President Joe Biden called the attacks “outrageous”, saying Washington would continue to support Ukraine’s energy grid.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy condemned “Russia’s cowardly missile and drone attacks on civilian infrastructure”.

Three people are already known to have died in the latest round of attacks.

A civilian infrastructure building was hit in the eastern city of Kryvyi Rih late on Monday, killing two. Several people are missing.

And Zaporizhzhia regional administration head Ivan Fedorov said one man had been killed and a man and a woman injured in the city of Zaporizhzhia.

Local official Yevhen Sytnychenko reported the deaths, saying houses, shops and vehicles had been damaged in the incident.

Kryvyi Rih is the home city of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Explosions have also been reported in Kyiv, Sumy, Khmelnytsky and Mykolayiv regions.

Launches of several hypersonic Kinzhal (dagger) ballistic missiles, which are hard for air defences to intercept, have been detected.

The latest attacks are being seen as an attempt by Moscow to reassert its control over the conflict after Ukraine’s recent gains of territory in Russia’s Kursk region.

Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since early on in its full-scale invasion, which began in February 2022.

In recent months it has renewed its campaign of attacks on the power grid, causing frequent blackouts across the country.

On Monday, Mr Zelensky called on Western allies including the UK, the US and France to change their rules and let Ukraine use their weapons to strike deeper inside Russia.

Ukraine is allowed to use some Western weapons to hit targets inside Russia – but not long-range weapons.

Mr Zelensky said “we could do much more to protect lives” if European air forces worked with Ukraine’s air defence.

The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has said that big polluters have a clear responsibility to cut emissions – or risk a worldwide catastrophe.

“The Pacific is today the most vulnerable area of the world,” he told the BBC at the Pacific Island Forum Leaders Meeting in Tonga. “There is an enormous injustice in relation to the Pacific and it’s the reason I am here.”

“The small islands don’t contribute to climate change but everything that happens because of climate change is multiplied here.”

But eventually the “surging seas are coming for us all,” he warned in a speech at the forum, as the UN releases two separate reports on rising sea levels and how they threaten Pacific island nations.

The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in the South West Pacific report says this region faces a triple whammy of an accelerating rise in the sea level, a warming of the ocean and acidification – a rise in the sea’s acidity because it’s absorbing more and more carbon dioxide.

“The reason is clear: greenhouse gases – overwhelmingly generated by burning fossil fuels – are cooking our planet,” Mr Guterres said in a speech at the forum.

“The sea is taking the heat – literally.”

This year’s theme – transformative resilience – was tested on the opening day when the new auditorium was deluged by heavy rains and buildings evacuated because of an earthquake.

“It’s such a stark reminder of how volatile things are within our region, and how important it is that we need to prepare for everything,” Joseph Sikulu, Pacific director at 350, a climate change advocacy group, told the BBC.

Not far from the venue was a street parade, with dancers representing the region, including Torres Strait islanders, Tongans and Samoans. At the start of the parade, a big banner reads, “We are not drowning, we are fighting”. Another says: “Sea levels are rising – so are we”.

It echoes a challenge that threatens to wipe out their world – the UN Climate Action Team released a report called “Surging Seas in a Warming World” showing that global average sea levels are rising at rates unprecedented in the past 3,000 years.

According to the report, the levels have risen an average of 9.4cm (3.7in) in the past 30 years but in the tropical Pacific, that figure was as high as 15cm.

“It’s important for leaders, especially like Australia and Aotearoa, to come and witness these things for themselves, but also witness the resilience of our people,” Mr Sikulu said.

“A core part of Tongan culture is our ability to be able to continue to be joyful throughout our adversity, and that’s how we practice our resilience and to see and witness that, I think is going to be important.”

This is the second time Secretary-General Guterres has participated in the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting. The annual meeting brings together leaders from 18 Pacific Islands, including Australia and New Zealand.

As leaders convened for the official opening ceremony, heavy rain caused extensive flooding. Shortly afterwards, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit the Tonga region, highlighting just how vulnerable it is.

In 2019, Mr Guterres travelled to Tuvalu where he sounded the alarm about rising sea levels. Five years on, he says he has seen real changes.

“We see everywhere an enormous commitment to resist, a commitment to reduce the negative impact of climate change,” he told the BBC. “The problem is, the Pacific Islands also suffer another big injustice – the international financial instruments that exist to support countries in distress were not designed for countries like this.”

Mr Guterres on Monday visited local communities whose livelihoods are threatened by rising sea levels. They’ve been waiting for seven years for a decision to be made on the funding of a sea wall.

“The bureaucracy, the complexity, the lack of sense of urgency because it’s a small island, far away,” he said, citing the failings of the international financial system, especially when it comes to small, developing island states.

“There are promises of increases of money available for adaptation in developing countries but the truth is we are far from what is needed, from the solidarity that is needed for these countries to be able to exist.”

Many Pacific islanders here at the conference single out the biggest regional donor and emitter – Australia.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia would be ramping up its extraction and use of gas until “2050 and beyond,” despite calls to phase out fossil fuels.

“There is an essential responsibility of the big polluters,” Mr Guterres said, when asked by the BBC what message he has for regional emitters like Australia.

Without that, the world will breech the threshold of 1.5C that was established in the Paris Agreement in 2015. That agreement aims to limit global warming to “well below” 2C by the end of the century, and “pursue efforts” to keep warming within the safer limit of 1.5C.

“Only by limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius do we have a fighting chance of preventing the irreversible collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets – and the catastrophes that accompany them,” Mr Guterres said.

“That means cutting global emissions 43% compared to 2019 levels by 2030, and 60% by 2035.”

Last year though, global emissions rose 1%.

“There is an obligation of the G20 that represent 80% of emissions – there’s an obligation for them to come together, to guarantee a reduction of emissions now,” Mr Guterres said.

Singling out the G20 as well as companies who contribute to much of the world’s global emissions, he added: “They have a clear responsibility to reverse the current trend. It’s time to say ‘enough’.”

When Zakia Rafiqi, 26, heard that Laila Majnu, a 2018 Bollywood film, was being re-released in cinemas this month, she knew she had to watch it again.

“In 2018, I was among a handful of people in the cinema. This time, there were many more people. A lot of them were laughing and crying,” says Ms Rafiqi, who went with her sister to a cinema in Delhi.

Ms Rafiqi says she has an “emotional connect” with the film, a tragic love story set in Indian-administered Kashmir, where she is from.

“It’s good to see a piece of home on the big screen. When they are driving through the streets of Kashmir, you feel you are there,” she says.

Laila Majnu, written by popular filmmaker Imtiaz Ali, barely made a mark at the box office when it was first released, but did good business on its second run. It is one among dozens of Indian films – some made more than two decades ago – which are getting a new lease of life as people flock to watch them on the big screen.

India’s film industry, like others across the world, has seen ups and downs since the coronavirus pandemic shuttered cinemas for months and led many to turn to streaming services. It is yet to return to its former glory.

“This year has been particularly bad for new [Bollywood] releases,” says trade analyst Komal Nahta.

The industry – dominated by Hindi-language Bollywood – is now churning out films more regularly, but it’s common to hear people say they will wait for a film to stream on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video instead of going to cinemas.

Some films do break through – Stree 2, a Hindi horror-comedy currently playing in cinemas, has earned close to four billion rupees ($47.6m; £36.1m) domestically so far to become the year’s biggest Bollywood hit. In terms of overall earnings, it is second only to Kalki 2898 AD, a “pan-Indian” film which featured some of the country’s biggest stars. But these are rare bright spots for an industry which has seen highly anticipated films with big stars fare miserably at the box office this year.

There’s no doubt that India’s film industry is continuing to see a churn as viewing habits shift – the top 10 films so far this year include three from the southern state of Kerala, where budgets are comparatively small.

• The southern Indian films winning on Bollywood’s turf
• Why Bollywood’s big films are flopping at the box office

So it’s not surprising that both film distributors and viewers are turning to the comfort of the familiar. A look at the list of films being released again shows there’s no clear formula behind the choices.

Bollywood re-releases this year are across a range of genres. The 1990s seem to be a favourite decade with much-loved rom-coms Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and Hum Aapke Hain Koun and action thrillers Main Khiladi Tu Anari and Baazigar getting a second outing. More recent hits – musical Rockstar (2011), buddy film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) and rom-com Jab We Met (2007) – have also brought people back to cinemas.

Analysts say the biggest surprise was the success of Laila Majnu. The film’s makers have said they were particularly happy that viewers in Kashmir could watch it as cinema halls reopened there in 2022 after more than two decades.

“The film has finally recovered its cost or at least minimised its losses,” says Mr Nahta, who adds that this will spur others to see if their films could also benefit from a re-release.

Taran Adarsh, a Bollywood analyst, says these re-releases are making up for a lack of new films and lacklustre box-office performances.

The re-releases have little to no promotion, with posters simply popping up on ticket booking sites or circulating on social media. “It’s driven purely by nostalgia or an audience’s love for a film that already has a cult following,” says Mr Adarsh.

In Tamil and Telugu, the re-releases have been more star-driven. Recent videos show fans of Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi dancing to a hit song from his 2002 hit Indra in cinemas. Pawan Kalyan’s Gabbar Singh (2012) is set to release next week. In Tamil, Vijay’s Ghilli (2004) ran to packed halls in April.

“It’s usually the film of a superstar whose star may have just been rising 20 years ago or a film that was already a hit,” says Sreedhar Pillai, an analyst who tracks the southern film industries. “It has to be driven by nostalgia and have a connection with an actor who is a big star today.”

Malayalam superstar Mohanlal has two such films – Devadoothan (2000) and Manichithrathazhu (1993) – currently running in cinemas in Kerala. Coincidentally, both are horror films.

Devadoothan, an eerie film with beautiful songs which flopped when it first released, has been running to packed cinemas for more than a month.

Mr Pillai says that Manichithrathazhu, a cult classic which broke box-office records when it first released, is probably the biggest “success story” among re-releases in southern India.

“It’s an iconic film. A huge blockbuster when it was released, and now it’s also getting the young audience,” he says.

Sometimes, the prospect of a sequel can drive interest in the first film.

Last year, the 2001 film Gadar: Ek Prem Katha had another successful run in cinemas after its sequel Gadar 2 became a massive hit, says Mr Nahta.

But the re-release of Kamal Haasan’s Indian this year did not see similar success because its sequel Indian 2 did not perform well, he adds.

So why are people paying to watch older films that are easily available on streaming platforms?

“You simply can’t compare the experience of watching a film online with watching it in theatres and that is what audiences are turning out for,” Mr Adarsh says.

Shruti Zende agrees. The 30-year-old from Pune city in Maharashtra state has watched a couple of re-releases since last year.

“Instead of watching the film for its storyline, it becomes a group experience where you’re watching with people who really like the movie,” she says, adding that people start reacting before a scene or dialogue because “they know what’s coming up”.

She is now looking forward to watching Telugu superstar Nagarjuna’s 2004 film Mass on the big screen this week.

But her final verdict on re-releases will give hope to beleaguered filmmakers.

“I may watch one or two re-releases a year,” she says. “But after that I’d still want to watch a new film.”

US soldier Travis King, who fled from South to North Korea before being returned home, will plead guilty to desertion and other charges, his lawyer has said.

The army filed 14 charges against Mr King for the illegal crossing in July 2023. He plans to enter a guilty plea to five charges, including desertion and assault, as part of a plea deal.

“He will plead not guilty to the remaining offenses, which the Army will withdraw and dismiss,” his lawyer Franklin Rosenblatt said in a statement to BBC News.

His plea and sentencing hearing will take place on 20 September at a military base in Fort Bliss, Texas.

“Travis’s guilty plea will be entered at a general court-martial,” Mr Rosenblatt said in an emailed statement on Monday.

“There, he will explain what he did, answer a military judge’s questions about why he is pleading guilty, and be sentenced.”

Mr King is grateful to support from his family and friends and to all those who did not “pre-judge” him based on the allegations, the lawyer added.

Charges expected to be dismissed as part of the plea deal include possession of child pornography.

Pvt King has been in the army since January 2021 and was in South Korea as part of a unit rotation when he crossed into North Korea.

Prior to that incident, he had served two months in detention in South Korea on charges that he had assaulted two people and kicked a police car.

He was released from custody on 10 July – eight days before he crossed the country’s border with Pyongyang.

His release deal was brokered by Swedish officials, who brought Pvt King to North Korea’s border with China.

Little is known about how he was treated in North Korea, why he fled there in the first place, and why Pyongyang expelled him.

The US has said it made no concessions to secure his release.

Mariah Carey’s mother Patricia and sister Alison died on the same day over the weekend, the US singer has said in a statement.

“My heart is broken that I’ve lost my mother this past weekend,” Carey said on Monday. “Sadly, in a tragic turn of events, my sister lost her life on the same day.”

The Grammy-winning singer said she felt blessed to have spent time with her mother in the week before her death and asked for privacy.

No further details were released about the causes of death.

Patricia, 87, was a former opera singer and vocal coach of Irish-American descent.

In Carey’s 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, the five-time Grammy Award-winning singer detailed her complicated relationship with her mother, saying it had caused her “so much pain and confusion”.

Carey, 55, said competition had come between them. Professional jealousy “comes with the territory of success, but when the person is your mother and the jealousy is revealed at such a tender age, it’s particularly painful”, she added.

But she also spoke of the deep love she had had for her mother, writing in the dedication: “To Pat, my mother, who, through it all, I do believe actually did the best she could. I will love you the best I can, always.”

In an interview with Gayle King in 2022, the singer said she had “definitely” been affected by criticism from her mother when she was growing up.

She added that she had always credited her mother with exposing her to music.

Carey’s relationship with her older sister Alison, 63, was also complex.

In her memoir, she wrote of being estranged from her and her brother Morgan, saying that it was “emotionally and physically safer for me to not have any contact”.

Alison sued Carey for $1.2m (£909,780) following the release of the memoir for “immense emotional distress”, calling it “vindictive”.

The singer’s father, Alfred, died in 2002 of cancer at the age of 72.

Carey is regarded as one of the most successful singers globally.

Her holiday single All I Want For Christmas Is You is the best-selling Christmas song by a female artist of all time.

She holds the record for the most Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles by a solo artist at 19 songs, has sold over 220 million records worldwide, and served as a judge on the competition show American Idol.

Japan has accused a Chinese spy plane of breaching its airspace, in what would be the first known time that a Chinese plane has directly violated Japanese airspace.

Japan scrambled fighter jets after a Y-9 surveillance plane “violated the territorial airspace” of Danjo islands at 11:29 local time Monday (02:29 GMT).

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary called the breach “utterly unacceptable” and summoned a Chinese embassy official in Tokyo in protest.

The incident comes as tensions rise in the region, where China competes for influence against the US and its allies, including Japan.

There has been no official response from Beijing.

The incursion on Monday lasted two minutes and the Japanese issued “notifications and warnings” to the Chinese aircraft. No weapons such as flare guns were used, according to broadcaster NHK.

Japan has also recently flagged the presence of Chinese ships in the Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, which is claimed by China and which Beijing calls the Diaoyus.

China has become increasingly assertive in the region, in its claims over Taiwan as well as the South China Sea.

Like so many in Australia, Sam grew up in a community where having a punt was synonymous with sport.

“Our friends, our family would ask ‘Oh who are you betting on this week?’ That was the normal conversation that occurred,” his sister Amy – who is not using her real name – says.

Looking back, she blames that normalisation of gambling – the way it crept into their home and baked itself into social interactions – for her brother’s addiction, and for the suffering he endured before taking his life.

“It just destroyed him physically and emotionally,” she explains. “We tried everything. We were a close family, but we obviously didn’t know how bad it was – it crushed him.”

Amy is one of dozens who came forward to testify in a bipartisan parliamentary inquiry into the impacts of gambling in Australia – which wagers more per capita than any other country.

The probe found that there were “few safeguards” to protect those battling addiction and recommended 31 reforms to avoid “grooming” a new generation of children to gamble, starting with a three-year phased ban on advertising.

Now, pressure is mounting on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – both externally and from within his party – to act, with polling suggesting a majority of people support the move.

But the government has signalled it may instead opt for a cap to limit advertising. It has cited the role gambling ad revenue plays in propping up the nation’s ailing free-to-air broadcasters, as well as warnings from wagering companies that a ban could drive consumers offshore.

Doing so would result in huge tax losses on Australian betting platforms which currently fund “vital services”, the peak body representing the industry says.

The debate has spurred accusations that corporate interests are standing in the way of common-sense reform.

It has also spotlighted the deep-rooted links between sport, gambling, and entertainment in Australia.

Betting occupies a unique space in Australian culture.

In the 1980s, it became the first country to deregulate its gambling industry, making it possible for slot machines – once only permitted inside casinos – to expand into licensed pubs and clubs.

Today, Australia is home to roughly 0.33% of the world’s population, but a fifth of all “pokies”- the colloquial term used for the machines.

The last two decades have also seen an explosion in the popularity of online betting, particularly when it comes to sport. Estimates show Australians are spending approximately A$25bn ($16.8bn; £12.9bn) on legal wagers each year – with 38% of the population gambling weekly.

Experts argue that sophisticated marketing has aided that boom, while sponsorship deals, partnerships, and kickbacks given to prevalent sporting bodies, have helped legitimise the industry

Sean – not his real name – has been gambling legally, and often obsessively, for more than 18 years. He was introduced by a friend to sports betting as a teenager, and from there, things snowballed. “Some days I couldn’t sleep unless I knew that I had a bet on. It got to the point where I was betting on sports I’d never seen in countries I’d never heard of,” he told the BBC.

Now 36 and seeking help from sponsors, he doesn’t like to keep tabs on what feels like a lifetime of losses, but he puts the total figure in the ballpark of A$2m.

He says the relationship breakdowns and years of isolation are harder to quantify: “If I never gambled, I would be married with kids right now”.

One academic paper found that like Sean, 90% of Australian adults and roughly three-quarters of children aged eight to 16 years see betting as a “normal part of sport”. Advocates like Martin Thomas argue this is evidence that the practice “has seeped into every corner of society”.

“Our kids know just as much about the odds on a game and multi bets as they do their favourite players,” he tells the BBC.

In Amy’s view, as well as making it harder for people of all ages to escape gambling, that normalisation has created a dangerous subtext: that any adverse impacts – such as debt or addiction – are the fault of the individual, not the system.

“To go and watch a sporting event and see it saturated with betting advertising, you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m the problem. Because everyone does this’, you know what I mean?

“That’s what my brother thought.”

Like many advocates, she wants to see gambling reframed as a major public health issue rather than a recreational pursuit, given surveys have shown that nearly half of those engaging in the practice are at risk of, or already experience, its associated harms – such as financial hardship, family violence, depression, and suicide.

Research suggests that a prohibition on advertising could be the first step in achieving that aim. And advocates say there’s a well-trodden path the government could follow. Mr Thomas cites Australia’s decision to ban tobacco adverts in 1992 – which has been credited with dramatically reducing smoking rates – as proof of what’s possible.

But while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has described the “saturation of gambling advertising” as “untenable”, he’s yet to commit to a course of action.

Instead, he has pointed to his government’s other initiatives when questioned – such as banning credit card use in online wagering and creating a register for people to exclude themselves from betting sites. At times, he’s also framed gambling as an age-old problem.

“[This] has been an issue in our society I suspect, since man and woman walked, and had a bet on who could ride the horse the fastest or who could run from rock to rock, probably before there were buildings,” he told parliament on Wednesday.

The peak body representing Australia’s wagering companies has described a blanket ban as “a step too far” and thrown its weight behind the government’s proposed cap – which would limit ads online and during general TV programming.

“By doing this, the expectations of the community to see less advertising would be met, while also maintaining the crucial support to sporting codes and local broadcasters,” Responsible Wagering Australia’s CEO Kai Cantwell said in a statement.

But Dr Andrew Hughes, a lecturer in marketing at The Australian National University, has cast doubt over how crucial that financial support is – given that Nielsen data shows that the lion’s share of ad money the nation’s broadcasters take in comes from a range of other sectors, rather than betting platforms.

And independent senators, like David Pocock, have criticised the logic of using money from wagering to prop up the media.

“Journalism is incredibly important, but it shouldn’t be dependent on flogging products we know are harmful, and which cause addiction, personal issues, family breakdowns, and in some cases, suicide,” he told the BBC.

“The government should have the imagination to look at other ways of plugging that gap.”

Mr Pocock is one of several senators to publicly question whether betting companies and the industries they finance, are interfering with policy decisions – citing their extensive lobbying efforts and history of large political donations.

Last week, he joined 20 parliamentarians from across the political spectrum to sign an open letter backing a prohibition on advertising, while also calling for a free vote on the issue to allow MPs in Mr Albanese’s party to cross the floor, without facing repercussions.

Several medical bodies have also thrown their support behind a ban, as has an expert panel appointed by the government to probe how to bring down rates of domestic violence in Australia – adding to the mounting pressure Mr Albanese is facing.

The government already runs warnings on gambling advertisements reminding people of the risks.

But Sean says it does little to deter those caught in the crosshairs of addiction.

“I know the house always wins, but every time I’m ready to have a punt that all goes out the window,” he explains. “I start thinking I’m about to pull off that one win that’s going to take me away from everything. That win that’s going to get everything back.”

Although nothing has been finalised and Mr Albanese’s cabinet is still weighing its options, for Amy, the debate itself has become too “insensitive” to follow.

She can’t comprehend what the hold-up is and wants answers.

“Anyone who understands this issue would without a doubt agree to a full advertising ban – that’s what the evidence says,” she tells the BBC. “It feels like these lobbyists own the government… We’re dangling this dangerous product in front of everyone and normalising it, and the worst-case scenario is what happened to us.

“My family – they’ll never recover. It’s not something that you recover from.”

At least five people have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials say.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed the strike, on the Nur Shams camp near the city of Tulkarm, saying it had targeted what it called the command room of a “terror cell”.

Separately, the Palestinian Authority said one person had been killed and three injured in an attack by Israeli settlers near Bethlehem. The IDF said it was investigating the reports.

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

The UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said last Wednesday that 128 Palestinians, including 26 children, had been killed in air strikes in the West Bank since 7 October.

It added that as of 19 August, 607 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem – including seven by Israeli settlers.

Ten Israelis have also been killed in attacks by Palestinians from the West Bank, the agency adds.

The Nur Shams camp has been targeted by the IDF several times in recent months.

In April, the Palestinian Red Crescent said 14 people died in a two-day Israeli operation.

And in July the IDF bulldozed the camp’s main street.

In Monday’s second reported attack near Bethlehem, Palestinian media said dozens of Israeli settlers had entered the village of Wadi Rahhal, attacking residents.

The settlers shot dead a 40-year-old Palestinian man and wounded at least three others, Palestinian officials said.

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem – land the Palestinians want as part of a future state – in the 1967 Middle East war.

The vast majority of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

Canada says it will impose a 100% tariff on imports of China-made electric vehicles (EV) after similar announcements by the US and European Union.

The country also plans to impose a 25% duty on Chinese steel and aluminium.

Canada and its Western allies accuse China of subsidising its EV industry, giving its car makers an unfair advantage.

China has called the move “trade protectionism” which “violates World Trade Organization rules”.

“We are transforming Canada’s automotive sector to be a global leader in building the vehicles of tomorrow, but actors like China have chosen to give themselves an unfair advantage in the global marketplace”, said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Canada’s duties on Chinese EVs are due to come into effect on 1 October, while those on steel and aluminium will be implemented from 15 October.

“The rapid development of China’s electric vehicle industry is a result of persistent technological innovation, well-established industrial and supply chains, and full market competition,” said a statement from China’s embassy in Canada.

“Its competitiveness is gained through utilising its comparative advantages and following market principles, rather than relying on government subsidies.”

China is Canada’s second-largest trading partner, behind the US.

In May, the US said it would quadruple its tariffs on imports of Chinese EVs to 100%.

That was followed by the EU, which announced plans to impose duties on China-made EVs of up to 36.3%.

Canada’s tariffs on Chinese EVs will include those made by Tesla at its Shanghai factory.

“Tesla will almost certainly be lobbying the Canadian government to get some leeway on these tariffs, as they have already with Europe,” said Mark Rainford, a China-based car industry commentator.

“If they fail at mitigating the tariff enough, they’ll likely look at switching their Canadian imports to either the US or European factories since Canada is their 6th largest market this year and thus not insignificant.”

Tesla did not immediately reply to a request for comment from BBC News.

Earlier this month, the EU cut its planned extra tariff on China-made Teslas by more than half, after further investigations requested by Elon Musk’s car maker.

Chinese car brands are still not a common sight in Canada but some, like BYD, have taken steps to enter the country’s market.

China is the world’s largest manufacturer of EVs and its car makers have quickly gained a significant share of the global market.

Meanwhile, Canada has struck deals worth billions of dollars with major European car makers, as it tries to become a key part of the global EV industry.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said he will not agree to a government led by the left-wing New Popular Front alliance (NFP), which won the most seats in last month’s legislative election.

Mr Macron said France needed institutional stability and the left could not win a confidence vote in parliament.

The NFP, which put forward the relatively unknown civil servant Lucie Castets as its candidate for prime minister, in response called for street protests and Mr Macron’s impeachment.

Mr Macron – whose centrists were beaten to second place in July – said he would start new consultations with party leaders on Tuesday, and urged the left to cooperate with other political forces.

No one group was able to win a majority in the elections, with the NFP gaining more than 190 seats, Mr Macron’s centrist Ensemble alliance 160 and the far-right National Rally (RN) 140.

A caretaker government has since led France, including during the Paris Olympics, to the anger of the NFP.

Mr Macron has been holding talks on a new government since the election, and said he would continue to do so.

“My responsibility is that the country is not blocked nor weakened,” his statement on Monday said.

“The Socialist Party, the Greens and the Communists have not yet proposed ways to cooperate with other political forces. It is now up to them to do so,” he added.

But he noticeably failed to mention one of the main elements that makes up the NFP, the hard-left France Unbowed movement (LFI).

The LFI reacted angrily to the president’s words, with national coordinator Manuel Bompard describing them as an “unacceptable anti-democratic coup”.

Communist leader Fabien Roussel told BFM TV Mr Macron was going to trigger a “serious crisis in our country”, while Green leader Marine Tondelier said on X that three-quarters of the French people wanted a “political break with Macronism”.

The leftist coalition has previously refused to take part in any future consultations unless the candidacy of Ms Castets for prime minister is discussed.

However, the 37-year-old economist is unelected and seen as an unlikely presidential pick.

Both Ensemble and RN have vowed to vote down candidates from the NFP.

After meeting Mr Macron for talks on Monday, RN leaders Marine le Pen and Jordan Bardella described the NFP as a “danger” for France.

Among other names discussed in political circles are former Socialist interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve and Xavier Bertrand, who is a regional leader from the centre-right Republicans.

A federal judge in Texas has issued an order temporarily halting a new immigration programme from the Biden White House that officials say could protect hundreds of thousands of undocumented spouses of US citizens from deportation.

The 14-day stay issued on Monday comes in response to a lawsuit from 16 Republican-led states that sued the Biden administration over the programme.

The “Keeping Families Together” programme, which took effect last week, would apply to those who have been in the country for at least 10 years and allow them to work in the US legally.

Polls show that the immigration is a primary concern for many voters ahead of November’s presidential election.

When the White House announced the new programme in June, officials said that more than 500,000 spouses would be eligible.

They said the policy will also benefit 50,000 people under 21 whose parent is married to an American citizen.

The announcement marked the most significant relief programme for undocumented migrants already in the US since the Obama administration announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or Daca, in 2012.

Under the now-temporarily suspended programme, the undocumented spouses of US citizens would qualify if they had lived in the country for a decade and been married as of 17 June.

Those who qualify will have three years to apply for permanent residency and will be eligible for a three-year work permit.

Unlike the old system, in which applicants must leave the US to apply, the new plan would allow them to remain in the country as they seek legal status.

Judge J Campbell Barker’s order on Monday puts the plan on hold for two weeks as the court considers the case, but has the option to be extended.

The Department of Homeland Security can continue receiving applications in the meantime but cannot process them.

“The claims are substantial and warrant closer consideration than the court has been able to afford to date,” Judge Barker, who was appointed to the bench by former President Donald Trump, wrote in his order.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton applauded the order, writing on social media: “This is just the first step. We are going to keep fighting for Texas, our country, and the rule of law.”

Critics of the Biden plan argue that it offers amnesty for migrants who entered the country illegally.

Proponents argue that it will allow families to remain together, and that the old system “separates families”.

The Donald Trump and Kamala Harris campaigns are sparring over whether to mute one of the microphones when it is the other person’s turn to speak during the pair’s scheduled debate next month.

The Harris campaign said in a statement to the BBC’s US partner CBS News that it wanted both candidates’ microphones to be live throughout the full broadcast.

The Trump campaign reportedly wants the ABC debate, scheduled for 10 September, to be governed by the same rules agreed when Joe Biden was the Democratic candidate. That would mean the microphones being muted.

The apparent impasse comes as the former president questioned the impartiality of the network and signalled he might even skip the debate.

Before President Joe Biden stepped down as the Democratic party nominee, his campaign agreed with Trump’s campaign to participate in two debates – one previously held in June on CNN and one to air on ABC News this September.

The Biden campaign negotiated the rules for the debate and agreed that the microphone would be muted when a candidate wasn’t speaking.

The Trump campaign agreed to the rule, which was enforced during the June CNN debate.

But now, with just 15 days until the ABC News debate in Philadelphia is scheduled to air, the Harris campaign wants the microphones to be “hot” – meaning they will never be turned off for the duration of the debate.

This would allow the two candidates to interrupt and speak over each other on the debate stage.

“The vice president is ready to deal with Trump’s constant lies and interruptions in real time. Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button,” Harris campaign senior communications adviser Brian Fallon said in a statement.

Trump, meanwhile, told reporters on Monday that he’d rather have the microphones on during the debate, but said it “worked out fine” when they were muted on stage with Mr Biden.

“We agreed to the same rules and same specifications and I think that’s probably what it should be, but they’re trying to change it,” he said. “The truth is they’re trying to get out of it because she doesn’t want to debate. She’s not a good debater.”

Trump’s campaign, in a statement to Politico, reiterated the former president’s accusation that Ms Harris was looking to find a way to get out of the debate.

“Enough with the games. We accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate,” senior Trump adviser Jason Miller told Politico. “The Harris camp, after having already agreed to the CNN rules, asked for a seated debate, with notes, and opening statements. We said no changes to the agreed upon rules.”

A Harris campaign official who was asked about the Trump campaign’s claims said they were “100% false”, according to CBS News.

On Trump’s Truth Social platform on Sunday, he questioned whether the ABC News journalists moderating the debate would give the questions to the Harris campaign ahead of time.

“Why would I do the debate against Kamala Harris on that network?” he wrote.

This is not the first time the former president has suggested he could back out of a debate. Earlier this month, Trump said he would only debate Ms Harris if the debate was hosted by Fox News. He reversed course several days later.

Meanwhile, as the 5 November election nears, the Harris campaign said it has raised $540 million since Biden stepped down, the Associated Press reports. Harris saw record-breaking fundraising numbers in the aftermath of Mr Biden dropping out of the race.

The Trump campaign, on the other hand, raised $138.7 million in July and has $327 million cash on hand.

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• KAMALA HARRIS: The many identities of the first female vice-president

US Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith has appealed to a federal court to resurrect the case against former president Donald Trump for allegedly mishandling classified government documents found at his Florida home in 2021.

The case was dismissed in July by Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida, a Trump appointee, who ruled that the mere existence of special counsels violated the US Constitution.

In his request on Monday, Mr Smith wrote that the judge’s view “deviated” from legal precedent and “took an inadequate account” of the history of legally-appointed special counsels.

Trump’s legal team has until 26 September to submit a response to Mr Smith’s arguments.

Trump had pleaded not guilty to several felony charges in the now-dismissed case, including wilful retention of national defence information.

The 37-count indictment accused Trump of keeping files at his Florida estate and lying to investigators. It also alleged he tried to obstruct the investigation into his handling of the documents.

He was charged alongside aide Walt Nauta and former employee Carlos de Oliveira, who had also pleaded not guilty.

Mr Smith’s request on Monday defended the appointment of special counsels to a federal appeals court in Atlanta. The filing refers to “Congress’s endorsement of that practice through appropriations and other legislation”.

“The attorney general validly appointed the special counsel, who is also properly funded,” Mr Smith’s team said.

“In ruling otherwise, the district court deviated from binding Supreme Court precedent, misconstrued the statutes that authorized the special counsel’s appointment, and took inadequate account of the longstanding history of Attorney General appointments of special counsels.”

It noted the landmark 1974 case against former President Richard Nixon, arguing that it proves that the attorney general has “appointment authority” for special counsels.

“Nixon conclusively defeats the defendants’ challenge to the Special Counsel’s appointment, as every other court to have considered the issue has found,” the filing argued.

“Congress has bestowed on the Attorney General, like the heads of many Executive Departments, broad authority to structure the agency he leads to carry out the responsibilities imposed on him by law,” Mr Smith’s prosecutors wrote.

The case was one of four criminal trials Trump was facing. Regardless of how the classified documents case proceeds, it is extremely unlikely to go to trial ahead of the presidential election in November.

If Trump wins the election, experts predict that he will order the justice department to dismiss the cases against him.

A special counsel has the powers of a US attorney – meaning they can subpoena records and bring criminal charges. They are appointed by attorneys general to facilitate an independent, impartial investigation.

They can also prosecute anyone who interferes in their investigation through crimes including perjury, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, and intimidation of witnesses.

They are not supervised on a day-to-day basis by the justice department, which provides staff to special counsel’s office.

Mr Trump is not the only notable figure being investigated by a special counsel.

President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, is also being prosecuted for gun and tax crimes by a special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Mr Garland appointed Mr Smith in 2022 to oversee two federal investigations into Mr Trump – the classified documents case and another case arguing that Trump attempted to interfere in the result of the 2020 election.

Both cases face uncertain outcomes after the Supreme Court ruled last month that presidents are legally immune from certain actions they take while in office.

“Burn Gaza now, nothing less!” When the deputy speaker of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, posted this comment on X in November, the platform blocked him and asked him to delete it.

Nissim Vaturi did as they asked, and his account has since been reactivated, but he did not apologise. His comment is one of many controversial remarks that have been made by some high-profile Israelis as the country’s armed forces carry out air strikes and ground operations in Gaza, in response to Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October.

On the day of the attacks, he had posted: “Now we all have one common goal – erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the Earth.”

That post, which is still visible on X, was cited in South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in which South Africa alleges Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians, in the Gaza war. Israel has called the case “wholly unfounded” and based on “biased and false claims”.

As part of an interim judgement in January, the ICJ ruled that Israel must prevent public statements inciting genocide. Although the court does not have the power to enforce this, Israel agreed to submit a report detailing the action it had taken to investigate and prosecute possible instances of incitement. The court confirmed that the report was received in February, but has not made its contents public.

Some legal experts believe Israel is not doing enough to investigate potential cases. “Israelis who incite genocide or use genocidal rhetoric are immune from prosecution,” says Israeli human rights lawyer, Michael Sfard.

Proving incitement to genocide, which is a crime under international and Israeli law, is difficult. Genocide is defined as acts intended to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. But distinguishing between inciting genocide and inciting violence or racism – and what could be considered free speech – can be complex.

The BBC has looked at several pronouncements made since the ICJ’s order to see if they could break the ruling and consulted legal experts for their assessment. And although this judgement was directed at Israel, we have also examined language used by some Hamas officials who have made speeches about repeating their attack of 7 October.

A pro-Palestinian human rights organisation made up of a network of experts and researchers around the world who monitor the conflict, Law for Palestine, has looked at cases where it believes Israeli officials and other public figures have incited genocide. Its list includes some statements by Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Mr Ben-Gvir has been advocating a policy to encourage Palestinians to leave Gaza, saying Israelis should settle there.

He leads an ultranationalist party which is widely criticised for espousing racially discriminatory, anti-Arab policies. He has previous convictions from an Israeli court – which date from before he entered government – for inciting racism and supporting terrorism.

Two days after the ICJ ruling in January, he advocated a policy to encourage Palestinians to leave Gaza and replace them with Israeli settlers. He said that to avoid a repeat of Hamas’s attack on Israel “we need to return home and control the territory [Gaza]… encouraging migration and giving the death penalty to terrorists”, proposing that any emigration should be voluntary.

“We consider the calling to displacement of the Gaza population as part of the ethnic cleansing that is ongoing in Gaza,” says Law for Palestine’s founder, Ihsan Adel. He believes those calls should be considered incitement to genocide, and that genocide is happening – an accusation Israel denies.

Not everyone agrees with his assessment, though. “I’m definitely not going to defend such statements, but they do not rise to the level of genocide,” says Anne Herzberg, a legal adviser at NGO Monitor, which reports on international NGO activity from a pro-Israel perspective.

Neither Mr Ben-Gvir nor Mr Vaturi responded to BBC requests for comment.

The link between what politicians say and what Israeli soldiers say was a core part of South Africa’s case at the ICJ.

In a YouTube video from late 2023, a group of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers can be heard chanting: “Occupy, expel and settle.” And soldiers have made other videos since the ICJ ruling in January mocking and celebrating the destruction of Gaza.

The IDF told us that it examines reports of videos online and that if a criminal offence is suspected, the military police investigate and “in some of the examined cases, it is concluded that the expression or behaviour of the soldiers in the footage is inappropriate, and it is handled accordingly”.

The spotlight has also fallen on Israel’s religious leaders. Rabbi Eliyahu Mali attracted attention after he gave a talk in March at a conference for Israel’s Zionist yeshivas – Jewish religious schools with a strong belief in the State of Israel. Rabbi Mali is the head of a yeshiva that is part of a network that receives funding from Israel‘s Ministry of Defence. Its students mix Torah study with military service.

He described the talk as being about the “treatment of the civilian population in Gaza during the war”.

A clip of it was shared online. After citing a 12th Century Jewish scholar on holy wars, Rabbi Mali said: “[And if so] the basic rule that we have when we are fighting a mitzvah war, in this case Gaza, according to the scriptures, ‘You shall not let a soul remain alive,’ the explanation is very clear – if you don’t kill them, they will kill you.”

In Judaism, a mitzvah war is one which includes defending Jewish life and sovereignty and is considered obligatory as opposed to one of choice.

We contacted Rabbi Mali and a response, sent on his behalf, said that his words had been “grossly misrepresented by excerpts being taken out of context”.

It said that he had set out what the position was in ancient times but that he had “made it very clear that anyone following the Biblical commandment today would be causing the army and the nation extreme harm” and that under national law “it is forbidden to harm the civilian population from a child to an old man”.

We watched the full talk and on a few occasions he reminded the audience of those points, including in the conclusion, and also saying at the start: “You need to do exactly what the army orders say.”

However, during the talk, he specifically mentioned the people of Gaza saying: “I think there is a difference between the civilian population in other places and the civilian population in Gaza,” adding an unsubstantiated claim that “95% to 98% are interested in our demise, that’s a majority, that’s stupefying.”

When an audience member asked about babies he replied: ”The same… The Torah is saying: ‘You shall not let a soul remain alive’… Today he’s a baby, tomorrow he’s a boy, tomorrow he’s a warrior.”

In the talk, the rabbi also recounted what he said to his son, who went to fight after the 7 October attacks. He said he should “kill everything that moves”. He explained his position by adding that his son’s commander had told him the same thing and that he instructed his son to ”listen to the commander’s orders”.

Later, he reiterated that he did not expect soldiers to do what was laid out in the Torah. He said that if the laws of the state contradicted the laws of the Torah, it was the state law that should be followed and “the laws of the state only want to kill the terrorists and not the civilian population”.

Eitay Mack, a lawyer from the Israeli group Tag Meir that campaigns against racism and discrimination, says he has asked police to investigate the rabbi on suspicion of incitement to commit genocide, violence and terrorism.

He says he is still waiting to hear if the investigation he requested will be carried out.

Another claim made by South Africa at the ICJ hearing was about “genocidal messages being routinely broadcast – without censure or sanction – in Israeli media”.

In February, on the right-wing Channel 14, journalist Yaki Adamker said: “The Gazans, as far as I am concerned, can starve to death. What do I care about them?”

In April, an Israeli journalist on the most-watched channel in the country, Channel 12, Yehuda Schlesinger, echoed similar sentiments, saying: “There are no innocents in the Gaza Strip, there aren’t. They voted for Hamas, they want Hamas.”

For Anne Herzberg, from NGO Monitor, this may show “a disturbing lack of empathy for people in Gaza and what they’re going through,” but “it’s not calling for genocide”.

The BBC contacted both broadcasters but received no response. Yehuda Schlesinger replied, highlighting the atrocities of 7 October.

When it comes to whether the authorities should regulate what is broadcast more tightly, Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard warns that “regulators, which is the state, have to make sure that public broadcasting is not exploited” by people making provocative comments.

While the ICJ ruling on preventing inciting genocide was directed at Israel, Hamas has also been accused of making statements with “genocidal intent”.

“The annihilationist language of Hamas’s charter is repeated regularly by its leaders,” says Tal Becker, legal adviser to Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

In 2021, Yahya Sinwar, who has just become the overall leader of Hamas said: “We support the elimination of Israel through jihad and armed struggle, this is our doctrine.”

And, more recently, some Hamas officials have claimed they want to repeat the 7 October attacks, during which about 1,200 people were killed – mostly civilians – and 251 were taken hostage.

In November, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, Ghazi Hamad, said: “We must teach Israel a lesson and we will do this again and again.”

Around the same time, Hamas leader abroad, Khaled Mashaal, said that 7 October “opened a highway towards eliminating Israel”.

Hamas did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

Many want to see the group – which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the US, UK, EU and other countries – held to account.

“It’s quite clear that they do have genocidal intent, and we hear very little about investigating Hamas, and I think that’s a real missing piece in this entire conflict,” says Anne Herzberg from NGO Monitor.

The UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese – whose own criticisms of Israeli actions have been strongly contested, in particular in Israel and the United States – agrees Hamas leaders should be held accountable. But she says: “When assessing genocide, one is to look at the words spoken by leaders, but also the capacity to commit genocide, which Hamas per se doesn’t seem to have.”

Unlike Israel, Hamas cannot be taken to the ICJ because it is not a state. However a different body, the International Criminal Court (ICC), can hold individuals to account. In May its prosecutor applied for arrest warrants for Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh (Haniyeh has since been killed in Iran and Israel says it killed Deif in Gaza) for crimes against humanity, and war crimes. He also sought warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. Both Hamas and Israel reacted with outrage.

As for what Israeli authorities are doing to prevent and prosecute people suspected of inciting violence, the country’s attorney general and state attorney have acknowledged that any statements calling for intentional harm to civilians “may amount to a criminal offence, including the offence of incitement”. Just before the ICJ hearing in January they said that several cases were being examined.

Recently however, Haaretz reported that the state prosecutor recommended that no criminal investigations be opened against senior public figures, including ministers and members of Knesset, who have “called to harm civilians in the Gaza Strip”. The final decision rests with the attorney general.

The BBC contacted Israel’s state attorney, police commissioner and Ministry of Justice for comment. Only the Ministry of Justice replied, saying they have to balance “the constitutional right to freedom of speech… while safeguarding against harmful incitement”. They added: “Law enforcement authorities constantly act to curtail incitement offences, and these efforts have been prioritised by Israel’s attorney general in recent months.”

And as the ICJ continues to work toward a final ruling in its case, people continue to die – since October more than 40,000 Palestinians are reported to have been killed in Gaza, according to its Hamas-run health ministry.

It was late at night on 7 May 2022 when a Russian missile hit a museum that was once home to Ukraine’s 18th-Century poet and philosopher Hryhory Skovoroda.

“The roof was completely blown off, the walls are burnt and only Skovoroda’s statue survived. It’s a miracle that it did,” says Nastya Ishchenko, deputy director of the museum in the Kharkiv region of north-eastern Ukraine.

It is one of 432 cultural sites damaged in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, according to the UN’s cultural organisation Unesco.

The destruction of so much of their culture has not just pushed Ukrainians farther away from the Russian-dominated cultural space they shared for decades under Soviet rule.

It has also awakened a hunger for their own culture, described by one daily newspaper as a “Ukrainian cultural boom”.

In total, 139 religious sites have been hit, 214 buildings of historical or artistic interest, 31 museums, 32 monuments, 15 libraries and one archive.

The management at the Hryhoriy Skovoroda Museum knew it might come under attack and most of its valuable artefacts had been evacuated to a safer location.

There was no other potential target near the museum, so Ukrainians believe it was bombed simply because of his cultural importance.

Ukraine’s museums in areas occupied by Russia have faced a very different problem. The full extent of plunder by Russian troops came to light in the final days of the occupation of the southern city of Kherson.

Entire truckloads of artworks and historical artefacts were removed by Russians – ostensibly, for “safekeeping”.

The Kherson Art Museum says it has identified 120 artworks taken to Crimea – another occupied area of Ukraine. But the total number of artefacts the museum has lost is more than 10,000.

In some museums in occupied parts of Ukraine, Russians removed exhibits for propaganda purposes. For example, an exhibition on Ukraine’s modern history in Berdyansk has been replaced with one glorifying the “special military operation” – the Kremlin’s official name for the war against Ukraine.

Last May, another aspect of modern Ukrainian culture came under attack with the destruction of the Faktor Druk printing house in Kharkiv, used by almost all Ukrainian book publishers.

Not every cultural building has been hit on purpose, although the attack on Faktor Druk, which killed seven people and destroyed 50,000 books, was widely seen as a targeted strike.

Other buildings have been hit because of their proximity to other buildings or to make them unusable for Ukrainian officials or troops.

One publisher described the destruction of books at Faktor Druk as leading to a decline in morale in society. And the disappearance of numerous cultural sites in Ukraine has placed its very social fabric under strain.

They are vital for the cohesion and resilience of communities at a time of war, says the head of Unesco’s desk in Ukraine, Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi.

“What I’ve seen is communities really asking for culture and their cultural centres. They recognise its importance for the community and they need it for their resilience. Culture is very important for healing trauma,” she tells the BBC.

Ukraine’s acting culture minister, Rostyslav Karandeyev, believes that Russia is deliberately targeting the country’s spiritual and historical symbols: “Not just military targets and critical infrastructure, but also anything that allows Ukrainians to speak of their own identity and statehood.”

As part of this policy, Russian forces have been removing and destroying Ukrainian books from schools and libraries in occupied areas, he told the BBC.

But amid all the gloom, Nastya Ishchenko from the Skovoroda museum believes Ukrainians have also started to value more what is under threat from the Russian invasion.

“It’s like in a relationship: to understand what you’ve lost, it has to be taken away,” she says. “We’re uniting not around aggression or anger, but around cultural values which each of us will hand down to future generations. It gives us a ray of light.”

Den newspaper describes how bands, performers and writes are appearing, with new plays premiered and theatres full.

Ukraine’s numerous volunteers have not just provided vital provisions and supplies of clothing and medicines, but musical instruments too.

“Children said that music helped them emotionally, it took them to a place where they don’t hear bombs or sirens. It helps them enormously,” UK-based musician Irina Gould told the BBC’s podcast Ukrainecast.

“For them it’s the best medicine, just to get away from reality and live in a world of beauty and happiness.”

A standoff has erupted in the Philippines as thousands of police officers descended on a sprawling religious compound in search of an influential pastor who has been accused of child sex trafficking amongst other crimes.

Police say they will not leave until they have found Apollo Quiboloy, who calls himself the “appointed Son of God”.

He is believed to be hiding inside his 30 hectare (75 acres) complex, which houses some 40 buildings, including a cathedral, a school and even a hangar.

Authorities have been on the hunt for Mr Quiboloy for months. He had earlier said he would “not be caught alive”.

Police raided the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) compound late on Saturday, with reports saying they later used tear gas against Mr Quiboloy’s followers who had become “unruly and violent”, Davao police spokesperson Major Catherina dela Rey told news outlet Rappler.

Hundreds of Mr Quiboloy’s followers have blocked parts of a major highway in an attempt to disrupt traffic to the compound.

They maintain his innocence, saying allegations against him are fabricated.

One supporter of the group died from a heart attack during the police raid.

Police believe Mr Quiboloy is hiding in an underground bunker based on equipment that is believed to be able to detect people behind walls based on their heartbeat, said Maj dela Rey.

Mr Quiboloy’s KOJC claims to have seven million followers and he has grown his ministry through television, radio and social media.

He is also politically influential and serves as spiritual adviser to former President Rodrigo Duterte, whose family rules Davao city politics.

Since Mr Duterte stepped down in 2022, authorities have been pursuing charges against Mr Quiboloy.

He is accused of trafficking his followers to the US to solicit donations for bogus charities. He also allegedly required his female followers, some underage, to have sex with him as a religious duty.

He has said that the “devil” was behind his legal woes. He has also said that he does not want the US Federal Bureau of Investigation to “meddle” in his case.

Mr Quiboloy said in April that he was “preserving” himself by hiding from authorities.

“I am not hiding from the charges because I am guilty. That’s not true. I am just protecting myself,” he said.

Mr Quiboloy is the leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, a Christian sect that claims to have seven million members.

He claims to have heard God whisper to him “I will use you” while attending an event by American pastor Billy Graham in South Korea in 1973. This led him to set up the KOJC in the Philippines’ Davao in 1985.

Mr Quiboloy preaches from a glass table that is set against giant photographs of his lush hilltop estate called the “Garden of Eden Restored”.

When he is not in Davao, he has been seen travelling on his private jet.

His rise to national prominence has mirrored that of Mr Duterte. Both started in Davao, where the former president served as mayor.

When Mr Duterte was elected president in 2016, Mr Quiboloy’s profile rose even higher. But that started to diminish when Mr Duterte left office in 2022.

Outside of his alliance with Mr Duterte, Mr Quiboloy has also gained considerable clout by endorsing politicians during elections.

Mr Quiboloy was a supporter of one of Duterte’s predecessors, Gloria Arroyo.

When he endorsed Arroyo’s choice of successor in the 2010 elections, Mr Quiboloy claimed to have seen the candidate’s name in a vision that included then US President Barack Obama.

In the Philippines, leaders of religious organisations and sects become politically powerful when they direct their followers to vote as a bloc, analysts say.

Electoral contests can get so cutthroat that some candidates believe the endorsement of leaders like Mr Quiboloy could make or break their campaign.

“Politics in the Philippines is very much a moral exercise. Therefore, voters look to their religious leaders for guidance,” political scientist Cleve Arguelles told BBC News.

In 2021, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Mr Quiboloy with sex trafficking of children, fraud and coercion and bulk cash smuggling.

The FBI said he trafficked girls and women from the Philippines to the US, where they are forced to solicit money for a bogus charity.

He also required his female personal assistants, who are called “pastorals”, to have sex with him, the FBI said.

In January 2022, the FBI released a wanted poster seeking information on Mr Quiboloy’s whereabouts.

Last March, the Philippines DOJ filed human trafficking and sexual harassment charges against Mr Quiboloy, for allegedly abusing a teenage woman in 2011.

Courts in both the US and Philippine have issued warrants for his arrest.

Mr Quiboloy has denied the charges against him and has accused US authorities of pre-judging his case.

An anthropomorphic monkey and a campaign against “feminist propaganda” set the video gaming community alight this week, following the release of the most successful Chinese title of all time.

Many players were furious after the company behind Black Myth: Wukong sent them a list of topics to avoid while livestreaming the game, including “feminist propaganda, fetishisation, and other content that instigates negative discourse”.

Still, within 24 hours of its release on Tuesday, it became the second most-played game ever on streaming platform Steam, garnering more than 2.1 million concurrent players and selling more than 4.5 million copies.

The game, based on the classic 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, is being seen as a rare example of popular media broadcasting Chinese stories on an international stage.

Black Myth: Wukong is a single-player action game where players take on the role of “the Destined One”- an anthropomorphic monkey with supernatural powers.

The Destined One is based on the character of Sun Wukong, or the Monkey King, a key character in Journey to the West.

That novel, considered one of the greats of Chinese literature, draws heavily from Chinese mythology as well as Confucianism, Taoist and Buddhist folklore.

It has inspired hundreds of international films, TV shows and cartoons, including the popular Japanese anime series Dragon Ball Z and the 2008 Chinese-American fantasy film The Forbidden Kingdom.

First announced via a hugely popular teaser trailer in August 2020, Black Myth launched on Tuesday after four years of anticipation.

It is the Chinese video game industry’s first AAA release – a title typically given to big-budget games from major companies.

High-end graphics, sophisticated game design and hot-blooded hype have all contributed to its success – as well as the size of China’s gaming community, which is the largest in the world.

“It’s not just a Chinese game targeting the Chinese market or the Chinese-speaking world,” Haiqing Yu, a professor at Australia’s RMIT University, whose research specialises in the sociopolitical and economic impact of China’s digital media, told the BBC.

“Players all over the world [are playing] a game that has a Chinese cultural factor.”

This has become a huge source of national pride in the country.

The Department of Culture and Tourism in Shanxi Province, an area that includes many locations and set pieces featured in the game, released a video on Tuesday that showcased the real-world attractions, triggering a surge in tourism dubbed “Wukong Travel”.

Videos posted on TikTok in the wake of Black Myth’s release show tourists flooding temples and shrines featured in the game, in what one X user characterised as a “successful example of cultural rediscovery”.

Niko Partners, a company that researches and analyses video games markets and consumers in Asia, similarly pointed out that Black Myth “helps showcase Chinese mythology, traditions, culture and real-life locations in China to the world”.

Ahead of Black Myth’s release, some content creators and streamers revealed that a company affiliated with its developer had sent them a list of topics to avoid talking about while livestreaming the game: including “feminist propaganda, fetishisation, and other content that instigates negative discourse”.

While it is not clear what was precisely meant by “feminist propaganda”, a widely circulated report by video game publication IGN in November alleged a history of sexist and inappropriate behaviour from employees of Game Science, the studio behind Black Myth.

Other topics designated as “Don’ts” in the document, which has been widely shared on social media and YouTube, included politics, Covid-19, and China’s video game industry policies.

The directive, which was sent out by co-publisher Hero Games, has stoked controversy outside China.

Multiple content creators refused to review the game, claiming its developers were trying to censor discussion and stifle freedom of speech.

Others chose to directly defy the warnings.

One creator with the username Moonmoon launched a Twitch stream of Black Myth titled “Covid-19 Isolation Taiwan (Is a Real Country) Feminism Propaganda”. Another streamer, Rui Zhong, discussed China’s one-child policy on camera while playing the game.

On Thursday, Chinese social media platform Weibo banned 138 users who were deemed to be violating its guidelines when discussing Black Myth.

According to an article on the state-run Global Times news site, a number of the banned Weibo users were “deviating from discussing the game itself but instead using it as a platform for spreading ‘gender opposition,’ ‘personal attacks’, and other irrational comments”.

While the controversy has attracted a lot of attention in international media and online, it has not really dented or detracted from Black Myth’s overwhelmingly positive reception.

The game made $53m in presales alone, with another 4.5 million copies sold within 24 hours of its release. Within the same timeframe it broke the record for the most-played single-player title ever released on Steam.

On platforms like Weibo, Reddit and YouTube, and elsewhere, reams of comments are celebrating the game’s success. Many suggest that the fallout from the controversies surrounding the game’s release has been overblown.

Ms Yu agreed, describing Black Myth as an “industry and overall market success”.

“When it comes to Chinese digital media and communication platforms, of course people cannot avoid talking about censorship,” she said. “Black Myth is… an example of how to tell the Chinese story well, and how to expand Chinese cultural influence globally. I don’t see any censorship there.”

She also pointed out that apparent attempts to steer or censor what reviewers said were unlikely to have come from Chinese officials themselves. More likely, Ms Yu suggested, is that the list of “Dos” and “Don’ts” came from a company that was trying to keep itself out of trouble.

“The company issues their notification so if anybody from the central government comes to have a chat with the company, the company can say, ‘look, I already told them. I can’t stop people from saying what they want to say.’

“They have basically, to use the colloquial term, covered their own ass,” she concluded. “I view it as a politically correct gesture to the Chinese censors, rather than a real directive coming from the top down.”

As record numbers of young Africans risk their lives trying to reach the Canary Islands, Spain’s prime minister begins crisis talks with Senegal, Mauritania and The Gambia to tackle migration.

But this will come as little comfort to Amina.

“I found out that my son had died on social media,” she tells the BBC from her home near Senegal’s capital.

“We used to talk all the time and he told me he wanted to go to Morocco,” the 50-year-old says.

“He never mentioned he was planning to take a boat.”

She last heard from her son, Yankhoba, in January. A soul-crushing, six-month search for the devoted 33-year-old tailor proved fruitless.

Then, in early August, fishermen discovered his body on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, about 18km (11 miles) off the coast of the Dominican Republic.

At least 14 decomposing bodies were on that small, wooden boat, say local police. Mobile phones and personal documents found alongside them indicated that most were from Senegal, Mauritania and Mali.

Among the items on board was Yankhoba’s identity card.

Dominican authorities also reported the presence of 12 packages containing drugs.

Analysis is being carried out to determine the time and cause of the deaths, although it is presumed that the passengers had been trying to reach the Canary Islands and had got lost. Their boat was typical of the wooden fishing boats often used to transport illegal migrants from West Africa towards Europe.

Yankhoba was his mother’s first child and only son. It is a position which comes with a great deal of responsibility in Senegalese society.

The young tailor is survived by his wife and two young children, including one he did not live long enough to see.

Before Amina learnt of her son’s death, she appealed for help from missing person pages on Facebook and asked social media influencers with big followings to highlight his case.

“I held onto the belief that Yankhoba might have been held in a prison somewhere in Morocco or maybe even in Tunisia,” she says, her voice breaking.

Young West African migrants trying to reach Europe are increasingly choosing the Canary Islands route over the Mediterranean alternative.

Despite the dangers, it involves just one step, rather than needing to cross both the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean.

Last year alone the Atlantic route saw a 161% increase compared to the previous year, says the European Union border agency, Frontex.

Spain is one of the European countries that receives the most migrants.

As for the people leaving Senegal, a growing number of them are middle-class workers able to afford the more expensive journey to the US instead of Europe.

That is what Fallou did.

Despite running a successful sheep and bird farm in Dakar for almost a decade, he was struggling.

“I felt stuck. On top of running my business, I was also working in a factory, but I struggled to make ends meet,” he recalls.

So at the age of 30, he sold everything he owned and bought a one-way plane ticket to Nicaragua in Central America. From there, he would attempt the overland journey to the US.

Fallou was encouraged to leave by his older brother, already based in the US, and by countless pictures and videos of Senegalese people on TikTok sharing their trek through Central America.

“My mother didn’t want me to go, but I was ready to face death,” he says.

Fallou travelled for 16 days, passing through Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, with the help of smugglers. In total he spent more than $10,000 (£7,600) on the journey.

By contrast, poorer migrants who take the boat from Senegal to the Canary Islands typically pay smugglers around $450.

Fallou says that his sacrifice came with its share of horrors.

“Several people died before my eyes,” he says.

“But I saw some women who kept going, even with their children on their backs, and I thought: ‘I have to stay strong.’”

After being held in a US detention camp for a few days, Fallou was eventually given leave to remain as an asylum seeker. He has since been reunited with his brother and now works as a mechanic.

Fallou was lucky, but many African migrants to the US are not.

Last September, more than 140 Senegalese people were deported back home after crossing the Mexico-US border.

Human rights groups and diaspora communities who support the new arrivals report that shelters are often overwhelmed with such cases.

Some migrants have no option but to sleep on the street. Others may be allowed to stay temporarily in mosques.

Despite West Africans’ growing interest in alternative migration routes, it is still the case that most African migrants attempt to reach Europe via the Mediterranean Sea.

Over the last decade, the UN’s migration body (IOM) says more than 28,000 migrants have drowned in that one body of water alone.

“People are leaving [West Africa] because they are faced with an explosive cocktail of security, institutional, nutritional, sanitary, post-Covid and environmental problems,” says immigration expert Aly Tandian.

The number of people leaving Senegal in particular is rising, despite being a relatively peaceful country with a new president who is promising to create jobs for young people.

Since the new government was elected in March, it has succeeded in reducing the price of some basic necessities, including oil, bread and rice – therefore easing the cost-of-living squeeze.

But it is not enough.

“We all thought that the hope raised by the change of regime would halt the resurgence of these migratory flows, but unfortunately this has not been the case,” says Boubacar Sèye, head of the non-government organisation, Horizon Without Borders.

“Despair and doubt have permeated our sociological environment, to the point where people no longer believe that their destiny can be fulfilled here,” he adds.

Mr Sèye has written a formal letter to the Senegalese authorities, pleading for an investigation into what happened to the boat found off the Dominican Republic.

He says reports show “there is a criminal economy surrounding these irregular migrations. Trafficking in drugs, arms, human beings and also organs”.

In July, after 89 bodies were found in a boat off the Mauritanian coast, Senegal’s Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko made a public plea to young people not to take the perilous Atlantic route to Europe.

“The future of the world lies in Africa, and you, young people need to be aware of that,” he said.

Yet, for the large number of young Africans still risking their lives to reach Europe and the US, that future is anywhere but at home.

• Four sons set out on a perilous migration route – only one came home
• Fourteen days across the Atlantic, perched on a ship’s rudder
• What is Senegal like?

Like so many in Australia, Sam grew up in a community where having a punt was synonymous with sport.

“Our friends, our family would ask ‘Oh who are you betting on this week?’ That was the normal conversation that occurred,” his sister Amy – who is not using her real name – says.

Looking back, she blames that normalisation of gambling – the way it crept into their home and baked itself into social interactions – for her brother’s addiction, and for the suffering he endured before taking his life.

“It just destroyed him physically and emotionally,” she explains. “We tried everything. We were a close family, but we obviously didn’t know how bad it was – it crushed him.”

Amy is one of dozens who came forward to testify in a bipartisan parliamentary inquiry into the impacts of gambling in Australia – which wagers more per capita than any other country.

The probe found that there were “few safeguards” to protect those battling addiction and recommended 31 reforms to avoid “grooming” a new generation of children to gamble, starting with a three-year phased ban on advertising.

Now, pressure is mounting on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – both externally and from within his party – to act, with polling suggesting a majority of people support the move.

But the government has signalled it may instead opt for a cap to limit advertising. It has cited the role gambling ad revenue plays in propping up the nation’s ailing free-to-air broadcasters, as well as warnings from wagering companies that a ban could drive consumers offshore.

Doing so would result in huge tax losses on Australian betting platforms which currently fund “vital services”, the peak body representing the industry says.

The debate has spurred accusations that corporate interests are standing in the way of common-sense reform.

It has also spotlighted the deep-rooted links between sport, gambling, and entertainment in Australia.

Betting occupies a unique space in Australian culture.

In the 1980s, it became the first country to deregulate its gambling industry, making it possible for slot machines – once only permitted inside casinos – to expand into licensed pubs and clubs.

Today, Australia is home to roughly 0.33% of the world’s population, but a fifth of all “pokies”- the colloquial term used for the machines.

The last two decades have also seen an explosion in the popularity of online betting, particularly when it comes to sport. Estimates show Australians are spending approximately A$25bn ($16.8bn; £12.9bn) on legal wagers each year – with 38% of the population gambling weekly.

Experts argue that sophisticated marketing has aided that boom, while sponsorship deals, partnerships, and kickbacks given to prevalent sporting bodies, have helped legitimise the industry

Sean – not his real name – has been gambling legally, and often obsessively, for more than 18 years. He was introduced by a friend to sports betting as a teenager, and from there, things snowballed. “Some days I couldn’t sleep unless I knew that I had a bet on. It got to the point where I was betting on sports I’d never seen in countries I’d never heard of,” he told the BBC.

Now 36 and seeking help from sponsors, he doesn’t like to keep tabs on what feels like a lifetime of losses, but he puts the total figure in the ballpark of A$2m.

He says the relationship breakdowns and years of isolation are harder to quantify: “If I never gambled, I would be married with kids right now”.

One academic paper found that like Sean, 90% of Australian adults and roughly three-quarters of children aged eight to 16 years see betting as a “normal part of sport”. Advocates like Martin Thomas argue this is evidence that the practice “has seeped into every corner of society”.

“Our kids know just as much about the odds on a game and multi bets as they do their favourite players,” he tells the BBC.

In Amy’s view, as well as making it harder for people of all ages to escape gambling, that normalisation has created a dangerous subtext: that any adverse impacts – such as debt or addiction – are the fault of the individual, not the system.

“To go and watch a sporting event and see it saturated with betting advertising, you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m the problem. Because everyone does this’, you know what I mean?

“That’s what my brother thought.”

Like many advocates, she wants to see gambling reframed as a major public health issue rather than a recreational pursuit, given surveys have shown that nearly half of those engaging in the practice are at risk of, or already experience, its associated harms – such as financial hardship, family violence, depression, and suicide.

Research suggests that a prohibition on advertising could be the first step in achieving that aim. And advocates say there’s a well-trodden path the government could follow. Mr Thomas cites Australia’s decision to ban tobacco adverts in 1992 – which has been credited with dramatically reducing smoking rates – as proof of what’s possible.

But while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has described the “saturation of gambling advertising” as “untenable”, he’s yet to commit to a course of action.

Instead, he has pointed to his government’s other initiatives when questioned – such as banning credit card use in online wagering and creating a register for people to exclude themselves from betting sites. At times, he’s also framed gambling as an age-old problem.

“[This] has been an issue in our society I suspect, since man and woman walked, and had a bet on who could ride the horse the fastest or who could run from rock to rock, probably before there were buildings,” he told parliament on Wednesday.

The peak body representing Australia’s wagering companies has described a blanket ban as “a step too far” and thrown its weight behind the government’s proposed cap – which would limit ads online and during general TV programming.

“By doing this, the expectations of the community to see less advertising would be met, while also maintaining the crucial support to sporting codes and local broadcasters,” Responsible Wagering Australia’s CEO Kai Cantwell said in a statement.

But Dr Andrew Hughes, a lecturer in marketing at The Australian National University, has cast doubt over how crucial that financial support is – given that Nielsen data shows that the lion’s share of ad money the nation’s broadcasters take in comes from a range of other sectors, rather than betting platforms.

And independent senators, like David Pocock, have criticised the logic of using money from wagering to prop up the media.

“Journalism is incredibly important, but it shouldn’t be dependent on flogging products we know are harmful, and which cause addiction, personal issues, family breakdowns, and in some cases, suicide,” he told the BBC.

“The government should have the imagination to look at other ways of plugging that gap.”

Mr Pocock is one of several senators to publicly question whether betting companies and the industries they finance, are interfering with policy decisions – citing their extensive lobbying efforts and history of large political donations.

Last week, he joined 20 parliamentarians from across the political spectrum to sign an open letter backing a prohibition on advertising, while also calling for a free vote on the issue to allow MPs in Mr Albanese’s party to cross the floor, without facing repercussions.

Several medical bodies have also thrown their support behind a ban, as has an expert panel appointed by the government to probe how to bring down rates of domestic violence in Australia – adding to the mounting pressure Mr Albanese is facing.

The government already runs warnings on gambling advertisements reminding people of the risks.

But Sean says it does little to deter those caught in the crosshairs of addiction.

“I know the house always wins, but every time I’m ready to have a punt that all goes out the window,” he explains. “I start thinking I’m about to pull off that one win that’s going to take me away from everything. That win that’s going to get everything back.”

Although nothing has been finalised and Mr Albanese’s cabinet is still weighing its options, for Amy, the debate itself has become too “insensitive” to follow.

She can’t comprehend what the hold-up is and wants answers.

“Anyone who understands this issue would without a doubt agree to a full advertising ban – that’s what the evidence says,” she tells the BBC. “It feels like these lobbyists own the government… We’re dangling this dangerous product in front of everyone and normalising it, and the worst-case scenario is what happened to us.

“My family – they’ll never recover. It’s not something that you recover from.”

“There is no room for error,” says Isak Rockström. “Where we are now, the only help we could get would be from the few Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers that are patrolling the whole Canadian Arctic.”

For the past two months, Isak, 26, and his brother Alex, 25, have been battling the freezing elements of the Arctic Circle together.

They have sailed through the treacherous, sometimes alien landscape of the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, gathering fresh data about climate change in the region.

They have faced brushes with icebergs and severe gales around Iceland.

One “tricky situation”, as Isak stoically puts it, came the day before they spoke to the BBC. While navigating a fjord, they were caught by 52mph (84kph) winds coming off the nearby mountains, dragging them towards the shore.

“The wind was so strong that with the engine on, we weren’t going anywhere,” he recalls.

Off Devon Island, the largest uninhabited island in the world, they risked running aground due to the area being poorly charted.

They had to quickly turn the other sails so the wind worked in their favour, and “take some things apart and do some jerry-rigging” to get the main sail down, Alex says.

But Isak says “the most challenging ocean crossing of my life” was the long stint around Greenland, through thick fog and ice up the Davis Strait.

He says it felt like they were “trudging on and on… through either gales or fog”.

“Then one day the fog slightly lightened up and there was this little tunnel through the cloud cover in the distance – and we finally actually saw Greenland. And it was just a nice confirmation that we weren’t going crazy.”

Only a handful of crews successfully navigate this passage every year, and these brothers are among the youngest to ever attempt it.

The BBC is interviewing them part-way through the trip, as they approach one of its most challenging sections – one they are both fearing and anticipating.

Since beginning in Norway in June, the crew of the Abel Tasman have already sailed around Iceland and Greenland, before entering the unaccommodating waters that run between northernmost Canada and the Arctic.

They hope to reach the finishing line in Nome, Alaska by early October.

Skipper Isak is a year older than Canadian Jeff MacInnis was when he completed it in 1988, aged 25. MacInnis is thought to be the youngest person to have successfully sailed the passage.

But they are seasoned sailors – having sailed from Stockholm in Sweden to the western coast of Mexico in 2019.

As captain and first mate, they say piloting their 75-foot schooner has only strengthened their brotherly bond, with their small expedition team serving as an adoptive family.

“I don’t think we’re going to get any closer than we are now,” says Isak.

Alex adds: “I think we really know exactly how the other one works, and we don’t step on each other’s toes.”

Alex says that despite the peril of the journey, he has wanted to traverse the Northwest Passage for a long time. He has been intrigued by maps of the region and tales of previous expeditions, and is aware that it is likely to change due to climate change.

He recalls sailing one night, off the coast of Greenland, that he says will stay with him for the rest of his life.

“We were in the midnight sun, slowly slaloming through huge icebergs, and the light was just incredible when it shone over the icebergs… That was just really beautiful.”

Isak took more convincing before making the trip. What persuaded him was that “it’s one of the few expeditions left that really takes on the character of an expedition”, mixing danger and isolation, he says.

Keith Tuffley, the expedition’s overall leader – who quit his job at Citibank to be on the trip and owns the Abel Tasman – has become somewhat of a surrogate father to the Rockströms.

The Rockströms’ real father, Johan, is the Swedish climate scientist who has helped to develop the concept of climate tipping points, when particular large-scale environmental changes are thought to become self-perpetuating and irreversible beyond a certain threshold.

Part of the aim of the expedition is to highlight how climate change is increasing the risks of reaching these tipping points, particularly some systems in the Arctic Circle.

Multiple studies have suggested that parts of the Greenland ice sheet would become much more vulnerable to runaway melting if global warming reached 1.5-2C above pre-industrial levels. However, the precise positions of such tipping points are very uncertain, and a full-scale collapse would likely take many thousands of years.

The Rockströms have lived on the Abel Tasman while studying climate physics at the University of Bergen, balancing their studies with expeditions.

While much of the data they are gathering will have to be sent back to laboratories for analysis, Alex says the raw figures from seawater measurements they have already taken suggest the waters around Greenland are colder and less salty than before – a sign of ice sheet melting.

Prof David Thornalley, an ocean and climate scientist at University College London, explains that, over time, the influx of freshwater flowing off the Greenland ice sheet is likely to weaken the main current that runs the length of the Atlantic and has a major influence on the climate.

The melting of the ice sheet also raises global sea levels, increasing the risks of coastal flooding.

As well as potentially affecting the balance of the marine ecosystem, Prof Thornalley says melting ice might also produce a feedback process, “whereby the meltwater causes the ocean circulation changes, which leads to warmer waters reaching glaciers that flow into the ocean, thus causing faster melting and retreat of the glacier”.

Alex hopes the data they gather along the Northwest Passage will be significant.

“I think it’s very easy to underestimate the value of the data that can be collected from a sailing yacht like this… The big ships, the big icebreakers, are so limited in where they can go.”

The crew of the Abel Tasman still have a long and challenging way to go.

“Where we are now is one of those points along the trip that, from day one, we’re kind of fearing and very hopefully anticipating, because it’s… the start of the really challenging part,” says Isak.

Tuffley, the expedition’s leader, says that while melting Arctic ice was making it easier for a boat to move through the Northwest Passage, the icebergs this process was creating were making the journey more “unpredictable”.

At times, their surroundings appear completely alien.

“It looks like Mars,” says Keith of where they are anchored, in Devon Island.

“It is desolate, it’s rugged. It’s got this red, iron ore type of tinge to it.”

Aside from a handful of walruses and polar bears, the crew are entirely alone.

A lonely and potentially sexually frustrated dolphin has been blamed for a spike in attacks on swimmers in a Japanese seaside town.

The bottlenose dolphin is believed to be behind 18 attacks near the town of Mihama so far this year, with one primary school-aged child’s finger needing at least 20 stitches.

At least six people were injured in attacks last year, leaving one swimmer with broken ribs. Another person was injured in a 2022 attack.

It has led officials to warn that not only can the mammals “bite you with their sharp teeth and cause you to bleed”, but they can also “drag you into the sea, which could be life-threatening”.

Despite their reputation as friendly animals, dolphin attacks can be fatal. In 1994, a dolphin in Brazil attacked two male swimmers who tried to ride it, killing one and injuring the other. The dolphin, nicknamed Tião, was believed to have injured at least 22 people before that.

Tadamichi Morisaka, a cetology professor at Japan’s Mie University, said the dorsal fin of a dolphin spotted biting a man’s fingers at a beach in Tsuruga – a port city next to Mihama – matched that of a 2.5m long dolphin observed off the coast of Fukui province last year.

The dorsal fin is like a dolphin’s fingerprint, as each has distinctive notches, ridges and pigmentation.

“It is reasonable to assume that it is the same individual, as the wounds on the tail fin are similar to those of the dolphins seen off the coast last year, and it is rare for dolphins, which normally move in groups, to be alone for such a long time,” Prof Morisaka told NHK.

He added that male bottlenose dolphins communicate by “play-biting each other”. “They are not trying to injure people, but are using the dolphins’ way of communication with people,” he said.

Others have suggested various theories on why the same creature may be behind these attacks – including a desire for sex.

“Bottlenose dolphins are highly social animals and this sociality can be expressed in very physical ways,” said Dr Simon Allen, a biologist and principal investigator with the Shark Bay Dolphin Research project.

“Just as in humans and other social animals, hormonal fluctuations, sexual frustration or the desire to dominate might drive the dolphin to injuring the people it interacts with. Since they are such powerful animals, this can lead to serious injury in humans.”

Dr Allen added that the dolphin may have been “ostracised from its own community and be seeking alternative companionship”.

Dr Matthias Hoffmann-Kuhnt, a marine mammal expert at the National University of Singapore, said the dolphin could also be acting in its own defence.

“Most of the time, in my experience, this is more a defensive behaviour when humans get too close to these dolphins and do not know how to conduct themselves,” he said, referring to reports of people trying to ride the animals or sticking their fingers into the dolphins’ blowholes.

“Thus it is no wonder that the animals then turn aggressive or at least protective against humans in the water,” he said.

It could also be that the dolphin previously had a bad encounter with a human being and now projects that relationship onto other humans it encounters, Dr Hoffmann-Kuhnt said.

“They have good memory, similar to elephants who will remember who mistreated them before,” he said.

A “right to disconnect” rule has come into effect in Australia, offering relief to people who feel forced to take calls or read messages from employers after they finish their day’s work.

The new law allows employees to ignore communications after hours if they choose to, without fear of being punished by their bosses.

A survey published last year estimated that Australians worked on average 281 hours of unpaid overtime annually.

More than 20 countries, mainly in Europe and Latin America, have similar rules.

The law does not ban employers from contacting workers after hours.

Instead, it gives staff the right not to reply unless their refusal is deemed unreasonable.

Under the rules, employers and employees should try to resolve disputes among themselves. If that is unsuccessful in finding a resolution Australia’s Fair Work Commission (FWC) can step in.

The FWC can then order the employer to stop contacting the employee after hours.

If it finds an employee’s refusal to respond is unreasonable it can order them to reply.

Failure to comply with FWC orders can result in fines of up to A$19,000 ($12,897; £9,762) for an employee or up to A$94,000 for a company.

Organisations representing workers have welcomed the move.

It “will empower workers to refuse unreasonable out-of-hours work contact and enabling greater work-life balance”, The Australian Council of Trade Unions said.

A workplace expert told BBC News that the new rules would also help employers.

“Any organisation that has staff who have better rest and who have better work-life-balance are going to have staff who are less likely to have sick days, less likely to leave the organisation”, said John Hopkins from Swinburne University of Technology.

“Anything that benefits the employee, has benefits for the employer as well.”

However, there was a mixed reaction to the new law from employees.

“I think it’s actually really important that we have laws like this,” advertising industry worker, Rachel Abdelnour, told Reuters.

“We spend so much of our time connected to our phones, connected to our emails all day, and I think that it’s really hard to switch off as it is.”

Others, however, do not feel the new rules will make much of a difference to them.

“I think it’s an excellent idea. I hope it catches on. I doubt it’ll catch on in our industry, to tell the truth though,” David Brennan, a worker in the financial industry, told the news agency.

“We’re well paid, we’re expected to deliver, and we feel we have to deliver 24 hours a day.”

At least 60 people have been killed after a dam burst because of heavy rainfall in war-torn Sudan.

Search operations are currently underway, but there are fears that the death toll could be even higher.

The Arbat dam has a capacity of 25 million cubic metres, and is the main source of drinking water for the coastal city of Port Sudan, where the military government is based.

After being ravaged by 16 months of civil war, Sudan is now experiencing torrential rains and floods that have killed dozens and forced tens of thousands from their homes.

The collapse of the dam in Red Sea state is one of the worst incidents, washing away farms and villages downstream.

Local resident Ali Issa told the AFP news agency that people had been “stuck in seven cars – they tried to get them out but couldn’t”.

Another, Moussa Mohamad Moussa, said he had been told that in one area “all the houses and everything was swept away”.

• What is going on in Sudan?
• Famine hits Sudan as peace talks fall short yet again
• US rapper Macklemore cancels Dubai show over Sudan war

The heavy rainfall has also damaged a major fibre-optic cable in Sudan, causing a communication outage in many parts of the country for the second day in a row, according to the privately owned Radio Dabanga website.

The air force was trying to rescue people who had become trapped after seeking refuge in the mountains, reports local newspaper Merdameek.

Director of the Red Sea state’s Water Authority, Omar Issa Tahir, told local news site Akhbar that the flooding had “wiped out the entire area”.

Army chief Abdul-Fattah al-Burhan visited the areas affected by the floods.

In a Facebook post, the army called on all “federal and state agencies to utilize all possibilities to help citizens in these regions and provide support and assistance to them.”

Sudan has been ravaged by war since last April when fighting broke out between the paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese army.

Millions of people have been forced from their homes and multiple states have declared famine.

The extreme weather conditions will only exacerbate the food shortages.

• A front-row seat to my country falling apart
• A photographer’s 11-day trek to flee war-torn Sudan
• I couldn’t bury my brother because of Sudan bombing

Ikea is trialling its own second-hand online marketplace so that customers can sell to each other, rather than relying on buy-and-sell websites like eBay or Gumtree.

Ikea Preowned is already up and running in Madrid and Oslo, with the Swedish furniture giant planning to roll out the site globally by December.

It comes against the backdrop of a steadily growing market for second-hand furniture, clothes and equipment.

The incentive would fit Ikea’s sustainability aims by reusing items so they don’t end up in landfill. It would also help the firm make more profit from the resale of its own goods.

“After December we will evaluate and decide on the next steps. We start in Oslo and Madrid, yet our ambition is higher”, a spokesperson said.

Sales of used Ikea furniture are very popular on online marketplaces including Craigslist.

Upwards of 25,000 results appear when searching “Ikea” on eBay, an online auction site that specialises in resale but also sells new items.

On Gumtree in the UK, over 10,000 results are shown when searching for the retailer, while Shpock and Facebook Marketplace, both specialising in local resales, also returns dozens of pages of results.

In the past, environmentalists have called out furniture makers for the huge amount of plastic that builds up in the environment, harming marine wildlife. The problem is exacerbated by the onslaught of cheap furniture sales which encourage people to simply throw out furniture they don’t want, as it is so cheap to buy new items.

Green campaigners have stressed the importance of a circular economy, where the aim is to reuse things more than once. If a company is responsible for the resale of its own products, then there could be an in-built incentive to make items more durable, less disposable, and therefore more sustainable.

Evolving its own online marketplace would also allow Ikea to focus less on its brick-and-mortar stores – which are expensive with high operating costs – and more towards the growing sector of online sales and assembling services.

Listings on Ikea Preowned are put up by the seller, and Ikea’s algorithms generate the details of the item including measurements and the original retail price.

The firm already offers, in some of its stores, a service where it sells pre-owned items.

Imagine picking up a nice juicy apple – but instead of biting into it you keep the seeds and throw the rest away.

That’s what chocolate producers have traditionally done with the cocoa fruit – used the beans and disposed of the rest.

But now food scientists in Switzerland have come up with a way to make chocolate using the entire cocoa fruit rather than just the beans – and without using sugar.

The chocolate, developed at Zurich’s prestigious Federal Institute of Technology by scientist Kim Mishra and his team includes the cocoa fruit pulp, the juice, and the husk, or endocarp.

The process has already attracted the attention of sustainable food companies.

They say traditional chocolate production, using only the beans, involves leaving the rest of the cocoa fruit – the size of a pumpkin and full of nutritious value – to rot in the fields.

The key to the new chocolate lies in its very sweet juice, which tastes, Mr Mishra explains, “very fruity, a bit like pineapple”.

This juice, which is 14% sugar, is distilled down to form a highly concentrated syrup, combined with the pulp and then, taking sustainability to new levels, mixed with the dried husk, or endocarp, to form a very sweet cocoa gel.

The gel, when added to the cocoa beans to make chocolate, eliminates the need for sugar.

Mr Mishra sees his invention as the latest in a long line of innovations by Swiss chocolate producers.

In the 19th Century, Rudolf Lindt, of the famous Lindt chocolate family, accidentally invented the crucial step of “conching” the chocolate – rolling the warm cocoa mass to make it smooth and reduce its acidity – by leaving a cocoa mass mixer running overnight. The result in the morning? Deliciously smooth, sweet chocolate.

“You need to be innovative to maintain your product category,” says Mr Mishra. “Or… you will just make average chocolate.”

Mr Mishra was partnered in his project by KOA, a Swiss start-up working in sustainable cocoa growing. Its co-founder, Anian Schreiber, believes using the entire cocoa fruit could solve many of the cocoa industry’s problems, from the soaring price of cocoa beans to endemic poverty among cocoa farmers.

“‘Instead of fighting over who gets how much of the cake, you make the cake bigger and make everybody benefit,” he explains.

“The farmers get significantly extra income through utilising cocoa pulp, but also the important industrial processing is happening in the country of origin. Creating jobs, creating value that can be distributed in the country of origin.”

Mr Schreiber describes the traditional system of chocolate production, in which farmers in Africa or South America sell their cocoa beans to big chocolate producers based in wealthy countries as “unsustainable”.

The model is also questioned by a new exhibition in Geneva, which explores Switzerland’s colonial past.

To those who point out that Switzerland never had any colonies of its own, chocolate historian Letizia Pinoja counters that Swiss mercenary soldiers policed other countries’ colonies, and Swiss ship owners transported slaves.

Geneva in particular, she says, has a particular link to some of the most exploitative phases of the chocolate industry.

“Geneva is a hub for commodity trade, and since the 18th Century, cocoa was reaching Geneva and then the rest of Switzerland to produce chocolate.

“Without this commodity trade of colonial goods, Switzerland could never have become the land of chocolate. And cocoa is no different from any other kind of colonial good. They all came from slavery.”

Nowadays, the chocolate industry is much more highly regulated. Producers are supposed to monitor their entire supply chain to make sure there is no child labour. And, from next year, all chocolate imported to the European Union must guarantee that no deforestation took place to grow the cocoa used in it.

But does that mean all the problems are solved? Roger Wehrli, director of the association of Swiss chocolate manufacturers, Chocosuisse, says cases of child labour and deforestation remain, particularly in Africa. He fears that some producers, in a bid to avoid the challenges, are simply shifting their production to South America.

“Does this solve the problem in Africa? No. I guess it would be better for responsible firms to stay in Africa and help to improve the situation.”

That is why Mr Wehrli sees the new chocolate developed in Zurich as “very promising… If you use the whole cocoa fruit, you can get better prices. So it’s economically interesting for the farmers. And it’s interesting from an ecological point of view.”

The link between chocolate production and the environment is also stressed by Anian Schreiber. A third of all farm produce, he says, “never ends up in our mouths”.

Those statistics are even worse for cocoa, if the fruit is abandoned to use only the beans. “It’s like you throw away the apple and just use its seeds. That’s what we do right now with the cocoa fruit.”

Food production involves significant greenhouse gas emissions, so reducing food waste could also help to tackle climate change. Chocolate, a niche luxury item, may not by itself be a huge factor, but both Mr Schreiber and Mr Wehrli believe it could be a start.

But, back in the laboratory, key questions remain. How much will this new chocolate cost? And, most important of all, without sugar, what does it really taste like?

The answer to the last question, in this chocolate-loving correspondent’s view, is: surprisingly good. A rich, dark but sweet flavour, with a hint of cocoa bitterness that would fit perfectly with an after dinner coffee.

The cost may remain something of a challenge, because of the global power of the sugar industry, and the generous subsidies it receives. “The cheapest ingredient in food will always be sugar as long as we subsidise it,” explains Kim Mishra. “For a… tonne of sugar, you pay $US500 [£394] or less.” Cocoa pulp and juice cost more, so the new chocolate would, for now, be more expensive.

Nevertheless, chocolate producers in countries where cocoa is grown, from Hawaii to Guatemala, to Ghana have contacted Mr Mishra for information about the new method.

In Switzerland, some of the bigger producers – including Lindt – are starting to use the cocoa fruit as well as the beans, but none, so far, has taken the step of eliminating sugar completely.

“We have to find daring chocolate producers who want to test the market and are willing to contribute to a more sustainable chocolate,” says Mr Mishra. “Then we can disrupt the system.”

Perhaps those daring producers will be found in Switzerland, whose chocolate industry makes 200,000 tonnes of chocolate each year, worth an estimated $US2bn. At Chocosuisse, Roger Wehrli sees a more sustainable, but still bright, future.

“I think chocolate will still taste fantastic in the future,” he insists. “And I think the demand will increase in the future due to the growing world population.”

And will they be eating Swiss chocolate? “Obviously,” he says.

A former Florida sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a US Air Force member at his home has been arrested after being indicted for the death last week.

Eddie Duran, 38, was charged on Friday with manslaughter with a firearm in the death of 23-year-old Roger Fortson but was not taken into custody at the time.

The incident last May occurred when Mr Duran attempted to enter Fortson’s home while responding to a domestic disturbance call at his apartment complex.

If he is convicted, the felony charge against the former police officer carries a penalty of up to 30 years in prison.

Fortson was killed at his home, located 5 miles (8km) from the Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field, Florida, where he was based.

Body camera footage released after the shooting showed police being led to an elevator in Fortson’s apartment complex by a witness who said she had heard fighting coming from an apartment.

The deputy then approached Fortson’s front door alone, knocked, and twice called out that he was a member of the “sheriff’s office”.

Fortson was seen holding a gun in his right hand as he opened the door. The deputy then fired multiple shots as soon as the door opened, telling him afterwards to drop the weapon.

Chantemekki Fortson, the senior airman’s mother, said at a news conference after the charges were announced on Friday that she hopes “this brings about change and it teaches others that you can’t just kill people”.

It was unclear on Monday evening whether Mr Duran had legal representation.

A few weeks after the shooting, Mr Duran was fired from the Oskaloosa County Sheriff’s Office following an internal investigation.

Announcing the decision, Sheriff Eric Aden said the the investigation concluded that Fortson “did not make any hostile, attacking movements” and Mr Duran’s “use of deadly force was not objectively reasonable”.

Ben Crump, a lawyer representing Forton’s family, said at the time of the shooting Fortson was home alone on a video call with a friend.

Fortson, who had no criminal record, had been in active duty since 2019.

He was assigned to the 4th Special Operations Squadron, according to the US Air Force.

Mariah Carey’s mother Patricia and sister Alison died on the same day over the weekend, the US singer has said in a statement.

“My heart is broken that I’ve lost my mother this past weekend,” Carey said on Monday. “Sadly, in a tragic turn of events, my sister lost her life on the same day.”

The Grammy-winning singer said she felt blessed to have spent time with her mother in the week before her death and asked for privacy.

No further details were released about the causes of death.

Patricia, 87, was a former opera singer and vocal coach of Irish-American descent.

In Carey’s 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, the five-time Grammy Award-winning singer detailed her complicated relationship with her mother, saying it had caused her “so much pain and confusion”.

Carey, 55, said competition had come between them. Professional jealousy “comes with the territory of success, but when the person is your mother and the jealousy is revealed at such a tender age, it’s particularly painful”, she added.

But she also spoke of the deep love she had had for her mother, writing in the dedication: “To Pat, my mother, who, through it all, I do believe actually did the best she could. I will love you the best I can, always.”

In an interview with Gayle King in 2022, the singer said she had “definitely” been affected by criticism from her mother when she was growing up.

She added that she had always credited her mother with exposing her to music.

Carey’s relationship with her older sister Alison, 63, was also complex.

In her memoir, she wrote of being estranged from her and her brother Morgan, saying that it was “emotionally and physically safer for me to not have any contact”.

Alison sued Carey for $1.2m (£909,780) following the release of the memoir for “immense emotional distress”, calling it “vindictive”.

The singer’s father, Alfred, died in 2002 of cancer at the age of 72.

Carey is regarded as one of the most successful singers globally.

Her holiday single All I Want For Christmas Is You is the best-selling Christmas song by a female artist of all time.

She holds the record for the most Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles by a solo artist at 19 songs, has sold over 220 million records worldwide, and served as a judge on the competition show American Idol.

The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has said that big polluters have a clear responsibility to cut emissions – or risk a worldwide catastrophe.

“The Pacific is today the most vulnerable area of the world,” he told the BBC at the Pacific Island Forum Leaders Meeting in Tonga. “There is an enormous injustice in relation to the Pacific and it’s the reason I am here.”

“The small islands don’t contribute to climate change but everything that happens because of climate change is multiplied here.”

But eventually the “surging seas are coming for us all,” he warned in a speech at the forum, as the UN releases two separate reports on rising sea levels and how they threaten Pacific island nations.

The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in the South West Pacific report says this region faces a triple whammy of an accelerating rise in the sea level, a warming of the ocean and acidification – a rise in the sea’s acidity because it’s absorbing more and more carbon dioxide.

“The reason is clear: greenhouse gases – overwhelmingly generated by burning fossil fuels – are cooking our planet,” Mr Guterres said in a speech at the forum.

“The sea is taking the heat – literally.”

This year’s theme – transformative resilience – was tested on the opening day when the new auditorium was deluged by heavy rains and buildings evacuated because of an earthquake.

“It’s such a stark reminder of how volatile things are within our region, and how important it is that we need to prepare for everything,” Joseph Sikulu, Pacific director at 350, a climate change advocacy group, told the BBC.

Not far from the venue was a street parade, with dancers representing the region, including Torres Strait islanders, Tongans and Samoans. At the start of the parade, a big banner reads, “We are not drowning, we are fighting”. Another says: “Sea levels are rising – so are we”.

It echoes a challenge that threatens to wipe out their world – the UN Climate Action Team released a report called “Surging Seas in a Warming World” showing that global average sea levels are rising at rates unprecedented in the past 3,000 years.

According to the report, the levels have risen an average of 9.4cm (3.7in) in the past 30 years but in the tropical Pacific, that figure was as high as 15cm.

“It’s important for leaders, especially like Australia and Aotearoa, to come and witness these things for themselves, but also witness the resilience of our people,” Mr Sikulu said.

“A core part of Tongan culture is our ability to be able to continue to be joyful throughout our adversity, and that’s how we practice our resilience and to see and witness that, I think is going to be important.”

This is the second time Secretary-General Guterres has participated in the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting. The annual meeting brings together leaders from 18 Pacific Islands, including Australia and New Zealand.

As leaders convened for the official opening ceremony, heavy rain caused extensive flooding. Shortly afterwards, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit the Tonga region, highlighting just how vulnerable it is.

In 2019, Mr Guterres travelled to Tuvalu where he sounded the alarm about rising sea levels. Five years on, he says he has seen real changes.

“We see everywhere an enormous commitment to resist, a commitment to reduce the negative impact of climate change,” he told the BBC. “The problem is, the Pacific Islands also suffer another big injustice – the international financial instruments that exist to support countries in distress were not designed for countries like this.”

Mr Guterres on Monday visited local communities whose livelihoods are threatened by rising sea levels. They’ve been waiting for seven years for a decision to be made on the funding of a sea wall.

“The bureaucracy, the complexity, the lack of sense of urgency because it’s a small island, far away,” he said, citing the failings of the international financial system, especially when it comes to small, developing island states.

“There are promises of increases of money available for adaptation in developing countries but the truth is we are far from what is needed, from the solidarity that is needed for these countries to be able to exist.”

Many Pacific islanders here at the conference single out the biggest regional donor and emitter – Australia.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia would be ramping up its extraction and use of gas until “2050 and beyond,” despite calls to phase out fossil fuels.

“There is an essential responsibility of the big polluters,” Mr Guterres said, when asked by the BBC what message he has for regional emitters like Australia.

Without that, the world will breech the threshold of 1.5C that was established in the Paris Agreement in 2015. That agreement aims to limit global warming to “well below” 2C by the end of the century, and “pursue efforts” to keep warming within the safer limit of 1.5C.

“Only by limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius do we have a fighting chance of preventing the irreversible collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets – and the catastrophes that accompany them,” Mr Guterres said.

“That means cutting global emissions 43% compared to 2019 levels by 2030, and 60% by 2035.”

Last year though, global emissions rose 1%.

“There is an obligation of the G20 that represent 80% of emissions – there’s an obligation for them to come together, to guarantee a reduction of emissions now,” Mr Guterres said.

Singling out the G20 as well as companies who contribute to much of the world’s global emissions, he added: “They have a clear responsibility to reverse the current trend. It’s time to say ‘enough’.”

Russia has launched one of its biggest air attacks on Ukraine of the war so far, the head of the Ukrainian air force has said.

At least seven people were killed and dozens wounded as missiles and drones were fired into more than half of Ukraine’s regions on Monday.

Power infrastructure was hit, causing widespread blackouts, as the entire country was put under air raid alert and told to take shelter.

Russia confirmed it had launched attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure – one of its long-term tactics – and said all its targets were hit.

The barrage of missile and drone attacks began across the country overnight on Monday and continued into the morning.

And much later in the day a civilian infrastructure building was struck by a Russian missile in the eastern city of Kryvyi Rih, leaving one woman dead and another five presumed missing, local military administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said on Telegram.

According to Mykola Oleshchuk, the commander of Ukraine’s air force, Russia launched 127 missiles and 109 attack drones overnight and into Monday morning. Out of them, Ukraine shot down 102 missiles and 99 drones, he said on Telegram.

Mr Oleshchuk called the combined strike “the most massive aerial attack”.

Nato member Poland said an “object” entered its territory during the attack.

“Most likely it was a drone and we assume so, because the trajectory of the flight and the speed indicate that it was definitely not a missile,” said army spokesman Jacek Goryszewski, quoted by Reuters.

Nato spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah condemned the attacks on Ukraine and said that breaches of Nato airspace by Russia were “irresponsible and potentially dangerous”, the agency said.

Previously, an attack last December when 158 missiles and drones were fired at Ukraine, had been considered the largest attack so far.

While the main target of this attack was energy infrastructure, it was also an attempt by Moscow to strike at Ukraine’s reserves of another key resource: morale.

Ukrainians have been electrified by the recent successful incursion of their troops deep into Russian territory in the Kursk region.

With Monday’s strikes, Russia was intending to bring ordinary people in Ukraine back down to earth with a bump – reminding them, and politicians in Western capitals, that the Kremlin still has the upper hand in this war.

The message from Moscow was make no mistake, Russia can still inflict misery on the Ukrainian population whenever it chooses.

Some 15 regions of Ukraine were targeted by Russia in the strikes, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said earlier – using weapons including drones, cruise missiles and supersonic missiles.

“There are wounded and dead,” Mr Shmyhal said on the Telegram social media app.

Dozens of people were injured, and those who died included:

• Two men – one aged 69 and another aged 47 – were killed in separate attacks in the Dnipropetrovsk region, local governor Sergiy Lysak said. Others were injured including a 14-year-old girl, he added
• A man was killed when his house was hit in Zaporizhzhia, said the area’s governor
• The mayor of Lutsk said one person had been killed when an “infrastructure facility” was hit. Five others were wounded and most parts of the city had no running water, he added
• In Izyum in Kharkiv region, a man was killed in a missile strike, the regional head said
• And in Zhytomyr region in western Ukraine, a woman died after homes and infrastructure buildings were hit by missiles, the governor said.

• Follow live: Explosions across Ukraine as Russia launches attack

The attacks caused serious damage to infrastructure, with power outages reported in many cities – including Kyiv – and water supplies disrupted.

One of the remaining power stations – a hydroelectric plant north of Kyiv – was one of the latest targets. The damage is still being assessed.

Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since early on in its full-scale invasion, which began in February 2022.

In recent months it has renewed its campaign of attacks on the power grid, causing frequent blackouts across the country.

In June, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had destroyed half of his country’s electricity-generating capacity since it began pummelling its energy facilities in late March.

Ukraine is buying energy from the European Union. However, this is not enough and so most days, the country has a planned nationwide blackout to protect critical needs such as hospitals and military sites.

Russia’s defence ministry said it attacked electricity and gas facilities, as well as sites storing Western weapons.

“All designated targets were hit, resulting in power outages and disrupted rail transport of weapons and ammunition to the front line,” it said.

It has been a year of bad news on the battlefield for Kyiv, with Russia gaining ground steadily in the eastern Donbas region.

There have been problems with mobilisation and reports that Ukraine is running out of men.

But following Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Kursk, the videos of soldiers hoisting the Ukrainian flag over Russian villages they had seized gave a badly-needed boost to Ukrainian morale.

And it showed the West that Kyiv is still capable of carrying out complex, daring and – most importantly – successful offensives.

On Monday, Mr Zelensky called on Western allies including Britain, America and France to change their rules and let Ukraine use their weapons to strike deeper inside Russia.

Ukraine is allowed to use some Western weapons to hit targets inside Russia – but not long-range weapons.

And he said “we could do much more to protect lives” if European air forces worked with Ukraine’s air defence.

Also on Monday, Ukraine tried to attack an oil refinery in Yaroslavl, a city north-east of Moscow, according to the regional governor. No casualties or damage have been reported.

And Russia’s defence ministry said it had destroyed nine drones over its Saratov region, which is 560 miles (900km) from the Ukrainian border.

Canada says it will impose a 100% tariff on imports of China-made electric vehicles (EV) after similar announcements by the US and European Union.

The country also plans to impose a 25% duty on Chinese steel and aluminium.

Canada and its Western allies accuse China of subsidising its EV industry, giving its car makers an unfair advantage.

China has called the move “trade protectionism” which “violates World Trade Organization rules”.

“We are transforming Canada’s automotive sector to be a global leader in building the vehicles of tomorrow, but actors like China have chosen to give themselves an unfair advantage in the global marketplace”, said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Canada’s duties on Chinese EVs are due to come into effect on 1 October, while those on steel and aluminium will be implemented from 15 October.

“The rapid development of China’s electric vehicle industry is a result of persistent technological innovation, well-established industrial and supply chains, and full market competition,” said a statement from China’s embassy in Canada.

“Its competitiveness is gained through utilising its comparative advantages and following market principles, rather than relying on government subsidies.”

China is Canada’s second-largest trading partner, behind the US.

In May, the US said it would quadruple its tariffs on imports of Chinese EVs to 100%.

That was followed by the EU, which announced plans to impose duties on China-made EVs of up to 36.3%.

Canada’s tariffs on Chinese EVs will include those made by Tesla at its Shanghai factory.

“Tesla will almost certainly be lobbying the Canadian government to get some leeway on these tariffs, as they have already with Europe,” said Mark Rainford, a China-based car industry commentator.

“If they fail at mitigating the tariff enough, they’ll likely look at switching their Canadian imports to either the US or European factories since Canada is their 6th largest market this year and thus not insignificant.”

Tesla did not immediately reply to a request for comment from BBC News.

Earlier this month, the EU cut its planned extra tariff on China-made Teslas by more than half, after further investigations requested by Elon Musk’s car maker.

Chinese car brands are still not a common sight in Canada but some, like BYD, have taken steps to enter the country’s market.

China is the world’s largest manufacturer of EVs and its car makers have quickly gained a significant share of the global market.

Meanwhile, Canada has struck deals worth billions of dollars with major European car makers, as it tries to become a key part of the global EV industry.

Since Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire and founder of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested on landing in Paris on Saturday evening, there has been more speculation than substance about his fate.

The headline in a Russian newspaper summed up the story: “The arrest (or detention) of ‘Russia’s Zuckerberg’, Pavel Durov, is one of the most important, but mysterious global news stories,” declared Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

True.

Except that “mysterious” is a bit of an understatement.

Why did French police detain him? What charges will he face? Has it anything at all to do with his recent visit to Azerbaijan, where he met (or didn’t meet) Russian President Vladimir Putin?

For two days, reporters have quoted “sources close to the investigation” about the offences Pavel Durov may be charged with (allegedly, from complicity in drug-trafficking to fraud). Telegram put out a statement saying Mr Durov had “nothing to hide”.

On Monday evening, the Paris prosecutor said in a statement that Mr Durov was being held in custody as part of a cyber-criminality investigation.

The statement mentioned 12 different offences under investigation that it said were linked to organised crime.

These included illicit transactions, child pornography, fraud and the refusal to disclose information to authorities, the prosecutor said.

The statement added that Mr Durov’s time in custody had been extended and could now last until Wednesday.

Without going into detail, President Emmanuel Macron posted on social media that he had seen “false information” regarding France following Mr Durov’s arrest, and added: “This is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to decide.”

In Moscow, the Kremlin is being cautious.

“We still don’t know what exactly Durov has been accused of,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Monday, in his first comments on Pavel Durov’s detention.

“We haven’t heard any official statements. Before I can say anything at all about this, we need some clarity.”

Clarity is not something of which everyone in Russia feels the need.

On Monday, state TV’s flagship political talk show had plenty to say on the matter.

“All these accusations against Durov sound absurd,” one political analyst in the studio declared. “Accusing him of all the crimes that are committed on his platform is like accusing [France’s] President Macron of all the crimes that happen in France. It’s the same logic.”

Russian newspapers, too, went big on the story. Several dailies expressed concern that Pavel Durov’s arrest could have serious consequences for Russia.

“This blow to Telegram threatens to be a blow to Russia,” wrote Nezavisimaya Gazeta. “With Pavel Durov’s arrest, Western intelligence services could obtain the messenger’s encryption keys.”

“Telegram might become a tool of Nato, if Pavel Durov is forced to obey the French intelligence services,” declared Moskovsky Komsomolets, adding: “Telegram chats contain a huge amount of vitally important, strategic information.”

In April 2018, the Russian authorities began blocking access to Telegram, only to lift the ban in 2020. Today, not only do Russian officials use the messenger, but so does the Russian military, including soldiers fighting in the so-called “Special Military Operation” (Russia’s war in Ukraine).

“If Telegram crashes,” Moskovsky Komsomolets asked today, “how is [our army] going to fight?”

In the West, Pavel Durov’s detention has sparked a debate about free speech.

In Russia, too, presidential human rights ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova claimed that “the real reason for arresting Pavel Durov was to shut down Telegram, a platform where you can discover the truth about what’s happening in the world. Everyone who strives for free speech protests this.”

Ms Moskalkova made no mention of the Signal messaging app, to which the Russian authorities blocked access earlier this month, or YouTube, access to which has been severely limited now in Russia. Facebook and Instagram have already been blocked here.

And what of those rumours of a Putin-Durov meeting in Baku earlier in August. Was there one?

“No,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied when I asked.

However this mysterious story ends, Moscow will use it to strengthen one of its official narratives: that Russian citizens should beware of the West.

As the popular tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda put it: “For the West, there is no such thing any more as ‘good Russians’.”

When Zakia Rafiqi, 26, heard that Laila Majnu, a 2018 Bollywood film, was being re-released in cinemas this month, she knew she had to watch it again.

“In 2018, I was among a handful of people in the cinema. This time, there were many more people. A lot of them were laughing and crying,” says Ms Rafiqi, who went with her sister to a cinema in Delhi.

Ms Rafiqi says she has an “emotional connect” with the film, a tragic love story set in Indian-administered Kashmir, where she is from.

“It’s good to see a piece of home on the big screen. When they are driving through the streets of Kashmir, you feel you are there,” she says.

Laila Majnu, written by popular filmmaker Imtiaz Ali, barely made a mark at the box office when it was first released, but did good business on its second run. It is one among dozens of Indian films – some made more than two decades ago – which are getting a new lease of life as people flock to watch them on the big screen.

India’s film industry, like others across the world, has seen ups and downs since the coronavirus pandemic shuttered cinemas for months and led many to turn to streaming services. It is yet to return to its former glory.

“This year has been particularly bad for new [Bollywood] releases,” says trade analyst Komal Nahta.

The industry – dominated by Hindi-language Bollywood – is now churning out films more regularly, but it’s common to hear people say they will wait for a film to stream on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video instead of going to cinemas.

Some films do break through – Stree 2, a Hindi horror-comedy currently playing in cinemas, has earned close to four billion rupees ($47.6m; £36.1m) domestically so far to become the year’s biggest Bollywood hit. In terms of overall earnings, it is second only to Kalki 2898 AD, a “pan-Indian” film which featured some of the country’s biggest stars. But these are rare bright spots for an industry which has seen highly anticipated films with big stars fare miserably at the box office this year.

There’s no doubt that India’s film industry is continuing to see a churn as viewing habits shift – the top 10 films so far this year include three from the southern state of Kerala, where budgets are comparatively small.

• The southern Indian films winning on Bollywood’s turf
• Why Bollywood’s big films are flopping at the box office

So it’s not surprising that both film distributors and viewers are turning to the comfort of the familiar. A look at the list of films being released again shows there’s no clear formula behind the choices.

Bollywood re-releases this year are across a range of genres. The 1990s seem to be a favourite decade with much-loved rom-coms Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and Hum Aapke Hain Koun and action thrillers Main Khiladi Tu Anari and Baazigar getting a second outing. More recent hits – musical Rockstar (2011), buddy film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) and rom-com Jab We Met (2007) – have also brought people back to cinemas.

Analysts say the biggest surprise was the success of Laila Majnu. The film’s makers have said they were particularly happy that viewers in Kashmir could watch it as cinema halls reopened there in 2022 after more than two decades.

“The film has finally recovered its cost or at least minimised its losses,” says Mr Nahta, who adds that this will spur others to see if their films could also benefit from a re-release.

Taran Adarsh, a Bollywood analyst, says these re-releases are making up for a lack of new films and lacklustre box-office performances.

The re-releases have little to no promotion, with posters simply popping up on ticket booking sites or circulating on social media. “It’s driven purely by nostalgia or an audience’s love for a film that already has a cult following,” says Mr Adarsh.

In Tamil and Telugu, the re-releases have been more star-driven. Recent videos show fans of Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi dancing to a hit song from his 2002 hit Indra in cinemas. Pawan Kalyan’s Gabbar Singh (2012) is set to release next week. In Tamil, Vijay’s Ghilli (2004) ran to packed halls in April.

“It’s usually the film of a superstar whose star may have just been rising 20 years ago or a film that was already a hit,” says Sreedhar Pillai, an analyst who tracks the southern film industries. “It has to be driven by nostalgia and have a connection with an actor who is a big star today.”

Malayalam superstar Mohanlal has two such films – Devadoothan (2000) and Manichithrathazhu (1993) – currently running in cinemas in Kerala. Coincidentally, both are horror films.

Devadoothan, an eerie film with beautiful songs which flopped when it first released, has been running to packed cinemas for more than a month.

Mr Pillai says that Manichithrathazhu, a cult classic which broke box-office records when it first released, is probably the biggest “success story” among re-releases in southern India.

“It’s an iconic film. A huge blockbuster when it was released, and now it’s also getting the young audience,” he says.

Sometimes, the prospect of a sequel can drive interest in the first film.

Last year, the 2001 film Gadar: Ek Prem Katha had another successful run in cinemas after its sequel Gadar 2 became a massive hit, says Mr Nahta.

But the re-release of Kamal Haasan’s Indian this year did not see similar success because its sequel Indian 2 did not perform well, he adds.

So why are people paying to watch older films that are easily available on streaming platforms?

“You simply can’t compare the experience of watching a film online with watching it in theatres and that is what audiences are turning out for,” Mr Adarsh says.

Shruti Zende agrees. The 30-year-old from Pune city in Maharashtra state has watched a couple of re-releases since last year.

“Instead of watching the film for its storyline, it becomes a group experience where you’re watching with people who really like the movie,” she says, adding that people start reacting before a scene or dialogue because “they know what’s coming up”.

She is now looking forward to watching Telugu superstar Nagarjuna’s 2004 film Mass on the big screen this week.

But her final verdict on re-releases will give hope to beleaguered filmmakers.

“I may watch one or two re-releases a year,” she says. “But after that I’d still want to watch a new film.”

US soldier Travis King, who fled from South to North Korea before being returned home, will plead guilty to desertion and other charges, his lawyer has said.

The army filed 14 charges against Mr King for the illegal crossing in July 2023. He plans to enter a guilty plea to five charges, including desertion and assault, as part of a plea deal.

“He will plead not guilty to the remaining offenses, which the Army will withdraw and dismiss,” his lawyer Franklin Rosenblatt said in a statement to BBC News.

His plea and sentencing hearing will take place on 20 September at a military base in Fort Bliss, Texas.

“Travis’s guilty plea will be entered at a general court-martial,” Mr Rosenblatt said in an emailed statement on Monday.

“There, he will explain what he did, answer a military judge’s questions about why he is pleading guilty, and be sentenced.”

Mr King is grateful to support from his family and friends and to all those who did not “pre-judge” him based on the allegations, the lawyer added.

Charges expected to be dismissed as part of the plea deal include possession of child pornography.

Pvt King has been in the army since January 2021 and was in South Korea as part of a unit rotation when he crossed into North Korea.

Prior to that incident, he had served two months in detention in South Korea on charges that he had assaulted two people and kicked a police car.

He was released from custody on 10 July – eight days before he crossed the country’s border with Pyongyang.

His release deal was brokered by Swedish officials, who brought Pvt King to North Korea’s border with China.

Little is known about how he was treated in North Korea, why he fled there in the first place, and why Pyongyang expelled him.

The US has said it made no concessions to secure his release.

The Donald Trump and Kamala Harris campaigns are sparring over whether to mute one of the microphones when it is the other person’s turn to speak during the pair’s scheduled debate next month.

The Harris campaign said in a statement to the BBC’s US partner CBS News that it wanted both candidates’ microphones to be live throughout the full broadcast.

The Trump campaign reportedly wants the ABC debate, scheduled for 10 September, to be governed by the same rules agreed when Joe Biden was the Democratic candidate. That would mean the microphones being muted.

The apparent impasse comes as the former president questioned the impartiality of the network and signalled he might even skip the debate.

Before President Joe Biden stepped down as the Democratic party nominee, his campaign agreed with Trump’s campaign to participate in two debates – one previously held in June on CNN and one to air on ABC News this September.

The Biden campaign negotiated the rules for the debate and agreed that the microphone would be muted when a candidate wasn’t speaking.

The Trump campaign agreed to the rule, which was enforced during the June CNN debate.

But now, with just 15 days until the ABC News debate in Philadelphia is scheduled to air, the Harris campaign wants the microphones to be “hot” – meaning they will never be turned off for the duration of the debate.

This would allow the two candidates to interrupt and speak over each other on the debate stage.

“The vice president is ready to deal with Trump’s constant lies and interruptions in real time. Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button,” Harris campaign senior communications adviser Brian Fallon said in a statement.

Trump, meanwhile, told reporters on Monday that he’d rather have the microphones on during the debate, but said it “worked out fine” when they were muted on stage with Mr Biden.

“We agreed to the same rules and same specifications and I think that’s probably what it should be, but they’re trying to change it,” he said. “The truth is they’re trying to get out of it because she doesn’t want to debate. She’s not a good debater.”

Trump’s campaign, in a statement to Politico, reiterated the former president’s accusation that Ms Harris was looking to find a way to get out of the debate.

“Enough with the games. We accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate,” senior Trump adviser Jason Miller told Politico. “The Harris camp, after having already agreed to the CNN rules, asked for a seated debate, with notes, and opening statements. We said no changes to the agreed upon rules.”

A Harris campaign official who was asked about the Trump campaign’s claims said they were “100% false”, according to CBS News.

On Trump’s Truth Social platform on Sunday, he questioned whether the ABC News journalists moderating the debate would give the questions to the Harris campaign ahead of time.

“Why would I do the debate against Kamala Harris on that network?” he wrote.

This is not the first time the former president has suggested he could back out of a debate. Earlier this month, Trump said he would only debate Ms Harris if the debate was hosted by Fox News. He reversed course several days later.

Meanwhile, as the 5 November election nears, the Harris campaign said it has raised $540 million since Biden stepped down, the Associated Press reports. Harris saw record-breaking fundraising numbers in the aftermath of Mr Biden dropping out of the race.

The Trump campaign, on the other hand, raised $138.7 million in July and has $327 million cash on hand.

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Like so many in Australia, Sam grew up in a community where having a punt was synonymous with sport.

“Our friends, our family would ask ‘Oh who are you betting on this week?’ That was the normal conversation that occurred,” his sister Amy – who is not using her real name – says.

Looking back, she blames that normalisation of gambling – the way it crept into their home and baked itself into social interactions – for her brother’s addiction, and for the suffering he endured before taking his life.

“It just destroyed him physically and emotionally,” she explains. “We tried everything. We were a close family, but we obviously didn’t know how bad it was – it crushed him.”

Amy is one of dozens who came forward to testify in a bipartisan parliamentary inquiry into the impacts of gambling in Australia – which wagers more per capita than any other country.

The probe found that there were “few safeguards” to protect those battling addiction and recommended 31 reforms to avoid “grooming” a new generation of children to gamble, starting with a three-year phased ban on advertising.

Now, pressure is mounting on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – both externally and from within his party – to act, with polling suggesting a majority of people support the move.

But the government has signalled it may instead opt for a cap to limit advertising. It has cited the role gambling ad revenue plays in propping up the nation’s ailing free-to-air broadcasters, as well as warnings from wagering companies that a ban could drive consumers offshore.

Doing so would result in huge tax losses on Australian betting platforms which currently fund “vital services”, the peak body representing the industry says.

The debate has spurred accusations that corporate interests are standing in the way of common-sense reform.

It has also spotlighted the deep-rooted links between sport, gambling, and entertainment in Australia.

Betting occupies a unique space in Australian culture.

In the 1980s, it became the first country to deregulate its gambling industry, making it possible for slot machines – once only permitted inside casinos – to expand into licensed pubs and clubs.

Today, Australia is home to roughly 0.33% of the world’s population, but a fifth of all “pokies”- the colloquial term used for the machines.

The last two decades have also seen an explosion in the popularity of online betting, particularly when it comes to sport. Estimates show Australians are spending approximately A$25bn ($16.8bn; £12.9bn) on legal wagers each year – with 38% of the population gambling weekly.

Experts argue that sophisticated marketing has aided that boom, while sponsorship deals, partnerships, and kickbacks given to prevalent sporting bodies, have helped legitimise the industry

Sean – not his real name – has been gambling legally, and often obsessively, for more than 18 years. He was introduced by a friend to sports betting as a teenager, and from there, things snowballed. “Some days I couldn’t sleep unless I knew that I had a bet on. It got to the point where I was betting on sports I’d never seen in countries I’d never heard of,” he told the BBC.

Now 36 and seeking help from sponsors, he doesn’t like to keep tabs on what feels like a lifetime of losses, but he puts the total figure in the ballpark of A$2m.

He says the relationship breakdowns and years of isolation are harder to quantify: “If I never gambled, I would be married with kids right now”.

One academic paper found that like Sean, 90% of Australian adults and roughly three-quarters of children aged eight to 16 years see betting as a “normal part of sport”. Advocates like Martin Thomas argue this is evidence that the practice “has seeped into every corner of society”.

“Our kids know just as much about the odds on a game and multi bets as they do their favourite players,” he tells the BBC.

In Amy’s view, as well as making it harder for people of all ages to escape gambling, that normalisation has created a dangerous subtext: that any adverse impacts – such as debt or addiction – are the fault of the individual, not the system.

“To go and watch a sporting event and see it saturated with betting advertising, you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m the problem. Because everyone does this’, you know what I mean?

“That’s what my brother thought.”

Like many advocates, she wants to see gambling reframed as a major public health issue rather than a recreational pursuit, given surveys have shown that nearly half of those engaging in the practice are at risk of, or already experience, its associated harms – such as financial hardship, family violence, depression, and suicide.

Research suggests that a prohibition on advertising could be the first step in achieving that aim. And advocates say there’s a well-trodden path the government could follow. Mr Thomas cites Australia’s decision to ban tobacco adverts in 1992 – which has been credited with dramatically reducing smoking rates – as proof of what’s possible.

But while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has described the “saturation of gambling advertising” as “untenable”, he’s yet to commit to a course of action.

Instead, he has pointed to his government’s other initiatives when questioned – such as banning credit card use in online wagering and creating a register for people to exclude themselves from betting sites. At times, he’s also framed gambling as an age-old problem.

“[This] has been an issue in our society I suspect, since man and woman walked, and had a bet on who could ride the horse the fastest or who could run from rock to rock, probably before there were buildings,” he told parliament on Wednesday.

The peak body representing Australia’s wagering companies has described a blanket ban as “a step too far” and thrown its weight behind the government’s proposed cap – which would limit ads online and during general TV programming.

“By doing this, the expectations of the community to see less advertising would be met, while also maintaining the crucial support to sporting codes and local broadcasters,” Responsible Wagering Australia’s CEO Kai Cantwell said in a statement.

But Dr Andrew Hughes, a lecturer in marketing at The Australian National University, has cast doubt over how crucial that financial support is – given that Nielsen data shows that the lion’s share of ad money the nation’s broadcasters take in comes from a range of other sectors, rather than betting platforms.

And independent senators, like David Pocock, have criticised the logic of using money from wagering to prop up the media.

“Journalism is incredibly important, but it shouldn’t be dependent on flogging products we know are harmful, and which cause addiction, personal issues, family breakdowns, and in some cases, suicide,” he told the BBC.

“The government should have the imagination to look at other ways of plugging that gap.”

Mr Pocock is one of several senators to publicly question whether betting companies and the industries they finance, are interfering with policy decisions – citing their extensive lobbying efforts and history of large political donations.

Last week, he joined 20 parliamentarians from across the political spectrum to sign an open letter backing a prohibition on advertising, while also calling for a free vote on the issue to allow MPs in Mr Albanese’s party to cross the floor, without facing repercussions.

Several medical bodies have also thrown their support behind a ban, as has an expert panel appointed by the government to probe how to bring down rates of domestic violence in Australia – adding to the mounting pressure Mr Albanese is facing.

The government already runs warnings on gambling advertisements reminding people of the risks.

But Sean says it does little to deter those caught in the crosshairs of addiction.

“I know the house always wins, but every time I’m ready to have a punt that all goes out the window,” he explains. “I start thinking I’m about to pull off that one win that’s going to take me away from everything. That win that’s going to get everything back.”

Although nothing has been finalised and Mr Albanese’s cabinet is still weighing its options, for Amy, the debate itself has become too “insensitive” to follow.

She can’t comprehend what the hold-up is and wants answers.

“Anyone who understands this issue would without a doubt agree to a full advertising ban – that’s what the evidence says,” she tells the BBC. “It feels like these lobbyists own the government… We’re dangling this dangerous product in front of everyone and normalising it, and the worst-case scenario is what happened to us.

“My family – they’ll never recover. It’s not something that you recover from.”

Imagine picking up a nice juicy apple – but instead of biting into it you keep the seeds and throw the rest away.

That’s what chocolate producers have traditionally done with the cocoa fruit – used the beans and disposed of the rest.

But now food scientists in Switzerland have come up with a way to make chocolate using the entire cocoa fruit rather than just the beans – and without using sugar.

The chocolate, developed at Zurich’s prestigious Federal Institute of Technology by scientist Kim Mishra and his team includes the cocoa fruit pulp, the juice, and the husk, or endocarp.

The process has already attracted the attention of sustainable food companies.

They say traditional chocolate production, using only the beans, involves leaving the rest of the cocoa fruit – the size of a pumpkin and full of nutritious value – to rot in the fields.

The key to the new chocolate lies in its very sweet juice, which tastes, Mr Mishra explains, “very fruity, a bit like pineapple”.

This juice, which is 14% sugar, is distilled down to form a highly concentrated syrup, combined with the pulp and then, taking sustainability to new levels, mixed with the dried husk, or endocarp, to form a very sweet cocoa gel.

The gel, when added to the cocoa beans to make chocolate, eliminates the need for sugar.

Mr Mishra sees his invention as the latest in a long line of innovations by Swiss chocolate producers.

In the 19th Century, Rudolf Lindt, of the famous Lindt chocolate family, accidentally invented the crucial step of “conching” the chocolate – rolling the warm cocoa mass to make it smooth and reduce its acidity – by leaving a cocoa mass mixer running overnight. The result in the morning? Deliciously smooth, sweet chocolate.

“You need to be innovative to maintain your product category,” says Mr Mishra. “Or… you will just make average chocolate.”

Mr Mishra was partnered in his project by KOA, a Swiss start-up working in sustainable cocoa growing. Its co-founder, Anian Schreiber, believes using the entire cocoa fruit could solve many of the cocoa industry’s problems, from the soaring price of cocoa beans to endemic poverty among cocoa farmers.

“‘Instead of fighting over who gets how much of the cake, you make the cake bigger and make everybody benefit,” he explains.

“The farmers get significantly extra income through utilising cocoa pulp, but also the important industrial processing is happening in the country of origin. Creating jobs, creating value that can be distributed in the country of origin.”

Mr Schreiber describes the traditional system of chocolate production, in which farmers in Africa or South America sell their cocoa beans to big chocolate producers based in wealthy countries as “unsustainable”.

The model is also questioned by a new exhibition in Geneva, which explores Switzerland’s colonial past.

To those who point out that Switzerland never had any colonies of its own, chocolate historian Letizia Pinoja counters that Swiss mercenary soldiers policed other countries’ colonies, and Swiss ship owners transported slaves.

Geneva in particular, she says, has a particular link to some of the most exploitative phases of the chocolate industry.

“Geneva is a hub for commodity trade, and since the 18th Century, cocoa was reaching Geneva and then the rest of Switzerland to produce chocolate.

“Without this commodity trade of colonial goods, Switzerland could never have become the land of chocolate. And cocoa is no different from any other kind of colonial good. They all came from slavery.”

Nowadays, the chocolate industry is much more highly regulated. Producers are supposed to monitor their entire supply chain to make sure there is no child labour. And, from next year, all chocolate imported to the European Union must guarantee that no deforestation took place to grow the cocoa used in it.

But does that mean all the problems are solved? Roger Wehrli, director of the association of Swiss chocolate manufacturers, Chocosuisse, says cases of child labour and deforestation remain, particularly in Africa. He fears that some producers, in a bid to avoid the challenges, are simply shifting their production to South America.

“Does this solve the problem in Africa? No. I guess it would be better for responsible firms to stay in Africa and help to improve the situation.”

That is why Mr Wehrli sees the new chocolate developed in Zurich as “very promising… If you use the whole cocoa fruit, you can get better prices. So it’s economically interesting for the farmers. And it’s interesting from an ecological point of view.”

The link between chocolate production and the environment is also stressed by Anian Schreiber. A third of all farm produce, he says, “never ends up in our mouths”.

Those statistics are even worse for cocoa, if the fruit is abandoned to use only the beans. “It’s like you throw away the apple and just use its seeds. That’s what we do right now with the cocoa fruit.”

Food production involves significant greenhouse gas emissions, so reducing food waste could also help to tackle climate change. Chocolate, a niche luxury item, may not by itself be a huge factor, but both Mr Schreiber and Mr Wehrli believe it could be a start.

But, back in the laboratory, key questions remain. How much will this new chocolate cost? And, most important of all, without sugar, what does it really taste like?

The answer to the last question, in this chocolate-loving correspondent’s view, is: surprisingly good. A rich, dark but sweet flavour, with a hint of cocoa bitterness that would fit perfectly with an after dinner coffee.

The cost may remain something of a challenge, because of the global power of the sugar industry, and the generous subsidies it receives. “The cheapest ingredient in food will always be sugar as long as we subsidise it,” explains Kim Mishra. “For a… tonne of sugar, you pay $US500 [£394] or less.” Cocoa pulp and juice cost more, so the new chocolate would, for now, be more expensive.

Nevertheless, chocolate producers in countries where cocoa is grown, from Hawaii to Guatemala, to Ghana have contacted Mr Mishra for information about the new method.

In Switzerland, some of the bigger producers – including Lindt – are starting to use the cocoa fruit as well as the beans, but none, so far, has taken the step of eliminating sugar completely.

“We have to find daring chocolate producers who want to test the market and are willing to contribute to a more sustainable chocolate,” says Mr Mishra. “Then we can disrupt the system.”

Perhaps those daring producers will be found in Switzerland, whose chocolate industry makes 200,000 tonnes of chocolate each year, worth an estimated $US2bn. At Chocosuisse, Roger Wehrli sees a more sustainable, but still bright, future.

“I think chocolate will still taste fantastic in the future,” he insists. “And I think the demand will increase in the future due to the growing world population.”

And will they be eating Swiss chocolate? “Obviously,” he says.