Peru’s former President Alberto Fujimori, who was convicted of human rights abuses and corruption, has died aged 86, his daughter has confirmed.

Fujimori governed Peru between 1990 and 2000 before being forced from office amid allegations of corruption.

His tough stance against a left-wing guerrilla insurgency while president also brought allegations of human rights abuses.

But his supporters praise him for defeating the rebels at a time when they looked likely to seize power.

He fled the country but was subsequently arrested and extradited, before being convicted and jailed.

His daughter Keiko Fujimori posted on social media to say the former president had died “after a long battle with cancer”.

He was convicted in a number of cases including corruption, abuse of power and being behind two death squad massacres in the early 1990s.

Last December Fujimori was released from Lima’s Barbadillo prison having served more than 15 years of a 25-year prison sentence.

Peru’s constitutional court had reinstated a presidential pardon issued six years previously.

Supporters of Fujimori began gathering outside his house as soon as his daughter posted the announcement of his death.

“After a long battle with cancer, our father, Alberto Fujimori, has just departed to meet the Lord,” his children Keiko, Hiro, Sachie and Kenji said in a joint statement.

“We ask those who loved him to join us in praying for the eternal rest of his soul.

“Thank you for so much, Dad!”

For Fujimori’s supporters, he was the man who saved Peru from a brutal Maoist rebel group, the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), and who put the economy back on track after skyrocketing inflation.

But for thousands of innocent victims of the conflict, Fujimori was an authoritarian figure and a brutal leader.

The son of Japanese immigrants, Fujimori ruled with an iron fist, his time in office marked by dramatic twists and turns.

He was first elected president in 1990, when the rebel insurgency was at its height.

Two years later, Fujimori closed Congress, accusing lawmakers of preventing him from taking the measures the country needed.

His government managed to defeat the rebel group but at a very high human cost.

His authoritarian government’s crackdown resulted in the deaths of an estimated 69,000 people.

Fujimori was eventually convicted of human rights violations that targeted mainly poor indigenous communities.

Fujimori governed Peru until he was forced from office amid allegations of corruption. He sought asylum in Japan before returning to Chile, where he was arrested.

Today his daughter Keiko is the leader of Peru’s biggest political party.

She lost the last presidential elections by a narrow margin and has already announced she will run again in 2026.

Singapore’s grandest arena, which has hosted Taylor Swift and Madonna, is getting ready to welcome an arguably bigger icon – Pope Francis.

The pontiff will celebrate Mass with 50,000 people at the National Stadium on Thursday evening, packing the venue as his 12-day Asia-Pacific tour draws to a close.

The 87-year-old has been to Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea – the visit to the Pacific Island was the furthest he has travelled to meet devotees.

He arrived in Singapore, where less than 10% of the population – around 400,000 people – identify as Catholic, on Wednesday afternoon. The three-day visit includes meetings with government officials, religious leaders and students.

This has been the longest foreign visit of his papacy and given his frail health, volunteers say the visit was unimaginable just a year ago. A spell of illness at the time had made overseas travel difficult, forcing him to cancel a trip to the UAE.

“Since we were told that he was coming [to Singapore], we’ve been praying,” says Karen Cheah, one of 5,000 volunteers who have been recruited for duties ranging from singing in the choir during Mass to protecting the Pope.

“Once he got on the plane and visited the other countries, the reality hit that it’s coming up: we are next.”

Hosting the Pope for even a single evening – as the stadium will – is no small feat.

It is a hive of activity the day before Mass. The pitch is covered with rubber flooring. The rows of chairs are growing as workers unload more of them.

At the other end of the arena, the choir is rehearsing hymns at full volume under the close watch of directors, the sound clashing with the routines being practised by the hosts of the event.

One volunteer is going through the sequences for Mass while manoeuvring an empty wheelchair. Pope Francis is expected to use a wheelchair for most engagements because of a knee ailment.

Meanwhile security volunteers are working with the police to secure an area around the Pope and guard where he is staying in Singapore.

These volunteers have completed weeks of training, where they learned skills including how to disengage from a tight grip and respond to a knife attack.

“Because of the current heightened sense of security, the police have been very active in working with us,” says Kevin Ho, who heads the security volunteer team.

“Our volunteers have been having sleepless nights, doing the operational work. We are trying to make the visit as safe and successful as it can be.”

The precautions have also increased because of a recent threat. Seven people were detained in Indonesia last week over a failed plot to attack the Pope. Police said they had confiscated bows, arrows, a drone and leaflets purportedly linked to the Islamic State militant group.

The Pope, born in Buenos Aires as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is known to be unafraid to address issues including LGBT+ inclusion and inter-religious tensions. On this trip, he made a joint call for peace in Jakarta alongside the grand imam of Southeast Asia’s largest mosque and met other religious leaders.

He praised Indonesians for choosing to have large families over pets, a seeming comment on plummeting birth rates in China, South Korea and Japan. But his figures that Indonesian parents are having up to five children were decades out of date, commentators pointed out. Indonesian women now have on average only slightly more than two children in their lifetime, UN data shows.

In resource-rich Papua New Guinea, which has been drawing international companies and investors, the Pope called for workers to be treated fairly. And in Timor-Leste, he said young people should be protected from abuse, after a prominent local bishop was accused of sexually abusing young boys there during the 1980s and 90s.

“Of course, the Pope has a message. But at the same time, he is also the message,” says Monsignor Stephen Yim, co-chair of the organising committee at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore.

This is Singapore’s second papal visit.

The late Pope John Paul II spent just five hours in the city state in 1986, which included officiating Mass at the old National Stadium.

Mr Ho, who was a student then, remembers that day well. He says the crowd roared as the pontiff made a lap of the venue in the popemobile, undeterred by the rain.

“The old stadium had no roof and we all got rained on,” Mr Ho recalls. “The only emotion I remember was that palpable sense of excitement when the Pope came around. It was electric. I will never forget that.”

Demand for Thursday’s Mass was also high – almost half of those who tried to get a seat were unsuccessful. Those who were unlucky received a reply with an emoji and verse from the Bible.

“Seeing the Pope in person feels like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” says Stephanie Yuen, who managed to get a seat at the stadium. “As a Catholic, that’s something I don’t want to miss, especially in my own country.”

The Mass will be “a very profound spiritual experience that I will get to share with thousands of my fellow Catholics in Singapore”, says Sherilyn Choo, another thrilled attendee.

The visit has also touched non-Catholics, such as carpenter Govindharaj Muthiah, who built two chairs for the Pope’s use in Singapore.

“Tensions around the globe are quite high. It’s heartwarming that he made trips to countries with many different religions,” Mr Muthiah says. “Unity is the message he is putting across.”

Creators and fans of the Japanese anime series One Piece explain why the show has become one of the most popular franchises in the world.

It is a show that has run for more than 1,000 episodes – and it counts French President Emmanuel Macron and rapper Travis Scott as fans. The comic series it is based on, meanwhile, has sold more than 500 million copies, earning a Guinness World Record.

And you can even buy merchandise for the series in clothing stores up and down the country.

The show is One Piece, a Japanese anime that celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2024.

Based around a series of comics by manga auteur Eiichiro Oda, it follows Monkey D Luffy, the leader of a group of pirates travelling the world on the hunt for a mysterious treasure known as the One Piece. Along the way, they engage in battles with the government and their fellow pirates, using powers gained by eating “Devil Fruits”.

As the series is now streaming on BBC iPlayer, creators and fans of the show explain how One Piece became such a phenomenon.

When Zach Logan began his One Piece Podcast in 2009, the show was little-known in the United States.

“You could measure it from anime conventions that we went to,” he tells the BBC. “Today they would be overrun by One Piece fans, but then it was like two and a half people – two people, and then their baby who they’d dressed up as Chopper.” In One Piece, Chopper is a toddler-sized hybrid of human and reindeer.

Logan describes the show in the late 2000s as a “niche within a niche”, with a small following within the already small fanbase for anime in the US.

In Japan, however, the success of One Piece was more instantaneous. When it was first published in 1997 in magazine Shonen Jump, the publication’s readership was falling behind that of its rival Shonen Magazine. One Piece’s inclusion helped Shonen Jump reclaim its spot as the most-read manga in Japan.

Hiroyuki Nakano, the current editor of the One Piece manga, read the series from its inception.

“I remember being truly amazed, thinking, ‘an incredible comic has begun,’” he says via an interpreter.

In the mid-1990s, manga (a term used for a range of Japanese comic books and graphic novels) was at its peak, with 1.34 billion manga collections sold in 1995. Popular titles of the time included Dragon Ball (about a martial artist on the search for magical orbs), Slam Dunk (about a basketball team) and Doraemon (about a time-travelling robotic cat).

For Nakono, however, the One Piece comic series changed the industry. “Instead of relying on a haphazard, week-by-week method,” he says, “it carefully built up characters, creating a story structure that leads to an emotional climax at the end.”

“There was a strong emphasis on cliffhangers in manga before One Piece,” he continues. “This approach often led to disappointments when the developments didn’t meet the build-up’s expectations.”

When it comes to the anime series, Logan adds that the show’s approach also gives it a stronger emotional punch than other anime.

He highlights the Drum Island arc (episodes 78 to 91), when viewers learn the backstory of Chopper, who was shunned by his fellow reindeer. “Watching Drum Island,” he says, “anyone with a soul would cry.”

The first episode of the anime adaptation aired in October 1999, but it took over a decade for it to develop a significant following outside Japan.

First transmitted in the US in 2004, the early dubbed version was criticised for its unconvincing voice actors and the decision to censor some of the battles by removing blood and replacing guns with water pistols or shovels.

“People were turned off by the first version of it,” says Logan.

Logan says the international popularity of the show was turbo-charged during the pandemic. “It was like gasoline on a fire. When people were at home, they had no excuse not to watch a show with 900-plus episodes.”

Though some may be intimidated by the show’s length – a binge from beginning to end would take two-and-a-half uninterrupted weeks – for Nakano, this is the show’s strength.

“When it comes to the sheer number of characters and ideas created by Oda-sensei [One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda], no other body of work can match it.”

Logan compares the show to Doctor Who, another cult show that can leave people intimidated by its length and leave them wondering when to start.

“You could skip certain parts and jump in at a certain point, but you’ll miss some important, brilliant stuff,” he says. “In One Piece, there’s stuff in episodes from 1999 or 2002 that’s still very prescient to the show because of how Oda interweaves things.

“I used to tell friends that they could skip things, but now I feel I would be committing malpractice to say that!

“People will start by complaining how long it is, and when they get to the end they’re like, ‘why isn’t there more?’”

A former CIA officer has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for spying for the Chinese government.

Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 71, was arrested in August 2020 after admitting to an undercover FBI agent that he sold US secrets to China.

Ma, a naturalised US citizen born in Hong Kong, worked for the CIA from 1982 to 1989. He went on to work for the FBI later in his career.

Part of his plea agreement states that he must co-operate with prosecutors “for the rest of his life, including by submitting to debriefings by US government agencies”.

The plea deal requires him to submit to polygraph tests during those debriefings, according to the Associated Press news agency.

At a sentencing hearing on Wednesday, lawyers for the US government told the court that he has been co-operative, and has already taken part in “multiple interview sessions with government agents”.

Officials say Ma collaborated with a relative, who was also a CIA agent, to supply secrets to intelligence officers employed by the Shanghai State Security Bureau.

One meeting in Hong Kong was recorded on video and shows Ma counting $50,000 (£38,000) in cash for the secrets they shared, federal prosecutors say.

While living in Hawaii in 2004 he took a job at the FBI’s Honolulu office as a contract linguist.

The FBI, already aware of his espionage activities “hired Ma as part of a ruse to monitor and investigate his activities and contacts”, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

According to the AP, the unnamed collaborator was Ma’s brother, who died before he could be prosecuted.

At a court in Hawaii on Wednesday Ma was jailed for 10 years, as agreed with prosecutors, followed by five years of supervised release.

“Let it be a message to anyone else thinking of doing the same,” FBI Honolulu Special Agent-in-Charge Steven Merrill said in a statement, according to the AP.

“No matter how long it takes, or how much time passes, you will be brought to justice.”

Kamala Harris may have rattled Donald Trump on the debate stage, but the former president’s promise to save a nation in decline resonates with undecided voters in this part of a key battleground state.

It took Paul Simon four days to hitchhike from Saginaw, or so he sang in America, his iconic soundscape ballad of the 1960s with its lost souls on the highways of a country in flux.

Back then, this city’s long, slow decline had already begun, as Michigan’s once mighty car factories pulled down the shutters, buffeted by the winds of foreign competition.

Today, the angst and loneliness of Simon and Art Garfunkel’s song are magnified many times over.

I found 57-year-old Rachel Oviedo sitting on her porch, staring out at streetscape of abandoned furniture and beyond, the shell of a plant that once made car parts for Chevrolets and Buicks but finally closed its doors in 2014.

“We sit here all day long,” she told me. “We see homeless people come in and out of there, they need to tear it down and make something out of it.”

“A grocery store,” she suggested. “Because we ain’t got no grocery stores round here.”

I first met her the day before Tuesday night’s debate in Philadelphia, when she told me she was still unsure of how she was going to vote.

Donald Trump, she said, felt like a known quantity and like “a man of his word”, while Kamala Harris looked promising but still somewhat unknown.

“I like her,” she said, “but we don’t know what she’s going to do.”

Most US states lean either so strongly Democratic or so strongly Republican that the result is a foregone conclusion.

And if Michigan is one of the few swing states, then Saginaw is one of the few places in it where the vote could genuinely go either way.

When they come to cast their ballots, it will be undecided voters like Rachel, in places like this, who’ll quite literally have the future of America in their hands.

Chuck Brenner, a retired Saginaw cop, is another one.

The 49 year old, who still works part time in probation and runs his own real estate company, says he’s seen up close the problems here.

“Almost everybody’s dad worked in the car industry,” he told me.

“Back then, everybody had money and jobs were readily available. You’ve seen the change, people are struggling because people are growing up poor and then drugs and all that.”

Trump’s message of American decline resonates with Chuck.

“Absolutely,” he told me. “Because you can see it.”

But although he voted for Mr Trump in 2016, he went for Joe Biden in 2020.

“There was a lot of drama with Trump,“ he added. “And the legal issues. I kind of got sick of that.”

This time round, he’d only make up his mind, he insisted, once he’d watched the debate and heard what both candidates had to say.

Saginaw, like the wider state of Michigan, was once solid Democrat country – its political inclinations revealed in the list of candidates it has backed down the decades: Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

That 2016 vote, when Saginaw went – like Mr Brenner – for Trump, marked a shift.

You don’t have to spend long here to realise just how remarkable a shift that was.

Jeremy Zehnder runs a truck polishing company, doing the kind of work Democrats used to be able to depend on for support.

Surrounded by the giant, gleaming trucks and trailers, the lifeblood of the American economy’s distribution networks, he tells me it’s not debate performances but the cost of living that will determine how he votes.

And a majority of voters tell pollsters they trust Trump more on the economy.

“With the truckers, every one of those that we know of are leaning towards the right,” he told me.

“What, every one?”, I asked him, slightly incredulous.

“I don’t know of one that isn’t,” he replied. “I mean we do hundreds of trucks every year. And they all want to talk about it, everybody talks about it.”

At a United Auto Workers Union event where members watched the debate, I met one of the union organisers, Joe Losier.

The UAW has pledged its support to Kamala Harris and much of the crowd in the room whooped and clapped with every put-down she threw Trump’s way.

But dig a bit deeper and the fault lines of America’s political upheaval can be found here too.

“My dad and all my uncles on both sides of my family, who are all UAW people, have become Republicans,” Mr Losier told me, unable to hide the incredulity in his own voice.

“These are second generation immigrants who came over here, started working in the auto industry back in World War I and it blows my mind that a lot of my family are tradesmen who are supporting Donald Trump.”

He’s even unsure which way his two adult sons are going to vote.

Dinner times are “horrible” he said.

With workers fearing further shift cuts and job losses, the union finds itself increasingly out of step with its members.

There’s deep support here for Donald Trump’s promise of tough tariffs on imports, and disagreement with Kamala Harris’s argument in the debate that the policy would simply drive up prices.

After the debate, I called Chuck Brenner to see what he’d made of it. He had some good news for Democrats.

“I do believe Kamala was the shining star,” he told me. “And the bottom line is she’s won my vote. I was impressed by what she had to say, her delivery.”

“With Trump,” he went on, “it was kind of what I expected. There were no surprises there. It’s kind of like the same. The same.”

Rachel Oviedo, however, was still undecided, she told me, but now leaning more towards Trump.

“I think he’ll do more for us up here,” she said.

“You know, he did things he shouldn’t have done”, she added. “But you gotta forgive people.”

And Jeremy Zehnder, the truck polisher, admitted to being slightly surprised by Harris’s performance.

“She did much better than I thought she would,” he told me. “I think she won it.”

But he’s sticking with Trump. It’s about policy, he said. Taxes, the border and the cost of living.

On the streets of Saginaw, Kathleen Skelcy was knocking on doors, busy canvassing for Harris.

She told me she finds it a struggle to see any rationale behind the political motivations of her opponents.

“That’s what’s scary trying to understand these people and their thinking,” she said.

“I just think they’re not educated, or they fell asleep in school or something.”

It’s easy to see this as patronising, another sign that some Democrats chalk Trump’s appeal as merely delusional.

It’s clear, however, that trust and understanding can be in short supply on both sides.

As we’re talking, a Trump supporter, aggressive and threatening, emerges shouting from his home, following Kathleen up the street.

“Harris is a clown,” he yells, adding a few profanities for good measure.

And on the doorsteps, one Democratic supporter declines the offer of a Harris sign for their front yard, scared, they say, of inviting similar abuse.

In a few weeks, Saginaw will go the polls.

Before then, it’s almost certain that many more journalists will pass through this key bellwether district, all of them looking for America.

It’s here alright, in all its striving and struggling, and in a story today being lived out in stark political division.

A debate needs middle ground. And there’s very little of that left.

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Australia has stripped senior defence commanders of military honours over alleged war crimes committed under their watch in Afghanistan.

In parliament on Thursday, Defence Minister Richard Marles said they would lose their distinguished service medals, as recommended by a landmark inquiry which alleged there was an unchecked “warrior culture” within parts of the force.

The Brereton Report, released in 2020, found “credible evidence” that elite Australian soldiers unlawfully killed 39 people during the war in Afghanistan.

“This will always be a matter of national shame,” Mr Marles said.

“At the same time… [this is] a demonstration to the Australian people and to the world, that Australia is a country which holds itself accountable.”

He would not confirm how many officers are affected, but local media say it is less than ten.

Marles also stressed that the vast majority of Australian defence personnel who were deployed to Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021 had given “sacred service” and praised those who helped expose the alleged wrongdoing.

The decision does not affect those under investigation for war crimes themselves, including Australia’s most decorated living solider, Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith.

He denies any wrongdoing but in a high-profile defamation case last year was found – on the balance of probabilities – to have murdered four unarmed prisoners. He has not faced criminal charges over the allegations.

The civil trial was the first time a court has ever assessed accusations of war crimes by Australian forces.

Local media report that dozens of Australian soldiers are also being investigated for their roles in alleged war crimes. But so far charges have only been laid against one, former SAS trooper Oliver Schulz.

Former justice Paul Brereton found there was no credible information that officers high up the command chain knew of the alleged war crimes, but he said troop, squadron and task group commanders “bear moral command responsibility and accountability” for what happened under their watch.

They could not “in good conscience” retain their distinguished service medals – awarded for exceptional leadership in warlike operations – he said.

The issue of command accountability has been a vexing one for veterans.

Some have said they feel officers are being unfairly punished for others’ wrongdoing, but a government-commissioned report in May found “there is ongoing anger and bitter resentment” that their senior officers have not “publicly accepted some responsibility for policies or decisions that contributed to the misconduct”.

Responding to the decision to strip the officers’ medals, opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie, himself a former SAS soldier, said Australia must “learn from this tragic and bitter chapter in our military history”.

“Our soldiers must tell the truth and those in leadership must seek it out. If both our soldiers and our leaders had done so, we might not be in this place today,” he said.

Kamala Harris entered Tuesday’s night’s presidential debate with a clear plan: dominate and destabilise Donald Trump.

It started with her opening power move, when she strode across the compact stage in Philadelphia to demand a handshake. This was her seizing the initiative, and a telling sign that America’s surprise presidential candidate was keen to exert control on an opponent who has a track record of dominating these kind of stages.

In the hours since this blockbuster showdown, political pundits and networks have dedicated much time to praising and analysing Harris’s approach. Her poking and her prodding of Trump. Her mocking, derisory laughter as she ribbed him with personal attacks and then watched as he lost his cool and pushed back angrily.

The scale and tone of this coverage is largely due to the fact her strategy was successful. The few instant polls we saw after the debate indicated a resounding victory for Harris. And while the history of US elections shows this does not always translate to a victory in November, it was surprising to see Harris take on Trump in this aggressive way.

But, however successful this approach was, it is ultimately surface-level stuff. It is body language and facial expressions and sharp ripostes.

Before this event, polls consistently suggested voters wanted to know more about where Harris stood on the key issues. Her campaign so far has been light, even vague, on hard policy. And while Trump is more well-established, voters are surely still keen to know what he would do in real terms if elected again.

So, did the debate tell us much about what either of them would do in office? Not particularly.

Harris did come with prepared soundbites explaining her economic proposals that she has outlined before – a $6,000 child tax credit for infants, a $50,000 tax cut for small businesses and $25,000 to help first time home buyers find a deposit. She argued that Trump’s proposed tariffs on imported goods would cause higher prices for consumers.

These are all things we have heard several times previously from the campaign.

Harris did not give an answer when quizzed on why the Biden administration, which she has served in for almost four years, has kept in place a number of tariffs introduced by Trump. Nor did she describe how she would try to tackle inflation which consistently polls as a top concern for many voters.

But Trump’s attempt to capitalise on this clear and obvious weakness for Harris (he described his rival’s economic policies as Marxist) got lost as he veered into an answer about illegal migrants, saying “bad immigration” is the worst thing that can happen to the economy.

This exchange was illustrative of the night as a whole. There was no shortage of heat in this ill-tempered debate, but both sides shone very little light on policy.

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The Trump campaign is eager to paint Harris as a radical left-winger by reminding voters that she has previously said she would ban fracking, nationalise health insurance and decriminalise illegal border crossings.

Asked directly why so many of her policy positions have changed, Harris said she would discuss every point raised – but in reality explained only why she voted for new fracking leases to reduce dependence on foreign oil. Once again, a flustered Trump failed to capitalise on her policy flip flops being raised directly.

These were easy opportunities to sell himself as consistent on policy in comparison. He could have rammed home his positions on the key issues as well as tout policy achievements from his first term. Instead, viewers saw the former president on the defensive, distracted by barbs from Harris which he could have chosen to ignore.

It was immigration that he returned to again and again. His signature issue which he believes is more salient now than ever. Yet, even on such comfortable ground. he could not describe how he would go about trying to deport millions of illegal migrants. There was more familiar noise but still little in the way of hard proposals.

This debate was the first chance voters had to see the two candidates going head to head. They could compare demeanour, temperament and body language. But crucially they didn’t get much to compare on their plans for government.

One moment on Tuesday night felt particularly indicative of this.

For nine years, Trump has been saying he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) but had to admit that he has not produced a plan for what could replace it. “I have the concepts of a plan” was his response.

And after the 90-minute primetime showdown, voters were likely only left with “the concepts” of what either of these candidates would do if elected to the White House.

Dmitry Luksha built up muscles breaking rocks in a Belarusian prison camp, put to work alongside men convicted of murder and drug smuggling.

The journalist was imprisoned in 2022 and sentenced to four years for his reports on the mass opposition protests of 2020 and his country’s later complicity in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

But he’s just been released early, one of several dozen political prisoners freed this summer in a series of surprise amnesties.

It’s given hope to the relatives of others that further releases might follow.

“One day they called me in, and a man from the prosecutor’s office just asked, ‘Do you want to go home?’,” Dmitry recalls, now in Poland with his wife, Polina.

She’d been convicted as his “accomplice” and the couple were freed at the same time.

Human rights organisation Viasna calculates that 78 political detainees have been given an amnesty so far in recent weeks. Many have serious medical conditions, but not all of them. The criteria for early release is unknown.

Like everyone, Dmitry first had to request an official pardon from Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko.

Four years ago, the authoritarian leader was almost forced from power by enormous street protests which were eventually crushed with police brutality and mass arrests – and with Russian political support.

With another election due next year, perhaps as soon as February, it is possible Lukashenko is hoping for an image boost: state propaganda channels have been presenting the amnesties as a “humane” gesture by a “wise” leader.

Dmitry Luksha isn’t sure of the true motive or why he was chosen: “Maybe those who started the process, the arrests, realise they went too far. I don’t know.”

But he says “20-30%” of all inmates in the prisons where he was held were there for political reasons.

They are marked by a yellow tag stitched to their chest so they are easy to spot.

“It’s such a moment of joy to be home. Of euphoria. To hug our families and to breathe freely again,” Dmitry says.

“The main thing is that this process is happening. And for it not to stop.”

The unexpected releases have given hope to other prisoners’ families, including those of high-profile detainees like Maria Kolesnikova.

“I believe this is a moment when Lukashenko started to send signals to the Western world that he will be ready, in the future, to negotiate on releases,” Maria’s sister Tatsiana Khomich argues.

For her, the need is urgent.

The conditions in which Maria is being held are “killing her slowly”, her sister warns. “I think any means [possible] should be used to help her. To save her. Because her situation is critical.”

A classical flautist, Maria Kolesnikova helped lead the peaceful street protests in 2020, becoming hugely popular for her seemingly boundless energy and optimism. She was later sentenced to 11 years for “conspiring to seize power”.

In prison she had emergency surgery for a perforated ulcer and is since reported to have lost at least 20kg (three stone), and is now said to weigh only 45kg. She’s being denied extra parcels or cash for the special diet she needs.

“Maria is starving in the colony. I believe she already passed a critical weight loss that endangers her life,” her sister worries.

Tatsiana only gets snippets of information via other prisoners when they’re released, because since March 2023 Maria has been kept in punishment cells.

She is held in isolation, with no calls, letters or visits. For months at a time, she can be denied even a half-hour daily walk around a tiny, covered prison yard.

“We saw that the international community didn’t react in time in the case of Alexei Navalny,” says Tatsiana, remembering the Russian opposition activist who died suddenly in prison as talks over a possible deal to free him were under way.

“They were too late and not very decisive.”

In the end, a major prisoner exchange with Russia did take place – including some well-known Russian dissidents – and that gave Tatsiana some hope.

“We saw that everything is possible. We saw that you can negotiate during a war, or a Cold War. You can negotiate with people you name terrorist, or dictator.”

There are others who sense a moment of opportunity with the Belarusian leadership: signals that it is seeking to engage again with the outside world.

“I think the Lukashenko regime is interested in avoiding becoming part of Russia. That’s why they want some communication with the West. That’s why they’re releasing prisoners,” argues Ryhor Astapenia, a Chatham House analyst on Belarus based in Warsaw.

Pushing for more, and more prominent prisoner releases might be one avenue to pursue, in any attempt to “decouple” Minsk from Moscow.

But that very approach remains controversial, given Alexander Lukashenko’s crucial supporting role for Russia in the war on Ukraine.

It’s also a strain to see the early releases as any real thaw, as the repression continues.

Ryhor Astapenia himself was recently sentenced in absentia to 10 years, along with other academics and analysts, for a supposed plot against the government.

After imprisoning political activists and journalists in Belarus, prosecutors had turned their attention to those who criticise the country abroad.

“They do it because they can,” he shrugs. “They see no reason to stop.”

It was two years after the mass protests of 2020 that the police turned up for Dmitry Luksha. By then, he had imagined he was safe.

“Those two years were my undoing,” he knows now, having spent 28 tough months in jail.

When he was released, unexpectedly, he thought he would stay in Belarus. But that was impossible.

“I would jump whenever the lift opened. Or when a minibus with tinted windows pulled up. And there were so many armed police in the street,” Dmitry explains, from the safety of Warsaw where tens of thousands of other Belarusians now live, for the same reasons.

“You understand that you’ve done nothing wrong, they shouldn’t be coming for you. But you can’t tell your heart that. It’s the brutal Belarus of today, and your heart is afraid.”

That’s why Dmitry hopes the amnesties will continue, whatever is driving the process: Viasna still lists 1,349 political prisoners in Belarus.

“I really hope the numbers released will grow, so that those with long sentences also get out. Those people live in hope that someone will come and tell them: it’s your turn. I really hope they do.”

The delivery of Iranian missiles to Russia has changed the debate about Ukraine using Western-provided long-range missiles against targets inside Russia, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has told the BBC on a visit to Kyiv.

Lammy travelled to the Ukrainian capital with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken after talks in London.

They met President Volodymr Zelensky, who has repeatedly called for allies to loosen limits on the use of Western-supplied weapons.

The US and UK have not given Ukraine permission to use long-range missiles against targets inside Russia for fear of escalation.

At a news conference in Kyiv on Wednesday, Blinken said US President Joe Biden would likely discuss the use of long-range missiles with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at the White House on Friday.

Asked about the risk of escalation, the US secretary of state added: “We’ve now seen this action of Russia acquiring ballistic missiles from Iran, which will further empower their aggression in Ukraine. So if anyone is taking escalatory action, it would appear to be Mr Putin and Russia.”

Lammy would not be drawn into whether the US and UK would be allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles, but said: “I am not prepared to give Putin the advantage.”

Biden has said his administration is considering lifting the restrictions, but no decision has yet been made public.

On Wednesday, Zelensky said Kyiv’s victory in the war against Russia “depends mostly on the support of the United States”.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said steps towards lifting long-range missile restrictions “are important in the context of reports of a possible transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia by Iran”.

“We must act boldly,” he added.

In an interview with the BBC, Lammy said Iran providing Russia with ballistic missiles “clearly changes the debate” as they would allow Moscow’s forces “to have further penetration into Ukraine”.

“That is very dangerous,” Lammy said, adding: “As we see the Russians working with their partners, we see this transfer of ballistic missiles from Iran to Russia, it is important that we do more to support Ukraine to win in their efforts.”

On Wednesday, Lammy said the UK would provide £600m ($780m) in aid to Ukraine to support the country’s “humanitarian, energy and stabilisation needs”. Blinken announced a further $700m in assistance to Ukraine, including funding for the energy sector and demining.

The new aid came after the US, UK, France and Germany imposed further sanctions on Iran for supplying Russia with ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine. The UK government summoned Iran’s top diplomat over the accusations.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal thanked Lammy for the UK’s military support for Ukraine throughout the war.

But he added: “We hope that long-range equipment for strikes on the territory of our enemy will be reached and we will have it and we hope for your help and support in this issue.”

• Ukraine in maps: Tracking the war with Russia
• What arms are the UK and other countries supplying?

Asked by reporters on Tuesday if the US would lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons, President Biden said his administration was “working that out now”.

Earlier this year, the US loosened some of the restraints, allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles to strike areas along Russia’s border where troops are firing from.

Kyiv’s other allies have also been supplying some long-range weapons – with restrictions on how and when they can be used inside Russia, out of concern such strikes could prompt retaliation that draws Nato countries into the war or provokes a nuclear conflict.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russia would respond “appropriately” if the US were to allow Ukrainian missile strikes on its territory.

During a visit to the UK before travelling to Kyiv, Blinken accused Iran of supplying short-range ballistic missiles to Russia, saying they could be deployed against Ukrainians within weeks. Lammy described Iran’s move as “a significant and dangerous escalation”.

The missiles are likely to boost Russia’s arsenal, enabling it to hit Ukrainian cities close to Russia’s borders or areas it already controls at the same time as it deploys its longer-range missiles deeper into Ukrainian territory.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi denied his country was supplying missiles to Russia, accusing Western countries of “acting on faulty intelligence and flawed logic”.

The UK has given Ukraine Storm Shadow missiles, which have a range of about 250km (155 miles). So far, they have been used only against Russian targets in occupied Ukrainian territory.

But Ukrainian leaders say they need the missiles to target air bases used by Russian warplanes to launch devastating glide bombs against Ukraine. These weapons are often launched from deep inside Russian territory.

Boeing’s new chief executive Kelly Ortberg has pleaded with workers to not go on strike as it would put the company’s “recovery in jeopardy”.

It comes hours ahead of a crucial union vote that could trigger industrial action at the embattled company.

The aviation giant’s executives and union representatives reached a deal earlier this week that includes a 25% pay rise over four years but it has yet to be approved by union members.

If workers vote against the agreement it would lead to a second ballot on whether to start a strike as early as Friday.

“I ask you not to sacrifice the opportunity to secure our future together, because of the frustrations of the past,” said Mr Ortberg in his message to staff.

“Working together, I know that we can get back on track, but a strike would put our shared recovery in jeopardy”.

On top of the proposed 25% pay rise, the preliminary deal would offer workers improved healthcare and retirement benefits, as well as 12 weeks of paid parental leave.

It would also include a commitment from Boeing to build its next commercial plane in the Seattle area if the project is started during the lifetime of the contract.

The union initially targeted a number of improvements to workers’ packages, including a 40% pay rise.

However, it appears the reaction from the 30,000 Boeing workers represented by the union was not entirely positive.

Union leader and top negotiator, John Holden, said it was not clear whether the deal had enough support among union members to be approved.

“They are angry,” he told the Reuters news agency.

The current contract between Boeing and the unions was reached in 2008 after an eight-week strike.

In 2014, the two sides agreed to extend the deal, which is due to expire at midnight on Thursday.

A rejection of the preliminary agreement between Boeing and its largest union would be a further significant setback for the firm.

A strike could potentially shut down aircraft production at a time when the company is facing deepening financial losses and struggling to repair its reputation following recent incidents and two fatal accidents five years ago.

It would also be a major blow to Mr Ortberg, an aerospace industry veteran and engineer, who took over as Boeing’s chief executive last month with a mission to turn the business around.

A US “ultra-endurance” cyclist has claimed a new world record for fastest woman to circumvent the globe by bike.

Lael Wilcox took 108 days, 12 hours and 12 minutes to cycle 29,169km (18,125 miles), starting and ending in Chicago.

She beat the 2018 record held by Jenny Graham, from Scotland, whose journey took 124 days 11 hours.

Wilcox, 38, of Alaska, set off on 28 May, crossing 21 countries on four continents before arriving back in Chicago around 21:00 local time (02:00 GMT) on Wednesday.

She cycled up to 14 hours a day on her journey, which will now be verified for inclusion in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Experts estimate ultra-endurance cyclists can burn anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 calories a day on their bikes.

“She just has such incredible physical stamina, mental toughness and just sheer determination to go out and do these extreme efforts,” said Anne-Marije Rook, North America editor at Cycling Weekly magazine.

“It’s just a tremendous effort to be able to do that day in and day out for 108 days straight.”

Wilcox was the first female rider to win the TransAm, a 4,000-mile race across the length of the US. She has also set records in the Tour Divide, a gruelling race traversing the American continental divide along the Rocky Mountains.

While her latest record is billed as a “ride around the world”, Guinness rules only require riders to start and end in the same place, always travelling in the same direction.

A rider’s entire journey, including flights, ferries and public transit, must equal a total distance equivalent to 40,000km – the circumference of the Earth’s equator. The minimum distance travelled by bicycle must surpass 28,970 km.

After pushing off from Chicago, Wilcox headed for New York, where she boarded a flight to Portugal.

She then spent several weeks journeying north to Amsterdam, down through Germany, across the Alps, into the Balkans and eventually across Turkey to Georgia.

She then flew to Australia, riding from Perth along the southern coast to Brisbane where she hopped on a flight to New Zealand.

After covering both islands she flew to her hometown of Anchorage, pedalled along the Pacific coast to Los Angeles, then took Route 66 to Chicago.

Graham, the current record-holder, said she had spent the day cheering on Wilcox’s finish: “It’s the most amazing thing to see women out there pushing their sport the way they want to. I’m just a massive fan.”

Rook, of Cycling Weekly, said the efforts of Wilcox and Graham were motivation for others: “What Jenny Graham, Lael Wilcox, and women like them are doing is just pushing the boundaries. Not just in what’s possible in terms of cycling, but the boundaries that have been set on women athletes.”

Wilcox charted her journey with a series of social media videos made with her filmmaker wife, Rugile Kaladyte. The couple have also published a daily podcast, chronicling the daily ups and downs of the trip.

Wilcox’s new record may already be under threat, however. Vedangi Kulkarni, 25-year-old Indian ultra cyclist, is 65 days and roughly 7,700km into her attempt. She too is aiming to complete her ride in 110 days.

Rock legend Jon Bon Jovi has been praised by police for helping a woman in distress who was on the ledge of a bridge in Nashville, Tennessee, on Tuesday night.

The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department shared a video of the Bon Jovi frontman and his team who were at the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge when the woman was standing precariously over the Cumberland River.

Bon Jovi, 62, and others talked to the woman and helped her come back on to the bridge, police said.

“It takes all of us to help keep each other safe,” Ch John Drake said in a brief statement.

Bon Jovi appeared to be in Nashville shooting a music video on the bridge, according to separate footage posted on social media.

In the video released by police, a woman in blue can be seen holding on to the railing while standing on the ledge.

Other people pass her and slightly further down the bridge, Bon Jovi’s team appears to be setting up camera equipment.

Bon Jovi walks over to the woman with someone else as his team stand further away.

The singer then can be seen waving hello at her and leaning on the railing near her.

After about a minute, Bon Jovi walks to the woman and with the help of another woman the pair get her back on to the pedestrian walkway on the bridge.

Other people walk over after the woman is safe and Bon Jovi embraces her in a hug.

A few minutes later the police footage shows Bon Jovi leaving the bridge with her.

Accompanying the video on social media, Metro Nashville Police Department said: “A shout out to Jon Bon Joni and his team for helping a woman on the Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge [on] Tuesday night.

“Bon Jovi helped persuade her to come off the ledge over the Cumberland River to safety.”

There are strong indications that the US and UK are poised to lift their restrictions within days on Ukraine using long-range missiles against targets inside Russia. Ukraine has been pleading for this for weeks. So why the reluctance by the West and what difference could these missiles make to the war?

Storm Shadow is an Anglo-French cruise missile with a maximum range of around 250km (155 miles). The French call it Scalp.

It is launched from aircraft then flies at close to the speed of sound, hugging the terrain, before dropping down and detonating its high explosive warhead.

Storm Shadow is considered an ideal weapon for penetrating hardened bunkers and ammunition stores, such as those used by Russia in its war against Ukraine.

But each missile costs nearly US$1 million (£767,000), so they tend to be launched as part of a carefully planned flurry of much cheaper drones, sent ahead to confuse and exhaust the enemy’s air defences, just as Russia does to Ukraine.

Britain and France have already sent these missiles to Ukraine – but with the caveat that Kyiv can only fire them at targets inside its own borders.

They have been used with great effect, hitting Russia’s Black Sea naval headquarters at Sevastopol and making the whole of Crimea unsafe for the Russian navy.

Justin Crump, a military analyst, former British Army officer and CEO of the Sibylline consultancy, says Storm Shadow has been a highly effective weapon for Ukraine, striking precisely against well protected targets in occupied territory.

“It’s no surprise that Kyiv has lobbied for its use inside Russia, particularly to target airfields being used to mount the glide bomb attacks that have recently hindered Ukrainian front-line efforts,” he says.

Ukraine’s cities and front lines are under daily bombardment from Russia.

Many of the missiles and glide bombs that wreak devastation on military positions, blocks of flats and hospitals are launched by Russian aircraft far within Russia itself.

Kyiv complains that not being allowed to hit the bases these attacks are launched from is akin to making it fight this war with one arm tied behind its back.

At the Globsec security forum I attended in Prague this month, it was even suggested that Russian military airbases were better protected than Ukrainian civilians getting hit because of the restrictions.

Ukraine does have its own, innovative and effective long-range drone programme.

At times, these drone strikes have caught the Russians off guard and reached hundreds of kilometres inside Russia.

But they can only carry a small payload and most get detected and intercepted.

Kyiv argues that in order to push back the Russian air strikes, it needs long-range missiles, including Storm Shadow and comparable systems including American Atacms, which has an even greater range of 300km.

In a word: escalation.

Washington worries that although so far all of President Vladimir Putin’s threatened red lines have turned out to be empty bluffs, allowing Ukraine to hit targets deep inside Russia with Western-supplied missiles could just push him over the edge into retaliating.

The fear in the White House is that hardliners in the Kremlin could insist this retaliation takes the form of attacking transit points for missiles on their way to Ukraine, such as an airbase in Poland.

If that were to happen, Nato’s Article 5 could be invoked, meaning the alliance would be at war with Russia.

Ever since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the White House’s aim has been to give Kyiv as much support as possible without getting dragged into direct conflict with Moscow, something that would risk being a precursor to the unthinkable: a catastrophic nuclear exchange.

Some, but it may be a case of too little too late. Kyiv has been asking to use long-range Western missiles inside Russia for so long now that Moscow has already taken precautions for the eventuality of the restrictions being lifted.

It has moved bombers, missiles and some of the infrastructure that maintains them further back, away from the border with Ukraine and beyond the range of Storm Shadow.

Yet Justin Crump of Sibylline says while Russian air defence has evolved to counter the threat of Storm Shadow within Ukraine, this task will be much harder given the scope of Moscow’s territory that could now be exposed to attack.

“This will make military logistics, command and control, and air support harder to deliver, and even if Russian aircraft pull back further from Ukraine’s frontiers to avoid the missile threat they will still suffer an increase in the time and costs per sortie to the front line.”

Matthew Savill, director of military science at Rusi think tank, believes lifting restrictions would offer two main benefits to Ukraine.

Firstly, it might “unlock” another system, the Atacms.

Secondly, it would pose a dilemma for Russia as to where to position those precious air defences, something he says could make it easier for Ukraine’s drones to get through.

Ultimately though, says Savill, Storm Shadow is unlikely to turn the tide.

Creators and fans of the Japanese anime series One Piece explain why the show has become one of the most popular franchises in the world.

It is a show that has run for more than 1,000 episodes – and it counts French President Emmanuel Macron and rapper Travis Scott as fans. The comic series it is based on, meanwhile, has sold more than 500 million copies, earning a Guinness World Record.

And you can even buy merchandise for the series in clothing stores up and down the country.

The show is One Piece, a Japanese anime that celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2024.

Based around a series of comics by manga auteur Eiichiro Oda, it follows Monkey D Luffy, the leader of a group of pirates travelling the world on the hunt for a mysterious treasure known as the One Piece. Along the way, they engage in battles with the government and their fellow pirates, using powers gained by eating “Devil Fruits”.

As the series is now streaming on BBC iPlayer, creators and fans of the show explain how One Piece became such a phenomenon.

When Zach Logan began his One Piece Podcast in 2009, the show was little-known in the United States.

“You could measure it from anime conventions that we went to,” he tells the BBC. “Today they would be overrun by One Piece fans, but then it was like two and a half people – two people, and then their baby who they’d dressed up as Chopper.” In One Piece, Chopper is a toddler-sized hybrid of human and reindeer.

Logan describes the show in the late 2000s as a “niche within a niche”, with a small following within the already small fanbase for anime in the US.

In Japan, however, the success of One Piece was more instantaneous. When it was first published in 1997 in magazine Shonen Jump, the publication’s readership was falling behind that of its rival Shonen Magazine. One Piece’s inclusion helped Shonen Jump reclaim its spot as the most-read manga in Japan.

Hiroyuki Nakano, the current editor of the One Piece manga, read the series from its inception.

“I remember being truly amazed, thinking, ‘an incredible comic has begun,’” he says via an interpreter.

In the mid-1990s, manga (a term used for a range of Japanese comic books and graphic novels) was at its peak, with 1.34 billion manga collections sold in 1995. Popular titles of the time included Dragon Ball (about a martial artist on the search for magical orbs), Slam Dunk (about a basketball team) and Doraemon (about a time-travelling robotic cat).

For Nakono, however, the One Piece comic series changed the industry. “Instead of relying on a haphazard, week-by-week method,” he says, “it carefully built up characters, creating a story structure that leads to an emotional climax at the end.”

“There was a strong emphasis on cliffhangers in manga before One Piece,” he continues. “This approach often led to disappointments when the developments didn’t meet the build-up’s expectations.”

When it comes to the anime series, Logan adds that the show’s approach also gives it a stronger emotional punch than other anime.

He highlights the Drum Island arc (episodes 78 to 91), when viewers learn the backstory of Chopper, who was shunned by his fellow reindeer. “Watching Drum Island,” he says, “anyone with a soul would cry.”

The first episode of the anime adaptation aired in October 1999, but it took over a decade for it to develop a significant following outside Japan.

First transmitted in the US in 2004, the early dubbed version was criticised for its unconvincing voice actors and the decision to censor some of the battles by removing blood and replacing guns with water pistols or shovels.

“People were turned off by the first version of it,” says Logan.

Logan says the international popularity of the show was turbo-charged during the pandemic. “It was like gasoline on a fire. When people were at home, they had no excuse not to watch a show with 900-plus episodes.”

Though some may be intimidated by the show’s length – a binge from beginning to end would take two-and-a-half uninterrupted weeks – for Nakano, this is the show’s strength.

“When it comes to the sheer number of characters and ideas created by Oda-sensei [One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda], no other body of work can match it.”

Logan compares the show to Doctor Who, another cult show that can leave people intimidated by its length and leave them wondering when to start.

“You could skip certain parts and jump in at a certain point, but you’ll miss some important, brilliant stuff,” he says. “In One Piece, there’s stuff in episodes from 1999 or 2002 that’s still very prescient to the show because of how Oda interweaves things.

“I used to tell friends that they could skip things, but now I feel I would be committing malpractice to say that!

“People will start by complaining how long it is, and when they get to the end they’re like, ‘why isn’t there more?’”

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.

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.”

Midwife Siro Devi is clinging to Monica Thatte, sobbing. Monica, in her late 20s, has returned to her birthplace – the Indian town where Siro has delivered hundreds of babies.

But this is no straightforward reunion. There is a painful history behind Siro’s tears. Shortly before Monica was born, Siro and several Indian midwives like her were regularly pressured to murder newborn girls.

Monica, evidence suggests, is one they saved.

I have been following Siro’s story for 30 years, ever since I went to interview her and four other rural midwives in India’s Bihar state in 1996.

They had been identified by a non-governmental organisation as being behind the murder of baby girls in the district of Katihar where, under pressure from the newborns’ parents, they were killing them by feeding them chemicals or simply wringing their necks.

Hakiya Devi, the eldest of the midwives I interviewed, told me at the time she had killed 12 or 13 babies. Another midwife, Dharmi Devi, admitted to killing more – at least 15-20.

It is impossible to ascertain the exact number of babies they may have killed, given the way the data was gathered.

But they featured in a report published in 1995 by an NGO, based on interviews with them and 30 other midwives. If the report’s estimates are accurate, more than 1,000 baby girls were being murdered every year in one district, by just 35 midwives. According to the report, Bihar at the time had more than half a million midwives. And infanticide was not limited to Bihar.

Refusing orders, Hakiya said, was almost never an option for a midwife.

“The family would lock the room and stand behind us with sticks,” says Hakiya Devi. “They’d say: ‘We already have four-five daughters. This will wipe out our wealth. Once we give dowry for our girls, we will starve to death. Now, another girl has been born. Kill her.’

“Who could we complain to? We were scared. If we went to the police, we’d get into trouble. If we spoke up, people would threaten us.”

The role of a midwife in rural India is rooted in tradition, and burdened by the harsh realities of poverty and caste. The midwives I interviewed belonged to the lower castes in India’s caste hierarchy. Midwifery was a profession passed on to them by mothers and grandmothers. They lived in a world where refusing orders of powerful, upper-caste families was unthinkable.

The midwife could be promised a sari, a sack of grain or a small amount of money for killing a baby. Sometimes even that was not paid. The birth of a boy earned them about 1,000 rupees. The birth of a girl earned them half.

The reason for this imbalance was steeped in India’s custom of giving a dowry, they explained. Though the custom was outlawed in 1961, it still held strong in the 90s – and indeed continues into the present day.

A dowry can be anything – cash, jewellery, utensils. But for many families, rich or poor, it is the condition of a wedding. And this is what, for many, still makes the birth of a son a celebration and the birth of a daughter a financial burden.

Siro Devi, the only midwife of those I interviewed who is still alive, used a vivid physical image to explain this disparity in status.

“A boy is above the ground – higher. A daughter is below – lower. Whether a son feeds or takes care of his parents or not, they all want a boy.”

The preference for sons can be seen in India’s national-level data. Its most recent census, in 2011, recorded a ratio of 943 women to every 1,000 men. This is nevertheless an improvement on the 1990s – in the 1991 census, the ratio was 927/1,000.

By the time I finished filming the midwives’ testimonies in 1996, a small, silent change had begun. The midwives who once carried out these orders had started to resist.

This change was instigated by Anila Kumari, a social worker who supported women in the villages around Katihar, and was dedicated to addressing the root causes of these killings.

Anila’s approach was simple. She asked the midwives, “Would you do this to your own daughter?”

Her question apparently pierced years of rationalisation and denial. The midwives got some financial help via community groups and gradually the cycle of violence was interrupted.

Siro, speaking to me in 2007, explained the change.

“Now, whoever asks me to kill, I tell them: ‘Look, give me the child, and I’ll take her to Anila Madam.’”

The midwives rescued at least five newborn girls from families who wanted them killed or had already abandoned them.

One child died, but Anila arranged for the other four to be sent to Bihar’s capital, Patna, to an NGO which organised their adoption.

The story could have ended there. But I wanted to know what had become of those girls who were adopted, and where life had taken them.

The Midwife’s Confession

Thirty years ago, a journalist in the Indian state of Bihar filmed a series of shocking confessions: midwives admitting they routinely murdered new-born baby girls. BBC Eye explores the disturbing story.

Watch on iPlayer (UK only), or if you are outside the UK watch on YouTube

The Midwife’s Confession

BBC Eye finds a woman who was possibly one of the girls abandoned in Bihar. What will happen when she returns to meet the only surviving midwife?

Listen on BBC Sounds or outside the UK, listen here

Anila’s records were meticulous but they had few details about post-adoption.

Working with a BBC World Service team, I got in touch with a woman called Medha Shekar who, back in the 90s, was researching infanticide in Bihar when the babies rescued by Anila and the midwives began arriving at her NGO. Remarkably, Medha was still in touch with a young woman who, she believed, was one of these rescued babies.

Anila told me that she had given all the girls saved by the midwives the prefix “Kosi” before their name, a homage to the Kosi river in Bihar. Medha remembered that Monica had been named with this “Kosi” prefix before her adoption.

The adoption agency would not let us look at Monica’s records, so we can never be sure. But her origins in Patna, her approximate date of birth and the prefix “Kosi” all point to the same conclusion: Monica is, in all probability, one of the five babies rescued by Anila and the midwives.

When I went to meet her at her parents’ home some 2,000km (1,242 miles) away in Pune, she said she felt lucky to have been adopted by a loving family.

“This is my definition of a normal happy life and I am living it,” she said.

Monica knew that she had been adopted from Bihar. But we were able to give her more details about the circumstances of her adoption.

Earlier this year, Monica travelled to Bihar to meet Anila and Siro.

Monica saw herself as the culmination of years of hard work by Anila and the midwives.

“Someone prepares a lot to do well in an exam. I feel like that. They did the hard work and now they’re so curious to meet the result… So definitely, I would like to meet them.”

Anila wept tears of joy when she met Monica. But Siro’s response felt different.

She sobbed hard, holding Monica close and combing through her hair.

“I took you [to the orphanage] to save your life… My soul is at peace now,” she told her.

But when, a couple of days later, I attempted to press Siro about her reaction, she resisted further scrutiny.

“What happened in the past is in the past,” she said.

But what is not in the past is the prejudice some still hold against baby girls.

Reports of infanticide are now relatively rare, but sex-selective abortion remains common, despite being illegal since 1994.

If one listens to the traditional folk songs sung during childbirth, known as Sohar, in parts of north India, joy is reserved for the birth of a male child. Even in 2024, it is an effort to get local singers to change the lyrics so that the song celebrates the birth of a girl.

While we were filming our documentary, two baby girls were discovered abandoned in Katihar – one in bushes, another at the roadside, just a few hours old. One later died. The other was put up for adoption.

Before Monica left Bihar, she visited this baby in the Special Adoption Centre in Katihar.

She says she was haunted by the realisation that though female infanticide may have been reduced, abandoning baby girls continues.

“This is a cycle… I can see myself there a few years ago, and now again there’s some girl similar to me.”

But there were to be happier similarities too.

The baby has now been adopted by a couple in the north-eastern state of Assam. They have named her Edha, which means happiness.

“We saw her photo, and we were clear – a baby once abandoned cannot be abandoned twice,” says her adoptive father Gaurav, an officer in the Indian air force.

Every few weeks Gaurav sends me a video of Edha’s latest antics. I sometimes share them with Monica.

Looking back, the 30 years spent on this story were never just about the past. It was about confronting uncomfortable truths. The past cannot be undone, but it can be transformed.

And in that transformation, there is hope.

“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.

A new statue designed to commemorate Elizabeth II – the UK’s longest-serving monarch – has received a mixed reception.

The bronze sculpture, created by north Belfast artist Anto Brennan, was unveiled in Antrim Castle Gardens on Friday.

Since then, the statue of the late queen, Prince Philip and two corgis has attracted some criticism on social media and commentary from visitors to the County Antrim gardens.

Antrim and Newtownabbey councillor Vera McWilliam told BBC News NI: “We have to be honest, it does not resemble the queen in any shape or form.”

Richard from Antrim said he was “really disappointed” after seeing the statue online and then coming to see it with his wife.

“Whoever signed that off needs their eyes tested. It’s not good,” he added.

“I would take it away. It doesn’t do anything in memory for Her Majesty, so definitely I would remove it.”

Brenda from Lisburn thinks that the statue should have been “made to look older” but “on the whole it is really nice” and “you still get what it represents and what it is about”.

“It caught my eye right away,” she continued.

“You can see who they are, but I think definitely it should have been her just before she died to capture the whole meaning of who she was and what she represented.”

Alejandro from London was visiting Antrim Castle Gardens with two friends from El Salvador.

He thought the statue didn’t “seem like the queen”.

“As it is in her memory I guess it is a good thing but it doesn’t look like her.

“The dogs and Prince Philip look nice, but the queen, it doesn’t look like her,” he added.

Cheryl and Gordon from Saintfield said they liked the sculpture but had some ideas about how it could have been improved.

Cheryl said there is “something not right about her upper body posture and her right arm but it’s still lovely to see her”.

Gordon added: “I wouldn’t have noticed that it didn’t look like the queen but with seeing it on Facebook and now that I see it yes, it probably isn’t a true reflection of her.

“It’s just the face, the rest of the character of her looks correct but the face is maybe not a true reflection of her.

“It is what it is, we all know who she is and what it’s meant to be so I would just leave it the way it is.”

Francis and Marie from Magherafelt were very positive about the sculpture.

“It’s great, I think they have it down to the tee,” Francis told BBC News NI.

“They’ve got the queen as she’s young. I think the two would be very pleased with it. And they’ve got the corgis all round.

“That is the queen, she loved being outside and that’s why there’s a smile on her face.”

Marie added that the statue “looks like her when you see her out with the horses and dogs. It’s more of her private life, more down to earth”.

The debate over the sculpture began on the comments section of a social media post by Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council featuring the first photos of the sculpture.

Comments have since been turned off.

The proposal to commission a sculpture of the late queen and her two corgis came in January 2023.

There was already a bronze statue of Prince Philip in the Parterre Garden.

The Deputy Mayor of Antrim and Newtownabbey Paul Dunlop attended the unveiling of the new statue.

He told BBC News NI: “It’s down to personal taste, everyone has their own opinion but it is what the sculpture represents that is important.”

When the sculpture was unveiled, Mayor of Antrim and Newtownabbey Neil Kelly described it as a “beautiful statue”.

Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council said they are “delighted with the generally positive response to the new Queen Elizabeth II sculpture in Antrim Castle Gardens”.

In a statement, it added it acknowledged “that art can sometimes spark diverse opinions, but it’s important to emphasise that the sculpture has been warmly received by most who have seen it in person”.

“The statue beautifully captures Her Majesty’s grace and steadfastness, standing as a fitting tribute to her extraordinary life and reign, it added.

Its creator, Anthony ‘Anto’ Brennan, is best known for his chess sets of prominent Northern Irish political figures.

BBC News NI has approached Brennan for comment.

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Maze singer Frankie Beverly has died aged 77, his family have confirmed.

The soul star – known for hits such as Before I Let Go and Can’t Get Over You – died on Tuesday.

Beverly’s family announced the news on social media, saying in a statement that he lived his life with “pure soul”.

The singer’s cause of death has not been confirmed.

“Grieving the loss of a loved one is a deeply personal and emotional experience,” Beverly’s family said in a statement.

“During this time, as we are navigating feelings of sorrow, reflection, and remembrance we kindly ask for privacy and understanding, allowing us the space to grieve in our own way.

“This period for is one of healing, and your respect for our need for solitude is appreciated as we honour the memory of our beloved Howard Stanley Beverly known to the world as Frankie Beverly.

“He lived his life with pure soul as one would say, and for us, no-one did it better. He lived for his music, family and friends. Love one another as he would want that for us all.”

Beverly’s music career began in the 1960s with the doo-wop group The Blenders, before later forming the soul group The Butlers.

Maze were formed by Beverly in Philadelphia in 1970, but they were originally called Raw Soul.

They were convinced to change their name by Marvin Gaye, who they supported on tour.

The band went on to release nine albums, between 1977 and 1993, and their hits included Happy Feelings and While I’m Alone.

Beyoncé covered Beverly’s hit single Before I Let Go in 2019 as a bonus track on Homecoming: The Live Album.

Beverly later told Billboard that the cover made him “feel bigger than ever”.

“She’s a great friend of mine, but I didn’t know she was going to do this,” he said at the time.

He added that it was “one of the high points of [his] life”.

From the moment she blew bubblegum in Crazy In Love to the day she destroyed a fleet of cars with a baseball bat in Hold Up, Beyoncé has created some of pop’s most memorable music videos.

Her mastery of the medium matched that of Madonna and Michael Jackson in the 1980s – with the videos for her Lemonade album acting as a powerful celebration of black womanhood and female power.

Then, all of a sudden, she stopped. Her last two albums, Renaissance and Cowboy Carter, have been bereft of visuals, leaving fans perplexed.

Now, Beyoncé has explained her decision in a rare interview with GQ magazine, saying she didn’t want her videos to become a “distraction from the quality of the voice and the music”.

“I thought it was important that during a time where all we see is visuals, that the world can focus on the voice,” the star said.

She explained that her recent records – which seek to contextualise black musicians’ often overlooked contributions to genres like house, disco and country – needed to stand on their own.

“The music is so rich in history and instrumentation. It takes months to digest, research, and understand,” she said.

“The music needed space to breathe on its own.”

She added that, for Renaissance in particular, the live concert experience was more important than filming music videos.

The album, released in 2022, was written during the pandemic and was conceived as “a place to dream and to find escape during a scary time for the world”. The subsequent tour, and the tour film released in cinemas last year, was intended as a moment of community and catharsis for her followers.

“The fans from all over the world became the visual,” Beyoncé told GQ.

“We all got the visual on tour.”

The interview, which took place to promote the star’s new whiskey brand, is the first time Beyoncé has spoken at length about her career since a joint interview with her sister Solange in 2017.

She largely withdrew from interviews around 2013-2014, opting instead to write personal essays for publications like Vogue, or addressing fans directly on social media.

The GQ article did not reveal a great deal about the notoriously private star.

She revealed that she gave up meat (except turkey) over the summer, and briefly addressed the threat of artificial intelligence, saying she recently heard an AI-generated track “that sounded so much like me it scared me”.

The star also talked about her efforts to shield her family from the press.

“One thing I’ve worked extremely hard on is making sure my kids can have as much normalcy and privacy as possible, ensuring my personal life isn’t turned into a brand.

“It’s very easy for celebrities to turn our lives into performance art. I have made an extreme effort to stay true to my boundaries and protect myself and my family. No amount of money is worth my peace.”

The article was published a day after it was revealed that Beyoncé had been snubbed by the Country Music Awards, with Cowboy Carter failing to land a single nomination at the genre’s most prestigious ceremony.

Her music was overlooked despite it becoming the first album by a black woman to reach number one on the US country albums chart, and the song Texas Hold ‘Em spending two weeks at the top of the country singles chart.

With the interview taking place before the CMA nominations were announced, Beyoncé is simply quoted as saying she was “hyped” to see her country experiment “gain worldwide acceptance”.

However, the singer’s father and former manager, Matthew Knowles, criticised the award show organisers, saying the decision to overlook Cowboy Carter “speaks for itself”.

Talking to TMZ, he said: “There’s more white people in America and unfortunately they don’t vote based on ability and achievements, it’s still sometimes a white and black thing.”

1) Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. This black and white clip, directed by Jake Nava, simply features Beyoncé, a plain background and some Bob Fosse-inspired choreography.

2) Formation

Her most powerful and pointed video, summing up decades of black American history and culture. Set in New Orleans, it references slave plantations, segregation, Hurricane Katrina and police brutality, while simultaneously celebrating southern culture – from Mardi Gras and step-dancing to black cowboys and marching bands.

A document of resilience, it was the first chapter in the star’s ongoing attempts to preserve and re-contextualise black American history.

3) Countdown

A kaleidoscope of colour and pop culture references, Beyoncé co-directed this video while pregnant with her first daughter, Blue Ivy.

It references to Audrey Hepburn and British supermodel Twiggy, and the frenetic editing and jitterbug choreography make it a unique entry in her videography.

4) Crazy In Love

The video that launched her solo career, Crazy In Love ticks off all of the early 2000s music video clichés – fur coats, exploding cars, big hair and bullet time sequences.

But what it really does is inform the viewer that Beyoncé is a star. The camera loves her from the moment she struts towards the centre of the frame. As soon as this clip dropped, Destiny’s Child must have known their days were numbered.

5) Get Me Bodied (Extended Version)

We nearly put Hold Up in fifth place. The image of Beyoncé brandishing that baseball bat has been copied and parodied a million times, but never bettered.

In the end, though, we couldn’t resist the fun factor of Get Me Bodied – a big Hollywood production, with choreography inspired by Bob Fosse’s Sweet Charity, and cameos from Kelly Rowland, Michelle Williams and Solange Knowles.

Like Crazy In Love, it harks back to a time when Beyoncé’s only goal was pop domination – but it’s still a feast for the eyes.

HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter series has launched a casting call for young actors.

The casting call was opened earlier this week, and the TV network has confirmed its authenticity to Variety.

To be eligible for the roles of Harry, Ron or Hermione, children must be between the ages of nine and 11 in April 2025 and be residents of the UK or Ireland.

The casting call also says it is “committed to inclusive, diverse casting”.

It continues: “For every role, please submit qualified performers, without regard to ethnicity, sex, disability, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other basis protected by law unless otherwise specifically indicated.”

For those who wish to apply, they must send two self-tapes, which are videos of those auditioning.

It asks that one video be “a short poem or story” (though nothing from Harry Potter) and the second “telling us a bit about yourself, including your date of birth, height and where you live”.

It also asks for children to use their own accents.

There is no release date yet for the series, but the call notes that the series is expected to film in the UK during 2025-26.

Francesca Gardiner and Mark Mylod, who worked on Succession, will serve as writer and director respectively.

It is also expected that there will be seven series of the show, each season adapting one of the Harry Potter books by JK Rowling.

In August 2000, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint were picked to play Harry, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley in the original films.

Grint, who was 12, applied for the role after seeing a Newsround report about the open casting.

Radcliffe has previously said that while he is “excited” to watch the new adaptation, he doesn’t think he’ll make a cameo.

“I think they very wisely want a clean break,” he told E! News.

“And I don’t know if it would work to have us do anything in it. I’m very happy to just watch along with everyone else.”

Dozens of people have been arrested after clashing with police at an anti-war demonstration in Melbourne.

Police said they were “appalled” by the actions of some demonstrators targeting a military hardware sales show in Australia’s second largest city, accusing them of pelting officers with rocks, manure and bottles filled with acid.

By contrast, protestors said officers were heavy-handed and responded with flashbang grenades and irritant sprays to control the hostile crowd.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the violence, saying Australians had a right to protest – but had to do so in a peaceful manner.

“You don’t say you’re opposed to defence equipment by throwing things at police,” Mr Albanese told local media. “They’ve got a job to do and our police officers should be respected at all times.”

Authorities said about 1,200 people had taken part in the demonstration targeting the Land Forces International Land Defence Exposition, many of whom sported Palestinian flags and sang pro-Palestinian chants.

Police had anticipated unrest ahead of the event, which is expected to draw over 1,000 corporations from 31 countries in the coming days. The expo, which is not open to the public, brings together military, defence, government, scientific and industry delegations from around the world.

Local media reported military artillery, trucks and semi-automatic weapons have been on display during the convention. Activists had said they were protesting as they claim many of the weapons on-show have been used by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Footage showed dumpsters being pushed towards police lines during the clashes, with multiple fires being lit across the city and demonstrators blocking roads. One activist climbed on top of a stationary truck at a set of traffic lights.

About two dozen police officers were treated for injuries sustained during the unrest, Victoria state Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said. He told reporters 39 people had been arrested in Wednesday’s clashes.

Commissioner Patton accused those behind the violence of being “hypocrites”, adding demonstrators said they wanted to “protest against war, so presumably [were] anti-violence”.

But his officers have been criticised by demonstrators for being overly heavy-handed. Organisers said they were “appalled at the level of violence directed against community members protesting for peace”.

“The police have been extremely violent towards protestors today, actually in an unprecedented way,” Jasmine Duff, an activist from Students for Palestine, said.

“They used flashbang grenades, they’ve been pepper spraying people very viciously.”

Some journalists reported seeing police fire rubber bullets, but Commissioner Patton said the projectiles were actually hard foam baton rounds.

Officials say around A$10m (£7.6m) was spent on deploying extra police to protect the event, with officers reportedly drafted in from New South Wales.

“It’s absolutely outrageous that reportedly $10 million has been spent on this police presence,” one of the protest group organisers, Anneke Demanuele from Students for Palestine, told ABC News.

Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan defended the state’s handling of the event, saying delegates had the right to gather in Melbourne.

“Any industry deserves the right to have these sort of events in a peaceful and respectful way,” she said.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from low-lying areas in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, as the Red River surges to its highest level in two decades, flooding the streets.

By Wednesday, flood waters from the swollen river reached a metre high in parts of the city, forcing some residents to navigate their neighbourhoods by boat.

Power has been cut to some districts because of safety concerns, while 10 of Hanoi’s 30 administrative districts are on “flood alert”, state media reported.

Vietnam is suffering the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi, which battered the north, killing at least 179 people. Floods and landslides across northern Vietnam have been the main causes of death, the government said.

“This is the worst flood I have seen,” Hanoi resident Tran Le Quyen told Reuters news agency. “It was dry yesterday morning. Now the entire street is flooded. We couldn’t sleep last night.”

Yagi, which was initially categorised as a super typhoon – the equivalent of a category 5 hurricane – but later downgraded to a tropical depression, has continued to wreak havoc in Vietnam since making landfall on Saturday.

It has been described as Asia’s most powerful typhoon this year.

“My home is now part of the river,” Nguyen Van Hung, who lives in a neighbourhood on the banks of the Red River, told Reuters.

An entire village, Lang Nu in the northern Lao Cai province, was swept away on Tuesday amid flash floods. At least 30 people have been confirmed dead, while hundreds of soldiers have been deployed to the village in search of those still missing.

Hoang Thi Bay, one of 63 survivors in the remote mountain community, told the AFP news agency that she avoided being swept away by holding on to a pillar.

“I looked out of the window and saw a huge amount of land coming towards me,” she said.

“I ran out to our kitchen, and clung tightly to a concrete pole. Our wooden stilt house was destroyed.”

Authorities are also paying careful attention on a hydropower plant in the northwestern Yen Bai province, as a huge inflow of water into the reservoir surrounding the dam raises concerns that it may collapse.

Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Hoang Hiep said on Wednesday that the hydropower plant is “safe”, but urged residents in the area to stay under shelter, as it may take up to two days for the water to recede to an “allowable level”.

Yagi has left a trail of destruction in the country’s northern region over the past four days. On Monday, it collapsed a busy bridge, plunging ten cars and two scooters into the Red River.

It also tore roofs from buildings, uprooted trees, and left widespread damage to infrastructure and factories in the north.

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

Scientists have warned that 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.

Indians in West Bengal may face a shortage of hilsa, their favourite fish, as millions gear up to celebrate the state’s biggest festival, Durga Puja, in October.

That is because Bangladesh, the world’s largest producer of the fish, has intensified its crackdown on the transportation of hilsa to neighbouring India, reinforcing a long-standing ban on exports.

The renewed effort, which came a month after a new government took office in Dhaka, is to ensure that the prized fish remains more accessible to consumers in Bangladesh, according to Farida Akhter, adviser to the Bangladesh ministry of fisheries and livestock.

“A lot of fish is [still] going from Bangladesh to India [despite the ban]. This time we will not allow the hilsa to cross the border,” she told the BBC.

Hilsa is Bangladesh’s national fish but it is a luxury, affordable only for the rich and middle class; the poor can’t buy it.

“The previous government would lift the ban during the Durga Puja festival. They used to call it a gift. This time I don’t think we need to give a gift because [if we do it] our people will not be able to eat the fish while it is allowed to be exported to India in large numbers,” Ms Akhter said.

This stand marks a clear departure from deposed former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s renowned “hilsa diplomacy” with India, where she often allowed consignments of the fish to be transported to India during the festival season.

Hasina has sent hilsa to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on a number of occasions. Hoping to resolve a long-standing water dispute, she also gifted 30kg of hilsa to the then Indian president Pranab Mukherjee in 2017.

Hasina was removed dramatically on 5 August after weeks of student-led protests that escalated into deadly nationwide unrest. Initially expected to stay in India briefly, her attempts to secure asylum in the UK, US and UAE have so far failed.

• India’s Bangladesh dilemma: What to do about Sheikh Hasina?

Her continued presence in India has also complicated Delhi’s efforts to build a strong relationship with the new interim government in Dhaka. For India, Bangladesh is a key strategic partner and ally, vital for border security, especially in its north-eastern states.

Asked whether the new interim government could have made a goodwill gesture to India by allowing supply of hilsa, Ms Akhter said: “We will have goodwill gestures in all other ways. They are our friends. But we should not do anything by depriving our people.

“The question of goodwill is separate from this.”

Bangladesh is the leading producer of hilsa (Tenualosa ilisha), a kind of species of fish related to the herring, abundant in the Bay of Bengal and also thriving in rivers.

The fish accounts for about 12% of the country’s total fish production and contributes around 1% to its GDP. Fishermen catch up to 600,000 tonnes of the fish annually, the majority of the haul coming from the sea. In 2017, hilsa was recognised as a geographical Indicator for the country.

In past years, the government permitted the export of 3,000-5,000 tonnes of hilsa annually during Durga Puja, senior fisheries official Nripendra Nath Biswas told The Daily Star newspaper.

“But considering the scarcity of fish in the country, the government has decided to impose a ban on hilsa exports this year,” he said.

But Bangladeshi media reports indicate that hilsa prices have surged in the local market despite the export ban.

A 1.5kg hilsa was selling for around 1,800 taka ($15; £11.50), 1.2kg for 1,600 taka, and one kg for 1,500 taka. These prices are 150-200 taka higher than last year, say traders.

Fishermen attribute the price increase to poor catches. “In the past three months, we tried to go to sea five times but had to turn back due to rough weather,” said Hossain Miah, a fisherman.

Hilsa holds an almost sacred status among Bengalis on both sides of the border, and its scarcity will frustrate many.

The fish is celebrated for its versatility, often cooked in a variety of ways such as steamed with mustard paste, which enhances its delicate flavour, or fried with a light coating of spices for a crispy texture.

Bengali-American food historian and author Chitrita Banerji is among the many writers who have raved about the fish.

“I think its enduring role as an icon of Bengali food is a combination of many elements, not the least being its physical beauty, which has led Bengali writers to describe it as the darling of the waters or a prince among fish,” she told an interviewer.

“And its tender flesh (bony though it may be), combined with an emollient texture and exquisite flavour, lends itself to an infinite variety of culinary preparations.”

Kamala Harris may have rattled Donald Trump on the debate stage, but the former president’s promise to save a nation in decline resonates with undecided voters in this part of a key battleground state.

It took Paul Simon four days to hitchhike from Saginaw, or so he sang in America, his iconic soundscape ballad of the 1960s with its lost souls on the highways of a country in flux.

Back then, this city’s long, slow decline had already begun, as Michigan’s once mighty car factories pulled down the shutters, buffeted by the winds of foreign competition.

Today, the angst and loneliness of Simon and Art Garfunkel’s song are magnified many times over.

I found 57-year-old Rachel Oviedo sitting on her porch, staring out at streetscape of abandoned furniture and beyond, the shell of a plant that once made car parts for Chevrolets and Buicks but finally closed its doors in 2014.

“We sit here all day long,” she told me. “We see homeless people come in and out of there, they need to tear it down and make something out of it.”

“A grocery store,” she suggested. “Because we ain’t got no grocery stores round here.”

I first met her the day before Tuesday night’s debate in Philadelphia, when she told me she was still unsure of how she was going to vote.

Donald Trump, she said, felt like a known quantity and like “a man of his word”, while Kamala Harris looked promising but still somewhat unknown.

“I like her,” she said, “but we don’t know what she’s going to do.”

Most US states lean either so strongly Democratic or so strongly Republican that the result is a foregone conclusion.

And if Michigan is one of the few swing states, then Saginaw is one of the few places in it where the vote could genuinely go either way.

When they come to cast their ballots, it will be undecided voters like Rachel, in places like this, who’ll quite literally have the future of America in their hands.

Chuck Brenner, a retired Saginaw cop, is another one.

The 49 year old, who still works part time in probation and runs his own real estate company, says he’s seen up close the problems here.

“Almost everybody’s dad worked in the car industry,” he told me.

“Back then, everybody had money and jobs were readily available. You’ve seen the change, people are struggling because people are growing up poor and then drugs and all that.”

Trump’s message of American decline resonates with Chuck.

“Absolutely,” he told me. “Because you can see it.”

But although he voted for Mr Trump in 2016, he went for Joe Biden in 2020.

“There was a lot of drama with Trump,“ he added. “And the legal issues. I kind of got sick of that.”

This time round, he’d only make up his mind, he insisted, once he’d watched the debate and heard what both candidates had to say.

Saginaw, like the wider state of Michigan, was once solid Democrat country – its political inclinations revealed in the list of candidates it has backed down the decades: Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

That 2016 vote, when Saginaw went – like Mr Brenner – for Trump, marked a shift.

You don’t have to spend long here to realise just how remarkable a shift that was.

Jeremy Zehnder runs a truck polishing company, doing the kind of work Democrats used to be able to depend on for support.

Surrounded by the giant, gleaming trucks and trailers, the lifeblood of the American economy’s distribution networks, he tells me it’s not debate performances but the cost of living that will determine how he votes.

And a majority of voters tell pollsters they trust Trump more on the economy.

“With the truckers, every one of those that we know of are leaning towards the right,” he told me.

“What, every one?”, I asked him, slightly incredulous.

“I don’t know of one that isn’t,” he replied. “I mean we do hundreds of trucks every year. And they all want to talk about it, everybody talks about it.”

At a United Auto Workers Union event where members watched the debate, I met one of the union organisers, Joe Losier.

The UAW has pledged its support to Kamala Harris and much of the crowd in the room whooped and clapped with every put-down she threw Trump’s way.

But dig a bit deeper and the fault lines of America’s political upheaval can be found here too.

“My dad and all my uncles on both sides of my family, who are all UAW people, have become Republicans,” Mr Losier told me, unable to hide the incredulity in his own voice.

“These are second generation immigrants who came over here, started working in the auto industry back in World War I and it blows my mind that a lot of my family are tradesmen who are supporting Donald Trump.”

He’s even unsure which way his two adult sons are going to vote.

Dinner times are “horrible” he said.

With workers fearing further shift cuts and job losses, the union finds itself increasingly out of step with its members.

There’s deep support here for Donald Trump’s promise of tough tariffs on imports, and disagreement with Kamala Harris’s argument in the debate that the policy would simply drive up prices.

After the debate, I called Chuck Brenner to see what he’d made of it. He had some good news for Democrats.

“I do believe Kamala was the shining star,” he told me. “And the bottom line is she’s won my vote. I was impressed by what she had to say, her delivery.”

“With Trump,” he went on, “it was kind of what I expected. There were no surprises there. It’s kind of like the same. The same.”

Rachel Oviedo, however, was still undecided, she told me, but now leaning more towards Trump.

“I think he’ll do more for us up here,” she said.

“You know, he did things he shouldn’t have done”, she added. “But you gotta forgive people.”

And Jeremy Zehnder, the truck polisher, admitted to being slightly surprised by Harris’s performance.

“She did much better than I thought she would,” he told me. “I think she won it.”

But he’s sticking with Trump. It’s about policy, he said. Taxes, the border and the cost of living.

On the streets of Saginaw, Kathleen Skelcy was knocking on doors, busy canvassing for Harris.

She told me she finds it a struggle to see any rationale behind the political motivations of her opponents.

“That’s what’s scary trying to understand these people and their thinking,” she said.

“I just think they’re not educated, or they fell asleep in school or something.”

It’s easy to see this as patronising, another sign that some Democrats chalk Trump’s appeal as merely delusional.

It’s clear, however, that trust and understanding can be in short supply on both sides.

As we’re talking, a Trump supporter, aggressive and threatening, emerges shouting from his home, following Kathleen up the street.

“Harris is a clown,” he yells, adding a few profanities for good measure.

And on the doorsteps, one Democratic supporter declines the offer of a Harris sign for their front yard, scared, they say, of inviting similar abuse.

In a few weeks, Saginaw will go the polls.

Before then, it’s almost certain that many more journalists will pass through this key bellwether district, all of them looking for America.

It’s here alright, in all its striving and struggling, and in a story today being lived out in stark political division.

A debate needs middle ground. And there’s very little of that left.

• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
• EXPLAINER: Seven swing states that could decide election
• FACT CHECK: Was US economy stronger under Biden or Trump?
• ANALYSIS: Who won the Harris-Trump presidential debate?
• POLLS: Who is winning the race for the White House?

The first showdown between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump was closely watched not only in the US but around the world.

The debate in Philadelphia featured some tense exchanges on foreign policy between the two presidential candidates.

From Beijing to Budapest, here’s how the debate went down, according to BBC foreign correspondents.

• Follow latest on the debate

Kamala Harris told Donald Trump that President Putin is “a dictator who would eat you for lunch.”

The expression “to eat someone for lunch” (or breakfast, or any other meal) doesn’t exist in Russian. But one thing you will find in Moscow is the appetite for a US election result that benefits Russia.

The Kremlin will have noted (with pleasure) that in the debate Trump sidestepped the question about whether he wants Ukraine to win the war.

“I want the war to stop,” replied Trump.

By contrast, Harris spoke of Ukraine’s “righteous defence” and accused Vladimir Putin of having “his eyes on the rest of Europe”.

Later the Kremlin claimed to have been irked by all mentions of Putin in the debate.

“Putin’s name is used as one of the instruments for the internal battle in the US,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told me.

“We don’t like this and hope they will keep our president’s name out of this.”

Last week Putin claimed he was backing Harris in the election and praised her “infectious laugh.”

Later a Russian state TV anchor clarified that Putin had been “slightly ironic” in his comments.

The presenter was dismissive of Harris’ political skills and suggested she would be better off hosting a TV cooking show.

I wonder: would it feature “dictators” eating US presidential candidates “for lunch”…?

• Who won the debate?
• Fact-checking Harris and Trump

Donald Trump’s failure, when asked on the debate stage to say if he wanted Ukraine to win the war, may not have surprised people here but it adds to their worry about what a second Trump term would bring.

Trump has long boasted he could end in the conflict in 24 hours, a prospect many Ukrainians assume would mean an incredibly bad deal with Kyiv forced to give up huge swathes of the land Russia has seized over the past two and a half years.

In contrast, Ukrainians will have been reassured by Kamala Harris’s responses, with no sign she would deviate from the current position of staunch American support.

She took credit for the role she’s already played, arguing she shared important intelligence with President Zelensky in the days before the full-scale invasion.

She then claimed Trump’s position would have been fatal for Ukraine had he still been in the White House. “If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now.”

Publicly, there has been a deafening silence from Ukraine’s current ministers and senior military in reaction to the debate. The figurative US electoral battle is one they need not weigh in to while they’re consumed by real fighting at home.

It’s President Zelensky himself who so far has gone furthest in articulating, albeit somewhat euphemistically, what a Trump victory would mean for Ukrainians.

Speaking to the BBC in July, he said it would mean “hard work, but we are hard workers”.

America’s longest war ended in August 2021 when it scrambled to pull out the last of its troops, and evacuate thousands of civilians, as the Taliban swept into Kabul with surprising speed.

That debacle made it into the debate and, not surprisingly, the issues were dodged, dismissed, distorted.

Harris veered away from the question “do you bear any responsibility in the way that withdrawal played out?”.

As a correspondent who followed the chaotic pullout closely, I never heard that the vice-president was in the room when decisions were taken in those final fateful weeks. But she made it clear she agreed with President Biden’s decision to leave.

Trump boasted that he talked tough with “Abdul”, the “head of the Taliban” who is “still the head of the Taliban.”

He seemed to be referring to Abdul Ghani Baradar, who signed the withdrawal deal with the US. But he never headed the Taliban, and has been sidelined since the Taliban takeover.

The mention immediately prompted a wave of internet memes featuring “Abdul” with people named Abdul weighing in, and others asking “who is Abdul?”

Both contenders focused on the flawed deal with the Taliban. The truth is that the Trump team negotiated this exit plan; the Biden team hastily enacted it.

Trump said the deal was good because “we were getting out”.

There were no good ways to go. But the departure turned into a disaster and all sides are to blame.

Kamala Harris was an unknown quantity to leaders here and she still is, even after the debate.

She has no track record on China and on the debate stage she simply repeated her line that the US, not China, would win the competition for the 21st Century.

The vice-president represents something China does not like – uncertainty.

That is why President Xi recently used a visit by US officials to call for “stability” between the two superpowers, perhaps a message to the current vice-president.

The prevailing view among Chinese academics is that she will not stray too far from President Biden’s slow and steady diplomatic approach.

But on the debate stage she went on the attack and accused Donald Trump of “selling American chips to China to help them improve and modernise their military”.

Donald Trump has made it clear he plans has to impose 60% tariffs on Chinese goods.

This will add to the tariffs he imposed as president which started a trade war in 2018. China retaliated, and numerous studies suggest this caused economic pain for both sides.

This is the last thing China wants right now as it is trying to manufacture and export goods to rescue its economy.

For Chinese leaders, this debate will have done little to assuage beliefs that Trump represents something else they don’t like – unpredictability.

But in truth, there is little hope here that US policy on China will change significantly, no matter who sits in the White House.

• Six highlights from Harris and Trump on stage
• Undecided Americans impressed by Harris

The two candidates did not stray much from their previously stated positions last night, even if Trump did add, with characteristic hyperbole, that Israel wouldn’t exist in two years if his opponent becomes president.

Here in the Middle East, the race for the White House is being keenly watched.

With the war in Gaza raging and a ceasefire deal still elusive, some of Benjamin Netanyahu’s critics suspect that Israel’s prime minister is deliberately stalling until after the election, in the hope that Trump will be more sympathetic to Israel than Harris.

There’s a whiff of history perhaps being about to repeat itself.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan’s campaign team was suspected of urging Iran not to release American hostages held in Tehran until after he had beaten President Jimmy Carter, saying Reagan would give Iran a better deal.

Could something similar be afoot now? Certainly Netanyahu’s opponents believe he is now the chief obstacle to a ceasefire deal.

Harris has indicated that she might be tougher on Israel than Joe Biden, something Trump has seized on, saying last night that the vice-president “hates Israel”.

Palestinians, deeply sceptical about Donald Trump but dismayed by the Biden administration’s inability to stop the war in Gaza, are possibly inclined to see Harris as the lesser of two evils.

They’ve long since abandoned any notion of the US as an honest broker in the Middle East, but will have noticed that Harris, unlike Trump, says she’s committed to Palestinian statehood.

Donald Trump showered praise on the Hungarian prime minister.

“Viktor Orban, one of the most respected men, they call him a strong man. He’s a tough person. Smart…”

Hungarian pro-government media picked up on the compliment. “Huge recognition!” ran the headline in Magyar Nemzet.

But government-critical news portal 444 quoted Tim Walz, running mate of Harris.

“He [Trump] was asked to name one world leader who was with him, and he said Orban. Dear God. That’s all we need to know.’

Viktor Orban backed Trump for president in 2016 and is strongly backing him again in November.

The two men met for the second time this year at Trump’s home in Florida on 12 July, after Orban visited Kyiv, Moscow and Beijing in quick succession.

The Orban government is banking both on Trump’s victory and his ability to swiftly end the war in Ukraine.

“Things are changing. If Trump comes back, there will be peace. It will be established by him without the Europeans,” Balazs Orban, Viktor Orban’s political director, told the BBC in July.

• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
• EXPLAINER: Seven swing states that could decide election
• FACT CHECK: Was US economy stronger under Biden or Trump?
• IMMIGRATION: Could Trump really deport a million migrants?
• POLLS: Who is winning the race for the White House?

Australia has stripped senior defence commanders of military honours over alleged war crimes committed under their watch in Afghanistan.

In parliament on Thursday, Defence Minister Richard Marles said they would lose their distinguished service medals, as recommended by a landmark inquiry which alleged there was an unchecked “warrior culture” within parts of the force.

The Brereton Report, released in 2020, found “credible evidence” that elite Australian soldiers unlawfully killed 39 people during the war in Afghanistan.

“This will always be a matter of national shame,” Mr Marles said.

“At the same time… [this is] a demonstration to the Australian people and to the world, that Australia is a country which holds itself accountable.”

He would not confirm how many officers are affected, but local media say it is less than ten.

Marles also stressed that the vast majority of Australian defence personnel who were deployed to Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021 had given “sacred service” and praised those who helped expose the alleged wrongdoing.

The decision does not affect those under investigation for war crimes themselves, including Australia’s most decorated living solider, Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith.

He denies any wrongdoing but in a high-profile defamation case last year was found – on the balance of probabilities – to have murdered four unarmed prisoners. He has not faced criminal charges over the allegations.

The civil trial was the first time a court has ever assessed accusations of war crimes by Australian forces.

Local media report that dozens of Australian soldiers are also being investigated for their roles in alleged war crimes. But so far charges have only been laid against one, former SAS trooper Oliver Schulz.

Former justice Paul Brereton found there was no credible information that officers high up the command chain knew of the alleged war crimes, but he said troop, squadron and task group commanders “bear moral command responsibility and accountability” for what happened under their watch.

They could not “in good conscience” retain their distinguished service medals – awarded for exceptional leadership in warlike operations – he said.

The issue of command accountability has been a vexing one for veterans.

Some have said they feel officers are being unfairly punished for others’ wrongdoing, but a government-commissioned report in May found “there is ongoing anger and bitter resentment” that their senior officers have not “publicly accepted some responsibility for policies or decisions that contributed to the misconduct”.

Responding to the decision to strip the officers’ medals, opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie, himself a former SAS soldier, said Australia must “learn from this tragic and bitter chapter in our military history”.

“Our soldiers must tell the truth and those in leadership must seek it out. If both our soldiers and our leaders had done so, we might not be in this place today,” he said.

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.

Trump and Harris met for the first time as candidates at the TV debate in Pennsylvania on Tuesday night, with the BBC’s Anthony Zurcher saying the Democrat came out on top in the fiery encounter.

But what do the polls tell us? We will have to wait a few days until the bigger national and state-level polls reflect any changes, but we have had a couple of limited snap polls.

A YouGov survey of more than 2,000 registered voters who watched at least some of the debate found that 54% thought Harris won, while 31% thought Trump did.

In a CNN/SSRS poll of 600 registered voters who watched the debate, 63% said Harris was the better performer while 37% went with Trump. Prior to the debate, the same voters were evenly split on who they thought would perform best.

That does not necessarily translate to votes though – only 4% said the debate changed their minds about who they might vote for. So we will have to wait and see how big an effect it has on the polling numbers in the coming days.

• Anthony Zurcher analysis: Who won the Harris-Trump debate?

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.

• What is the electoral college?

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 several 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: Harris goads Trump into flustered performance
• 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

Rock legend Jon Bon Jovi has been praised by police for helping a woman in distress who was on the ledge of a bridge in Nashville, Tennessee, on Tuesday night.

The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department shared a video of the Bon Jovi frontman and his team who were at the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge when the woman was standing precariously over the Cumberland River.

Bon Jovi, 62, and others talked to the woman and helped her come back on to the bridge, police said.

“It takes all of us to help keep each other safe,” Ch John Drake said in a brief statement.

Bon Jovi appeared to be in Nashville shooting a music video on the bridge, according to separate footage posted on social media.

In the video released by police, a woman in blue can be seen holding on to the railing while standing on the ledge.

Other people pass her and slightly further down the bridge, Bon Jovi’s team appears to be setting up camera equipment.

Bon Jovi walks over to the woman with someone else as his team stand further away.

The singer then can be seen waving hello at her and leaning on the railing near her.

After about a minute, Bon Jovi walks to the woman and with the help of another woman the pair get her back on to the pedestrian walkway on the bridge.

Other people walk over after the woman is safe and Bon Jovi embraces her in a hug.

A few minutes later the police footage shows Bon Jovi leaving the bridge with her.

Accompanying the video on social media, Metro Nashville Police Department said: “A shout out to Jon Bon Joni and his team for helping a woman on the Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge [on] Tuesday night.

“Bon Jovi helped persuade her to come off the ledge over the Cumberland River to safety.”

An Ohio father has told Donald Trump to stop using his son’s death in a school bus crash caused by a Haitian immigrant for “political gain”.

Aiden Clark, 11, died in a school bus crash in August 2023, in Springfield, Ohio, a small town now at the centre of national focus after baseless claims by the Trump campaign about Haitian immigrants there.

On Tuesday, Trump’s running mate JD Vance referred to Aiden in a post on Twitter/X, saying that “a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant”.

Aiden’s father, Nathan, said in a city commission meeting later the same day that the message had reopened wounds: “They have spoken my son’s name and used his death for political gain. This needs to stop now.”

“My son was not murdered. He was accidentally killed by an immigrant from Haiti,” he continued.

“This tragedy has felt all over this community, the state and even the nation. But don’t spin this towards hate.”

Trump and Vance have also circulated baseless claims about immigrants from Haiti eating pets in Springfield. Just a few hours after Mr Clark spoke, Trump repeated those claims on stage at a presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I wish that my son, Aiden Clark, was killed by a 60-year-old white man,” Mr Clark said at the meeting, as his wife Danielle stood beside him. “I bet you never thought anyone would ever say something so blunt.

“But if that guy killed my 11-year-old son, the incessant group of hate spewing people would leave us alone.”

Aiden was killed when a van driven by Hermanio Joseph, a Haitian immigrant without a driver’s licence, crossed the centre line and collided with his school bus.

The boy was thrown from the bus as it flipped, and several children were also injured.

Joseph was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and felony vehicular homicide in May, and sentenced to nine to 13-and-a-half years in prison.

On Monday, Trump’s campaign X account posted side-by-side photos of Aiden and Joseph, and attacked Vice-President Kamala Harris’ immigration policies before the presidential debate.

“REMEMBER: 11-year-old Aiden Clark was killed on his way to school by a Haitian migrant that Kamala Harris let into the country in Springfield, Ohio,” the caption read. It claimed Harris had “refused to say Aiden’s name”.

Vance followed the next day with his post.

“They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal immigrants, the border crisis, and even untrue claims about fluffy pets being ravaged and eaten by community members,” Mr Clark said on Tuesday.

“However, they are not allowed, nor have they ever been allowed to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio.”

Mr Clark said his family were now having the “worst day of our lives violently and constantly shoved in our faces”.

The Trump campaign told the BBC it was “deeply sorry to the Clark family for the loss of their son”, adding: “We hope the media will continue to cover the stories of the very real suffering and tragedies experienced by the people of Springfield, Ohio due to the influx of illegal Haitian immigrants in their community.”

A “fabulous moment” has been captured as tiger cubs explored a new area of their safari park for the first time.

Along with mum Yana, the four rare Amur tigers ventured into the drive-through Tiger Territory section at Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire.

Amy Waller, from Longleat, said: “The four of them cautiously followed mum into the drive-through and then grew in confidence to explore the area.”

The four female cubs were born in May, making Longleat home to the largest number of tigers in the UK, as they joined Yana, their dad, Red, and their older sister, Yuki.

“We have always said it will be a gradual process led by Yana and the guidance of the keepers as it is really important we make sure Yana, and the cubs, are confident about where they are and what they are experiencing,” Ms Waller added.

“Yana decided when she’d had enough and led them back indoors.”

Amur tigers, also known as Siberian tigers, are native to the far east of Russia.

They are one of the most endangered species in the world and it is estimated that only 450 of them are left in the wild.

The species was on the brink of extinction in the 1940s, due to hunting and logging.

At one stage, it is believed the population fell to only 20 to 30 animals.

Visitors to the safari park will have the chance to see them in their paddock everyday.

Singapore’s grandest arena, which has hosted Taylor Swift and Madonna, is getting ready to welcome an arguably bigger icon – Pope Francis.

The pontiff will celebrate Mass with 50,000 people at the National Stadium on Thursday evening, packing the venue as his 12-day Asia-Pacific tour draws to a close.

The 87-year-old has been to Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea – the visit to the Pacific Island was the furthest he has travelled to meet devotees.

He arrived in Singapore, where less than 10% of the population – around 400,000 people – identify as Catholic, on Wednesday afternoon. The three-day visit includes meetings with government officials, religious leaders and students.

This has been the longest foreign visit of his papacy and given his frail health, volunteers say the visit was unimaginable just a year ago. A spell of illness at the time had made overseas travel difficult, forcing him to cancel a trip to the UAE.

“Since we were told that he was coming [to Singapore], we’ve been praying,” says Karen Cheah, one of 5,000 volunteers who have been recruited for duties ranging from singing in the choir during Mass to protecting the Pope.

“Once he got on the plane and visited the other countries, the reality hit that it’s coming up: we are next.”

Hosting the Pope for even a single evening – as the stadium will – is no small feat.

It is a hive of activity the day before Mass. The pitch is covered with rubber flooring. The rows of chairs are growing as workers unload more of them.

At the other end of the arena, the choir is rehearsing hymns at full volume under the close watch of directors, the sound clashing with the routines being practised by the hosts of the event.

One volunteer is going through the sequences for Mass while manoeuvring an empty wheelchair. Pope Francis is expected to use a wheelchair for most engagements because of a knee ailment.

Meanwhile security volunteers are working with the police to secure an area around the Pope and guard where he is staying in Singapore.

These volunteers have completed weeks of training, where they learned skills including how to disengage from a tight grip and respond to a knife attack.

“Because of the current heightened sense of security, the police have been very active in working with us,” says Kevin Ho, who heads the security volunteer team.

“Our volunteers have been having sleepless nights, doing the operational work. We are trying to make the visit as safe and successful as it can be.”

The precautions have also increased because of a recent threat. Seven people were detained in Indonesia last week over a failed plot to attack the Pope. Police said they had confiscated bows, arrows, a drone and leaflets purportedly linked to the Islamic State militant group.

The Pope, born in Buenos Aires as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is known to be unafraid to address issues including LGBT+ inclusion and inter-religious tensions. On this trip, he made a joint call for peace in Jakarta alongside the grand imam of Southeast Asia’s largest mosque and met other religious leaders.

He praised Indonesians for choosing to have large families over pets, a seeming comment on plummeting birth rates in China, South Korea and Japan. But his figures that Indonesian parents are having up to five children were decades out of date, commentators pointed out. Indonesian women now have on average only slightly more than two children in their lifetime, UN data shows.

In resource-rich Papua New Guinea, which has been drawing international companies and investors, the Pope called for workers to be treated fairly. And in Timor-Leste, he said young people should be protected from abuse, after a prominent local bishop was accused of sexually abusing young boys there during the 1980s and 90s.

“Of course, the Pope has a message. But at the same time, he is also the message,” says Monsignor Stephen Yim, co-chair of the organising committee at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore.

This is Singapore’s second papal visit.

The late Pope John Paul II spent just five hours in the city state in 1986, which included officiating Mass at the old National Stadium.

Mr Ho, who was a student then, remembers that day well. He says the crowd roared as the pontiff made a lap of the venue in the popemobile, undeterred by the rain.

“The old stadium had no roof and we all got rained on,” Mr Ho recalls. “The only emotion I remember was that palpable sense of excitement when the Pope came around. It was electric. I will never forget that.”

Demand for Thursday’s Mass was also high – almost half of those who tried to get a seat were unsuccessful. Those who were unlucky received a reply with an emoji and verse from the Bible.

“Seeing the Pope in person feels like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” says Stephanie Yuen, who managed to get a seat at the stadium. “As a Catholic, that’s something I don’t want to miss, especially in my own country.”

The Mass will be “a very profound spiritual experience that I will get to share with thousands of my fellow Catholics in Singapore”, says Sherilyn Choo, another thrilled attendee.

The visit has also touched non-Catholics, such as carpenter Govindharaj Muthiah, who built two chairs for the Pope’s use in Singapore.

“Tensions around the globe are quite high. It’s heartwarming that he made trips to countries with many different religions,” Mr Muthiah says. “Unity is the message he is putting across.”

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris met for the first time on the presidential debate stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

They may have shaken hands, but they did not hit it off.

In a fiery 90 minutes, Harris frequently rattled the former president with personal attacks that threw him off message and raised the temperature of this highly-anticipated contest.

Her pointed digs on the size of his rally crowds, his conduct during the Capitol riot, and on the officials who served in his administration who have since become outspoken critics of his campaign repeatedly left Trump on the back foot.

The pattern for much of this debate was Harris goading her Republican rival into making extended defences of his past conduct and comments. He gladly obliged, raising his voice at times and shaking his head.

Americans should go to a Trump rally, Harris said during an early question about immigration, because they were illuminating. “People start leaving the rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom,” she said.

That barb clearly rattled the former president, as he then spent most of his answer – on a topic that should have been one of his main areas of strength – defending his rally sizes and belittling hers.

Trump went from there to an extended riff on a debunked report that Haitian immigrants in the town of Springfield, Ohio, were abducting and eating their neighbours’ pets.

If debates are won and lost on which candidate best takes advantage of issues where they are strong – and defends or deflects on areas of weakness – Tuesday night tilted in favour of the vice-president.

A snap CNN poll of voters watching said that Harris performed better and betting markets said the same.

This is a snapshot that could be momentary but the Harris tactic of putting Trump on the defensive was clear early in the evening when the topics covered were the economy and abortion.

Public opinion surveys indicate many Americans are unhappy with how the Biden administration – of which Harris is a key member – has handled inflation and the economy.

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But Harris turned the topic to Trump’s proposed across-the-board tariffs, which she labelled a “Trump sales tax”, and then brought up Project 2025, the controversial independent conservative plan for a future Republican administration.

As he has in the past, Trump distanced himself from the project and defended his tariff plan, noting that the Biden administration had kept many of the tariffs in his first presidency. They were valid points, but it kept him from hammering the vice-president on inflation and consumer prices.

On abortion, Trump defended his handling of the issue, saying that Americans across the spectrum wanted Roe v Wade abortion protections overturned by the Supreme Court – a statement that polling does not support. He struggled to make his position clear and his answer was at times rambling.

Harris, meanwhile, took the opportunity to make an impassioned, personal appeal to families who have faced severe pregnancy complications and have been unable to receive abortion care in states that have banned the procedure – states with “Trump abortion bans”, as she called them.

“It’s insulting to the women of America,” she concluded.

It was a carefully modulated message in an area in which she has a double-digit advantage over Trump.

Time and time again as the evening progressed, Harris put Trump on the defensive with jabs and barbs that he could have ignored but seemingly felt compelled to address.

At one point, Harris was asked about the liberal positions, such as those on oil shale fracking, that she took during her failed 2019 presidential campaign and has since abandoned. Her deliberate prodding continued and she ended her answer by noting that she did not take handouts from her wealthy father.

Again, the former president took the bait. Instead of hitting the vice-president on her shifting views – a clear area of weakness – he opened his response by talking about the “tiny fraction” of money he took from his father.

On the Afghanistan withdrawal, another weak point for Harris, the vice-president shifted the conversation to Trump’s negotiations with Taliban officials and inviting them to Camp David. It was a pattern that played out over and over and proved very effective.

Republicans are already complaining about what they say was the favouritism the ABC moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, showed toward Harris. Both of them pushed back and fact-checked assertions made by Trump on several occasions.

In the end, however, it was Trump’s responses and eagerness to take and devour whatever bait Harris set out for him that was the story of the evening.

And that played out in the faces of the two candidates. Whenever her opponent was talking, Harris took on a studied look of bemusement or incredulity. Trump, for his part, mostly scowled.

Up until now, the Harris campaign had been coy about whether she would agree to another debate. Almost immediately after this one ended, they called for a second presidential debate before November.

That alone should indicate how well the Democrats think Tuesday night went for Harris.

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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.

There are strong indications that the US and UK are poised to lift their restrictions within days on Ukraine using long-range missiles against targets inside Russia. Ukraine has been pleading for this for weeks. So why the reluctance by the West and what difference could these missiles make to the war?

Storm Shadow is an Anglo-French cruise missile with a maximum range of around 250km (155 miles). The French call it Scalp.

It is launched from aircraft then flies at close to the speed of sound, hugging the terrain, before dropping down and detonating its high explosive warhead.

Storm Shadow is considered an ideal weapon for penetrating hardened bunkers and ammunition stores, such as those used by Russia in its war against Ukraine.

But each missile costs nearly US$1 million (£767,000), so they tend to be launched as part of a carefully planned flurry of much cheaper drones, sent ahead to confuse and exhaust the enemy’s air defences, just as Russia does to Ukraine.

Britain and France have already sent these missiles to Ukraine – but with the caveat that Kyiv can only fire them at targets inside its own borders.

They have been used with great effect, hitting Russia’s Black Sea naval headquarters at Sevastopol and making the whole of Crimea unsafe for the Russian navy.

Justin Crump, a military analyst, former British Army officer and CEO of the Sibylline consultancy, says Storm Shadow has been a highly effective weapon for Ukraine, striking precisely against well protected targets in occupied territory.

“It’s no surprise that Kyiv has lobbied for its use inside Russia, particularly to target airfields being used to mount the glide bomb attacks that have recently hindered Ukrainian front-line efforts,” he says.

Ukraine’s cities and front lines are under daily bombardment from Russia.

Many of the missiles and glide bombs that wreak devastation on military positions, blocks of flats and hospitals are launched by Russian aircraft far within Russia itself.

Kyiv complains that not being allowed to hit the bases these attacks are launched from is akin to making it fight this war with one arm tied behind its back.

At the Globsec security forum I attended in Prague this month, it was even suggested that Russian military airbases were better protected than Ukrainian civilians getting hit because of the restrictions.

Ukraine does have its own, innovative and effective long-range drone programme.

At times, these drone strikes have caught the Russians off guard and reached hundreds of kilometres inside Russia.

But they can only carry a small payload and most get detected and intercepted.

Kyiv argues that in order to push back the Russian air strikes, it needs long-range missiles, including Storm Shadow and comparable systems including American Atacms, which has an even greater range of 300km.

In a word: escalation.

Washington worries that although so far all of President Vladimir Putin’s threatened red lines have turned out to be empty bluffs, allowing Ukraine to hit targets deep inside Russia with Western-supplied missiles could just push him over the edge into retaliating.

The fear in the White House is that hardliners in the Kremlin could insist this retaliation takes the form of attacking transit points for missiles on their way to Ukraine, such as an airbase in Poland.

If that were to happen, Nato’s Article 5 could be invoked, meaning the alliance would be at war with Russia.

Ever since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the White House’s aim has been to give Kyiv as much support as possible without getting dragged into direct conflict with Moscow, something that would risk being a precursor to the unthinkable: a catastrophic nuclear exchange.

Some, but it may be a case of too little too late. Kyiv has been asking to use long-range Western missiles inside Russia for so long now that Moscow has already taken precautions for the eventuality of the restrictions being lifted.

It has moved bombers, missiles and some of the infrastructure that maintains them further back, away from the border with Ukraine and beyond the range of Storm Shadow.

Yet Justin Crump of Sibylline says while Russian air defence has evolved to counter the threat of Storm Shadow within Ukraine, this task will be much harder given the scope of Moscow’s territory that could now be exposed to attack.

“This will make military logistics, command and control, and air support harder to deliver, and even if Russian aircraft pull back further from Ukraine’s frontiers to avoid the missile threat they will still suffer an increase in the time and costs per sortie to the front line.”

Matthew Savill, director of military science at Rusi think tank, believes lifting restrictions would offer two main benefits to Ukraine.

Firstly, it might “unlock” another system, the Atacms.

Secondly, it would pose a dilemma for Russia as to where to position those precious air defences, something he says could make it easier for Ukraine’s drones to get through.

Ultimately though, says Savill, Storm Shadow is unlikely to turn the tide.