The man who walked out into the rain in Dhaka hadn’t seen the sun in more than five years.

Even on a cloudy day, his eyes struggled to adjust after half a decade locked in a dimly lit room, where his days had been spent listening to the whirr of industrial fans and the screams of the tortured.

Standing on the street, he struggled to remember his sister’s telephone number.

More than 200km away, that same sister was reading about the men emerging from a reported detention facility in Bangladesh’s infamous military intelligence headquarters, known as Aynaghor, or “House of Mirrors”.

They were men who had allegedly been “disappeared” under the increasingly autocratic rule of Sheikh Hasina – largely critics of the government who were there one day, and gone the next.

But Sheikh Hasina had now fled the country, unseated by student-led protests, and these men were being released.

In a remote corner of Bangladesh, the young woman staring at her computer wondered if her brother – whose funeral they had held just two years ago, after every avenue to uncover his whereabouts proved fruitless – might be among them?

The day Michael Chakma was forcefully bundled into a car and blindfolded by a group of burly men in April 2019 in Dhaka, he thought it was the end.

He had come to authorities’ attention after years of campaigning for the rights of the people of Bangladesh’s south-eastern Chittagong Hill region – a Buddhist group which makes up just 2% of Bangladesh’s 170m-strong, mostly Muslim population.

He had, according to rights group Amnesty International, been staunchly vocal against abuses committed by the military in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and has campaigned for an end to military rule in the region.

A day after he was abducted, he was thrown into a cell inside the House of Mirrors, a building hidden inside the compound the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) used in the capital Dhaka.

It was here they gathered local and foreign intelligence, but it would become known as somewhere far more sinister.

The small cell he was kept in, he said, had no windows and no sunlight, only two roaring exhaust fans.

After a while “you lose the sense of time and day”, he recalls.

“I used to hear the cries of other prisoners, though I could not see them, their howling was terrifying.”

The cries, as he would come to know himself, came from his fellow inmates – many of whom were also being interrogated.

“They would tie me to a chair and rotate it very fast. Often, they threatened to electrocute me. They asked why I was criticising Ms Hasina,” Mr Chakma says.

Outside the detention facility, for Minti Chakma the shock of her brother’s disappearance was being replaced with panic.

“We went to several police stations to enquire, but they said they had no information on him and he was not in their custody,” she recalls. “Months passed and we started getting panicky. My father was also getting unwell.”

A massive campaign was launched to find Michael, and Minti filed a writ petition in the High Court in 2020.

Nothing brought any answers.

“The whole family went through a lot of trauma and agony. It was terrible not knowing the whereabouts of my brother,” she says.

Then in August 2020, Michael’s father died during Covid. Some 18 months later, the family decided that Michael must have died as well.

“We gave up hope,” Minti says, simply. “So as per our Buddhist tradition we decided to do hold his funeral so that the soul can be freed from his body. With a heavy heart we did that. We all cried a lot.”

Rights groups in Bangladesh say they have documented about 600 cases of alleged enforced disappearances since 2009, the year Sheikh Hasina was elected.

In the years that followed, Sheikh Hasina’s government would be accused of targeting their critics and dissenters in an attempt to stifle any dissent which posed a threat to their rule – an accusation she and the government always denied.

Some of the so-called disappeared were eventually released or produced in court, others were found dead. Human Rights Watch says nearly 100 people remain missing.

Rumours of secret prisons run by various Bangladeshi security agencies circulated among families and friends. Minti watched videos detailing the disappearances, praying her brother was in custody somewhere.

But the existence of such a facility in the capital was only revealed following an investigation by Netra News in May 2022.

The report found it was inside the Dhaka military encampment, right in the heart of the city. It also managed to get hold of first-hand accounts from inside the building – many of which tally with Michael’s description of being held in a cell without sunlight.

The descriptions also echo those of Maroof Zaman, a former Bangladeshi ambassador to Qatar and Vietnam, who was first detained in the House of Mirrors in December 2017.

His interview with the BBC is one of the few times he has spoken of his 15-month ordeal: as part of his release, he agreed with officials not to speak publicly.

Like others who have spoken of what happened behind the complex’s walls, he was fearful of what might happen if he did. The detainee who spoke openly to Netra News in 2022 only did so because he was no longer in Bangladesh.

Maroof Zaman has only felt safe to speak out since Sheikh Hasina fled – and her government collapsed – on 5 August.

He describes how he too was held in a room without sunlight, while two noisy exhaust fans drowned out any sound coming from outside.

The focus of his interrogations were on the articles he had written alleging corruption at the heart of government. Why, the men wanted to know, was he writing articles alleging “unequal agreements” signed with India by Ms Hasina, that favoured Delhi.

“For the first four-and-a-half months, it was like a death zone,” he says. “I was constantly beaten, kicked and threatened at gunpoint. It was unbearable, I thought only death will free me from this torture.”

But unlike Michael, he was moved to a different building.

“For the first time in months I heard the sound of the birds. Oh, it was so good, I cannot describe that feeling,” Maroof recounted.

He was eventually released following a campaign by his daughters and supporters in late March 2019 – a month before Michael found himself thrown into a cell.

Few believe that enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings could have been carried out without the knowledge of the top leadership.

But while people like Mr Chakma were languishing in secret jails for years, Ms Hasina, her ministers and her international affairs advisor Gowher Rizvi were flatly rejecting allegations of abductions.

Ms Hasina’s son, Sajeed Wazed Joy, has continued to reject the allegations, instead turning the blame on “some of our law enforcement leadership [who] acted beyond the law”.

“I absolutely agree that it’s completely illegal. I believe that those orders did not come from the top. I had no knowledge of this. I am shocked to hear it myself,” he told the BBC.

There are those who raise their eyebrows at the denial.

Alongside Michael, far higher profile people emerged from the House of Mirrors – retired brigadier Abdullahi Aman Azmi and barrister Ahmed Bin Quasem. Both had spent about eight years in secret incarceration.

What is clear is that the re-emergence of people like the politicians, and Michael, shows “the urgency for the new authorities in Bangladesh to order and ensure that the security forces to disclose all places of detention and account for those who have been missing”, according to Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights office in Geneva.

Bangladesh’s interim government agreed: earlier this week, it established a five-member commission to investigate cases of enforced disappearances by security agencies during Ms Hasina’s rule since 2009.

And those who have survived the ordeal want justice.

“We want the perpetrators to be punished. All the victims and their families should be compensated,” Maroof Zaman said.

Back on the street outside the House of Mirrors – just two days after Sheikh Hasina fled to India – Michael was struggling to decide what to do. He had only been told about his release 15 minutes before. It was a lot to take in.

“I forgot the last two digits of my sister’s phone number,” he says. “I struggled a lot to remember that, but I couldn’t. Then I called a relative who informed them.”

But Minti already knew: she had seen the news on Facebook.

“I was ecstatic,” she recalls through tears two weeks later. “Next day, he called me, I saw him on that video phone call after five years. We were all crying. I couldn’t recognise him.”

Last week, she saw him in person for the first time in five years: weaker, traumatised – but alive.

“His voice sounds different,” she says.

Michael, meanwhile, is dealing with the long term health implications of being held in the dark for so long.

“I cannot look at contacts or phone numbers properly, it’s a blurred vision. I am getting treatment, and the doctor is giving me spectacles.”

More than that, there is coming to terms with what he has missed. He was told of his father’s death a few days after his release.

And yet, amid the pain, he is hopeful – even happy.

“It’s more than a new lease of life, a resurrection. It feels like I was dead and have come back to life again. I cannot describe this feeling.”

Donald Trump has signalled that he will vote in favour of legalising marijuana for personal use in his home state of Florida, ahead of a ballot on the issue in November.

The Republican presidential nominee wrote on his Truth Social platform that voters are highly likely to approve the measure “whether people like it or not” and therefore “it should be done correctly”.

The former US president’s stance puts him at odds with other senior Republican figures, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has argued that legalising recreational cannabis use would “be bad for quality of life”.

Medicinal marijuana was made legal in Florida in 2016.

Cannabis for both personal and medical use is legal in 24 US states, according to the Pew Research Centre. A further 14 states have legalised medical marijuana.

Trump said: “Someone should not be a criminal in Florida, when this is legal in so many other states.

“We do not need to ruin lives and waste taxpayer dollars arresting adults with personal amounts of it on them.”

The proposal is one of a number of amendments Florida residents will vote on in November at the same time as the US chooses its new president. Trump is running against incumbent vice-president and Democratic Party nominee Kamala Harris.

On legalising marijuana for personal use, Trump said that there would need to be rules in place to “prohibit the use of it in public spaces, so we do not smell marijuana everywhere we go, like we do in many of the Democrat-run cities”.

Mr DeSantis has claimed that making cannabis legal for recreational use “would turn Florida into San Francisco or Chicago” – both cities in Democrat-run states.

Marijuana was legalised in Illinois 2020 and between January and July this year, cannabis sales reached more that $1bn (£760m), according to state government statistics.

In California, where personal use was legalised in 2016, marijuana sales reached $4.4bn last year.

However, it is not clear how those figures compare to black market sales of cannabis which, according to some, still thrives.

Legalised growers and sellers have to get permits and pay tax, which can prove costly and risk making their cannabis more expensive.

“The black market is very pervasive and it is definitely larger than the legal market,” Bill Jones, the head of enforcement for California’s Department of Cannabis Control, told US broadcaster NPR earlier this year.

Trump has already caused some confusion about a different amendment that will be on Florida’s ballot in November. On Friday he said he would vote against a measure in Florida that would protect abortion rights, after facing backlash from conservative supporters.

Abortion is banned in Florida after six weeks of pregnancy – the amendment proposes expanding that to 24 weeks. Trump had initially signalled support for the proposal.

His campaign later claimed he had not said how he would vote in ballot, simply that he thought that the six week period was “too short”. The following day, Trump, whose Mar-a-Lago estate is in Palm Beach, Florida, said he would be voting “no”.

A new show in the Indian capital Delhi showcases a rich collection of early photographs of monuments in the country.

The photographs from the 1850s and 1860s capture a period of experimentation when new technology met uncharted territory.

British India was the first country outside Europe to establish professional photographic studios, and many of these early photographers were celebrated internationally. (Photography was launched in 1839.)

They blended and transformed pictorial conventions, introduced new artistic traditions, and shaped the visual tastes of diverse audiences, ranging from scholars to tourists.

While the works of leading British photographers often reflect a colonial perspective, those by their Indian contemporaries reveal overlooked interactions with this narrative.

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The pictures at the show called Histories in the Making have been gathered from the archives of DAG, a leading art firm. They highlight photography’s crucial role in shaping an understanding of India’s history.

They also contributed to the development of field sciences, fostered networks of knowledge, and connected the histories of politics, fieldwork, and academic disciplines like archaeology.

“These images capture a moment in history when the British Empire was consolidating its power in India, and the documentation of the subcontinent’s monuments served both as a means of asserting control and as a way to showcase the empire’s achievements to audiences back in Europe,” says Ashish Anand, CEO of DAG.

This is a a picture of Caves of Elephanta taken by William Johnson and William Henderson.

The Caves, a UNESCO World Heritage site, are a group of temples primarily dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva in the state of Maharashtra.

William Johnson began his photographic career in Bombay (now Mumbai) around 1852, initially working as a daguerreotypist – the daguerreotype was an early photographic process that produced a single image on a metal plate.

In the mid-1850s, Johnson partnered with William Henderson, a commercial studio owner in Bombay, to establish the firm Johnson & Henderson.

Together, they produced The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album, a monthly series published from 1856 to 1858.

Linnaeus Tripe arrived in India in 1839 at the age of 17, joining the Madras regiment of the East India Company.

He began practicing photography and in December 1854, captured images in the towns of Halebidu, Belur, and Shravanabelagola.

Sixty-eight of these photographs, primarily of temples, were exhibited in 1855 at an exhibition in Madras (now a major city called Chennai), earning him a first-class medal for the “best series of photographic views on paper”.

In 1857, Tripe became the photographer for the Madras Presidency – a former province of British India – and photographed sites at Srirangam, Tiruchirapalli, Madurai, Pudukkottai, and Thanjavur.

Over 50 of these photographs were displayed at the Photographic Society of Madras exhibition the following year, where they were widely praised as the best exhibits.

John Murray, a surgeon in the Bengal Indian Medical Service, began photographing in India in the late 1840s.

Appointed civil surgeon in the city of Agra in 1848, he spent the next 20 years producing a series of studies on Mughal architecture in Agra and the neighbouring cities of Sikandra, and Delhi.

In 1864, he created a comprehensive set of pictures documenting the iconic Taj Mahal.

Throughout his career, Murray used paper negatives and the calotype process – a technique of creating “positive” prints from one negative – to produce his images.

Thomas Biggs arrived in India in 1842 and joined the Bombay Artillery as a captain in the British East India Company.

He soon took up photography and became a founding member of the Photographic Society of Bombay in 1854.

After exhibiting his work at the Society’s first exhibition in January 1855, he was appointed as the government photographer for the Bombay Presidency, tasked with documenting architectural and archaeological sites.

He photographed Bijapur, Badami, Aihole, Pattadakal, Dharwad, and Mysore before being recalled to military service in December 1855.

Biggs experimented with the calotype process, producing “positive” prints from one negative.

Felice Beato, one of the most renowned war and travel photographers of the 19th Century, arrived in India in 1858 to document the aftermath of the 1857 mutiny.

Indian soldiers, known as sepoys, had set off a rebellion against the British rule, often referred to as the first war of independence.

Although the mutiny was nearly over when Beato arrived, he photographed its aftermath with a focus on capturing the immediacy of events.

He extensively documented cities deeply affected by the uprising, including Lucknow, Delhi, and Kanpur, with notable images of Sikandar Bagh, Kashmiri Gate, and the barracks of Kanpur. His chilling photograph of the hanging of sepoys, stands out for its stark depiction.

As a commercial photographer, Beato aimed to sell his work widely, spending over two years in India photographing iconic sites. In 1860, Beato left India for China to photograph the Second Opium War.

Andrew Neill, a Scottish doctor in the Indian Medical Service in Madras, was also a photographer who documented ancient monuments for the Bombay Presidency.

His calotypes were featured in the 1855 exhibition of the Photographic Society of Madras and in March 1857, and 20 of his architectural views of Mysore and Bellary were shown by the Photographic Society of Bengal.

Neill also documented Lucknow after the 1857 revolt.

Edmund Lyon, who served in the British Army from 1845 to 1854 and briefly as governor of Dublin District Military Prison, arrived in India in 1865 and established a photographic studio in the southern city of Ooty.

Working as a commercial photographer until 1869, Lyon gained significant recognition, particularly for his photographs of the Nilgiris mountain range, which were showcased at the 1867 Paris Exposition.

Accompanied by his wife, Anne Grace, Lyon also captured southern India’s archaeological sites and architectural antiquities.

His work resulted in a remarkable collection of 300 photographs documenting sites in Trichinopoly, Madurai, Tanjore, Halebid, Bellary, and Vijayanagara

Samuel Bourne’s stunning images of India, especially from his Himalayan expeditions between 1863 and 1866, stand among the finest examples of 19th-Century travel photography. A former bank clerk, Bourne left his job in 1857 to pursue photography full-time.

Arriving in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1863, he soon moved to Shimla, where he partnered with William Howard to establish the Howard & Bourne studio.

Later that year, Charles Shepherd joined them, forming ‘Howard, Bourne & Shepherd’. When Howard left, the studio became ‘Bourne & Shepherd,’ a name that would become iconic.

Bourne embarked on three major Himalayan expeditions, covering vast regions including Kashmir and the challenging terrain of Spiti. His 1866 photographs of the Manirung Pass, at over 18,600ft (5,669m), gained international acclaim.

In 1870, Bourne returned to England, selling his shares, though Bourne & Shepherd continued to operate in Calcutta and Simla. The studio, which later documented the spectacular Delhi Durbar – the ‘Court of India’ of 1911, an event that saw 20,000 soldiers marching or riding past the silk-robed Emperor and Empress – had a remarkable 176-year legacy before closing in 2016.

Israel says its forces have recovered the bodies of six hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the bodies were located on Saturday in an underground tunnel in the Rafah area of southern Gaza.

The IDF named the hostages as Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Master Sgt Ori Danino.

Spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said an initial assessment was they were “brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them”.

A senior Hamas official, Izzat al-Rishq, insisted Israel was responsible for their deaths, as it has refused to sign a ceasefire deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not rest until those responsible for their killing are brought to justice.

In a statement, he also said his government was committed to achieving a deal to release those remaining in captivity and protects the country’s security.

“Whoever murders hostages – does not want a deal,” he added.

A group representing the families of those held hostage in Gaza has demanded that Mr Netanyahu “address the nation and take responsibility for abandoning the hostages”.

The Hostages Families Forum said that all six held captive were “murdered in the last few days, after surviving almost 11 months of abuse, torture, and starvation in Hamas captivity”.

“The delay in signing the deal has led to their deaths and those of many other hostages,” they added in a statement.

The group has also announced plans to “bring the nation to a halt” on Sunday, asking the Israeli public to join protests in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and elsewhere in Israel to call for a hostage exchange deal.

One of Israel’s most prominent opposition politicians, Yair Lapid, joined the calls for a general strike to put renewed pressure on the government to agree a deal.

He accused Mr Netanyahu’s “cabinet of death” of deciding against saving the hostages to avoid conflict with his far-right allies in government.

“He prefers saving the coalition with [Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich] and [National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir], rather than saving our children’s lives. This blood is on their heads”, Mr Lapid added.

A Bedouin Arab man rescued in Gaza last week by Israeli troops urged Israel to reach a deal with Hamas to free all the remaining hostages.

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

In its statement on Sunday morning announcing the deaths of the hostages, the IDF said the bodies had been “returned to Israeli territory”.

“They were all taken hostage on 7 October [2023] and were murdered by the Hamas terrorist organisation in the Gaza Strip.”

The statement added that their families had already been notified.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the “heart of an entire nation is shattered to pieces with the news” of their killing.

“On behalf of the State of Israel, I embrace their families with all my heart, and apologize for failing to bring them home safely,” he added.

Sharone Lifschitz, whose father Oded is being held in Gaza, said the hostages were killed because of delays in getting a deal

She also accused the Israeli government and Hamas of placing “more and more obstacles” in the way of reaching an agreement.

Ms Lifschitz’s mother Yocheved was released in the November 2023 hostage exchange, in which more than 100 people were freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Meanwhile, after the death of Mr Goldberg-Polin – an American citizen – was confirmed, US President Joe Biden said he was “devastated and outraged” by the news.

He said in a statement that “Hersh was among the innocents brutally attacked while attending a music festival for peace in Israel on 7 October”.

“He lost his arm helping friends and strangers during Hamas’ savage massacre. He had just turned 23. He planned to travel the world.

“I have gotten to know his parents, Jon and Rachel. They have been courageous, wise, and steadfast, even as they have endured the unimaginable,” Mr Biden said.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer expressed shock at the “horrific and senseless killing of six hostages in Gaza by Hamas”.

“Hamas must release all the hostages now, and a ceasefire deal must be agreed by all sides immediately to end the suffering,” he added in a post on X.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza 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 40,738 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators are trying to broker a ceasefire deal that would see Hamas release the 97 hostages still being held – including at least 33 who are presumed dead – in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

It comes as a UN-led multi-day polio vaccination campaign gets under way in Gaza, following the discovery of the potentially deadly virus in wastewater samples earlier this summer.

Three “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting – beginning on Sunday – have been agreed between Israel and Hamas so that officials can vaccinate around 640,000 children under the age of 10

The move comes after the first infection in more than 25 years was detected in a 10-month-old Palestinian child last month.

Russian air strikes have injured at least 41 people in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, officials have said.

Regional head Oleh Syniehubov said five children were among those wounded and he accused Moscow of “aiming exclusively at civilian infrastructure” in the city.

Among the buildings damaged are a supermarket and a sports complex in areas residents go to every day, he added.

“Russia is once again terrorizing Kharkiv, striking civilian infrastructure and the city itself,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in the wake of the attacks.

Mr Zelensky repeated his calls for Western allies to “give Ukraine everything it needs to defend itself”.

Mr Syniehubov said at least 10 separate Russian strikes had been recorded, including the use of ballistic missiles.

People may be buried under the rubble in some areas and rescue operations are continuing, he added.

The attack comes after Ukraine launched a wave of overnight drone attacks against targets in Russia, where fire broke out at two energy facilities.

No injuries or deaths have been reported by Russian officials.

According to Russia’s defence ministry, more than 158 Ukrainian drones targeted 15 regions of the country, including the capital Moscow.

The Russian military said the drones were intercepted and destroyed.

But as a result of the attack a fire has broken out at an oil refinery in Moscow in a “separate technical room”, the city’s mayor said.

Sergei Sobyanin reported that at least 11 drones targeted the capital city and the surrounding areas.

Meanwhile, 75 miles (120km) from the Russian capital, in the Tver region, loud blasts were heard close to the Konakovo Power Station.

Russian media are reporting a fire at the facility.

The region’s governor, Igor Rudenya, acknowledged a fire caused by an attack in Konakovsky district had been contained, without providing details of what was hit.

Local officials also said drones attempted to attack the Kashira Power Plant in the Moscow region – but that there were no fires, damage or casualties as a result.

BBC Verify has examined and verified videos posted on social media which show explosions at all three locations. In the footage, fires appear to have subsequently broken out at Konakovo Power Station and the Moscow refinery.

Ukraine has not commented on the claims.

But Ukrainian forces have been stepping up long-range strikes inside Russia over the past few months, launching scores of drones simultaneously at strategic targets several times a week.

BBC News has been told that Western technology and finance are helping them carry out hundreds of long-range strikes inside Russia.

In Ukraine, a 23-year-old lorry driver was killed after a Russian air strike on a grain convoy in the Sumy region overnight, local officials have said.

Prosecutors said four others were injured in the attack after one lorry caught fire and around 20 others were damaged.

Ukraine’s air force also said it had destroyed eight out of 11 drones used by Russia, adding that grain and agriculture facilities had been targeted in the Mykolaiv region as well.

Sumy borders Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine has been carrying out a military incursion for nearly a month.

Progress has slowed in recent days, but Ukraine claimed last week it controlled 1,294 sq km (500 sq miles) of territory – including 100 settlements. It also said nearly 600 Russian soldiers had been captured.

Meanwhile, Russian forces are continuing to advance rapidly on a key town in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region – which has been the focus of Moscow’s ground offensive for months.

Pokrovsk plays a crucial role as a logistics hub for Ukrainian forces, as it is home to a key railway station and is located at the intersection of several important roads.

Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi described the situation in the area of Russia’s main attack as “difficult”, but added that all necessary decisions are “being made without delay”.

The most recent Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s energy facilities also come a day after a Russian guided bomb strike on a playground in Kharkiv killed a 14-year-old girl.

A similar attack on a residential building in the city in north-eastern Ukraine also killed six other people.

It also follows Russia hitting Ukraine’s energy grid with a massive wave of deadly drone and missile strikes last week – which led to at least nine people being killed over two days.

Russia began targeting Ukraine’s energy system with air strikes shortly after it began its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Rescuers in the Russian far-east have found no survivors in the wreckage of a helicopter that disappeared while carrying 22 people – most of them tourists.

The aircraft went missing on Saturday after taking off from a base near the Vachkazhets volcano in the Kamchatka peninsula. Officials said on Sunday that 17 bodies had been found so far.

That area, a popular tourist destination, is famous for its active volcanoes. The cause of the crash in unclear.

Such accidents are relatively frequent in Russia’s far-east, which is sparsely populated and suffers harsh weather. Three years ago eight people were killed when a tourist helicopter crashed into a lake in Kamchatka.

The Mi-8T helicopter that disappeared from radar on Saturday was carrying 19 tourists and three crew.

The wreckage was found on Sunday morning in a hilly area, Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said on Telegram.

Footage posted to the messaging app by Russia’s emergencies ministry showed helicopter debris lying near a slope close to a large wooded hill. Officials said the wreckage was found near the location where the helicopter went off radar.

An emergency ministry official, Ivan Lemikhov, said17 bodies had been found so far and searches for those still missing had been paused, slated to resume at daybreak on Monday.

Russia’s Interfax news agency reported that pilot error, possibly caused by fog, was the main theory regarding the cause of the crash.

Earlier, earlier officials said that thick fog was hampering rescuers’ efforts.

The aircraft was owned by Vityaz-Aero, a Kamchatka-based company that organises flights for tourists.

Designed during the Soviet-era, the Mi-8 helicopter is still widely used in Russia.

The notion that artificial intelligence could one day take our jobs is a message many of us will have heard in recent years.

But, for Paul Skye Lehrman, that warning has been particularly personal, chilling and unexpected: he heard his own voice deliver it.

In June 2023, Paul and his partner Linnea Sage were driving near their home in New York City, listening to a podcast about the ongoing strikes in Hollywood and how artificial intelligence (AI) could affect the industry.

The episode was of interest because the couple are voice-over performers and – like many other creatives – fear that human-sounding voice generators could soon be used to replace them.

This particular podcast had a unique hook – they interviewed an AI-powered chat bot, equipped with text-to-speech software, to ask how it thought the use of AI would affect jobs in Hollywood.

But, when it spoke, it sounded just like Mr Lehrman.

“We needed to pull the car over,” he said.

“The irony that AI is coming for the entertainment industry, and here is my voice talking about the potential destruction of the industry, was really quite shocking.”

That night they spent hours online, searching for clues until they came across the site of text-to-speech platform Lovo. Once there, Ms Sage said she found a copy of her voice as well.

“I was stunned,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it.”

“A tech company stole our voices, made AI clones of them, and sold them possibly hundreds of thousands of times.”

They have now filed a lawsuit against Lovo. The firm has not yet responded to that or the BBC’s requests for comment.

But how was Lovo able to recreate their voices? The couple alleges it was done under false pretences.

Lovo co-founder Tom Lee has previously said its voice-cloning software only needs a user to read about 50 sentences to create a faithful clone.

“We can capture the tone, the character, the style, the phonemes, and even if you have an accent, we can capture that as well,” he told the Future Visionaries podcast in 2021.

In their lawsuit, the couple set out how they say Lovo obtained just such a recording from them.

They allege anonymous Lovo employees contacted them to record audio assets on Fiverr, the popular freelance talent website, where they were selling their services to provide audio for television, radio, video games, and other media.

First, in 2019, Ms Sage says a user reached out asking for her to record dozens of generic sounding test radio scripts.

Test recordings are often used in film and television for focus groups, internal meetings, or as placeholders for works in progress. Because they won’t be shared broadly, these recordings cost much less than audio meant for broadcast.

Ms Sage says she completed the job, delivered the files, and was paid $400 (£303).

About six months later, Mr Lehrman says he got a similar request to record dozens of generic sounding radio ads.

In messages the couple have shared with the BBC, the anonymous Fiverr user says the audio will be used for research into “speech synthesis”.

After asking the user to guarantee that the scripts will not be used outside their specific research project, Mr Lehrman asks what the goal of the project is.

“The scripts will not be used for anything else,” the user says, “and I can’t yet tell you the goal, as it’s a confidential work in process sorry haha”.

Mr Lehrman asked if the finished files would be repurposed or used in a different order. The user says the files will be used for research purposes only. Mr Lehrman says he delivered the files and was paid $1200.

The link between the anonymous user and Lovo came, they say, from Lovo itself.

They shared the evidence they had found of their voices being cloned with Lovo – who replied they had done nothing wrong, pointing to the communications between them the anonymous user as evidence they engaged with the couple legally.

“In our careers, we’ve delivered over 100,000 audio assets,” Mr Lehrman said, of their work on Fiverr over the better part of a decade.

“We were able to find this needle in a haystack – they gave us this needle in a haystack.”

In both cases, both Mr Lehrman and Ms Sage say they did not have a written contract, just these conversations. The BBC has not been able to verify the entirety of their conversations. The couple say the user they spoke with also appears to have deleted some messages.

The BBC contacted Lovo on several occasions to request an interview with Mr Lee and to seek a response to the couple’s claims. They did not respond to any of our messages.

The lawsuit the couple filed in May alleges that Lovo used recordings of their voices to create copies that illegally compete with Ms Sage and Mr Lehrman’s real voices.

The couple say the company did so without permission or proper compensation.

It is a class action lawsuit – meaning they are hoping other claimants will join it, though none have so far.

Professor Kristelia Garcia, an expert in intellectual property law at Georgetown University in Washington DC says the case is likely to centre on an area of US law called rights of publicity.

Sometimes referred to as personality rights, violations of one’s publicity often come from misuse or misrepresentation of someone’s image or voice.

She also says there could likely be a breach of contract regarding the licences Ms Sage and Mr Lehrman granted the user who commissioned the recordings.

“Licences are permission for a very specific and narrow use. I might give you a licence to use my swimming pool one afternoon, but that doesn’t mean you can come whenever you want and have a party in my swimming pool,” she told the BBC.

“That would exceed the terms of the licence.”

Whatever the outcome of the case, it is another in a long list of lawsuits brought by artists, authors, illustrators, and musicians who don’t want to lose control of their work and livelihood.

And they are likely to just be the tip of the iceberg. This week the financial firm Klarna said it planned to use AI to halve its workforce.

Some experts predict 40% of all jobs will eventually be impacted by AI

For Mr Lehrman and Ms Sage though that worrying future is playing out now.

“This whole experience has felt so surreal,” Ms Sage said.

“When we thought about artificial intelligence, we were thinking of AI folding our laundry and making us dinner, not pursuing human being’s creative endeavours.”

The first full day of a campaign to vaccinate 640,000 children against polio in Gaza has been successful, the UN says.

The rollout relies on a series of localised pauses in fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters, and the first three-day window began on Sunday.

“So far, it’s going well and the turnaround is really good,” Salim Oweis, a spokesman for the UN children’s fund Unicef, told the BBC.

To be effective, the World Health Organization (WHO) says at least 90% of children under 10 must be immunised in a short time frame. The drive follows the first confirmed case of polio in 25 years in Gaza.

On Thursday, the WHO announced an agreement with Israel for limited pauses in the fighting to allow the polio vaccination programme to take place.

Around 1.3 million doses of the vaccine were recently brought in through the Kerem Shalom checkpoint by Unicef. The agency has had to keep them in cold storage in its warehouse at the correct temperature to maintain their potency. Another shipment of 400,000 doses is set to be delivered to Gaza soon.

On Sunday, Palestinians were able to take their children to three health centres in central Gaza in the first phase of the campaign, which will later extend to the north and the south.

Nearly 2,000 children were vaccinated at the Deir el-Balah clinic alone, said UN spokeswoman Louise Wateridge.

Among the parents who rushed their children to receive doses was Ghadir Hajji, a mother of five.

“They absolutely have to be vaccinated,” she told AFP news agency as the family waited in line. “We received text messages from the ministry of health and we showed up right away.”

Each “humanitarian pause” is set to last from 06:00 until 15:00 local time over three days, with the possibility of adding an extra day if needed.

Unicef’s Jonathan Crickx says it is crucial that these temporary truces hold.

“You cannot lead and implement a polio vaccination campaign in an active combat zone. It’s simply impossible,” he says.

• Israel agrees to pauses in fighting for polio vaccine drive
• Baby contracts Gaza’s first case of polio in 25 years
• WHO ‘extremely worried’ about possible Gaza polio outbreak

“Families need to be feeling safe in bringing their children to get the vaccines. But also, the healthcare workers need to be able to safely reach the communities.”

“This is a huge endeavour,” Mr Crickx adds. “Especially in a place like the Gaza Strip where we know that, for example, roads have been damaged, that access is problematic, that security incidents take place on a daily basis.”

One doctor involved in the operation, Dr Mohammed Salha, told the BBC that one of the main challenges facing the drive was the lack of fuel needed to keep hospitals running and for the cold chain storage of the vaccines.

He said he also worried people would be “scared to move from shelters to hospitals or healthcare centres” even with the agreement of a humanitarian pause in place.

About 90% of all Gazans have been displaced and with health services under huge strain, most children have seen their regular immunisations disrupted leaving them vulnerable to infection, like baby Abdulrahman Abu Judyan.

A video shot a few months ago shows that he was crawling early. But now as he turns one, his mother Niveen – who lives in a crowded tent camp in central Gaza – worries that he will never be able to walk.

“It was very shocking,” Niveen tells the BBC, recalling her son’s recent diagnosis with polio, which has left him partly paralysed in one leg.

“I wasn’t expecting this. Now he may not be able to crawl or walk and the child was left without proper medical care.”

On 7 October – the day of a shocking Hamas-led attack on southern Israel which killed 1,200 people – newborn Abdulrahman was supposed to receive routine vaccinations but never did.

During the war that followed, the Abu Judyan family from the very north of Gaza, have moved five times – first to Gaza City, then to different locations in the centre, to Rafah in the far south and back to Deir al-Balah.

“I feel a lot of guilt that he didn’t get the vaccination. But I couldn’t give it to him because of our circumstances,” Niveen says as she rocks her baby in a car seat. She desperately hopes that her son can be taken outside Gaza for treatment. “He wants to live and walk like other children,” she says.

The mother struggles to find clean drinking water for her nine children. Close to the makeshift tent where they live, raw sewage flows through the street.

Conditions are ideal for the spread of diseases – especially polio which is highly infectious.

Since discovering the virus in wastewater samples taken in June, UN agencies have been racing to set up an emergency mass vaccination programme.

More than 2,000 workers – mostly locals – are involved in the immunisation effort. Palestinian health officials say there will be more than 400 fixed vaccination sites – which include healthcare centres, hospitals, clinics, and field hospitals – and about 230 so-called outreach sites, community gathering places, where vaccines will be distributed.

Each child must receive two drops of oral polio vaccine in two rounds, the second to be administered four weeks after the first. It is essential that the programme is carried out quickly to prevent mutation of the virus and break transmission.

The polio variant that triggered this latest outbreak is itself a mutated virus from an oral polio vaccine. This is because the vaccine contains a weakened live virus which in very rare cases is shed by those who receive it and can then evolve into a new form that can start new epidemics.

With doctors in Gaza on high alert for potential polio infections in children, tests are being carried out at a WHO-approved laboratory in Jordan.

“There could be more cases of paralytic polio until this outbreak is stopped and this virus will paralyse more children,” Dr Hamid Jafari, WHO director of polio eradication for the eastern Mediterranean, tells me from Amman.

He says the stakes are high for the whole region. “The risk of course, is not only just for Gaza, given the high force of transmission in Gaza, there is a risk of this spilling over into Israel, into the West Bank and surrounding countries.”

For now, though the focus remains on Gaza – where children make up nearly half of the 2.3 million population.

The past year has deprived many of their loved ones, their homes and health. With no end in sight to the war, the hope is that at least one new source of suffering can be eliminated.

After being hounded over her nationality and forced to drop out of the Miss South Africa contest, Chidimma Adetshina has been crowned beauty queen of a totally different country.

Ms Adetshina cried tears of joy as she was named Miss Universe Nigeria on Saturday.

“This crown is not just for beauty; it’s a call for unity,” the 23-year-old law student stated after weeks at the centre of an intense media storm.

She was invited to participate in Miss Universe Nigeria after her position as a finalist in the Miss South Africa contest sparked a wave of criticism.

Some people in South Africa had questioned her eligibility to compete in the beauty pageant because despite being a South African citizen, Ms Adetshina’s father is Nigerian and her mother has Mozambican roots.

• Beauty contest sparks row over who counts as South African
• Tyla’s racial identity: South African singer sparks culture war

In interviews Ms Adetshina said she was born in Soweto – the South African township next to Johannesburg – and grew up in Cape Town.

The row over her nationality sparked an investigation with the organisers of Miss South Africa asking the nation’s home affairs department to look into her eligibility.

After an initial probe, the department announced that Miss Adetshina’s mother may have committed “identity theft” to become a South African national.

However, the statement added that Ms Adetshina “could not have participated in the alleged unlawful actions of her mother as she was an infant at the time”.

A day after the announcement, Ms Adetshina dropped out of the contest, saying she took the decision for her and her family’s safety and wellbeing.

By now, her ordeal had made headlines around the world.

After hearing of Ms Adetshina’s story, the organisers of Miss Universe Nigeria invited her to participate in their contest.

They said she would be able to “represent her father’s native land on the international stage”.

After winning the contest on Saturday, Ms Adetshina will represent Nigeria at November’s Miss Universe competition.

Her success has been celebrated on social media.

“Your story is inspirational – you are stronger than you think and we love you our African sister,” one South African woman wrote on Instagram.

Another supporter said: “Trust me guys we Nigerians are proud of her… she’s our very own sister, a very smart, intelligent girl, our Nigerian blood runs through her veins.”

However, others alleged the contest was “rigged” in Ms Adetshina’s favour – an accusation the Miss Nigeria organisers have not responded to.

“She’s undeserving,” one Instagram user said.

“She has never lived in Nigeria and was merely invited to compete after the final delegates had been chosen… she arrived in Nigeria for the first time after 20 years last week, only to be given our crown. This organisation reeks of sheer bias.”

Another wrote: “In all honesty you won out of pity… feeling very sorry for the other contestants who were there long before you came.”

At the Miss Universe contest in November, the law student’s rivals will include Mia le Roux, who won this year’s Miss South Africa competition after Ms Adetshina dropped out.

Ms le Roux became the first deaf woman in history to win the crown.

• Mia le Roux: ‘I never thought someone like me could become Miss South Africa’
• Inside the beauty pageant in one of the world’s worst places to be a woman
• How common are xenophobic attacks in South Africa?

In early August, Pablo González was taken from a prison in Poland and flown to Moscow on a plane carrying Russian deep-cover agents, hackers and a hitman for the FSB intelligence service.

The group was met at the airport by a military guard, red carpet and Vladimir Putin – thanking them for their loyal service to the country.

Video footage from that night in Moscow shows Mr González smiling as he shakes hands with President Putin at the foot of the plane steps. Black-bearded, with a shaven and shiny head, he’s wearing a Star Wars T-shirt that declares “Your Empire Needs You”.

Known by his Russian friends as “Pablo, the Basque journalist”, the 42-year-old was part of a major prisoner swap for Westerners held in Russian jails and Russian dissidents.

In the group freed by Vladimir Putin were two opposition activists Mr González was accused of spying on.

He’d been arrested in Poland in 2022 for alleged espionage.

“I got my first suspicions in 2019. It just dawned on me,” Zhanna Nemtsova tells me, in the first interview she’s given about the man who spied on her.

The two met in 2016 at an event about the investigation into her father’s murder. Boris Nemtsov, a staunch opponent of Vladimir Putin, had been assassinated a year earlier, right beside the Kremlin.

His daughter – herself a vocal Putin critic – eventually moved to Europe for safety.

That day in Strasbourg, Pablo González asked Ms Nemtsova for an interview for a newspaper in the Basque region. She refused, at first. But the journalist – Spanish, with Russian roots – gradually became something of a fixture in her circle: attending events, taping interviews, mingling.

Looking back, Ms Nemtsova remembers becoming wary.

“I shared my suspicions with a couple of people and they were like, ‘No, this is nonsense!’ People regard you as crazy if you bring up some things. They can think you paranoid.

“But I was absolutely right.”

That’s why she’s decided to speak out openly now.

“I want other people to be very careful,” Zhanna Nemtsova explains. “The threat is not something you can just read in books or watch at the movies. It’s very close.”

Mr González was only formally charged with espionage a week after he left Poland, flown to Moscow as part of the August prisoner swap. By then, he’d spent well over two years locked up, awaiting trial.

All along, Polish prosecutors have deflected questions about the case and the process. Intelligence sources remain tight-lipped. The Polish lawyer who first represented Mr González says he can’t comment.

By the time of his arrest, Mr González had been living in Warsaw for at least three years, much of that time with his Polish girlfriend. He was a freelance journalist, working mostly for Spanish-language press.

He reported from the war in Nagorno-Karabakh and travelled to Ukraine. At some point, he joined a media trip to Syria run by the Russian defence ministry, always very selective about who it takes.

It was in 2022 that he was detained, briefly, in Ukraine, though the SBU security service there won’t divulge any details. Then, on 28 February, Mr González was arrested in Przemysl, eastern Poland, where he was part of the media pack covering the start of Russia’s all-out war on Ukraine.

The trigger for the arrest has not been made public.

Last year, Zhanna Nemtsova was shown evidence of Mr González’s activity as part of the criminal investigation.

“I have no doubt he was a spy. I am sure, 100%,” she told me this week.

Ms Nemtsova is banned by a non-disclosure agreement from sharing details of the evidence. As a result, she’s had to watch people continue to profess that Mr González is innocent.

“It’s scary. We shouldn’t downplay this. These people have no moral scruples. They regard you as their enemies,” she warns, referring to Russian intelligence agents.

Although Ms Nemtsova says she never trusted Mr González as a true friend, he did manage to insert himself into her circle. He was informing on the group from the start, she says.

“He can be very charming, he knows how to communicate with people, make them feel at ease.”

Her ex-husband, Pavel Elizarov, agrees. He and Mr González were “quite close for some period of time”. He would visit him in Spain, talk politics and do tourism. He introduced others to his friend.

Ilya Yashin, another prominent activist, went to a football match with Mr González in Spain and even coat shopping. When Mr González was released in the prisoner swap, Mr Yashin was one of the trades: he’d been imprisoned in Russia for condemning the war on Ukraine.

Vadim Prokhorov, the Nemtsov family lawyer, recalls another detail.

“He drank like a Russian,” Mr Prokhorov told me. “He could hold his drink without falling over. We should have suspected him back then!”

We did ask to interview Mr González via his wife, who lives in Spain and has been his most avid supporter. So far, he hasn’t replied.

Instead, he appeared on Kremlin-controlled television, filmed wandering through a Moscow suburb, reminiscing in perfect Russian about sledging on cardboard as a child.

He was born, he explains, Pavel Rubtsov – still the name in his Russian passport.

He became Pablo González when he moved to Spain with his mother in 1991. His grandfather had been evacuated to the USSR during the Spanish Civil War, so Pavel and his mother were entitled to Spanish citizenship.

It all made him ideal recruitment material for Russian intelligence, but the state TV report declared that Poland had no evidence of that.

“They threatened and pressured me,” Mr González says, in his extremely deep voice. “I asked, ‘What did I do?’ and they said, ‘You know.’ But I didn’t.”

No-one I’ve interviewed has characterised Mr González as a Putin fan, although Zhanna Nemtsova says she and he were on “different sides of the political spectrum”.

“I didn’t get any pro-Russian vibe off him,” a Polish contact said.

But on Russian TV, Mr González is quite clearly excited as he describes meeting “Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin” at Vnukovo airport in Moscow.

Coming down the plane steps, he says, he was “practising” all the way how to greet his president. “I wanted to be sure it was a strong, manly handshake,” Mr González explains, with a big grin.

The BBC has not had direct access to any of the material in this case. But we have interviewed reliable sources whose accounts, taken together, reveal that Pablo González was informing on a number of people in Europe.

When he was detained, Polish investigators discovered reports detailing the movements, contacts and profiles of people ranging over several years.

Russian opposition activists were one target, including those close to Zhanna Nemtsova. There’s a report on at least one Polish citizen, as well as students of a journalism summer school run by Ms Nemtsova. Investigators also found emails that Mr González had copied from a laptop he had been lent.

We don’t know who these reports were sent to, but they list expenses incurred in gathering information, including transport costs. “There were a lot of details, including what they ate for lunch,” the BBC was told.

In some cases, that source says, questions have been added, apparently by a superior seeking clarification or more detail.

One of the reports concerns the Russian defence ministry press trip to Syria that Mr González went on, though its main focus is to criticise the ministry for poor organisation of the tour.

The official charge sheet accuses Mr González of espionage – namely, providing intelligence, spreading disinformation and “conducting operational reconnaissance” for Russian military intelligence, the GRU.

We don’t know what other evidence there might be, but the value of what he gathered on the Russian opposition is unclear.

I was told that some reports are “sloppy” and include information taken from the internet. “Some were really wordy, with 10 pages instead of one. Probably to get more funding,” the source thought.

The first part matches the comments of a close friend of Mr González who told me he was “a bit lazy”.

The BBC also understands that the accuracy of the reports deteriorates notably after 2018, with fewer notes or corrections by a senior officer, or handler. It may be coincidental, but that’s when large numbers of Russian intelligence assets were expelled from Europe, after double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned in the British city of Salisbury.

And although Russian activists who socialised with “Pablo, the Basque journalist” were shocked to learn he’d betrayed them, they doubt he had access to sensitive information.

“We are not in the habit of sharing this information with anyone, as we’ve always known we could face such problems,” Zhanna Nemtsova confirms.

“Everything we said to him, we’d say to anyone else in public,” opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza told me after his release as part of the same prisoner swap.

One source sought to downplay the case against Mr González, describing the contents of the reports as “not serious”. But Ms Nemtsova – whose father was murdered in Moscow for his politics – strongly disagrees.

“His words were important for the GRU [Russian military intelligence]. They might have led to serious consequences. This does not suggest that Pablo himself would do some damage. But they have other people who do this.

“That’s why this is serious.”

When Mr González was detained, there was a flurry of protest over accusing a journalist of espionage. The EU had significant concerns about the rule of law under the previous Polish government, while groups such as Reporters Without Borders called for Mr González to be brought to trial, allowed to defend himself against any evidence, or be set free.

“I thought maybe they were mistaken about the arrest,” a Polish journalist who knew Mr González remembers his own initial doubts. “I thought maybe it was just to show the government were doing stuff about Russia.”

As Mr González was never convicted, his staunchest supporters still argue that Poland has “got away” with an injustice. But most were silenced by last month’s prisoner swap and the ceremonial welcome in Moscow.

The government in Madrid has been notably quiet on the case, in public, from the start.

“But that prisoner exchange, and González’s reception, are the reply to everything,” one official there told me. As she put it, it would be very odd for Vladimir Putin – crusher of the free media – to “save” a mere journalist.

Weeks after Mr González was returned to Moscow, the spy scandal is still causing headaches for Ms Nemtsova.

In 2018 and 2019, the foundation she set up after her father’s killing invited “Pablo, the Basque journalist” to Prague to give a lecture on war reporting. The summer school for young journalists was hosted by Charles University.

Now Czech media have declared that academia has been “infiltrated”, prompting a PhD student to write a dramatic letter to the university Arts Faculty, warning that the Nemtsov Foundation may pose a security threat “to the entire Czech Republic”.

The student, Aliaksandr Parshankou, suggested suspending a Russian Studies MA, supported by Ms Nemtsova’s group, pending an investigation. He told the BBC the course was “by definition a point of attraction for Putin” and called for it to carry a warning that the safety of students “cannot be guaranteed”.

Ms Nemtsova calls the student’s claims “groundless and manipulative” and he admits he has no actual evidence. But the foundation is part of the legacy of Ms Nemtsova’s father and she fears the aim is to “kick us out of the faculty”.

“I am a victim of espionage,” she protested. “It can happen to people like me, but that doesn’t mean we represent a threat to the Czech Republic.”

Pablo González was flown back to Moscow by Russia, where his passport identifies him as Pavel Rubtsov.

Spain does not deprive people of citizenship, even those suspected of espionage. But Mr González would have to reapply for his Spanish passport.

The chances of him heading there seem slim while there’s a case for espionage open in the EU. It’s unclear how long that case might be left pending.

As for visiting his sons there, an official in Madrid was clear: “They are free to go and see him in Moscow.”

Once an intelligence agent is unmasked, their career options and movements are limited.

Other Russians who’ve followed a similar path have ended up starring on state-controlled TV. Perhaps Pablo will restyle himself as Pavel, and find himself praising Vladimir Putin a lot more.

As for Zhanna Nemtsova, she admits she’s even more cautious about who she deals with.

“Now I always think about security,” she told me. “I did think about my security before, because I left Russia. But I didn’t think about security in Europe. Now of course, I do. And I am careful.”

A military alliance between Somalia and Egypt is ruffling feathers in the fragile Horn of Africa, upsetting Ethiopia in particular – and there are worries the fallout could become more than a war of words.

The tensions ratcheted up this week with the arrival of two Egyptian C-130 military aeroplanes in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, signalling the beginning of the deal signed earlier in August during a state visit by the Somali president to Cairo.

The plan is for up to 5,000 Egyptian soldiers to join a new-look African Union force at the end of the year, with another 5,000 reportedly to be deployed separately.

Ethiopia, which has been a key ally of Somalia in its fight against al-Qaeda-linked militants and is at loggerheads with Egypt over a mega dam it built on the River Nile, said it could not “stand idle while other actors take measures to destabilise the region”.

Somalia’s defence minister hit back, saying Ethiopia should stop “wailing” as everyone “will reap what they sowed” – a reference to their diplomatic relations that have been on a downward spiral for months.

It all comes down to the ambitions of Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who wants his landlocked country to have a port. Ethiopia lost its access to the sea when Eritrea seceded in the early 1990s.

On New Year’s Day, Mr Abiy signed a controversial deal with the self-declared republic of Somaliland to lease a 20km (12-mile) section of its coastline for 50 years to set up a naval base.

It could also potentially lead to Ethiopia officially recognising the breakaway republic – something Somaliland is pushing hard for.

Somaliland broke away from Somalia more than 30 years ago, but Mogadishu regards it very much as part of its territory – and described the deal as an act of “aggression”.

Somalia fears such a move might set a precedent and encourage other countries to recognise Somaliland’s independence, geopolitical analyst Jonathan Fenton-Harvey told the BBC.

He added that neighbouring Djibouti was also worried it could harm its own port-dependent economy, as Ethiopia has traditionally relied on Djibouti for imports.

In fact in an attempt to deescalate tensions, Djibouti’s foreign minister has told the BBC his country is ready to offer Ethiopia “100%” access to one of its ports.

“It will be in the port of Tadjoura – 100km [62 miles] from the Ethiopia border,” Mahmoud Ali Youssouf told BBC Focus on Africa TV.

This is definitely a change of tune for as recently as last year, a senior presidential adviser said Djibouti was reluctant to offer its neighbour unfettered access to the Red Sea.

Attempts so far to calm tensions – by Turkey – have failed, with Somalia insisting it will not budge until Ethiopia recognises its sovereignty over Somaliland.

Somalia has not only brought its Nile enemy Egypt into the mix, but also announced that Ethiopian troops would not be part of the AU force from next January.

This is when the AU’s third peace support operation begins – the first one was deployed in 2007 months after Ethiopian troops crossed over the border to help fight al-Shabab Islamist militants, who then controlled the Somali capital.

There are at least 3,000 Ethiopian troops under the current AU mission, according to the Reuters news agency.

Last week, the Somali prime minister also said Ethiopia would have to withdraw its other 5-7,000 soldiers stationed in several regions under separate bilateral agreements – unless it withdrew from the port deal with Somaliland.

Ethiopia sees this as a slap in the face for, as its foreign minister put it, “the sacrifices Ethiopian soldiers have paid” for Somalia.

The withdrawal of troops would also leave Ethiopia vulnerable to jihadist attacks, Christopher Hockey, a senior researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, told the BBC.

The planned deployment of Egyptian troops along its eastern border would also make Ethiopia particularly apprehensive, he added.

Egypt sees Ethiopia’s Nile dam – in the west of the country – as an existential threat – and has warned in the past that it will take “measures” should its security be threatened.

Egypt accuses Ethiopia of threatening its supply of water with the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd).

This began in 2011 on the Blue Nile tributary in Ethiopia’s northern-western highlands, from where 85% of the Nile’s water flow.

Egypt said Ethiopia pushed forward with the project in complete “disregard” of the interests and rights of downstream countries and their water security.

It also argued that a 2% reduction in water from the Nile could result in the loss of around 200,000 acres (81,000 hectares) of irrigated land.

For Ethiopia the dam is seen as a way of revolutionising the country by producing electricity for 60% of the population and providing a constant flow of electricity for businesses.

The latest diplomatic efforts to work out how the dam should operate – and determine how much water will flow downstream to Sudan and Egypt – fell apart last December.

Egypt sees its military deal with Somalia as “historic” – in the words of Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi – and a possible chance to settle scores over the mega dam.

Indeed the Nile dispute may well play out in Somalia, warns Dr Hassan Khannenje, the director of the Horn International Institute for Strategic Studies.

It could potentially lead to a “low-scale inter-state conflict” between Ethiopia and Egypt if their troops meet at the Somalia border.

Somaliland has also warned that the establishment of Egyptian military bases within Somalia could destabilise the region.

Both Ethiopia and Somalia are already coping with their own internal strife – Ethiopia with low-level rebellions in several regions and Somalia, recovering from a destructive 30-year civil war, still has al-Shabab to contend with.

Experts say neither can afford further warfare – and more unrest would inevitably lead to further migration.

Dr Khannenje told the BBC that if a conflict broke out, it could further complicate the geopolitics of the Red Sea by drawing in other players and further affect global trade.

At least 17,000 ships go through the Suez Canal each year, meaning that 12% of annual global trade passes through the Red Sea, amounting to $1tn (£842bn) worth of goods, according to shipping monitor Lloyd’s List.

For this reason, countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Turkey have been keen to forge partnerships with African nations like Somalia that border the Red Sea.

According to Mr Harvey, Turkey and the UAE stand a better chance at mediating and finding a middle ground.

The UAE has heavily invested in Somaliland’s Berbera port and holds significant influence over Ethiopia because of its investments there.

All eyes will be on the next diplomatic push by Turkey, which has ties with both Ethiopia and Somalia. Talks are due to start in mid-September.

• Why is Egypt worried about Ethiopia’s dam on the Nile?
• Can the Horn of Africa rift be healed?
• Ethiopia PM eyes Red Sea port, inflaming tensions

The man who walked out into the rain in Dhaka hadn’t seen the sun in more than five years.

Even on a cloudy day, his eyes struggled to adjust after half a decade locked in a dimly lit room, where his days had been spent listening to the whirr of industrial fans and the screams of the tortured.

Standing on the street, he struggled to remember his sister’s telephone number.

More than 200km away, that same sister was reading about the men emerging from a reported detention facility in Bangladesh’s infamous military intelligence headquarters, known as Aynaghor, or “House of Mirrors”.

They were men who had allegedly been “disappeared” under the increasingly autocratic rule of Sheikh Hasina – largely critics of the government who were there one day, and gone the next.

But Sheikh Hasina had now fled the country, unseated by student-led protests, and these men were being released.

In a remote corner of Bangladesh, the young woman staring at her computer wondered if her brother – whose funeral they had held just two years ago, after every avenue to uncover his whereabouts proved fruitless – might be among them?

The day Michael Chakma was forcefully bundled into a car and blindfolded by a group of burly men in April 2019 in Dhaka, he thought it was the end.

He had come to authorities’ attention after years of campaigning for the rights of the people of Bangladesh’s south-eastern Chittagong Hill region – a Buddhist group which makes up just 2% of Bangladesh’s 170m-strong, mostly Muslim population.

He had, according to rights group Amnesty International, been staunchly vocal against abuses committed by the military in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and has campaigned for an end to military rule in the region.

A day after he was abducted, he was thrown into a cell inside the House of Mirrors, a building hidden inside the compound the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) used in the capital Dhaka.

It was here they gathered local and foreign intelligence, but it would become known as somewhere far more sinister.

The small cell he was kept in, he said, had no windows and no sunlight, only two roaring exhaust fans.

After a while “you lose the sense of time and day”, he recalls.

“I used to hear the cries of other prisoners, though I could not see them, their howling was terrifying.”

The cries, as he would come to know himself, came from his fellow inmates – many of whom were also being interrogated.

“They would tie me to a chair and rotate it very fast. Often, they threatened to electrocute me. They asked why I was criticising Ms Hasina,” Mr Chakma says.

Outside the detention facility, for Minti Chakma the shock of her brother’s disappearance was being replaced with panic.

“We went to several police stations to enquire, but they said they had no information on him and he was not in their custody,” she recalls. “Months passed and we started getting panicky. My father was also getting unwell.”

A massive campaign was launched to find Michael, and Minti filed a writ petition in the High Court in 2020.

Nothing brought any answers.

“The whole family went through a lot of trauma and agony. It was terrible not knowing the whereabouts of my brother,” she says.

Then in August 2020, Michael’s father died during Covid. Some 18 months later, the family decided that Michael must have died as well.

“We gave up hope,” Minti says, simply. “So as per our Buddhist tradition we decided to do hold his funeral so that the soul can be freed from his body. With a heavy heart we did that. We all cried a lot.”

Rights groups in Bangladesh say they have documented about 600 cases of alleged enforced disappearances since 2009, the year Sheikh Hasina was elected.

In the years that followed, Sheikh Hasina’s government would be accused of targeting their critics and dissenters in an attempt to stifle any dissent which posed a threat to their rule – an accusation she and the government always denied.

Some of the so-called disappeared were eventually released or produced in court, others were found dead. Human Rights Watch says nearly 100 people remain missing.

Rumours of secret prisons run by various Bangladeshi security agencies circulated among families and friends. Minti watched videos detailing the disappearances, praying her brother was in custody somewhere.

But the existence of such a facility in the capital was only revealed following an investigation by Netra News in May 2022.

The report found it was inside the Dhaka military encampment, right in the heart of the city. It also managed to get hold of first-hand accounts from inside the building – many of which tally with Michael’s description of being held in a cell without sunlight.

The descriptions also echo those of Maroof Zaman, a former Bangladeshi ambassador to Qatar and Vietnam, who was first detained in the House of Mirrors in December 2017.

His interview with the BBC is one of the few times he has spoken of his 15-month ordeal: as part of his release, he agreed with officials not to speak publicly.

Like others who have spoken of what happened behind the complex’s walls, he was fearful of what might happen if he did. The detainee who spoke openly to Netra News in 2022 only did so because he was no longer in Bangladesh.

Maroof Zaman has only felt safe to speak out since Sheikh Hasina fled – and her government collapsed – on 5 August.

He describes how he too was held in a room without sunlight, while two noisy exhaust fans drowned out any sound coming from outside.

The focus of his interrogations were on the articles he had written alleging corruption at the heart of government. Why, the men wanted to know, was he writing articles alleging “unequal agreements” signed with India by Ms Hasina, that favoured Delhi.

“For the first four-and-a-half months, it was like a death zone,” he says. “I was constantly beaten, kicked and threatened at gunpoint. It was unbearable, I thought only death will free me from this torture.”

But unlike Michael, he was moved to a different building.

“For the first time in months I heard the sound of the birds. Oh, it was so good, I cannot describe that feeling,” Maroof recounted.

He was eventually released following a campaign by his daughters and supporters in late March 2019 – a month before Michael found himself thrown into a cell.

Few believe that enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings could have been carried out without the knowledge of the top leadership.

But while people like Mr Chakma were languishing in secret jails for years, Ms Hasina, her ministers and her international affairs advisor Gowher Rizvi were flatly rejecting allegations of abductions.

Ms Hasina’s son, Sajeed Wazed Joy, has continued to reject the allegations, instead turning the blame on “some of our law enforcement leadership [who] acted beyond the law”.

“I absolutely agree that it’s completely illegal. I believe that those orders did not come from the top. I had no knowledge of this. I am shocked to hear it myself,” he told the BBC.

There are those who raise their eyebrows at the denial.

Alongside Michael, far higher profile people emerged from the House of Mirrors – retired brigadier Abdullahi Aman Azmi and barrister Ahmed Bin Quasem. Both had spent about eight years in secret incarceration.

What is clear is that the re-emergence of people like the politicians, and Michael, shows “the urgency for the new authorities in Bangladesh to order and ensure that the security forces to disclose all places of detention and account for those who have been missing”, according to Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights office in Geneva.

Bangladesh’s interim government agreed: earlier this week, it established a five-member commission to investigate cases of enforced disappearances by security agencies during Ms Hasina’s rule since 2009.

And those who have survived the ordeal want justice.

“We want the perpetrators to be punished. All the victims and their families should be compensated,” Maroof Zaman said.

Back on the street outside the House of Mirrors – just two days after Sheikh Hasina fled to India – Michael was struggling to decide what to do. He had only been told about his release 15 minutes before. It was a lot to take in.

“I forgot the last two digits of my sister’s phone number,” he says. “I struggled a lot to remember that, but I couldn’t. Then I called a relative who informed them.”

But Minti already knew: she had seen the news on Facebook.

“I was ecstatic,” she recalls through tears two weeks later. “Next day, he called me, I saw him on that video phone call after five years. We were all crying. I couldn’t recognise him.”

Last week, she saw him in person for the first time in five years: weaker, traumatised – but alive.

“His voice sounds different,” she says.

Michael, meanwhile, is dealing with the long term health implications of being held in the dark for so long.

“I cannot look at contacts or phone numbers properly, it’s a blurred vision. I am getting treatment, and the doctor is giving me spectacles.”

More than that, there is coming to terms with what he has missed. He was told of his father’s death a few days after his release.

And yet, amid the pain, he is hopeful – even happy.

“It’s more than a new lease of life, a resurrection. It feels like I was dead and have come back to life again. I cannot describe this feeling.”

“My heart is filled with so much pain. Even today, I cry when I think about how that one encounter destroyed my life.”

The year was 1992. Sushma* said she was 18 when a man she knew took her to an abandoned warehouse under the pretext of watching video tapes. There, six to seven men tied her up, raped her and took photographs of the act.

The men belonged to rich, influential families in Ajmer, a city in the western Indian state of Rajasthan.

“After they raped me, one of them gave me 200 rupees [$2; £1] to buy lipstick. I didn’t take the money,” she said.

Last week, 32 years later, Sushma saw a court convict her rapists and sentence them to life imprisonment.

“I am 50 years old today and I finally feel like I got justice,” she said. “But it cannot bring back all that I have lost.”

She said she had endured years of slander and taunts from society because of what happened to her, and both her marriages ended in divorce when her husbands discovered her past.

Sushma is one of 16 survivors – all schoolchildren or students – who were raped and blackmailed by a group of powerful men in different places in Ajmer city over several months in 1992. The case became a massive scandal and sparked huge protests.

Last week, the court handed out life sentences to six of the 18 accused: Nafis Chishty, Iqbal Bhat, Saleem Chishty, Sayed Jamir Hussain, Naseem – also known as Tarzan – and Suhail Ghani.

They have not confessed to the crime and their lawyers said they will appeal the verdict in a higher court.

So what happened to the remaining 12 accused?

Eight were sentenced to life in 1998, but four were acquitted by a higher court, and the others had their sentences reduced to 10 years.

Of the remaining four, one died by suicide. Another was sentenced to life in 2007 but was acquitted six years later. One was convicted in a related minor case but later acquitted, and one of the accused is still absconding.

“Can you even call this [the 20 August verdict] justice? A judgement is not justice,” said Santosh Gupta, a journalist who had written about the case and has appeared as a witness for the prosecution.

It is a thought echoed by Supreme Court lawyer Rebecca John, who called it yet another case of “justice delayed is justice denied”.

“This points to a problem that extends far beyond the legal system. Our patriarchal society is broken. What we need is a mindset change, but how long is that going to take?”

The accused men used their power and influence to deceive, threaten and lure their victims, said prosecution lawyer Virendra Singh Rathore.

They took compromising photographs and videos of their victims and used them to blackmail them into silence or bring in more victims, he added.

“In one instance, the accused invited a man they knew to a party and got him drunk. They took compromising photos of him and threatened to make them public if he didn’t bring his female friends to meet them,” he said. “That’s how they kept getting victims.”

The accused also had strong political and social connections. Some of them were associated with a famous dargah (Muslim religious shrine) in the city.

“They roamed around on bikes and cars in what was a small-town city at the time,” Mr Gupta said. “Some people were afraid of these men, some wanted to get closer to them and some wanted to be like them.”

He said that it was their power and connections that had helped keep the case under wraps for months. But there were people – like those working at the studio where the photos were developed and even some police officers – who were aware of what was going on.

One day, some of the photographs taken by the accused reached Mr Gupta. They had a chilling effect on him.

“Here were some of the city’s most powerful men committing heinous acts with innocent, young girls – and there was proof of it. But there was no major reaction from the police or the public,” he said.

He wrote a few reports about it but none managed to blow the case wide open.

Then one day, his paper “made a daring decision”, he said.

It published a photo that showed a young girl, naked to the waist, pressed between two men who were fondling her breasts. One of the men was smiling at the camera. Only the girl’s face was blurred.

The report sent shock waves through the city. The public was outraged and shut the city down in protest for days. Anger spread through Rajasthan like raging fire.

“Finally, there was some concrete action from the government. Police registered a case of rape and blackmail against the accused and it was handed over to the the state’s Criminal Investigation Department [CID],” Mr Rathore said.

Mr Rathore explained that the trial had dragged on for 32 years because of several factors, including the staggered arrests of the accused, alleged delaying tactics by the defence, an underfunded prosecution and systemic issues within the justice system.

When police filed the initial charges in 1992, six of the accused – who were only convicted last week – were left out because they were absconding.

Mr Rathore believes this was a mistake, as when the police finally filed charges against the six in 2002, they were still on the run. Two of them were arrested in 2003, another in 2005 and two more in 2012, while the last one was apprehended in 2018.

Every time one of the accused was arrested, the trial would begin afresh with the defence recalling survivors and witnesses brought by the prosecution to give their testimonies.

“Under the law, the accused has the right to be present in court when witnesses are testifying and the defence has the right to cross-examine them,” explained Mr Rathore.

This put the survivors in the horrifying position of having to relive their trauma over and over again.

Mr Rathore recalled how often the survivors, who were now in their 40s and 50s, would scream at the judge, asking why there were being dragged to court, years after they had been raped.

As time passed, the police also found it challenging to track down witnesses.

“Many didn’t want to be associated with the case as their lives had moved on,” Mr Rathore said.

“Even now, one of the accused is absconding. If he is arrested, or if the other accused appeal against the verdict in a higher court, the survivors and witnesses will be called to testify again.”

Sushma – who was one of three survivors whose testimony played a key role in convicting the six accused – said that she had been talking to the media about her ordeal because she was telling the truth.

“I never changed my story. I was young and innocent when these people did this to me. It robbed me of everything. I have nothing to lose now,” she said.

It’s far from your local. For Ally Turner and her friend Glynis Mattheisen, it took a three-day trek through one of Scotland’s last great wildernesses to reach Britain’s remotest pub.

The pair, who live in Dundee, battled driving rain, high winds and midges for a pint at the Old Forge in Inverie, on the western coast of Scotland.

But despite the “atrocious” weather, Glynis says it was all worth it for a portion of the community-owned pub’s hand-cut chips.

“It feels very special when you finish that journey.”

Surrounded by mountains, moors and lochs, there are no roads to Inverie on the Knoydart peninsula.

So the only way to reach the village is via boat – or on foot.

Over the summer months, just a handful of people a day attempt the 30-mile trek from Glenfinnan to the Old Forge.

Ally and Glynis were well-equipped, but warm weather was in short supply.

“The journey was miserable,” Glynis told BBC Radio Scotland.

“It was in the middle of summer, but we were freezing. It was so wet.”

Thick mud sucked at their boots and they had a blustery night in a tent before finding shelter in a bothy the next evening.

Glynis said: “The weather was atrocious but it made it well worth it in the end.

“It’s one of the last wildernesses and it feels very special when you finish that journey.”

The pair celebrated with a pint and portion of chips – from some of the 300kg of potatoes that are shipped in every week.

For Ally and Glynis, who do an annual backpacking trip, the pub’s new ownership was an added attraction.

The Old Forge taken over by the local community in 2022.

About 70 of the community’s 130 people are shareholders and many helped to raise £1m in donations and grants to buy and refurbish the pub.

Glynis said: “It’s just a nice story, and it’s a special community.”

The friends’ walk was filmed for a BBC Scotland documentary – The Journey to Scotland’s Remotest Pub.

Some of the locals involved in the community buy-out also feature.

Pub manager, Will O’Neill, moved to Inverie from Glasgow 13 years ago.

He told the documentary: “The intention was to have a long weekend, but I fell in love with the place.”

Stephanie Harris, who grew up in Inverie, said everyone involved in the pub felt a sense of ownership.

She said local people bought shares not for a monetary benefit, but to support the business.

Finlay Greig, who works as a ranger on the peninsula, said for visitors the first sight of Inverie after a long walk feels like a “warm hug”.

Documentary director Shruti Rao said the story of the pub “just had so much”.

She said: “The place has almost a mythical value, the strong community spirit – and the people on their quest for a pint.”

The Journey to Scotland’s Remotest Pub is available on BBC iPlayer.

On 25 March 2020, Fiona and Ben Young drove to their local maternity unit through London’s empty streets. When they arrived, security guards sent them to the back entrance. It was day three of England’s first lockdown and the front was surrounded by patients being treated by doctors in hazmat suits.

Two days later, after a long labour, they welcomed baby Elijah. Delighted and exhausted, they left the hospital and headed home, full of anticipation over their new life as parents.

But because of lockdown, it was far from what they expected.

“No-one was allowed to visit us for months – there were no newborn cuddles with family,” Fiona recalls.

“I had a number to ring if there was an emergency, which didn’t work. We had no health visitor and no midwives. Our first visitor was a friend who walked four hours across London to sit in our garden.”

Elijah, now four and about to start school, is one of tens of thousands of babies born during the Covid pandemic. He is also one of 200 children being studied as a ‘lockdown baby’.

The Bicycle (Born in Covid Year, Core Lockdown Effects) study, which launched in July, is looking at whether the lockdowns had an impact on children’s talking and thinking skills.

Based at London’s City University, it also involves five other English universities.

“Some children may have benefited from more time at home with their parents and some children might have been negatively impacted,” Prof Lucy Henry of City University explains.

“They may be learning words more slowly or their fine motor skills may possibly be behind.

“The real question is: who was affected and what can we do to support them as they go into their school lives?”

Reduced interactions with family members and the loss of access to services such as health visitors has had a serious impact on the speech and language of some of these children, initial research by the University of Leeds found at the end of 2023.

In Bethnal Green, London, twins Aqil and Fawaz were just eight weeks old when the pandemic hit.

Their mother, Fahmeda Ahmed, lived in a second-floor flat with her husband and their two older children – Hasan, four, and two-year-old Khaijah.

“It was just the same day over and over again,” she said. “We couldn’t go out, we couldn’t socialise, we couldn’t invite friends over and we couldn’t go anywhere with the kids.”

Fahmeda bought an inflatable swimming pool for the balcony to try and keep her older children entertained.

She attempted to homeschool her four-year-old, who had just started reception, but he completely stopped talking.

And then there was baby Aqil. He was having difficulty swallowing and Fahmeda tried for months to get a face-to-face appointment with a doctor.

Eventually, at three months, he was diagnosed with tracheomalacia, a condition where the walls of a child’s windpipe collapse. He needed a minor operation.

• Check out BBC Tiny Happy People’s pages on language development for three- to four- and four- to five-year-olds

“I was so scared going into the hospital because you would hear stories that you would catch [Covid],” Fahmeda said.

“And I remember when Aqil was going into theatre, I was so upset. There was a nurse there and she said ‘I’m so sorry. I can’t hug you’.”

Four years on, Aqil and Fawaz are healthy young boys, about to start reception at Elizabeth Selby Infants’ School in Bethnal Green.

But they both have speech and language needs.

Their two-year child development check was delayed, they weren’t able to attend any baby classes and their first year involved very little interaction with the outside world.

Fahmeda believes all these factors have had a lasting effect, and experts agree.

“Children need opportunities to go out into the world and have new experiences and with those new experiences come new words – but that is happening less during the cost-of-living crisis and it happened less during the pandemic,” says Jane Harris, head of children’s charity Speech and Language UK.

Prof Catherine Davies, from the University of Leeds, who is also involved in the study, says many of the safety nets for families like Fahmeda’s were taken away during the pandemic.

“The education systems weren’t there, health and medical support was not there, their interaction with their wider social networks wasn’t there,” she said.

One third of pre-schoolers (34%) at Elizabeth Selby had speech and language needs during the last school year – up from a quarter (25%) in 2020, according to the school.

This year, the school has had to employ a speech and language therapist for its pre-school class for the first time.

In June, 22,952 children were waiting 19 to 52 weeks for a speech and language therapy appointment, and 5,832 children were waiting over a year, according to NHS England.

The Department for Education in England says it will be focusing on high quality early education and is continuing the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme for another year.

“If I could, I’d have a speech and language teacher in five days a week – and I would still have a waiting list,” says Shahi Ahmed, head teacher at Elizabeth Selby.

“But I have to think about the budget and how that impacts the school.”

Mr Ahmed says there is a “massive increase” in the number of children needing help with toilet training, which takes teachers away from teaching. The school is now bringing in outside agencies to help support parents.

And among all of this, attendance is falling, which Mr Ahmed says is important as it sets “routine and expectations”.

Mr Ahmed believes the increase in children needing more help is “absolutely” a direct result of the pandemic.

“They didn’t have the chance to interact with other children or even just go out or have visitors to the house,” he says.

“They’ve been limited to what’s around them – and that has caused a gap in their social interaction skills.”

Thankfully, Fahmeda says her twin boys have already benefited from their time in Elizabeth Selby’s pre-school classes.

“Fawaz has changed completely – he never used to call me mum,” she says, wiping her tears away.

“It’s so nice to hear. You might think I’m being silly, but that’s so amazing and it’s because of the teachers.”

As for Elijah, his first interactions with family members were all on Zoom.

“We would hold up the iPad to his face and introduce him but he wasn’t really paying much attention,” Fiona said.

“I think he saw the lights and colour but I don’t think he understood he was meeting humans.”

He didn’t attend any baby classes as they had all been cancelled. “He spent the first three months solely with us,” she said.

Elijah was diagnosed with tongue tie when he was born. Fiona and Ben were told by a midwife that they would be better off getting tongue-tie surgery, also known as a lingual frenotomy, privately, as there would be a long wait on the NHS.

“The first day I came back from hospital I was phoning around frantically to find someone who could do it privately but no-one was allowed to physically come in – it wasn’t legal for them to come in and do the operation,” Fiona explained.

Elijah finally had the operation when he was two-months-old.

The long-term impact of Elijah’s early years remain to be seen but it was certainly a “tricky” time for his parents.

Two years after Elijah’s birth, Fiona and Ben were back in the same maternity room, welcoming a baby girl.

“It was a completely different experience, both in the hospital and after,” Fiona said.

“My mum saw Amelia within 12 hours and was giving her newborn cuddles.”

The couple volunteered to take part in the Bicycle study because they want to help researchers understand exactly how the lockdowns affected the youngest members of society.

It’s hoped the results will help answer one pressing question – if it happens again, what should we do differently?

The first sign that the sibling warfare between Noel and Liam Gallagher was beginning to calm came during an interview last month.

Reflecting on the band’s sound, Noel told journalist John Robb: “It’s difficult to explain – when I would sing a song it would sound good, when [Liam] would sing it, it would sound great.”

Hearing Noel compliment his brother publicly after 16 years of insults certainly turned a few heads. But few people expected that just days later, the band – who broke up on the same week in 2009 – would dramatically reform.

A blizzard of headlines and a social media frenzy followed, cutting through the national psyche like the band’s two era-defining nights at Knebworth in 1996.

And now, we have a reunion. Tickets for the Oasis comeback tour went on sale on Friday for the pre-sale, and Saturday for the general sale, with fans racing to beat each other the booking queue.

But why reunite now?

There are several reasons – but the financial incentive is surely on the list.

“A deal would’ve been struck early by promoters, and I’ve heard numbers bandied around of the Gallagher brothers earning £50m each,” says Jonathan Dean of the Sunday Times, who first reported the reunion tour. That £50m estimate was made by Birmingham City University about the initial 14 dates.

“I think that is probably true, ticket prices are higher than they used to be.”

But, he notes, figures are difficult to estimate until the full extent of the live shows is known.

“This is being called a world tour, but currently it’s not going further than England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland,” he notes. “It doesn’t go to the rest of Europe, to America, so I think any earnings are completely up in the air until we know how far this tour is going to spread.”

Birmingham City University estimated that the initial dates could, potentially, bring in roughly £400m in ticket sales and other add-ons.

For comparison, Take That’s Progress Live tour in 2011 brought in an estimated $185m (£140m).

The Spice Girls – minus Victoria Beckham – caused Ticketmaster to crash for their 13-date tour in 2019, which earned an estimated $78m (£60m).

Abba were able to launch a hugely successful comeback without even performing live themselves, with the digital avatars used in Abba: Voyage said to be making $2m (£1.5m) in London per week.

But bands – including Oasis – are also presumably attracted to the idea of building their legacy as well as their bank balances.

When Blur played two nights at Wembley last year, critics’ reviews were breathless in their praise.

To some, the Gallaghers’ sudden claims of a truce after years of ferocious barbs might cynically echo the Sex Pistols’ 1996 reunion. Frontman John Lydon admitted at the time that although the band still hated each other they had “found a common cause, and that’s your money”.

But although “money is king here”, says Robin Murray, music editor of Clash magazine, the timing is also arguably “quite natural”.

He notes both Gallagher brothers have just completed their most recent solo musical commitments. “There’s definitely an element of truth to this simply being two people, with a particular bond, being in the right place at the right time.”

Dean notes the Gallaghers are “very rich men anyway”, so there will have been other motivations.

“I think the family thing is key, I just think they’re older, and their ages has made them come together,” he says.

And their long rivalry, with its familial ties and shared legacy, has equally helped bring the band back together, suggests music psychotherapist Katerina Georgiou.

Both Gallaghers have had solo career success. But it’s Liam’s star that has risen the most in recent years. “The brothers spark off each other marvellously and there’s always been that edge of competition,” says Dr Georgiou.

“Of course seeing Liam sell out Knebworth and carry a Definitely Maybe tour on his own will have risen the stakes for Noel and vice versa, as Noel’s movement away from Liam pushed Liam to prove himself to his brother.”

The pair will no doubt benefit from changes to the wider industry landscape. Streaming wasn’t around during Oasis’s heyday, but it has helped them reach new audiences in the intervening years.

Carl Smith, editor at the Official Charts Company, says “the timelessness of Oasis’s material transcends generations and holds up so well in the streaming era”.

It’s echoed by Dean, from the Sunday Times, who says their music is accessible. “What Oasis do is simple, and I don’t mean that in a bad way, it’s songs of escapism and going off and doing your own thing and being free of the drudgery of daily life and work, but done in a simple, slightly raucous, singalong way.”

Before the reunion had even been announced, Spotify said Oasis streams increased by more than 160% globally just on the strength of the rumours.

Another surge following the announcement led to three of the band’s albums going back into the top five on Friday’s official chart, with their greatest hits album increasing by 332%.

Many new Oasis fans are young women – capturing younger fans is crucial for future-proofing the band financially.

Liam’s popularity, in particular, is helping to carry the band’s music for a new generation. Just last week, aged 51, he headlined Reading Festival, a favourite of GCSE and A-Level students.

For all the heady temptations reunions bring artists, they can easily go wrong.

Jennifer Lopez this summer cancelled her greatest hits tour midway through its run over poor ticket sales. Music journalist Michael Cragg, author of 90s and noughties pop book Reach for the Stars, says she had already “flooded the market” with several Netflix projects, making her music feel like “almost like the last thought”.

And the unexpected return of Oasis’s iconic Mancunian contemporaries The Stone Roses in 2011, after a 20-year absence, highlighted the danger of overpromising and underdelivering. Their initial comeback dates were rapturously received, but new singles fell flat and a new album never materialised.

Oasis’s return has, so far, avoided this pitfall, says the Independent’s music editor Roisin O’Connor.

For now, the band haven’t promised the world – they’re gauging reaction to the tour first, a tour which itself was a surprise.

“There’s no indication that they plan on releasing any new music, meaning there isn’t that risk of fans feeling let down if the material didn’t match those earlier albums,” O’Connor says.

But this doesn’t mean the tour isn’t without risk.

There’s a potential threat to Oasis’s working-class credentials, for example. If this tour becomes financially and logistically inaccessible, it could undermine this image.

Standing tickets for the Oasis tour are priced around £150, but premium packages cost up to £506. Some unofficial re-sale tickets are going for £6,000, though the band has warned these could be cancelled.

During Saturday’s sale, “dynamic pricing” on Ticketmaster, where prices rise in line with demand, set some remaining tickets to around £355 plus fees – up from £135 when the sale began.

Tickets to see the band at Knebworth in 1996 cost about £22 – but that doesn’t account for inflation and the new era of tiered pricing.

The pricing concern and clamour for tickets has also led to discussions around gatekeeping.

Some older fans feel they shouldn’t be in competition for tickets with fans who weren’t even alive the first time around. But many counter that music does not belong to anyone, it’s there for all to enjoy.

The cultural impact of the 2025 shows is likely to be huge, suggesting Oasis “have already stamped their foot over next summer”, Dean says.

The fact the band have ruled out playing Glastonbury next year is likely to boost demand of their own tour: fans have been told the only way to see them live is to buy a ticket.

The appeal of the Oasis live shows is further underlined by the prospect of it being the last chance for fans to see them.

“I think this will be viewed as the latest – possibly final – chapter in the Oasis story,” says the Independent’s O’Connor.

“A moment of catharsis for fans who wanted that closure or a chance to see the band for a final time, and hopefully a mending of fences for Noel and Liam after all these years.

“After that, who knows.”

A building has collapsed in Nigeria’s megacity, Lagos, once every two weeks on average so far this year.

Whereas the commercial cost can be calculated, a figure can never be put on the value of the lives lost underneath the rubble.

The gaps among the buildings, replaced by piles of debris, represent a failure of governance as well as giving rise to allegations of contractors trying to cut corners to save money.

There are regulations, there are maintenance schedules, there are inspectors – but the system does not work.

Those responsible are never held to account, and so nothing ever changes.

Lagos, dubbed by one expert who spoke to the BBC as ” the building-collapse capital of Nigeria”, has seen at least 90 buildings falling down in the last 12 years, leaving more than 350 people dead, according to the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria.

One of the most notorious incidents was in 2021.

Sunday Femi was just metres away, in the upmarket suburb of Ikoyi, when a 21-storey block of luxury flats under construction collapsed, killing 42 people.

• Ikoyi collapse: Anger and frustration grow

After the loud crashing sound, he was engulfed in dust.

“Like many, I rushed inside trying to see if I could help some of the people trapped. Sadly I knew some of those who died and I think about it every day,” he says, reflecting on what happened nearly three years ago.

The drinks seller had been speaking to some of the construction workers moments before they entered the building site.

He still works nearby and the chatter among the locals often turns to those events and the possible cause.

Metal sheeting protects the site from prying eyes but mounds of broken concrete can still be seen through the gaps in the gate.

Knocking on the entrance to the ill-fated compound, two fierce-looking security guards opened up and said they had instructions not to allow anybody into the premises except state government officials.

Just as the place is sealed to the public so is the official investigation into the collapse – it has been sitting with the state governor since he received it in 2022.

A list of recommendations has reportedly been drawn up by a panel of experts following the investigation but that also has not been made public.

The BBC has repeatedly asked the Lagos state authorities to see the recommendations, and the report into the Ikoyi building collapse, but neither has been made available.

The coroner, however, has had her say and in 2022 she did not hold back.

In a damning judgment on the deaths, Chief Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe, attributed the building collapse to the irresponsibility and negligence of the government agencies that were supposed to approve and supervise the plans and construction.

Lagos’s population is booming and is now estimated to stand at more than 20 million.

As the city grows so does the demand for housing and commercial property, and it can sometimes feel like a giant building site with construction going on everywhere.

Before work can begin, plans need to be approved by Lagos state’s Physical Planning Permit Agency. Then inspectors from the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) are supposed to look at the site as well as check the progress at every stage of construction.

And the Standards Organisation of Nigeria should make sure that only suitable building material gets to the market.

But on many occasions the procedures are not followed.

Inside the LASBCA’s offices everything appears calm – there is no sense of the urgency of the problems or challenges it faces.

Spokesperson Olusegun Olaoye acknowledges the criticism but dismisses allegations that officials have been bribed to issue fake certificates and rather blames a lack of resources.

“At the moment we have about 300 building inspectors and supervisors but we are looking to add to that,” he says.

Experts agree that more supervisors are needed.

Muhammad Danmarya, architect and construction expert, says they should number in their thousands.

“Three hundred is just not right for a state like Lagos. Each local government area should have at least 100 inspectors and supervisors and Lagos has 57 of those areas,” he argues.

“There’s always construction going on everywhere you look, so it’s important that inspection and supervision is going on all the time.”

In the absence of that regime across the state, some less scrupulous companies are getting away with violating building codes, using sub-standard materials and employing poorly trained workers – three of the reasons cited for the high frequency of collapses.

“They just come here to pick us up any time they have a job for us and pay us after we are done,” says labourer Habu Isah, who has worked on construction sites for years.

“I have never undergone any training, I just learned everything on the job.”

But even if violations are identified in the wake of a collapse, the state’s building agency does not take any legal action.

“To my knowledge there haven’t been any prosecutions in the past as far as building collapses in Lagos are concerned,” LASBCA’s Mr Olaoye admits.

“I know the statistics are worrying but there are ongoing efforts to halt the trend.”

Alleged political influence is a barrier to pursuing prosecutions.

“If you are connected to people in power, even if you are the culprit in a building collapse case nothing will happen to you,” says a Lagos state politician, who talked to the BBC on the condition of anonymity.

“We’ve seen it so many times, some of the high-profile cases have to do with structures of highly placed people and they are still roaming around freely.

“In Nigeria when you are rich and connected you can avoid problems easily.”

With 19 building collapses already recorded so far this year by the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, the final total is likely to be the highest in the past decade.

But lessons may still go unlearnt.

The head of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria recently said that the country lacked the capacity to properly investigate what is going on.

“We don’t have the expertise, the equipment, and the resources to do so,” said Prof Sadiq Abubakar.

In the meantime, construction workers and others will carry on paying with their lives.

• ‘I’ve been sleeping under a bridge in Lagos for 30 years’
• The Nigerian professor who makes more money welding
• Frustrated Nigerians vow ‘days of rage’ as hardships mount
• Is Nigeria on the right track after a year of Tinubu?

The far right is on the cusp of winning the most votes in German state elections for the first time since the Nazis.

For some in Germany, the rise of Alternative for Germany (AfD) is a literal nightmare.

But others, particularly in the east, say the AfD is a chance for change.

All year, the temperature has been rising in German politics and Sunday’s vote in Thuringia and Saxony may be the boiling point.

“Liar!” shouted a small group of people in Thuringia this week, as Chancellor Olaf Scholz took the stage in the city of Jena.

Chants of “Volksverräter” also punctured through the wider applause; a phrase that means “traitor of the people” and is seen by many as having Nazi connotations.

Chancellor Scholz’s Social Democratic Party, along with his Green and Liberal coalition partners, are doing so badly in Thuringia they may not even get a single seat in the state parliament – while the AfD is polling top.

In neighbouring Saxony, the AfD is running neck and neck with the conservative CDU.

Last week’s knife attack, in which a Syrian asylum seeker and suspected Islamist is accused of killing three people, has fuelled fierce criticism of how successive governments have handled migration.

A hasty – you could even say panicked – response has seen ministers announce tougher asylum and knife crime laws.

But it’s unlikely to overturn a broader discontent that – for many AfD supporters – isn’t just based on anger about “mass” immigration.

People also talk of wanting to fight what they see as over-zealous green policies, state interference and ill-advised military support for Ukraine.

In the east that all combines with a despondency and frustration that’s been brewing for years, even decades – about the results of German reunification.

“You can constantly see where the east begins and where the west begins,” says 16-year-old Constantin, who rides into the town of Meiningen on his East German Simson S50 moped.

“The east and the west, it’s true it’s connected now. It’s one Germany. But we see, in the difference, it’s big.”

The trainee car mechanic’s view is one that echoes through the streets of towns, cities and villages that once made up the communist GDR.

A feeling of being “looked down on” has combined with resentment at the west’s stronger industrial base, higher wages and historic pension inequalities.

“We are getting forgotten,” says Constantin who is firm in his support for the AfD – as are many young people, according to polls.

He, like every AfD supporter I’ve ever spoken to, is dismissive about allegations of extremism that have increasingly dogged the party.

A BBC investigation, earlier this year, found clear links between party figures and networks deemed extremist by state authorities.

In Thuringia, the party is officially classed as right-wing extremist while its highly controversial leader in the state, Björn Höcke, was recently fined for using a Nazi slogan – though he denies doing so knowingly.

But party backers often say that they believe both domestic intelligence and the mainstream media are actively seeking to smear their movement.

Some will judge this as being either a dishonest or deluded defence but there is – in the east – an ingrained suspicion of the state amongst communities that once endured the activities of the Stasi, the loathed secret police in communist East Germany.

“The people who live here have already experienced what it is like when the government starts to interfere too much,” says Vivien Rottstedt, a 31-year-old lawyer and AfD candidate in Thuringia.

Restrictions during the Covid pandemic and a perception that people are being forced to adhere to “politically correct” viewpoints seems to have boosted public distrust.

“People from eastern Germany know exactly what it’s like when you’re no longer allowed to express your own opinion,” she tells me as she shelters under a campaign umbrella in 30C-plus heat in Meiningen.

Meanwhile another insurgent party – the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) – has catapulted itself in the polls up to third place in this state.

Ms Wagenknecht, a former communist and long one of the most prominent politicians in eastern Germany, has had success in blending cultural conservatism with economically left-wing policies.

But it’s the AfD which appears to have the best chance of winning the most votes here, while it’s also set to perform strongly in Saxony and in elections in another eastern state, Brandenburg later this month.

While such an outcome would send shockwaves through Germany, it doesn’t mean the AfD will take power as other parties are likely to band together as part of an ongoing “firewall” against the far right.

Nevertheless, it all spells trouble for the struggling Chancellor Scholz and his constantly bickering coalition.

“It’s new to Germany that we have that three-party coalition and it hurts a lot when you have a lot of disputes,” says SPD activist Levi Schlegtendal.

He’s manning a stall in Jena and recalls how things seemed different when Olaf Scholz entered the chancellery three years ago.

“It was said at that time, 2021, we need someone like [ex-Chancellor Angela] Merkel and that was him,” says Levi – as he recalls the desire for a “calm” and anti-populist candidate.

“Now the times have changed with coronavirus, the Ukraine crisis and he appears to be out of time.”

The results of these elections aren’t just crucial for the people of Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg.

They will be judged as a litmus test of public opinion, a year out from federal elections where few are predicting that this traffic light coalition experiment can – or will – be repeated.

The CDU appears most likely to take the chancellery under the leadership of Friedrich Merz but he has notably been striking a more right-wing tone as establishment parties desperately seek to reverse the rise of the AfD.

A man in Singapore who attempted to frame his estranged wife by planting cannabis in her car has been sentenced to almost four years in jail.

Tan Xianglong, 37, planted what he thought was more than half a kilo of cannabis between the rear passenger seats of his wife’s car, assuming it was enough to warrant the death penalty for drug trafficking.

Singapore has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws, which the government says are necessary to deter drug-related crimes.

Less than half of the substance Tan planted turned out to be cannabis, though. The rest was filler.

Tan “intended to scare the involved party and to also get her in trouble with the law,” according to court documents.

“He understood that the involved party would be wrongly arrested and charged with a serious crime if his plan succeeded.”

He was sentenced on Thursday to three years and 10 months in prison for cannabis possession. The court also considered a second charge of illegal planting of evidence.

Tan and his wife married in 2021 and separated a year later. They could not file for divorce because Singapore allows it only for couples who have been married for at least three years.

Tan believed he might be granted to exception to that rule if his wife had a criminal record.

In Telegram chats with his girlfriend last year, he said he had hatched the “perfect crime” to frame his wife.

On 16 October, he bought a brick of cannabis from a Telegram chat group, weighing it to make sure it exceeded 500g (1.1lbs), and placed it in her car the next day.

What Tan seemingly didn’t account for was the fact that his wife’s car was equipped with a camera, which sent her a phone notification alerting her to a “parking impact”.

When she checked the live footage, she saw her estranged husband walking around her vehicle and reported him to the police for harassment.

In the course of their investigation, police searched the car, found the drugs and arrested Tan’s wife.

But after finding no incriminating evidence against her, they then turned their investigation towards Tan himself, and arrested him.

Tan’s lawyer tried to argue that he was suffering from depression when he committed the crime, but the court rejected this, citing doctors’ findings that he was not suffering from any mental disorder.

Depending on the substance and the amount seized, drug possession in Singapore is punishable by imprisonment while drug trafficking can be punishable by death.

Although Tan was liable to be sentenced to five years in prison, he got a lower term because he co-operated in the proceedings and pleaded guilty early in the trial, according to court documents.

Last year, Singapore executed two convicted drug traffickers over a five-month period, defying opposition from international human rights groups.

Vice-President Kamala Harris is criticising former president Donald Trump over a recent controversy involving his campaign at Arlington National Cemetery, saying the military burial site is “not a place for politics”.

Ms Harris took aim at Trump on Saturday in a post on social media, writing that he “disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt”.

The US Army said a Trump staffer “abruptly pushed aside” a cemetery employee who was trying to warn his team about rules against filming in the cemetery.

The Trump campaign has disputed the cemetery’s version of events and said it received permission from the families of the fallen soldiers to film.

The incident happened on Monday, when Trump was at an event honouring 13 US military service members who were killed during the country’s withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago.

Saturday’s post marks the first time Ms Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, has commented on the controversy.

She wrote that she has visited Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia several times during her tenure as vice-president, and she would never use the site for political gain.

“If there is one thing on which we as Americans can all agree, it is that our veterans, military families, and service members should be honored, never disparaged, and treated with nothing less than our highest respect and gratitude,” Ms Harris said.

“And it is my belief that someone who cannot meet this simple, sacred duty should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States of America.”

At a campaign rally in Michigan on Thursday, Trump hit back at those who had criticised him over the incident.

He said he had been asked to pose for a photo at the site after the memorial by family members of the soldiers who had died.

“I go there, they ask me to have a picture and they say I was campaigning,” Trump said. “The one thing I get plenty of is publicity. I don’t need that. I don’t need the publicity.”

Trump’s running mate JD Vance used the controversy to attack the Biden administration over its handling of the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying that Ms Harris “can go to hell”.

“Three years ago, 13 brave, innocent Americans died, and they died because Kamala Harris refused to do her job,” Mr Vance said on Wednesday in response to questions from BBC’s US partner, CBS News.

NPR reported earlier that two members of Trump’s campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the cemetery worker aside when she tried to intervene.

Federal law prevents use of the cemetery for political campaigning and the US Army said participants were warned of the rules in advance.

A US Army spokesperson said on Thursday that “the incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked.”

The Trump campaign has denied that a physical altercation took place at the cemetery, adding “we are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made”.

House Democrats have since asked the US Army for a report into the incident, asking for a “full account” of what happened.

It has been described as the “most invasive species” to ever hit Thailand – one which risks enormous damage to the environment, according to officials.

Attempts to control it have seen crowds wading out into lakes, and genetic modification.

And yet the blackchin tilapia continues to spread through Thailand’s waterways, so far impacting 17 provinces.

An investigation in parliament has aimed to uncover the cause and its proponent, with Bangkok MP Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat declaring: “We will not pass a devastated ecosystem to the next generation.”

So can Thai authorities win the battle – and how exactly did this West African fish end up causing havoc half a world away?

Thailand had experienced outbreaks of blackchin tilapia in the past, but none has been as widespread as this most recent episode.

Mr Nattacha estimates that this particular outbreak is going to cost Thai economy at least 10 billion baht ($293m; £223m).

The core problem is that the blackchin tilapia prey on small fish, shrimp, and snail larvae, which are among Thailand’s important aquaculture products.

So for months now, the government has encouraged people to catch blackchin tilapia, which have found their way in rivers and swamps. The fish thrive in brackish water, but can also survive in fresh and salt water.

The Thai government has also doubled the amount that it will pay people who catch the fish, to 15 baht ($0.42; £0.33) per kilogram. The result? In Bangkok’s suburbs, crowds have waded in knee-deep waters hoping to catch blackchin tilapia with their plastic basins.

Authorities have also released the blackchin tilapia’s predators – Asian seabass and long-whiskered catfish – to hunt them down.

However, they are battling a species which reproduces at speed: females are able to produce 500 fingerlings at a time.

And so authorities have also gone to the extent of developing genetically-modified blackchin tilapia that would produce sterile offspring, planning to release them as early as the end of this year, in the hopes of stopping their population from exploding further.

But Mr Nattacha told BBC Thai the government needed to do even more.

“Who will win?” he wondered. “We need the people to follow the case closely, otherwise this matter will be quiet, and we will pass on this kind of environment to the next generation.”

So how exactly did this fish – easily identifiable thanks to the black spots on their chins and cheeks – come to be in Thailand?

One theory that parliament has looked into is that an experiment by food behemoth Charoen Pokphand Food (CPF) 14 years ago had caused the spread.

The company, which produces animal feed and runs shrimp and livestock farms, imported 2,000 from Ghana in late 2010. It said all the fish died and were buried properly.

Two years later, outbreaks of blackchin tilapia were reported in Thailand, including the area of a CPF laboratory, according to local broadcaster Thai PBS.

But CPF – the agribusiness arm of one of Thailand’s largest conglomerate, Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group) – has rejected the allegations. It has also threatened to sue those spreading what it calls “misinformation” on the matter.

It is co-operating with state agencies fighting the spread of the alien species.

“Although the company is confident that it is not the cause of the outbreak, it is not indifferent and is ready to cooperate with the government to alleviate the suffering of the people,” said Premsak Wanuchsoontorn, CPF’s aquaculture and research development officer.

However, CPF officials have attended parliament hearings in person only once. They have previously given their explanation to lawmakers in writing.

The director-general of Thailand’s Department of Fisheries, Bancha Sukkaew, notes only one private company had sought permission to import blackchin tilapia.

He told the BBC that there was a possibility that some escaped from the laboratory.

However, he is also not discounting the possibility that the invasive fish species could have been smuggled into Thailand.

In the end, though, how they came to be in Thai waterways is the past – the problem is the future, and getting the outbreak under control. But is it possible?

Experts told BBC Thai that the battle against the blackchin tilapia could be a losing one.

“I don’t see the possibility of eradicating it,” said Dr Suwit Wuthisuthimethavee, an expert in aquatic animal genetics at Walailak University.

“Because we cannot limit its range. When it is in nature, it reproduces continuously, has a fast reproductive cycle,” Dr Suwit added.

Nonn Panitvong, an expert in freshwater ecosystems, agreed.

“The problem with alien species is that once they are established, they are very difficult to eradicate,” he said.

Princess Märtha Louise of Norway has married American self-styled shaman Durek Verrett in a wedding that has divided the country.

The couple tied the knot at a private ceremony at a hotel in Geiranger, Western Norway on Saturday following two days of celebrations.

Unlike other royal weddings where the public throngs the streets, there were only a handful of people present to watch – views of the happy couple prior to or during the wedding were obscured by a tent or white sheets after they sold the exclusive rights to Hello! Magazine.

A documentary crew from Netflix was also in tow. The presence of the two major media companies caused some controversy, with local outlets largely excluded.

The princess’s parents, King Harald and Queen Sonja, attended the nuptials along with other members of Norway’s royal family, as well as princes and princesses from Sweden and the Netherlands.

Princess Märtha Louise’s three daughters from her first marriage, to the late Norwegian writer Ari Behn, were also at the ceremony.

Around 350 guests attended Saturday’s gathering, though there was no evidence that Mr Verrett’s purported A-list American chums were among them.

The 49-year old Californian counts actress and wellness entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow as a friend – Mr Verrett calls her his “soul sister”.

But it was reported that Cynthia Bailey, reality TV star of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, was in attendance.

Princess Märtha Louise, 52, and Mr Verrett, who will not become a prince following the wedding, announced their engagement in 2022. While their relationship has divided Norway, King Harald has previously told Norwegian reporters that Mr Verrett was “a great guy” and that the two of them “laughed a lot, even in this difficult time”.

In 2022, the Norwegian palace announced Märtha Louise would “relinquish her patronage role” as she and Mr Verrett sought to “distinguish more clearly between their activities and the Royal House of Norway” and to “prevent misunderstandings regarding the Royal House”.

Since then, the pair have been criticised by the palace and members of Norway’s parliament for linking commercial activities to the princess’s royal status.

Kristi Marie Skrede, royal correspondent for Norway’s NRK TV, said their relationship it has caused a conflict within the royal family, as well as public controversy.

“Many Norwegians are disturbed that she uses her royal connections to earn money,” said Ms Skrede, adding that some believe it is a sign of “disrespect” to King Harald.

Last year, Märtha Louise told the BBC’s Katty Kay that there had been so much “turmoil” concerning her decision to take a different path than that of a “traditional royal”.

“There’s been a lot of criticism over the years, especially with me being spiritual – and in Norway, that’s taboo,” she said.

But others admire the couple for their honesty, said Ms Skrede. In particular, both been open about their spiritual beliefs.

Princess Märtha Louise has claimed in the past she is clairvoyant, and until 2018, ran a school which she said taught students to “create miracles” and talk to angels. Mr Verrett has said he is the latest in six generations of shamans and once said he died for four minutes and 25 seconds.

“I got all the information from the other side. I came back,” he told the New York Times.

The first families have begun to trickle out of Jenin camp, sealed off for almost four days by an Israeli military operation.

There was fierce fighting inside the camp on Saturday, with battles reportedly taking place in the central Damaj neighbourhood, where armed groups have a strong presence, as well as near the camp entrances.

Out of the gunfire, under the constant buzzing of military drones, the figures of several women and children threaded past Israeli army vehicles. Alone on the deserted road, among the military trucks, they looked small and out of place.

Oruba Shalabi, scared, distressed, and carrying her two-month-old daughter, told us what they had experienced inside the camp.

“They were firing at us and throwing hand-grenades at homes,” she said. “Half our home was blown up. We were hiding in the kitchen and shouting to tell them that we have a baby.”

Oruba says she went to the doorstep to tell them that the children in the house were afraid and struggling to breathe from the smoke.

“They told us we had two minutes to go out,” she said. “They checked our phones and IDs, made us stand in the sun for half an hour, then told us to walk straight ahead.”

Oruba left on foot, just as she was, with her mother, aunt, sister and niece. It’s the first time they have been able to leave their home since Tuesday night.

“There was no electricity or water [in the camp],” she said. “They were shooting at anyone coming close to the windows. All our neighbours were forced out and we were all put in one room. They got the young men to sit on the floor and tied them up.”

The fighting in Jenin intensified on Saturday. The Palestinian Red Crescent has said there are at least two bodies inside the camp they have been unable to retrieve. The Palestinian health ministry has said one of them is an elderly man.

There are also unconfirmed reports of Israeli army casualties. A statement from one of the armed groups – al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade – claimed its fighters had engaged soldiers in an ambush in Damaj.

Israel’s operation this week began with incursions into several cities and refugee camps in the north of the occupied West Bank. Over the past three days, the focus of that operation has narrowed to Jenin, as troops have pulled out of Tulkarem and Tubas.

Early on Friday morning, the Israeli army confronted and killed the man it says headed Hamas in Jenin, Wissam Khazem, along with two other men it said were wanted for shooting attacks.

But this operation is still ongoing, with reports that Israeli forces are moving deep inside the camp to search house-to-house for other wanted men.

Israel says it has killed 20 armed fighters in the operation and recovered weapons including M16 rifles and explosive devices.

The Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah says that 20 people have been killed across the West Bank. The head of the UN agency dealing with Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, says children are among them.

One of those killed is an 82-year-old man whose body was found with nine bullet wounds on Friday, a paramedic told the BBC.

Israel says this is a counter-terrorism operation to dismantle armed Palestinian groups, which it believes are backed by Iran.

An attempted bomb attack in Tel Aviv earlier this month has also sparked alarm in Israel that the threat of suicide attacks in Israeli cities will resurface.

Overnight, Israel’s army said there were two attempted attacks on settlements in the southern part of the West Bank. Its chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, said the ongoing operation in Jenin was aimed at preventing exactly these kinds of attacks.

Tensions over the Gaza War – and repeated military incursions into the West Bank – are changing attitudes and tactics here on both sides. The risk is that they will push the conflict here into a new and more dangerous phase.

US rapper Fatman Scoop has died aged 53 after collapsing at his concert on Friday in Connecticut, his representative has told the BBC.

He was halfway through his set at the Town Center Park in the city of Hamden when he collapsed on stage.

Mayor Lauren Garrett said in a post to Facebook that the rapper was taken to a local hospital by ambulance.

But his booking agency, MN2S, confirmed his death in a statement to the BBC, saying the New York native’s “legacy will live on through his timeless music”.

“Scoop was a beloved figure in the music world, whose work was loved by countless fans across the globe,” an agency spokesperson.

“His iconic voice, infectious energy, and great personality made an indelible mark on the industry.”

In a tribute on social media, Scoop’s family said he was “a radiant soul, a beacon of light on the stage and in life.”

“FatMan Scoop was not just a world class performer, he was a father, brother, uncle and a friend,” his family said.

“He was the laughter in our lives, a constant source of support, unwavering strength and courage.”

Scoop, whose legal name is Isaac Freeman III, has been credited as an influential figure in New York City’s hip hop scene in the 1990s.

He has featured on popular songs including Grammy award-winning Lose Control by Missy Elliott and It’s Like That by Mariah Carey.

Scoop is also known for his sleeper hit Be Faithful, which was originally released in 1999 but garnered international success in 2003, topping the charts in Ireland and the UK.

In 2004, the rapper was featured in the UK TV series Chancers on Channel 4, which featured musicians mentoring aspiring UK artists looking to achieve success in the US.

Fatman Scoop was also a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother 16: UK vs USA, which was housed in the UK and aired in 2015. He was the third housemate to be evicted.

His tour manager, DJ Pure Cold, wrote in a post on Instagram that he was “lost for words” at the news of his friend’s death.

“You took me all over the world and had me performing alongside you on some of the biggest and greatest stages on this planet,” he wrote.

“The things you taught me have truly made me the man I am today.”

Fatman Scoop was due to perform at the UK’s Reminisce Festival on 7 September. In a post on Instagram, the festival called the news of his death “devastating”.

“He was not just one of our most popular performers, he was a cherished member of the Reminisce family,” the festival said.

“His energy, talent and infectious spirit will be missed more than words can express.”

Major book publishers have sued the US state of Florida over a law that allows schools to ban certain books from their student libraries.

The lawsuit, filed on Thursday by publishers including Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, argues that Florida’s law violates First Amendment rights to free speech.

The suit names several books that have been removed from school libraries under the law, including works by renowned authors Maya Angelou and Ernest Hemingway.

Florida officials responded to the lawsuit by calling it a “stunt,” and have denied that the state has banned books.

“There are no books banned in Florida,” said Florida Department of Education spokesperson Sydney Booker. “Sexually explicit material and instruction are not suitable for schools.”

At the heart of the lawsuit is a bill passed in Florida last year that requires schools to develop a mechanism where parents could object to certain books found in libraries or classrooms.

It defines books subject to removal as any that “depict or describe sexual conduct” or that are “inappropriate for the grade level and age group” of students in the school.

According to a report released in April by Pen America, a non-profit advocating for free speech, Florida had 3,135 book bans recorded from July 2021 to December 2023 – the highest in the country.

Pen America has said that the majority of books removed are ones that “talk about LGBTQ+ identities, that includes characters of colour, that talk about race and racism, that include depictions of sexual experiences in the broadest interpretation of that understanding”.

Among the books removed are Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, and Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.

Bestselling authors including John Green and Jodi Picoult, as well as parents opposed to Florida’s law, have also joined the publishers’ lawsuit.

It argues that the state law allows schools to automatically prohibit books without consulting “trained professionals, such as teachers or media specialists, to determine which books are appropriate”.

It adds that some schools have banned books that include the phrase “made love”, for example, without considering the context of the book as a whole.

These restrictions “apply to all grades, kindergarten through twelfth grade”, the lawsuit states, arguing that the law has created a “regime of strict censorship” in schools.

In an interview with BBC’s US partner, CBS News, Judi Hayes, a Florida mother who joined the lawsuit, said the law has hurt her son’s ability to learn.

“We’re not talking about Playboy magazine, you know, we’re talking about Anna Karenina and War and Peace,” Ms Hayes said.

The lawsuit is seeking for the law to be amended.

The defendants named in the lawsuit include Ben Gibson, chair of the Florida State Board of Education, as well as other school board members.

It does not name Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who had previously championed the law.

In April, Mr DeSantis signed a bill that restricts objections to books in Florida schools, saying he is trying to “prevent abuse from activists” who have used the law to challenge books like The Giver and the Bible.

“I think what’s happened is you have some people who are taking the curriculum transparency, and they’re trying to weaponize that for political purposes,” he said at a news conference that month.

Under the new rules, Florida residents without children can object to only one book per month. Those with children will continue to have an unlimited number of challenges.

Israel says its forces have recovered the bodies of six hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the bodies were located on Saturday in an underground tunnel in the Rafah area of southern Gaza.

The IDF named the hostages as Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Master Sgt Ori Danino.

Spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said an initial assessment was they were “brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them”.

A senior Hamas official, Izzat al-Rishq, insisted Israel was responsible for their deaths, as it has refused to sign a ceasefire deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not rest until those responsible for their killing are brought to justice.

In a statement, he also said his government was committed to achieving a deal to release those remaining in captivity and protects the country’s security.

“Whoever murders hostages – does not want a deal,” he added.

A group representing the families of those held hostage in Gaza has demanded that Mr Netanyahu “address the nation and take responsibility for abandoning the hostages”.

The Hostages Families Forum said that all six held captive were “murdered in the last few days, after surviving almost 11 months of abuse, torture, and starvation in Hamas captivity”.

“The delay in signing the deal has led to their deaths and those of many other hostages,” they added in a statement.

The group has also announced plans to “bring the nation to a halt” on Sunday, asking the Israeli public to join protests in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and elsewhere in Israel to call for a hostage exchange deal.

One of Israel’s most prominent opposition politicians, Yair Lapid, joined the calls for a general strike to put renewed pressure on the government to agree a deal.

He accused Mr Netanyahu’s “cabinet of death” of deciding against saving the hostages to avoid conflict with his far-right allies in government.

“He prefers saving the coalition with [Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich] and [National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir], rather than saving our children’s lives. This blood is on their heads”, Mr Lapid added.

A Bedouin Arab man rescued in Gaza last week by Israeli troops urged Israel to reach a deal with Hamas to free all the remaining hostages.

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

In its statement on Sunday morning announcing the deaths of the hostages, the IDF said the bodies had been “returned to Israeli territory”.

“They were all taken hostage on 7 October [2023] and were murdered by the Hamas terrorist organisation in the Gaza Strip.”

The statement added that their families had already been notified.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the “heart of an entire nation is shattered to pieces with the news” of their killing.

“On behalf of the State of Israel, I embrace their families with all my heart, and apologize for failing to bring them home safely,” he added.

Sharone Lifschitz, whose father Oded is being held in Gaza, said the hostages were killed because of delays in getting a deal

She also accused the Israeli government and Hamas of placing “more and more obstacles” in the way of reaching an agreement.

Ms Lifschitz’s mother Yocheved was released in the November 2023 hostage exchange, in which more than 100 people were freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Meanwhile, after the death of Mr Goldberg-Polin – an American citizen – was confirmed, US President Joe Biden said he was “devastated and outraged” by the news.

He said in a statement that “Hersh was among the innocents brutally attacked while attending a music festival for peace in Israel on 7 October”.

“He lost his arm helping friends and strangers during Hamas’ savage massacre. He had just turned 23. He planned to travel the world.

“I have gotten to know his parents, Jon and Rachel. They have been courageous, wise, and steadfast, even as they have endured the unimaginable,” Mr Biden said.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer expressed shock at the “horrific and senseless killing of six hostages in Gaza by Hamas”.

“Hamas must release all the hostages now, and a ceasefire deal must be agreed by all sides immediately to end the suffering,” he added in a post on X.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza 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 40,738 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators are trying to broker a ceasefire deal that would see Hamas release the 97 hostages still being held – including at least 33 who are presumed dead – in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

It comes as a UN-led multi-day polio vaccination campaign gets under way in Gaza, following the discovery of the potentially deadly virus in wastewater samples earlier this summer.

Three “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting – beginning on Sunday – have been agreed between Israel and Hamas so that officials can vaccinate around 640,000 children under the age of 10

The move comes after the first infection in more than 25 years was detected in a 10-month-old Palestinian child last month.

Russian air strikes have injured at least 41 people in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, officials have said.

Regional head Oleh Syniehubov said five children were among those wounded and he accused Moscow of “aiming exclusively at civilian infrastructure” in the city.

Among the buildings damaged are a supermarket and a sports complex in areas residents go to every day, he added.

“Russia is once again terrorizing Kharkiv, striking civilian infrastructure and the city itself,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in the wake of the attacks.

Mr Zelensky repeated his calls for Western allies to “give Ukraine everything it needs to defend itself”.

Mr Syniehubov said at least 10 separate Russian strikes had been recorded, including the use of ballistic missiles.

People may be buried under the rubble in some areas and rescue operations are continuing, he added.

The attack comes after Ukraine launched a wave of overnight drone attacks against targets in Russia, where fire broke out at two energy facilities.

No injuries or deaths have been reported by Russian officials.

According to Russia’s defence ministry, more than 158 Ukrainian drones targeted 15 regions of the country, including the capital Moscow.

The Russian military said the drones were intercepted and destroyed.

But as a result of the attack a fire has broken out at an oil refinery in Moscow in a “separate technical room”, the city’s mayor said.

Sergei Sobyanin reported that at least 11 drones targeted the capital city and the surrounding areas.

Meanwhile, 75 miles (120km) from the Russian capital, in the Tver region, loud blasts were heard close to the Konakovo Power Station.

Russian media are reporting a fire at the facility.

The region’s governor, Igor Rudenya, acknowledged a fire caused by an attack in Konakovsky district had been contained, without providing details of what was hit.

Local officials also said drones attempted to attack the Kashira Power Plant in the Moscow region – but that there were no fires, damage or casualties as a result.

BBC Verify has examined and verified videos posted on social media which show explosions at all three locations. In the footage, fires appear to have subsequently broken out at Konakovo Power Station and the Moscow refinery.

Ukraine has not commented on the claims.

But Ukrainian forces have been stepping up long-range strikes inside Russia over the past few months, launching scores of drones simultaneously at strategic targets several times a week.

BBC News has been told that Western technology and finance are helping them carry out hundreds of long-range strikes inside Russia.

In Ukraine, a 23-year-old lorry driver was killed after a Russian air strike on a grain convoy in the Sumy region overnight, local officials have said.

Prosecutors said four others were injured in the attack after one lorry caught fire and around 20 others were damaged.

Ukraine’s air force also said it had destroyed eight out of 11 drones used by Russia, adding that grain and agriculture facilities had been targeted in the Mykolaiv region as well.

Sumy borders Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine has been carrying out a military incursion for nearly a month.

Progress has slowed in recent days, but Ukraine claimed last week it controlled 1,294 sq km (500 sq miles) of territory – including 100 settlements. It also said nearly 600 Russian soldiers had been captured.

Meanwhile, Russian forces are continuing to advance rapidly on a key town in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region – which has been the focus of Moscow’s ground offensive for months.

Pokrovsk plays a crucial role as a logistics hub for Ukrainian forces, as it is home to a key railway station and is located at the intersection of several important roads.

Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi described the situation in the area of Russia’s main attack as “difficult”, but added that all necessary decisions are “being made without delay”.

The most recent Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s energy facilities also come a day after a Russian guided bomb strike on a playground in Kharkiv killed a 14-year-old girl.

A similar attack on a residential building in the city in north-eastern Ukraine also killed six other people.

It also follows Russia hitting Ukraine’s energy grid with a massive wave of deadly drone and missile strikes last week – which led to at least nine people being killed over two days.

Russia began targeting Ukraine’s energy system with air strikes shortly after it began its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Rescuers in the Russian far-east have found no survivors in the wreckage of a helicopter that disappeared while carrying 22 people – most of them tourists.

The aircraft went missing on Saturday after taking off from a base near the Vachkazhets volcano in the Kamchatka peninsula. Officials said on Sunday that 17 bodies had been found so far.

That area, a popular tourist destination, is famous for its active volcanoes. The cause of the crash in unclear.

Such accidents are relatively frequent in Russia’s far-east, which is sparsely populated and suffers harsh weather. Three years ago eight people were killed when a tourist helicopter crashed into a lake in Kamchatka.

The Mi-8T helicopter that disappeared from radar on Saturday was carrying 19 tourists and three crew.

The wreckage was found on Sunday morning in a hilly area, Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said on Telegram.

Footage posted to the messaging app by Russia’s emergencies ministry showed helicopter debris lying near a slope close to a large wooded hill. Officials said the wreckage was found near the location where the helicopter went off radar.

An emergency ministry official, Ivan Lemikhov, said17 bodies had been found so far and searches for those still missing had been paused, slated to resume at daybreak on Monday.

Russia’s Interfax news agency reported that pilot error, possibly caused by fog, was the main theory regarding the cause of the crash.

Earlier, earlier officials said that thick fog was hampering rescuers’ efforts.

The aircraft was owned by Vityaz-Aero, a Kamchatka-based company that organises flights for tourists.

Designed during the Soviet-era, the Mi-8 helicopter is still widely used in Russia.

The man who walked out into the rain in Dhaka hadn’t seen the sun in more than five years.

Even on a cloudy day, his eyes struggled to adjust after half a decade locked in a dimly lit room, where his days had been spent listening to the whirr of industrial fans and the screams of the tortured.

Standing on the street, he struggled to remember his sister’s telephone number.

More than 200km away, that same sister was reading about the men emerging from a reported detention facility in Bangladesh’s infamous military intelligence headquarters, known as Aynaghor, or “House of Mirrors”.

They were men who had allegedly been “disappeared” under the increasingly autocratic rule of Sheikh Hasina – largely critics of the government who were there one day, and gone the next.

But Sheikh Hasina had now fled the country, unseated by student-led protests, and these men were being released.

In a remote corner of Bangladesh, the young woman staring at her computer wondered if her brother – whose funeral they had held just two years ago, after every avenue to uncover his whereabouts proved fruitless – might be among them?

The day Michael Chakma was forcefully bundled into a car and blindfolded by a group of burly men in April 2019 in Dhaka, he thought it was the end.

He had come to authorities’ attention after years of campaigning for the rights of the people of Bangladesh’s south-eastern Chittagong Hill region – a Buddhist group which makes up just 2% of Bangladesh’s 170m-strong, mostly Muslim population.

He had, according to rights group Amnesty International, been staunchly vocal against abuses committed by the military in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and has campaigned for an end to military rule in the region.

A day after he was abducted, he was thrown into a cell inside the House of Mirrors, a building hidden inside the compound the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) used in the capital Dhaka.

It was here they gathered local and foreign intelligence, but it would become known as somewhere far more sinister.

The small cell he was kept in, he said, had no windows and no sunlight, only two roaring exhaust fans.

After a while “you lose the sense of time and day”, he recalls.

“I used to hear the cries of other prisoners, though I could not see them, their howling was terrifying.”

The cries, as he would come to know himself, came from his fellow inmates – many of whom were also being interrogated.

“They would tie me to a chair and rotate it very fast. Often, they threatened to electrocute me. They asked why I was criticising Ms Hasina,” Mr Chakma says.

Outside the detention facility, for Minti Chakma the shock of her brother’s disappearance was being replaced with panic.

“We went to several police stations to enquire, but they said they had no information on him and he was not in their custody,” she recalls. “Months passed and we started getting panicky. My father was also getting unwell.”

A massive campaign was launched to find Michael, and Minti filed a writ petition in the High Court in 2020.

Nothing brought any answers.

“The whole family went through a lot of trauma and agony. It was terrible not knowing the whereabouts of my brother,” she says.

Then in August 2020, Michael’s father died during Covid. Some 18 months later, the family decided that Michael must have died as well.

“We gave up hope,” Minti says, simply. “So as per our Buddhist tradition we decided to do hold his funeral so that the soul can be freed from his body. With a heavy heart we did that. We all cried a lot.”

Rights groups in Bangladesh say they have documented about 600 cases of alleged enforced disappearances since 2009, the year Sheikh Hasina was elected.

In the years that followed, Sheikh Hasina’s government would be accused of targeting their critics and dissenters in an attempt to stifle any dissent which posed a threat to their rule – an accusation she and the government always denied.

Some of the so-called disappeared were eventually released or produced in court, others were found dead. Human Rights Watch says nearly 100 people remain missing.

Rumours of secret prisons run by various Bangladeshi security agencies circulated among families and friends. Minti watched videos detailing the disappearances, praying her brother was in custody somewhere.

But the existence of such a facility in the capital was only revealed following an investigation by Netra News in May 2022.

The report found it was inside the Dhaka military encampment, right in the heart of the city. It also managed to get hold of first-hand accounts from inside the building – many of which tally with Michael’s description of being held in a cell without sunlight.

The descriptions also echo those of Maroof Zaman, a former Bangladeshi ambassador to Qatar and Vietnam, who was first detained in the House of Mirrors in December 2017.

His interview with the BBC is one of the few times he has spoken of his 15-month ordeal: as part of his release, he agreed with officials not to speak publicly.

Like others who have spoken of what happened behind the complex’s walls, he was fearful of what might happen if he did. The detainee who spoke openly to Netra News in 2022 only did so because he was no longer in Bangladesh.

Maroof Zaman has only felt safe to speak out since Sheikh Hasina fled – and her government collapsed – on 5 August.

He describes how he too was held in a room without sunlight, while two noisy exhaust fans drowned out any sound coming from outside.

The focus of his interrogations were on the articles he had written alleging corruption at the heart of government. Why, the men wanted to know, was he writing articles alleging “unequal agreements” signed with India by Ms Hasina, that favoured Delhi.

“For the first four-and-a-half months, it was like a death zone,” he says. “I was constantly beaten, kicked and threatened at gunpoint. It was unbearable, I thought only death will free me from this torture.”

But unlike Michael, he was moved to a different building.

“For the first time in months I heard the sound of the birds. Oh, it was so good, I cannot describe that feeling,” Maroof recounted.

He was eventually released following a campaign by his daughters and supporters in late March 2019 – a month before Michael found himself thrown into a cell.

Few believe that enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings could have been carried out without the knowledge of the top leadership.

But while people like Mr Chakma were languishing in secret jails for years, Ms Hasina, her ministers and her international affairs advisor Gowher Rizvi were flatly rejecting allegations of abductions.

Ms Hasina’s son, Sajeed Wazed Joy, has continued to reject the allegations, instead turning the blame on “some of our law enforcement leadership [who] acted beyond the law”.

“I absolutely agree that it’s completely illegal. I believe that those orders did not come from the top. I had no knowledge of this. I am shocked to hear it myself,” he told the BBC.

There are those who raise their eyebrows at the denial.

Alongside Michael, far higher profile people emerged from the House of Mirrors – retired brigadier Abdullahi Aman Azmi and barrister Ahmed Bin Quasem. Both had spent about eight years in secret incarceration.

What is clear is that the re-emergence of people like the politicians, and Michael, shows “the urgency for the new authorities in Bangladesh to order and ensure that the security forces to disclose all places of detention and account for those who have been missing”, according to Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights office in Geneva.

Bangladesh’s interim government agreed: earlier this week, it established a five-member commission to investigate cases of enforced disappearances by security agencies during Ms Hasina’s rule since 2009.

And those who have survived the ordeal want justice.

“We want the perpetrators to be punished. All the victims and their families should be compensated,” Maroof Zaman said.

Back on the street outside the House of Mirrors – just two days after Sheikh Hasina fled to India – Michael was struggling to decide what to do. He had only been told about his release 15 minutes before. It was a lot to take in.

“I forgot the last two digits of my sister’s phone number,” he says. “I struggled a lot to remember that, but I couldn’t. Then I called a relative who informed them.”

But Minti already knew: she had seen the news on Facebook.

“I was ecstatic,” she recalls through tears two weeks later. “Next day, he called me, I saw him on that video phone call after five years. We were all crying. I couldn’t recognise him.”

Last week, she saw him in person for the first time in five years: weaker, traumatised – but alive.

“His voice sounds different,” she says.

Michael, meanwhile, is dealing with the long term health implications of being held in the dark for so long.

“I cannot look at contacts or phone numbers properly, it’s a blurred vision. I am getting treatment, and the doctor is giving me spectacles.”

More than that, there is coming to terms with what he has missed. He was told of his father’s death a few days after his release.

And yet, amid the pain, he is hopeful – even happy.

“It’s more than a new lease of life, a resurrection. It feels like I was dead and have come back to life again. I cannot describe this feeling.”

Air travellers who hoped the era of “tiny toiletries” was nearly over are facing fresh disappointment, as European airports re-introduce strict cabin bag rules.

Some EU destinations had scrapped the 100ml limit for liquids being carried in hand luggage.

But from Sunday, they must all bring it back due to a “temporary technical issue” with new security scanners. It follows a similar move by the UK earlier this summer.

It means if you have been on holiday, you cannot buy a large bottle of suncream, perfume or a local tipple before you get to the airport and expect to carry it home in your hand luggage.

But why has it happened? And will the relaxed rules that had started in some locations ever return?

Airline passengers around the world had grown used to strict 100ml restrictions on liquids, pastes and gels, which had to be put in a clear plastic bag.

But new scanning machines which use CT X-ray technology should in theory enable larger volumes of liquids to go through, and laptops to stay in bags.

Some EU airports, for example in Rome and Amsterdam, had already put them in place and eased their rules. Most had not yet. Some others have been trialling the new technology.

The Europe branch of the Airports Council International (ACI) estimates around 350 of these scanners are now in use across 13 EU countries such as Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

However, the EU has reinstated the 100ml limit so a technical issue with the new equipment can be addressed, although it has not said what this issue is.

Reports have suggested that the scanners were not accurate for some liquid containers being carried in bags.

In July, ACI Europe criticised the restriction as a “setback for the passenger experience and a blow to major investments made by airports”.

Its director general, Olivier Jankovec, said security was the top priority, but added that those “which have been early adopters of this new technology are being heavily penalised both operationally and financially”.

He also argued that restricting their use “questions the trust and confidence the industry can place in the current EU certification system for aviation security equipment”.

Predictions that all the UK’s airports would scrap their hand luggage liquid limits this year did not come to pass.

The previous Conservative government had required state-of-the-art scanning equipment to be installed in security lanes by June 2024.

It hasn’t proved that straightforward.

Some smaller airports, which have fewer lanes to update, did meet a deadline of June 2024.

London City, Teesside, Newcastle, Leeds-Bradford, Aberdeen and Southend had complied on time and dropped the old liquids rules.

However, the likes of Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester didn’t. Reasons varied from the need for construction work, to supply chain problems. They were given more time to get the new kit in place.

But in mid-June, the Department for Transport suddenly announced 100ml liquids limits must be re-introduced where they had been dropped.

Those airports that had scrapped the rule needed to swiftly change their processes and airport bosses were angry at the sudden U-turn.

The European Commission announced in late July that the maximum size allowed for individual liquid containers would revert back to 100ml.

There is no date for when the rules will be relaxed again.

The Commission said this wasn’t “in response to any new threat but addresses a temporary technical issue” with the new generation of scanners.

It said it was taking the action “in alignment with the EU’s international partners”, and that “swift technical solutions” would be developed.

The UK government previously said the systems needed improving after new information came to light.

However it has also given no end date for the 100ml limit, so it’s unclear how long the situation will last.

The Department for Transport said it was “working with manufacturers, airports and international partners to lift restrictions when possible.”

So for the foreseeable future it’s best for passengers to assume the old 100ml restrictions apply, and check the rules at both departure and return airports before travelling.

After being hounded over her nationality and forced to drop out of the Miss South Africa contest, Chidimma Adetshina has been crowned beauty queen of a totally different country.

Ms Adetshina cried tears of joy as she was named Miss Universe Nigeria on Saturday.

“This crown is not just for beauty; it’s a call for unity,” the 23-year-old law student stated after weeks at the centre of an intense media storm.

She was invited to participate in Miss Universe Nigeria after her position as a finalist in the Miss South Africa contest sparked a wave of criticism.

Some people in South Africa had questioned her eligibility to compete in the beauty pageant because despite being a South African citizen, Ms Adetshina’s father is Nigerian and her mother has Mozambican roots.

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In interviews Ms Adetshina said she was born in Soweto – the South African township next to Johannesburg – and grew up in Cape Town.

The row over her nationality sparked an investigation with the organisers of Miss South Africa asking the nation’s home affairs department to look into her eligibility.

After an initial probe, the department announced that Miss Adetshina’s mother may have committed “identity theft” to become a South African national.

However, the statement added that Ms Adetshina “could not have participated in the alleged unlawful actions of her mother as she was an infant at the time”.

A day after the announcement, Ms Adetshina dropped out of the contest, saying she took the decision for her and her family’s safety and wellbeing.

By now, her ordeal had made headlines around the world.

After hearing of Ms Adetshina’s story, the organisers of Miss Universe Nigeria invited her to participate in their contest.

They said she would be able to “represent her father’s native land on the international stage”.

After winning the contest on Saturday, Ms Adetshina will represent Nigeria at November’s Miss Universe competition.

Her success has been celebrated on social media.

“Your story is inspirational – you are stronger than you think and we love you our African sister,” one South African woman wrote on Instagram.

Another supporter said: “Trust me guys we Nigerians are proud of her… she’s our very own sister, a very smart, intelligent girl, our Nigerian blood runs through her veins.”

However, others alleged the contest was “rigged” in Ms Adetshina’s favour – an accusation the Miss Nigeria organisers have not responded to.

“She’s undeserving,” one Instagram user said.

“She has never lived in Nigeria and was merely invited to compete after the final delegates had been chosen… she arrived in Nigeria for the first time after 20 years last week, only to be given our crown. This organisation reeks of sheer bias.”

Another wrote: “In all honesty you won out of pity… feeling very sorry for the other contestants who were there long before you came.”

At the Miss Universe contest in November, the law student’s rivals will include Mia le Roux, who won this year’s Miss South Africa competition after Ms Adetshina dropped out.

Ms le Roux became the first deaf woman in history to win the crown.

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A new show in the Indian capital Delhi showcases a rich collection of early photographs of monuments in the country.

The photographs from the 1850s and 1860s capture a period of experimentation when new technology met uncharted territory.

British India was the first country outside Europe to establish professional photographic studios, and many of these early photographers were celebrated internationally. (Photography was launched in 1839.)

They blended and transformed pictorial conventions, introduced new artistic traditions, and shaped the visual tastes of diverse audiences, ranging from scholars to tourists.

While the works of leading British photographers often reflect a colonial perspective, those by their Indian contemporaries reveal overlooked interactions with this narrative.

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The pictures at the show called Histories in the Making have been gathered from the archives of DAG, a leading art firm. They highlight photography’s crucial role in shaping an understanding of India’s history.

They also contributed to the development of field sciences, fostered networks of knowledge, and connected the histories of politics, fieldwork, and academic disciplines like archaeology.

“These images capture a moment in history when the British Empire was consolidating its power in India, and the documentation of the subcontinent’s monuments served both as a means of asserting control and as a way to showcase the empire’s achievements to audiences back in Europe,” says Ashish Anand, CEO of DAG.

This is a a picture of Caves of Elephanta taken by William Johnson and William Henderson.

The Caves, a UNESCO World Heritage site, are a group of temples primarily dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva in the state of Maharashtra.

William Johnson began his photographic career in Bombay (now Mumbai) around 1852, initially working as a daguerreotypist – the daguerreotype was an early photographic process that produced a single image on a metal plate.

In the mid-1850s, Johnson partnered with William Henderson, a commercial studio owner in Bombay, to establish the firm Johnson & Henderson.

Together, they produced The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album, a monthly series published from 1856 to 1858.

Linnaeus Tripe arrived in India in 1839 at the age of 17, joining the Madras regiment of the East India Company.

He began practicing photography and in December 1854, captured images in the towns of Halebidu, Belur, and Shravanabelagola.

Sixty-eight of these photographs, primarily of temples, were exhibited in 1855 at an exhibition in Madras (now a major city called Chennai), earning him a first-class medal for the “best series of photographic views on paper”.

In 1857, Tripe became the photographer for the Madras Presidency – a former province of British India – and photographed sites at Srirangam, Tiruchirapalli, Madurai, Pudukkottai, and Thanjavur.

Over 50 of these photographs were displayed at the Photographic Society of Madras exhibition the following year, where they were widely praised as the best exhibits.

John Murray, a surgeon in the Bengal Indian Medical Service, began photographing in India in the late 1840s.

Appointed civil surgeon in the city of Agra in 1848, he spent the next 20 years producing a series of studies on Mughal architecture in Agra and the neighbouring cities of Sikandra, and Delhi.

In 1864, he created a comprehensive set of pictures documenting the iconic Taj Mahal.

Throughout his career, Murray used paper negatives and the calotype process – a technique of creating “positive” prints from one negative – to produce his images.

Thomas Biggs arrived in India in 1842 and joined the Bombay Artillery as a captain in the British East India Company.

He soon took up photography and became a founding member of the Photographic Society of Bombay in 1854.

After exhibiting his work at the Society’s first exhibition in January 1855, he was appointed as the government photographer for the Bombay Presidency, tasked with documenting architectural and archaeological sites.

He photographed Bijapur, Badami, Aihole, Pattadakal, Dharwad, and Mysore before being recalled to military service in December 1855.

Biggs experimented with the calotype process, producing “positive” prints from one negative.

Felice Beato, one of the most renowned war and travel photographers of the 19th Century, arrived in India in 1858 to document the aftermath of the 1857 mutiny.

Indian soldiers, known as sepoys, had set off a rebellion against the British rule, often referred to as the first war of independence.

Although the mutiny was nearly over when Beato arrived, he photographed its aftermath with a focus on capturing the immediacy of events.

He extensively documented cities deeply affected by the uprising, including Lucknow, Delhi, and Kanpur, with notable images of Sikandar Bagh, Kashmiri Gate, and the barracks of Kanpur. His chilling photograph of the hanging of sepoys, stands out for its stark depiction.

As a commercial photographer, Beato aimed to sell his work widely, spending over two years in India photographing iconic sites. In 1860, Beato left India for China to photograph the Second Opium War.

Andrew Neill, a Scottish doctor in the Indian Medical Service in Madras, was also a photographer who documented ancient monuments for the Bombay Presidency.

His calotypes were featured in the 1855 exhibition of the Photographic Society of Madras and in March 1857, and 20 of his architectural views of Mysore and Bellary were shown by the Photographic Society of Bengal.

Neill also documented Lucknow after the 1857 revolt.

Edmund Lyon, who served in the British Army from 1845 to 1854 and briefly as governor of Dublin District Military Prison, arrived in India in 1865 and established a photographic studio in the southern city of Ooty.

Working as a commercial photographer until 1869, Lyon gained significant recognition, particularly for his photographs of the Nilgiris mountain range, which were showcased at the 1867 Paris Exposition.

Accompanied by his wife, Anne Grace, Lyon also captured southern India’s archaeological sites and architectural antiquities.

His work resulted in a remarkable collection of 300 photographs documenting sites in Trichinopoly, Madurai, Tanjore, Halebid, Bellary, and Vijayanagara

Samuel Bourne’s stunning images of India, especially from his Himalayan expeditions between 1863 and 1866, stand among the finest examples of 19th-Century travel photography. A former bank clerk, Bourne left his job in 1857 to pursue photography full-time.

Arriving in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1863, he soon moved to Shimla, where he partnered with William Howard to establish the Howard & Bourne studio.

Later that year, Charles Shepherd joined them, forming ‘Howard, Bourne & Shepherd’. When Howard left, the studio became ‘Bourne & Shepherd,’ a name that would become iconic.

Bourne embarked on three major Himalayan expeditions, covering vast regions including Kashmir and the challenging terrain of Spiti. His 1866 photographs of the Manirung Pass, at over 18,600ft (5,669m), gained international acclaim.

In 1870, Bourne returned to England, selling his shares, though Bourne & Shepherd continued to operate in Calcutta and Simla. The studio, which later documented the spectacular Delhi Durbar – the ‘Court of India’ of 1911, an event that saw 20,000 soldiers marching or riding past the silk-robed Emperor and Empress – had a remarkable 176-year legacy before closing in 2016.

Donald Trump has signalled that he will vote in favour of legalising marijuana for personal use in his home state of Florida, ahead of a ballot on the issue in November.

The Republican presidential nominee wrote on his Truth Social platform that voters are highly likely to approve the measure “whether people like it or not” and therefore “it should be done correctly”.

The former US president’s stance puts him at odds with other senior Republican figures, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has argued that legalising recreational cannabis use would “be bad for quality of life”.

Medicinal marijuana was made legal in Florida in 2016.

Cannabis for both personal and medical use is legal in 24 US states, according to the Pew Research Centre. A further 14 states have legalised medical marijuana.

Trump said: “Someone should not be a criminal in Florida, when this is legal in so many other states.

“We do not need to ruin lives and waste taxpayer dollars arresting adults with personal amounts of it on them.”

The proposal is one of a number of amendments Florida residents will vote on in November at the same time as the US chooses its new president. Trump is running against incumbent vice-president and Democratic Party nominee Kamala Harris.

On legalising marijuana for personal use, Trump said that there would need to be rules in place to “prohibit the use of it in public spaces, so we do not smell marijuana everywhere we go, like we do in many of the Democrat-run cities”.

Mr DeSantis has claimed that making cannabis legal for recreational use “would turn Florida into San Francisco or Chicago” – both cities in Democrat-run states.

Marijuana was legalised in Illinois 2020 and between January and July this year, cannabis sales reached more that $1bn (£760m), according to state government statistics.

In California, where personal use was legalised in 2016, marijuana sales reached $4.4bn last year.

However, it is not clear how those figures compare to black market sales of cannabis which, according to some, still thrives.

Legalised growers and sellers have to get permits and pay tax, which can prove costly and risk making their cannabis more expensive.

“The black market is very pervasive and it is definitely larger than the legal market,” Bill Jones, the head of enforcement for California’s Department of Cannabis Control, told US broadcaster NPR earlier this year.

Trump has already caused some confusion about a different amendment that will be on Florida’s ballot in November. On Friday he said he would vote against a measure in Florida that would protect abortion rights, after facing backlash from conservative supporters.

Abortion is banned in Florida after six weeks of pregnancy – the amendment proposes expanding that to 24 weeks. Trump had initially signalled support for the proposal.

His campaign later claimed he had not said how he would vote in ballot, simply that he thought that the six week period was “too short”. The following day, Trump, whose Mar-a-Lago estate is in Palm Beach, Florida, said he would be voting “no”.

Allegations. Resignations. Police complaints.

These words have been dominating headlines and shaking up a bustling film industry in the southern Indian state of Kerala since last week.

The state has been witnessing a flurry of sexual abuse allegations against some top male stars since a landmark report that looked into problems faced by women in the industry was released last week.

The industry, which makes around 150-200 Malayalam-language films a year, is a vital, vibrant business that has made some of the most critically acclaimed and progressive cinema emerging from India.

But the 290-page report by a three-member panel – called the Hema committee – detailed the problems faced by women in Malayalam cinema, including poor working conditions and rampant sexual harassment. Parts of the report have been redacted to hide the identities of the survivors as well as those accused of harassment.

• The Hema committee report slams Kerala’s film industry

Since its release, a number of women – some of whom have now given up acting – have publicly spoken about facing sexual assault and harassment in the industry.

More than a dozen police complaints have been filed against some male stars, two of whom have also filed counter-complaints.

The shake-up has been so huge that the entire top governing body of the state’s biggest film group – the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) – was dissolved after its president, superstar Mohanlal, resigned on “moral grounds” after some members faced accusations.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg. Only a few have spoken up till now. More serious issues may emerge,’’ actor Mala Parvathy told BBC Hindi.

The reactions to the first-of-its-kind report are being closely watched by people in India’s many film industries, including Bollywood. During the #MeToo movement, several women had made sexual harassment allegations against actors and filmmakers in different states but few of these have been investigated.

• Indian actress breaks silence on sexual assault

The government set up the Hema committee, headed by a former judge of the Kerala High Court, in 2017 in the aftermath of the shocking sexual assault on a leading actress. One of Kerala’s biggest actors, Dileep, was named by police as an accused and charged with criminal conspiracy. He has denied the charges, but was arrested and held in custody for three months before being released on bail. The case is still being heard in court.

After the release of the report, the first public allegation came from Bengali actress Sreelekha Mitra, who accused well-known director Ranjith of sexually harassing her a few years ago. He has denied this but resigned as chairman of the state’s prestigious motion picture academy. Mitra has filed a police complaint.

Many of the other complaints echo some of the revelations made by unnamed women in the Hema committee report that they were repeatedly asked to “compromise” and “adjust” in exchange for opportunities.

Minu Muneer told BBC Hindi as well as several other news channels that an actor had hugged and kissed her without her consent while they were shooting a film. She has also detailed instances of sexual misconduct by others in the industry, including prominent actor and lawmaker Mukesh.

Mukesh has denied the allegations against him and accused Muneer of trying to blackmail him.

“I welcome any investigation into allegations made against me and others in the film industry,” he wrote in a Facebook post.

Two actresses have accused a director of knocking on the doors of their hotel rooms in the middle of the night. He has not responded to the allegation.

One actress has accused well-known actor Siddique of raping her in 2016 and filed a police complaint against him. Siddique, who resigned as AMMA general secretary after the accusation, has denied this and accused the complainant of trying to “tarnish his reputation”.

While the Kerala government had been praised for being the first to set up such a committee, the report’s release has also put it on the back foot.

The report, which was submitted in 2019, was released only last week after nearly five years of delay and multiple legal challenges by members of the film industry. The government then said that while it would investigate all complaints filed before the police, it would not take up any cases on its own. But as pressure mounted, it has set up a special team to investigate complaints.

The Kerala High Court has also asked the government to submit the entire report – including the 54 redacted pages – to it.

Within the Malayalam film industry, reactions to the report have been mixed. Superstars such as Mohanlal and Mammotty have been criticised for not making a public comment yet.

Some actors have welcomed the release of the report and called for the government to launch a proper investigation into the allegations. A prominent film employees’ federation has asked the government to disclose the names of those accused in the report.

Others have lamented that the report is being used to brand all men in the industry as abusers.

But many have also argued that the report and the subsequent shake-up are positive, much-needed changes in an industry often celebrated for making progressive films.

“I am not ok with people saying, ‘Malayalam industry is so rotten inside’. No, we are good inside, which is why we are fixing it,” actress Parvathy Thiruvothu, a founding member of the Women in Cinema Collective, an organisation formed in the aftermath of the 2017 assault, told a news channel.

It was the industries “you don’t hear anything about” that people should be “worried about”, she added.

The notion that artificial intelligence could one day take our jobs is a message many of us will have heard in recent years.

But, for Paul Skye Lehrman, that warning has been particularly personal, chilling and unexpected: he heard his own voice deliver it.

In June 2023, Paul and his partner Linnea Sage were driving near their home in New York City, listening to a podcast about the ongoing strikes in Hollywood and how artificial intelligence (AI) could affect the industry.

The episode was of interest because the couple are voice-over performers and – like many other creatives – fear that human-sounding voice generators could soon be used to replace them.

This particular podcast had a unique hook – they interviewed an AI-powered chat bot, equipped with text-to-speech software, to ask how it thought the use of AI would affect jobs in Hollywood.

But, when it spoke, it sounded just like Mr Lehrman.

“We needed to pull the car over,” he said.

“The irony that AI is coming for the entertainment industry, and here is my voice talking about the potential destruction of the industry, was really quite shocking.”

That night they spent hours online, searching for clues until they came across the site of text-to-speech platform Lovo. Once there, Ms Sage said she found a copy of her voice as well.

“I was stunned,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it.”

“A tech company stole our voices, made AI clones of them, and sold them possibly hundreds of thousands of times.”

They have now filed a lawsuit against Lovo. The firm has not yet responded to that or the BBC’s requests for comment.

But how was Lovo able to recreate their voices? The couple alleges it was done under false pretences.

Lovo co-founder Tom Lee has previously said its voice-cloning software only needs a user to read about 50 sentences to create a faithful clone.

“We can capture the tone, the character, the style, the phonemes, and even if you have an accent, we can capture that as well,” he told the Future Visionaries podcast in 2021.

In their lawsuit, the couple set out how they say Lovo obtained just such a recording from them.

They allege anonymous Lovo employees contacted them to record audio assets on Fiverr, the popular freelance talent website, where they were selling their services to provide audio for television, radio, video games, and other media.

First, in 2019, Ms Sage says a user reached out asking for her to record dozens of generic sounding test radio scripts.

Test recordings are often used in film and television for focus groups, internal meetings, or as placeholders for works in progress. Because they won’t be shared broadly, these recordings cost much less than audio meant for broadcast.

Ms Sage says she completed the job, delivered the files, and was paid $400 (£303).

About six months later, Mr Lehrman says he got a similar request to record dozens of generic sounding radio ads.

In messages the couple have shared with the BBC, the anonymous Fiverr user says the audio will be used for research into “speech synthesis”.

After asking the user to guarantee that the scripts will not be used outside their specific research project, Mr Lehrman asks what the goal of the project is.

“The scripts will not be used for anything else,” the user says, “and I can’t yet tell you the goal, as it’s a confidential work in process sorry haha”.

Mr Lehrman asked if the finished files would be repurposed or used in a different order. The user says the files will be used for research purposes only. Mr Lehrman says he delivered the files and was paid $1200.

The link between the anonymous user and Lovo came, they say, from Lovo itself.

They shared the evidence they had found of their voices being cloned with Lovo – who replied they had done nothing wrong, pointing to the communications between them the anonymous user as evidence they engaged with the couple legally.

“In our careers, we’ve delivered over 100,000 audio assets,” Mr Lehrman said, of their work on Fiverr over the better part of a decade.

“We were able to find this needle in a haystack – they gave us this needle in a haystack.”

In both cases, both Mr Lehrman and Ms Sage say they did not have a written contract, just these conversations. The BBC has not been able to verify the entirety of their conversations. The couple say the user they spoke with also appears to have deleted some messages.

The BBC contacted Lovo on several occasions to request an interview with Mr Lee and to seek a response to the couple’s claims. They did not respond to any of our messages.

The lawsuit the couple filed in May alleges that Lovo used recordings of their voices to create copies that illegally compete with Ms Sage and Mr Lehrman’s real voices.

The couple say the company did so without permission or proper compensation.

It is a class action lawsuit – meaning they are hoping other claimants will join it, though none have so far.

Professor Kristelia Garcia, an expert in intellectual property law at Georgetown University in Washington DC says the case is likely to centre on an area of US law called rights of publicity.

Sometimes referred to as personality rights, violations of one’s publicity often come from misuse or misrepresentation of someone’s image or voice.

She also says there could likely be a breach of contract regarding the licences Ms Sage and Mr Lehrman granted the user who commissioned the recordings.

“Licences are permission for a very specific and narrow use. I might give you a licence to use my swimming pool one afternoon, but that doesn’t mean you can come whenever you want and have a party in my swimming pool,” she told the BBC.

“That would exceed the terms of the licence.”

Whatever the outcome of the case, it is another in a long list of lawsuits brought by artists, authors, illustrators, and musicians who don’t want to lose control of their work and livelihood.

And they are likely to just be the tip of the iceberg. This week the financial firm Klarna said it planned to use AI to halve its workforce.

Some experts predict 40% of all jobs will eventually be impacted by AI

For Mr Lehrman and Ms Sage though that worrying future is playing out now.

“This whole experience has felt so surreal,” Ms Sage said.

“When we thought about artificial intelligence, we were thinking of AI folding our laundry and making us dinner, not pursuing human being’s creative endeavours.”