At least 40 people have been killed in southern Gaza and dozens more injured in Israeli strikes on a designated humanitarian zone, the Hamas-run Civil Defence authority said.

The Israeli military said its aircraft attacked an operations centre in Khan Younis belonging to Hamas fighters, and that it had taken steps to mitigate risk of harming civilians.

Local residents said three strikes targeted tents housing displaced people in the humanitarian zone of al-Mawasi, west of the city of Khan Younis, causing huge craters.

“Forty people were killed and more than 60 injured, while many are still under the rubble,” the operations director of Hamas’s civil defence authority told the BBC.

Eyewitnesses told the BBC large explosions rocked the al-Mawasi area shortly after midnight and flames could be seen rising into the sky.

Khaled Mahmoud, a volunteer for a charity who lives near the site of the strikes, said he and other volunteers rushed to help but were stunned by the scale of the disaster.

“The strikes created three craters seven metres deep and buried more than 20 tents,” Mr Mahmoud said.

Unverified videos showed civilians digging through the sand with their hands in an attempt to rescue Palestinians from a deep hole caused by the airstrikes.

In a statement, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said the military had attacked “significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control center embedded inside the Humanitarian Area in Khan Yunis.”

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

“The terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip continue to systematically abuse civilian and humanitarian infrastructure, including the designated Humanitarian Area, to carry out terrorist activity against the State of Israel and IDF troops.”

Hamas rejected the Israeli military’s claims that there were Hamas fighters present in the area, calling it a “blatant” lie.

“The resistance has denied several times that any of its members exist within civilian gatherings or are using these places for military purposes.”

• Israel-Gaza ceasefire: Is a deal still possible?
• Satellite images show how Israel is paving key Gaza road

Thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled to Khan Younis since Israel launched its military campaign in the territory last October.

The ground operation was launched in response to Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, in which about 1,200 were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

More than 40,900 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

American presidential debates aren’t won on policy.

I’ve covered six presidential elections and have never seen a debate where one candidate emerged as the winner because they made an outstanding policy proposal.

Sure, the ABC News moderators at Tuesday’s debate will ask Donald Trump and Kamala Harris earnest questions about tax cuts and foreign affairs.

But what viewers always focus on are the moments where one candidate has a zinger of a line, or somehow unnerves their opponent, or simply seems more in control.

This is perhaps why an adviser to Trump tells me the former president hasn’t spent his prep time brushing up on policy.

Instead, he’s been “fine-tuning the theatrics of his performance”. If there’s one thing that Trump understands well, it’s television audiences.

He has also been on a presidential debate stage six times already.

For Kamala Harris, this poses a problem. This is her debut. She has not had much rehearsal time and it’s hard to become a world class performer in a couple of weeks.

Unlike her opponent, Ms Harris has spent the past week holed up in a Pennsylvania hotel deep in policy books – but her team has also tried to prepare her to win the optics battle too.

The Harris team has reportedly built a mock television stage – fully fitted with a debate podium and proper lighting.

Top advisers are standing-in and playing the role of Trump (with one of them reportedly even dressing in his signature boxy suits and red ties).

All of this is in a bid to get Ms Harris comfortable with the theatre of it all. They’ve also been reviewing hours of video of all those Trump debates, seeing which plays work well against him and which fall flat.

If the vice-president was hoping for a burst of last minute good news to quell any stage fright, she didn’t get it. A New York Times poll this week has rattled Democrats.

The poll showed a neck-and-neck race between the two candidates, but a sizeable share of voters said they didn’t feel they knew enough about Ms Harris.

One Democratic strategist texted to say they are nervous about the debate because they felt Ms Harris was tentative in a recent CNN interview.

Ask any of the Republicans who Trump demolished in the 2016 primary debates and they will surely tell you that “tentative” is not a winning strategy against him.

• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
• ANALYSIS: Will Harris debate tactics work against Trump?
• EXPLAINER: Seven swing states that could decide election
• VOTER VOICES: Voters want less drama at debate
• FACT CHECK: Was US economy stronger or weaker under Trump?

Since the American public knows far more about Trump than about Ms Harris, the stakes for her seem higher on Tuesday night.

One approach she may take in trying to win this debate will be doing all she can to ensure that Trump loses it. Her team wants to rattle him, to get him to be the most “Trumpian” version of himself.

They hope that if viewers see him behave badly, as he did in a 2020 debate against Joe Biden, it will cost him support.

I’m told Ms Harris may use trigger words like “old” (old ideas, old story) and “small” (small thinking, small beliefs) as a way to needle him on the basis that Trump is conscious of being the older candidate, and references to size seem to irritate him.

But goading him into rude interruptions will be difficult in this debate, because the candidates’ microphones will be muted when it’s not their turn to speak.

Until we see what happens on that stage, it’s hard to determine what a win for either candidate looks like. Debates are unpredictable things. Just ask Mr Biden.

North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of the race for the White House in his weekly US Election Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

James Earl Jones might have enjoyed an acting career that lasted nearly 60 years. But the thing he will be remembered for was that voice.

It was a deep, rolling, glorious contrabass; once described as the sound that “Moses heard when addressed by God.”

He was the voice of Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, summoning by speech alone the full power of the mystical ‘Force’.

More recently, he could be heard growling “This is CNN”, conveying urgency and bestowing gravitas on the US news channel’s tagline.

James Earl Jones was born on 17 January 1931 in Mississippi, of African-American, American Indian and Irish ancestry. His father, Robert Earl Jones abandoned his family not long after the birth of his son.

It was a big household, with 13 people, and it was decided that Jones should live with his grandmother in Memphis “to ease the burden”. But when he was driven to her house, he clung desperately to the car.

“It was the only way I could express that I wanted to be with them”, he recalled. “They accepted that.”

It was all so traumatic he developed a stammer that lasted into his teens. It got so bad that, for some time, he was unable to speak, and communicated only in writing.

Ironically, it was the stammer that turned him towards acting, giving him a life-long appreciation of the spoken word.

In high school, a sympathetic teacher discovered his talent for writing poetry and encouraged him to read his compositions out loud in class. Jones discovered that his stammer eased when he was speaking from memory. Encouraged, he began to take part in debates and public speaking competitions.

He was drawn to the theatre during his time at the University of Michigan and, after completing his military service, sought work as an actor in New York. For a time he lived with his father, not because he was seeking a reconciliation but simply to save on the rent.

“It was too late to get to know him as a father,” he said. “If you don’t learn that from the beginning, there’s no way to catch up.” But Robert, who had tried to make a go of acting himself, supported his son’s ambition with one condition.

“I can’t make a living doing this”, he told the young James. “So if you want to enter this world, do it because you love it.” It wasn’t bad advice.

Despite the difficulties black actors found finding work, Jones made his name in Broadway productions such as Jean Genet’s drama, The Blacks, in which black actors performed in white make-up to subvert colonial stereotypes.

He was fortunate to have hit a time when New York theatre was remaking itself in a different image. No longer did you have to be white and middle class to succeed.

He did Shakespeare; not only Othello, but King Lear, Oberon and Claudius. And there was cutting edge, modern work in Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and an all-black production of Tennessee Williams’ Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.

In 1968, he won a Tony award for his stage portrayal of a character based on the great black boxer, Jack Johnson in The Great White Hope. He later received an Oscar nomination for his performance in the film version, only the second black actor following Sidney Poitier to be so honoured.

His first film role was as a young, trim member of Slim Pickens’ flight crew in Stanley Kubrick’s dark satire Dr Strangelove.

He later appeared in a wide variety of movies such as Conan the Barbarian, Coming to America, Field of Dreams, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. He would think of himself as a journeyman actor who took whatever came along and paid a cheque.

“Denzel Washington, Sidney Poitier, Robert Redford, Tom Cruise: those guys have well-planned careers,” he admitted to the Guardian. “I’m just on a journey. Wherever I run across a job, I say, ‘OK, I’ll do that.”

As children know the world over, he was asked to voice Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy. The man behind the mask, Dave Prowse, had a strong West Country accent. It was good enough for the Green Cross Code man, but lacked the menace of an evil Jedi bent on intergalactic power.

At his own insistence, Jones was not given a credit for his performance. He felt it was all merely another “special effect”. When the films broke all box office records, he was persuaded to rethink.

He was also well known as a television performer, playing the older Alex Hailey in Roots: The Next Generation and winning one of his two Emmys for the lead role in the US drama Gabriel’s Fire. His gravelly tones were used in The Simpsons and as the voice of Mufasa in The Lion King.

He also appeared in early episodes of Sesame Street. To see if the show worked, the producers showed clips to schoolchildren. The one that had the biggest impact, by far, was of James Earl Jones standing motionless, simply counting slowly from one to 10.

In 2011, he was awarded an honorary Oscar for his contribution to the film industry. He received it on the stage of a London theatre where he was appearing with Vanessa Redgrave in the play, Driving Miss Daisy.

Such was the authority in his voice, James Earl Jones became a stalwart of commercial voice-overs, documentaries and computer games. He was the voice of SeaWorld in Florida and NBC’s Olympic coverage. Someone even had the good sense to ask him to record all 27 books of the New Testament.

He was happy to hire out his voice for business, but was more reticent about politics. His father had been black-listed by Senator Joseph McCarthy and he steered clear of controversy.

“My voice is for hire”, he once said. “My endorsement is not for hire. I will do a voice-over, but I cannot endorse without making a different kind of commitment. My politics are very personal and subjective.”

He never retired, working long into his 80s. The boy from Mississippi with a strong stammer will be remembered as a powerful stage actor with a legendary voice.

In 2016, there was even a final performance as Darth Vader in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

His words still had the brutal power they’d wielded four decades previously; bringing to a new generation of children the timeless horror of the Dark Side.

Voters in the US go to the polls on 5 November to elect their next president.

The election was initially a rematch of 2020 but it was upended in July when President Joe Biden ended his campaign and endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris.

The big question now is – will the result mean a second Donald Trump term or America’s first woman president?

As election day approaches, we’ll be keeping track of the polls and seeing what effect big events like Tuesday’s presidential debate have on the race for the White House.

In the months leading up to Biden’s decision to drop out of the race, polls consistently showed him trailing former president Trump. Although hypothetical at the time, several polls suggested Harris wouldn’t fare much better.

But the race tightened after she hit the campaign trail and she developed a small lead over her rival in an average of national polls that she has maintained since. The latest national polling averages for the two candidates are shown below, rounded to the nearest whole number.

In the poll tracker chart below, the trend lines show how those averages have changed since Harris entered the race and the dots show the spread of the individual poll results.

Harris hit 47% during her party’s four-day convention in Chicago, which she brought to a close on 22 August with a speech promising a “new way forward” for all Americans. Her numbers have moved very little since then.

Trump’s average has also remained relatively steady, hovering around 44%, and there was no significant boost from the endorsement of Robert F Kennedy, who ended his independent candidacy on 23 August.

While these national polls are a useful guide as to how popular a candidate is across the country as a whole, they’re not necessarily an accurate way to predict the result of the election.

That’s because the US uses an electoral college system to elect its president, so winning the most votes can be less important than where they are won.

There are 50 states in the US but because most of them nearly always vote for the same party, in reality there are just a handful where both candidates stand a chance of winning. These are the places where the election will be won and lost and are known as battleground states.

Right now, the polls are very tight in the seven battleground states, which makes it hard to know who is really leading the race. There are fewer state polls than national polls so we have less data to work with and every poll has a margin of error that means the numbers could be higher or lower.

As is stands, recent polls suggest there is less than one percentage point separating the two candidates in some states. That includes Pennsylvania, which is key as it has the highest number of electoral votes on offer and therefore makes it easier for the winner to reach the 270 votes needed.

Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin had all been Democratic strongholds before Trump turned them red on his path to winning the presidency in 2016. Biden retook them in 2020 and if Harris can do the same this year then she will be on course to win the election.

In a sign of how the race has changed since Harris became the Democratic nominee, on the day Joe Biden quit the race he was trailing Trump by nearly five percentage points on average in these seven battleground states.

The figures we have used in the graphics above are averages created by polling analysis website 538, which is part of American news network ABC News. To create them, 538 collect the data from individual polls carried out both nationally and in battleground states by lots of polling companies.

As part of their quality control, 538 only include polls from companies that meet certain criteria, like being transparent about how many people they polled, when the poll was carried out and how the poll was conducted (telephone calls, text message, online, etc).

You can read more about the 538 methodology here.

At the moment, the polls suggest that Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are within a couple of percentage points of each other both nationally and in battleground states – and when the race is that close, it’s very hard to predict winners.

Polls underestimated support for Trump in both 2016 and 2020. Polling companies will be trying to fix that problem in a number of ways, including how to make their results reflect the make-up of the voting population.

Those adjustments are difficult to get right and pollsters still have to make educated guesses about other factors like who will actually turn up to vote on 5 November.

• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
• ANALYSIS: Will Harris debate tactics work against Trump?
• EXPLAINER: Seven swing states that could decide election
• IMMIGRATION: Could Trump really deport a million migrants?
• FACT CHECK: Was US economy stronger or weaker under Trump?
• Read more about: Kamala Harris | Donald Trump | US election

A busy bridge in northern Vietnam collapsed after being hit by Super Typhoon Yagi, which has killed more than 60 people since making landfall on Saturday.

Dashcam footage showed the moment the Phong Chau bridge in Phu Tho province gave way on Monday, plunging several vehicles into the water below. Searches were under way for 13 people.

Vietnam’s most powerful storm in 30 years has wreaked havoc across the north of the country, leaving 1.5 million people without power.

Although it has now weakened into a tropical depression, authorities have warned Yagi will create more disruption as it moves westwards.

More than 240 people have been injured by the typhoon, which brought winds of up to 203 km/h (126 mph) and is Asia’s most powerful storm so far this year.

Ten cars and two scooters fell into the Red River following the collapse of the Phong Chau bridge, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc said.

The moment a lorry plummeted into the water as the bridge decking ahead fell away before the driver had time to stop was captured on camera.

At least three people have been rescued from the river so far.

Nguyen Minh Hai said he was riding across the bridge on his motorcycle when it collapsed.

“I was so scared when I fell down,” he said, speaking from hospital.

“I feel like I’ve just escaped death. I can’t swim and I thought I would have died.”

Part of the 375-m (1230-ft) structure is still standing, and the military has been instructed to build a pontoon bridge across the gap as soon as possible.

At least 44 of those who died in Vietnam were killed in landslides and flash floods, according to the ministry of agriculture and rural development.

Among them were a 68-year-old woman, a one-year-old boy, and a newborn baby.

The typhoon tore roofs from buildings, uprooted trees, and left widespread damage to infrastructure and factories in the north. Photos by Reuters news agency show that the walls of an LG Electronics factory in Hai Phong city have collapsed.

In the Yen Bai province, flood waters reached a metre high on Monday, with 2,400 families evacuated to higher ground as levels rose, AFP news agency reported.

Nearly 50,000 people have been evacuated from coastal towns in Vietnam, with authorities issuing a warning to remain indoors.

Schools were temporarily closed in 12 northern provinces, including Hanoi.

Nguyen Thi Thom, who owns a restaurant in Ha Long Bay on the north-east coast, said she and many other people had lost everything in the storm.

“There is nothing left. When I look around, people have also lost all they had, just like me,” she said.

“I can only try to recover from this.”

Before hitting Vietnam, Yagi left 24 people dead across southern China and the Philippines.

As the world warms, typhoons can bring higher wind speeds and more intense rainfall, although the influence of climate change on individual storms is complicated.

Such a personal video is a strikingly different approach for a health update about the Princess of Wales.

It is highly emotional and full of harvest colours heading into an almost melancholy tone, as Catherine walks in the countryside with her family.

There could have been a traditional press release, or a statement delivered to the camera, but instead there’s a soft focus, cinematic touch to this message.

Instead of footnotes and explainers about the completion of her chemotherapy, there’s stylised filming and an intimate first-person narration.

This is clearly a well-planned approach to releasing information, with the filming by Will Warr taking place in Norfolk last month, and the changes of clothes suggesting more than one filming session.

It’s a world away from old school royal releases which stuck to the barest of details and stayed as dry as the desert.

This much lusher treatment follows the trend of celebrities and public figures taking their messages straight to the public, using the language of social media rather than conventional news or an interview.

It allows a great deal of control over the message – with evocative music and slick editing driving the story forward, rather than any questions that might arise about her health or treatment.

We see Catherine, in a 1970s-style long flowing dress, spending time with her family in the woods and by the beach, playing a game with her own parents.

These are framed in a relatable way – a family relaxing after really tough times, in a rural setting that’s meant to send a message about the soothing powers of nature.

Over the top of the pictures is Catherine’s narration, in a movie voiceover style, capturing her sense of cautious optimism, as she welcomes the end of her chemotherapy while at the same time recognising the fragility of life.

It’s where Norfolk meets Hollywood plus Instagram.

There’s almost an echo of a film such as About Time in the video, with its melancholy music, sad themes and a life-affirming narration about how a family can be changed forever by unexpected events.

The comparisons are with movie styles and flashback sequences, rather than news releases.

There’s also clearly an awareness of how this short film might be seen by the many families facing cancer in their own lives. It’s a sensitivity that seems close to the surface.

It almost becomes a prayer at the end, with the invocation: “To all those who are continuing their own cancer journey – I remain with you, side by side, hand in hand. Out of darkness, can come light, so let that light shine bright.”

With business slumping, Apple has been under pressure to show what it will offer buyers to jumpstart a new wave of iPhone sales.

On Monday, the technology giant revealed its hand – the iPhone 16 which has a camera button on the outside of the handset.

The button is an external clue to the changes Apple said it had made inside its latest smartphone, aimed at harnessing the latest in artificial intelligence (AI).

Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook said the upgrades would “push the boundaries of what a smartphone can do” but the firm has tough competition, as other brands have already integrated generative AI features into their handsets.

Apple’s share price fell during its “Glowtime” event, where it unveiled the iPhone 16 as well as other products, and ended the day flat. The company, worth $3 trillion, is facing concern that it is losing its edge in the burgeoning area of artificial intelligence.

Sales of the iPhone – Apple’s most important product which accounts for around half of its total sales – have stalled in recent months. They slipped by 1% over the nine months ended 29 June compared with a year earlier.

Apple said its new phones, which come with longer lasting batteries, more powerful chips and enhanced privacy features, were its first built specifically to handle AI and its new “Apple Intelligence” tools, many of which were announced in June.

Those include new tools for writing and creating new emojis as well incorporating OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT into Siri to help users with some queries and text generation requests.

On Monday, Apple also announced updates to its Apple Watch and its AirPod headphones, which will allow them to automatically drop the volume when users start in-person conversations and to decline calls with the shake of a head.

It said the Pro version of its AirPods would be able to be used as a “clinical grade” personal hearing aid for people with mild or moderate hearing loss.

The company said it was expecting marketing approval from regulators for the device “soon” and the feature would be available this autumn in more than 100 countries, including the US, Germany and Japan.

Previously, the company had a feature that allowed people to pair hearing aids with iPhones and other devices.

The products were rolled out at a glossy event where protestors gathered in a designated free speech area across the street, urging executives to ramp up efforts to protect children from dangerous content in the company’s App Store.

The protest featured a life-sized blow-up made to resemble Mr Cook.

Sales of the new range start in September, with prices for the iPhone16 starting at $799.

But the Apple Intelligence features are not set to be available on operating systems until October, starting in the US and heading to other countries in the following months. They will be available in the UK in December.

Ben Wood, chief analyst at the market research firm CCS Insight, said it was likely that many people would dismiss the company’s new camera control as a “glorified shutter button”.

But he said it offered “very significant” upgrades, including visual, AI-powered search and he came away from the presentation persuaded that Apple would win over customers.

“The combination of Apple Intelligence and new camera features on the iPhone 16 will help spur upgrades from loyal Apple customers,” he said. “Particularly as Apple is positioning this latest update as being a future-proof purchase for customers wanting to get Apple Intelligence features as they roll out over the next few years.”

Apple has been slower than rivals Samsung and Google to bake generative AI features for photo editing, translation and web browsing into its devices.

Competitors are now building them into folding, flipping and even tri-folding smartphones.

Pre-orders for Huawei’s new tri-fold phone, the Mate XT, reportedly hit more than three million on Monday.

Gartner analyst Annette Zimmermann said because Apple was rolling out AI-ready smartphones later than rivals, it was “critical” they deliver.

She warned that rolling the features out before they were ready could risk their reputation or prompt sales losses.

India had a lone shining moment at the 2012 London Paralympics when Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda won a silver medal in the men’s high jump.

The country hadn’t won any medal at the 2008 edition in Beijing, so it felt special to millions of Indians.

But Nagarajegowda’s win also sparked discussions on whether a lone medal was enough for a country that has millions of people with disabilities.

It also raised questions around India’s attitudes to para sport and disability in general. But something seems to have clicked for the country since 2012.

India won four medals in Rio in 2016 and 20 at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.

And it closed the Paris Paralympics with an impressive tally of 29 medals. There have been so many moments to savour for India in Paris – from Sheetal Devi, who competes without arms, winning a bronze with Rakesh Kumar in a mixed compound archery event to Navdeep Singh registering a record throw of 47.32m in javelin to win a gold in the F41 category (athletes with short stature compete in this class).

These achievements are special given the leap of growth Indian para athletes have shown in just over a decade.

India still has a long way to go to take on countries like China (220 medals), Great Britain (124) and the US (105) but supporters of para sports in the country say the tide may be turning.

So what changed in this relatively short period of time?

Plenty.

Several government agencies, coaches and corporate firms came together to invest in para athletics.

And as they helped more heroes emerge, more children and their parents felt confident to take up para sport as a profession.

Gaurav Khanna, the head coach of the Indian para badminton team, says having people to look up to has changed mindsets:

“This has increased the number of athletes who are participating and who are having confidence that they can do better. When I joined the para badminton team in 2015, there were only 50 athletes in the national camp. Now that figure has gone up to 1,000.”

This is a stark change from the time he began training para athletes. Earlier, Khanna used to spot young talent in strange places like shopping malls, corner shops and even on roads while driving in the country’s rural areas.

“It used to be tough to convince parents to send their children for something they knew little about. Just imagine convincing the parents of a young girl to send her to a faraway camp and trust somebody they didn’t know. But that’s how earlier champions came to the fore,” he adds.

Technology has also played a crucial part. With India’s growing economic prowess, Indian para athletes now have access to world-class equipment.

Khanna says each category in different disability sports requires specific equipment, which is often designed to meet the needs of an individual athlete.

“We didn’t have access to good equipment earlier and we used whatever we could get. But now it’s a different world for our athletes,” he says.

Disability rights activist Nipun Malhotra also acknowledges the change in mindset. He says the biggest change he has noticed is that parents now believe that children with disabilities can also become heroes:

“I think families have started playing a much more important role, and people with disabilities have got integrated much more into families today than they were 20 years ago. This also affects how society looks at disability as well. The fact that there are people with disabilities who are excelling in sports also gives hope to the future generations.”

Khanna and Malhotra both give credit to government schemes like TOPS (Target Olympic Podium Scheme) for identifying and supporting young talent.

Private organisations like the Olympic Gold Quest, which is funded by corporate houses, have also helped para athletes realise their full potential.

And then there are people like Khanna who started talent scouting and coaching using their own money, and continue to do so.

Sheetal Devi’s journey wouldn’t be possible without the support she got from a private organisation. Born in a small village in Jammu district, she didn’t know much about archery until two years ago.

She visited the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board sports complex in Jammu’s Katra on a friend’s advice and met her coach Kuldeep Vedwan there.

• The Indian archer without arms shooting for a gold

Now she is as popular in India as Manu Bhaker, who won two bronze medals in shooting at the Paris Olympics.

Brands are already lining up to sign Devi, and a jewellery advert featuring her has gone viral.

Social media has helped para athletes connect with people directly and tell them their stories. Experts hope that this will help them build a brand and eventually take them to commercial success as well. Stars like Devi are already there and there is hope that many more will follow.

But there is plenty of work left to do.

India has a long way to go to become disability-friendly, with most public places still lacking basic facilities to help people navigate everyday life.

Malhotra, who was born with arthrogryposis – a rare congenital disorder that meant that the muscles in his arms and legs didn’t fully develop – found that many didn’t want to hire him despite his degree in economics from a prestigious college in India.

He hopes the triumph of India’s para athletes will slowly help in opening those shut doors.

“The upside of this [India’s medal tally in Paris] is pretty high. Disabled people, including those with degrees from Oxford, struggle to get jobs in India. What our Paralympics triumph will do is that it will open the minds of employers about employing disabled people without any fear,” he says.

While India’s impressive showing in Paris has delighted many, coaches like Khanna believe grassroots facilities for para athletes are still poor even in big Indian cities.

He points out that classifications in para sports are very technical and trained coaches are essential to identify raw talent and guide them towards the right categories – all this even before a young person can start training.

Sports facilities have improved drastically even in small Indian cities in the past two decades but para sport still lags behind by quite a distance.

“You will not find well-trained para sport coaches even in most prominent schools in cities like Delhi and Mumbai and this has to change,” says Malhotra.

For Khanna, change has to start at entry level and he urges government and private players to train more coaches.

He argues that players can hope for stardom today only if they are spotted and then supported by organisations.

“But we won’t get to the top of the table like this. We have to ensure that a disabled child even in the remotest part of the country should have access to a good coach and facilities,” the para badminton coach adds.

An investor in the disastrous Fyre Festival has issued a warning to anyone interested in going to its planned reboot: “Proceed with caution.”

Andy King’s comment comes after Billy McFarland announced Fyre II, after only recently being released from prison for scamming millions from the original.

Mr King, who lost $1m in the original debacle, told the BBC that McFarland was “known for the biggest failure in pop culture and wants to flip the script. But I’m not sure he’s going about it the right way.”

McFarland, 32, spent four years in prison over the 2017 event in the Bahamas, which provided none of the promised “luxury” for tickets costing up to $250,000. Tickets for Fyre II next April will cost up to $1.1m (£840,000), he says.

McFarland told US media last week that “Fyre II has to work”. He claimed he had spent a year planning it, and had already sold 100 tickets at an ‘early bird’ rate of $499.

Mr King, 63, said he had met McFarland several months ago to discuss Fyre II but he feared his former business partner hadn’t “learned a lot in prison… he’s shooting from the hip again”.

“Billy has a gift. He’s got a lot of charisma. He knows how to pull people in,” the South Carolina-based event planner told BBC News.

“Think about it: when he was 24, he walked in to investment banking firms in New York and got them to invest $29m.”

He said Fyre II could be a “huge success” – but if McFarland was “running the show again, it won’t work”.

Mr King, who said none of his $1m investment in the original festival had been returned, was contacted by McFarland to meet investors in the new venture.

“I’m just seeing a lot of red flags, and a lot of red lights”, he said. “And I feel bad. It saddens me.

“We were going to rent one of the biggest estates in the Hamptons and have a big, swanky party,” said Mr King, referencing a famed playground of America’s rich and famous.

“We ended up having 30 people at a pizza place along the Montauk highway.”

He said subsequent calls were cancelled and he hadn’t heard from McFarland in seven or eight months.

The original Fyre was promoted by supermodels and celebrities as an exclusive getaway for the very rich, and the location was hyped as a private island once owned by drug lord Pablo Escobar.

Festival-goers arrived to find all the talent cancelled, bare mattresses to sleep on in storm-ravaged tents and cheese sandwiches in takeaway containers to eat.

McFarland was sentenced in 2018 to six years in jail for wire fraud, and was also ordered to return $29m to investors.

He was freed in 2022 under an early release programme but remains on probation until next August.

According to McFarland, tickets for next year will start at $1,400 but will go as high as $1.1m.

The most expensive package will include scuba diving, island hopping and luxury yachts.

He said the event was “not going to be just music” and could include sideshows like a live karate combat pit.

He admitted, however, that he has yet to book any talent.

Mr King said he would still want to talk to his old business partner about his new venture, despite still facing a backlash for his involvement in the original festival – everywhere he goes, he says, people still give him “the scam guy” treatment.

He emerged a sympathetic figure in the 2019 Netflix documentary Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened for his efforts to turn the disaster around.

In arguably the most viral moment from the entire saga, he describes how McFarland urged him to offer sexual favours to Bahamian customs officials to secure enough bottled water for the event.

That “funny fame”, however, has come at a steep price for Mr King.

He added that he had stayed in touch with McFarland through his prison term and briefly advised him on reputation management last year.

At the very least, he said, “the Fyre brand is so well known around the world that there is going to be a lot of people that will be curious”.

“And they’re all watching.”

Emily Maitlis says the Duke of York “lost respect” after her infamous Newsnight interview with him, but warned that Jeffrey Epstein’s victims didn’t get closure.

“I think there is unfinished business,” the journalist told BBC News. “It isn’t some nice, neat ending.”

The 2019 interview, widely viewed as a “car-crash”, saw Prince Andrew talk candidly to Maitlis about his friendship with convicted sex offender Epstein.

It is now the subject of a new three-part drama, A Very Royal Scandal, starring Ruth Wilson as Maitlis and Michael Sheen as Andrew.

The BBC interview did huge damage to Andrew’s reputation and is seen by many as greatly contributing to his downfall.

Days after it, the duke announced he was stepping back from royal duties, saying the Epstein scandal had become a “major disruption” to the Royal Family.

Maitlis was speaking to me alongside Wilson in the Ham Yard Hotel in central London, not far from where Newsnight is made in the corporation’s Broadcasting House.

Her interview, which made headlines around the world, aired on a special Saturday evening edition of the programme in 2019.

It saw Prince Andrew discuss his links to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the socialite now serving time in prison for helping Epstein abuse girls.

Andrew used the interview to emphatically deny having sex with then 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre, saying he was in Pizza Express in Woking on the day the encounter was meant to have taken place.

The duke has subsequently paid a financial settlement to Ms Giuffre, formally ending a civil case brought against him in the US.

The out-of-court settlement accepted no liability and Prince Andrew has always strongly rejected claims of wrongdoing.

On Monday, it was reported that the duke will have to pay his own costs if he wants to stay in the Royal Lodge mansion in Windsor.

When reflecting on the impact of the interview, Maitlis said that in some ways, “everything changed”.

“Prince Andrew, he lost his royal duties, he lost the ability to wear uniform, he lost the respect of the nation, and it became, I think, much more difficult for him in his place in the Royal Family,” she said.

“And on the other side, we don’t know if Epstein’s victims gained anything from that. We don’t know if their lives materially changed,” she added.

“There’s been no trial. There’s been a settlement… but we haven’t had that sense of closure there,” she said.

She said that she sometimes wondered whether it was “anything more than a moment”.

“Can you ever do anything more as a journalist than just ask the questions, and then see what changes as a result?,” she asked.

She said that’s why the third episode of the new series – which focuses on consequences – is so important.

“It is about reckoning. It is about fallout. But it isn’t some nice, neat ending with a comedy villain or a sort of swashbuckling hero. It doesn’t end neatly.”

Maitlis also revealed that a month after her interview in November 2019, she was “pulled aside” by someone close to King Charles, who was at the time the Prince of Wales.

She said the person simply said: “HRH was not unhappy with the interview.”

BBC News has been unable to verify these comments. But Maitlis says she spent years “trying to puzzle out” what the words meant.

She speculated it could have meant that Charles didn’t “blame” her for the interview. “You’re not going off to the Tower,” she said.

“Or it might have meant that in some way, that it was not unhelpful for a reset between the Royal Family and the British public.”

Maitlis said that when you look at the shape of the monarchy since then, it is “more slimmed down”.

“I remember the Queen’s speech that Christmas – on the piano, there were only a few photographs, and the sense was that there had been a shift,” she said.

“And so I kind of think back to those words that I heard in, you know, December 2019, and think I wonder if that was the beginning of the reset.”

In the series, Wilson wore a wig and blue contact lenses in order to look like Maitlis.

The actress said it was “absolutely wonderful” playing Maitlis, adding: “I got to be blonde, and blondes do have more fun. I loved it.”

She recruited a voice coach, and also a movement coach, and studied Maitlis “intensely” – including in the workplace – to try and get into character.

“I loved getting involved and seeing behind the scenes of how that world works. That’s what drew me to the project in the first place,” she said.

Maitlis, meanwhile, said Wilson had managed to capture her “impatience”, including the way she eats sandwiches in a hurry.

“And she put a sort of comedy into the movement which I had,” she said.

“I wouldn’t recognise it myself, but I suddenly saw it through Ruth and thought it’s true. I’m always spilling things. I’m always dropping things. I’ve always overstuffed a handbag.

“There is sort of a certain amount of chaos, I think, to my off-screen life that Ruth had just watched and seamlessly injected without ever having to say it. And so, it was remarkable, actually.”

The Amazon Prime series comes just months after a rival dramatisation of the 2019 Newsnight interview, Scoop, was released on Netflix.

That version starred Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew, Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis and Billie Piper as producer Sam McAlister.

But whereas Scoop focused on the part played by McAlister in securing the interview, A Very Royal Scandal is centred on Maitlis’s own role in the process.

Maitlis, who is executive producer for the new series, is diplomatic when asked about McAlister’s version, insisting “they’re very different beasts”.

But she said there were elements in Scoop that she didn’t recognise, including scenes which showed her and her grey whippet Moody in the office.

“I’m really sorry to disappoint,” she said. “In my perfect world, obviously, dogs would be everywhere, but Moody has never been in the Newsnight studio.”

But even Maitlis’s version took creative liberties.

She pointed out one scene in which her on-screen husband is heard snoring while she types furiously on her phone next to him.

“There was no snoring, I have to say, in my marriage or, you know, in the bedroom,” she notes.

The entire Newsnight interview can still be easily watched online.

Which begs the question: Do we need a dramatisation, or indeed two, if you can just watch the real thing?

“The interview was one hour, in one moment, in one day, in one year,” Maitlis said.

“And [the drama] is actually an accumulation of consequences and results and fallout that we’re only just managing to understand.

“Now, I still think that the story itself isn’t actually finished, but this is the nearest you’ll get to kind of understanding, I guess, the beginning of it, and just what it did to all of us.”

Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein is in hospital in New York for emergency heart surgery, his lawyers have told BBC News.

Lawyers for Weinstein said he was taken on Sunday evening from the Rikers Island jail to Bellevue hospital. They did not provide further details.

His lawyers say he has been suffering from multiple health conditions, and has been experiencing chest pains.

Weinstein, 72, was convicted of rape and sexual assault in 2020 in New York, and jailed for 23 years. Those convictions were overturned this April when an appeal judge ruled he did not receive a fair trial. He faces a possible retrial later this year.

Weinstein was convicted of sexually assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006 and raping Jessica Mann, a former aspiring actress, in 2013.

In his appeal, however, the court said prosecutors in the pivotal #MeToo case called witnesses whose accusations were not part of the charges against him.

Weinstein for has also been sentenced to 16 years in prison in a separate rape trial in California, against which he is appealing.

Weinstein has struggled with serious health problems, and has been admitted to hospital multiple times in recent years.

In July, he was treated for Covid-19 and double pneumonia.

In 2020, he was admitted to hospital with chest pains. He also was taken to Bellevue hospital that same year to open a blocked artery, according to CBS.

He also has diabetes and high blood pressure.

More than 100 people have made rape and misconduct allegations about Weinstein dating back to the late 1970s.

The decision by his accusers to come forward, and his subsequent conviction in New York, galvanised the #MeToo movement against sexual abuse by powerful men.

Weinstein has always maintained his innocence and argued he was the victim of a “set-up”.

He co-founded the Miramax film studio, which produced hits including Shakespeare in Love – which won best picture at the Academy Awards – and Pulp Fiction.

His films have received more than 300 Oscar nominations and 81 statuettes.

Germany is set to expand border checks following a knife attack which left three people dead in the town of Solingen in August.

The government has come under pressure to take a harder line on immigration since the stabbing, in which the suspect is a Syrian national who was facing deportation after a failed asylum bid.

The attack has been claimed by the Islamic State group.

The new controls – which will be introduced on 16 September and initially last six months – were announced days after the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) made big gains in local elections.

German Interior Minster Nancy Faeser insisted the government was “taking a hard line” against irregular migration, and said the checks would reduce Islamist extremism and cross-border crime.

“We are doing everything in our power to protect the people of our country against these threats,” she added.

Germany already has controls at its eastern and southern borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Austria, primarily spot checks on roads and in trains. Similar measures will be introduced at all border points.

However, critics said the move is more about politics than security.

Germany’s mainstream parties were thrown into turmoil by the AfD’s performance in regional elections in the east, which saw a far-right party top a poll for the first time since the Nazi era.

The governing SPD and other mainstream parties appear to have viewed the results as a message from voters to take a tougher stance on immigration and borders.

Successive governments in Berlin have allowed relatively large numbers of asylum seekers to settle in the country in recent years.

Germany took in more than one million people mostly fleeing war in countries such as Syria during the 2015-2016 migrant crisis, and has received 1.2 million Ukrainians since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

However, with polls indicating the AfD could perform strongly in a regional election in Brandenburg at the weekend, parties on both the centre-left and centre-right are coming up with proposals that would have been unthinkable until recently.

The CDU – the party of former Chancellor Angela Merkel – has proposed turning all asylum seekers back at the border, even those who are eligible, on the basis they have travelled through other safe EU countries.

Gerhard Karner, Austria’s interior minister, told Bild newspaper on Monday that his country would not take in any migrants rejected by Germany.

“There’s no room for manoeuvre there,” he said.

Since the Solingen stabbing, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government has announced a raft of measures on migration.

They include changing the rules so asylum seekers facing deportation will lose benefits, and resuming the deportation of convicted Afghan criminals to their home country for the first time since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

Beyoncé has been snubbed by the Country Music Awards, despite having one of the biggest country hits of the year with Texas Hold ‘Em.

When the nominees for the ceremony were announced on Monday morning, the star was notably absent – with not a single nomination.

Beyoncé had widely been expected to gain recognition at the awards, with fans speculating she could become the first black woman to be shortlisted for album of the year, for Cowboy Carter.

Instead, Morgan Wallen walked away with the most nominations, three years after being suspended by his record label for using a racial slur.

The star later apologised and reunited with his record label.

Last year, his double album One Thing At A Time topped the US charts for 16 weeks and was nominated for album of the year at the Country Music Awards (CMAs).

This year, he picks up four nominations as a featured artist on the hit song I Had Some Help by Post Malone – a pop artist who, like Beyoncé, has not traditionally been part of the country establishment.

Shaboozey, who is featured on Cowboy Carter, also picks up two nominations – best new artist and single of the year, for A Bar Song (Tipsy).

That song replaced Beyoncé’s Texas Hold ‘Em at the top of the US country charts in April, making Shaboozey the first black male artist to top the country chart and the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously.

It also marked the first time that two black artists had claimed the number one spot consecutively.

Earlier this year, Beyoncé hinted that her treatment at a previous CMA ceremony prompted her decision to make a country album.

In 2016, the star attended the CMAs to perform her song Daddy Lessons with The Chicks (then known as the Dixie Chicks). Their performance faced a barrage of criticism – and racism – online.

Natalie Maines, lead singer of The Chicks, later told the New York Times that the way Beyoncé was treated after the show was “disgusting.”

In her Instagram post, Beyoncé said Cowboy Carter was “born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcome” that prompted her to take “a deeper dive into the history of country”.

Her album is the second part of a trilogy that interrogates the roots of American musical traditions and uncovers the often unheralded contributions made by black artists.

Billboard classified Cowboy Carter as a country album for chart purposes, and the single Texas Hold ‘Em spent 10 weeks at the top of the country music chart.

Beyoncé also received 12 nominations for the 2024 People’s Choice Country Awards – more than any other artist.

The CMA has not commented on their reasons for overlooking her album, but according to their judging criteria, the album of the year prize is “judged on all aspects including, but not limited to, artist’s performance, musical background, engineering, packaging, design, art, layout and liner notes”.

The awards are “determined by eligible voting CMA members comprised of professionals within the country music industry,” according to a press release.

The artists who did make the grade for the album of the year shortlist were Kacey Musgraves’ Deeper Well, Luke Combs’ Fathers & Sons, Chris Stapleton’s Higher, Cody Johnson’s Leather and Jelly Roll’s Whitsitt Chapel.

The winners will be revealed at a ceremony at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday, 20 November.

The main nominees include:

Entertainer of the year

• Luke Combs
• Jelly Roll
• Chris Stapleton
• Morgan Wallen
• Lainey Wilson

Single of the year

• A Bar Song (Tipsy) – Shaboozey;
• Dirt Cheap – Cody Johnson
• I Had Some Help – Post Malone (Feat. Morgan Wallen)
• Watermelon Moonshine – Lainey Wilson;
• White Horse – Chris Stapleton

Album of the year

• Deeper Well – Kacey Musgraves
• Fathers & Sons – Luke Combs
• Higher – Chris Stapleton
• Leather – Cody Johnson
• Whitsitt Chapel – Jelly Roll

Song of the year

• Burn It Down – Parker McCollum
• Dirt Cheap – Cody Johnson
• I Had Some Help – Post Malone (Feat. Morgan Wallen)
• The Painter – Cody Johnson
• White Horse – Chris Stapleton

Female vocalist of the year

• Kelsea Ballerini
• Ashley McBryde
• Megan Moroney
• Kacey Musgraves
• Lainey Wilson

Male vocalist of the year

• Luke Combs
• Jelly Roll
• Cody Johnson
• Chris Stapleton
• Morgan Wallen

Vocal group of the year

• Lady A
• Little Big Town
• Old Dominion
• The Red Clay Strays
• Zac Brown Band

New artist of the year

• Megan Moroney
• Shaboozey
• Nate Smith
• Mitchell Tenpenny
• Zach Top
• Bailey Zimmerman

Teenage footballers listen to the Russian national anthem before a match. Nearby, artists paint Russian President Vladimir Putin’s portrait on a wall during a graffiti festival.

Welcome to Burkina Faso, one of the African nations where Russia is boosting its operations to gain influence.

Evidence found by the BBC shows that Russia is using media and cultural initiatives to attract African journalists, influencers, and students while spreading misleading information.

These events are being promoted by African Initiative, a newly founded Russian media organisation which defines itself as an “information bridge between Russia and Africa”. It inherited structures previously set up by the dismantled Wagner mercenary group and is believed by experts to have links with the Russian security services.

Registered in September 2023, a month after Wagner’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin died in a plane crash, African Initiative has welcomed former employees from his disbanded enterprises.

Its efforts have been particularly focused on the three military-run countries of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

Following recent coups, these West African nations have distanced themselves from Western allies like France, criticising their failed interventions against jihadist groups and colonial legacies. They have instead pivoted towards Russia.

Alongside cultural events on the ground, African Initiative maintains a news website with stories in Russian, English, French, and Arabic, as well as a video channel and five Telegram channels, one of which has almost 60,000 subscribers.

Some of the Telegram channels were “recycled” from older ones which had been set up by groups linked to Wagner. They were the first to promote the Russian Defence Ministry’s paramilitary group Africa Corps, which has effectively replaced the military wing of Wagner in West Africa.

Pro-Kremlin narratives and misleading information, especially about the United States, are rife.

Stories on the African Initiative’s website suggest without evidence that the US is using Africa as a production and testing ground for bio-weapons, building on long-discredited Kremlin disinformation campaigns.

One story echoes the Kremlin’s unsubstantiated claims about US bio-labs being relocated from Ukraine to Africa. Another maintains without evidence that US bio-labs on the continent are increasing, claiming that “under the guise of research and humanitarian projects, the African continent is becoming a testing ground for the Pentagon”, suggesting that secretive biological experiments are being conducted.

While Prigozhin’s propaganda efforts targeted mainly France, African Initiative “targets Americans to a greater degree,” says researcher Jedrzej Czerep, head of the Middle East and Africa Programme at the Polish Institute of International Affairs. “It’s far more anti-American.”

In June, a group of bloggers and reporters from eight countries were invited for a seven-day “press tour” of the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. The trip was organised by Russian state media and Western-sanctioned Russian officials, and the journalists visited African Initiative’s headquarters in Moscow.

“Africa wasn’t getting much information [about the war],” Raymond Agbadi, a Ghanaian blogger and scientist who studied in Russia and who participated in the “press tour”, told the BBC. “Whatever information we were getting was not convincing enough for us to understand what the war was really about.”

American influencer Jackson Hinkle, a vocal supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin who has spread multiple false claims about Ukraine, was also on the visit.

After visiting Moscow, the journalists travelled 1,250km (780 miles) to the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol in the Donetsk region. Then they went to towns in the Zaporizhzhia region – all areas which were captured by Russia early in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Throughout the visit, the reporters were accompanied by Russian officials and travelled with the Russian military in vehicles marked with the Z sign – the symbol of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In May, African Initiative organised a separate “press tour” to Russian-occupied Mariupol for a delegation of bloggers from Mali.

Press trips for journalists are a widely used tool to attempt to sell a country’s viewpoints. But while “Western media does a lot of progressive training [for journalists] to report on key topics which have become global concerns, Russia uses these guided tours as a way of propagating certain narratives,” says Beverly Ochieng, senior analyst at Control Risks and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, noting that China organises similar tours.

Having African journalists report on their trips gives an “impression of authenticity” because they “reach out to the audience on languages they recognise”, rather than looking like it is part of “a wider campaign used to portray Russia in a positive light,” says Ms Ochieng.

In stories published since the trip, the African journalists refer to the Ukrainian cities occupied by Russian forces as “conflict zones in Russia” and quote Russian-installed authorities, echoing Russian state propaganda and presenting the Kremlin’s view of Ukraine’s borders.

In a piece published on JoyOnline, an English-speaking website operated by the Multimedia Group, Ghanaian journalist Ivy Setordjie writes that the Ukrainian Zaporizhzhia region [whose capital is under Ukrainian control], is “located in the south of European Russia.”

She tells the BBC she disagrees that the regions were illegally annexed by Russia, affirming that her reports are reflections of her own judgement and “not tilted towards” the country.

Beyond press tours, local affiliates of African Initiative in West Africa’s Sahel region have been actively involved in community outreach efforts aimed at boosting Russia’s image.

The BBC has been monitoring African Initiative’s Telegram channels and Facebook pages, where videos, images, and reports of their work on the ground are shared.

In Burkina Faso, we found reports about a football competition where the Russian national anthem was played, “friendship lessons” in schools where students are taught about Russia, a competition of the Soviet martial art “sambo”, first aid workshops for citizens and policemen, and a graffiti festival where participants drew Russian President Vladimir Putin alongside Burkina Faso’s former leader Thomas Sankara, all sponsored by African Initiative.

Images also show African Initiative members distributing groceries to locals and neighbourhood screenings of the Wagner-backed documentary The Tourist, about a group of Wagner instructors in the Central Africa Republic, where Wagner and its offshoots have been helping the government fight rebels for several years.

“The original idea with African Initiative was to erase whatever Prigozhin had developed and to replace it with something new. Later on in the process, it appeared that it was more rational to actually reuse all assets that were already there,” says researcher Mr Czerep from the Polish Institute of International Affairs.

The FSB, the Russian Federal Security Service, plays an important part in the new organisation, he notes. The head and editor-in-chief of African Initiative is Artyom Kureyev, identified by Russia experts as a Russian Federal Security Service agent. Mr Kureyev is linked to the Valdai Club, a Moscow-based think-tank close to President Putin.

African Initiative’s website lists Anna Zamaraeva, a former Wagner press officer, as deputy editor-in-chief.

Viktor Lukovenko, known as one of Prigozhin’s “political technologists,” founded the Burkina Faso office of the African Initiative but left the position in recent months. A former Russian nationalist with a criminal past, Mr Lukovenko served five years in prison for an attack in Moscow on a Swiss citizen who later died.

We reached out to African Initiative for comment. Its office in Moscow confirmed it had received our queries but did not respond. We also contacted the Russian government but did not receive a reply.

In February, in response to a report by the US Department of State, an article on African Initiative’s website stated that its editorial board “insists that its purpose is to spread knowledge about Africa in Russia and popularise Russia in African countries”, giving “various Africans an opportunity to be heard, including their criticisms of Western countries”.

Meanwhile, the organisation continues intensifying its outreach in the Sahel. In the last week of August, about 100 students in Burkina Faso attended a talk about training opportunities in Russia.

“I learned about the culture of Russia and the relation between our governments,” said a smiling teenager wearing a T-shirt with an African Initiative logo in a video recorded after the discussion.

• Was Ukraine’s role in big Wagner defeat an own goal in Africa?
• Why Wagner is winning hearts in the Central African Republic
• How Wagner has rebranded in Africa
• Wagner – built by blood and treasure in Africa

“This is like doomsday for me. I feel so much grief. Can you imagine what I’ve gone through watching my children dying?” says Amina.

She’s lost six children. None of them lived past the age of three and another is now battling for her life.

Seven-month-old Bibi Hajira is the size of a newborn. Suffering from severe acute malnutrition, she occupies half a bed at a ward in Jalalabad regional hospital in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province.

“My children are dying because of poverty. All I can feed them is dry bread, and water that I warm up by keeping it out under the sun,” Amina says, nearly shouting in anguish.

What’s even more devastating is her story is far from unique – and that so many more lives could be saved with timely treatment.

Bibi Hajira is one of 3.2 million children with acute malnutrition, which is ravaging the country. It’s a condition that has plagued Afghanistan for decades, triggered by 40 years of war, extreme poverty and a multitude of factors in the three years since the Taliban took over.

But the situation has now reached an unprecedented precipice.

It’s hard for anyone to imagine what 3.2 million looks like, and so the stories from just one small hospital room can serve as an insight into the unfolding disaster.

There are 18 toddlers in seven beds. It’s not a seasonal surge, this is how it is day after day. No cries or gurgles, the unnerving silence in the room is only broken by the high-pitched beeps of a pulse rate monitor.

Most of the children aren’t sedated or wearing oxygen masks. They’re awake but they are far too weak to move or make a sound.

Sharing the bed with Bibi Hajira, wearing a purple tunic, her tiny arm covering her face, is three-year-old Sana. Her mother died while giving birth to her baby sister a few months ago, so her aunt Laila is taking care of her. Laila touches my arm and holds up seven fingers – one for each child she’s lost.

In the adjacent bed is three-year-old Ilham, far too small for his age, skin peeling off his arms, legs and face. Three years ago, his sister died aged two.

It is too painful to even look at one-year-old Asma. She has beautiful hazel eyes and long eyelashes, but they’re wide open, barely blinking as she breathes heavily into an oxygen mask that covers most of her little face.

Dr Sikandar Ghani, who’s standing over her, shakes his head. “I don’t think she will survive,” he says. Asma’s tiny body has gone into septic shock.

Despite the circumstances, up until then there was a stoicism in the room – nurses and mothers going about their work, feeding the children, soothing them. It all stops, a broken look on so many faces.

Asma’s mother Nasiba is weeping. She lifts her veil and leans down to kiss her daughter.

“It feels like the flesh is melting from my body. I can’t bear to see her suffering like this,” she cries. Nasiba has already lost three children. “My husband is a labourer. When he gets work, we eat.”

Dr Ghani tells us Asma could suffer cardiac arrest at any moment. We leave the room. Less than an hour later, she died.

Seven hundred children have died in the past six months at the hospital – more than three a day, the Taliban’s public health department in Nangarhar told us. A staggering number, but there would have been a lot more deaths if this facility had not been kept running by World Bank and Unicef funding.

Up until August 2021, international funds given directly to the previous government funded nearly all public healthcare in Afghanistan.

When the Taliban took over, the money was stopped because of international sanctions against them. This triggered a healthcare collapse. Aid agencies stepped in to provide what was meant to be a temporary emergency response.

It was always an unsustainable solution, and now, in a world distracted by so much else, funding for Afghanistan has shrunk. Equally, the Taliban government’s policies, specifically its restrictions on women, have meant that donors are hesitant to give funds.

“We inherited the problem of poverty and malnutrition, which has become worse because of natural disasters like floods and climate change. The international community should increase humanitarian aid, they should not connect it with political and internal issues,” Hamdullah Fitrat, the Taliban government’s deputy spokesman, told us.

Over the past three years we have been to more than a dozen health facilities in the country, and seen the situation deteriorating rapidly. During each of our past few visits to hospitals, we’ve witnessed children dying.

But what we have also seen is evidence that the right treatment can save children. Bibi Hajira, who was in a fragile state when we visited the hospital, is now much better and has been discharged, Dr Ghani told us over the phone.

“If we had more medicines, facilities and staff we could save more children. Our staff has strong commitment. We work tirelessly and are ready to do more,” he said.

“I also have children. When a child dies, we also suffer. I know what must go through the hearts of the parents.”

Malnutrition is not the only cause of a surge in mortality. Other preventable and curable diseases are also killing children.

In the intensive care unit next door to the malnutrition ward, six-month-old Umrah is battling severe pneumonia. She cries loudly as a nurse attaches a saline drip to her body. Umrah’s mother Nasreen sits by her, tears streaming down her face.

“I wish I could die in her place. I’m so scared,” she says. Two days after we visited the hospital, Umrah died.

These are the stories of those who made it to hospital. Countless others can’t. Only one out of five children who need hospital treatment can get it at Jalalabad hospital.

The pressure on the facility is so intense that almost immediately after Asma died, a tiny baby, three-month-old Aaliya, was moved into the half a bed that Asma left vacant.

No-one in the room had time to process what had happened. There was another seriously ill child to treat.

The Jalalabad hospital caters to the population of five provinces, estimated by the Taliban government to be roughly five million people. And now the pressure on it has increased further. Most of the more than 700,000 Afghan refugees forcibly deported by Pakistan since late last year continue to stay in Nangarhar.

In the communities around the hospital, we found evidence of another alarming statistic released this year by the UN: that 45% of children under the age of five are stunted – shorter than they should be – in Afghanistan.

Robina’s two-year-old son Mohammed cannot stand yet and is much shorter than he should be.

“The doctor has told me that if he gets treatment for the next three to six months, he will be fine. But we can’t even afford food. How do we pay for the treatment?” Robina asks.

She and her family had to leave Pakistan last year and now live in a dusty, dry settlement in the Sheikh Misri area, a short drive on mud tracks from Jalalabad.

“I’m scared he will become disabled and he will never be able to walk,” Robina says.

“In Pakistan, we also had a hard life. But there was work. Here my husband, a labourer, rarely finds work. We could have treated him if we were still in Pakistan.”

Unicef says stunting can cause severe irreversible physical and cognitive damage, the effects of which can last a lifetime and even affect the next generation.

“Afghanistan is already struggling economically. If large sections of our future generation are physically or mentally disabled, how will our society be able to help them?” asks Dr Ghani.

Mohammad can be saved from permanent damage if he’s treated before it’s too late.

But the community nutrition programmes run by aid agencies in Afghanistan have seen the most dramatic cuts – many of them have received just a quarter of the funding that’s needed.

In lane after lane of Sheikh Misri we meet families with malnourished or stunted children.

Sardar Gul has two malnourished children – three-year-old Umar and eight-month-old Mujib, a bright-eyed little boy he holds on his lap.

“A month ago Mujib’s weight had dropped to less than three kilos. Once we were able to register him with an aid agency, we started getting food sachets. Those have really helped him,” Sardar Gul says.

Mujib now weighs six kilos – still a couple of kilos underweight, but significantly improved.

It is evidence that timely intervention can help save children from death and disability.

The last time US presidential candidates met on stage, they traded barbs and personal takedowns in a debate that upended the 2024 campaign.

President Joe Biden’s performance forced him to drop out of the race. So now Kamala Harris, his replacement as the Democratic nominee, will face off against former President Donald Trump in the second debate on Tuesday 10 September (21:00 local time; 01:00 GMT Weds).

The event represents an opportunity for a do-over for both parties and the consensus among voters is clear: they want more policy and less political sparring.

The BBC spoke to voters from across the political spectrum. Here’s what seven of them are hoping to see unfold.

I’m curious to see what they’re both going to do. Kamala Harris has been knocked recently for not doing a lot of interviews and for being underground versus Donald Trump, who usually gets knocked for his style in terms of how he conducts himself during debates and just his loudness.

I’ve decided I’m going to vote for Trump this time, but I would like to see what the vice-president has to say. I’d like to see how she performs more off the cuff and without an ability to read from the prompter. I want to see how she does with those fast questions interacting with Trump.

Even though I’m voting for him, it’s not because I’m comfortable with it necessarily. It’s really just a style thing. I hope Trump can just stand there and not go all crazy and whatever – just minimise the attacks and focus on policies.

I feel like I know what’s going to happen. I know that Kamala Harris is an extremely competent debater. I still remember her and Mike Pence’s debate from four years ago and I’m really excited to see her go toe-to-toe with Trump. I’m happy to have somebody on stage who will be able to directly counter, really be an opposing force, to him on stage.

The biggest trap is that Donald Trump says so many things so quickly. It’s easy to get wrapped up in what he’s saying. I hope that Harris doesn’t sink to his level. I’d love to see her maintain her optimistic, upbeat message even in the face of Trump.

I honestly haven’t been planning on watching the debate, at least not live. I’m not excited about either candidate at all.

From what I’ve seen from our debates in the last few elections, they’re just platforms for who can yell the loudest and who’s got the best one liner that will catch a headline. I haven’t heard anything of substance.

If someone got up on stage and they were realistic about what they could achieve or could not achieve, then maybe that would change my mind. But I don’t think either of them are going to say anything like that.

I’m looking at it like it’s a job interview, it’s who I’m choosing for president.

Everyday, I talk to people at the poverty level and it seems like it’s getting worse. I personally think the economy was better under Trump. I want to hear what Kamala Harris is going to do.

What I’ve been hearing is mostly her vibes and you can’t run the United States of America on vibes only.

I am hoping for a great debate where both parties actually lay their policies out on the table.

I think it will be informative and entertaining at the very least.

I‘d like to know how our economy is going to get back on track. I’d also like to know about the candidates’ plans for reducing illegal immigration.

I believe Trump’s strengths are an actual laid out policy. I think Kamala Harris has kind of hidden her views or switched her views. He does a better job laying out his plans. But I think his biggest weakness is his demeanour.

I do plan on voting for Trump again and I hope he wins the debate, but I think there’s not a lot either of them can do or say to change people’s minds.

I am much happier that we’ll be having Kamala up there and I’m really happy that they’re going to be doing it muted [so they can’t interrupt each other].

[The candidates are] getting so personal about each other. Even in the last debate, I’m like: ‘Did you guys even answer the question? Or are you guys just defending yourself about what he said about you?’ They’re just personally attacking each other instead of answering any of the things that we want to hear.

I do plan on watching. I think Biden’s debate performance was pretty disappointing and so I’m way more excited to see what Harris is able to do and how she carries herself and presents herself.

A big issue for me is climate change and environmental policy and so I’d be curious to hear what she says on that.

However, the sad thing, at least for me, is that I would vote for anyone [over Trump]. I almost don’t care what your policy positions are. I just know what your policy positions aren’t and so therefore, I’m stuck with you come hell or high water.

• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
• ANALYSIS: Will Harris debate tactics work against Trump?
• EXPLAINER: Seven swing states that could decide election
• IMMIGRATION: Could Trump really deport a million migrants?
• FACT CHECK: Was US economy stronger or weaker under Trump?

Overlooking the clear waters of the South Pacific, a cyclone of controversy was about to descend on Fiji’s Pearl Resort & Spa.

Standing on stage clutching a bouquet of flowers, 24-year-old MBA student Manshika Prasad had just been crowned Miss Fiji.

But soon after, according to one of the judges, things at the beauty pageant “turned really ugly”.

Ugly is potentially an understatement: what unfolded over the next few days would see beauty queens crowned and unseated, wild allegations thrown around and eventually the emergence of a shadowy figure with a very personal connection to one of the contestants.

Ms Prasad first found out something was wrong two days after her win, when Miss Universe Fiji (MUF) issued a press release. It said a “serious breach of principles” had occurred, and “revised results” would be made public shortly.

A couple of hours later, Ms Prasad was told she wouldn’t be travelling to Mexico to compete for the Miss Universe title in November.

Instead, runner-up Nadine Roberts, a 30-year-old model and property developer from Sydney, whose mother is Fijian, would take her place.

The press release alleged the “correct procedures” had not been followed, and that Ms Prasad had been chosen in a rigged vote which favoured a “Fiji Indian” contestant to win because it would bring financial benefits to the event’s manager.

A distraught Ms Prasad issued a statement saying she would be taking a break from social media, but warned that there was “so much the public did not know about”.

The new queen, meanwhile, offered a message of support. “We are all impacted by this,” Ms Roberts wrote on Instagram, before thanking Miss Universe Fiji for its “swift action”.

But those who took part in the contest were not satisfied: there were too many things that didn’t add up.

“Everything had been running so smoothly,” says Melissa White, one of seven judges on the panel.

A marine biologist by trade, she had been flown in from New Zealand to weigh in on the charity and environmental aspects of the contest.

“It was such a great night, such a successful show. So many people were saying they’d never seen pageant girls get along so well,” Ms White tells the BBC.

As the competition drew to a climax on Friday night, the judges were asked to write down the name of who they thought ought to be the next Miss Fiji.

“By this stage, Manshika [Prasad] was the clear winner,” says Jennifer Chan, another judge, who’s a US-based TV host and style and beauty expert.

“Not only based on what she presented on stage but also how she interacted with the other girls, how she photographed, how she modelled.”

Ms Chan says she was “100% confident” that Ms Prasad was the strongest candidate to represent Fiji.

Enough of her fellow judges agreed and Ms Prasad was declared the winner – receiving four of the seven votes.

But as the newly-crowned Miss Universe Fiji stood on stage, beaming in her sparkling tiara, the judges sensed something was wrong.

To her right, Nadine Roberts – wearing her runners-up sash – was “seething”, alleges Ms Chan.

“I remember going to bed thinking, how could someone feel so entitled to win?

“You win some, you lose some. She’s a seasoned beauty pageant contestant – surely she knew that?”

The next day, Ms Prasad took a celebratory boat trip with the judges.

“She was just in awe, saying: my life will be changed now,” says Ms Chan.

“She’s the embodiment of that good-hearted person who deserves it – it just affirmed to me that I’d picked the right girl.”

But there had still been no official confirmation of Ms Prasad’s victory.

Not only this – one of the judges was conspicuously absent from the trip: Riri Febriani, who was representing Lux Projects, the company that bought the licence to hold Miss Universe in Fiji.

“I remember thinking that was odd,” says Ms White, who shared a room with Ms Febriani. “But she just said she had lots of work to do and she needed to talk to her boss.”

Ms Febriani says she didn’t go on the boat trip as she needed to rest – and there’s no way the others would know who she was messaging on her phone.

But Ms White says she worked out her roommate was fielding calls and texts from a man called “Jamie”.

Miss Universe is a multi-million-dollar business which operates like a franchise – you need to buy a licence which enables you to use the brand and sell tickets for the event.

Those licences are expensive and in small countries it’s hard to find anyone willing to fund a national pageant – which is why Fiji hasn’t entered a contestant since 1981.

But this year, one organisation was willing to buy the licence: property development firm Lux Projects.

Ms Febriani was its representative on the judging panel, but also looked after media communications.

“I’d got on so well with her, she seemed a very sweet person,” says Ms White.

“But that day when she didn’t come on the boat, her demeanour kind of changed. She just kept saying she was super busy with work, always on the phone with this ‘Jamie’ guy.”

It turned out that, despite having Ms Febriani on the panel, Lux Projects was not happy with the outcome of the vote.

Its press release on Sunday said the licensee itself should also get a vote – one which the contracted organiser, Grant Dwyer, had “failed to count”.

Lux Projects would have voted for Ms Roberts, bringing the results to a 4-4 tie.

What’s more, it said, the licensee also had the “determining vote” – making Ms Roberts the winner.

“Never at any point were we told about an eighth judge or any kind of absentee judge,” says Ms Chan.

“It wasn’t on the website, it wasn’t anywhere. Besides, how can you vote on a contest if you’re not even there?”

Ms White was also suspicious.

“I did some digging and it turns out that Lux Projects was closely associated with an Australian businessman called Jamie McIntyre,” says Ms White.

“And Jamie McIntyre,” she told the BBC, “is married to Nadine Roberts.”

Mr McIntyre describes himself as an entrepreneur, investor and “world-leading educator”, who has – according to information available online – been married to Ms Roberts since 2022.

He was also banned from doing business in Australia for a decade in 2016 due to his involvement in a property investment scheme that lost investors more than A$7m ($4.7m; £3.6m). The judge in the case said there was “no evidence to suggest that successful reform is likely”.

A senator who questioned him as part of a parliamentary committee hearing later described him as “the most evasive witness I have had to deal with – and that’s saying something”, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

But what was he doing here?

“[Mr McIntyre] isn’t a director or shareholder of the MUF licensee company, but has acted as an adviser, as he is a shareholder in associated companies,” Jamie McIntyre’s representatives told the BBC.

However, the company’s Instagram page does feature a video of Mr McIntyre giving property investment advice, as well as a link to 21st Century University, a Bali-based property company owned by Mr McIntyre.

The BBC also understands that a “Jamie” was on the line during phone calls between Ms Roberts and the event organiser, Grant Dwyer.

Mr McIntyre’s representatives insist that allegations that he was involved in the judging controversy are a “conspiracy theory” – although they did concede that he had “provided advice to the licence holder”.

Additionally, the press release’s allegation that Mr Dwyer had pressured the panel to choose Ms Prasad because of her race is undermined by the fact that Mr Dwyer is understood to have voted for Ms Roberts.

“It’s just gross to even bring up race,” says Ms Chan. “It was never, ever once uttered amongst any of the judges,” she adds.

The BBC has sought comment from both Ms Roberts and Ms Prasad, but neither has responded.

Several of those involved – including some judges and contestants – have been sent “cease and desist” emails by Lux Projects, the BBC understands, which have been taken as tantamount to gagging orders by the recipients.

This scandal in Fiji is by no means the first to hit the world of beauty pageants, which historically has seen its fair share of controversies.

“Pageants are full of drama, of controversies, of people saying the contest was a fix,” says Prof Hilary Levey Friedman, author of ‘Here She Is: The Complicated Reign of the Beauty Pageant in America.’

“But I will say that in more recent years, these issues have become much more pronounced thanks to social media,” she adds.

Apart from a voting scandal at the Miss America contest in 2022, recent controversies have tended to be in less developed parts of the world.

This is probably because they tend to be non-profit affairs in many Western countries, according to Prof Friedman, while pageants elsewhere have become more popular and more lucrative than ever.

“Historically, beauty pageants have been an amazing tool for social mobility for women,” says Prof Friedman.

“Apart from the prestige and the glory, it gives you a platform to attract followers and sponsorships. When there’s money involved, the stakes are higher.”

For Ms Prasad though, it turns out there is a happy ending.

On Friday, she posted on one of her social media accounts that she had indeed been re-crowned as Miss Fiji 2024.

“What an incredible journey this has been,” she wrote on Instagram.

Miss Universe Organization (MUO) has not responded to a request for comment, but the BBC understands it is extremely unhappy with the events in Fiji and, after having established the facts, worked hard to reinstate Ms Prasad as the island’s queen.

For Ms Prasad there is elation. For the judges, relief.

As for Ms Roberts, she is calling herself the “real Miss Universe Fiji 2024” on Instagram.

Judge Ms White says she’s “so proud of how Manshika [Prasad] has conducted herself throughout this journey. She’s a brilliant, compassionate, and beautiful young woman, who didn’t deserve this.

“We just wanted the truth to come out and now it has.”

Australian police are working with their international counterparts to locate a man they believe fled the country after pouring boiling coffee on a baby in Brisbane.

The random attack – which occurred last month and has shocked the nation – left the nine-month-old boy with “serious burns” to his face and limbs.

Queensland Police have issued an arrest warrant for a 33-year-old wanted over acts intending to cause grievous bodily harm, a charge which carries a possible life sentence.

However, on Monday they said their main suspect flew out of Sydney airport six days after the incident, and just 12 hours before they were able to confirm his identity.

The infant was at a picnic with his family at a suburban park on 31 August, when witnesses say a “strange man” approached, emptying a flask on the child before fleeing on foot.

The baby was immediately given first aid, before an off-duty nurse took him to her nearby apartment to run his burns under cold water.

However the child suffered dramatic injuries which have already required multiple surgeries, and his parents say he is facing a years-long road to recovery.

The motive behind the incident is still unknown, Det Insp Paul Dalton told media, describing the case as one of the “most complex and frustrating” he had ever led.

He confirmed that police knew to which country the suspect had fled, as well as his name, but said disclosing the information at this time could jeopardise their investigation.

The man is an “itinerant” worker who had travelled to Australia repeatedly since 2019 and had addresses in both New South Wales and Victoria.

Dept Insp Dalton also said the suspect was aware of “police methodologies” and had been “conducting counter-surveillance activities” to evade them.

The baby’s parents on Monday told media they were “devastated” to learn the suspect had left the country but also relieved he was gone.

“It sounds like they were very, very close in catching him, and this obviously means that we’re going to have to wait who knows how long to get justice for our son,” his mother told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The boy is in “good spirits”, his father added, but may yet need further skin graft surgeries.

An online fundraising page for the baby boy has so far raised more than A$150,000 ($100,000 £76,000).

Fleeing the town she has lived in most of her life, Maria Honcharenko is taking just one small bag, and her two tiny kittens.

After stubbornly staying on in the east Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, the 69-year-old is now heeding advice and preparing to leave.

“My heart stops when I hear a bang,” she tells me, crying. She’s holding an old push-button phone where emergency contacts are saved.

The front line is less than 8km (4.9 miles) from Pokrovsk. Serhiy Dobryak, the head of the city’s military administration, says that Russians target the city not just with ballistic missiles and multiple rocket launchers – they also now strike with guided bombs and even artillery, as the city is now within the range of those weapons too.

“Look what Russians did to us. I worked here for 30 years and now I am leaving everything behind,” she says, breaking down in tears.

Volunteers help Ms Honcharenko to get on an evacuation bus. Trains no longer run here.

Pokrovsk is a key transportation hub. If it falls, then Russian forces will cut off one of the main supply routes in the region. This will likely force Ukraine to retreat from Chasiv Yar and the front line will move closer to Kramatorsk.

For Ukraine, this would effectively mean the loss of almost the entire Donetsk region, which the Kremlin has fought to capture since the beginning of their invasion.

The Ukrainian military admits that its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region failed to force Moscow to divert its troops from eastern Ukraine.

And some observers argue that this move, which certainly helped to boost morale among the soldiers, left the strategic supply route vulnerable to Russian attacks.

On Sunday, Russia claimed to have taken control of the village of Novohrodivka, just 10km from Pokrovsk. Kyiv has not commented but sources told the BBC that Ukrainian forces have retreated from there.

The space on the evacuation bus quickly fills up. A woman with a five-year old daughter climbs on board.

This is their second evacuation. The first time it was in 2022 when they fled from a border town after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

This city is clearly Moscow’s top priority. According to Serhiy Dobryak, the head of Pokrovsk’s military administration, the ratio of forces fighting in that direction is 10 to one in Russia’s favour.

During its latest attack, Russia hit a substation in Pokrovsk, leaving half the city without power. The strikes also disrupted water supplies.

The city is quickly becoming deserted. Just two months ago, 48,000 people were still living here. Today half of them have already left.

The bustling downtown with shops and supermarkets is eerily quiet. Banks, supermarkets and most cafes are closed. The hospital has been evacuated.

Outside the city, excavators are digging new trenches in the fields.

However, Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief says that the army has managed to stop the Russian advancement towards Pokrovsk.

Lt Col Oleh Demyanenko, a battalion commander of the 110th brigade, told the BBC that the front line on the northern flank of Russia’s assault on Pokrovsk had indeed been stabilised. However, Russian attacks are mostly focused on the southern flank, he says, where heavy battles are continuing.

One of the areas on that flank that Russians are trying to seize is Selidove, a small town south-east of Pokrovsk.

The BBC visited an artillery position of the 15th Brigade of the National Guard that defend this town. Relentless Russian attacks give them no respite.

“Prepare for action!” the unit commander Dmytro orders after receiving coordinates of a new target.

All crew members rush to an old American M-101 howitzer. This type of gun was used in World War Two. Now Ukrainians fire it to stop Russian attacks.

The commander shouts “Fire!” and pulls the rope. The explosion is deafening. The gun is covered with smoke.

The fighting in his sector is very intense, says 31-year-old Dmytro.

“The enemy attacks in groups of up to 15 people, sometimes up to 60,” he said. “We fire up to 200 rounds a day [to repel them].”

This is a big change to last winter when big guns stayed silent for most of the day.

But the more they shell the Russian positions, the greater the risk of return fire. So, after each series of rounds, they head to a dugout to wait out Russia’s counter barrage.

And when they hear a loud thud in the distance, they go quiet. “A glide bomb,” one of the soldiers mutters. It’s this weapon that they fear the most. It has a devastating effect and the gunners have nowhere to hide from it.

Dmytro gives an evasive answer when asked whether it would be more useful to use Ukrainian forces involved in the Kursk operation to defend the Donbas region instead. “Commanders have a better view to make strategic decisions,” he said.

The front line here can move quickly. Sometimes it can be a total surprise for Ukrainian forces.

Last month, a group of seven soldiers of the 68th Brigade started their shift at the forward position in the village of Komyshivka, 15km west of Selidove. Their task was to stop any attempts of Russian forces to break through. The next day, however, they were encircled by the Russian forces.

Thanks to extremely brave drivers and the negligence of Russian soldiers, they were evacuated three days later.

Back in Pokrovsk, the evacuation bus with Ms Honcharenko on board is full. They have to take a new route as the bridge on the way out of town is damaged by the Russian strikes. As the bus starts moving, people wave through the windows and wipe their tears away.

For Maria Honcharenko, this is a scary journey full of uncertainties. But she knows one thing – it will be safer in her new home than remaining at the front line.

The Pacific Islands are scattered across a vast area of ocean, with some of the clearest waters in the world, and pristine beaches and rainforests.

They are a magnet for tourism, which is vital for many of the countries’ economies.

But the region’s travel industry, and those who rely on it, are increasingly fearful of the impact of continuing climate change.

“Pacific Island leaders have declared climate change as the foremost threat to the livelihoods, security, and well-being of Pacific communities,” says Christopher Cocker, the chief executive of the Pacific Tourism Organisation.

“Without immediate and innovative action, the future of tourism in the region remains highly uncertain.”

He adds: “All islands of the Pacific are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. However, low-lying atoll countries like Tuvalu, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia are more vulnerable.

“These islands are not only prone to inundation from rising seas, especially during king tides, but access to clean and safe drinking water is a challenge, with prolonged droughts and unpredictable rainfall patterns.”

Then there’s the threat of erratic and potentially devastating tropical storms, which are ranked from one (the weakest), to five (the strongest).

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology has said that climate models of the Pacific Ocean have suggested “there could be a future shift towards fewer, but more intense, cyclones”.

However, in Tonga locals say they are now seeing stronger storms hit more often.

Nomuka is a small triangular island in Tonga’s Ha’apai archipelago, about 3,500km (2,175 miles) north-west of Sydney, Australia. Surrounded by ocean, its population of about 400 people feels at the mercy of nature’s whims and fury.

“We live with cyclones almost every year. I grew up there, and there were usually one or two that come in for a direct hit,” says Sione Taufa, an associate dean Pacific at the University of Auckland Business School, and a member of the New Zealand-Tonga Business Council.

“But nowadays we are seeing more of those category four or five cyclones coming in much more regularly.”

The peril that Pacific Islands states face has been highlighted recently by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. Last month he attended the Pacific Island Forum Leaders Meeting in Tonga, and called for the world’s most polluting countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.

“The small [Pacific] islands don’t contribute to climate change but everything that happens because of climate change is multiplied here,” he said.

A two-hour flight heading north-west from Tonga are the islands of Fiji, a former British colony.

Last year Fiji welcomed 929,740 visitors, mostly from Australia, New Zealand, North America and China.

Here, too, there is anxiety about a shifting climate.

Marica Vakacola is from the Mamanuca Environment Society, a community organisation based in Nadi, by Fiji’s main international airport.

The group champions sustainable tourism and environment protection, and is restoring mangroves and planting trees. But Ms Vakacola tells me that this part of Viti Levu, Fiji’s biggest island, is already living with the consequences of warming temperatures.

Bore water is being contaminated by salinity from the encroaching sea and, more and more, rainwater must be harvested during the wet season.

“Water security is a big risk in terms of climate change,” explains Ms Vakacola.

“Most of the freshwater sources that were once good enough to be consumed are now being intruded by salt water. Beach fronts are being eroded by rising sea levels and we have experienced coral bleaching events because of changing temperatures of seawater.”

Susanne Becken, a professor of sustainable tourism at Griffith University in Australia, foresees potential for friction over scarce supplies of water across the Pacific Islands.

“Drinking water is increasingly becoming an issue in some places,” she says.

“There could be conflict with the community because tourists effectively use the water that local people need.”

Prof Becken has recently undertaken research in Fiji and the Cook Islands. It revealed some unexpected attitudes to climate change and the threat it brings to the island nations.

“There’s a bit of denial, where people were a little bit fatalist in the sense that there is not much we can do about it. It was easily dismissed as a global problem that the Pacific Islands can’t do much about. I was a bit surprised, to be honest, that people maybe feel a little bit helpless.

“It is almost like ‘let’s not talk about it’. Maybe they are preoccupied about getting growth of the tourism market back. It is not part of the story. It is a really tricky topic.”

Hard truths are, though, being confronted in the Cook Islands, a jewel of Polynesia popular with New Zealanders and Australians, where most of the tourism infrastructure stretches in ribbons around the coasts of the main islands.

Brad Kirner is the director of destination development at the Cook Islands Tourism Corporation. He concedes that discussions about global warming in the community can be fraught.

“If we face reality it’s going to need some pretty serious adaptation measures put in play. It’s a challenging conversation.

“There’s also the challenging conservation that, yes, travel is a significant contributor to global warming, and we need to face that fact. How do we come up with solutions?”

“We are a tiny percentage of world population and therefore we have a very small carbon footprint, but we are on the front line of climate change,” he adds.

While there might be a sense of despair, it shouldn’t be mistaken for an admission of defeat. Far from it. Tenacity runs deep in some of the world’s most isolated nations.

Social systems vary across the islands, where the influence of kinship groups, community networks and the diaspora in Australia, New Zealand and beyond is paramount.

“Obviously, they will appreciate all the assistance that is given especially in the aftermath of any natural disaster, but being treated with a victim mentality isn’t quite helpful,” says the University of Auckland’s Sione Taufa.

“If any assistance comes we’ll be grateful for it, and if it doesn’t we’ll try our best to survive. You lean on your neighbours to help you in time of need. Most importantly, it is a trust system.”

More abuse allegations have been made against Abbé Pierre, the late French Roman Catholic priest and campaigner who was long venerated as a modern-day saint.

In July, the Emmaus anti-poverty charity which Abbé Pierre founded said it had heard allegations of sexual assault and harassment from seven women and it believed them.

Emmaus has now decided to expunge Abbé Pierre from the organisation after 17 more women spoke out about having suffered abuse at his hands.

The priest, who died in 2007 aged 94, used to regularly appear in polls as one of the most popular French people of modern times because of his tireless work for the poor and homeless.

The Emmaus movement, which he founded in 1949, operates in more than 40 countries. In France, his caped and bearded figure became an emblem of Christian self-sacrifice.

Now, following a second release of witness statements gathered by Egaé, an independent consultancy, the movement has decided to remove Abbé Pierre’s name from its various organisations.

The Abbé Pierre Foundation is to be retitled, while the board of Emmaus France is to vote on removing the priest’s name from its logo. The Abbé Pierre Centre in Esteville in Normandy, where he lived for many years and is buried, is to close for good.

A decision will also be taken on how to dispose of hundreds of statuettes, busts and other images of the charity’s creator.

“We are in a state of shock, very hurt and very angry,” said Christophe Robert, who heads the Abbé Pierre Foundation. “We extend our fullest support to all the victims who have had the courage to speak out.”

A first blow fell in July when the Emmaus movement revealed allegations made by seven women, who said they had been victims of sexual aggression mainly in the form of breast-touching and unwanted kisses.

The 17 women who have come forward since have made claims that are in some cases more serious.

• French homeless campaigner dies
• France pays homage to Abbé Pierre

One woman – designated as “J” by the Egaé consultancy – said she had been forced to give oral sex to Abbé Pierre, and made to watch him masturbate. “J” is now dead but she told her story to her daughter.

The consultancy’s report also includes the experience of woman named as “M” who in the 1990s came to the priest in distress, asking for help to find a home.

“Their dozen or so meetings were always accompanied by forced kisses and breast-touching. Abbé Pierre put his hand on her (private parts) though her trousers,” according to the report.

Another charge relates to a girl, designated “X”, who was only eight or nine years old when the priest allegedly abused her in the mid-1970s, touching her chest and kissing her “with his tongue.”

A staff-member at the National Assembly, where Abbé Pierre was a deputy from 1945 to 1951, is quoted as saying that “he behaved like a sexual predator, who assaulted his female colleagues and had sexual relations with them.”

The Egaé report said that there were many more accounts, but it had left out those which were given anonymously or where the complainants were reluctant to reveal full details. The most recent claims relate to when the priest was 92.

The sudden fall of a modern-day icon – only last year he was the subject of a hagiographic biopic – has been greeted with less surprise than might have been expected. Successive revelations about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church have seen to that.

More perplexing to many is growing evidence that colleagues in Emmaus – and in the Catholic Church – were aware of Abbé Pierre’s sexual behaviour, but failed to speak out.

Partly this was because in these earlier times – the first alleged assaults were in the 1950s – such actions were not treated very seriously.

But when stories of Abbé Pierre’s unwanted advances became impossible to ignore, it seems certain that church and charity colluded to keep his name out of the press, and thus preserve his achievement for the poor and homeless.

Born Henri Grouès in 1912 in Lyon, Abbé Pierre was ordained in 1938, taking a vow of chastity. He worked in the Resistance in World War Two, and became a household name in the winter of 1954 when he made a famous appeal on behalf of the homeless.

According to an investigation by Le Monde newspaper, church hierarchy learned of his predatory behaviour the following year when, on a visit to US and Canada, he was asked to cut the trip short because of complaints from women.

Biographer Pierre Lunel said that after the 1954 appeal “there were groupies of every kind who just wanted to pull out a hair of his beard. It was total hero-worship. At that point there were definitely sexual adventures.”

In 1957 Abbé Pierre went to a clinic in Switzerland, ostensibly to recover from exhaustion but in reality to keep him out of trouble. After that the church insisted he be accompanied by a “socius” – a church helper whose real job was to keep an eye on him.

In fact from the 1960s his relations with the church grew more distant, while his charity became a large and complex organisation. For the next 40 years he remained as a figurehead, and a reference in France for humility and self-giving.

Speaking on Monday, the head of Emmaus International, Adrien Caboche, confirmed that throughout that time Abbé Pierre’s non-observance of his vow of chastity had been no secret to those in the know.

“We were aware of course that Abbé Pierre had an emotional and a sexual life. But we were all stunned by the violent aspect which has now been revealed.”

Australian police are working with their international counterparts to locate a man they believe fled the country after pouring boiling coffee on a baby in Brisbane.

The random attack – which occurred last month and has shocked the nation – left the nine-month-old boy with “serious burns” to his face and limbs.

Queensland Police have issued an arrest warrant for a 33-year-old wanted over acts intending to cause grievous bodily harm, a charge which carries a possible life sentence.

However, on Monday they said their main suspect flew out of Sydney airport six days after the incident, and just 12 hours before they were able to confirm his identity.

The infant was at a picnic with his family at a suburban park on 31 August, when witnesses say a “strange man” approached, emptying a flask on the child before fleeing on foot.

The baby was immediately given first aid, before an off-duty nurse took him to her nearby apartment to run his burns under cold water.

However the child suffered dramatic injuries which have already required multiple surgeries, and his parents say he is facing a years-long road to recovery.

The motive behind the incident is still unknown, Det Insp Paul Dalton told media, describing the case as one of the “most complex and frustrating” he had ever led.

He confirmed that police knew to which country the suspect had fled, as well as his name, but said disclosing the information at this time could jeopardise their investigation.

The man is an “itinerant” worker who had travelled to Australia repeatedly since 2019 and had addresses in both New South Wales and Victoria.

Dept Insp Dalton also said the suspect was aware of “police methodologies” and had been “conducting counter-surveillance activities” to evade them.

The baby’s parents on Monday told media they were “devastated” to learn the suspect had left the country but also relieved he was gone.

“It sounds like they were very, very close in catching him, and this obviously means that we’re going to have to wait who knows how long to get justice for our son,” his mother told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The boy is in “good spirits”, his father added, but may yet need further skin graft surgeries.

An online fundraising page for the baby boy has so far raised more than A$150,000 ($100,000 £76,000).

Nigeria’s drug approval agency has warned people not to buy “miracle” products produced by a church with popular Nigerian Christian televangelist Jeremiah Fufeyin at the helm.

Nafdac said the products – which have names such as “miracle water” and “River Jordan water” – claim to have “bogus” healing properties, such as the ability to cure women of infertility.

The statement also said Mr Fufeyin’s Christ Mercyland Deliverance Ministry was selling these wares even though they did not have Nafdac approval.

The church hit back at Nafdac, saying it is “law-abiding” and has been using “spiritual items in expression of [their] spiritual beliefs”.

In a statement shared on Sunday, Christ Mercyland Deliverance Ministry added that it operates under Nigeria’s laws, which guarantee freedom of religion without interference.

Nafdac began investigating the products after receiving complaints from members of the public, the agency’s statement said.

• Paying for prayer: I went into debt, trying to secure a miracle
• The Nigerian priest saving Igbo deities from the bonfires

It also said the products violate regulatory approval and that Mr Fufeyin’s church had “refused to co-operate with the investigation”.

The church, which has hundreds of thousands of YouTube subscribers and enjoys huge success across social media, denied this claim. It said it had communicated with Nafdac by letter.

Mr Fufeyin has long attracted followers from across the country, claiming to perform miracles and heal ailments.

The preacher has said he is a billionaire, but has faced criticism for his lavish lifestyle.

In Nigeria, it is not uncommon for preachers like Mr Fufeyin to sell products claiming to treat ailments. For instance, the late televangelist TB Joshua sold “anointed water”, which was marketed as having healing powers.

A BBC investigation revealed that TB Joshua also encouraged sick members of his congregation to stop taking their prescribed medication.

Meanwhile, he secretly instructed pharmacists to procure those same prescription drugs and mix them into the “healing” fruit drinks he gave to his followers.

• Megachurch leader TB Joshua raped and tortured worshippers, BBC finds
• How TB Joshua’s daughter was tortured after standing up to ‘Daddy’
• The Nigerian pastor pushing malaria vaccine conspiracy theories

An influential Filipino pastor wanted in the Philippines and the US for child sex trafficking has been arrested, ending a two-week long standoff between police officers and his followers.

Police have been attempting to arrest Apollo Quiboloy, who claims to be the “Appointed Son of God”, in a raid on his sprawling church compound.

Violent scuffles broke out between thousands of his followers and anti-riot police officers, with one church member dying of a heart attack during the raid.

Mr Quiboloy, whose Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) claims to have seven million followers, has denied all charges against him.

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

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said he trafficked girls and women from the Philippines to the US, where they were forced to solicit money for a bogus charity.

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

But as all this was happening, Mr Quiboloy was rising to national prominence under then-president Rodrigo Duterte, previously serving as spiritual adviser to the former leader.

However, his fortunes turned when Mr Duterte stepped down in June 2022.

Filipino authorities soon charged him with child abuse, sexual abuse and human trafficking and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

For two weeks , thousands of policemen have been engaged in a standoff with Mr Quiboloy’s followers, as they raided his 30-hectare (75-acre) KOJC compound in Davao. They said Mr Quiboloy was hiding in an underground bunker based on the sound of heartbeats detected by surveillance equipment.

The complex is home to some 40 buildings, including a cathedral, a school and even a hangar.

Interior Minister Benhur Abalos said on Monday that Mr Quiboloy was found inside the compound’s bible school. He also said that the pastor was arrested and did not surrender, contrary to earlier reports.

Witnesses provided important information that led to his arrest, added Mr Abalos.

Mr Quiboloy’s lawyer, Israelito Torreon, said earlier said his client surrendered “because he does not want the lawless violence to continue to happen”.

The regional police chief, Brig Gen Nicolas Torre, said a “concerted effort of everyone involved” led to the arrest.

Mr Quiboloy and four others who were arrested with him were flown to national police headquarters in the capital Manila where they are currently detained.

Before his arrest, Mr Quiboloy said that the “devil” was behind his legal woes.

He has also said that he does not want the FBI to “meddle” in his case.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Mr Marcos said the Philippines was not considering extraditing Mr Quiboloy for now.

The standoff at the KOJC has taken place as a very public falling out between the Marcos and Duterte political families has unfolded.

The US DOJ sought his arrest a few months before Mr Duterte handed power to current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, but it was only during Mr Marcos’ term that authorities started pursuing the pastor.

While Mr Quiboloy was in hiding, Mr Duterte said he knew where he was but would not tell the police.

Mr Duterte’s daughter, Vice-President Sara Duterte also criticised police pursuing Mr Quiboloy of applying “questionable” force.

Mr Quiboloy set up the KOJC in Davao in 1985, after hearing God whisper to him “I will use you” while attending an event by American pastor Billy Graham in South Korea in 1973, says the organisation.

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

He delivers his sermons from a glass podium that is set against giant photographs of his lush hilltop estate called the “Garden of Eden Restored”.

These are broadcast on his own TV, radio and social media network.

Outside of his long-standing ties with the Duterte’s, Mr Quiboloy grew his political influence by endorsing candidates to his followers during elections, a common practice for religious leaders in the country where politics is based on patronage instead of ideology.

Selena Gomez has disclosed that she isn’t able to carry her own children.

The 32-year-old singer and actor spoke about it in a cover interview with Vanity Fair, saying finding out she wouldn’t be able to have a safe pregnancy is something she’s had to “grieve”.

“I haven’t ever said this, but I unfortunately can’t carry my own children,” she told the publication.

“I have a lot of medical issues that would put my life and the baby’s in jeopardy. That was something I had to grieve for a while.”

Gomez has previously been open about about her diagnosis with lupus, an incurable autoimmune disease where the body’s immune system becomes hyperactive and attacks normal tissue.

Symptoms can be managed using medication. In 2017, she revealed she had a kidney transplant linked to her lupus.

The singer has also been open about living with bipolar disorder, something covered in her documentary, My Mind and Me.

In 2022, Gomez told Rolling Stone that she may not be able to have a safe pregnancy, due to the medication she takes to treat bipolar.

In the Vanity Fair interview, Gomez said she hoped to have children, and said she is considering surrogacy or adoption. (Gomez’s mum, Mandy Teefey, is adopted – something Gomez has said her family is grateful for).

“It’s not necessarily the way I envisioned it. I thought it would happen the way it happens for everyone,” she said.

“I’m in a much better place with that. I find it a blessing that there are wonderful people willing to do surrogacy or adoption, which are both huge possibilities for me.

“It made me really thankful for the other outlets for people who are dying to be moms. I’m one of those people.”

She added: “I’m excited for what that journey will look like, but it’ll look a little different. At the end of the day, I don’t care. It’ll be mine. It’ll be my baby.”

Gomez is currently in a relationship with music producer Benny Blanco.

With business slumping, Apple has been under pressure to show what it will offer buyers to jumpstart a new wave of iPhone sales.

On Monday, the technology giant revealed its hand – the iPhone 16 which has a camera button on the outside of the handset.

The button is an external clue to the changes Apple said it had made inside its latest smartphone, aimed at harnessing the latest in artificial intelligence (AI).

Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook said the upgrades would “push the boundaries of what a smartphone can do” but the firm has tough competition, as other brands have already integrated generative AI features into their handsets.

Apple’s share price fell during its “Glowtime” event, where it unveiled the iPhone 16 as well as other products, and ended the day flat. The company, worth $3 trillion, is facing concern that it is losing its edge in the burgeoning area of artificial intelligence.

Sales of the iPhone – Apple’s most important product which accounts for around half of its total sales – have stalled in recent months. They slipped by 1% over the nine months ended 29 June compared with a year earlier.

Apple said its new phones, which come with longer lasting batteries, more powerful chips and enhanced privacy features, were its first built specifically to handle AI and its new “Apple Intelligence” tools, many of which were announced in June.

Those include new tools for writing and creating new emojis as well incorporating OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT into Siri to help users with some queries and text generation requests.

On Monday, Apple also announced updates to its Apple Watch and its AirPod headphones, which will allow them to automatically drop the volume when users start in-person conversations and to decline calls with the shake of a head.

It said the Pro version of its AirPods would be able to be used as a “clinical grade” personal hearing aid for people with mild or moderate hearing loss.

The company said it was expecting marketing approval from regulators for the device “soon” and the feature would be available this autumn in more than 100 countries, including the US, Germany and Japan.

Previously, the company had a feature that allowed people to pair hearing aids with iPhones and other devices.

The products were rolled out at a glossy event where protestors gathered in a designated free speech area across the street, urging executives to ramp up efforts to protect children from dangerous content in the company’s App Store.

The protest featured a life-sized blow-up made to resemble Mr Cook.

Sales of the new range start in September, with prices for the iPhone16 starting at $799.

But the Apple Intelligence features are not set to be available on operating systems until October, starting in the US and heading to other countries in the following months. They will be available in the UK in December.

Ben Wood, chief analyst at the market research firm CCS Insight, said it was likely that many people would dismiss the company’s new camera control as a “glorified shutter button”.

But he said it offered “very significant” upgrades, including visual, AI-powered search and he came away from the presentation persuaded that Apple would win over customers.

“The combination of Apple Intelligence and new camera features on the iPhone 16 will help spur upgrades from loyal Apple customers,” he said. “Particularly as Apple is positioning this latest update as being a future-proof purchase for customers wanting to get Apple Intelligence features as they roll out over the next few years.”

Apple has been slower than rivals Samsung and Google to bake generative AI features for photo editing, translation and web browsing into its devices.

Competitors are now building them into folding, flipping and even tri-folding smartphones.

Pre-orders for Huawei’s new tri-fold phone, the Mate XT, reportedly hit more than three million on Monday.

Gartner analyst Annette Zimmermann said because Apple was rolling out AI-ready smartphones later than rivals, it was “critical” they deliver.

She warned that rolling the features out before they were ready could risk their reputation or prompt sales losses.

Voters in the US go to the polls on 5 November to elect their next president.

The election was initially a rematch of 2020 but it was upended in July when President Joe Biden ended his campaign and endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris.

The big question now is – will the result mean a second Donald Trump term or America’s first woman president?

As election day approaches, we’ll be keeping track of the polls and seeing what effect big events like Tuesday’s presidential debate have on the race for the White House.

In the months leading up to Biden’s decision to drop out of the race, polls consistently showed him trailing former president Trump. Although hypothetical at the time, several polls suggested Harris wouldn’t fare much better.

But the race tightened after she hit the campaign trail and she developed a small lead over her rival in an average of national polls that she has maintained since. The latest national polling averages for the two candidates are shown below, rounded to the nearest whole number.

In the poll tracker chart below, the trend lines show how those averages have changed since Harris entered the race and the dots show the spread of the individual poll results.

Harris hit 47% during her party’s four-day convention in Chicago, which she brought to a close on 22 August with a speech promising a “new way forward” for all Americans. Her numbers have moved very little since then.

Trump’s average has also remained relatively steady, hovering around 44%, and there was no significant boost from the endorsement of Robert F Kennedy, who ended his independent candidacy on 23 August.

While these national polls are a useful guide as to how popular a candidate is across the country as a whole, they’re not necessarily an accurate way to predict the result of the election.

That’s because the US uses an electoral college system to elect its president, so winning the most votes can be less important than where they are won.

There are 50 states in the US but because most of them nearly always vote for the same party, in reality there are just a handful where both candidates stand a chance of winning. These are the places where the election will be won and lost and are known as battleground states.

Right now, the polls are very tight in the seven battleground states, which makes it hard to know who is really leading the race. There are fewer state polls than national polls so we have less data to work with and every poll has a margin of error that means the numbers could be higher or lower.

As is stands, recent polls suggest there is less than one percentage point separating the two candidates in some states. That includes Pennsylvania, which is key as it has the highest number of electoral votes on offer and therefore makes it easier for the winner to reach the 270 votes needed.

Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin had all been Democratic strongholds before Trump turned them red on his path to winning the presidency in 2016. Biden retook them in 2020 and if Harris can do the same this year then she will be on course to win the election.

In a sign of how the race has changed since Harris became the Democratic nominee, on the day Joe Biden quit the race he was trailing Trump by nearly five percentage points on average in these seven battleground states.

The figures we have used in the graphics above are averages created by polling analysis website 538, which is part of American news network ABC News. To create them, 538 collect the data from individual polls carried out both nationally and in battleground states by lots of polling companies.

As part of their quality control, 538 only include polls from companies that meet certain criteria, like being transparent about how many people they polled, when the poll was carried out and how the poll was conducted (telephone calls, text message, online, etc).

You can read more about the 538 methodology here.

At the moment, the polls suggest that Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are within a couple of percentage points of each other both nationally and in battleground states – and when the race is that close, it’s very hard to predict winners.

Polls underestimated support for Trump in both 2016 and 2020. Polling companies will be trying to fix that problem in a number of ways, including how to make their results reflect the make-up of the voting population.

Those adjustments are difficult to get right and pollsters still have to make educated guesses about other factors like who will actually turn up to vote on 5 November.

• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
• ANALYSIS: Will Harris debate tactics work against Trump?
• EXPLAINER: Seven swing states that could decide election
• IMMIGRATION: Could Trump really deport a million migrants?
• FACT CHECK: Was US economy stronger or weaker under Trump?
• Read more about: Kamala Harris | Donald Trump | US election

American presidential debates aren’t won on policy.

I’ve covered six presidential elections and have never seen a debate where one candidate emerged as the winner because they made an outstanding policy proposal.

Sure, the ABC News moderators at Tuesday’s debate will ask Donald Trump and Kamala Harris earnest questions about tax cuts and foreign affairs.

But what viewers always focus on are the moments where one candidate has a zinger of a line, or somehow unnerves their opponent, or simply seems more in control.

This is perhaps why an adviser to Trump tells me the former president hasn’t spent his prep time brushing up on policy.

Instead, he’s been “fine-tuning the theatrics of his performance”. If there’s one thing that Trump understands well, it’s television audiences.

He has also been on a presidential debate stage six times already.

For Kamala Harris, this poses a problem. This is her debut. She has not had much rehearsal time and it’s hard to become a world class performer in a couple of weeks.

Unlike her opponent, Ms Harris has spent the past week holed up in a Pennsylvania hotel deep in policy books – but her team has also tried to prepare her to win the optics battle too.

The Harris team has reportedly built a mock television stage – fully fitted with a debate podium and proper lighting.

Top advisers are standing-in and playing the role of Trump (with one of them reportedly even dressing in his signature boxy suits and red ties).

All of this is in a bid to get Ms Harris comfortable with the theatre of it all. They’ve also been reviewing hours of video of all those Trump debates, seeing which plays work well against him and which fall flat.

If the vice-president was hoping for a burst of last minute good news to quell any stage fright, she didn’t get it. A New York Times poll this week has rattled Democrats.

The poll showed a neck-and-neck race between the two candidates, but a sizeable share of voters said they didn’t feel they knew enough about Ms Harris.

One Democratic strategist texted to say they are nervous about the debate because they felt Ms Harris was tentative in a recent CNN interview.

Ask any of the Republicans who Trump demolished in the 2016 primary debates and they will surely tell you that “tentative” is not a winning strategy against him.

• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
• ANALYSIS: Will Harris debate tactics work against Trump?
• EXPLAINER: Seven swing states that could decide election
• VOTER VOICES: Voters want less drama at debate
• FACT CHECK: Was US economy stronger or weaker under Trump?

Since the American public knows far more about Trump than about Ms Harris, the stakes for her seem higher on Tuesday night.

One approach she may take in trying to win this debate will be doing all she can to ensure that Trump loses it. Her team wants to rattle him, to get him to be the most “Trumpian” version of himself.

They hope that if viewers see him behave badly, as he did in a 2020 debate against Joe Biden, it will cost him support.

I’m told Ms Harris may use trigger words like “old” (old ideas, old story) and “small” (small thinking, small beliefs) as a way to needle him on the basis that Trump is conscious of being the older candidate, and references to size seem to irritate him.

But goading him into rude interruptions will be difficult in this debate, because the candidates’ microphones will be muted when it’s not their turn to speak.

Until we see what happens on that stage, it’s hard to determine what a win for either candidate looks like. Debates are unpredictable things. Just ask Mr Biden.

North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of the race for the White House in his weekly US Election Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

Such a personal video is a strikingly different approach for a health update about the Princess of Wales.

It is highly emotional and full of harvest colours heading into an almost melancholy tone, as Catherine walks in the countryside with her family.

There could have been a traditional press release, or a statement delivered to the camera, but instead there’s a soft focus, cinematic touch to this message.

Instead of footnotes and explainers about the completion of her chemotherapy, there’s stylised filming and an intimate first-person narration.

This is clearly a well-planned approach to releasing information, with the filming by Will Warr taking place in Norfolk last month, and the changes of clothes suggesting more than one filming session.

It’s a world away from old school royal releases which stuck to the barest of details and stayed as dry as the desert.

This much lusher treatment follows the trend of celebrities and public figures taking their messages straight to the public, using the language of social media rather than conventional news or an interview.

It allows a great deal of control over the message – with evocative music and slick editing driving the story forward, rather than any questions that might arise about her health or treatment.

We see Catherine, in a 1970s-style long flowing dress, spending time with her family in the woods and by the beach, playing a game with her own parents.

These are framed in a relatable way – a family relaxing after really tough times, in a rural setting that’s meant to send a message about the soothing powers of nature.

Over the top of the pictures is Catherine’s narration, in a movie voiceover style, capturing her sense of cautious optimism, as she welcomes the end of her chemotherapy while at the same time recognising the fragility of life.

It’s where Norfolk meets Hollywood plus Instagram.

There’s almost an echo of a film such as About Time in the video, with its melancholy music, sad themes and a life-affirming narration about how a family can be changed forever by unexpected events.

The comparisons are with movie styles and flashback sequences, rather than news releases.

There’s also clearly an awareness of how this short film might be seen by the many families facing cancer in their own lives. It’s a sensitivity that seems close to the surface.

It almost becomes a prayer at the end, with the invocation: “To all those who are continuing their own cancer journey – I remain with you, side by side, hand in hand. Out of darkness, can come light, so let that light shine bright.”

A busy bridge in northern Vietnam collapsed after being hit by Super Typhoon Yagi, which has killed more than 60 people since making landfall on Saturday.

Dashcam footage showed the moment the Phong Chau bridge in Phu Tho province gave way on Monday, plunging several vehicles into the water below. Searches were under way for 13 people.

Vietnam’s most powerful storm in 30 years has wreaked havoc across the north of the country, leaving 1.5 million people without power.

Although it has now weakened into a tropical depression, authorities have warned Yagi will create more disruption as it moves westwards.

More than 240 people have been injured by the typhoon, which brought winds of up to 203 km/h (126 mph) and is Asia’s most powerful storm so far this year.

Ten cars and two scooters fell into the Red River following the collapse of the Phong Chau bridge, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc said.

The moment a lorry plummeted into the water as the bridge decking ahead fell away before the driver had time to stop was captured on camera.

At least three people have been rescued from the river so far.

Nguyen Minh Hai said he was riding across the bridge on his motorcycle when it collapsed.

“I was so scared when I fell down,” he said, speaking from hospital.

“I feel like I’ve just escaped death. I can’t swim and I thought I would have died.”

Part of the 375-m (1230-ft) structure is still standing, and the military has been instructed to build a pontoon bridge across the gap as soon as possible.

At least 44 of those who died in Vietnam were killed in landslides and flash floods, according to the ministry of agriculture and rural development.

Among them were a 68-year-old woman, a one-year-old boy, and a newborn baby.

The typhoon tore roofs from buildings, uprooted trees, and left widespread damage to infrastructure and factories in the north. Photos by Reuters news agency show that the walls of an LG Electronics factory in Hai Phong city have collapsed.

In the Yen Bai province, flood waters reached a metre high on Monday, with 2,400 families evacuated to higher ground as levels rose, AFP news agency reported.

Nearly 50,000 people have been evacuated from coastal towns in Vietnam, with authorities issuing a warning to remain indoors.

Schools were temporarily closed in 12 northern provinces, including Hanoi.

Nguyen Thi Thom, who owns a restaurant in Ha Long Bay on the north-east coast, said she and many other people had lost everything in the storm.

“There is nothing left. When I look around, people have also lost all they had, just like me,” she said.

“I can only try to recover from this.”

Before hitting Vietnam, Yagi left 24 people dead across southern China and the Philippines.

As the world warms, typhoons can bring higher wind speeds and more intense rainfall, although the influence of climate change on individual storms is complicated.

Emily Maitlis says the Duke of York “lost respect” after her infamous Newsnight interview with him, but warned that Jeffrey Epstein’s victims didn’t get closure.

“I think there is unfinished business,” the journalist told BBC News. “It isn’t some nice, neat ending.”

The 2019 interview, widely viewed as a “car-crash”, saw Prince Andrew talk candidly to Maitlis about his friendship with convicted sex offender Epstein.

It is now the subject of a new three-part drama, A Very Royal Scandal, starring Ruth Wilson as Maitlis and Michael Sheen as Andrew.

The BBC interview did huge damage to Andrew’s reputation and is seen by many as greatly contributing to his downfall.

Days after it, the duke announced he was stepping back from royal duties, saying the Epstein scandal had become a “major disruption” to the Royal Family.

Maitlis was speaking to me alongside Wilson in the Ham Yard Hotel in central London, not far from where Newsnight is made in the corporation’s Broadcasting House.

Her interview, which made headlines around the world, aired on a special Saturday evening edition of the programme in 2019.

It saw Prince Andrew discuss his links to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the socialite now serving time in prison for helping Epstein abuse girls.

Andrew used the interview to emphatically deny having sex with then 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre, saying he was in Pizza Express in Woking on the day the encounter was meant to have taken place.

The duke has subsequently paid a financial settlement to Ms Giuffre, formally ending a civil case brought against him in the US.

The out-of-court settlement accepted no liability and Prince Andrew has always strongly rejected claims of wrongdoing.

On Monday, it was reported that the duke will have to pay his own costs if he wants to stay in the Royal Lodge mansion in Windsor.

When reflecting on the impact of the interview, Maitlis said that in some ways, “everything changed”.

“Prince Andrew, he lost his royal duties, he lost the ability to wear uniform, he lost the respect of the nation, and it became, I think, much more difficult for him in his place in the Royal Family,” she said.

“And on the other side, we don’t know if Epstein’s victims gained anything from that. We don’t know if their lives materially changed,” she added.

“There’s been no trial. There’s been a settlement… but we haven’t had that sense of closure there,” she said.

She said that she sometimes wondered whether it was “anything more than a moment”.

“Can you ever do anything more as a journalist than just ask the questions, and then see what changes as a result?,” she asked.

She said that’s why the third episode of the new series – which focuses on consequences – is so important.

“It is about reckoning. It is about fallout. But it isn’t some nice, neat ending with a comedy villain or a sort of swashbuckling hero. It doesn’t end neatly.”

Maitlis also revealed that a month after her interview in November 2019, she was “pulled aside” by someone close to King Charles, who was at the time the Prince of Wales.

She said the person simply said: “HRH was not unhappy with the interview.”

BBC News has been unable to verify these comments. But Maitlis says she spent years “trying to puzzle out” what the words meant.

She speculated it could have meant that Charles didn’t “blame” her for the interview. “You’re not going off to the Tower,” she said.

“Or it might have meant that in some way, that it was not unhelpful for a reset between the Royal Family and the British public.”

Maitlis said that when you look at the shape of the monarchy since then, it is “more slimmed down”.

“I remember the Queen’s speech that Christmas – on the piano, there were only a few photographs, and the sense was that there had been a shift,” she said.

“And so I kind of think back to those words that I heard in, you know, December 2019, and think I wonder if that was the beginning of the reset.”

In the series, Wilson wore a wig and blue contact lenses in order to look like Maitlis.

The actress said it was “absolutely wonderful” playing Maitlis, adding: “I got to be blonde, and blondes do have more fun. I loved it.”

She recruited a voice coach, and also a movement coach, and studied Maitlis “intensely” – including in the workplace – to try and get into character.

“I loved getting involved and seeing behind the scenes of how that world works. That’s what drew me to the project in the first place,” she said.

Maitlis, meanwhile, said Wilson had managed to capture her “impatience”, including the way she eats sandwiches in a hurry.

“And she put a sort of comedy into the movement which I had,” she said.

“I wouldn’t recognise it myself, but I suddenly saw it through Ruth and thought it’s true. I’m always spilling things. I’m always dropping things. I’ve always overstuffed a handbag.

“There is sort of a certain amount of chaos, I think, to my off-screen life that Ruth had just watched and seamlessly injected without ever having to say it. And so, it was remarkable, actually.”

The Amazon Prime series comes just months after a rival dramatisation of the 2019 Newsnight interview, Scoop, was released on Netflix.

That version starred Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew, Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis and Billie Piper as producer Sam McAlister.

But whereas Scoop focused on the part played by McAlister in securing the interview, A Very Royal Scandal is centred on Maitlis’s own role in the process.

Maitlis, who is executive producer for the new series, is diplomatic when asked about McAlister’s version, insisting “they’re very different beasts”.

But she said there were elements in Scoop that she didn’t recognise, including scenes which showed her and her grey whippet Moody in the office.

“I’m really sorry to disappoint,” she said. “In my perfect world, obviously, dogs would be everywhere, but Moody has never been in the Newsnight studio.”

But even Maitlis’s version took creative liberties.

She pointed out one scene in which her on-screen husband is heard snoring while she types furiously on her phone next to him.

“There was no snoring, I have to say, in my marriage or, you know, in the bedroom,” she notes.

The entire Newsnight interview can still be easily watched online.

Which begs the question: Do we need a dramatisation, or indeed two, if you can just watch the real thing?

“The interview was one hour, in one moment, in one day, in one year,” Maitlis said.

“And [the drama] is actually an accumulation of consequences and results and fallout that we’re only just managing to understand.

“Now, I still think that the story itself isn’t actually finished, but this is the nearest you’ll get to kind of understanding, I guess, the beginning of it, and just what it did to all of us.”

At least 40 people have been killed in southern Gaza and dozens more injured in Israeli strikes on a designated humanitarian zone, the Hamas-run Civil Defence authority said.

The Israeli military said its aircraft attacked an operations centre in Khan Younis belonging to Hamas fighters, and that it had taken steps to mitigate risk of harming civilians.

Local residents said three strikes targeted tents housing displaced people in the humanitarian zone of al-Mawasi, west of the city of Khan Younis, causing huge craters.

“Forty people were killed and more than 60 injured, while many are still under the rubble,” the operations director of Hamas’s Civil Defence authority told the BBC.

Eyewitnesses told the BBC large explosions rocked the al-Mawasi area shortly after midnight and flames could be seen rising into the sky.

Khaled Mahmoud, a volunteer for a charity who lives near the site of the strikes, said he and other volunteers rushed to help but were stunned by the scale of the disaster.

“The strikes created three craters seven metres deep and buried more than 20 tents,” Mr Mahmoud said.

Unverified videos showed civilians digging through the sand with their hands in an attempt to rescue Palestinians from a deep hole caused by the airstrikes.

In a statement, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said the military had attacked “significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control center embedded inside the Humanitarian Area in Khan Yunis.”

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

“The terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip continue to systematically abuse civilian and humanitarian infrastructure, including the designated Humanitarian Area, to carry out terrorist activity against the State of Israel and IDF troops.”

Hamas rejected the Israeli military’s claims that there were Hamas fighters present in the area, calling it a “blatant” lie.

“The resistance has denied several times that any of its members exist within civilian gatherings or are using these places for military purposes.”

• Israel-Gaza ceasefire: Is a deal still possible?
• Satellite images show how Israel is paving key Gaza road

Thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled to Khan Younis since Israel launched its military campaign in the territory last October.

The ground operation was launched in response to Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, in which about 1,200 were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

More than 40,900 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

With business slumping, Apple has been under pressure to show what it will offer buyers to jumpstart a new wave of iPhone sales.

On Monday, the technology giant revealed its hand – the iPhone 16 which has a camera button on the outside of the handset.

The button is an external clue to the changes Apple said it had made inside its latest smartphone, aimed at harnessing the latest in artificial intelligence (AI).

Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook said the upgrades would “push the boundaries of what a smartphone can do” but the firm has tough competition, as other brands have already integrated generative AI features into their handsets.

Apple’s share price fell during its “Glowtime” event, where it unveiled the iPhone 16 as well as other products, and ended the day flat. The company, worth $3 trillion, is facing concern that it is losing its edge in the burgeoning area of artificial intelligence.

Sales of the iPhone – Apple’s most important product which accounts for around half of its total sales – have stalled in recent months. They slipped by 1% over the nine months ended 29 June compared with a year earlier.

Apple said its new phones, which come with longer lasting batteries, more powerful chips and enhanced privacy features, were its first built specifically to handle AI and its new “Apple Intelligence” tools, many of which were announced in June.

Those include new tools for writing and creating new emojis as well incorporating OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT into Siri to help users with some queries and text generation requests.

On Monday, Apple also announced updates to its Apple Watch and its AirPod headphones, which will allow them to automatically drop the volume when users start in-person conversations and to decline calls with the shake of a head.

It said the Pro version of its AirPods would be able to be used as a “clinical grade” personal hearing aid for people with mild or moderate hearing loss.

The company said it was expecting marketing approval from regulators for the device “soon” and the feature would be available this autumn in more than 100 countries, including the US, Germany and Japan.

Previously, the company had a feature that allowed people to pair hearing aids with iPhones and other devices.

The products were rolled out at a glossy event where protestors gathered in a designated free speech area across the street, urging executives to ramp up efforts to protect children from dangerous content in the company’s App Store.

The protest featured a life-sized blow-up made to resemble Mr Cook.

Sales of the new range start in September, with prices for the iPhone16 starting at $799.

But the Apple Intelligence features are not set to be available on operating systems until October, starting in the US and heading to other countries in the following months. They will be available in the UK in December.

Ben Wood, chief analyst at the market research firm CCS Insight, said it was likely that many people would dismiss the company’s new camera control as a “glorified shutter button”.

But he said it offered “very significant” upgrades, including visual, AI-powered search and he came away from the presentation persuaded that Apple would win over customers.

“The combination of Apple Intelligence and new camera features on the iPhone 16 will help spur upgrades from loyal Apple customers,” he said. “Particularly as Apple is positioning this latest update as being a future-proof purchase for customers wanting to get Apple Intelligence features as they roll out over the next few years.”

Apple has been slower than rivals Samsung and Google to bake generative AI features for photo editing, translation and web browsing into its devices.

Competitors are now building them into folding, flipping and even tri-folding smartphones.

Pre-orders for Huawei’s new tri-fold phone, the Mate XT, reportedly hit more than three million on Monday.

Gartner analyst Annette Zimmermann said because Apple was rolling out AI-ready smartphones later than rivals, it was “critical” they deliver.

She warned that rolling the features out before they were ready could risk their reputation or prompt sales losses.

An investor in the disastrous Fyre Festival has issued a warning to anyone interested in going to its planned reboot: “Proceed with caution.”

Andy King’s comment comes after Billy McFarland announced Fyre II, after only recently being released from prison for scamming millions from the original.

Mr King, who lost $1m in the original debacle, told the BBC that McFarland was “known for the biggest failure in pop culture and wants to flip the script. But I’m not sure he’s going about it the right way.”

McFarland, 32, spent four years in prison over the 2017 event in the Bahamas, which provided none of the promised “luxury” for tickets costing up to $250,000. Tickets for Fyre II next April will cost up to $1.1m (£840,000), he says.

McFarland told US media last week that “Fyre II has to work”. He claimed he had spent a year planning it, and had already sold 100 tickets at an ‘early bird’ rate of $499.

Mr King, 63, said he had met McFarland several months ago to discuss Fyre II but he feared his former business partner hadn’t “learned a lot in prison… he’s shooting from the hip again”.

“Billy has a gift. He’s got a lot of charisma. He knows how to pull people in,” the South Carolina-based event planner told BBC News.

“Think about it: when he was 24, he walked in to investment banking firms in New York and got them to invest $29m.”

He said Fyre II could be a “huge success” – but if McFarland was “running the show again, it won’t work”.

Mr King, who said none of his $1m investment in the original festival had been returned, was contacted by McFarland to meet investors in the new venture.

“I’m just seeing a lot of red flags, and a lot of red lights”, he said. “And I feel bad. It saddens me.

“We were going to rent one of the biggest estates in the Hamptons and have a big, swanky party,” said Mr King, referencing a famed playground of America’s rich and famous.

“We ended up having 30 people at a pizza place along the Montauk highway.”

He said subsequent calls were cancelled and he hadn’t heard from McFarland in seven or eight months.

The original Fyre was promoted by supermodels and celebrities as an exclusive getaway for the very rich, and the location was hyped as a private island once owned by drug lord Pablo Escobar.

Festival-goers arrived to find all the talent cancelled, bare mattresses to sleep on in storm-ravaged tents and cheese sandwiches in takeaway containers to eat.

McFarland was sentenced in 2018 to six years in jail for wire fraud, and was also ordered to return $29m to investors.

He was freed in 2022 under an early release programme but remains on probation until next August.

According to McFarland, tickets for next year will start at $1,400 but will go as high as $1.1m.

The most expensive package will include scuba diving, island hopping and luxury yachts.

He said the event was “not going to be just music” and could include sideshows like a live karate combat pit.

He admitted, however, that he has yet to book any talent.

Mr King said he would still want to talk to his old business partner about his new venture, despite still facing a backlash for his involvement in the original festival – everywhere he goes, he says, people still give him “the scam guy” treatment.

He emerged a sympathetic figure in the 2019 Netflix documentary Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened for his efforts to turn the disaster around.

In arguably the most viral moment from the entire saga, he describes how McFarland urged him to offer sexual favours to Bahamian customs officials to secure enough bottled water for the event.

That “funny fame”, however, has come at a steep price for Mr King.

He added that he had stayed in touch with McFarland through his prison term and briefly advised him on reputation management last year.

At the very least, he said, “the Fyre brand is so well known around the world that there is going to be a lot of people that will be curious”.

“And they’re all watching.”

American actor James Earl Jones, best known for being the voices of the Star Wars villain Darth Vader, has died aged 93.

He died early on Monday morning surrounded by his family, agent Barry McPherson said.

Jones starred in dozens of films including Field of Dreams, Coming To America, Conan the Barbarian and The Lion King. He was best known for giving the Star Wars supervillain Darth Vader his distinctive, gravelly voice.

Mark Hamill, who played Vader’s son Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, posted “RIP Dad” with a broken heart emoji as he shared a news report of the death.

• Obituary: From a childhood stammer to the unmistakable voice of Darth Vader

During his career, Jones won three Tony awards including two Emmys and a Grammy, as well as an honorary Oscar in 2011 for lifetime achievement.

In 1971, he became only the second Black man nominated for an Academy Award for best actor, after Sidney Poitier.

Star Trek actor LeVar Burton was was among the first to pay tribute to Jones, saying “there will never be another of his particular combinations of graces”.

Also paying tribute, US actor Colman Domingo wrote: “Thank you dear James Earl Jones for everything. A master of our craft. We stand on your shoulders. Rest now. You gave us your best.”

Kevin Costner, who co-starred with Jones in Field of Dreams, said: “That booming voice. That quiet strength. The kindness that he radiated. So much can be said about his legacy, so I’ll just say how thankful I am that part of it includes Field of Dreams.”

Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer wrote Jones’ “voice and talent will be remembered always” and that “legendary doesn’t even begin to describe his iconic roles and impact on cinema forever.”

Crystal Minkoff, wife of The Lion King co-director Rob Minkoff, posted a photo of Jones holding a statue of Mufasa alongside the words: “Rest in Power, Mr Jones. You made a young animator’s dream come true when you accepted the role of Mufasa.

“Thank you for all you have done for Rob. Your memory will live on.”

Jones was also the voice of US broadcaster CNN’s “This is CNN” tagline.

“He was the voice of CNN and our brand for many decades, uniquely conveying through speech instant authority, grace, and decorum,” the broadcaster told the Hollywood Reporter.

“That remarkable voice is just one of many things the world will miss about James.”

Born in Mississippi in January 1931, Jones said he was unable to speak for most of his childhood because of a stammer.

He explained he had developed his famous voice while working on how to deal with the stammer.

Jones was best known for voicing Darth Vader in the original Star Wars film, which came out in 1977, and sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

He reprised the role in later film releases such as the first instalment of the Star Wars anthology series, Rogue One, and the third instalment of the sequel trilogy, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – both released in the later 2010s.

A different actor always donned the Darth Vader costume and provided the movement for the famous villain, including the late David Prowse, with Jones lending his deep and instantly recognisable voice.

“I love being part of that whole myth, of that whole cult,” Jones said in an interview with BBC HardTalk in 2012, adding he was glad to oblige fans who asked for a command recital of his “I am your father” line.

Jones said he never made much money off the Darth Vader part – only $9,000 (£6,884) for the first film – and he considered it merely a special effects job.

At his own insistence, he was not given a credit for his performance. He felt it was all merely another “special effect”.

When the films broke all box office records, he was persuaded to rethink.

Jones was also well known as a television performer, playing the older Alex Hailey in Roots: The Next Generation and winning one of his two Emmys for the lead role in the US drama Gabriel’s Fire.

His gravelly tones were used in The Simpsons and he appeared in early episodes of Sesame Street.

Jones also tackled many iconic Shakespeare characters on the stage, including Othello and King Lear.

James Earl Jones might have enjoyed an acting career that lasted nearly 60 years. But the thing he will be remembered for was that voice.

It was a deep, rolling, glorious contrabass; once described as the sound that “Moses heard when addressed by God.”

He was the voice of Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, summoning by speech alone the full power of the mystical ‘Force’.

More recently, he could be heard growling “This is CNN”, conveying urgency and bestowing gravitas on the US news channel’s tagline.

James Earl Jones was born on 17 January 1931 in Mississippi, of African-American, American Indian and Irish ancestry. His father, Robert Earl Jones abandoned his family not long after the birth of his son.

It was a big household, with 13 people, and it was decided that Jones should live with his grandmother in Memphis “to ease the burden”. But when he was driven to her house, he clung desperately to the car.

“It was the only way I could express that I wanted to be with them”, he recalled. “They accepted that.”

It was all so traumatic he developed a stammer that lasted into his teens. It got so bad that, for some time, he was unable to speak, and communicated only in writing.

Ironically, it was the stammer that turned him towards acting, giving him a life-long appreciation of the spoken word.

In high school, a sympathetic teacher discovered his talent for writing poetry and encouraged him to read his compositions out loud in class. Jones discovered that his stammer eased when he was speaking from memory. Encouraged, he began to take part in debates and public speaking competitions.

He was drawn to the theatre during his time at the University of Michigan and, after completing his military service, sought work as an actor in New York. For a time he lived with his father, not because he was seeking a reconciliation but simply to save on the rent.

“It was too late to get to know him as a father,” he said. “If you don’t learn that from the beginning, there’s no way to catch up.” But Robert, who had tried to make a go of acting himself, supported his son’s ambition with one condition.

“I can’t make a living doing this”, he told the young James. “So if you want to enter this world, do it because you love it.” It wasn’t bad advice.

Despite the difficulties black actors found finding work, Jones made his name in Broadway productions such as Jean Genet’s drama, The Blacks, in which black actors performed in white make-up to subvert colonial stereotypes.

He was fortunate to have hit a time when New York theatre was remaking itself in a different image. No longer did you have to be white and middle class to succeed.

He did Shakespeare; not only Othello, but King Lear, Oberon and Claudius. And there was cutting edge, modern work in Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and an all-black production of Tennessee Williams’ Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.

In 1968, he won a Tony award for his stage portrayal of a character based on the great black boxer, Jack Johnson in The Great White Hope. He later received an Oscar nomination for his performance in the film version, only the second black actor following Sidney Poitier to be so honoured.

His first film role was as a young, trim member of Slim Pickens’ flight crew in Stanley Kubrick’s dark satire Dr Strangelove.

He later appeared in a wide variety of movies such as Conan the Barbarian, Coming to America, Field of Dreams, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. He would think of himself as a journeyman actor who took whatever came along and paid a cheque.

“Denzel Washington, Sidney Poitier, Robert Redford, Tom Cruise: those guys have well-planned careers,” he admitted to the Guardian. “I’m just on a journey. Wherever I run across a job, I say, ‘OK, I’ll do that.”

As children know the world over, he was asked to voice Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy. The man behind the mask, Dave Prowse, had a strong West Country accent. It was good enough for the Green Cross Code man, but lacked the menace of an evil Jedi bent on intergalactic power.

At his own insistence, Jones was not given a credit for his performance. He felt it was all merely another “special effect”. When the films broke all box office records, he was persuaded to rethink.

He was also well known as a television performer, playing the older Alex Hailey in Roots: The Next Generation and winning one of his two Emmys for the lead role in the US drama Gabriel’s Fire. His gravelly tones were used in The Simpsons and as the voice of Mufasa in The Lion King.

He also appeared in early episodes of Sesame Street. To see if the show worked, the producers showed clips to schoolchildren. The one that had the biggest impact, by far, was of James Earl Jones standing motionless, simply counting slowly from one to 10.

In 2011, he was awarded an honorary Oscar for his contribution to the film industry. He received it on the stage of a London theatre where he was appearing with Vanessa Redgrave in the play, Driving Miss Daisy.

Such was the authority in his voice, James Earl Jones became a stalwart of commercial voice-overs, documentaries and computer games. He was the voice of SeaWorld in Florida and NBC’s Olympic coverage. Someone even had the good sense to ask him to record all 27 books of the New Testament.

He was happy to hire out his voice for business, but was more reticent about politics. His father had been black-listed by Senator Joseph McCarthy and he steered clear of controversy.

“My voice is for hire”, he once said. “My endorsement is not for hire. I will do a voice-over, but I cannot endorse without making a different kind of commitment. My politics are very personal and subjective.”

He never retired, working long into his 80s. The boy from Mississippi with a strong stammer will be remembered as a powerful stage actor with a legendary voice.

In 2016, there was even a final performance as Darth Vader in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

His words still had the brutal power they’d wielded four decades previously; bringing to a new generation of children the timeless horror of the Dark Side.