A Bedouin Arab man rescued in Gaza has urged Israel to reach a deal with Hamas to free all the remaining hostages, as details of his suffering in captivity have emerged.

Kaid Farhan Elkadi, 52, was rescued on Tuesday in a “complex operation in the southern Gaza Strip”, the Israeli military said.

After returning to his village in southern Israel on Wednesday, Mr Elkadi said his “happiness is not complete as long as there are detainees” on both sides.

Meanwhile, a former Israeli mayor said Mr Elkadi had been hardly exposed to sunlight for eight months.

Mr Elkadi was kidnapped by Hamas during the 7 October attack on Israel, and is the eighth hostage rescued by Israeli forces since the start of the war in Gaza.

On Wednesday, he returned to his home village of Karkur in the Negev desert after being discharged from hospital.

Surrounded by reporters and members of his Bedouin community, Mr Elkadi pleaded for all the hostages to be released.

“It does not matter if they are Arab or Jewish, all have a family waiting for them. They also want to feel the joy.

“I hope, I pray for an end to this,” he said, revealing that he had the same message during Tuesday’s phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I told Bibi Netanyahu yesterday, ‘Work to bring an end to this.’”

US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators are trying to broker a ceasefire deal that would see Hamas release the 104 hostages still being held, including 34 who are presumed dead, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Mr Elkadi was allowed to go home after undergoing hospital examinations.

The father of 11 earlier told his relatives “about difficult days, a very cruel captivity”, Ata Abu Medigam, ex-mayor of the southern Israeli town of Rahat, told Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.

“He spoke about one of the hostages who was held captive with him for two months and died next to him,” Mr Medigam said.

Mr Elkadi had also started worrying about losing his eyesight, Mr Medigam added.

“He would check his eyes to see if they were still working and functioning – he would put his fingers on his eyes to check his reflexes.”

Mr Elkadi also told his relatives that one of his fellow detainees had died next to him during his time in captivity, Mr Medigam said.

The Israeli military said forces had found Mr Elkadi in an underground tunnel “when he was alone”.

In a statement, the military said no further details about the rescue could be published “due to considerations of the safety of our hostages, the security of our forces, and national security”.

But some details have been emerging about Mr Elkadi’s time in captivity.

His cousin, Fadi Abu Sahiban, said Mr Elkadi did not get preferential treatment due to being a Muslim.

“They didn’t give him concessions because he’s a Muslim. He says they let him pray, that’s the only thing they allowed him to do,” he told Haaretz.

Mr Elkadi had no way of communicating with the outside world and was in constant fear of bombs overhead, his cousin said.

He “would hear the shelling of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] endlessly, he said his body was shaking”, said Mr Abu Sahiban.

“Every day he was sure was his last day, and not only because of his captors, but also because of the shelling of the army. He said that every day is a life-threatening situation.”

Mr Elkadi, a grandfather of one, worked for many years as a security guard at Kibbutz Magen, close to the Israel-Gaza border, where he was abducted.

The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 40,530 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Indirect talks to broker a ceasefire and the release of hostages have continued in Cairo in recent days, but so far there has been no sign of a breakthrough over key sticking points. They include Mr Netanyahu’s demand that Israel keep troops along Gaza’s border with Egypt, which Hamas has rejected.

Two other Bedouin Arabs – Yousef Zyadna and his son, Hamza – are among the remaining hostages who are still alive, while the body of a third, Mhamad el-Atrash, is still being held by Hamas.

Another Bedouin, Hisham al-Sayed, has been held captive in Gaza since 2015.

Miserable winter weather, snow on Table Mountain and gale force winds have not dampened Cape Town residents’ enthusiasm for free medical care being offered on a Chinese ship, currently docked in the South African city’s harbour.

A financial crisis in one of Africa’s biggest and most developed economies has left public services underfunded, and many people say they cannot afford private healthcare because of soaring prices.

It comes months after the government signed into law a controversial new health scheme, which aims to provide universal healthcare for all, but is facing threats of legal challenges.

Since China’s so-called Peace Ark arrived last week, more than 2,000 South Africans have been treated on board – ranging from maternity check-ups and cataract surgeries to cupping therapy.

China enjoys a strong political partnership with South Africa, and this is Beijing’s latest show of soft power.

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Lucy Mnyani told local media she was happy to see images of her unborn child for the first time: “I had been going to the day hospitals in Gugulethu and Langa [townships] and they never sent me for a CT scan.”

Another person who queued up, Joseph Williams, told national broadcaster SABC: “When you go the local clinic you sit for hours and hours before they help you, depending on your condition.

“Here the service was very quick so I’m grateful that I came. I actually got the results for what I came for.”

Officials say the ship has a capacity of 700 patients each day and the service forms part of a joint exercise between the South African and Chinese armies. The ship has 100 people on board with 300 beds, 20 intensive care beds, operating theatres, clinical departments and even a rescue helicopter.

The Peace Ark’s first two days saw pre-selected people being offered treatment before it was extended to the general public on Monday.

“We arranged with the night shelters to provide a service for people who live on the streets of Cape Town because they don’t have access to any healthcare,” Saadiq Kariem, head of Western Cape’s Health Department, told the BBC.

He added that elderly people living in care homes had also been brought in for medical care, and Western Cape health staff were offered wellness visits.

“From registering to completing my care took me an hour,” said Dr Kariem, who himself went for a medical check-up and joined the queue as an ordinary citizen.

“It’s something that would take much longer at our public healthcare facilities because you have many more people requiring services.”

A total of 57 surgeries have been carried out so far, a tiny dent in the province’s waiting list of 80,000 patients.

And this is in Western Cape province, which arguably has one of the best health systems in the country.

“These have been mostly orthopaedic, cataract and a few tubal ligation surgeries for women who no longer wish to fall pregnant,” Dr Kariem said.

The popularity of the Peace Ark is telling, said Dr Shuaib Manjra, chairperson of the Health Justice Initiative: “It shows the public health system in the province and in the country is not serving the people as it should.

“Often you find people spending an entire day at a clinic waiting to be seen. There are major backlogs at hospitals, budgets and posts are being cut, and often this results in people missing out on up to two days of work after waiting to be seen for a simple procedure,” he told the BBC.

The African National Congress (ANC) says its National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme will be a huge improvement as all services at both public and private facilities will be free at the point of care – paid out of a central fund.

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has insisted it will still be implemented despite the party losing its parliamentary majority in May, and going into coalition with parties like the Democratic Alliance (DA) that oppose some aspects of the scheme.

It will cause a massive shake-up of the health sector, but critics fear it could prompt an exodus of health professionals to find employment abroad.

The scheme is being vociferously opposed by private health companies as it bars people from taking out private health insurance for treatment.

At the moment about 14% of the population have private medical care, with the remaining 86% relying on overburdened state clinics and hospitals.

Last week, Business Unity South Africa and the South African Medical Association refused to sign what is known as the “health compact” – an annual agreement with the president that sets out how various sectors are to address health challenges in the coming year.

The two organisations – which between them represent private businesses and 12,000 doctors – are angry about the NHI in its current form, feeling it has been forced upon them.

Dr Manjra said the NHI was a “noble idea” but he understood the reservations.

“Our history of corruption and incompetence will potentially destroy the entire health sector. There’s an estimate that in some cases up to a third of the health budget is lost through corruption.”

Dealing with these issues within the public health sector should be the priority, he said.

Siphiwe Dlamini, spokesman for the South African army, told the BBC the response to the Peace Ark had been overwhelming with good feedback about “the attention and care received”.

The floating hospital leaves Cape Town on Thursday for Angola before moving on to several other countries. It has already visited the Seychelles, Tanzania, Madagascar and Mozambique – on this its 10th excursion since being commissioned in 2008.

The initiative is seen as a further step in China’s efforts to increase its influence on the African continent.

Over the past two decades its trade with Africa has grown steadily, while Beijing has also been increasingly involved in the construction sector – including building large sports stadiums in several parts of the continent.

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The government’s desire to reset relations with the European Union does not mean reversing Brexit, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

The prime minister said he wanted a closer relationship with Europe, but the UK had no plans for a youth mobility scheme, which could give young people in the EU the right to live and work in the UK, and vice versa.

Sir Keir was speaking at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, after the pair began talks on a new co-operation agreement between the two nations.

The PM said the agreement aimed to boost trade, create jobs and deliver economic growth in both countries.

The two leaders hope to sign a treaty, covering areas including defence, energy security, science and technology, by early next year.

During the visit, they also agreed a joint action plan to tackle illegal migration and smuggling gangs by sharing intelligence and data.

Sir Keir has previously said he will seek a better deal on trade with the EU than the one negotiated by Boris Johnson in late 2020.

However, it remains unclear whether Brussels would entertain major changes to the UK’s existing Brexit trade deal, which is due to be reviewed in 2026.

Taking questions from journalists after the news conference, Sir Keir was pressed over what concessions the UK would have to offer to secure an improved deal.

The PM said he was “absolutely clear” the government wanted to reset relations with Europe.

He added: “That does not mean reversing Brexit or re-entering the single market or the customs union.

“But it does mean a closer relationship on a number of fronts, including the economy, including defence, including exchanges.”

The single market enables goods, service and people to move freely between member states, with countries applying many common rules and standards.

The customs union is an agreement not to charge taxes called tariffs on goods coming from other EU countries, and to charge the same tariffs as each other on goods coming from outside the EU.

Asked if the UK would allow freedom of movement for young Germans, the PM said: “We do not have plans for a youth mobility scheme but do have plans for closer relationship between us and the EU.”

A youth mobility scheme – which would make it easier for EU citizens aged 18 to 30 to study and work in the UK for a limited period, with young Britons allowed to do the same in Europe in return – has been proposed by the EU.

Speaking after the news conference, Sir Keir insisted the planned treaty with Germany had “nothing to do with youth mobility”.

But when asked about the possibility of student exchanges between the UK and Germany, the prime minister said he wanted a “close relationship” including “education and cultural exchange”.

Sir Keir stressed that he and Mr Scholz “didn’t go into the details of that today”, focusing more on illegal immigration.

In his opening remarks at the news conference, Mr Scholz lamented how relations between Britons and Germans had waned after Brexit and the Covid pandemic, adding that he and Sir Keir “share similar views on this” and want to “intensify the exchanges”.

Earlier Nils Schmid, foreign affairs spokesperson for Mr Scholz’s Social Democratic Party, told the BBC a scheme making it easier for young Germans to travel to the UK to study was a “major feature of our wish list”.

He insisted such a scheme would not be about “immigration in a general sense”, but “stays of limited duration” for educational programmes, student exchanges or work experience.

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokeswoman Layla Moran said the talks with Mr Scholz were “a positive step forward after years of the Conservatives trashing the UK’s relationship with Europe”.

“But the new government needs to be more ambitious about rebuilding stronger ties with our European allies,” she added.

“That should start with agreeing a Youth Mobility Scheme giving young people the opportunity to easily live and work across the continent.”

Italian authorities are expanding their investigation into the deaths of seven people on the yacht, the Bayesian, to include two crew members as well as the captain, according to Italian news agencies.

British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and six others lost their lives when the 56m (184ft) yacht, flying a British flag, sank off the coast of northern Sicily on 19 August.

The investigation is now said to include ship engineer Tim Parker Eaton and sailor Matthew Griffith.

Being investigated does not equate to being charged and is a procedural step.

The boat went down within minutes during a pre-dawn storm while the yacht was anchored off the northern coast of Sicily.

On Monday, the yacht’s 51-year-old captain, New Zealand national James Cutfield, was reportedly placed under investigation for manslaughter and causing the shipwreck.

During questioning on Tuesday, he declined to answer the prosecutors’ inquiries.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, one of the captain’s lawyers, Giovanni Rizzuti, said: “The captain exercised his right to remain silent for two fundamental reasons. First, he’s very worn out. Second, we were appointed only on Monday and for a thorough and correct defence case, we need to acquire a set of data that at the moment, we don’t have.”

Tim Parker Eaton is understood to have been in charge of adequately securing the yacht’s engine room and operational systems, while Matthew Griffith was on watch duty during the night of the disaster.

The sinking has left naval experts baffled, as they believe a yacht of Bayesian’s calibre, constructed by the prestigious Italian yacht builder Perini, should have been able to withstand the storm and certainly should not have sunk as rapidly as it did.

Prosecutors based in Termini Imerese, near Palermo, have indicated that their investigation will be lengthy and will require the salvage of the wreckage.

The head of the company that built the Bayesian, Giovanni Costantino, told the BBC he was convinced there had been a litany of errors on board.

“At the back of the boat, a hatch must have been left open,” he said, “but also perhaps a side entrance for water to have poured inside.

“Before the storm, the captain should have closed every opening, lifted anchor, turned on the engine, pointed into the wind and lowered the keel.”

The keel is a large, fin-like part of the boat that protrudes from its base.

“That would have stabilised the vessel, they would have been able to traverse the storm and continue their cruise in comfort,” he said.

Currently, the Bayesian rests on its right side at a depth of approximately 50m (164ft).

Meanwhile, the Italian Coast Guard has been conducting environmental monitoring activities at the site of the sinking, to prevent possible hydrocarbon spills from the hull.

At the moment, the are no leaks from the tanks and no traces of oil pollution, the Coast Guard said in a statement on Wednesday.

The BBC has learned that Telegram – the messaging app service whose boss has been arrested in France – refuses to join international programmes aimed at detecting and removing child abuse material online.

The app is not a member of either the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) or the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) – both of which work with most online platforms to find, report and remove such material.

It comes as the founder and chief executive of the app – which has more than 950 million registered users – remains under investigation in France.

Billionaire Pavel Durov has been detained over alleged offences relating to a lack of moderation on the platform.

According to officials the 39-year-old is accused of failure to co-operate with law enforcement over drug trafficking, child sexual content and fraud.

Telegram has previously insisted its moderation is “within industry standards and constantly improving”.

However, unlike all other social networks, it is not signed up to programmes like NCMEC’s CyberTipline which has more than 1,600 internet companies registered.

US-based firms are legally required to sign up but 16% of the companies who participate are not based in the US.

Telegram was founded in Russia but is now based in Dubai, where Mr Durov lives.

The vast majority of child sexual abuse material reports came from tech giants and social networks including Facebook, Google, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter (X), Snapchat and WhatsApp.

The BBC understands that NCMEC has repeatedly asked Telegram to join to help tackle child sexual abuse material (CSAM) but it has ignored requests.

Telegram also refuses to work with the Internet Watch Foundation, which is the UK’s equivalent of NCMEC.

An IWF spokesperson said: “Despite attempts to proactively engage with Telegram over the last year, they are not members of the IWF and do not take any of our services to block, prevent, and disrupt the sharing of child sexual abuse imagery.”

By not being an active part of IWF or NCMEC, Telegram is not able to proactively find, remove or block confirmed CSAM which is categorised and added to lists compiled by the charities.

IWF said that the company did remove CSAM once material was confirmed but said it was slower and less responsive to day-to-day requests.

The BBC has contacted Telegram for comment about its refusal to join the child protection schemes.

Previously it has said it is “absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform”.

Telegram is also not a part of the TakeItDown programme that works to remove so-called revenge porn.

Snap, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Pornhub and OnlyFans are all members of the scheme that uses a so-called hash list to scan for images and videos on their public or unencrypted platforms.

Another norm that Telegram does not conform to in the usual way is Transparency Reporting.

Every six months social networks publish a list of all the content taken down because of police requests.

Most other social networks including Meta’s apps, Snapchat and TikTok publish their reports online with previous years in a library to refer to.

Telegram has no such website and only a channel on the app with no library history of transparency reports. It also describes its approach to Transparency Reports as “semiannual”.

The Telegram Transparency channel did not reply to a request to see previous reports and said that there was “no report available for your region”.

Telegram also has an unusual system for media in general. The contact method is through an automated bot on the app which this reporter has never had a reply to in the months of trying to get a response to various requests.

There is an unadvertised email address for press enquiries which BBC News has emailed but not yet received a response from.

In June Pavel Durov told journalist Tucker Carlson that he only employs “about 30 engineers” to run his platform.

Mr Durov, who was born in Russia and now lives in Dubai, has citizenship in Russia, France, the United Arab Emirates and the Caribbean island nation of St Kitts and Nevis.

Telegram is particularly popular in Russia, Ukraine and former Soviet Union states as well as Iran.

It may be an innocent enough racquet sport, but Hong Kong’s Education Bureau has unintentionally given badminton a whole new meaning.

In teaching materials it released last week, a module titled adolescents and intimate relationships for Secondary Year 3, suggested that teenagers who wanted to have sex with each other could “go out to play badminton together” instead.

The materials also include a form called “My Commitment” aimed at getting “young lovers” to attest that they would exercise “self-discipline, self-control, and resistance to pornography”.

The new materials have raised eyebrows and attracted criticism for being “out of touch”. But officials have defended the decision.

Meanwhile social media has been flooded with jokes centered around “playing badminton”.

“FWB [Friends with benefits]?? Friends with badminton,” read one comment on Instagram that had more than 1,000 likes.

“In English: Netflix and chill? In Cantonese, play badminton together?” read a Facebook post which was shared more than 500 times.

Even Olympics badminton player Tse Ying Suet could not resist a comment.

“Everyone is making an appointment to play badminton. Is everyone really into badminton?” she asked on Threads with a smirking face emoji.

For some people it was also about the practicalities.

Local lawmaker Doreen Kong said the documents showed that the education bureau did not understand young people. She specifically criticised the badminton suggestion as unrealistic.

“How could they borrow a badminton racket on the spot if it happens?” She asked.

To Thomas Tang, who is an amateur badminton player, the jokes and sudden increased interest in the sport have made it slightly embarrassing for players like him.

“In the past this was just a healthy sport, but now if you ask people to play badminton they make a lot of jokes,” he said, adding that the irony was that badminton was actually a good way for guys to meet girls.

The Education Bureau documents also told teachers that one of the objectives of the module was to help students master ways of coping with sexual fantasies and impulses, and the module was not created to encourage them to start dating or engaging in sexual behaviour.

Some suggested discussion activities in the documents include advising students to “dress appropriately to present a healthy image and to avoid visual stimulation from sexy clothing”, and “firmly refuse sex before marriage” if they are unable to cope with the “consequences of premarital sex”.

Education Secretary Christine Choi has stood firm in the face of all the criticism.

“We wish to protect the teenagers,” she said while defending the documents in an interview on Sunday, adding that it is illegal to have sex with an underage person.

She has received support from the city’s leader John Lee, who said that while there could be different opinions on education, the government plays a “leading role in determining the kind of society it aims to build”.

But to Henry Chan, a father of a 13-year-old girl and 10-year-old boy, these efforts are ridiculous.

“The Hong Kong government is always out of touch. They are making a fool of themselves,” he said.

“My wife and I will probably do that [sex education] ourselves. That’s not something I would count on schools and the government to do.”

US prosecutors have issued revised charges against Donald Trump for the former president’s alleged attempts to interfere in the 2020 election after losing the contest.

The updated wording tries to navigate a Supreme Court ruling that presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts. The ruling had thrown this case into doubt.

Trump denies accusations that he pressured officials to reverse the results, knowingly spread lies about election fraud and sought to exploit a riot at the US Capitol to delay the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.

It appears unlikely the case – and other criminal cases he faces – will reach court before the next election on 5 November.

The revised indictment, brought by Department of Justice (DoJ) Special Counsel Jack Smith, leaves in place the four crimes Trump is accused of committing: conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, attempting to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

But these now relate to Trump’s status as a political candidate rather than a sitting president.

• Trump has partial immunity from prosecution, Supreme Court rules

Trump has previously pleaded not guilty to all charges.

He wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform that the fresh indictment was “an effort to resurrect a ‘dead’ Witch Hunt” and “distract the American People” from this year’s election. He called for it to be “dismissed IMMEDIATELY”.

His campaign has not responded to a BBC request for comment. But a source close to his legal team told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, the second indictment “was not a surprise”.

“This is what the government is supposed to do based on what the Supreme Court did,” the source said. “It doesn’t change our position that we believe Smith’s case is flawed and it should be dismissed.”

The new charging document – which was slimmed down from 45 to 36 pages – re-works the language of the allegations to respond to last month’s ruling on presidential immunity by the Supreme Court.

It argues Trump acted as a private citizen – and not as president – when he undertook the alleged scheme to sway the election.

“The defendant had no official responsibilities related to the certification proceeding, but he did have a personal interest as a candidate in being named the winner of the election,” reads one new line in the indictment.

Another new line refers to a lawsuit filed by Trump’s campaign in Georgia. The old language said the suit was “filed in his name”, but the updated indictment says it was “filed in his capacity as a candidate for president”.

The new document also appears to have removed the charges against Jeffrey Clark – a former DoJ official who played a key role in the so-called fake electors scheme, according to prosecutors. Mr Clark was not named in either indictment, but has been identified in the media through public records.

The fresh indictment also drops the claim that Trump tried to pressure DoJ officials to work to overturn his defeat. The high court ruled Trump’s direction to justice officials was not illegal.

The special counsel’s office said the superseding indictment had been presented to a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in the case.

A grand jury is set up by a prosecutor to determine whether there is enough evidence to pursue a prosecution.

• Read more: What does a grand jury do?

The new indictment leaves in place several key allegations against Trump, including that he attempted to persuade Vice-President Mike Pence to obstruct Mr Biden’s election certification.

That is despite the fact that conversations between Trump and Mr Pence would probably fall under the category of “official” acts, for which Trump has immunity from prosecution, according to the Supreme Court ruling.

The revised indictment showed that Mr Smith interpreted the Supreme Court ruling to mean that his case could still move forward, said Prof Daniel Richman, a constitutional law expert at Columbia Law School.

But whether it would satisfy the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity framework remained unclear, Prof Richman told the BBC. “The court was painfully vague as to what private conduct done by a president can be charged criminally,” he said.

The revised indictment would not necessarily expedite the case, Prof Richman said. He doubted it would be heard before the 2024 election.

The CBS News source close to Trump’s legal team said the former president’s lawyers would ask for more time to prepare for the case. They said this would likely delay the start of the trial if the judge agreed.

This case came together after Mr Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 to oversee two federal investigations into Trump: the election interference case and another case in which the ex-president has been accused of taking classified documents back to his Florida home after leaving office.

On Monday, Mr Smith’s team appealed against the decision of a Florida judge to dismiss the latter case. Judge Aileen Cannon had done so on the grounds that the mere existence of special counsels violated the US Constitution.

Mr Smith argued the judge’s view “deviated” from legal precedent.

• A guide to Trump’s criminal cases

Both cases face uncertain futures after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision.

The same is true of a separate case in Georgia, in which Trump and 18 other defendants are also accused of criminally conspiring to overturn his narrow defeat in 2020. He has pleaded not guilty, and a trial date has not been set.

Meanwhile, Trump awaits sentencing after being convicted in New York in May of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments made to a porn star.

If Trump defeats Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in November, he is widely expected to order officials to drop all the remaining federal charges that he faces.

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South Korea’s president has urged authorities to do more to “eradicate” the country’s digital sex crime epidemic, amid a flood of deepfake pornography targeting young women.

Authorities, journalists and social media users recently identified a large number of chat groups where members were creating and sharing sexually explicit “deepfake” images – including some of underage girls.

Deepfakes are generated using artificial intelligence, and often combine the face of a real person with a fake body.

South Korea’s media regulator is holding an emergency meeting in the wake of the discoveries.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday instructed authorities to “thoroughly investigate and address these digital sex crimes to eradicate them”.

“Recently, deepfake videos targeting an unspecified number of people have been circulating rapidly on social media,” President Yoon said at a cabinet meeting.

“The victims are often minors and the perpetrators are mostly teenagers.”

The spate of chat groups, linked to individual schools and universities across the country, were discovered on the social media app Telegram over the past week.

Users, mainly teenage students, would upload photos of people they knew – both classmates and teachers – and other users would then turn them into sexually explicit deepfake images.

The discoveries follow the arrest of the Russian-born founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, on Saturday, after it was alleged that child pornography, drug trafficking and fraud were taking place on the encrypted messaging app.

South Korea has a dark history of digital sex crimes.

In 2019 it emerged that men were using a Telegram chatroom to blackmail dozens of young women into performing sexual acts, in a scandal known as nth-room. The group’s ring-leader, Cho Ju-bin, was sentenced to 42 years in jail.

Online deepfake sex crimes have surged, according to South Korean police. A total of 297 cases were reported in the first seven months of this year, up from 180 in the whole of last year and 160 in 2021. Teenagers were responsible for more than two-thirds of the offences over the past three years.

The Korean Teachers Union, meanwhile, believes more than 200 schools have been affected in this latest string of incidents. The number of deepfakes targeting teachers has surged in the past couple of years, according to the Ministry of Education.

Park Ji-hyun, a women’s rights activist and former interim leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, said the government needed to declare a “national emergency” in response to South Korea’s deepfake porn problem.

“Deepfake sexual abuse materials can be created in just one minute, and anyone can enter the chatroom without any verification process,” Ms Park wrote on X.

“Such incidents are occurring in middle schools, high schools, and universities across the country.”

To build a “healthy media culture”, President Yoon said young men needed to be better educated.

“Although it is often dismissed as ‘just a prank,’ it is clearly a criminal act that exploits technology to hide behind the shield of anonymity,” he said.

Korea’s media regulator is meeting on Wednesday to discuss how to tackle this latest crisis, but opponents of the government have questioned whether it is up to the job.

“I don’t believe this government, which dismisses structural gender discrimination as mere ‘personal disputes’, can effectively address these issues,” Bae Bok-joo, a women’s rights activist and a former member of the minor Justice Party, told the AFP news agency.

Before coming into office, President Yoon said South Korean women did not suffer from “systemic gender discrimination”, despite evidence to the contrary.

Women hold just 5.8% of the executive positions in South Korea’s publicly listed companies, and are paid on average a third less than South Korean men – giving the country the worst gender pay gap of any rich nation in the world.

To this can be added a pervasive culture of sexual harassment, fuelled by the booming tech industry, which has contributed to an explosion of digital sex crimes.

These have previously included cases of women being filmed by tiny hidden cameras, or “spycams”, as they used the toilet or undressed in changing rooms.

An American woman has died after the replica boat she was in capsized in rough seas during an expedition from the Faroe Islands to Norway.

Six people were on board the Naddoddur when it got into trouble on Tuesday evening, on the fourth day of the trip, and a distress signal was sent.

Only five people managed to get into an inflatable life raft. They were later airlifted to safety by helicopter.

A woman’s body was eventually found on Wednesday morning not far from where the boat sank.

Norway’s Sea Rescue Society (NSSR) described conditions west of the town of Stad at the time as very demanding, posting a video of the strong winds and high sea.

It said waves were up to 5m (16ft) and winds were as much as 40 knots.

Bergur Jacobsen, who is chairman of the Naddoddur boat club on the Faroe Islands, told the BBC that everyone was very sad about what had happened.

He explained that the 10m-long boat had been on previous Viking voyages before to Iceland, Shetland and Norway.

“It’s not a Viking boat, it’s a Faroes fishing boat without a motor but with sails.”

He said he could not speak about the accident as a Norwegian investigation team was due to speak to him.

Locals were said to be in shock at what happened. One seaman told the BBC that visitors were keen to go on expeditions with the boat, although he would not have done so himself.

The expedition had been postponed for several days because of bad weather until Saturday.

One of four Swiss nationals on the trip, Andy Fitze, posted a map on social media two days into the voyage showing the boat to the north-east of Shetland.

Before the trip, the Faroese member of the crew, Livar Nysted, said when you were in the middle of a storm “you just try to do the best you can”.

“It’s an open boat. You sleep under the stars and when it’s raining or windy you can feel the elements.”

A predator posing as a famous teenage YouTuber who blackmailed hundreds of girls around the globe into performing sex acts on camera has been jailed for 17 years in Australia.

Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed pleaded guilty to 119 charges, relating to 286 people from 20 countries, including the UK, the US, Japan and France. Two-thirds of his victims were aged under 16.

A Perth court heard the 29-year-old coerced them into a cycle of increasingly extreme abuse by threatening to send explicit messages and images of them to their loved ones.

Australian authorities say it is “one of the worst sextortion cases” in history.

“The callous disregard this man had for his victims around the world and their distress, humiliation and fear make it one of the most horrific sextortion cases prosecuted in Australia,” said Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner David McLean.

“This type of online exploitation and abuse is devastating and causes lifelong trauma.”

When handing down her sentence on Tuesday, Judge Amanda Burrows said Rasheed’s offence was of such magnitude there was “no comparable case” in the country, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Pretending to be a 15-year-old American internet star, Rasheed would strike up a conversation with his targets, before involving them in discussions about sexual fantasies.

He threatened to send their responses to friends and family unless they performed a series of escalating, “degrading” sex acts – which at times included family pets and other children in their home.

The court heard Rasheed had been involved in misogynistic “incel” communities online, and on several occasions had invited other people – in one case as many as 98 – to watch the distressing acts on a livestream.

Many of the children being extorted told him they were suicidal – one even sent images of self-harm. But Rasheed continued his blackmail despite their “obvious distress” and “extreme fear”, the judge said, according to the ABC.

He was caught after Australian authorities were contacted by Interpol and US investigators, and charged in 2020 after a police raid on his home.

Rasheed is already serving a five-year prison term for sexually abusing a 14-year-old twice in his car at a Perth park.

The court heard he was engaged in a sex offenders treatment programme but Rasheed still represented a high risk of reoffending. He will be eligible to apply for parole in August 2033.

Aeroplane passengers should be restricted to two drinks at airports, Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has said.

Mr O’Leary said introducing alcohol limits at airports would help tackle a rise in disorder on flights.

Violent outbursts are occurring weekly due to alcohol, he said, especially when it is mixed with other substances.

“We don’t want to begrudge people having a drink,” he told the Daily Telegraph.

“But we don’t allow people to drink-drive, yet we keep putting them up in aircraft at 33,000ft.”

Crew members and other passengers have become targets, according to Mr O’Leary.

Delays add to the problem, with longer drinking times at airports.

“In the old days, people who drank too much would eventually fall over or fall asleep. But now those passengers are also on tablets and powder,” he added.

“It’s the mix. You get much more aggressive behaviour that becomes very difficult to manage.”

Mr O’Leary said it was difficult for airlines to identify inebriated people at the gate, especially when they boarded in a group.

“As long as they can stand up and shuffle they will get through. Then when the plane takes off, we see the misbehaviour,” he said.

Ryanair staff search bags for alcohol before passengers board flights to Ibiza, one of the worst-affected “party destinations”.

Other challenging destinations include some of the Greek islands.

An AirportsUK spokesperson said that disruptive behaviour, whether due to alcohol or other causes, “is unacceptable and could lead to substantial penalties”.

These penalties include fines, boarding being refused, or up to two years in jail.

The spokesperson added that airports have “a wide range of measures in place to monitor and tackle disruptive behaviour and ensure everyone’s safety”.

“Airports are committed to providing a safe and enjoyable travel experience for all passengers and we’re pleased that the vast majority of travellers continue to enjoy their journeys responsibly,” they said.

In response to Mr O’Leary’s comments, Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin said they have reviewed their sales in the last four weeks at their busiest airport pub.

“We have had no complaints about our pubs from the airport authorities or airlines, that I’m aware of, in recent years,” Mr Martin said.

“If our pub teams do see a possibly disruptive passenger, they alert airport police and security,” he continued.

While there is “no perfect solution”, he added, “working with airports and airlines and the licensing authorities” strikes a “reasonable balance for outbound flights.”

A new flashpoint has emerged in the ongoing maritime dispute between China and the Philippines, with both countries clashing over yet another spot in the South China Sea.

Both China and the Philippines have staked their claims on various islands and zones in the Sea – their dispute increasingly escalating over the years with more vessel collisions, scuffles, and allegations of armed threats.

But last week, things came to a head when Beijing and Manila’s vessels collided near the Sabina Shoal- both accusing the other of ramming them on purpose.

The shoal, claimed by China as Xianbin Jiao and as Escoda Shoal by the Philippines, is located some 75 nautical miles from the Philippines’ west coast and 630 nautical miles from China.

On 19 August, several Chinese and Philippine vessels collided near the shoal in the disputed Spratly Islands – an area rich in oil and gas, which has been claimed by both countries for years.

The Chinese coast guard said that the Philippine vessel “deliberately collided” into them, while the Philippines said the Chinese vessels were conducting “aggressive manoeuvres”.

A second round of collisions took place on Sunday, with both sides once again blaming each other. Several other countries including the UK, Japan, Australia and South Korea, as well as the EU, have criticised China’s actions.

On Monday, the Philippines said 40 Chinese ships prevented two of their boats from conducting a “humanitarian mission” to restock the Teresa Magbuana, a Philippine coast guard ship deployed months earlier to the shoal.

The Philippines suspects China is attempting to reclaim land at Sabina Shoal. It has pointed to underwater mounds of crushed coral on Sabina’s sandbars, which its coast guard filmed, saying Beijing is using that material to expand the shoal. Chinese state media has called such accusations “groundless”.

Authorities sent the Teresa Magbuana to Sabina in April as part of a prolonged presence they plan to maintain at the shoal. Manila sees it as key to their efforts to explore the Spratlys for oil and gas.

China meanwhile sees the presence of the Teresa Magbuana as evidence of the Philippines’ intentions to occupy the shoal.

A recent commentary by Chinese state news outlet Xinhua pointed to a decrepit World War Two era ship grounded by the Philippines in 1999 on the Second Thomas Shoal, known in Chinese as the Ren’ai Jiao.

A handful of soldiers are still stationed there and require regular rations. For years, the ship has been a source of constant friction between both countries, with China routinely attempting to block re-supply missions to the ship.

“25 years on, it is still there. Clearly, the Philippines is attempting to repeat this scenario at Xianbin Jiao,” said the commentary.

“China will never be deceived by the Philippines again.”

There has been a string of dangerous encounters in recent months as the two sides sought to enforce their claims on disputed reefs and outcrops, including the Second Thomas Shoal and the Scarborough Shoal.

The collisions usually arise from the cat-and-mouse games the boats engage in, as they attempt to chase the other side away.

China has increasingly blasted powerful water cannon and lasers at Philippine ships, with the Filipinos also accusing the Chinese of boarding their boats, leading to scuffles, as well as confiscating items and puncturing their inflatable vessels.

One of the latest accusations from Manila was that Chinese coast guard personnel armed with knives, spears and swords boarded one of their military ships and threatened their soldiers.

“We are struggling against a more powerful adversary,” the Philippines defence chief Gilberto Teodoro said on Tuesday, while appealing to the international community to issue “a strong call-out against China”.

So far there have been no fatalities, though the Philippines says several of its soldiers have sustained injuries. But President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has warned that any Filipino deaths resulting from China’s actions would be considered an “act of war”.

Observers worry their dispute could eventually spark a larger confrontation in the South China Sea.

A previous attempt by the Philippines to get the United Nations to arbitrate ended with the decision that China had no lawful claims within its so-called nine dash line, the boundary it uses to claim a large swathe of the South China Sea. Beijing has refused to recognise the ruling.

But in recent weeks both countries have made an attempt to de-escalate the immediate conflicts out at sea.

Last month they agreed to allow the Philippines to restock the outpost in the Second Thomas Shoal with food, supplies and personnel. Since then this has taken place with no reported clashes.

The incidents at Sabina Shoal however raise the question of whether such attempts at de-escalation are effective when the dispute can simply shift to a new site.

Jake Sullivan has been welcomed to China on his first visit as US national security adviser. He will hold talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi as the two countries try to stabilise relations.

Mr Sullivan and Mr Wang have met four times over 16 months in Vienna, Malta, Washington and Bangkok. Their last meeting in January was shortly after a high-stakes summit between Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden that sought to reset frosty ties.

This week’s talks – scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday – signal that China is still a priority for the Biden administration, even as the retiring president enters his final months in office.

Both Mr Sullivan and Mr Wang have already acknowledged a need to find common ground after disagreements between their nations.

Could another presidential summit be on the cards?

The White House is trying not to explicitly link Mr Sullivan’s trip to the US presidential election. But it’s hard to ignore the timing.

If Mr Sullivan is able to lay the groundwork for a final Biden-Xi summit, his trip would tie up the ends of the US president’s most consequential – and fraught – foreign policy relationship.

US and Chinese diplomats always acknowledge that talks between Washington and Beijing are never easy. And there is a lot to talk about.

With the unexpected turn the US election has taken with Biden bowing out in favour of Kamala Harris, China is watching closely for what the next presidency might have in store.

Donald Trump has made it clear he will raise tariffs further on Chinese goods, potentially deepening the trade war he kicked off in 2019.

While Mr Biden’s administration saw merit in diplomacy, he didn’t reverse Trump-era tariffs and has added more – in May he announced steep duties on Chinese-made electric cars, solar panels, and steel.

Mr Biden has also strengthened alliances across Asia to combat China’s rising influence and beefed up Washington’s military presence – which, in turn, has rattled Beijing.

So far, the Harris campaign has not given many clues about how she plans to manage the relationship with China.

And the White House has made clear that Mr Sullivan’s visit is meant to continue the work of the Biden administration, rather than set the tone for the next president.

But China is likely looking ahead anyway.

Beijing will use this opportunity with Mr Sullivan to clarify its own priorities. It will hope that all parties in America are listening – China’s ministry of foreign affairs has described this as a “critical juncture” between the world’s two biggest economies.

For China, the red line is and always will be Taiwan. It claims the self-governing island and has repeatedly said it will not tolerate any signs that Washington is encouraging Taiwanese independence.

High-profile diplomatic visits, such as a controversial one by then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2022, or recognition of Taiwan’s elections or its elected leaders, fall into that category.

Chinese state media has said Beijing will focus on expressing grave concerns, stating its position, and making serious demands on matters such as the “Taiwan question”.

China will also have some strong words for Mr Sullivan on trade. Beijing has described US tariffs on Chinese goods as “unreasonable” and has urged Washington to “stop politicising and securitising economic and trade issues” and “take more measures to facilitate people-to-people exchanges between the two countries”.

When he came to power, Mr Biden wanted to set ties with China on an even keel after what he saw as the chaos and unpredictability of the Trump White House.

His administration has wanted to “responsibly manage” rivalry with Beijing; to demonstrate American power and competition with China through stealth not bravado.

But that strategy has been upended amid the turbulence of events.

Last year, crisis engulfed the direct relationship when an American fighter jet shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon over US territory.

The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have further sharpened the tone.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing in April with a warning – Washington would act if China did not stop supplying Russia with microchips and machine parts to build weapons used in its war in Ukraine.

He accused his Chinese counterparts of “helping to fuel the biggest threat” to European security since the Cold War.

His warning materialised with a raft of sanctions on Chinese firms over their alleged support of the Russian military.

This is a tricky subject that China keeps trying to bat away, but Washington is insistent, and Mr Sullivan is likely to bring it up again.

China’s increasing assertiveness in Asia has also made the US wary of the impact of those ties further afield – particularly with Iran, which allies itself with Moscow and also arms Israel’s adversaries.

Finally, in America, there is the devastating domestic impact of Chinese-manufactured “pre-cursor” chemicals to make synthetic opioids like fentanyl, overdoses of which are killing more Americans than ever and the crisis has laid waste to entire towns.

Last year’s summit between Mr Biden and Mr Xi in San Fransisco was meant to make progress on these issues.

Since then, despite the tariffs and the stern rhetoric, Washington and Beijing have acknowledged their differences – and reports of the two sides striking a deal on curbing fentanyl production are a good sign.

In April, when the BBC accompanied US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on his visit to Shanghai and Beijing, the public elements of some of his meetings with senior Chinese officials felt like a steely stand-off.

It was a show of diplomatic strength meant for each side’s domestic audience. And this will undoubtedly be a part of Mr Sullivan’s trip too, as he tries to bolster Mr Biden’s diplomacy in the waning months of his presidency.

But these meetings serve another fundamental purpose – face-to-face time between two rival, inter-dependent economies as they battle mutual distrust and try to probe each other’s real intentions.

It seems that Jake Sullivan’s previous meetings with Wang Yi have quietly laid the groundwork for what both sides call “stable relations”.

In a recent speech at the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington, Mr Sullivan said that he and Mr Wang had “increasingly gotten to the point of setting aside the talking points and really having strategic conversations”.

He described the character of those conversations as “direct”, including one on the war in Ukraine.

“Both of us left feeling that we didn’t agree or see eye-to-eye on everything but that there was a lot of work to carry forward.”

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are set to square off in their first presidential debate next month, but the campaigns are still warring over logistics – namely relating to the microphones.

Trump’s campaign is pushing for the microphones to be muted when it is the other person’s turn to speak. This is a rule that was originally requested by Joe Biden when he was the Democratic candidate.

Trump’s team ultimately agreed to the request – which was an apparent effort by Biden’s campaign to limit interruptions. (The pair’s chaotic first 2020 debate was marred by constant interruptions, with Mr Biden eventually snapping at his rival: “Will you shut up, man?”)

Some analysts say the Trump campaign’s eagerness to keep the muting rule in place for the Harris debate on 10 September may be due to the positive reception he received for what was a more reserved performance than many had anticipated against Mr Biden in June. In practice, it made interruptions impossible.

The former president, however, appears less concerned by the rule and to some extent even undermined his own team’s statements calling for it to remain in place. “[It] doesn’t matter to me. I’d rather have [the microphones] probably on,” he said on Monday.

“But the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time. In that case, it was muted,” he added.

Trump posted on social media Tuesday afternoon that he has “reached an agreement” with ABC for the 10 September debate. He did not mention mics in the post, but said again that the “Rules will be the same as the last CNN Debate”, which included muted mics in its rules.

He also accused the network in the post of being “unfair”, but also said his team was assured that the debate would be “fair and equitable”.

It was not clear Tuesday whether the Harris campaign had signed off on the terms Trump said he agreed to with ABC.

The Harris campaign wants to shift the agreed rules with just two weeks to go so that both candidates’ microphones will be unmuted for the entire debate. What do they think they could gain from this change?

More generally, they believe it has the potential to show viewers a more unfiltered, even ill-tempered, Trump who would be audible throughout the entire time Ms Harris is speaking.

“Our understanding is that Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own,” a statement from Harris’s spokesman said.

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“The reason she’s saying to unmute the mics is because Trump is uncontrolled,” Ameshia Cross, a Democratic strategist and political analyst, told the BBC.

Ms Cross said Trump’s rallies and Truth Social posts, where he has launched repeated personal attacks against Ms Harris, offer examples of how he may approach the looming debate on ABC News.

Those attacks “turn off voters” particularly women voters, voters of colour and young voters, Ms Cross said.

Strategists have also suggested Trump’s insults may turn off crucial undecided voters. “One of the ways to win over swing voters is not by personal attacks,” Kevin Madden, a longtime Republican strategist, told the New York Times. “By nature, they don’t love partisan politics.”

If Trump’s microphone is unmuted while Harris is speaking, the likelihood of an audible insult or interruption ramps up. And the Harris campaign may feel a more aggressive Trump who is able to interrupt at will could benefit them by turning off these swing voters.

This matters in an election that will be decided by a relatively small group of undecided voters in a handful of battleground states such as Pennsylvania, where the debate is being held.

“He’s very prone to having intemperate outbursts and… I think the [Harris] campaign would want viewers to hear [that],” a person familiar with the debate negotiations told Politico this week.

The Trump campaign, according to reports, are eager for their candidate to focus on the key issues and not on personal attacks. One ally who speaks to the former president every week recently told the BBC’s Katty Kay that Trump will win in November if he sticks to talking about the economy, the border and crime.

It is fair to assume that if the candidates are only audible during their allotted answer time, then the debate is more likely to focus on the issues, as the Trump campaign wants, and not tense clashes and heated exchanges which would be possible with live mics.

Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist, told the BBC that he believes the Harris campaign’s effort to unmute the microphones is an attempt to move the debate away from the issues and into the arena of grabby viral moments.

“They’re not sure they can win on the issues so what they’re looking for is any way possible to have a viral moment,” he said.

Ms Harris has had these moments in the past. During the 2020 vice-presidential debate between then-vice-president Mike Pence and Ms Harris, a clip of her pushing back on an interruption was widely shared. “I’m speaking, Mr Vice-President,” she said.

Mr O’Connell said the Trump campaign should continue to aggressively push for the muted microphones because those are the rules the Democratic campaign originally came up with. He said the message should be: “We let you write the rules, we are sticking with the same rules.”

Ms Cross, however, suggested the Harris campaign is calling Trump’s bluff and has the upper hand. “If he does not want them unmuted, he’s going to look weak, like he cannot control himself,” she said.

While Ms Cross said Trump was trying to “weasel” his way out of the debate by attacking the network, Mr O’Connell said the Republican nominee would show up regardless for what is set to be a major moment.

“The 10 September debate could be the most consequential moment between now and election day,” he said.

Eight weeks, hundreds of competitors across multiple events and a multi-million pound prize pot – but this wasn’t any sports tournament.

Luke Bennett is coming home from the first Esports World Cup in Saudi Arabia as a world champion.

Not only that, the 19-year-old from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire is also returning £100,000 richer after bagging the top prize in sim racing (short for simulated racing).

“It’s pretty surreal,” Luke tells BBC Newsbeat. But now he’s hoping he has a chance to make it properly real with a career in motorsport.

Luke’s part of Team Redline – an offshoot of Red Bull’s F1 team which boasts Belgian-Dutch racing driver Max Verstappen among its alumni.

“It’s just like racing a car in real life,” Luke says of sim racing. “But on a computer.”

The team was founded more than 20 years ago but Luke says people are still surprised when he talks about what he does.

He says people are shocked when he tells them about the prize money involved.

“It shows it’s getting bigger and bigger and it can be a career for some people.”

Team Redline dominated at the Esports World Cup, never finishing outside of the top four once in the grand finals of the tournament.

“It’s been a rough few months,” says Luke. “Every day – practice, practice, practice.

“All that weight has been lifted off our shoulders now.”

Luke isn’t just fast on the virtual track. He says his career is moving at top speed as well.

“I started driving with just a £100 steering wheel on the desk and having a bit of fun,” he says.

Not long after, fellow competitors noticed his potential and his parents helped him buy a better simulator.

“That’s when things really took off,” he says.

“I joined Team Redline and after that it’s just been up and up and up until this point right now.”

Esports tournaments are still “quite niche and quite new,” he says.

“It’s not been long since all this prize money started coming through and all these big competitions started so there’s not many stories of people going all the way.”

In that sense, he’s a pioneer, admitting “the future is a bit uncertain” for esports champions.

But as uncertain as it might be, the industry received another boost last month when it was announced from next year there would also be an Olympic Esports Games.

Like the Esports World Cup, the Games will be held in Saudi Arabia as part of a 12-year partnership between the Kingdom and the International Olympics Committee.

Before the World Cup, players, streamers and fans were divided by the decision for it to be hosted in the Arab country – which also funded the prize pot – due to its record on human rights.

Homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia and it has faced criticism over its stance on LGBT relationships as well as lack of rights for women.

Critics condemned it as “sportswashing” but the decision was defended by organisers who told Newsbeat no-one would face discrimination at the event.

Luke says the country was “a really cool setting” for the event and now has his eye on winning more tournaments and making it to the Olympics – something he says would be “unbelievable”.

“I think I’d find it a bit weird calling myself an Olympian because I really don’t feel like one,” he says.

“But it’s something that would be very cool.

“The dream is still the same – we may be world champions but there’s always more.

“We want to be world champions in everything, so we’ll keep going.”

And if he can be a pioneer in an online esports career, Luke sees no reason he can’t be a pioneer offline too.

“I hope one day to get into the real world of motorsport,” he says.

“I see more and more people get a way in through sim racing now, and hopefully that does happen.

“If not, I’ve got plenty of time to decide what I want to do as I’m still only 19.”

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

In the Palestinian village of Battir, where ancient terraces are irrigated by a natural spring, life carries on as it has for centuries.

Part of a Unesco World Heritage site, Battir is known for its olive groves and vineyards. But now it is the latest flashpoint over settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Israel has approved a new Jewish settlement here, taking away privately owned land for new settler houses and new outposts have been set up without even Israeli authorisation.

“They are stealing our land to build their dreams on our catastrophe,” says Ghassan Olyan, whose property is among that seized.

Unesco says it is concerned by the settlers’ plans around Battir, but the village is far from an isolated example. All settlements are seen as illegal under international law, although Israel disagrees.

“They are not caring about the international law, or local law, and even God’s law,” Mr Olyan says.

Last week, Israel’s domestic intelligence chief Ronen Bar wrote to ministers warning that Jewish extremists in the West Bank were carrying out acts of “terror” against Palestinians and causing “indescribable damage” to the country.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, there has been an acceleration in settlement growth in the occupied West Bank.

Extremists in Israel’s government boast that these changes will prevent an independent Palestinian state from ever being created.

There are fears, too, that they seek to prolong the war in Gaza to suit their goals.

Yonatan Mizrahi from Peace Now, an Israeli organisation that monitors settlement growth, says Jewish extremists in the West Bank are exacerbating an already tense and volatile situation, and making it harder than ever to end the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

He believes a “mix of rage and fear” in Israeli society after the 7 October attacks, in which 1,200 people were killed is driving settlers to seize more land, with fewer people questioning them.

A June survey by the Pew Research Center suggested that 40% of Israelis believed settlements made the country safer, up from 27% in 2013. Meanwhile, 35% of people polled said that the settlements hurt Israel’s security, down from 42%.

Mr Mizrahi worries that Jewish extremists in the West Bank are exacerbating an already tense and volatile situation, making it harder than ever to end the Israel-Palestinian conflict. “I think it’s extremely dangerous,” he says. “It’s increasing the hate on both sides.”

Since the outbreak of the war, settler violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank has surged.

It had already been on the rise, but in the past 10 months the UN has documented around 1,270 attacks, compared with 856 in all of 2022.

According to the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, during the same period Israeli settler harassment has forced Palestinians out of at least 18 villages in the West Bank, the Palestinian territory between Israel and Jordan that was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and has been occupied ever since.

Between 7 October and August 2024, 589 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank – at least 570 by Israeli forces and at least 11 by settlers, according to the UN. They include some said to have been planning attacks as well as unarmed civilians. In the same period, Palestinians killed five settlers and nine members of Israel’s security forces.

This week, a Palestinian man aged 40 was reportedly shot dead after settlers and Israeli soldiers entered Wadi al-Rahhel, near Bethlehem. The Israeli military said stones had previously been thrown at an Israeli vehicle nearby.

Last month, a 22-year-old Palestinian man was killed when dozens of settlers rampaged through the village of Jit, prompting international condemnation. Israeli security forces have made four arrests and have described the incident as a “severe terror event”.

But the track record in such cases is one of virtual impunity. Israeli civil rights group Yesh Din found that, between 2005 and 2023, just 3% of official investigations into settler violence ended in a conviction.

In the letter by Ronen Bar, which was leaked to Israeli media, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service said that radical settlers were emboldened by light-handed law enforcement.

Settlers live in exclusively Jewish communities set up in parts of the West Bank.

Many settlements have the legal support of the Israeli government; others, known as outposts, and often as simple as caravans and corrugated iron sheds, are illegal even under Israeli law. But extremists build them regardless in a bid to seize more land.

In July, when the UN’s top court found for the first time that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was illegal, it said the country should halt all settlement activity and withdraw as soon as possible.

Israel’s Western allies have repeatedly described settlements as an obstacle to peace. Israel rejected the finding, saying: “The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land.”

Now there are fears that extremists are working to make settlements in the West Bank irreversible.

They have rapidly expanded their control over the territory, with the support of the most far-right government in Israel’s history. These extremists are advancing annexation plans in the West Bank and also openly call for settling Gaza once the war is over. Settlers now serve at the heart of Israel’s government, in key ministries.

At the very time that world leaders opposed to settlements are voicing renewed enthusiasm for a two-state solution – a long-hoped for peace plan that would create a separate Palestinian state – Israeli religious nationalists, who believe all these lands rightfully belong to Israel, are vowing to make the dream of an independent Palestinian state impossible.

Analysts think this is why some politicians are refusing to accept any ceasefire deal.

“The reason they don’t want to end the conflict or go into a hostage deal is because they believe that Israel should keep on fighting until it can reach a point where it can stay inside Gaza,” says Tal Schneider, political correspondent for The Times of Israel.

“They think for the long term their ideology is more righteous,” she adds. “This is their own logic.”

Israeli authorities, meanwhile, have announced plans for five new settlements, including the one in Battir, and declared a record area of land, at least 23 sq km, for the state. This means Israel considers it Israeli land, regardless of whether it is in the occupied Palestinian territories, or privately owned by Palestinians, or both, and Palestinians are prevented from using it.

By changing facts on the ground, as the settlers describe it, they hope to move enough Israelis on to the land and build enough on it to make their presence irreversible. Their long-term hope is that Israel formally annexes the land.

Outside state-sanctioned land seizures, extremists have also rapidly established settlement outposts.

In one by al-Qanoub, north of Hebron, satellite images showed new caravans and roads had appeared in the months since the start of the war. Meanwhile, an entire Palestinian community has been forced off the land.

We drove to al-Qanoub with Ibrahim Shalalda, 50, and his 80-year-old uncle Mohammed, who told us their homes had been destroyed by settlers last November.

As we approached, an extremist settler blocked the road with his car.

Armed Israelis soon arrived. The group – some Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers, with insignia on their uniforms and one identified as a settlement security officer – stopped us for checks.

The settlement guard forced the two Palestinian farmers from the car and searched them. After two hours, the IDF soldiers dispersed the settlers and allowed the BBC car to leave.

Israel began settling the West Bank soon after capturing it from Jordan and occupying it more than five decades ago. Successive governments since then have allowed creeping settlement expansion.

Today, an estimated three million Palestinians live on the land – excluding Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem – alongside about half a million Jewish Israelis in more than 130 settlements.

But a prominent far-right government figure who took office in 2022 is promising to double the number of settlers to a million.

Bezalel Smotrich believes that Jews have a God-given right to these lands. He heads one of two far-right, pro-settler parties that veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought into his governing coalition after the 2022 elections returned him to power.

Mr Smotrich serves as finance minister but also has a post in the defence ministry, which has allowed him to make sweeping changes to Israeli policies in the West Bank.

He has massively invested state finances in settlements, including new roads and infrastructure. But he has also created a new bureaucracy, taking powers from the military, to fast-track settler construction.

In secretly recorded remarks to supporters, Mr Smotrich boasted that he was working towards “changing the DNA” of the system and for de facto annexation that would be “easier to swallow in the international and legal context”.

Religious nationalists have sat on the fringes of Israeli politics for decades.

But their ideology has slowly become more popular. In the 2022 election, these parties took 13 seats in the 120-seat Israeli parliament and became kingmakers in Mr Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition.

During the war, Bezalel Smotrich and fellow radical Itamar Ben-Gvir, now Israel’s national security minister, have repeatedly made comments stoking social division and provoking Israel’s Western allies.

After Israel’s military arrested reservists accused of sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee, Mr Ben Gvir said it was “shameful” for Israel to arrest “our best heroes”. This month, Mr Smotrich suggested it might be “justified and moral” to starve Gazans.

But it is in the West Bank and Gaza that the far right seeks to make permanent changes. “This is a group of Israelis who have been against any type of compromise with the Palestinians or Israel’s other Arab neighbours,” says Anshel Pfeffer, a veteran Israeli journalist and correspondent for The Economist.

And with the war in Gaza, the far right sees a fresh opportunity. Mr Smotrich has called for Palestinian residents to leave, making way for Israelis who could “make the desert bloom”.

Although Mr Netanyahu has ruled out restoring Jewish settlements in Gaza, he remains beholden to far-right parties who threaten to collapse his coalition if he signs a “reckless” ceasefire deal to bring home Israeli hostages currently held by Hamas.

The logic of the extremists may be one that only a minority of Israelis follow. But it is helping to prolong the war, and dramatically transforming the landscape of the West Bank – causing long-term damage to chances of peace.

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.”

What’s the meaning of “reset”? That’s the question hanging over the prime minister’s visit to Berlin today.

No one is denying that the mood music is good.

Both centre-left leaders who entered office after long periods of conservative dominance, Sir Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz are comfortable in each other’s company.

And while Sir Keir has been prime minister for less than two months, this was their fifth meeting – in part a quirk of the England football team getting to the final of the European Championships.

This was their first formal meeting, though. It saw the prime minister use the “reset” word which has punctuated practically every interaction he has had with a European leader since entering office.

But perhaps for the first time, it saw the prime minister begin the work of putting some meat on the bones of what a reset might look like.

Both governments have committed to underscoring the Anglo-German relationship with a treaty.

The low-key Mr Scholz was noticeably enthusiastic, saying that Germany intended to “take this hand that has been reached out to us”.

Two things are especially striking about the leaders’ professed ambitions for this treaty. One is how fast they plan to negotiate it: within six months.

The other is how broad it is intended to be.

In his press conference with Mr Scholz this morning, the prime minister suggested it would cover trade, defence, illegal migration, science, technology, development, people and culture.

Downing Street’s formal announcement also referenced collaboration on energy, supply chains, biodiversity and the environment.

Quite a lot, then.

For some, that will prompt the question of whether the treaty’s intended breadth is a sign of how significant it is, or whether it shows that the treaty is merely a symbolic way of writing down the ways in which the countries already cooperate.

There was one other eye-grabbing phrase in Downing Street’s announcement of the treaty. It said the “ambitious agreement” was designed to deepen “market access” in both directions.

As is wearily familiar to the entire British political class after the tumultuous years of Brexit negotiations, there are clear and strict limits to the access a non-EU country can achieve into a specific EU member state’s markets.

Government sources have suggested that this ambition is really about smoothing market access for UK firms trading in Germany (and vice versa), dealing with specific frictions related to certifications and tendering.

The politics of all this could prove tricky for Sir Keir too.

Having once been the shadow Brexit secretary who made his reputation in the Labour Party by pushing for another EU referendum, he prospered in last month’s general election in part by reassuring 2019 Conservative voters that he would not undo Brexit.

The prime minister reiterated that position today, insisting that the fundamental architecture of Britain’s post-Brexit settlement – outside the single market, outside the customs union – is not up for debate.

That may disappoint others in Sir Keir’s electoral coalition who were hoping, despite his firm stance pre-election, for a shift in office.

And while that means free movement of people is not returning, there was an interesting kink today on the possibility of a youth mobility scheme, under which under-30s would have more rights to travel, live and work between the UK and Europe.

Mr Scholz suggested in general terms that he wanted more exchanges of people between the UK and Germany, but the prime minister was adamant that he had “no plans” to sign up to such a scheme.

Some cynics will note that this stops short of a categorical assertion that a youth mobility scheme will never happen.

Asked again after the press conference to rule out one ever being agreed, Sir Keir said the treaty with Germany would have “nothing to do with youth mobility or anything like that”.

So what does a reset mean? It certainly means tangible warmth between the prime minister and the German chancellor.

Beyond that, we may have to wait six months and see what exactly is in the treaty.

The stars of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice have arrived in Venice, as the premiere of the big-screen sequel kicks off the Italian film festival.

Director Tim Burton has revisited his 1988 cult classic for the film, which sees Catherine O’Hara, Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton return to the franchise.

They have been joined in the sequel by actors including Wednesday star Jenna Ortega and Oscar-nominated actor Willem Dafoe.

Lady Gaga, George Clooney, Daniel Craig, Julianne Moore and Brad Pitt are among the A-listers expected to appear in Venice throughout the rest of the festival, which runs for 10 days.

The stars and director of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice arrived by water taxi ahead of the sequel’s premiere, later signing autographs and posing for photos.

Most were dressed in dark, gothic colours, with several wearing black-and-white costumes, a reference to the Beetlejuice aesthetic made famous by the original film.

It marks a return to form for the film festival, which hosted a lower-key event last year due to the Hollywood writers’ strike.

Beetlejuice’s sequel sees Keaton reprise his role as the titular chaos-causing ghoul. The film is released in the UK on 6 September.

Burton, who has also directed Edward Scissorhands, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland, said the fantastical venture into the afterlife was a project “from my heart”.

“In the past few years I got a little bit disillusioned with the movie industry,” Burton told journalists ahead of the festival’s opening.

“For me, this movie was re-reenergising, kind of getting back to the things that I love doing, the way I love doing it, the people I love doing it with.”

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.

A Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson said Canada’s actions “seriously undermine the global economic system, and economic and trade rules”.

“China urges the Canadian side to immediately correct its erroneous practices,” they added.

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.

SpaceX has postponed its attempt to launch an expedition featuring an all-civilian crew that is aiming to carry out the first-ever spacewalk by private citizens.

The mission, known as Polaris Dawn, had been scheduled to take off from Nasa’s space centre in Florida early on Wednesday morning.

Hours before the launch, Elon Musk’s company said it would be delayed “due to unfavourable weather forecasted” in the capsule’s splashdown areas.

It is unclear when the next attempt will be. An earlier one on Tuesday was also cancelled due to a helium leak on the line connecting the tower to the rocket.

Fin-tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, who founded payment firm Shift 4, has been the driving force behind the private spaceflight.

He is aiming to become the first non-professional astronaut to complete a private spacewalk and has organised and funded much of the project with SpaceX. He has declined to disclose how much he has invested.

The Polaris project uses a SpaceX Dragon capsule attached to the company’s Falcon 9 rocket to transport the crew.

They plan on reaching altitudes as high as 1,400km (870 miles), which if achieved would be the highest point reached by any crewed mission since Nasa’s Apollo programme more than 50 years ago.

The businessman is also captaining the crew, which consists of his close friend and retired US Air Force pilot Scott Poteet, and two SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis.

All four have spent two years training for the mission, dedicating thousands of hours to simulated drills.

Mr Isaacman has also gone to space before, reportedly paying $200m (£151m) to be on the first all-civilian orbital mission run by SpaceX in 2021, known as the Inspiration4 mission.

With the Polaris Dawn mission, they plan to spend six days in space. The spacewalk is planned to take place on day three.

Wearing Space X’s upgraded spacesuits – equipped with displays and helmet cameras – Mr Isaacman and Ms Gillis will then exit the spacecraft. The whole event, taking place 700km in orbit, is planned to last about two hours.

They are also prepared to to conduct several tests from the high altitude, including communication with Starlink internet satellites, and observations of the effects of passing through the Van Allen radiation belt, a highly charged area in space.

Police in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata have fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse thousands of protesters demanding justice for the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at a state-run hospital earlier this month.

The discovery of the body of the 31-year-old sparked nationwide outrage over the crisis of violence against women.

On Tuesday, thousands marched to a government building in Kolkata, demanding the resignation of West Bengal’s Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee.

A hospital volunteer has been arrested in connection with the crime, which has now been handed over to India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after criticism of the local police’s slow progress.

The protesters chanted slogans and clashed with police, who used batons to disperse the crowd.

Namita Ghosh, a college student at the protest, told news agency AFP the crowd intended to “protest peacefully” before the baton charge.

A senior police official, speaking anonymously, said at least 100 protesters were arrested for “creating violence”.

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A series of protests have taken place since the killing on 9 August. The largest saw tens of thousands of women across West Bengal participating in the Reclaim the Night march on 14 August to demand “independence to live in freedom and without fear”.

But since then, some of the protests have escalated into chaotic political rallies, with police clashing with ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demonstrators angry at the state government.

The BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi but an opposition party in West Bengal, has accused Ms Banerjee’s government of fostering an unsafe environment for women, which they claim enabled crimes like the doctor’s murder.

Her half-naked body bearing extensive injuries was discovered in a seminar hall at RG Kar Medical College, where she had reportedly gone to rest during her shift.

India’s Supreme Court has said the incident had “shocked the conscience of the nation” and criticised authorities for their handling of the investigation.

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

More incidents of rape have made headlines in India since the woman’s death and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that “monstrous behaviour against women should be severely and quickly punished”.

Japan has accused a Chinese spy plane of breaching its airspace, in what would be the first known instance of such a direct violation.

Japan scrambled fighter jets after a Y-9 surveillance plane “violated the territorial airspace” of Danjo Islands for about two minutes 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.

Japanese authorities issued “notifications and warnings” to the Chinese aircraft during Monday’s incursion, but no weapons such as flare guns were used, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK.

Nonetheless, the incident has stoked concern.

The Japanese government said it had contacted Beijing through diplomatic channels to lodge a strong protest over the incursion and demand the prevention of such breaches in the future.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said they had “no intention of invading the airspace of any country” and that relevant departments were still trying to understand the situation, reported Reuters.

Tokyo also recently flagged the presence of Chinese ships in the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which are claimed by China and which Beijing calls the Diaoyus.

The islands, which are uninhabited but potentially possess oil and gas reserves, are one of several sources of tension between Beijing and its neighbours – most of whom are American allies.

Another is Japan’s Okinawa island, which is home to the largest US military installation in the Asia-Pacific region. There are also American troops stationed in Taiwan, the Philippines and South Korea.

“This latest incursion may seem alarming as China tends not to venture directly into Japanese airspace,” Professor Ian Chong, a Chinese foreign policy expert at the National University of Singapore, told the BBC.

“Although it is consistent with China’s behaviour as regards Taiwan and the Philippines in recent years.”

In a single day last month, Taiwan’s defence ministry reported 66 incursions by Chinese military aircraft across the so-called ‘median line’ – an informal border between the two sides in the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing does not recognise the median line and, according to Taiwan, its planes have breached it hundreds of times in the past two years.

The Philippines, meanwhile, recently called China the “greatest disrupter of peace” in South East Asia.

Those comments followed a clash in a disputed part of the South China Sea on Sunday, over what Manila said was a resupply mission for fishermen.

“We have to expect these kinds of behaviour from China because this is a struggle,” said Philippines Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro.

“We have to be ready to anticipate and to get used to these kinds of acts of China which are patently illegal, as we have repeatedly said,” he told reporters on Monday.

The US national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, is in Beijing this week for talks with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi.

The two sides will discuss their differences over several flashpoints in the region and across the world.

“Washington probably will be looking at ways to avoid uncontrolled escalation, although this proposition can be difficult to put into practice,” said Professor Chong.

It may be an innocent enough racquet sport, but Hong Kong’s Education Bureau has unintentionally given badminton a whole new meaning.

In teaching materials it released last week, a module titled adolescents and intimate relationships for Secondary Year 3, suggested that teenagers who wanted to have sex with each other could “go out to play badminton together” instead.

The materials also include a form called “My Commitment” aimed at getting “young lovers” to attest that they would exercise “self-discipline, self-control, and resistance to pornography”.

The new materials have raised eyebrows and attracted criticism for being “out of touch”. But officials have defended the decision.

Meanwhile social media has been flooded with jokes centered around “playing badminton”.

“FWB [Friends with benefits]?? Friends with badminton,” read one comment on Instagram that had more than 1,000 likes.

“In English: Netflix and chill? In Cantonese, play badminton together?” read a Facebook post which was shared more than 500 times.

Even Olympics badminton player Tse Ying Suet could not resist a comment.

“Everyone is making an appointment to play badminton. Is everyone really into badminton?” she asked on Threads with a smirking face emoji.

For some people it was also about the practicalities.

Local lawmaker Doreen Kong said the documents showed that the education bureau did not understand young people. She specifically criticised the badminton suggestion as unrealistic.

“How could they borrow a badminton racket on the spot if it happens?” She asked.

To Thomas Tang, who is an amateur badminton player, the jokes and sudden increased interest in the sport have made it slightly embarrassing for players like him.

“In the past this was just a healthy sport, but now if you ask people to play badminton they make a lot of jokes,” he said, adding that the irony was that badminton was actually a good way for guys to meet girls.

The Education Bureau documents also told teachers that one of the objectives of the module was to help students master ways of coping with sexual fantasies and impulses, and the module was not created to encourage them to start dating or engaging in sexual behaviour.

Some suggested discussion activities in the documents include advising students to “dress appropriately to present a healthy image and to avoid visual stimulation from sexy clothing”, and “firmly refuse sex before marriage” if they are unable to cope with the “consequences of premarital sex”.

Education Secretary Christine Choi has stood firm in the face of all the criticism.

“We wish to protect the teenagers,” she said while defending the documents in an interview on Sunday, adding that it is illegal to have sex with an underage person.

She has received support from the city’s leader John Lee, who said that while there could be different opinions on education, the government plays a “leading role in determining the kind of society it aims to build”.

But to Henry Chan, a father of a 13-year-old girl and 10-year-old boy, these efforts are ridiculous.

“The Hong Kong government is always out of touch. They are making a fool of themselves,” he said.

“My wife and I will probably do that [sex education] ourselves. That’s not something I would count on schools and the government to do.”

South Korea’s president has urged authorities to do more to “eradicate” the country’s digital sex crime epidemic, amid a flood of deepfake pornography targeting young women.

Authorities, journalists and social media users recently identified a large number of chat groups where members were creating and sharing sexually explicit “deepfake” images – including some of underage girls.

Deepfakes are generated using artificial intelligence, and often combine the face of a real person with a fake body.

South Korea’s media regulator is holding an emergency meeting in the wake of the discoveries.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday instructed authorities to “thoroughly investigate and address these digital sex crimes to eradicate them”.

“Recently, deepfake videos targeting an unspecified number of people have been circulating rapidly on social media,” President Yoon said at a cabinet meeting.

“The victims are often minors and the perpetrators are mostly teenagers.”

The spate of chat groups, linked to individual schools and universities across the country, were discovered on the social media app Telegram over the past week.

Users, mainly teenage students, would upload photos of people they knew – both classmates and teachers – and other users would then turn them into sexually explicit deepfake images.

The discoveries follow the arrest of the Russian-born founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, on Saturday, after it was alleged that child pornography, drug trafficking and fraud were taking place on the encrypted messaging app.

South Korea has a dark history of digital sex crimes.

In 2019 it emerged that men were using a Telegram chatroom to blackmail dozens of young women into performing sexual acts, in a scandal known as nth-room. The group’s ring-leader, Cho Ju-bin, was sentenced to 42 years in jail.

Online deepfake sex crimes have surged, according to South Korean police. A total of 297 cases were reported in the first seven months of this year, up from 180 in the whole of last year and 160 in 2021. Teenagers were responsible for more than two-thirds of the offences over the past three years.

The Korean Teachers Union, meanwhile, believes more than 200 schools have been affected in this latest string of incidents. The number of deepfakes targeting teachers has surged in the past couple of years, according to the Ministry of Education.

Park Ji-hyun, a women’s rights activist and former interim leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, said the government needed to declare a “national emergency” in response to South Korea’s deepfake porn problem.

“Deepfake sexual abuse materials can be created in just one minute, and anyone can enter the chatroom without any verification process,” Ms Park wrote on X.

“Such incidents are occurring in middle schools, high schools, and universities across the country.”

To build a “healthy media culture”, President Yoon said young men needed to be better educated.

“Although it is often dismissed as ‘just a prank,’ it is clearly a criminal act that exploits technology to hide behind the shield of anonymity,” he said.

Korea’s media regulator is meeting on Wednesday to discuss how to tackle this latest crisis, but opponents of the government have questioned whether it is up to the job.

“I don’t believe this government, which dismisses structural gender discrimination as mere ‘personal disputes’, can effectively address these issues,” Bae Bok-joo, a women’s rights activist and a former member of the minor Justice Party, told the AFP news agency.

Before coming into office, President Yoon said South Korean women did not suffer from “systemic gender discrimination”, despite evidence to the contrary.

Women hold just 5.8% of the executive positions in South Korea’s publicly listed companies, and are paid on average a third less than South Korean men – giving the country the worst gender pay gap of any rich nation in the world.

To this can be added a pervasive culture of sexual harassment, fuelled by the booming tech industry, which has contributed to an explosion of digital sex crimes.

These have previously included cases of women being filmed by tiny hidden cameras, or “spycams”, as they used the toilet or undressed in changing rooms.

A 3,500-year-old jar has been accidentally smashed into pieces by a four-year-old boy during a trip to a museum in Israel.

The Hecht Museum in Haifa told the BBC the crockery dated back to the Bronze Age between 2200 and 1500BC – and was a rare artefact because it was so intact.

It had been on display near the entrance of the museum without glass, as the museum believes there is “special charm” in showing archaeological finds “without obstructions”.

The boy’s father, Alex, said his son “pulled the jar slightly” because he was “curious about what was inside”, causing it to fall.

Alex also said he was “in shock” to see his son next to the smashed jar and at first thought “it wasn’t my child that did it”.

However, after calming the boy down he spoke to the security guard, Alex told the BBC.

The Hecht Museum said the child has been invited back to the exhibition with his family for an organised tour after the incident happened a few days ago.

“There are instances where display items are intentionally damaged, and such cases are treated with great severity, including involving the police,” Lihi Laszlo from the museum told the BBC.

“In this case, however, this was not the situation. The jar was accidentally damaged by a young child visiting the museum, and the response will be accordingly.”

A specialist in conservation has also been appointed to restore the jar, and it will be returned to its spot “in a short time”.

The boy’s father Alex said they will feel “relieved” to see the jar restored but added they are “sorry” because “it will no longer be the same item”.

The museum told the BBC that “whenever possible, items are displayed without barriers or glass walls”.

And “despite the rare incident” the museum said it intends to continue this tradition.

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The jar was most likely originally intended to be used to carry local supplies, such as wine and olive oil.

It predates the time of the Biblical King David and King Solomon and is characteristic of the Canaan region on the eastern Mediterranean coast.

Similar items of pottery found during archaeological digs are usually broken or incomplete when unearthed, making this intact jar “an impressive find” when it was discovered, the museum added.

The Hecht Museum is in the grounds of the University of Haifa in northern Israel and collects items of archaeology and art.

A Bedouin Arab man rescued in Gaza has urged Israel to reach a deal with Hamas to free all the remaining hostages, as details of his suffering in captivity have emerged.

Kaid Farhan Elkadi, 52, was rescued on Tuesday in a “complex operation in the southern Gaza Strip”, the Israeli military said.

After returning to his village in southern Israel on Wednesday, Mr Elkadi said his “happiness is not complete as long as there are detainees” on both sides.

Meanwhile, a former Israeli mayor said Mr Elkadi had been hardly exposed to sunlight for eight months.

Mr Elkadi was kidnapped by Hamas during the 7 October attack on Israel, and is the eighth hostage rescued by Israeli forces since the start of the war in Gaza.

On Wednesday, he returned to his home village of Karkur in the Negev desert after being discharged from hospital.

Surrounded by reporters and members of his Bedouin community, Mr Elkadi pleaded for all the hostages to be released.

“It does not matter if they are Arab or Jewish, all have a family waiting for them. They also want to feel the joy.

“I hope, I pray for an end to this,” he said, revealing that he had the same message during Tuesday’s phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I told Bibi Netanyahu yesterday, ‘Work to bring an end to this.’”

US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators are trying to broker a ceasefire deal that would see Hamas release the 104 hostages still being held, including 34 who are presumed dead, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Mr Elkadi was allowed to go home after undergoing hospital examinations.

The father of 11 earlier told his relatives “about difficult days, a very cruel captivity”, Ata Abu Medigam, ex-mayor of the southern Israeli town of Rahat, told Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.

“He spoke about one of the hostages who was held captive with him for two months and died next to him,” Mr Medigam said.

Mr Elkadi had also started worrying about losing his eyesight, Mr Medigam added.

“He would check his eyes to see if they were still working and functioning – he would put his fingers on his eyes to check his reflexes.”

Mr Elkadi also told his relatives that one of his fellow detainees had died next to him during his time in captivity, Mr Medigam said.

The Israeli military said forces had found Mr Elkadi in an underground tunnel “when he was alone”.

In a statement, the military said no further details about the rescue could be published “due to considerations of the safety of our hostages, the security of our forces, and national security”.

But some details have been emerging about Mr Elkadi’s time in captivity.

His cousin, Fadi Abu Sahiban, said Mr Elkadi did not get preferential treatment due to being a Muslim.

“They didn’t give him concessions because he’s a Muslim. He says they let him pray, that’s the only thing they allowed him to do,” he told Haaretz.

Mr Elkadi had no way of communicating with the outside world and was in constant fear of bombs overhead, his cousin said.

He “would hear the shelling of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] endlessly, he said his body was shaking”, said Mr Abu Sahiban.

“Every day he was sure was his last day, and not only because of his captors, but also because of the shelling of the army. He said that every day is a life-threatening situation.”

Mr Elkadi, a grandfather of one, worked for many years as a security guard at Kibbutz Magen, close to the Israel-Gaza border, where he was abducted.

The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 40,530 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Indirect talks to broker a ceasefire and the release of hostages have continued in Cairo in recent days, but so far there has been no sign of a breakthrough over key sticking points. They include Mr Netanyahu’s demand that Israel keep troops along Gaza’s border with Egypt, which Hamas has rejected.

Two other Bedouin Arabs – Yousef Zyadna and his son, Hamza – are among the remaining hostages who are still alive, while the body of a third, Mhamad el-Atrash, is still being held by Hamas.

Another Bedouin, Hisham al-Sayed, has been held captive in Gaza since 2015.

Italian authorities are expanding their investigation into the deaths of seven people on the yacht, the Bayesian, to include two crew members as well as the captain, according to Italian news agencies.

British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and six others lost their lives when the 56m (184ft) yacht, flying a British flag, sank off the coast of northern Sicily on 19 August.

The investigation is now said to include ship engineer Tim Parker Eaton and sailor Matthew Griffith.

Being investigated does not equate to being charged and is a procedural step.

The boat went down within minutes during a pre-dawn storm while the yacht was anchored off the northern coast of Sicily.

On Monday, the yacht’s 51-year-old captain, New Zealand national James Cutfield, was reportedly placed under investigation for manslaughter and causing the shipwreck.

During questioning on Tuesday, he declined to answer the prosecutors’ inquiries.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, one of the captain’s lawyers, Giovanni Rizzuti, said: “The captain exercised his right to remain silent for two fundamental reasons. First, he’s very worn out. Second, we were appointed only on Monday and for a thorough and correct defence case, we need to acquire a set of data that at the moment, we don’t have.”

Tim Parker Eaton is understood to have been in charge of adequately securing the yacht’s engine room and operational systems, while Matthew Griffith was on watch duty during the night of the disaster.

The sinking has left naval experts baffled, as they believe a yacht of Bayesian’s calibre, constructed by the prestigious Italian yacht builder Perini, should have been able to withstand the storm and certainly should not have sunk as rapidly as it did.

Prosecutors based in Termini Imerese, near Palermo, have indicated that their investigation will be lengthy and will require the salvage of the wreckage.

The head of the company that built the Bayesian, Giovanni Costantino, told the BBC he was convinced there had been a litany of errors on board.

“At the back of the boat, a hatch must have been left open,” he said, “but also perhaps a side entrance for water to have poured inside.

“Before the storm, the captain should have closed every opening, lifted anchor, turned on the engine, pointed into the wind and lowered the keel.”

The keel is a large, fin-like part of the boat that protrudes from its base.

“That would have stabilised the vessel, they would have been able to traverse the storm and continue their cruise in comfort,” he said.

Currently, the Bayesian rests on its right side at a depth of approximately 50m (164ft).

Meanwhile, the Italian Coast Guard has been conducting environmental monitoring activities at the site of the sinking, to prevent possible hydrocarbon spills from the hull.

At the moment, the are no leaks from the tanks and no traces of oil pollution, the Coast Guard said in a statement on Wednesday.

The government’s desire to reset relations with the European Union does not mean reversing Brexit, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

The prime minister said he wanted a closer relationship with Europe, but the UK had no plans for a youth mobility scheme, which could give young people in the EU the right to live and work in the UK, and vice versa.

Sir Keir was speaking at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, after the pair began talks on a new co-operation agreement between the two nations.

The PM said the agreement aimed to boost trade, create jobs and deliver economic growth in both countries.

The two leaders hope to sign a treaty, covering areas including defence, energy security, science and technology, by early next year.

During the visit, they also agreed a joint action plan to tackle illegal migration and smuggling gangs by sharing intelligence and data.

Sir Keir has previously said he will seek a better deal on trade with the EU than the one negotiated by Boris Johnson in late 2020.

However, it remains unclear whether Brussels would entertain major changes to the UK’s existing Brexit trade deal, which is due to be reviewed in 2026.

Taking questions from journalists after the news conference, Sir Keir was pressed over what concessions the UK would have to offer to secure an improved deal.

The PM said he was “absolutely clear” the government wanted to reset relations with Europe.

He added: “That does not mean reversing Brexit or re-entering the single market or the customs union.

“But it does mean a closer relationship on a number of fronts, including the economy, including defence, including exchanges.”

The single market enables goods, service and people to move freely between member states, with countries applying many common rules and standards.

The customs union is an agreement not to charge taxes called tariffs on goods coming from other EU countries, and to charge the same tariffs as each other on goods coming from outside the EU.

Asked if the UK would allow freedom of movement for young Germans, the PM said: “We do not have plans for a youth mobility scheme but do have plans for closer relationship between us and the EU.”

A youth mobility scheme – which would make it easier for EU citizens aged 18 to 30 to study and work in the UK for a limited period, with young Britons allowed to do the same in Europe in return – has been proposed by the EU.

Speaking after the news conference, Sir Keir insisted the planned treaty with Germany had “nothing to do with youth mobility”.

But when asked about the possibility of student exchanges between the UK and Germany, the prime minister said he wanted a “close relationship” including “education and cultural exchange”.

Sir Keir stressed that he and Mr Scholz “didn’t go into the details of that today”, focusing more on illegal immigration.

In his opening remarks at the news conference, Mr Scholz lamented how relations between Britons and Germans had waned after Brexit and the Covid pandemic, adding that he and Sir Keir “share similar views on this” and want to “intensify the exchanges”.

Earlier Nils Schmid, foreign affairs spokesperson for Mr Scholz’s Social Democratic Party, told the BBC a scheme making it easier for young Germans to travel to the UK to study was a “major feature of our wish list”.

He insisted such a scheme would not be about “immigration in a general sense”, but “stays of limited duration” for educational programmes, student exchanges or work experience.

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokeswoman Layla Moran said the talks with Mr Scholz were “a positive step forward after years of the Conservatives trashing the UK’s relationship with Europe”.

“But the new government needs to be more ambitious about rebuilding stronger ties with our European allies,” she added.

“That should start with agreeing a Youth Mobility Scheme giving young people the opportunity to easily live and work across the continent.”

The BBC has learned that Telegram – the messaging app service whose boss has been arrested in France – refuses to join international programmes aimed at detecting and removing child abuse material online.

The app is not a member of either the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) or the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) – both of which work with most online platforms to find, report and remove such material.

It comes as the founder and chief executive of the app – which has more than 950 million registered users – remains under investigation in France.

Billionaire Pavel Durov has been detained over alleged offences relating to a lack of moderation on the platform.

According to officials the 39-year-old is accused of failure to co-operate with law enforcement over drug trafficking, child sexual content and fraud.

Telegram has previously insisted its moderation is “within industry standards and constantly improving”.

However, unlike all other social networks, it is not signed up to programmes like NCMEC’s CyberTipline which has more than 1,600 internet companies registered.

US-based firms are legally required to sign up but 16% of the companies who participate are not based in the US.

Telegram was founded in Russia but is now based in Dubai, where Mr Durov lives.

The vast majority of child sexual abuse material reports came from tech giants and social networks including Facebook, Google, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter (X), Snapchat and WhatsApp.

The BBC understands that NCMEC has repeatedly asked Telegram to join to help tackle child sexual abuse material (CSAM) but it has ignored requests.

Telegram also refuses to work with the Internet Watch Foundation, which is the UK’s equivalent of NCMEC.

An IWF spokesperson said: “Despite attempts to proactively engage with Telegram over the last year, they are not members of the IWF and do not take any of our services to block, prevent, and disrupt the sharing of child sexual abuse imagery.”

By not being an active part of IWF or NCMEC, Telegram is not able to proactively find, remove or block confirmed CSAM which is categorised and added to lists compiled by the charities.

IWF said that the company did remove CSAM once material was confirmed but said it was slower and less responsive to day-to-day requests.

The BBC has contacted Telegram for comment about its refusal to join the child protection schemes.

Previously it has said it is “absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform”.

Telegram is also not a part of the TakeItDown programme that works to remove so-called revenge porn.

Snap, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Pornhub and OnlyFans are all members of the scheme that uses a so-called hash list to scan for images and videos on their public or unencrypted platforms.

Another norm that Telegram does not conform to in the usual way is Transparency Reporting.

Every six months social networks publish a list of all the content taken down because of police requests.

Most other social networks including Meta’s apps, Snapchat and TikTok publish their reports online with previous years in a library to refer to.

Telegram has no such website and only a channel on the app with no library history of transparency reports. It also describes its approach to Transparency Reports as “semiannual”.

The Telegram Transparency channel did not reply to a request to see previous reports and said that there was “no report available for your region”.

Telegram also has an unusual system for media in general. The contact method is through an automated bot on the app which this reporter has never had a reply to in the months of trying to get a response to various requests.

There is an unadvertised email address for press enquiries which BBC News has emailed but not yet received a response from.

In June Pavel Durov told journalist Tucker Carlson that he only employs “about 30 engineers” to run his platform.

Mr Durov, who was born in Russia and now lives in Dubai, has citizenship in Russia, France, the United Arab Emirates and the Caribbean island nation of St Kitts and Nevis.

Telegram is particularly popular in Russia, Ukraine and former Soviet Union states as well as Iran.

Police units around the world have joined forces in a series of covert operations targeting one of West Africa’s most feared criminal networks – Black Axe.

Operation Jackal III saw officers in body armour carry out raids in 21 countries between April and July 2024.

The mission, co-ordinated by global policing agency Interpol, led to the arrest of 300 people with links to Black Axe and other affiliated groups.

Interpol called the operation a “major blow” to the Nigerian crime network, but warned that its international reach and technological sophistication mean it remains a global threat.

In one notorious example, Canadian authorities said they had busted a money-laundering scheme linked to Black Axe worth more than $5bn (£3.8bn) in 2017.

“They are very organised and very structured,” Tomonobu Kaya, a senior official at Interpol’s Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre, told the BBC.

According to a 2022 report by Interpol, “Black Axe and similar groups are responsible for the majority of the world’s cyber-enabled financial fraud as well as many other serious crimes”.

Mr Kaya said innovations in money-transfer software and cryptocurrency have played into the hands of group, which are renowned for multi-million dollar online scams.

“These criminal syndicates are early adopters of new technologies… A lot of fintech developments make it really easy to illegally move money around the world,” he said.

• The ultra-violent cult that became a global mafia

Operation Jackal III was years in the making and led to the seizure of $3m of illegal assets and more than 700 bank accounts being frozen.

Many Black Axe members are university educated and are recruited during their schooling.

The organisation is a secretive criminal network with trafficking, prostitution and killing operations around the world.

Cyber-crime, targeting individuals and businesses, is the organisation’s largest source of revenue.

Multiple so-called “Jackal” police operations have taken place since 2022.

Dozens of Black Axe and other gang members have been arrested and their electronic devices seized during these transnational raids. This work has enabled Interpol to create a vast intelligence database, which is now shared with officers throughout its 196 member countries.

“We need to have data and to collate our findings from these countries to help build a picture of their modus operandi,” said Mr Kaya.

Despite multiple international arrests, some experts feel not enough is being done to address the root of these crime syndicates in West Africa.

“The emphasis must actually be on prevention not on outright operations against these criminal groups,” said Dr Oluwole Ojewale, West Africa Regional Co-ordinator from the Institute for Security Studies.

Nigeria, which has witnessed widespread anti-corruption protests in recent weeks, is one of Africa’s largest economies, but has as many as 87 million people living below the poverty line, according to the World Bank. It is also the main recruitment ground for Black Axe.

Interpol said it was carrying out training exercises with key Nigerian stakeholders and police officials. But corruption, and allegations of collusion between Black Axe and local authorities, remain major obstacles.

“It is the politicians who are actually arming these boys,” said Dr Ojewale. “The general failure of governance in the country has made pressures for people to be initiated [into Black Axe].”

Despite its current global reach, Interpol’s Jackal Operations have their origins in Ireland.

Following a series of police raids by the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) in 2020, a handful of Black Axe members were arrested, paving the way for the exposure of a far wider network.

“They were very under the radar, very low-key,” said Michael Cryan, detective superintendent at the GNECB, which led the operation.

“The amount of money being laundered through Ireland was astronomical,” he added.

The police subsequently identified 1,000 people with links to Black Axe in Ireland and have made hundreds of arrests for fraud and cyber-crime.

“Bank robberies are now done with laptops – they’re far more sophisticated,” said Det Supt Cryan.

He estimates €200m ($220m; £170m) have been stolen online in Ireland in the past five years, and that only accounts for the 20% of cyber-crimes that are believed to be reported.

“This is not typical or ordinary crime… People who make decisions need to know how serious this is,” he said.

Irish police operations in November 2023 revealed that cryptocurrency – which can be sent rapidly between digital wallets around the world – is becoming an integral element in Black Axe’s money-laundering operations.

More than €1m in crypto-assets were seized during one operation.

Interpol has deployed its own new technology in an attempt to tackle these innovations, launching the Global Rapid Intervention of Payments system (I-GRIP).

The mechanism, which enables the authorities in member countries to freeze bank accounts around the world with unprecedented speed, was used to halt a $40m scam targeting a Singaporean business last month.

Interpol’s Mr Kaya said technology like this would make it harder for criminals to move money across borders with impunity.

A major effort is under way to gather and share intelligence on Black Axe and other West African syndicates by police around the world.

“If we can gather this data we can take action,” he said.

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An American woman has died after the replica boat she was in capsized in rough seas during an expedition from the Faroe Islands to Norway.

Six people were on board the Naddoddur when it got into trouble on Tuesday evening, on the fourth day of the trip, and a distress signal was sent.

Only five people managed to get into an inflatable life raft. They were later airlifted to safety by helicopter.

A woman’s body was eventually found on Wednesday morning not far from where the boat sank.

Norway’s Sea Rescue Society (NSSR) described conditions west of the town of Stad at the time as very demanding, posting a video of the strong winds and high sea.

It said waves were up to 5m (16ft) and winds were as much as 40 knots.

Bergur Jacobsen, who is chairman of the Naddoddur boat club on the Faroe Islands, told the BBC that everyone was very sad about what had happened.

He explained that the 10m-long boat had been on previous Viking voyages before to Iceland, Shetland and Norway.

“It’s not a Viking boat, it’s a Faroes fishing boat without a motor but with sails.”

He said he could not speak about the accident as a Norwegian investigation team was due to speak to him.

Locals were said to be in shock at what happened. One seaman told the BBC that visitors were keen to go on expeditions with the boat, although he would not have done so himself.

The expedition had been postponed for several days because of bad weather until Saturday.

One of four Swiss nationals on the trip, Andy Fitze, posted a map on social media two days into the voyage showing the boat to the north-east of Shetland.

Before the trip, the Faroese member of the crew, Livar Nysted, said when you were in the middle of a storm “you just try to do the best you can”.

“It’s an open boat. You sleep under the stars and when it’s raining or windy you can feel the elements.”

US prosecutors have issued revised charges against Donald Trump for the former president’s alleged attempts to interfere in the 2020 election after losing the contest.

The updated wording tries to navigate a Supreme Court ruling that presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts. The ruling had thrown this case into doubt.

Trump denies accusations that he pressured officials to reverse the results, knowingly spread lies about election fraud and sought to exploit a riot at the US Capitol to delay the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.

It appears unlikely the case – and other criminal cases he faces – will reach court before the next election on 5 November.

The revised indictment, brought by Department of Justice (DoJ) Special Counsel Jack Smith, leaves in place the four crimes Trump is accused of committing: conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, attempting to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

But these now relate to Trump’s status as a political candidate rather than a sitting president.

• Trump has partial immunity from prosecution, Supreme Court rules

Trump has previously pleaded not guilty to all charges.

He wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform that the fresh indictment was “an effort to resurrect a ‘dead’ Witch Hunt” and “distract the American People” from this year’s election. He called for it to be “dismissed IMMEDIATELY”.

His campaign has not responded to a BBC request for comment. But a source close to his legal team told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, the second indictment “was not a surprise”.

“This is what the government is supposed to do based on what the Supreme Court did,” the source said. “It doesn’t change our position that we believe Smith’s case is flawed and it should be dismissed.”

The new charging document – which was slimmed down from 45 to 36 pages – re-works the language of the allegations to respond to last month’s ruling on presidential immunity by the Supreme Court.

It argues Trump acted as a private citizen – and not as president – when he undertook the alleged scheme to sway the election.

“The defendant had no official responsibilities related to the certification proceeding, but he did have a personal interest as a candidate in being named the winner of the election,” reads one new line in the indictment.

Another new line refers to a lawsuit filed by Trump’s campaign in Georgia. The old language said the suit was “filed in his name”, but the updated indictment says it was “filed in his capacity as a candidate for president”.

The new document also appears to have removed the charges against Jeffrey Clark – a former DoJ official who played a key role in the so-called fake electors scheme, according to prosecutors. Mr Clark was not named in either indictment, but has been identified in the media through public records.

The fresh indictment also drops the claim that Trump tried to pressure DoJ officials to work to overturn his defeat. The high court ruled Trump’s direction to justice officials was not illegal.

The special counsel’s office said the superseding indictment had been presented to a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in the case.

A grand jury is set up by a prosecutor to determine whether there is enough evidence to pursue a prosecution.

• Read more: What does a grand jury do?

The new indictment leaves in place several key allegations against Trump, including that he attempted to persuade Vice-President Mike Pence to obstruct Mr Biden’s election certification.

That is despite the fact that conversations between Trump and Mr Pence would probably fall under the category of “official” acts, for which Trump has immunity from prosecution, according to the Supreme Court ruling.

The revised indictment showed that Mr Smith interpreted the Supreme Court ruling to mean that his case could still move forward, said Prof Daniel Richman, a constitutional law expert at Columbia Law School.

But whether it would satisfy the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity framework remained unclear, Prof Richman told the BBC. “The court was painfully vague as to what private conduct done by a president can be charged criminally,” he said.

The revised indictment would not necessarily expedite the case, Prof Richman said. He doubted it would be heard before the 2024 election.

The CBS News source close to Trump’s legal team said the former president’s lawyers would ask for more time to prepare for the case. They said this would likely delay the start of the trial if the judge agreed.

This case came together after Mr Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 to oversee two federal investigations into Trump: the election interference case and another case in which the ex-president has been accused of taking classified documents back to his Florida home after leaving office.

On Monday, Mr Smith’s team appealed against the decision of a Florida judge to dismiss the latter case. Judge Aileen Cannon had done so on the grounds that the mere existence of special counsels violated the US Constitution.

Mr Smith argued the judge’s view “deviated” from legal precedent.

• A guide to Trump’s criminal cases

Both cases face uncertain futures after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision.

The same is true of a separate case in Georgia, in which Trump and 18 other defendants are also accused of criminally conspiring to overturn his narrow defeat in 2020. He has pleaded not guilty, and a trial date has not been set.

Meanwhile, Trump awaits sentencing after being convicted in New York in May of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments made to a porn star.

If Trump defeats Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in November, he is widely expected to order officials to drop all the remaining federal charges that he faces.

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