The headline in this morning’s Kommersant newspaper captured the drama.

“Vladimir Putin draws his red line.”

Will the West cross it? And, if it does, how will Russia respond?

Speaking in St Petersburg, President Putin sent a clear warning to the West: don’t allow Ukraine to use your long-range missiles to strike Russian territory.

Moscow, he said, would view that as the “direct participation” of Nato countries in the war in Ukraine.

“It would substantially change the very essence, the nature of the conflict,” the Kremlin leader continued.

“This will mean that Nato countries, the USA and European states, are fighting with Russia.”

He claimed that, for missile launches into Russia, Ukraine would require data from Western satellites and that only servicemen from Nato member states would be able to “input flight missions into these missile systems”.

Russia has drawn red lines before. And seen them crossed before.

On 24 February 2022, when he announced the start of his “special military operation” – the full-scale invasion of Ukraine – President Putin issued a warning to “those who may be tempted to interfere from the outside”.

“No matter who tries to stand in our way or create threats for our country and our people, they must know that Russia will respond immediately,” the Kremlin leader had declared.

“And the consequences will be such as you have never seen in your entire history.”

Western leaders ignored what was widely interpreted at the time as nuclear sabre-rattling. The West has since provided Ukraine with tanks, advanced missile systems and, most recently, F-16 American fighter jets.

This year Russia has already accused Ukraine of using American long-range ATACMS missiles to target Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia.

What’s more, over the last two years, Russian officials and the state media here have on many occasions accused the West of “fighting Russia” or launching “a war” on Russia. Even though it was Russia that invaded Ukraine.

But from the tone of President Putin’s latest remarks, it’s clear he considers that the targeting of internationally recognised Russian territory with Western missile systems would take the conflict to a new level.

What he didn’t make clear yesterday is how Moscow would respond.

“We will take corresponding decisions based on the threats to us that will be created,” Vladimir Putin said.

On Friday, Russia withdrew the accreditation of six British diplomats, accusing them of “subversive activities” and threatening Russia’s security.

But Putin’s potential response is much broader. He offered some clues back in June.

At a meeting with the heads of international news agencies, he was asked: how would Russia react if Ukraine was given the opportunity to hit targets on Russian territory with weapons supplied by Europe?

“First, we will, of course, improve our air defence systems. We will be destroying their missiles,” President Putin replied.

“Second, we believe that if someone is thinking it is possible to supply such weapons to a war zone to strike our territory and create problems for us, why can’t we supply our weapons of the same class to those regions around the world where they will target sensitive facilities of the countries that are doing this to Russia?”

In other words, arming Western adversaries to strike Western targets abroad is something that Moscow has been considering.

Earlier this month, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, announced that Russia was set to revise its nuclear doctrine: the document that lays out under what circumstances Moscow may consider using nuclear weapons.

He suggested that the decision to revise the doctrine was “connected with the escalation course of [Russia’s] Western adversaries”.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer is in Washington for talks with President Biden. Among the issues the two leaders are expected to discuss is the question of Ukraine and long-range missiles.

“Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine,” Sir Keir said on his way to Washington. “Russia can end this conflict straight away.”

Western leaders will need to decide which they consider greater: the risk of escalation of this conflict, or the need to lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of western missiles.

Details are emerging of an apparent raid by Israeli special forces on a “Hezbollah missile production facility” in Syria.

Israel’s government has said nothing about the operation which, according to US media reports, took place at the beginning of the week.

Syrian state media say 18 people were killed on Monday in the raid near the Syrian city of Masyaf – around 25 miles (40km) north of the Lebanese border – and several dozen were injured.

According to the New York Times, Israeli special forces descended from helicopters, placed explosives inside the Iranian-built facility and removed sensitive information.

American and other officials quoted in the paper paint a picture of a daring operation, designed to destroy the underground military facility.

Air strikes were apparently used to neutralise Syria’s defences and prevent reinforcements from reaching the site.

Separately, a report by the Axios news site – citing three sources said to be familiar with the operation – says the elite Shaldag unit of the Israeli Air Force carried out the raid.

Axios also reports that Israel informed the US before the operation was slated to take place, and was not met with any resistance from the White House.

The BBC has not yet been able to independently verify these reports.

Israel’s government has not commented, but the raid seems to have been designed to prevent Iran from supplying precision missiles to Hezbollah, its Lebanese ally and proxy.

Israel attacked the facility six years ago and has mounted dozens of air strikes against Syria since the war in Gaza began almost a year ago.

But, putting Israeli troops on the ground inside Syria is highly unusual.

This would be one of the most sophisticated operations of its kind in years.

Last Sunday, at least 18 people were killed in Israeli air strikes on a number of military sites in the vicinity of Masyaf, according to the Syrian health minister.

Israeli strikes have reportedly been stepped up since the start of the war in Gaza in October last year, in response to cross-border attacks on northern Israel by Hezbollah and other groups in Lebanon and Syria.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) – a UK-based monitoring group with a network of sources on the ground – Israeli air and artillery strikes have targeted Syrian territory on more than 60 occasions since the start of the year.

This has resulted in damage to or destruction of about 140 targets, including weapons depots, vehicles and Iran-backed militia headquarters, the SOHR said.

The strikes have killed at least 208 fighters – including 46 members of Syrian government forces, 43 members of Hezbollah and 24 Iranian Revolutionary Guards – as well as 22 civilians, the monitoring group added.

PwC’s Chinese auditing arm has been suspended from the country for six months over its work on the collapsed Chinese property giant Evergrande.

The Big Four accountancy firm is also being fined more than $62m (£47m) after Chinese authorities said it had helped cover up fraud at Evergrande.

The real estate firm collapsed in January under a mountain of debt.

PwC China admitted the work had fallen “unacceptably below the standards” expected within the firm and apologised for the impact on its clients.

The Chinese authorities said PwC knew there were “major misstatements” in Evergrande’s financial statements when it audited the firm.

As a result, the Chinese Ministry of Finance has imposed “administrative penalties” and suspended the operations of PwC’s auditing business PwC ZhongTian for six months.

Other PwC operations providing non-audit services in China are not affected.

In addition, China’s securities regulator has confiscated the revenue PwC earned auditing Evergrande and has also issued a fine.

An investigation by the regulator said PwC had “seriously eroded the basis of law and good faith, and damaged investors’ interest”.

In response to the penalties, PwC said it had taken “a number of accountability and remedial actions”, including the sacking of six partners and the launch of a process to fine responsible team leaders.

An additional five staff have also left, and Hemione Hudson, PwC’s global risk and regulatory leader, has been parachuted in to run the Chinese unit on an interim basis.

PwC admitted the work done on the Evergrande audit had been “well below” standards expected at the firm.

“It is not representative of what we stand for as a network and there is no room for this at PwC,” the firm’s global chair Mohamed Kande said.

“That is why, following a thorough investigation, we ensured that actions were taken to hold those responsible to account.

“I remain confident in the China firm’s partners and staff as we work together to rebuild trust with stakeholders,” he added.

PwC China said in a statement: “We deeply regret and apologise for the impact this has had on our clients and people. We will work tirelessly to regain their trust.”

Evergrande, which built property in more than 280 Chinese cities and branched out into other business sectors, teetered, then finally went into liquidation in January.

The Chinese authorities have accused Evergrande and its founder, Hui Ka Yan, of falsely inflating revenues at the firm to the tune of $78bn (£61.6bn) and imposed fines and bans on him personally as well as the business.

Russia started the conflict in Ukraine and can end it “straight away”, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

It comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested Moscow would regard Western missiles being fired into Russia as a serious escalation of the war.

Putin told Russian state television that this would “mean nothing other than the direct participation of Nato countries – the US and European countries – in the war in Ukraine.”

Sir Keir is in Washington for talks with US President Joe Biden on Friday, as allies of Kyiv discuss giving Ukraine permission to fire their missiles at targets inside Russia.

“It is their direct participation,” he said. “And, of course, this substantially changes the very essence, the nature of the conflict.”

He added: “If that is the case, we will take corresponding decisions based on the threats that will be created to us.”

Asked for his response to the remarks on his flight to Washington, the prime minister struck a robust tone repeatedly stating that Russia had started the war.

“Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia can end this conflict straight away,” he said.

He later added: “To reiterate, it was Russia who started this in the first place. They caused the conflict, they’re the ones who are acting unlawfully.”

The prime minister and Foreign Secretary David Lammy are on a blitz of international diplomacy, as Ukraine’s allies discuss how to respond to Iran stepping up its weapons support for Russia.

Lammy told the BBC this “clearly changes the debate” as he visited Kyiv alongside the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.

On Sunday, the day after the prime minister returns from Washington, he will fly to Rome to meet the Italian Prime Minister, Georgia Meloni.

Italy currently holds the rotating presidency of the G7 group of industrialised countries.

A week later world leaders will gather in New York for the annual UN General Assembly.

There has long been a hesitancy to allow Ukraine to fire Western missiles into Russia because of fears it could be seen as provocative and draw the US, European countries and others directly into the conflict.

But with winter approaching and Russia getting extra support from Iran, minds appear to be changing.

When asked about the prospect of allowing the Anglo-French cruise missile called Storm Shadow to be used, the public remarks of senior figures remain guarded.

“There are really important developments likely in the next few weeks and months, both in Ukraine and the Middle East, and therefore a number of tactical decisions ought to be taken,” the prime minister told reporters, without disputing the issue is on the agenda.

He noted that both Blinken and Lammy had recently visited Ukraine.

“They’re obviously with us to report into the process on a really important joint trip.”

Speaking earlier in the day, Putin said: “This isn’t about allowing or banning the Kyiv regime from striking Russian territory. It does that already with drones and by other means.

“But when we talk about high-precision, long-range weapons made in the West this is a completely different matter… The Ukrainian army is not able to strike with modern, high-precision, long-range systems. It can’t do this.

“It is only possible with intelligence data from satellites that Ukraine doesn’t have, data that’s only from satellites of the European Union, the USA, Nato satellites.”

“The key point,” he added, “is that only servicemen of Nato countries can input flight missions into these missile systems. Ukrainian servicemen cannot do this. Therefore this is not about permitting or not permitting the Ukrainian regime to strike Russia with these weapons.

“This is about whether or not Nato countries take the decision to directly participate in the military conflict.”

This is the prime minister’s second visit to Washington in a little over two months, having travelled here in July for the Nato Summit and a visit to the White House, shortly after winning the general election.

Sir Keir said he would not be meeting the vice-president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris during the visit.

When asked by journalists on the flight to the US, he said: “No, because she will be in other parts of the US as you’d expect, rather than Washington, she’ll be as you’d expect in swing states… That’s fine.”

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China will “gradually raise” its retirement age for the first time since the 1950s, as the country confronts an ageing population and a dwindling pension budget.

The top legislative body on Friday approved proposals to raise the statutory retirement age from 50 to 55 for women in blue-collar jobs, and from 55 to 58 for females in white-collar jobs.

Men will see an increase from 60 to 63.

China’s current retirement ages are among the lowest in the world.

According to the plan passed on Friday, the change will set in from 1 January 2025, with the respective retirement ages raised every few months over the next 15 years, said Chinese state media.

Retiring before the statutory age will not be allowed, state news agency Xinhua reported, although people can delay their retirement by no more than three years.

Starting 2030, employees will also have to make more contributions to the social security system in order to receive pensions. By 2039, they would have to clock 20 years of contributions to access their pensions.

The state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in 2019 that the country’s main state pension fund will run out of money by 2035 – and that was an estimate before the Covid-19 pandemic, which hit China’s economy hard.

The plan to raise retirement ages and adjust the pension policy was based on “a comprehensive assessment of the average life expectancy, health conditions, the population structure, the level of education and workforce supply in China,” Xinhua reported.

But the announcement has drawn some scepticism and discontent on the Chinese internet.

“In the next 10 years, there will be another bill that will delay retirement until we are 80,” one user wrote on a Chinese social media site Weibo.

“What a miserable year! Middle-aged workers are faced with pay cuts and raised retirement ages. Those who are unemployed find it increasingly difficult to get jobs,” another chimed in.

Others said they had anticipated the announcement.

“This was expected, there isn’t much to discuss.

“Men in most European countries retire when they are 65 or 67, while women do at 60. This is going to be the trend in our country as well,” one Weibo user said.

China’s huge population has fallen for a second consecutive year in 2023 as its birth rate continues to decline.

Meanwhile, its average life expectancy has risen to 78.2 years, officials said earlier this year. According to the World Health Organization, almost a third of China’s population – about 402 million people – will be aged over 60 by 2040, up from 254 million in 2019.

A slowing economy, shrinking government benefits and a decades-long one-child policy have created a creeping demographic crisis in China, our China correspondent Laura Bicker wrote earlier this year.

China’s pension pot is running dry and the country is running out of time to build enough of a fund to care for the growing number of elderly.

Over the next decade, about 300 million people, who are currently aged 50 to 60, are set to leave the Chinese workforce. This is the country’s largest age group, nearly equivalent to the size of the US population.

So who will look after them? The answer depends on where you go and who you ask.

Read our analysis here

Sandbags are being prepared in Austria, reservoirs have been emptied in the Czech Republic and flash floods are expected in Poland, as forecasters warn of days of “potentially catastrophic” rainfall.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said there is “no reason to panic”, after attending a flood risk briefing in Wroclaw, amid forecasts of 15cm (6in) of rainfall in four southern provinces.

In Austria, heavy rain and snow in the mountains has already led to travel disruption and Chancellor Karl Nehammer has said the army is ready to deploy up to 1,000 soldiers if necessary.

The Czech capital is taking no chances, after floods that devastated the city two decades ago.

Images from 2002 of flooded metro stations, residents being evacuated in rubber dinghies and elephants drowning in the Prague Zoo are seared into the local memory.

Shortly before 10:00 (08:00 GMT) on Friday, a heavy steel gate, one metre thick, closed off the so-called Devil’s Canal or , a sliver of water that slices through the historic Mala Strana district of Prague before rejoining the River Vltava.

The Certovka gate is part of a nationwide network of flood defences that officials say have cost more than €1bn (£845m) in order to prevent a repeat of the catastrophic damage of 1997 and 2002.

Prague hopes to escape the worst of the flooding. Attention is focused this weekend on central and eastern parts of the country, especially North Moravia, where 50 people lost their lives in 1997.

The Jeseniky mountains could receive some 400mm over the next three days, and that water will then cascade down the River Oder ( in Czech) and on towards Poland, passing a number of towns and villages on the way.

After attending a briefing by emergency services in south-west Poland, Donald Tusk sought to reassure the public that the forecasts were “not overly alarming” and there was no reason to predict anything on a scale that might cause a threat across the country.

Poland’s territorial army was on standby, he said, and in one of the four southern provinces, Malopolska, an estimated two million sandbags had been stockpiled, while another million were available in Lower Silesia, the province around Wroclaw.

“If something can be expected, and this what we want to be prepared for, it is of course localised flooding or so-called flash floods,” he added.

Thousands of residents had to use the staircases of their high-rise blocks of flats in Wroclaw, because the lifts were shut down amid flooding fears, local media reported.

The Polish Institute of Meteorology and Water Management later extended the highest alert level from the four southern provinces to the mouth of the River Odra in Szczecin, where it spills into the Baltic Sea.

Austria experienced its hottest August since records began, according to the Geosphere Austria federal institute.

Now it is warning of 10-20cm of rainfall in many regions in a matter of days. In some places, well over 20cm is possible, especially in the mountains of Upper and Lower Austria and in northern Upper Styria.

Austrian storm warning centre UWZ says that in some areas, previous records for the entire month of September will be “surpassed in just a few days”.

Manuel Kelemen, a forecaster for Puls24 TV, says from a meterological point of view, “what we’re experiencing is extraordinary, if not unprecedented”.

Railway network OEBB has advised all passengers to postpone non-urgent journeys. Part of the Tauern railway line between Bad Hofgastein and Böckstein in the province of Salzburg has been closed because of heavy snowfall.

Flooding and landslides are possible, with gale force winds expected in the capital, Vienna. Aid organisation Caritas has appealed for volunteers to help in affected areas.

Continuous heavy rain is also expected across the border in the German state of Bavaria.

This is of course a regional, not a national emergency, with a large area of Central Europe affected.

But a reminder of national priorities came earlier this week when Czech officials said they had been forced to refuse a German request to stop emptying reservoirs into the River Vltava, which flows into the River Elbe (in Czech) and onwards to Germany, following the collapse of a bridge in Dresden.

Those reservoirs – a series of nine dams known as the – will need to be half-empty to take what this weekend has in store.

Cristiano Ronaldo has hit 1bn total followers across his various social media accounts – making him the first person to reach that mind-boggling figure.

The number is calculated by combining his total number of followers across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Chinese social media sites Weibo and Kuaishou.

It does not equate to one billion individual followers, as many people will follow him across multiple platforms, and some will be fake accounts, known as bots.

Nonetheless social media expert Paolo Pescatore, from PP Foresight, described it as a “staggering number” that media and brands would pay close attention to.

“What an achievement, and it further underlines the fundamental shift taking place in media.”

It showed “the power to reach new, younger audiences thanks to technology”, he told the BBC.

On the pitch, Ronaldo was famed for his rivalry with Argentinian star Lionel Messi.

But off it, there is no competition for who is winning the social media contest – Messi has a mere 623 million followers.

It’s not just sport: Ronaldo is also ahead of some of the biggest names in entertainment, including singers Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez.

Even those known primarily for their work online cannot compete – MrBeast, the top YouTuber in the world, has 543m total followers.

Part of the reason the footballer crossed the 1bn boundary first comes down to his decision to join YouTube last month, where his channel rocketed to 50 million subscribers within a single week.

Compare that to Messi, whose channel has just 3.5m subscribers, despite having uploaded videos since 2011.

The reason for the difference comes down to the rule that governs YouTube: content is king.

Messi’s channel has only uploaded one video in the past three years, a flashy ad for a football experience based around him that lasts half a minute.

His other videos are similarly short – while the longer ones are usually montages or feature him speaking in his native Spanish.

• Ronaldo, Mbappé and a record-breaking comment

So far, Ronaldo’s channel consists mainly of conversations between him and his wife Georgina Rodríguez, as well as his former Manchester United colleague Rio Ferdinand.

But all this content has been tailored for an English-speaking audience – and even when Ronaldo is talking in Spanish or Portuguese, the videos are often dubbed into English.

That, coupled with near-daily uploads and bright and colourful YouTube thumbnails. show Ronaldo (or more likely his social media team) know exactly how to make a video popular on the platform.

He announced the news in a post shared across his various social media platforms.

Cristiano Ronaldo has made a career out of breaking records.

His successes include being top scorer in Uefa Champions League history, having the most goals in the European Championship, and making more international appearances than anyone else.

Last week he became the first footballer to score 900 top-level career goals.

As with his playing career, he still has scope to improve his numbers on social media too, as unlike some of his rivals, he is not on TikTok or Threads.

All of which is likely to add to another figure he dominates: earnings.

According to Forbes, his total earnings now stand at $260 million – the highest of any athlete.

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s firm has denied fresh allegations that Swiss authorities had frozen $310m (£236m) of their funds in Swiss bank accounts.

US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research alleged that the action was part of a money laundering and securities forgery investigation into the Adani Group.

In a post on X, Hindenburg cited “newly released Swiss criminal court records”, reported by a Swiss media outlet, as its information source.

In the past, Hindenburg has accused the Adani Group of money laundering and stock market manipulation, which the firm has denied.

Hindenburg claimed that the court records showed how an Adani frontman invested in opaque overseas funds that almost exclusively owned Adani stocks.

On Thursday, the Adani Group released a statement refuting the allegations. It said that it had “no involvement in any Swiss court proceedings” and that the firm’s accounts had not been frozen by any authority.

“Furthermore, even in the alleged order, the Swiss court has neither mentioned our group companies, nor have we received any requests for clarification or information from any such authority or regulatory body,” the statement added.

It called the allegations “another orchestrated and egregious attempt by the same cohorts acting in unison to inflict irreversible damage on our group’s reputation and market value”.

Hindenburg Research has not commented on the Adani Group’s statement.

The Indian business tycoon’s group recently found itself mired in another controversy, also sparked by allegations made by Hindenburg Research.

Last month, the short-seller released a report accusing Madhabi Puri Buch – the chief of market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) – of having links with offshore funds used by the Adanis.

Both Ms Buch and the Adanis have denied wrongdoing.

The Adanis have also come under scrutiny in Bangladesh, where the country’s interim government is reportedly set to review its power supply contract with the group to check the prices it’s paying for electricity.

A baby hippopotamus is causing a fan frenzy in Thailand.

Moo Deng – a name that roughly translates to “bouncy pig” – is a two-month-old female pygmy hippo that is going viral online and attracting queues at a zoo near the city of Pattaya.

Visitor numbers have doubled since her birth in July, according to Khao Kheow Open Zoo.

But the zoo’s director has urged people to behave when they come to see Moo Deng, after videos emerged showing visitors mistreating the animal.

“These behaviours are not only cruel but also dangerous,” Narongwit Chodchoi said in a statement posted online.

“We must protect these animals and ensure that they have a safe and comfortable environment.”

Videos on social media show some visitors throwing shellfish and even splashing water on Moo Deng to try to coax her out of sleep.

Mr Narongwit said the zoo has installed CCTV cameras around the enclosures and threatened legal action against those who mistreat the baby hippo.

The best time to visit Moo Deng is when she is awake, he added.

Pygmy hippos, otherwise known as dwarf hippos, are native to West Africa and are classified as “endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Experts believe there are fewer than 3,000 left in the wild.

This particular hippo’s miniature frame and podgy proportions have inspired a fervent following online.

“I’m obsessed with Moo Deng – I’ve been thinking about this queen all day long,” said one user on X.

Another said: “I don’t know anything else going on in the world right now except for Moo Deng”.

Khao Kheow Open Zoo, which is located about 100km (62 miles) southeast of Bangkok, has certainly capitalised on the hype surrounding the celebrity hippo.

Since she was born, 128 of the zoo’s last 150 social media posts have been about Moo Deng.

A range of merchandise – including a hippo-inspired shirt and trouser combination – is now available to purchase at the zoo and online.

Other brands have also been trying to cash in. Beauty retail Sephora had earlier put out an advertisement with a line of Moo Deng-inspired blushes, which allows customers to “wear your blush like a baby hippo.”

One “Soft Pop Powder Blush” will set you back THB 1,590 ($47.70; £36.30).

Moo Deng has been making waves in traditional media too.

This week she made her international television debut after a crew from the All-Nippon News Network, a Japanese TV station, visited the zoo to film a report on the hippopotamus superstar.

Even the Royal Thai Embassy has warmly welcomed “hot topic” Moo Deng on its social media channels.

As the embassy posted on X on Thursday: “She’s very energetic and her cute appearance is soothing.”

North Korea has for the first time offered a glimpse into a uranium enrichment facility which produces material for its nuclear weapons.

Photographs showed its leader Kim Jong Un, who had earlier vowed to “exponentially” increase the country’s stash of nuclear weapons, inspecting the area.

The state’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a report on Friday that he had similarly called for the uranium facility to increase its production.

Enriched uranium is essential in the manufacturing of nuclear warheads.

The photograph shows Mr Kim walking past rows of centrifuges and talking to military officials. Their publication comes amid heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula.

“[Mr Kim] went round the control room of the uranium enrichment base to learn about the overall operation of the production lines,” KCNA reported, adding that he “felt strong” to see the site.

The South Korean government has said it strongly condemns the North’s plans to increase production.

North Korea did not reveal when Mr Kim made the visit, nor which facility he visited – whether this is part of its sprawling Yongbyon nuclear complex, or another undisclosed site. Experts have long suspected that North Korea is covertly running at least one uranium enrichment facility, in addition to its well-known Yongbyon site.

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul said North Korea has disclosed the facility to “boast of its nuclear development and signal that its weapons program is irreversible”.

“The Kim regime may also be flaunting that it still enjoys diplomatic and economic support from Russia and China, despite its nuclear buildup,” Prof Easley told the BBC.

Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, had told news agency AFP that the photographs could be a “message” to the upcoming US presidential election, meant to show the next administration that it would be “impossible to denuclearise North Korea”.

“It is also a message demanding other countries to acknowledge North Korea as a nuclear state,” Mr Hong said.

South Korea’s Ministry of Unification has condemned the North for publicising the facility, adding that the illegal deployment of nuclear weapons violates several resolutions set by the UN Security Council.

“Any nuclear threat or provocation by North Korea will be met with an overwhelming and strong response from our government and military, based on the solid extended deterrence of the South Korea-US alliance,” the unification ministry said.

It is not known how many nuclear weapons North Korea has, but one recent estimate puts the number at 50, with sufficient material to produce another 40.

An Italian father and his son have been fined 60 million Sri Lankan rupees ($200,000; £150,000) for trying to smuggle hundreds of endemic insects – including 92 species of butterflies – out of a safari park.

Rangers at Yala National Park arrested Luigi Ferrari, 68, and his 28-year-old son Mattia on 8 May this year after they were found with jars containing the insects.

The men had lured the insects with animal attractants and planned on using wax sachets to chemically preserve them, investigations show.

They were convicted in early September of illegal collection, possession and transportation of the insects, and handed the highest-ever fine for wildlife crime in the country.

One of the park rangers, K Sujeewa Nishantha, told BBC Sinhala that on the day of the incident, a safari jeep driver had informed his team of rangers that a “suspicious car” was parked along the road, and that the two men who were in it had ventured into the forest with insect nets.

The rangers located the car and found hundreds of jars containing the insects in its trunk.

“All the insects were dead when we found them. They put a chemical in the bottles,” Mr Nishantha said. “There were more than three hundred animals.”

The men were initially slapped with 810 charges, but these were later reduced to 304. They could face two years in jail if they fail to pay the fine by 24 September.

Italian news reports say the men were on vacation in Sri Lanka at the time and have been held in the country since the incident.

Yala National Park, located in the country’s south-east, is one of Sri Lanka’s most popular wildlife parks, home to a high concentration of leopards, elephants and buffalos, among other animals.

Luigi Ferrari, an orthopaedic surgeon who specialises in treating foot and ankle injuries, was described by his friends as an insect enthusiast, reports say. He is also a member of an entomology association in Modena, a city in the north of Italy.

His friends and colleagues in Italy have pleaded for leniency on his behalf. Some suggested that the butterflies found in his possession have no commercial value, Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported.

Dr. Jagath Gunawardena, an expert on environmental law, told the BBC Sinhala that the $200,000 fine was a warning to criminals as well as a good precedent.

Donald Trump has ruled out another presidential debate against his rival Kamala Harris before November’s election.

He said on Thursday – two days after the pair’s first showdown in Philadelphia – that Harris only wanted a rematch because he “clearly” won.

Several instant polls taken after Tuesday’s contest indicated voters felt Harris had performed better than her Republican opponent.

Trump added that Harris should instead “focus” on her job as vice-president.

Shortly after, at a campaign rally in North Carolina, Harris responded by saying they “owe” voters another debate because “what is at stake could not be more important”.

Polls suggest the two candidates are in an extremely tight race with just two months to go before the election.

Both claimed victory after Tuesday’s 90-minute debate on ABC News, in which Harris rattled Trump with a string of personal attacks that put him on the defensive. These included comments about the size of his rally crowds and his conduct during the 6 January 2021 riot at the US Capitol.

Trump and his supporters have since accused the two ABC journalists that moderated the debate of being unfair and biased in favour of Harris. He said on Thursday that he did not need another debate.

“When a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are ‘I want a rematch’,” Trump wrote in a lengthy Truth Social post on Thursday.

“Polls clearly show that I won the debate against comrade Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ radical left candidate… and she immediately called for a second debate,” he added.

The former president held a rally in Arizona on Thursday and gave an interview with Telemundo Arizona backstage. “We just don’t think it’s necessary,” he said of a second debate with Harris. “We think we’ve discussed everything and I don’t think they want it either.”

The Harris campaign, however, called for a second debate immediately after Philadelphia and continued to do so on Thursday. They said voters “got to see the choice they will face at the ballot box: moving forward with Kamala Harris or going backwards with Trump”.

“Vice-President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?” the campaign said.

Speaking after the debate, various Trump campaign surrogates – including Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz – said they believed Trump would welcome another debate.

However, Trump said on Fox News the following morning that the debate had been “rigged” and that he was “less inclined” to attend another after his “great night”.

His decision on Thursday also appeared to contradict earlier messaging from his own campaign. On Wednesday morning, Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the former president, told CNN that Trump “has already said that he is going to do three debates”.

Both campaigns had reportedly been in discussions over a debate on NBC News on 25 September. The network has not commented on Trump’s latest statement.

Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee – an organisation that has advised the Harris-Walz campaign on economic messaging – told the BBC that Trump’s decision was a “double favour” to the Harris campaign.

“Voters will have a lasting impression of Kamala Harris as looking presidential and standing on their side,” he said. “That will probably do her very well.”

“Another debate would potentially help Harris, but could also shake up the existing glow that surrounds her,” Mr Green added.

Jeremy Petersen, an independent voter from Utah, told the BBC that he was not surprised by Trump’s decision.

“If [Trump] doesn’t feel like he can score some social media soundbites, there’s no benefit for him to show up,” said Mr Petersen, who added that he would probably support Harris after the Philadelphia debate.

“He felt that Harris wouldn’t have the type of performance she did and now he’s running scared,” Mr Petersen added. “He can’t stop her momentum via debate so he needs a new angle.”

• FACT-CHECK: Key claims from both sides examined
• ANALYSIS: Harris puts Trump on the defensive
• HARRIS: Where she stands on 10 key issues
• TRUMP: Where he stands on 10 key issues

Televised debates date back to 1960, when John F Kennedy faced off against Richard Nixon.

There are traditionally two or three presidential debates happening in most election cycles, along with at least one vice-presidential debate.

That tradition, however, was upended in July, when Joe Biden withdrew from the election weeks after a disastrous performance against Trump in the first debate.

The subsequent debate between Harris and Trump followed weeks of back and forth over whether it would go ahead, and under what conditions.

Trump previously suggested additional debates on Fox and NBC News, although Harris only agreed to ABC.

In his Truth Social post on Thursday, Trump said his rival “refused” to do the additional debates.

Statistics from media analytics firm Nielsen show that 67.1m people watched the debate, a significantly higher figure than the 51.3m who tuned into the June debate between Trump and Biden.

Polls suggest Harris and Trump are in an extremely tight race in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Thursday indicated Harris had a five-point lead over Trump nationally, while 53% of respondents said that she won Tuesday’s debate.

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The relationship between neighbours India and Bangladesh continues to remain frosty more than a month after former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power. While Hasina’s stay in India remains an irritant, a recent interview by Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus also took India by surprise. The BBC’s Anbarasan Ethirajan examines where ties stand now.

Sheikh Hasina was seen as pro-India and the two countries enjoyed close strategic and economic ties during her 15-year rule. Her time in power was also beneficial for India’s security, as she cracked down on some anti-India insurgent groups operating from her country and settled some border disputes.

But her presence in India, with no clarity on how long she will stay, complicates the two countries’ efforts to maintain a strong relationship.

That was made clearer last week when, in an interview with news agency Press Trust of India, Yunus urged India to stop Hasina from making any political statements while staying in Delhi.

“If India wants to keep her until the time Bangladesh wants her back, the condition would be that she has to keep quiet,” said Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who is currently leading an interim administration after Hasina’s exit.

Yunus may have been referring to a statement released days after Hasina’s arrival which had stoked anger in Bangladesh. She has not issued any public communication since then.

There have been calls within Bangladesh to bring Hasina back to stand trial for killings of people during the anti-government protests in July and August.

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

Yunus also said in the interview that both countries need to work together to improve their bilateral relationships, which he described as being “at a low”.

India’s foreign ministry has not formally reacted yet to the remarks, but officials are reportedly “upset”.

“India is waiting and watching developments in Bangladesh, taking note of statements emanating from Dhaka representing both official views and views expressed by prominent individuals,” an Indian official told the BBC on condition of anonymity.

Former Indian diplomats say they are taken aback by what has been described as “megaphone diplomacy” by Yunus – trying to discuss contentious bilateral issues through the media.

“India has indicated its readiness to talk to the interim government, and to discuss all concerns, those of Bangladesh and those of India,” Veena Sikri, a former Indian high commissioner in Dhaka, said.

The retired diplomat says the issues merit quiet discussions and it’s not clear “on what basis [Yunus] has described the bilateral relationship as low”.

But Bangladesh’s foreign ministry rejects the criticism.

“Don’t Indian leaders talk to any media? If Dr Yunus is asked about specific issues, he can of course express his views. If you want to criticise, you can criticise about anything,” Touhid Hossain, adviser to the Bangladesh foreign ministry, told the BBC.

Though Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Yunus spoke on the telephone some weeks ago, there have been no ministerial level meetings so far.

There seems to be a broad consensus in India that Hasina can stay until another country agrees to let her in.

However, the newly appointed chief prosecutor of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal, Mohammad Tajul Islam, has said they are taking steps to extradite her to face charges in connection with the killings during the protests.

“As she has been made the main accused of the massacres in Bangladesh, we will try to legally bring her back to Bangladesh to face trial,” Islam told reporters.

But experts say it’s unlikely that Hasina will be extradited even if Bangladesh makes a formal request.

“She is staying here as a guest of India. If we don’t extend basic courtesy to our long-time friend, then why would anyone take us seriously as a friend in future?” says Riva Ganguly Das, who is also a former Indian high commissioner to Dhaka.

In his interview, Yunus also criticised Delhi for not reaching out to Bangladeshi opposition parties.

“The narrative is that everybody is Islamist, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is Islamist, and everyone else is Islamist and will make this country into Afghanistan. And Bangladesh is in safe hands with Sheikh Hasina at the helm only. India is captivated by this narrative,” he said.

But Indian analysts differ.

“I absolutely do not agree with that statement. In Bangladesh, our high commissioners talk to all political parties without ascribing any labels,” says Ms Sikri.

During the previous BNP-led coalition government from 2001 to 2006, the bilateral relationship deteriorated, with Delhi accusing Dhaka of harbouring insurgents from India’s north-east. The BNP denies this.

But many in Bangladesh point out that India should be reaching out to the BNP, which is confident of winning the election whenever it is held.

“No Indian official has met us since 5 August [when Hasina’s government fell]. I don’t know the reason,” says Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary general of the BNP.

On the contrary, the Chinese ambassador in Dhaka and envoys from European countries have been holding regular meetings with the BNP.

The lack of security in the days after the fall of Hasina has also given rise to attacks on religious minorities by suspected Islamists. India has already expressed concern several times over reports of attacks on Hindus.

• ‘There is no law and order. And Hindus are being targeted again in Bangladesh’

In the past few weeks, several Sufi shrines, locally known as mazars, have also been vandalised by Islamist hardliners. Sunni Muslims are the majority in Bangladesh, and radicals consider shrines and tombs of revered figures un-Islamic.

“A group of people came and vandalised my father-in-law’s tomb a few days ago and warned us not to perform any un-Islamic rituals,” said Tamanna Akhtar, wife of the caretaker of the shrine of Ali Khawaja Ali Pagla Pir in Sirajganj district.

The adviser to the Bangladeshi religious affairs ministry, AFM Khalid Hossain, has said that action would be taken against those who target religious sites.

But experts say that if Islamist hardliners re-establish an assertive presence, however small it may be, in Bangladesh, it will set off alarm bells for Delhi.

In the past few weeks, a convicted Islamist militant has been released. Nine suspected radicals escaped during a jail break last month – four of them were arrested later.

Jashimuddin Rahmani, chief of the Ansarullah Bangla Team, which was designated as a terror outfit by Hasina’s government in 2016, walked out of prison last month.

He was sentenced to five years in prison in 2015 in connection with the murder of an atheist blogger. He had been in jail even after his prison term ended because of other pending cases.

“Several militants have been freed in the past month. Some of them are known to India,” former diplomat Ms Das said, terming it a “serious matter”.

For weeks, the roads around Islamabad have been lined by shipping containers; road blocks ready for immediate deployment in the event of any protest.

Pakistan’s capital has become used to entire areas being sealed off whenever the authorities get an inkling that unrest could be brewing. It is a constant reminder to the city’s residents that at any moment, everything could tip.

Last Sunday, the containers were out in force, blocking 29 routes around the city.

In a much-publicised and anticipated political rally, Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters made their way in their thousands towards Islamabad. The crowd waved flags and banners while a poster of the former prime minister suspended by balloons gently floated overhead. Others wore eerie masks of Imran Khan’s face. Chants of “Imran Khan Zindabad” (long live Imran Khan) echoed around the venue.

The containers did not contain them; video on social media shows lines of supporters shoving the corrugated metal aside and surging through to reach the rally’s venue.

The man whose face was everywhere was not in attendance. Imran Khan has been behind bars for more than a year, having been convicted of corruption and charged with leaking state secrets.

Mr Khan has called all the charges against him politically motivated. But despite seeing his sentences overturned and a UN working group declaring that he had been “arbitrarily detained”, there seems little movement toward his release. Most analysts say that without the explicit say-so from Pakistan’s politically powerful military, Mr Khan will not be let out.

That didn’t stop the political promises from PTI leaders on Sunday.

“Listen Pakistanis, if in one to two weeks Imran will not be released legally, then I swear to God we will release Imran Khan ourselves,” the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ali Amin Gandapur, bellowed from the stage. “Are you ready?”

The reaction came quickly.

On the following evening, word began to spread on social media and TV news channels that the crackdown had begun. Footage from Pakistan’s parliament showed the party’s chairman and MP Gohar Ali Khan being marched out of the building, his arms held firmly by police, cameras and mobile phones hovering in a swarm around him.

CCTV footage reportedly filmed inside the office of Shoaib Shaheen, another National Assembly member, showed him being quickly bustled out of the room as men streamed through several doors.

Confusion about exactly who had been arrested pinged around WhatsApp groups. Even by the morning after, the police had only confirmed three arrests to the BBC, while the PTI said the number was higher than 10. Mr Gohar was later released, but several others remained in police custody.

The assumption from the start was that these arrests had been made under a new law, introduced only last week and labelled by Amnesty International’s spokesperson as “another attack on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly”. The Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Act 2024 act restricts public gatherings and proposes three-year jail terms for participants of “illegal” assemblies, with 10-year imprisonment for repeat offenders.

While the PTI had received permission to hold their rally, the police had already complained that it had run past the designated cut-off time and therefore caused a “serious law and order situation”.

The crackdowns mark the latest phase in a long game of cat and mouse between Imran Khan’s PTI and the authorities. So what does this power struggle mean for Pakistan?

“At best this is a dangerous distraction,” says Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Centre think tank in Washington. “But at worst, it could be something that destabilises the country even more. It makes it all the more difficult to address Pakistan’s economic and security challenges.”

Pakistan is still trying to stabilise its economy and has seen an increasing number of militant attacks.

Mr Kugelman argues that Pakistan’s military, thought to be the driving force behind the crackdown on PTI, are trying to contend with a changing world.

“For many years the army has had its way with dissent. It’s been able to snuff it out through crackdowns,” he said. “But what’s different with Pakistan and the world [now] is that this is the social media era. The PTI has been able to master the art of social media to advance political goals.”

Mr Kugelman described this as a “very concerning” development from the military’s perspective, and said it’s not surprising that it would resort to methods which “might seem like overkill and certainly are, not to mention wholly undemocratic.”

“This is a military reacting to a political threat it’s not used to,” he said.

Beyond the introduction of the illegal assembly law and the arrests of lawmakers from parliament, the Pakistani government has also been criticised by digital rights campaigners for limiting online activities.

Since the February elections, social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has not worked in Pakistan without a VPN. The military has repeatedly talked about the dangers of “cyber terrorism”, and the government recently said that it was creating an online firewall. When questioned about how the firewall might limit freedom of speech, a minister said “it would not curb anything”.

Many see this as an attempt to try to limit PTI’s social media machine, including the reach of the party’s supporters based outside the country who regularly criticise the military online.

The longer these clashes continue, the worse some fear it could be for Pakistan. As Mehmal Sarfraz, a Lahore-based political commentator and journalist, puts it: “When political parties fight, a third force takes advantage.”

For many analysts, that third force is Pakistan’s military which has long been closely tied to the country’s politics. The degree to which the military has allowed civilian governments to make decisions has waxed and waned. Today many analysts see the military’s hand in many political decisions and restrictions.

“Unless political parties talk to one another, this hybrid regime will continue to gain strength,” says Ms Safraz. “The hybrid could then become more permanent.”

Imran Khan has made it clear, however, that he and his party have no interest in speaking to the other political parties.

The PTI is consistently popular and able to mobilise, and seems unbowed by the pressure. But despite party members’ success keeping their leader’s name in the headlines, they can’t get him out from behind bars.

Rather than coming to a compromise, the recent rally and heated speeches suggest that they remain confrontational. And that could have ramifications for both their political and legal positions; Imran Khan is still fighting to avoid being tried in a military court.

The military remain resolute, too. The more the PTI seems to push, the more barriers the military seems to find to put in its way.

The fear for some, however, is that once these new measures are rolled out it will be hard to roll them back.

“The danger is that we become less of a democracy, more of a hybrid with every passing day,” says Ms Sarfraz.

For now, the shipping containers still sit on the sides of Islamabad’s streets.

The presence of hard-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer alongside Donald Trump on the campaign trail in recent days has raised questions, including from some Republicans, about the influence the controversial former congressional candidate may have on him.

Ms Loomer is well-known for her anti-Muslim rhetoric and for spreading conspiracy theories, including that the 9/11 attacks were an “inside job” carried out by the US government.

She joined Trump at an event on Wednesday commemorating the attacks, raising eyebrows and prompting outrage in some US media outlets.

And on Tuesday, the 31-year-old travelled to Philadelphia on board Trump’s plane for the presidential debate in the city.

Perhaps the most memorable moment of that debate came when Trump repeated a baseless claim that illegal immigrants from Haiti have been eating domestic pets in a small Ohio city. “They are eating the pets of the people that live there,” he said.

City officials later told BBC Verify that there have been “no credible reports” this has actually happened.

Trump said he was repeating claims he had heard on television, but the theory was aired by Ms Loomer just a day before the debate. On Monday, the fringe pundit and social media influencer repeated the claims to her 1.2m followers on X.

While the level of access Ms Loomer has to Trump is unclear, and his running mate JD Vance has also spread the baseless theory, Ms Loomer’s post and her presence in Philadelphia has led some Republicans to blame her for the former president making the unfounded claim on stage.

An anonymous source close to the Trump campaign told US news outlet Semafor that they were “100%” concerned about Ms Loomer’s proximity to Trump.

“Regardless of any guardrails the Trump campaign has put on her, I don’t think it’s working,” the source was quoted as saying.

Another source, however, told the outlet that Ms Loomer did not interfere in debate preparations and said she was a “positive person to be around”.

Dennis Lennox, a Republican consultant, was much more pointed in his criticism of Trump’s debate performance and Ms Loomer. “That’s what happens when you wing it, live in the Fox News-X bubble, and rely upon Matt Gaetz, let alone Laura Loomer,” he told Semafor.

Ms Loomer did not respond to several requests for comment from the BBC.

But on X, formerly Twitter, she said that she operates “independently” to help Trump, who she referred to as “truly our nation’s last hope”.

“To the many reporters who are calling me and obsessively asking me to talk to them today, the answer is no,” she wrote. “I am very busy working on my stories and investigations and don’t have time to entertain your conspiracy theories.”

Born in Arizona in 1993, the self-styled investigative journalist has worked as an activist and commentator for organisations including Project Veritas and Alex Jones’s Infowars.

In 2020, she ran – with Trump’s support – as a Republican candidate for the US House of Representatives in Florida, but lost to Democrat Lois Frankel.

She tried again two years later, when she unsuccessfully ran to unseat Representative Daniel Webster in a Republican primary in a different Florida district.

Now, she is known for her vocal support of Trump and for promoting a long string of conspiracy theories including claims that Kamala Harris is not black, and that the son of billionaire George Soros was sending cryptic messages calling for Trump’s assassination.

These posts led her to be banned from a number of platforms including Facebook, Instagram and even, according to her, Uber and Lyft for making offensive comments about Muslim drivers. She once described herself as a “proud Islamophobe”.

• Eating pets, inflation, abortion – key debate claims fact-checked
• Ohio leaders dismiss claims of migrants eating pets
• US voters weigh in on debate performance

Ms Loomer frequently attends events in support of Trump and has been seen previously at his Florida residence Mar-a-Lago.

Earlier this year, she travelled on his plane to Iowa where she was given a shout-out by him on stage at an event. “You want her on your side,” Trump said. The former president has also shared several of her videos on Truth Social.

And last year, the New York Times reported that Trump had expressed an interest in hiring her for his campaign, relenting only after top aides expressed concern that she could damage his electoral efforts.

“Everyone who works for him thinks she’s a liability,” one Trump aide said of Ms Loomer in a report in NBC News in January.

Another outspoken Trump supporter, Marjorie Taylor Greene, took issue with Ms Loomer this week over her comments questioning Harris’s race and a post in which she said the White House “will smell like curry” if Harris – who is partly of Indian descent – is elected.

Greene said Ms Loomer’s comments were “appalling and extremely racist” and did “not represent who we are as Republicans or MAGA” – prompting a flurry of furious messages in her direction.

This feud in Trump’s orbit played out just a day after Ms Loomer appeared at events with Trump commemorating the anniversary of 9/11 in New York and Pennsylvania.

Asked about her attendance there by the Associated Press, she said she did not work for the campaign and was “invited as a guest”.

It is a hot night and thousands of fans have packed into Rongjiang’s football ground for the final of the Guizhou Village Super League.

Dongmen village is up against Dangxiang village in the climax of this hyper rowdy, very local competition.

This small, weekly, village football festival has become a viral sensation in China, as images have spread across social media of fans dressed in traditional ethnic costume, banging drums and cheering on the players who might be farmers, students or shopkeepers.

And these videos have inspired tens of thousands of people from across the country to experience it for themselves on any given weekend.

Watching the matches in the village league is free but it is quite a hike to get here, a three-hour drive into the mountains from the provincial capital Guiyang.

Yet millions of Chinese tourists have made the trek over the last 12 months, to soak up the atmosphere, boosting tourist industry revenue by nearly 75%, according to official figures quoted by state-run media.

The accommodation available is basically small hotels which are often fully booked when the big games are on.

It’s the ultimate underdog story.

This is an area which was one of the last parts of China to be officially declared free of “extreme poverty”.

Five years ago its average annual disposable income was just $1,350 in rural areas. Now, this newly organised league – only in its second year – has attracted so much fame it is transforming the place.

The players can’t quite believe it.

“We’re not professional footballers. We just love footy,” says Shen Yang.

“Even if there was no Village Super League, we’d play every week. Without football, I’d feel like life had lost its colour.”

Shen is a 32-year-old hospital maintenance worker who’s just come off an all-night shift, but, on the field, he is one of the main attacking weapons for Dongmen village.

He says his parents hated him playing football when he was a kid but now they’re total converts.

“They didn’t let me play. They threw away my trainers. But now they’ve set up a stall at the gate to the stadium selling ice creams,” he laughs.

Shen’s parents are not the only small business owners who have benefited from the economic boost this competition has brought to the area.

It is not as if everyone has suddenly become rich, but this sporting carnival has definitely brought earning opportunities for those running little family hotels, restaurants and street stalls.

Dong Yongheng, a player whose Zhongcheng village was in the final last year, is among those who have benefited from the tournament way beyond his experience on the pitch.

The former construction worker has turned footballing limelight into family business success.

The 35-year-old once worked in his auntie’s modest shop preparing rice rolls, a famous Rongjiang street snack.

Now he has opened his own, multi-story restaurant. It even has a shop attached to it selling his team’s football jerseys and other memorabilia.

“I think people like the authenticity of the village league,” he tells the BBC.

“It is really not because of our sporting skills. They like seeing a genuine performance, whether it is by our cheerleading ethnic singers or our players. Tourists love real and original things.”

The government says that more than 4,000 new businesses have registered in the region since the competition started last year, creating thousands of new jobs in the poor farming community.

That some fans dress up in traditional clothing to cheer on their village team has definitely given this tournament a unique flavour.

In the hours before the final, Pan Wenge’s silver headdress jingles and jangles as she speaks enthusiastically, preparing to cheer on Dongmen village.

“When we watch the game, it’s so exciting. We’re really nervous, you feel your heart pumping. And, when we win, we’re so happy. We sing and dance.”

But standing in Dongmen’s way is the younger, faster Dangxiang village team.

Their star striker, Lu Jinfu, the son of itinerant labourers, has just finished high school. With a shy smile he acknowledges the attention of local kids wanting to take selfies with him.

“When I started playing I didn’t expect it to be like this. I didn’t expect us to have such an amazing football atmosphere,” he says.

On the night, his team are indeed too good for Dongmen. Lu scores twice and, after the full-time whistle, the winning team spray each other with soft drinks in celebration.

But the losers don’t go home empty-handed.

“We won two pigs. That’s not bad,” Shen Yang says with a cheeky smile.

And, at their party afterwards, you would not think they were the runners-up.

There is much eating and drinking in an outdoor banquet down the main street of Dongmen village.

The players get hugs and kisses from their neighbours they refer to as “aunties”. Win, lose, or draw, they’re still seen as heroes.

And, after all, there is always next year.

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 already has supplies of these missiles, but is restricted to firing them at targets inside its own borders. Kyiv has been pleading for weeks for these restrictions to be lifted so it can fire on targets inside Russia.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Nonetheless, it has allowed Ukraine to use Western supplied missiles against targets in Crimea and the four partially occupied regions that Russia illegally annexed in 2022. While Moscow considers these regions part of its territory, the claims are not recognised by the US or internationally.

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.

I’m sitting in a courtroom in the town of Pushkin, 400 miles north-west of Moscow.

Opposite me is the “aquarium” – the glass and metal box where the defendant is locked, the courtroom cage that makes anyone on trial in Russia look like a dangerous criminal.

Behind the glass is Anna Alexandrova. The 46-year-old hairdresser has been charged with “the public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”.

Put simply, spreading fake news about the Russian army. The charge relates to messages and social media posts she has been accused of sending.

The key prosecution witness is here, too – Anna’s neighbour.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine there have been regular reports of Russians reporting neighbours, colleagues and acquaintances to the police over alleged anti-war statements.

Denunciations have led to arrests, prosecutions and, in some cases, long prison sentences.

But why has snitching become commonplace? And what are the implications for Russian society?

To find out, I have spoken to a number of Russians caught up in this, including a doctor informed on by her patient and an 87-year-old man who was forced off a bus and dragged to the police.

Listen to Steve Rosenberg on The Global Story podcast: The Russians snitching on each other for anti-war views

Back at the court in Pushkin, Anna Alexandrova’s neighbour, Irina Sergeyeva, is sitting two rows in front of me with her mother Natalya. They live in the house next to Anna’s.

The two families were once on good terms but have fallen out. Badly.

During a break in proceedings, I ask Natalya why.

“She started sending [my daughter] pictures from the special military operation [Russia’s war in Ukraine],” claims Natalya. “Images of soldiers’ bodies torn apart, and tanks on fire.”

“I wrote to the prosecutor’s office about this,” Natalya adds. “The images make you want to cry.”

Anna denies sending any of the images and messages in question. According to her lawyer, if convicted, she faces up to 15 years in prison.

However, as I would discover, there was more to the tale of Anna and Irina than met the eye.

Free speech in Russia was already under attack, but days after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Vladimir Putin took it to a whole new level.

A few days after ordering Russian troops into Ukraine for what he called a “special military operation”, President Putin signed into law repressive legislation designed to silence or punish criticism.

Russians could now be prosecuted for “discrediting the use of the Russian armed forces” and receive long prison sentences for spreading “knowingly false information” about the army.

The authorities also signalled a hunt for internal enemies. President Putin declared:

“…any nation, and even more so the Russian people, will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and will simply spit them out like an insect in their mouth, spit them onto the pavement. I am convinced that a natural and necessary self-detoxification of society like this will strengthen our country, our solidarity and cohesion…”

In this atmosphere of “us” against “them”, reports started coming in of Russians snitching on Russians for opposing the war in Ukraine – of students informing on teachers, professors on students, work colleagues on each other.

Not all complaints have made it to court. But in some cases, Russia’s harsh new laws have been used to prosecute alleged offenders.

This has revived memories of the Soviet past when denunciation was actively encouraged by the authorities. Under dictator Joseph Stalin, the prison camps, or Gulag, were full of victims who had been snitched on by their fellow citizens.

“What I find remarkable is how quickly Russian genetic memory has come back, and how people who didn’t live in those times suddenly act as if they did,” says Nina Khrushcheva, a Russian-American professor of International Affairs at The New School in New York.

“Suddenly they are squealing on others. It is a Soviet practice but it’s also something about the Russian genetic code, of fear, of trying to protect themselves at the expense of others.”

But this is only half the story.

The more I learn about the case of the hairdresser, Anna, the more I realise that denunciation isn’t solely a product of fear and self-preservation.

Sometimes personal rivalries, or personal interest, are at play.

“The so-called ‘political’ articles of the criminal code have become a very convenient way to resolve conflicts between neighbours,” suggests Anna’s lawyer Anastasia Pilipenko.

“This particular case began with a run-of-the mill domestic squabble. One side went to the police but got nowhere. That only changed when the charge of ‘fake news about the army’ appeared.”

In reality, the conflict between Anna and Irina began, not with social media messages, but a row over land.

The two families had originally battled together to protect a local forest from developers. Things changed when Irina tried to rent a plot. She said she needed it for grazing goats.

“[Anna] harboured a grudge,” says Irina. “She called us fraudsters. She claimed we would buy the land and sell it on to developers. I told her that was nonsense. Then the floodgates opened.”

What happened next, as recounted by Irina and her mother, is as surreal and dark as a novel by 19th Century Russian writer Nikolai Gogol.

It is a story of neighbours at daggers drawn. It features a row about a fence, allegations of poisoned cutlets, slashed car tyres and other “dirty tricks”.

There are claims and counterclaims, accusations of jealousy, insobriety, fake social media accounts. Plus, an argument over the sale of rabbits.

Anna and Irina’s village, Korpikyulya, is remarkably quiet, considering. When I visit, I’m struck by the silence. There’s hardly a soul to be seen. But, as I stare across the fields, I have the strangest feeling, as if something is rising from the earth.

I close my eyes.

I recall a trip to Siberia, where climate change has been melting the permafrost, exposing skeletons, and releasing harmful bacteria and gases.

Suddenly it hits me. Something similar is happening here and across Russia. Two-and-a-half years of war, of parallel reality and parallel morality, are releasing demons from the depths of the Russian soul and society.

Russians even have a word for it, one they have borrowed from the Greeks – “khton”. It means something dark and evil, the monsters deep inside of us.

And when the demons from below mix with what is happening above, like repressive laws and the search for internal enemies, that is when you get neighbour reporting on neighbour.

But surely Russia has no monopoly on monsters. For all the talk of a nation’s genetic code, human traits have no borders. We should not kid ourselves that denunciation is only possible in Putin’s Russia.

“I do not exclude lots of denunciations happening in Britain, if people there were to feel they could inform on opponents without any comeback and with the encouragement of the state,” says veteran human rights campaigner Oleg Orlov.

“It’s human nature. Unfortunately, lots of people try to destroy individuals they don’t like in their personal or public lives, using any means possible.”

Yet it was in Russia, not Britain, where Mr Orlov was denounced and prosecuted for an anti-war article he had published. Earlier this year he was convicted of “repeatedly discrediting” the Russian army and jailed for two-and-a-half years. He was then released early as part of a prisoner swap.

He concedes that “the Russian state is creating the kind of society in which people, who are informers by nature, feel happy and comfortable.”

Back at the courthouse in Pushkin, Anna’s trial is ongoing. With the hairdresser facing the prospect of years in prison, I ask Irina and Natalya whether they have any regrets.

“I feel sorry for her,” Natalya says. “I could cry.”

“Crimes committed must be punished,” says Irina.

I’m at another trial, this time in Moscow.

Locked in the cage is 68-year-old paediatrician Nadezhda Buyanova. She, too, has been accused of spreading “fake news” about the Russian army.

“I’ve read about this kind of thing happening to others,” Nadezhda tells me through the glass. “I never imagined it would happen to me.”

The mother of a patient claims the doctor told her that Russian soldiers in Ukraine were legitimate targets. The woman, whose ex-husband had been killed fighting in Ukraine, recorded an angry video and reported Nadezhda to the police.

“Buyanova denies the accusations,” Nadezhda’s lawyer Oskar Cherdzhiev tells me. “It’s an unusual case because, essentially, there is no evidence other than one person’s word against another. It could set a bad precedent whereby one person’s testimony is enough to make someone suffer.”

But Nadezhda has supporters here, including a former patient and a paramedic.

“I’ve travelled down from St Petersburg because it’s so important for me to back a colleague,” ambulance medic Vera Rebrova tells me. “This is a trumped-up charge. I sympathise with her very much.”

Speaking from the “aquarium”, Nadezhda tells me how much she values the display of solidarity.

“The fact that I’m not abandoned, not alone, that people are thinking of me, it means so much,” she says.

It also shows that, despite the fear in society, some Russians are taking a stand against snitching and the direction in which their country is moving.

Among those willing to speak out is 87-year-old Dmitry Grinchy, who has invited me to tea. He tells me what happened to him recently on a Moscow bus.

A passenger claimed to have overheard Dmitry making insulting comments about Russian mercenaries fighting in Ukraine and physically attacked him.

“He lunged at me, flashing his eyes and gnashing his teeth as if he wanted to bite me,” Dmitry recalls. “He called over his son, a big guy, who pressed his finger into my arm to hurt me. I’ve got bruises.”

Shocking mobile phone video shows the pensioner having his arms twisted behind his back and being dragged off the bus. The two men frogmarched Dmitry to the police. He was not charged. But the incident has left Dmitry shaken and angry.

“The Russian Constitution says everyone has the right to free speech. Why should others get to say what they think and not me?”

Under Joseph Stalin, Dmitry’s father was arrested and executed, one of the many innocent victims of Stalin’s Terror.

Russia’s past is a painful one.

But it is the present that worries Dmitry. With the authorities here, once again, searching for enemies and traitors – and the public encouraged to join in the hunt.

A couple who got married in a cemetery on what is supposedly the unluckiest day of the year have said the day was “pretty perfect”.

Hannah and Mathew Parfitt, from Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, tied the knot on Friday 13 October last year in a room that was once used to lower coffins before cremation.

Hannah, dressed in a black gown, and Mathew, wearing a red tie covered in skulls, said their vows by candlelight with the curtains drawn.

“We did want to get married on Halloween, but it always rains really badly on Halloween every year,” said Hannah, 27.

“Then randomly when we looked, Friday 13th came up and we wanted to get married in October so it seemed pretty perfect.”

The couple’s choice of venue was Arnos Vale in Bristol, a Victorian cemetery which is also a licensed wedding venue.

Hannah said one of the rooms they used was where a pallbearer would “lower the coffins down before they would be cremated… obviously they don’t use it any more”.

“We didn’t get married on the actual graves, because that would be disrespectful,” she said.

Asked why they chose a cemetery, Hannah said: “I’ve always really liked them. I just find them quite peaceful.”

And as for choosing the supposedly unluckiest day of the year?

“We haven’t had any bad luck yet, have we?” said Mathew.

“No, we’ve been pretty good,” said Hannah. “We got a new house recently, so it’s going well.”

Samantha Buca, an alternative wedding dress designer who created Hannah’s dress, said black wedding gowns were most popular in the autumn, with many getting married around Halloween.

“But I’ve just done a black dress for someone who got married in Ibiza. So there’s no right or wrong anymore with weddings,” she said.

Samantha said she did not really believe in the superstition surrounding Friday 13th.

“[But] I tend not to get people booking in to look at wedding dresses or picking up their dresses up on Friday 13th, because obviously there’s that negative connotation,” she added.

No one is sure of the exact origin of the superstition.

The number 13 and Friday both have a history of supposedly bringing bad luck – and it’s the combination of the two that gives the day its reputation.

It has been suggested that the reason for the number 13’s bad luck comes from the Bible.

Judas, who betrayed Jesus, is thought to have been the 13th guest to sit down to the Last Supper.

Friday has been considered the unluckiest day of the week for hundreds of years.

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s famous Canterbury Tales, written in the 14th Century, he said: “And on a Friday fell all this mischance”.

In the UK, Friday was once known as Hangman’s Day because it was usually when people who had been condemned to death would be hanged.

It is a hot night and thousands of fans have packed into Rongjiang’s football ground for the final of the Guizhou Village Super League.

Dongmen village is up against Dangxiang village in the climax of this hyper rowdy, very local competition.

This small, weekly, village football festival has become a viral sensation in China, as images have spread across social media of fans dressed in traditional ethnic costume, banging drums and cheering on the players who might be farmers, students or shopkeepers.

And these videos have inspired tens of thousands of people from across the country to experience it for themselves on any given weekend.

Watching the matches in the village league is free but it is quite a hike to get here, a three-hour drive into the mountains from the provincial capital Guiyang.

Yet millions of Chinese tourists have made the trek over the last 12 months, to soak up the atmosphere, boosting tourist industry revenue by nearly 75%, according to official figures quoted by state-run media.

The accommodation available is basically small hotels which are often fully booked when the big games are on.

It’s the ultimate underdog story.

This is an area which was one of the last parts of China to be officially declared free of “extreme poverty”.

Five years ago its average annual disposable income was just $1,350 in rural areas. Now, this newly organised league – only in its second year – has attracted so much fame it is transforming the place.

The players can’t quite believe it.

“We’re not professional footballers. We just love footy,” says Shen Yang.

“Even if there was no Village Super League, we’d play every week. Without football, I’d feel like life had lost its colour.”

Shen is a 32-year-old hospital maintenance worker who’s just come off an all-night shift, but, on the field, he is one of the main attacking weapons for Dongmen village.

He says his parents hated him playing football when he was a kid but now they’re total converts.

“They didn’t let me play. They threw away my trainers. But now they’ve set up a stall at the gate to the stadium selling ice creams,” he laughs.

Shen’s parents are not the only small business owners who have benefited from the economic boost this competition has brought to the area.

It is not as if everyone has suddenly become rich, but this sporting carnival has definitely brought earning opportunities for those running little family hotels, restaurants and street stalls.

Dong Yongheng, a player whose Zhongcheng village was in the final last year, is among those who have benefited from the tournament way beyond his experience on the pitch.

The former construction worker has turned footballing limelight into family business success.

The 35-year-old once worked in his auntie’s modest shop preparing rice rolls, a famous Rongjiang street snack.

Now he has opened his own, multi-story restaurant. It even has a shop attached to it selling his team’s football jerseys and other memorabilia.

“I think people like the authenticity of the village league,” he tells the BBC.

“It is really not because of our sporting skills. They like seeing a genuine performance, whether it is by our cheerleading ethnic singers or our players. Tourists love real and original things.”

The government says that more than 4,000 new businesses have registered in the region since the competition started last year, creating thousands of new jobs in the poor farming community.

That some fans dress up in traditional clothing to cheer on their village team has definitely given this tournament a unique flavour.

In the hours before the final, Pan Wenge’s silver headdress jingles and jangles as she speaks enthusiastically, preparing to cheer on Dongmen village.

“When we watch the game, it’s so exciting. We’re really nervous, you feel your heart pumping. And, when we win, we’re so happy. We sing and dance.”

But standing in Dongmen’s way is the younger, faster Dangxiang village team.

Their star striker, Lu Jinfu, the son of itinerant labourers, has just finished high school. With a shy smile he acknowledges the attention of local kids wanting to take selfies with him.

“When I started playing I didn’t expect it to be like this. I didn’t expect us to have such an amazing football atmosphere,” he says.

On the night, his team are indeed too good for Dongmen. Lu scores twice and, after the full-time whistle, the winning team spray each other with soft drinks in celebration.

But the losers don’t go home empty-handed.

“We won two pigs. That’s not bad,” Shen Yang says with a cheeky smile.

And, at their party afterwards, you would not think they were the runners-up.

There is much eating and drinking in an outdoor banquet down the main street of Dongmen village.

The players get hugs and kisses from their neighbours they refer to as “aunties”. Win, lose, or draw, they’re still seen as heroes.

And, after all, there is always next year.

Four activists for black rights have been convicted of federal charges of conspiring to act as unregistered Russian agents, the Justice Department said.

Omali Yeshitela, 82, Penny Hess, 78, Jesse Nevel, 34, and Augustus Romain, 38, face maximum sentences of five years in prison, the department said in a statement.

A jury in Tampa, Florida found them not guilty of the more serious charge of acting as agents of a foreign government.

Yeshitela is the founder of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) and Uhuru Movement. Hess and Nevel are white allies of the groups. Romain is the leader of a Georgia-based spinoff known as Black Hammer.

A date has not yet been set for sentencing.

According to prosecutors, the four carried out a number of actions in the US between 2015 and 2022 on behalf of the Russian government and received money and support from Aleksandr Ionov, the president of the Moscow-based group Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia.

Mr Ionov used the APSP, Uhuru Movement and Black Hammer to promote Russian views on politics, the Ukraine war and other issues, they said.

“Ionov’s influence efforts were directed and supervised” by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the country’s intelligence agency, the Justice Department said.

Mr Ionov and two alleged FSB agents – Aleksey Borisovich Sukhodolov and Yegor Sergeyevich Popov – have also been indicted in the US in connection with the case but are not under arrest.

The Justice Department said the Americans all knew Mr Ionov worked for the Russian government.

Among the actions cited by prosecutors was the drafting by APSP in 2015 of a petition to the UN accusing the US of committing genocide against African people.

Mr Ionov also allegedly sought to influence the 2017 mayoral election in St Petersburg, Florida, in which Nevel unsuccessfully ran for office.

Leonard Goodman, a lawyer for Hess, told the Tampa Bay Times that the four had been prosecuted to censor their pro-Russian views. “This case has always been about free speech,” he told the AFP news agency.

Yeshitela said after conviction that “the most important thing is they were unable to convict us of working for anybody except black people”, the Tampa Bay Times reported. “I am willing to be charged and found guilty of working for black people.”

Mutaqee Akbar, who represents Nevel, said the defendants planned to appeal against their convictions.

A massive landslide in a Greenland fjord triggered a wave that “shook the Earth” for nine days.

The seismic signal last September was picked up by sensors all over the world, leading scientists to investigate where it had come from.

The landslide – a mountainside of rock that collapsed and carried glacial ice with it – triggered a 200m wave.

That wave was then “trapped” in the narrow fjord – moving back and forth for nine days, generating the vibrations.

Landslides like this, scientists say, are happening more frequently with climate change – as the glaciers that support Greenland’s mountains melt.

The results of the investigation into this event, which are published in the journal Science, are the result of a detective mission involving an international team of scientists and the Danish Navy.

“When colleagues first spotted this signal last year, it looked nothing like an earthquake. We called it an ‘unidentified seismic object’,” recalled Dr Stephen Hicks from UCL, one of the scientists involved.

“It kept appearing – every 90 seconds for nine days.”

A group of curious scientists started to discuss the baffling signal on an online chat platform.

“At the same time, colleagues from Denmark, who do a lot of fieldwork in Greenland, received reports of a tsunami that happened in a remote fjord,” explained Dr Hicks. “So then we joined forces.”

The team used the seismic data to pin down the location of the signal’s source to Dickson Fjord in East Greenland. They then gathered other clues, including satellite imagery and photographs of the fjord that were taken by the Danish Navy just before the signal appeared.

A satellite image showed a cloud of dust in a gully in the fjord. Comparing photographs before and after the event revealed that a mountain had collapsed and swept part of a glacier into the water.

The researchers eventually worked out that 25 million cubic metres of rock – a volume equivalent of 25 Empire State Buildings – slammed into the water, causing a 200m-high “mega-tsunami”.

In the “after” photographs of the location, a mark is visible on the glacier – left by the sediment that the giant wave hurled upwards.

Tsunamis, usually caused by underground earthquakes, dissipate within hours in the open ocean. But this wave was trapped.

“This landslide happened about 200km inland from the open ocean,” Dr Hicks explained. “And these fjord systems are really complex, so the wave couldn’t dissipate its energy.”

The team created a model that showed how, instead of dissipating, it sloshed back and forth for nine days.

“We’ve never seen such a large scale movement of water over such a long period,” said Dr Hicks.

Scientists say the landslide was caused by rising temperatures in Greenland, which have melted the glacier at the base of the mountain.

“That glacier was supporting this mountain, and it got so thin that it just stopped holding it up,” said Dr Hicks. “It shows how climate change is now impacting these areas.”

While this event was in a a remote area, these fjords are visited by some Arctic cruise ships. Fortunately none were in the area where this landslide occurred. But the lead researcher, Dr Kristian Svennevig from the National Geological Surveys for Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), said this was an increasingly common phenomenon in the Arctic.

“We are witnessing a rise in giant, tsunami-causing landslides, particularly in Greenland,” he told BBC News.

“While the Dickson Fjord event alone doesn’t confirm this trend, its unprecedented scale underscores the need to carry out more research.”

The event at Dickson Fjord, Dr Hicks added, “is the perhaps first time a climate change event has impacted the crust beneath our feet all the world over.”

A 13-year-old schoolboy has built a Lego robot that can solve a Rubik’s cube.

Ruarcc, from St Malachy’s College in north Belfast, first took steps to create puzzle-solving robot prototypes in his second year at school, aged 12.

This was made possible after the school launched its creative digital technology hub (CDTH) last year.

Teacher Clare McGrath commented she “didn’t believe” that Ruarcc’s robot would work at first.

Ruarcc told BBC News NI it was “frustrating”, but he worked on making it better.

“People tend to be amazed that it can solve one,” he said.

“Now that it’s working, it’s really rewarding, and it feels great.”

Ruarcc said he has already set his sights on a future career in the IT industry, possibly as a software engineer.

His creation uses 5,000 lines of Python code and can solve the puzzle from any pre-set variation using colour sensors.

Following the launch of the creative digital technology hub, the college started a new Key Stage Three curriculum.

This included programming Lego robots, such as Ruarcc’s, using block-based coding.

Clare McGrath is the senior leader for creative skills at the college.

Ms McGrath said pupils, once they had the basics down, were allowed to explore different methods of programming online to learn more than they had in the classroom.

“A few of the boys were given the chance to take kits home with them; I said, build what you want… impress me,” she said.

“He showed me it working; there’s 5,000 lines of Python code; no matter what way you mix it up, the robot will solve it, and it’s very impressive.

“Creativity is an amazing skill, so we need to be providing opportunities in school to see where they can take things – that builds the innovators of the future.”

It was the school principal, Paul McBride, who pitched the idea of the new hub.

He wanted to renovate an old lecture theatre and the idea gained support from the Belfast Charitable Society and the James Kane Foundation.

The new hub has been made available to pupils and staff from schools across north Belfast to develop their digital skills.

Mr McBride said: “We have 10 or 11 post-primary schools from north Belfast coming here, and we want them all to use it.

“By the end of our third year, we’ll have 6,000 students and over 100 staff using the facilities.

“It’s a real leveller.”

The relationship between neighbours India and Bangladesh continues to remain frosty more than a month after former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power. While Hasina’s stay in India remains an irritant, a recent interview by Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus also took India by surprise. The BBC’s Anbarasan Ethirajan examines where ties stand now.

Sheikh Hasina was seen as pro-India and the two countries enjoyed close strategic and economic ties during her 15-year rule. Her time in power was also beneficial for India’s security, as she cracked down on some anti-India insurgent groups operating from her country and settled some border disputes.

But her presence in India, with no clarity on how long she will stay, complicates the two countries’ efforts to maintain a strong relationship.

That was made clearer last week when, in an interview with news agency Press Trust of India, Yunus urged India to stop Hasina from making any political statements while staying in Delhi.

“If India wants to keep her until the time Bangladesh wants her back, the condition would be that she has to keep quiet,” said Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who is currently leading an interim administration after Hasina’s exit.

Yunus may have been referring to a statement released days after Hasina’s arrival which had stoked anger in Bangladesh. She has not issued any public communication since then.

There have been calls within Bangladesh to bring Hasina back to stand trial for killings of people during the anti-government protests in July and August.

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

Yunus also said in the interview that both countries need to work together to improve their bilateral relationships, which he described as being “at a low”.

India’s foreign ministry has not formally reacted yet to the remarks, but officials are reportedly “upset”.

“India is waiting and watching developments in Bangladesh, taking note of statements emanating from Dhaka representing both official views and views expressed by prominent individuals,” an Indian official told the BBC on condition of anonymity.

Former Indian diplomats say they are taken aback by what has been described as “megaphone diplomacy” by Yunus – trying to discuss contentious bilateral issues through the media.

“India has indicated its readiness to talk to the interim government, and to discuss all concerns, those of Bangladesh and those of India,” Veena Sikri, a former Indian high commissioner in Dhaka, said.

The retired diplomat says the issues merit quiet discussions and it’s not clear “on what basis [Yunus] has described the bilateral relationship as low”.

But Bangladesh’s foreign ministry rejects the criticism.

“Don’t Indian leaders talk to any media? If Dr Yunus is asked about specific issues, he can of course express his views. If you want to criticise, you can criticise about anything,” Touhid Hossain, adviser to the Bangladesh foreign ministry, told the BBC.

Though Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Yunus spoke on the telephone some weeks ago, there have been no ministerial level meetings so far.

There seems to be a broad consensus in India that Hasina can stay until another country agrees to let her in.

However, the newly appointed chief prosecutor of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal, Mohammad Tajul Islam, has said they are taking steps to extradite her to face charges in connection with the killings during the protests.

“As she has been made the main accused of the massacres in Bangladesh, we will try to legally bring her back to Bangladesh to face trial,” Islam told reporters.

But experts say it’s unlikely that Hasina will be extradited even if Bangladesh makes a formal request.

“She is staying here as a guest of India. If we don’t extend basic courtesy to our long-time friend, then why would anyone take us seriously as a friend in future?” says Riva Ganguly Das, who is also a former Indian high commissioner to Dhaka.

In his interview, Yunus also criticised Delhi for not reaching out to Bangladeshi opposition parties.

“The narrative is that everybody is Islamist, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is Islamist, and everyone else is Islamist and will make this country into Afghanistan. And Bangladesh is in safe hands with Sheikh Hasina at the helm only. India is captivated by this narrative,” he said.

But Indian analysts differ.

“I absolutely do not agree with that statement. In Bangladesh, our high commissioners talk to all political parties without ascribing any labels,” says Ms Sikri.

During the previous BNP-led coalition government from 2001 to 2006, the bilateral relationship deteriorated, with Delhi accusing Dhaka of harbouring insurgents from India’s north-east. The BNP denies this.

But many in Bangladesh point out that India should be reaching out to the BNP, which is confident of winning the election whenever it is held.

“No Indian official has met us since 5 August [when Hasina’s government fell]. I don’t know the reason,” says Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary general of the BNP.

On the contrary, the Chinese ambassador in Dhaka and envoys from European countries have been holding regular meetings with the BNP.

The lack of security in the days after the fall of Hasina has also given rise to attacks on religious minorities by suspected Islamists. India has already expressed concern several times over reports of attacks on Hindus.

• ‘There is no law and order. And Hindus are being targeted again in Bangladesh’

In the past few weeks, several Sufi shrines, locally known as mazars, have also been vandalised by Islamist hardliners. Sunni Muslims are the majority in Bangladesh, and radicals consider shrines and tombs of revered figures un-Islamic.

“A group of people came and vandalised my father-in-law’s tomb a few days ago and warned us not to perform any un-Islamic rituals,” said Tamanna Akhtar, wife of the caretaker of the shrine of Ali Khawaja Ali Pagla Pir in Sirajganj district.

The adviser to the Bangladeshi religious affairs ministry, AFM Khalid Hossain, has said that action would be taken against those who target religious sites.

But experts say that if Islamist hardliners re-establish an assertive presence, however small it may be, in Bangladesh, it will set off alarm bells for Delhi.

In the past few weeks, a convicted Islamist militant has been released. Nine suspected radicals escaped during a jail break last month – four of them were arrested later.

Jashimuddin Rahmani, chief of the Ansarullah Bangla Team, which was designated as a terror outfit by Hasina’s government in 2016, walked out of prison last month.

He was sentenced to five years in prison in 2015 in connection with the murder of an atheist blogger. He had been in jail even after his prison term ended because of other pending cases.

“Several militants have been freed in the past month. Some of them are known to India,” former diplomat Ms Das said, terming it a “serious matter”.

China will “gradually raise” its retirement age for the first time since the 1950s, as the country confronts an ageing population and a dwindling pension budget.

The top legislative body on Friday approved proposals to raise the statutory retirement age from 50 to 55 for women in blue-collar jobs, and from 55 to 58 for females in white-collar jobs.

Men will see an increase from 60 to 63.

China’s current retirement ages are among the lowest in the world.

According to the plan passed on Friday, the change will set in from 1 January 2025, with the respective retirement ages raised every few months over the next 15 years, said Chinese state media.

Retiring before the statutory age will not be allowed, state news agency Xinhua reported, although people can delay their retirement by no more than three years.

Starting 2030, employees will also have to make more contributions to the social security system in order to receive pensions. By 2039, they would have to clock 20 years of contributions to access their pensions.

The state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in 2019 that the country’s main state pension fund will run out of money by 2035 – and that was an estimate before the Covid-19 pandemic, which hit China’s economy hard.

The plan to raise retirement ages and adjust the pension policy was based on “a comprehensive assessment of the average life expectancy, health conditions, the population structure, the level of education and workforce supply in China,” Xinhua reported.

But the announcement has drawn some scepticism and discontent on the Chinese internet.

“In the next 10 years, there will be another bill that will delay retirement until we are 80,” one user wrote on a Chinese social media site Weibo.

“What a miserable year! Middle-aged workers are faced with pay cuts and raised retirement ages. Those who are unemployed find it increasingly difficult to get jobs,” another chimed in.

Others said they had anticipated the announcement.

“This was expected, there isn’t much to discuss.

“Men in most European countries retire when they are 65 or 67, while women do at 60. This is going to be the trend in our country as well,” one Weibo user said.

China’s huge population has fallen for a second consecutive year in 2023 as its birth rate continues to decline.

Meanwhile, its average life expectancy has risen to 78.2 years, officials said earlier this year. According to the World Health Organization, almost a third of China’s population – about 402 million people – will be aged over 60 by 2040, up from 254 million in 2019.

A slowing economy, shrinking government benefits and a decades-long one-child policy have created a creeping demographic crisis in China, our China correspondent Laura Bicker wrote earlier this year.

China’s pension pot is running dry and the country is running out of time to build enough of a fund to care for the growing number of elderly.

Over the next decade, about 300 million people, who are currently aged 50 to 60, are set to leave the Chinese workforce. This is the country’s largest age group, nearly equivalent to the size of the US population.

So who will look after them? The answer depends on where you go and who you ask.

Read our analysis here

The headline in this morning’s Kommersant newspaper captured the drama.

“Vladimir Putin draws his red line.”

Will the West cross it? And, if it does, how will Russia respond?

Speaking in St Petersburg, President Putin sent a clear warning to the West: don’t allow Ukraine to use your long-range missiles to strike Russian territory.

Moscow, he said, would view that as the “direct participation” of Nato countries in the war in Ukraine.

“It would substantially change the very essence, the nature of the conflict,” the Kremlin leader continued.

“This will mean that Nato countries, the USA and European states, are fighting with Russia.”

He claimed that, for missile launches into Russia, Ukraine would require data from Western satellites and that only servicemen from Nato member states would be able to “input flight missions into these missile systems”.

Russia has drawn red lines before. And seen them crossed before.

On 24 February 2022, when he announced the start of his “special military operation” – the full-scale invasion of Ukraine – President Putin issued a warning to “those who may be tempted to interfere from the outside”.

“No matter who tries to stand in our way or create threats for our country and our people, they must know that Russia will respond immediately,” the Kremlin leader had declared.

“And the consequences will be such as you have never seen in your entire history.”

Western leaders ignored what was widely interpreted at the time as nuclear sabre-rattling. The West has since provided Ukraine with tanks, advanced missile systems and, most recently, F-16 American fighter jets.

This year Russia has already accused Ukraine of using American long-range ATACMS missiles to target Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia.

What’s more, over the last two years, Russian officials and the state media here have on many occasions accused the West of “fighting Russia” or launching “a war” on Russia. Even though it was Russia that invaded Ukraine.

But from the tone of President Putin’s latest remarks, it’s clear he considers that the targeting of internationally recognised Russian territory with Western missile systems would take the conflict to a new level.

What he didn’t make clear yesterday is how Moscow would respond.

“We will take corresponding decisions based on the threats to us that will be created,” Vladimir Putin said.

On Friday, Russia withdrew the accreditation of six British diplomats, accusing them of “subversive activities” and threatening Russia’s security.

But Putin’s potential response is much broader. He offered some clues back in June.

At a meeting with the heads of international news agencies, he was asked: how would Russia react if Ukraine was given the opportunity to hit targets on Russian territory with weapons supplied by Europe?

“First, we will, of course, improve our air defence systems. We will be destroying their missiles,” President Putin replied.

“Second, we believe that if someone is thinking it is possible to supply such weapons to a war zone to strike our territory and create problems for us, why can’t we supply our weapons of the same class to those regions around the world where they will target sensitive facilities of the countries that are doing this to Russia?”

In other words, arming Western adversaries to strike Western targets abroad is something that Moscow has been considering.

Earlier this month, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, announced that Russia was set to revise its nuclear doctrine: the document that lays out under what circumstances Moscow may consider using nuclear weapons.

He suggested that the decision to revise the doctrine was “connected with the escalation course of [Russia’s] Western adversaries”.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer is in Washington for talks with President Biden. Among the issues the two leaders are expected to discuss is the question of Ukraine and long-range missiles.

“Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine,” Sir Keir said on his way to Washington. “Russia can end this conflict straight away.”

Western leaders will need to decide which they consider greater: the risk of escalation of this conflict, or the need to lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of western missiles.

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.

Cristiano Ronaldo has hit 1bn total followers across his various social media accounts – making him the first person to reach that mind-boggling figure.

The number is calculated by combining his total number of followers across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Chinese social media sites Weibo and Kuaishou.

It does not equate to one billion individual followers, as many people will follow him across multiple platforms, and some will be fake accounts, known as bots.

Nonetheless social media expert Paolo Pescatore, from PP Foresight, described it as a “staggering number” that media and brands would pay close attention to.

“What an achievement, and it further underlines the fundamental shift taking place in media.”

It showed “the power to reach new, younger audiences thanks to technology”, he told the BBC.

On the pitch, Ronaldo was famed for his rivalry with Argentinian star Lionel Messi.

But off it, there is no competition for who is winning the social media contest – Messi has a mere 623 million followers.

It’s not just sport: Ronaldo is also ahead of some of the biggest names in entertainment, including singers Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez.

Even those known primarily for their work online cannot compete – MrBeast, the top YouTuber in the world, has 543m total followers.

Part of the reason the footballer crossed the 1bn boundary first comes down to his decision to join YouTube last month, where his channel rocketed to 50 million subscribers within a single week.

Compare that to Messi, whose channel has just 3.5m subscribers, despite having uploaded videos since 2011.

The reason for the difference comes down to the rule that governs YouTube: content is king.

Messi’s channel has only uploaded one video in the past three years, a flashy ad for a football experience based around him that lasts half a minute.

His other videos are similarly short – while the longer ones are usually montages or feature him speaking in his native Spanish.

• Ronaldo, Mbappé and a record-breaking comment

So far, Ronaldo’s channel consists mainly of conversations between him and his wife Georgina Rodríguez, as well as his former Manchester United colleague Rio Ferdinand.

But all this content has been tailored for an English-speaking audience – and even when Ronaldo is talking in Spanish or Portuguese, the videos are often dubbed into English.

That, coupled with near-daily uploads and bright and colourful YouTube thumbnails. show Ronaldo (or more likely his social media team) know exactly how to make a video popular on the platform.

He announced the news in a post shared across his various social media platforms.

Cristiano Ronaldo has made a career out of breaking records.

His successes include being top scorer in Uefa Champions League history, having the most goals in the European Championship, and making more international appearances than anyone else.

Last week he became the first footballer to score 900 top-level career goals.

As with his playing career, he still has scope to improve his numbers on social media too, as unlike some of his rivals, he is not on TikTok or Threads.

All of which is likely to add to another figure he dominates: earnings.

According to Forbes, his total earnings now stand at $260 million – the highest of any athlete.

A baby hippopotamus is causing a fan frenzy in Thailand.

Moo Deng – a name that roughly translates to “bouncy pig” – is a two-month-old female pygmy hippo that is going viral online and attracting queues at a zoo near the city of Pattaya.

Visitor numbers have doubled since her birth in July, according to Khao Kheow Open Zoo.

But the zoo’s director has urged people to behave when they come to see Moo Deng, after videos emerged showing visitors mistreating the animal.

“These behaviours are not only cruel but also dangerous,” Narongwit Chodchoi said in a statement posted online.

“We must protect these animals and ensure that they have a safe and comfortable environment.”

Videos on social media show some visitors throwing shellfish and even splashing water on Moo Deng to try to coax her out of sleep.

Mr Narongwit said the zoo has installed CCTV cameras around the enclosures and threatened legal action against those who mistreat the baby hippo.

The best time to visit Moo Deng is when she is awake, he added.

Pygmy hippos, otherwise known as dwarf hippos, are native to West Africa and are classified as “endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Experts believe there are fewer than 3,000 left in the wild.

This particular hippo’s miniature frame and podgy proportions have inspired a fervent following online.

“I’m obsessed with Moo Deng – I’ve been thinking about this queen all day long,” said one user on X.

Another said: “I don’t know anything else going on in the world right now except for Moo Deng”.

Khao Kheow Open Zoo, which is located about 100km (62 miles) southeast of Bangkok, has certainly capitalised on the hype surrounding the celebrity hippo.

Since she was born, 128 of the zoo’s last 150 social media posts have been about Moo Deng.

A range of merchandise – including a hippo-inspired shirt and trouser combination – is now available to purchase at the zoo and online.

Other brands have also been trying to cash in. Beauty retail Sephora had earlier put out an advertisement with a line of Moo Deng-inspired blushes, which allows customers to “wear your blush like a baby hippo.”

One “Soft Pop Powder Blush” will set you back THB 1,590 ($47.70; £36.30).

Moo Deng has been making waves in traditional media too.

This week she made her international television debut after a crew from the All-Nippon News Network, a Japanese TV station, visited the zoo to film a report on the hippopotamus superstar.

Even the Royal Thai Embassy has warmly welcomed “hot topic” Moo Deng on its social media channels.

As the embassy posted on X on Thursday: “She’s very energetic and her cute appearance is soothing.”

Russia started the conflict in Ukraine and can end it “straight away”, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

It comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested Moscow would regard Western missiles being fired into Russia as a serious escalation of the war.

Putin told Russian state television that this would “mean nothing other than the direct participation of Nato countries – the US and European countries – in the war in Ukraine.”

Sir Keir is in Washington for talks with US President Joe Biden on Friday, as allies of Kyiv discuss giving Ukraine permission to fire their missiles at targets inside Russia.

“It is their direct participation,” he said. “And, of course, this substantially changes the very essence, the nature of the conflict.”

He added: “If that is the case, we will take corresponding decisions based on the threats that will be created to us.”

Asked for his response to the remarks on his flight to Washington, the prime minister struck a robust tone repeatedly stating that Russia had started the war.

“Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia can end this conflict straight away,” he said.

He later added: “To reiterate, it was Russia who started this in the first place. They caused the conflict, they’re the ones who are acting unlawfully.”

The prime minister and Foreign Secretary David Lammy are on a blitz of international diplomacy, as Ukraine’s allies discuss how to respond to Iran stepping up its weapons support for Russia.

Lammy told the BBC this “clearly changes the debate” as he visited Kyiv alongside the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.

On Sunday, the day after the prime minister returns from Washington, he will fly to Rome to meet the Italian Prime Minister, Georgia Meloni.

Italy currently holds the rotating presidency of the G7 group of industrialised countries.

A week later world leaders will gather in New York for the annual UN General Assembly.

There has long been a hesitancy to allow Ukraine to fire Western missiles into Russia because of fears it could be seen as provocative and draw the US, European countries and others directly into the conflict.

But with winter approaching and Russia getting extra support from Iran, minds appear to be changing.

When asked about the prospect of allowing the Anglo-French cruise missile called Storm Shadow to be used, the public remarks of senior figures remain guarded.

“There are really important developments likely in the next few weeks and months, both in Ukraine and the Middle East, and therefore a number of tactical decisions ought to be taken,” the prime minister told reporters, without disputing the issue is on the agenda.

He noted that both Blinken and Lammy had recently visited Ukraine.

“They’re obviously with us to report into the process on a really important joint trip.”

Speaking earlier in the day, Putin said: “This isn’t about allowing or banning the Kyiv regime from striking Russian territory. It does that already with drones and by other means.

“But when we talk about high-precision, long-range weapons made in the West this is a completely different matter… The Ukrainian army is not able to strike with modern, high-precision, long-range systems. It can’t do this.

“It is only possible with intelligence data from satellites that Ukraine doesn’t have, data that’s only from satellites of the European Union, the USA, Nato satellites.”

“The key point,” he added, “is that only servicemen of Nato countries can input flight missions into these missile systems. Ukrainian servicemen cannot do this. Therefore this is not about permitting or not permitting the Ukrainian regime to strike Russia with these weapons.

“This is about whether or not Nato countries take the decision to directly participate in the military conflict.”

This is the prime minister’s second visit to Washington in a little over two months, having travelled here in July for the Nato Summit and a visit to the White House, shortly after winning the general election.

Sir Keir said he would not be meeting the vice-president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris during the visit.

When asked by journalists on the flight to the US, he said: “No, because she will be in other parts of the US as you’d expect, rather than Washington, she’ll be as you’d expect in swing states… That’s fine.”

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Details are emerging of an apparent raid by Israeli special forces on a “Hezbollah missile production facility” in Syria.

Israel’s government has said nothing about the operation which, according to US media reports, took place at the beginning of the week.

Syrian state media say 18 people were killed on Monday in the raid near the Syrian city of Masyaf – around 25 miles (40km) north of the Lebanese border – and several dozen were injured.

According to the New York Times, Israeli special forces descended from helicopters, placed explosives inside the Iranian-built facility and removed sensitive information.

American and other officials quoted in the paper paint a picture of a daring operation, designed to destroy the underground military facility.

Air strikes were apparently used to neutralise Syria’s defences and prevent reinforcements from reaching the site.

Separately, a report by the Axios news site – citing three sources said to be familiar with the operation – says the elite Shaldag unit of the Israeli Air Force carried out the raid.

Axios also reports that Israel informed the US before the operation was slated to take place, and was not met with any resistance from the White House.

The BBC has not yet been able to independently verify these reports.

Israel’s government has not commented, but the raid seems to have been designed to prevent Iran from supplying precision missiles to Hezbollah, its Lebanese ally and proxy.

Israel attacked the facility six years ago and has mounted dozens of air strikes against Syria since the war in Gaza began almost a year ago.

But, putting Israeli troops on the ground inside Syria is highly unusual.

This would be one of the most sophisticated operations of its kind in years.

Last Sunday, at least 18 people were killed in Israeli air strikes on a number of military sites in the vicinity of Masyaf, according to the Syrian health minister.

Israeli strikes have reportedly been stepped up since the start of the war in Gaza in October last year, in response to cross-border attacks on northern Israel by Hezbollah and other groups in Lebanon and Syria.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) – a UK-based monitoring group with a network of sources on the ground – Israeli air and artillery strikes have targeted Syrian territory on more than 60 occasions since the start of the year.

This has resulted in damage to or destruction of about 140 targets, including weapons depots, vehicles and Iran-backed militia headquarters, the SOHR said.

The strikes have killed at least 208 fighters – including 46 members of Syrian government forces, 43 members of Hezbollah and 24 Iranian Revolutionary Guards – as well as 22 civilians, the monitoring group added.

Donald Trump has ruled out another presidential debate against his rival Kamala Harris before November’s election.

He said on Thursday – two days after the pair’s first showdown in Philadelphia – that Harris only wanted a rematch because he “clearly” won.

Several instant polls taken after Tuesday’s contest indicated voters felt Harris had performed better than her Republican opponent.

Trump added that Harris should instead “focus” on her job as vice-president.

Shortly after, at a campaign rally in North Carolina, Harris responded by saying they “owe” voters another debate because “what is at stake could not be more important”.

Polls suggest the two candidates are in an extremely tight race with just two months to go before the election.

Both claimed victory after Tuesday’s 90-minute debate on ABC News, in which Harris rattled Trump with a string of personal attacks that put him on the defensive. These included comments about the size of his rally crowds and his conduct during the 6 January 2021 riot at the US Capitol.

Trump and his supporters have since accused the two ABC journalists that moderated the debate of being unfair and biased in favour of Harris. He said on Thursday that he did not need another debate.

“When a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are ‘I want a rematch’,” Trump wrote in a lengthy Truth Social post on Thursday.

“Polls clearly show that I won the debate against comrade Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ radical left candidate… and she immediately called for a second debate,” he added.

The former president held a rally in Arizona on Thursday and gave an interview with Telemundo Arizona backstage. “We just don’t think it’s necessary,” he said of a second debate with Harris. “We think we’ve discussed everything and I don’t think they want it either.”

The Harris campaign, however, called for a second debate immediately after Philadelphia and continued to do so on Thursday. They said voters “got to see the choice they will face at the ballot box: moving forward with Kamala Harris or going backwards with Trump”.

“Vice-President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?” the campaign said.

Speaking after the debate, various Trump campaign surrogates – including Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz – said they believed Trump would welcome another debate.

However, Trump said on Fox News the following morning that the debate had been “rigged” and that he was “less inclined” to attend another after his “great night”.

His decision on Thursday also appeared to contradict earlier messaging from his own campaign. On Wednesday morning, Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the former president, told CNN that Trump “has already said that he is going to do three debates”.

Both campaigns had reportedly been in discussions over a debate on NBC News on 25 September. The network has not commented on Trump’s latest statement.

Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee – an organisation that has advised the Harris-Walz campaign on economic messaging – told the BBC that Trump’s decision was a “double favour” to the Harris campaign.

“Voters will have a lasting impression of Kamala Harris as looking presidential and standing on their side,” he said. “That will probably do her very well.”

“Another debate would potentially help Harris, but could also shake up the existing glow that surrounds her,” Mr Green added.

Jeremy Petersen, an independent voter from Utah, told the BBC that he was not surprised by Trump’s decision.

“If [Trump] doesn’t feel like he can score some social media soundbites, there’s no benefit for him to show up,” said Mr Petersen, who added that he would probably support Harris after the Philadelphia debate.

“He felt that Harris wouldn’t have the type of performance she did and now he’s running scared,” Mr Petersen added. “He can’t stop her momentum via debate so he needs a new angle.”

• FACT-CHECK: Key claims from both sides examined
• ANALYSIS: Harris puts Trump on the defensive
• HARRIS: Where she stands on 10 key issues
• TRUMP: Where he stands on 10 key issues

Televised debates date back to 1960, when John F Kennedy faced off against Richard Nixon.

There are traditionally two or three presidential debates happening in most election cycles, along with at least one vice-presidential debate.

That tradition, however, was upended in July, when Joe Biden withdrew from the election weeks after a disastrous performance against Trump in the first debate.

The subsequent debate between Harris and Trump followed weeks of back and forth over whether it would go ahead, and under what conditions.

Trump previously suggested additional debates on Fox and NBC News, although Harris only agreed to ABC.

In his Truth Social post on Thursday, Trump said his rival “refused” to do the additional debates.

Statistics from media analytics firm Nielsen show that 67.1m people watched the debate, a significantly higher figure than the 51.3m who tuned into the June debate between Trump and Biden.

Polls suggest Harris and Trump are in an extremely tight race in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Thursday indicated Harris had a five-point lead over Trump nationally, while 53% of respondents said that she won Tuesday’s debate.

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The presence of hard-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer alongside Donald Trump on the campaign trail in recent days has raised questions, including from some Republicans, about the influence the controversial former congressional candidate may have on him.

Ms Loomer is well-known for her anti-Muslim rhetoric and for spreading conspiracy theories, including that the 9/11 attacks were an “inside job” carried out by the US government.

She joined Trump at an event on Wednesday commemorating the attacks, raising eyebrows and prompting outrage in some US media outlets.

And on Tuesday, the 31-year-old travelled to Philadelphia on board Trump’s plane for the presidential debate in the city.

Perhaps the most memorable moment of that debate came when Trump repeated a baseless claim that illegal immigrants from Haiti have been eating domestic pets in a small Ohio city. “They are eating the pets of the people that live there,” he said.

City officials later told BBC Verify that there have been “no credible reports” this has actually happened.

Trump said he was repeating claims he had heard on television, but the theory was aired by Ms Loomer just a day before the debate. On Monday, the fringe pundit and social media influencer repeated the claims to her 1.2m followers on X.

While the level of access Ms Loomer has to Trump is unclear, and his running mate JD Vance has also spread the baseless theory, Ms Loomer’s post and her presence in Philadelphia has led some Republicans to blame her for the former president making the unfounded claim on stage.

An anonymous source close to the Trump campaign told US news outlet Semafor that they were “100%” concerned about Ms Loomer’s proximity to Trump.

“Regardless of any guardrails the Trump campaign has put on her, I don’t think it’s working,” the source was quoted as saying.

Another source, however, told the outlet that Ms Loomer did not interfere in debate preparations and said she was a “positive person to be around”.

Dennis Lennox, a Republican consultant, was much more pointed in his criticism of Trump’s debate performance and Ms Loomer. “That’s what happens when you wing it, live in the Fox News-X bubble, and rely upon Matt Gaetz, let alone Laura Loomer,” he told Semafor.

Ms Loomer did not respond to several requests for comment from the BBC.

But on X, formerly Twitter, she said that she operates “independently” to help Trump, who she referred to as “truly our nation’s last hope”.

“To the many reporters who are calling me and obsessively asking me to talk to them today, the answer is no,” she wrote. “I am very busy working on my stories and investigations and don’t have time to entertain your conspiracy theories.”

Born in Arizona in 1993, the self-styled investigative journalist has worked as an activist and commentator for organisations including Project Veritas and Alex Jones’s Infowars.

In 2020, she ran – with Trump’s support – as a Republican candidate for the US House of Representatives in Florida, but lost to Democrat Lois Frankel.

She tried again two years later, when she unsuccessfully ran to unseat Representative Daniel Webster in a Republican primary in a different Florida district.

Now, she is known for her vocal support of Trump and for promoting a long string of conspiracy theories including claims that Kamala Harris is not black, and that the son of billionaire George Soros was sending cryptic messages calling for Trump’s assassination.

These posts led her to be banned from a number of platforms including Facebook, Instagram and even, according to her, Uber and Lyft for making offensive comments about Muslim drivers. She once described herself as a “proud Islamophobe”.

• Eating pets, inflation, abortion – key debate claims fact-checked
• Ohio leaders dismiss claims of migrants eating pets
• US voters weigh in on debate performance

Ms Loomer frequently attends events in support of Trump and has been seen previously at his Florida residence Mar-a-Lago.

Earlier this year, she travelled on his plane to Iowa where she was given a shout-out by him on stage at an event. “You want her on your side,” Trump said. The former president has also shared several of her videos on Truth Social.

And last year, the New York Times reported that Trump had expressed an interest in hiring her for his campaign, relenting only after top aides expressed concern that she could damage his electoral efforts.

“Everyone who works for him thinks she’s a liability,” one Trump aide said of Ms Loomer in a report in NBC News in January.

Another outspoken Trump supporter, Marjorie Taylor Greene, took issue with Ms Loomer this week over her comments questioning Harris’s race and a post in which she said the White House “will smell like curry” if Harris – who is partly of Indian descent – is elected.

Greene said Ms Loomer’s comments were “appalling and extremely racist” and did “not represent who we are as Republicans or MAGA” – prompting a flurry of furious messages in her direction.

This feud in Trump’s orbit played out just a day after Ms Loomer appeared at events with Trump commemorating the anniversary of 9/11 in New York and Pennsylvania.

Asked about her attendance there by the Associated Press, she said she did not work for the campaign and was “invited as a guest”.