More men have come forward to the BBC accusing the former chief executive of Abercrombie & Fitch and his British partner of sexual exploitation. Some allege they were abused, and some that they were injected with drugs.

Luke says he was shocked as he was guided into Mike Jeffries’ presidential suite in a hotel in Spain. “It was like a movie set of an Abercrombie store,” he recalls of the event in 2011. “And I thought we were going to do a photoshoot.”

He says the room was dimly lit with erotic photos of men’s abs adorning the dark walls. In the middle, a group of assistants dressed in Abercrombie & Fitch uniforms – polos, blue jeans and flip-flops – were casually folding clothes on a table, pretending to be shop workers, he says.

Then aged 20, Luke says he had been offered the chance of being in a company advert if he flew from his home in Los Angeles to Madrid to meet the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F).

Luke says the proposal had come via a modelling website from a man who said he worked as a talent scout and executive assistant for Mr Jeffries – then head of the billion-dollar teen retailer.

In the suite, he says Mr Jeffries’ assistants began engaging in role-play, encouraging him to act as a shirtless greeter, a hallmark of A&F stores at the time. Luke says he remembers the talent scout saying: “Now I have two very important guests, and these are going to be the customers that you need to impress and entertain because they’re going to be buying a lot of clothes from you.”

At that moment, he says Mr Jeffries and his life partner, Matthew Smith, came out of a corner of the room. They immediately started touching him and Mr Jeffries forcibly kissed him, he says. “I was trying to avoid the whole situation as much as I could, but Michael was very aggressive.” He says the Abercrombie boss then performed oral sex on him.

“I tried to say no repeatedly. And then I just got kind of convinced to do something. But I constantly was saying no, and I wanted to go.”

___

Luke (not his real name) is one of eight more men who have spoken to the BBC in the past year since we revealed allegations of sexual exploitation at events hosted by Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith. The FBI launched an investigation following the BBC’s reporting, and 20 men in total have now told us they attended or helped organise these events.

As well as Luke’s allegation, the new witnesses reveal fresh details about the scale of the events, which took place from at least 2009 until 2015 while Mr Jeffries was chief executive.

The BBC previously found there had been a sophisticated operation involving a middleman tasked with finding men for these events, but the new testimonies detail additional recruitment methods.

The men also raise new questions about the role of Mr Jeffries’ assistants – a select group of young men in A&F uniforms who travelled around the world with him and supervised these sex events.

According to multiple men, Mr Jeffries’ assistants injected some attendees in the penis with what they were told was liquid Viagra.

Chris, not his real name, told the BBC he felt he was “going to die” after one of these injections caused an extreme reaction during an event at one of Mr Jeffries’ New York homes. Feeling “hot, dizzy” and in shock, he said nobody called for an ambulance. Still disorientated, he said Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith, who had been waiting in another room, then tried to have sex with him.

Former model Keith Milkie, 31, says one of Mr Jeffries’ assistants had also “bragged” about having done some work for Abercrombie & Fitch at the same time as working at these sex events. He says this assistant was named on an event itinerary and the BBC found he also had an A&F company email.

While personal assistants of Mr Jeffries’ were often dressed in A&F uniforms, this is the first claim that a member of A&F staff was involved in the running of Mr Jeffries’ sex events. When the BBC asked the company about this, it declined to answer, saying it does not comment on legal matters.

World Of Secrets – The Abercrombie Guys

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Mr Jeffries, 80, Mr Smith, 61, and A&F – which also owns the brand Hollister – are facing a civil lawsuit alleging the retailer funded a sex-trafficking operation over the two decades he had been in charge.

Mr Smith and Mr Jeffries did not respond to requests for comment. However, their lawyers’ have previously said they deny allegations of wrongdoing, adding: “The courtroom is where we will deal with this matter.”

One former attendee, Diego Guillen, who says he has been interviewed by the FBI, told the BBC he was paid $500 (£380) every Saturday to make wake-up calls to men expected to attend these sex events in 2011. He estimated he made about 80 calls over seven months.

Mr Guillen, 42, says there was also a roster of attendees. Other sources have said this “database” could have as many as 60 different men on it at any given time, revealing a snapshot of the scale of those recruited.

He says he had initially attended sex events at Mr Jeffries’ former New York homes after being recruited on the street by the couple’s middleman, James Jacobson.

Mr Guillen, now a lawyer and real estate broker who runs his own firm, says he had never had sex for money before, but at the time he was unemployed and homeless, sleeping in a friend’s office. Despite his circumstances then, he says he did not feel exploited.

After the FBI turned up at his door, Mr Guillen says he contacted Mr Jeffries’ lawyer who sent a private investigator to interview him to help build their legal defence.

Mr Guillen says the other men present at the events he attended had been “under no obligation, under zero pressure” and “paid quite well”.

“Michael and Matthew are high profile gay men and liked having sex with young, handsome men. And being older, they knew that the real way to get this done was to be generous,” he says. “But with full consent and making sure that the [men] wanted it and liked it. And that’s it.”

Unlike other men who were recruited by the middleman, Luke says his initial contact was an assistant working for Mr Jeffries’ family office – a private company run by Mr Smith, which managed the then-CEO’s wealth and properties.

Luke says this assistant interviewed him over Skype, telling him to expect to be topless for the Madrid hotel photoshoot, but there were no obvious red flags. This man then organised his travel and accommodation, he says.

“It didn’t seem like anything too out of the ordinary for me because even working at an Abercrombie store when I was younger, there was guys who would stand outside shirtless. That was like a trademark thing,” says Luke.

Leaked travel plans show Mr Jeffries was scheduled to be in Madrid several times in 2011 ahead of opening a real A&F store.

The night before the event, Luke says he was paid €3,500 (£2,950) in cash, which he believed was “general spending money” for the three days he was in Madrid. But he says the assistant was “vague” about the plan.

He says in the hotel suite, Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith began having sex with two slightly older men – one he thought was in his 30s and the other in his 40s – present for the same event. Luke says Mr Jeffries’ then started kissing him. Soon after, he says Mr Jeffries performed oral sex on him and Mr Smith attempted to do the same. He says he tried to perform “some sort of oral” sex on Mr Jeffries, but “couldn’t”.

“I’m getting fired because I didn’t do what this guy wanted,” Luke remembers thinking, believing he was about to lose his chance of a modelling job. “I could have just ran out of that room, but I didn’t even know how I would have gotten out.”

Luke says he felt unable to leave as Mr Jeffries’ assistants – whom he perceived as security staff – were “watching exits”.

Back home in the US, he says he felt unable to report what happened because of the non-disclosure agreement he had signed prior to the event.

“There’s an immense amount of shame associated with this idea that you’re not a masculine man if you’ve been molested or taken advantage of by another man,” says Luke, who identifies as straight.

“My whole life I’ve struggled with people thinking that I’m gay and I got bullied in high school because I have a soft voice. The last thing on earth I was going to do is say something emasculating, like, I got molested and orally raped by a guy.”

Luke says what happened in Madrid was “rocket fuel” for a drug addiction he later developed. In 2016, he was arrested for selling drugs and served six months in a correctional boot camp. He now runs his own business alongside helping people with addictions.

Keith Milkie says he attended numerous events hosted by Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith between 2012 and 2014. He says he understood these events would be sexual but that nothing Mr Jacobson said could “prepare you for what’s going to happen” next.

Then aged about 20, Mr Milkie says he had been struggling to pay his rent after being invited to move to New York by an agent, who ran a house full of aspiring models. He says a housemate soon introduced the idea of escorting, and a contact later introduced him to Mr Jacobson.

Mr Milkie, who identified as straight at the time, says he found some of the events “uncomfortable” and “painful”. On one occasion, in Paris, he says Mr Jeffries instructed him to have sex with another man, which he “did not want or enjoy”.

During another, he says he was verbally abused by Mr Jeffries after saying “no” to a risky sexual act while on board the Queen Mary 2, an ocean liner which sails from England to New York. He says Mr Jeffries was drunk and tried to insert a “bleeding finger” into him.

“I was in the bed putting on a fake smile, crying on the inside,” he says. “Here I am in the middle of the ocean having this person four times my age in that position of power and influence belittle me to death and literally call me worthless… simply because I said no to something.”

He says Mr Jacobson paid him about $24,000 (£18,400) in cash for the seven-night cruise.

According to his event itineraries, which had been sent by Mr Jacobson, another of these sex events was just days after it had been publicly announced Mr Jeffries was stepping down as CEO of A&F in December 2014. Mr Milkie believes that final meeting marked the end of these events.

“The personification of Mike Jeffries is Abercrombie. He had the hair plugs, the plastic surgery, he wore the clothes, he wore the flip-flops. I mean, you talk about power. He projected his image on the entire country. His places where he lived were literally an Abercrombie store. It was like fantasy land,” he says.

“Without that sort of power, that sort of fear and influence, I imagine it’s just like a lot harder to keep people quiet, which is why years later people are talking about it.”

After the BBC’s initial investigation was published last year, A&F announced it was opening an independent investigation into the allegations raised. When we recently asked when this report will be completed – and if the findings would be made public – the company declined to answer.

Like Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith, the brand has been trying to get the civil lawsuit against it dismissed, arguing it had no knowledge of “the supposed sex-trafficking venture” led by its former CEO – which it has been accused of having funded.

Earlier this year, a US court ruled that A&F must cover the cost of Mike Jeffries’ legal defence as he continues to fight the civil allegations of sex-trafficking and rape. The judge ruled the allegations were tied to his corporate role after he sued the brand for refusing to pay his legal fees.

The brand said it does not comment on legal matters. However, in its defence submitted to court, A&F said its current leadership team was “previously unaware of” the allegations until the BBC contacted it, adding the company “abhors sexual abuse and condemns the alleged conduct” by Mr Jeffries and others.

Mr Jacobson – the middleman – previously said in a statement through his lawyer that he took offence at the suggestion of “any coercive, deceptive or forceful behaviour on my part” and had “no knowledge of any such conduct by others”.

Severe flooding has hit Myanmar after Typhoon Yagi, with more than 230,000 people forced to flee their homes, according to officials.

The country’s ruling junta has requested foreign aid to mitigate the impact, the state-run media report. The capital Naypyidaw is among the areas worst hit.

The floods have killed at least 33 people, the country’s military says. State-run daily New Light of Myanmar says some temporary relief camps have been set up for victims made homeless.

Asia’s most powerful storm this year, Typhoon Yagi, has already swept Vietnam, the Chinese island of Hainan and the Philippines.

Junta chief Gen Min Aung Hlaing and other Burmese officials have visited areas of heavy flooding and inspected the rescue and relief efforts, the state-run media say.

Reports by Radio Free Asia suggest the death toll is much higher, with the US-backed broadcaster saying at least 160 people were killed in floods and landslides.

A rescue worker in Taungoo told BBC Burmese on Saturday more than 300 people were trapped by flooding on the east bank of the Sittaung river.

“There aren’t enough boats to rescue us,” the rescue worker said.

Scientists say typhoons and hurricanes are becoming stronger and more frequent with climate change. Warmer ocean waters mean storms pick up more energy, which leads to higher wind speeds.

A warmer atmosphere also holds more moisture, which can lead to more intense rainfall.

Much of Myanmar’s population has been suffering dislocation because of a three-year civil war that has killed thousands and displaced more than 2.6 million people, according to the UN.

According to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), some 18.6 million people are now estimated to be in humanitarian need.

In an update on the ongoing humanitarian situation earlier this week, the International Red Cross (ICRC) said many families in Myanmar have limited access to clean water and sanitation, and are going without basic medicines and health care.

“They live with the fear of armed conflict and violence. The disruption of livelihoods is leaving countless people without the means to sustain themselves,” the ICRC’s president, Mirjana Spoljaric, said on Wednesday.

Taylor Swift has just endorsed Kamala Harris – but it’s not just her vote Harris is after, it’s her millions of fans.

Weeks before Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris on Instagram, the gears had already begun to turn Swift’s millions of fans into bona-fide Harris voters.

Soon after Harris announced her intention to run for president, Irene Kim, 29, who spends as many as 14 hours a day talking to fellow Swifties online and has attended more than five of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour concerts, sprung into action. Along with other mega-fans who supported Harris, they created social media accounts, memes, montages, and newsletters, all in a bid to help their favourite candidate win the election.

I’ve been going inside the world of the Swifties ahead of the Presidential vote for the second season of BBC Radio 4’s podcast Why Do You Hate Me USA. Subscribe to the podcast for episodes soon. I’ll be investigating how the online world of social media is shaping the US election. And when it comes to social media, Taylor Swift supporters are considered leaders of the pack.

Now the executive director of the Swifties for Kamala campaign, Ms Kim decided to get involved because she wants the US to see its first female president and believes Kamala Harris will “protect our rights, the rights of our friends, our family members”.

With more than 3,500 volunteers, the Swifties for Kamala would seem like an experienced political operation. The group has even raised over $165,000 (£126,000) for the campaign since they began tracking donations from 1 August.

But Ms Kim, who says she has never participated in political campaigning like this before, thinks everyone came together in a really “natural” way. They’re using the skills she says they’ve developed – from strategising how to buy tickets for the sold-out Eras tour and auctioning off merchandise like signed Taylor Swift records – to try and swing an election.

The Swifties for Kamala group is volunteer-led and independent of the Harris campaign, but they have been in touch.

The conversations are “surprisingly more casual than you would expect”, Ms Kim tells me. They aren’t entirely about the online world either – they’re about translating that into real-world action.

“They’re [the campaign] helping facilitate things like volunteer sign-ups and helping us coordinate volunteer training,” Ms Kim says. Not just for in-person canvassing but also text and phone banking.

“We can make requests. We really wanted a photo of Doug [Kamala’s husband] standing behind Kamala so we could do the like ‘he lets her bejewelled’ joke.”

The BBC reached out to the Harris campaign for comment, but did not get a response.

The online world is a key battleground for both campaigns, and memes and videos from supporters that feel more authentic than paid-for ads could be effective at reaching younger, disengaged voters.

The army of Swifties could also be a way for the Harris campaign to go head-to-head with Donald Trump’s already very active base of supporters online. They operate a bit like a fandom too, and have proved effective at pushing out endless memes and pictures for the former president. Endorsements from – for example – tech boss Elon Musk have also sent Musk’s devoted army of followers on X Trump’s way too.

All of that keeps Donald Trump at the top of some social media feeds. But that can backfire.

In one meme, which the former president shared on social media, an AI generated image of Swift endorsed Trump.

In her Instagram post endorsing Kamala Harris, Taylor Swift specifically cited misleading images of her supporting Trump as a reason to speak now.

“It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth,” she said in her post, that was liked more than 10.7m times.

Although Swift’s endorsement specifically told her fans “your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make”, Swifties for Kamala is hoping that call to vote will translate into votes for Harris.

Ms Kim says the group didn’t know the endorsement was coming, but had planned for it anyway, hoping it would yield a wave of new volunteers.

Since the post, it’s been “absolutely madness in the best way”, she says.

According to Ms Kim they’ve seen a spike in voter registration activity and a “huge boost on social media” because of the endorsement. She also says it’s been a “huge morale” boost for the Swifties involved in the group.

Taylor Swift’s online supporters have a reputation too for being devoted to her whatever it takes – and that can include being ferocious to those they see as her enemies.

Will they be trolling Trump supporters? Ms Kim says the group has actually come up with guidelines of their own about this to try to stop it from happening.

“They are very specifically about conducting yourself in a way that is respectful and specifically not engaging with hate online. And that also includes not posting hate. Have a respectful conversation,” Irene tells me.

There are Swifties too who are Trump, rather than Harris supporters. Some Swifties for Trump accounts have been set up – although currently with fewer followers than Swifties for Kamala.

Several profiles belonging to Trump-supporting Taylor Swift fans have posted about her endorsement saying it hasn’t changed their mind about who they’ll vote for.

Ms Kim says they want to reach as many voters as possible – and that they hope their shared love of Swift will help them find common ground on Harris.

“We don’t want to make anyone feel like they’re isolated or alienated,” she explains. She thinks Swifties for Kamala could be especially useful in reaching “conservative women” who are “now realising the political beliefs they were raised with don’t always align with what they feel and believe”.

So, will Swifties affect the presidential race?

The group has had hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok, but that doesn’t mean those voters are even based in the US. And they might have been people already planning to vote for Kamala Harris.

Nonetheless, in an election that could be decided by just a few hundred thousand votes in a handful of states, any boost in voter registration and voter turnout could tip the scales.

Younger voters, who make up the majority of Swift’s fans, have historically had a lower voter turnout, which means that there is more room for gains.

Ms Kim thinks Swifties and their social media know-how are a secret weapon.

“I never would have imagined this in my wildest dreams. We’ve had a lot of moments where we’ve, like taken a step back to be like, I think we’re actually making a difference and that’s like really cool.”

What will happen next? And how is what unfolds in the social media world shaping the US election? Subscribe to Why Do You Hate Me USA on BBC Sounds. Episodes coming soon.

• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
• EXPLAINER: Seven swing states that could decide election
• ANALYSIS: Trump’s message of American decline resonates with voters
• GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: What the world really thought of the debate
• POLLS: Who is winning the race for the White House?

When she walks into the courthouse in the French city of Avignon, flanked by her children and a team of lawyers, Gisèle Pelicot cuts an unassuming figure.

The 72-year-old mother and grandmother, her hair styled into a neat bob, wears colourful dresses and Breton tops. She looks down as she passes the dozens of journalists gathered by the entrance, her eyes hidden by round-framed sunglasses.

Behind them, as she has put it, lies a “field of ruins”.

Nearly every day since 2 September, Gisèle Pelicot has been at the centre of a trial in which 51 men are accused of raping her, including the man she was married to for 50 years.

As her story has rippled through France since the trial began, she has become a symbol of courage and resilience.

“I was sacrificed on the altar of vice,” she said, explaining how she had learned that Dominique Pelicot had drugged her to sleep and recruited men to treat her “like a rag doll” for over 10 years.

The trial, due to run until December, has so far heard evidence from lawyers, police, psychiatrists, and from another woman whose husband drugged and raped her following instructions by Dominique.

The Pelicots’ daughter, Caroline, who believes her father abused her when she was unconscious, has also taken the stand.

Dominique Pelicot has admitted the charges against him, although he denies abusing his daughter.

Unsettling details of the defendants’ pasts, psyches and alleged crimes have filled the airwaves, news websites and social networks.

This kind of access has only become possible because Gisèle has waived her right to anonymity.

In a case of such magnitude it is an unusual decision, not least because it means thousands of videos of the alleged rapes filmed by Dominique Pelicot – in some cases surreptitiously – will eventually be played in open court.

Gisèle’s only request was that her children be allowed to leave the room when that happens.

Her legal team said opening up the trial would shift the “shame” back on to the accused.

Above all, the case has ignited a painful – and often uncomfortable – discussion about rape that many in France say is long overdue.

Protests were due to be held across the country on Saturday “in support of Gisèle Pelicot and of all rape victims”.

When Gisèle gave evidence that she had to “start over from scratch” and was now only living off a small pension, an influencer set up an online collection that made €40,000 (£33,700) in under a day. It was quickly shut down following a request from Gisèle’s legal team, who saw it as a possible distraction.

One key issue this case has thrown up is the little-discussed phenomenon of chemical submission – drug-induced assault in the home.

In 2022, 1,229 people in France suspected they had been drugged without their knowledge, according to Leila Chaouachi, a pharmacist at the Paris addiction monitoring centre and an expert on drug rape.

That number is probably “only the tip of the iceberg”, she believes. Victims often hesitate to file legal complaints because they know the assailant, they might be ashamed, or they have hazy memories of what happened.

Complaints also need to be filed before the substances disappear from the body, which is not always possible.

For the 10 years her husband was drugging her, Gisèle Pelicot had unexplained neurological symptoms as well as gynaecological issues, and yet no-one put the clues together.

It points to a lack of awareness of chemical submission as a phenomenon.

Dr Chaouachi says training healthcare professionals and police is important, because the key to stemming the issue lies in recognising that there are others out there besides Gisèle.

“We have the right to be shocked, but we also need to recognise that these aren’t isolated cases,” she says.

“When we only focus on the justice system and investigators, we’re hiding behind them in some way. I think it’s a broader societal issue, and therefore it’s societal change that we need.”

Judging from opinions voiced on the streets of Paris, that view is not universally accepted.

“It’s a private affair,” said one man, who thought the case was awful but still an isolated event and not one for public debate.

“I don’t understand why the media are making such a big deal about it. It is because people like drama, gossip.”

A friend agreed: “If you hadn’t asked the question, we would’ve never discussed this.”

But a female companion said they were both wrong: “It’s important this case is public… it raises a broader issue and raising awareness of it is necessary for change.”

What has shocked so many in France is the sheer number of men involved in the case.

Police were only able to identify 50 suspects out of the 83 that appeared in Dominique Pelicot’s videos.

Their ages range from 26 to 68 and they hail from all walks of life – firefighters, pharmacists, labourers and journalists. Many are fathers and husbands.

Of the other men accused, 15 admit rape, but all the others admit only to taking part in sexual acts.

“What shocked me even more is that so many men could have done this – more than 50 ‘normal’ men, who all lived nearby,” said Caroline, a 43-year-old doctor from Paris.

“[Pelicot] didn’t even have to look very far for them. It really scares me because it is a reflection of society. It’s not the norm, but there are too many.”

Céline Piques of feminist organisation Osez le Féminisme hopes the fact that the accused come from ordinary backgrounds and all kinds of professions will mean that this trial has a lasting impact.

“It demolishes the myth of the rapist who is a psychopath… they raped because they were sure of their impunity.”

Another concern that has not escaped the large numbers of women across France who are following the Pelicot case is that many other men knew and did nothing.

Dominique Pelicot had invited men to have sex with his wife “without her knowledge” in a post on the Coco.gg website, which was shut down only last June. Last year it counted 500,000 visitors a month.

“One hundred per cent of these people… never made a phone call to stop this abuse,” says Céline Piques. “Not one man thought about informing the police of these criminal facts.”

The Avignon trial is also dredging up questions over the language surrounding rape.

The defence of many of the accused hinges on the premise they did not “know” they were raping Gisèle – in other words, that they thought they were having consensual intercourse with her.

Some have accused Dominique Pelicot of “manipulating” them into believing they were taking part in an erotic game in which Gisèle was only pretending to be asleep because she was shy.

At least two of the defendants stated they did not feel they had raped Gisèle because she had been “offered” to them by her own husband, and one man said he did not consider his actions rape because “for me, rape is when you grab someone off the street”.

“I don’t have the heart of a rapist,” he added.

Summing up this line of defence earlier this week, Guillaume De Palma, a lawyer for six of the defendants, caused outrage when he said that “rape is not always rape”, and argued that “without the intention of committing rape, there is no rape”.

In French law, rape is sexual penetration obtained by constraint, violence or surprise – and Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyers are expected to argue that “surprise” covers the case of a sedated or unconscious woman.

But the comments caused outrage and dismay in the courtroom and beyond.

Gisèle’s daughter Caroline stormed out of the trial exclaiming “I am ashamed of the justice system”, while the president of the court suspended the session amid a mood that reporters described as “extremely tense”.

Other lawyers reportedly distanced themselves from De Palma’s comments.

With the trial due to run for three more months, France’s soul searching will continue.

“It has shown how far behind we are at all levels,” said Sandrine Josso, an MP who was the victim of an attempted drug rape by a senator in 2023.

Thanks to Gisèle Pelicot, she said “we lift the veil, and we discover a lot of things”.

The ordinary nature of the couple at the centre of the trial – middle-class pensioners and grandparents – has made it easy for observers to identify with the story.

“I thought it could be my mother, my sister… and my father,” said Charley, a 35-year-old man living in Paris.

“For me, it’s the trial of the century,” he added.

“There will be a before – and there will be an after.”

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has held “productive” talks with US President Joe Biden about Ukraine – but he did not signal any decision on allowing Kyiv to fire long-range missiles into Russia.

Sir Keir said the talks in Washington concentrated on “strategy”, rather than a “particular step or tactic”.

The White House said the pair had also expressed “deep concern about Iran and North Korea’s provision of lethal weapons to Russia”.

Early on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had launched over 70 Iranian-made drones across Ukraine overnight, and that his country needed more air defence and long-range capabilities “to protect life and our people”.

• Analysis: Starmer-Biden talks were about second-guessing Putin
• What are Storm Shadow missiles and why are they crucial for Ukraine?
• Ukraine in maps: Tracking the war with Russia

“We are working on this with all Ukrainian partners,” he said.

Ahead of the talks at the White House, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Western nations not to let Ukraine fire long-range missiles at Russia.

Putin said such a move would represent Nato’s “direct participation” in the Ukraine war.

But former defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme Nato should let Ukraine fire long-range missiles in Russia in spite of Putin’s threats, adding that wrangling was just benefiting the Russian president.

“I’m just disappointed that it’s yet again another tug of war around another capability,” the former Conservative MP said.

Kurt Volker, former US special representative for Ukraine negotiations said Putin’s comments were made to prevent further Western action.

“The reason Putin says those things is to achieve the result of deterring us from doing things – not that it has any bearing on what he’s really going to do or really thinks,” he told the Today programme.

Commenting on the debate over long-range missiles, he said the US “overplays the sense that this is a new red line that this would be so provocative to Russia that it would create some kind of new escalation”.

Addressing reporters ahead of his meeting with Sir Keir at the White House, Biden said: “I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin”.

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

However, Zelensky has repeatedly called on Kyiv’s Western allies to authorise such use, saying it is the only way to bring about an end to the war.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukrainian cities and front lines have been under daily bombardment from Russia.

Many of the missiles and glide bombs that hit Ukraine’s military positions, blocks of flats, energy facilities and hospitals are launched by Russian aircraft deep inside Russia.

Kyiv says not being allowed to hit the bases from which these attacks are launched hinders its self-defence capability.

The UK previously said Ukraine had a “clear right” to use British-provided weapons for “self-defence” which “does not preclude operations inside Russia”, following Kyiv’s surprise cross-border incursion last month.

However, this excludes the use of long-range Storm Shadow missiles in territory outside Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders.

The US provided long-range missiles to Ukraine earlier this year, but like Kyiv’s other Western allies these have not been authorised for use on targets deep inside Russia.

Asked if he was intimidated by Putin’s threats of a potential war with Nato, Sir Keir said “the quickest way to resolve” the war in Ukraine “lies through what Putin actually does”.

Sir Keir said the White House meeting with Biden was an opportunity to discuss the strategy in relation to Ukraine, “not just a particular step or tactic”.

The pair also discussed the situation in the Middle East, where the Israel-Gaza war has been raging for nearly a year, and “other areas across the world”, Sir Keir added.

He told reporters they would get another opportunity to discuss these issues at the United Nations General Assembly next week.

In a separate briefing on Friday, ahead of the two leaders’ meeting, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Washington was not planning any change in the limits it has placed on Ukraine’s use of US-made weapons to hit Russian territory.

Earlier on Friday, Moscow expelled six British diplomats, revoking their accreditation and accusing them of spying.

The country’s security service, the FSB, said in a statement it had received documents indicating Britain’s involvement in inflicting “a strategic defeat” on Russia. The accusations were dismissed by the UK Foreign Office as “completely baseless”.

In an interview with the BBC, UK defence analyst Justin Crump said Putin was testing the new Labour government and the outgoing Biden administration.

“Ultimately Russia already supplies weapons to the UK’s adversaries, and is already engaged in ‘active measures’ such as subversion, espionage, sabotage, and information/cyber operations against Nato members’ interests.

“This may all accelerate, but picking a fight against all of Nato is not something Russia can afford given how hard they’re struggling against just Ukraine,” Mr Crump added.

Also on Friday, the US announced new sanctions against the Russian media channel RT, accusing it of being a “de facto arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus”.

The top US diplomat, Antony Blinken, told reporters RT is part of a network of Russian-backed media outlets, which have sought to covertly “undermine democracy in the United States”.

In response to US allegations that RT had sought to influence elections, the broadcaster’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan – who was sanctioned by the US last week – said they were excellent teachers, adding that many RT staff had studied in the US, and with US funding.

Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said there should be a “new profession” in the US, of specialist in sanctions imposed on Russia.

Olympic marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who was set ablaze by her former boyfriend and later died has been buried in her father’s homestead in eastern Uganda.

As she was also a member of Uganda’s armed forces, soldiers carried the coffin and she was given a three-volley salute.

Dickson Ndiema attacked Cheptegei with petrol just under a fortnight ago outside her home in neighbouring north-west Kenya, close to where she trained.

The 33-year-old’s killing, and its brutal nature, left her family distraught and shocked many others across the world.

It underscored the high levels of violence against women in Kenya and the fact that several female athletes have been victims in recent years.

Among those at the sombre and emotional funeral ceremony in a school field in Bukwo, Cheptegei’s home district, were fellow athletes wearing black T-shirts with the slogan “say no to gender-based violence”.

“We are guilty as [a] government, but also the community is guilty,” Kenya’s Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Kipchumba Murkomen told mourners.

“Let us say the truth. It is not true that we did not know even in the local community that Rebecca was facing family problems.”

• ‘Running for her family’ – Olympian mourned after vicious attack
• ‘I saw athlete on fire running towards me after attack’

Cheptegei and Ndiema had reportedly been wrangling over a piece of land.

One of her teammates at the recent Paris Olympics, Stella Chesang, also spoke.

“It is really a sad moment in Uganda… and all of us friends. As a team who we went to Paris with Rebecca, we really felt it because… we were together, enjoying together and it is really sad,” she said.

The Olympic marathon – in which she came 44th – was Cheptegei’s last race.

Earlier, with her coffin on display and draped in the Ugandan flag, local leaders held a memorial service.

They observed a moment of silence and gave a standing ovation as they paid their respects to the late athlete.

Councillors said Cheptegei lived “a simple and focused life” and always offered guidance to her fellow athletes. “She inspired many children in the area to join athletics,” one said.

They also proposed to name a road and a local sports venue in her honour.

Cheptegei died in hospital four days after the attack. Doctors said she had suffered burns on more than 80% of her body which “led to multi-organ failure”.

Ndiema, who was also burned after some of the fuel splashed on his own body, died on Monday.

He attacked the mother-of-two after she returned from a service at a church, the God’s Dwelling Ministry.

The pastor there, Caroline Atieno, remembers a “wonderful… God-fearing person”.

After hearing about what had happened, she managed to speak to Cheptegei on the phone while she was in hospital.

The athlete first asked about her children, who were both fine, the pastor told the BBC’s Africa Daily podcast.

Then Cheptegei talked about her attacker: “You mean Dickson is not able to see all I have done for him? He could not remember even one or two things I have done for him and stop setting me on fire? Why has he done this to me?”

On Friday, family members, friends and activists against gender-based violence viewed her coffin at a funeral home in the Kenyan town of Eldoret, before it was driven away.

Her mother, Agnes Cheptegei, covering her face in anguish, was wearing a souvenir bag that the athlete received at the recent Olympics.

She was dressed in a T-shirt which had the slogan “being a woman should not be a death sentence” printed on it.

The mother-of-two was the third female athlete to be killed in Kenya over the last three years. In each case, current or former romantic partners were named as the main suspects by police.

In 2021, world-record holder Agnes Tirop was stabbed to death and six months later Damaris Mutua was strangled.

Attacks on women have become a major concern in Kenya. In 2022 at least 34% of women said they had experienced physical violence, according to a national survey.

Some observers are saying that female athletes are becoming increasingly vulnerable.

“[This is] because they go against traditional gender norms where the woman is just in the kitchen and just cooking and taking care of kids. But now female athletes are becoming more independent, financially independent,” said Joan Chelimo, who co-founded Tirop’s Angels to help highlight the issue of violence against women.

“We don’t want this to happen to any other woman, whether an athlete or from the village, or a young girl,” Rachel Kamweru, a spokesperson of the government’s department for gender and affirmative action, told the BBC.

When Cheptegei first got into running, she joined the Uganda People’s Defence Forces in 2008 which helped support her.

Her last race was at the Paris Olympics. Although she came 44th people in her home area still referred to her as “champion”.

She won gold at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2022.

Ballerina Michaela Mabinty DePrince, who performed with Beyoncé and was seen by many as a trailblazer, has died at the age of 29.

A spokesperson announced her death on her personal Instagram page and in a statement her family said she was an “unforgettable inspiration to everyone who knew her or heard her story”.

The cause of death has not been given.

DePrince made a remarkable journey from suffering as an orphan in war-torn Sierra Leone to numerous accolades in the world of international dance.

Her family said her death had been “sudden”, adding: “Michaela touched so many lives across the world, including ours.”

Tributes have been pouring in, including from others in the ballet community.

“Despite being told the ‘world wasn’t ready for black ballerinas’ or that ‘black ballerinas weren’t worth investing in,’ she remained determined, focused, and began making big strides,” American ballerina Misty Copeland wrote on social media.

Born in Kenema, Sierra Leone, in 1995, DePrince was sent to an orphanage at the age of three after both of her parents died during the civil war.

She has spoken in the past about how she was seen as a “devil’s child” in the orphanage because she suffered from vitiligo, a condition in which patches of skin lose pigmentation.

But she was adopted aged four by an American couple and moved to New Jersey. Her adoptive mother quickly noticed her obsession with ballet and enrolled her in classes.

She rose to fame after graduating from high school and made history as the youngest principal dancer at the Dance Theatre of Harlem.

DePrince has performed across the world, including in Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” music video album.

She joined the prestigious Boston Ballet as a second soloist in 2021 and starred in the TV show Dancing with the Stars when she was just 17.

A dedicated humanitarian, DePrince also advocated for children affected by conflict and violence.

Her spokesperson wrote that her artistry “touched countless hearts” and her spirit had “inspired many, leaving an indelible mark on the world of ballet, and beyond”.

They added: “Her life was one defined by grace, purpose, and strength. Her unwavering commitment to her art, her humanitarian efforts, and her courage in overcoming unimaginable challenges will forever inspire us.

“She stood as a beacon of hope for many, showing that no matter the obstacles, beauty and greatness can rise from the darkest of places.”

Four people have died in Romania due to floods caused by torrential rain sweeping through central and eastern Europe, emergency services have said.

Elsewhere on Saturday, the highest flood alert was declared in 38 locations across the Czech Republic.

In the capital Prague, the city’s flood barriers have been raised, embankments have been closed to the public, and the zoo has been closed, Czech authorities said.

Evacuations have also started in Poland as rivers rise to dangerous levels.

The four dead people were found in the southeastern Romanian region of Galati during a search and rescue operation, emergency services confirmed to the AFP news agency.

“Dozens of people were rescued from their homes in 19 areas of the country,” they added.

In Poland, Interior minister Tomasz Siemoniak said residents in the small towns near the Czech border of Morow and Glucholazy, were facing a dangerous situation.

In the Glucholazy the river level had exceeded a safe level by two metres and residents living in nearby streets have been evacuated.

“The situation looks very bad. The state of the river and the forecasts about its state are still bad,” Mr Siemoniak said.

“We have a difficult situation in four rivers, potentially threatening evacuations and damage in several towns,” he added.

Since Thursday, Cyclone Boris has brought strong winds and torrential rain to parts of Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

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.

Extreme precipitation is becoming more likely in Europe, as across much of the world, due to climate change.

A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, which can lead to heavier rainfall.

Donald Trump has said he will mass deport migrants in a small Ohio town that has been rocked by baseless claims its Haitian influx are eating pets.

“We’re going to start with Springfield,” Trump said on Friday, adding the town had been “destroyed” by immigration.

Springfield officials say the debunked claim of pet-eating has sent shockwaves through its community, and led to violent threats that have shut schools.

President Joe Biden appealed for calm on Friday, calling criticism of Haitians in Springfield “simply wrong”.

“This has to stop, what he’s doing. It has to stop,” Mr Biden said of Trump’s statements.

The Republican candidate’s promise comes after nearly a week of false claims about migrants killing pets in Springfield.

The claims of animal eating, which Trump repeated in his debate with Kamala Harris on Tuesday, has been denied by Springfield’s police chief and mayor, as well as Ohio Governor Mike DeWine.

On Friday, three schools in Springfield were evacuated due to bomb threats. At least one of the threats made disparaging comments about Haitians, according to Springfield Mayor Bob Rue.

It comes after city hall and several other buildings, as well as one school, were evacuated on Thursday because of threats.

Trump was asked whether he was considering a visit to the town during a press conference at his golf course in Los Angeles on Friday.

“I can say this, we will do large deportations from Springfield, Ohio – large deportations. We’re going to get these people out. We’re bringing them back to Venezuela,” he said.

The migrants in Springfield are mostly from Haiti, and have legal permission to be in the US under a federal programme for Haitians.

It was not immediately clear why Trump mentioned Venezuela. Throughout his remarks he made references to an influx of Venezuelan migrants to Aurora, Colorado, and said deportations would also begin there if he won the presidential election in November.

In Tuesday’s debate, Trump touched on viral claims that a Venezuelan gang had taken over an apartment complex in Aurora.

Aurora police arrested 8 suspected members of the Tren de Aragua criminal group on Wednesday.

The department acknowledged that gang members had “significantly affected” unspecified apartment complexes in the city, though the police chief denied that criminals had taken over any building in Aurora.

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Marieha Hussain had marched for three hours with her family, and the children with them were getting tired.

“We opened some snacks to keep them going,” she said. They were part of a 300,000-strong group at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in central London on 11 November 2023.

“Then, somebody from my side of the street where I was standing called out and asked: ‘Can I take a picture of your placard?’”

This wasn’t the first time she’d been asked for a picture. Her family’s placards, she said, had drawn a lot of attention.

On one side of the placard was a cartoon of Suella Braverman, then the Home Secretary, dressed like Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians. Ms Hussain held up the sign and posed.

“The voice called out, ‘no, not that one, can you turn it around please?’ – and I did.

“And that was it.”

Her account was told to Westminster Magistrates Court this week during her two-day trial on a charge of a racially aggravated public order offence.

She was accused of this offence – of which she was found not guilty on Friday – because of what was on the other side of that placard.

It was a drawing of a palm tree with coconuts falling off it; pasted over two of those coconuts were the faces of Ms Braverman and of the then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

At the heart of this case was the word “coconut” – and whether it could be considered racially abusive.

Ms Hussain told the court that on the drive home from the demonstration, a family friend messaged to tell her that her photo had been posted by an anonymous right-wing blog called Harry’s Place and that it was going viral on X (it has since been viewed more than four million times).

“It doesn’t get more racist than this,” the post said. “Among anti-racists you get the worst racists of them all.”

Underneath she then saw a reply from the Metropolitan Police, saying that they were “actively looking for” her.

Chris Humphreys, a member of Metropolitan Police staff working in the force’s communications team that day, saw the post after the Met was tagged in it. “The account that posted it typically generates a significant response,” Mr Humphreys told the court. He was called to give evidence on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service.

In the 10 months since that day, anonymous accounts on social media called her a racist while tabloid newspapers published details of her family and the cost of her parents’ home. Ms Hussain, 37, also lost her job as a secondary school teacher.

After the Metropolitan Police posted that they wished to identify Ms Hussain, she consulted with solicitors and voluntarily attended a police station three days later, on 14 November, she told the court.

There, she gave them a prepared statement outlining who she was, what had happened that day, and her reasons for making the sign.

“I am a teacher of almost 10 years standing with an academic background in psychology,” she wrote in the statement. “It is exceptionally difficult to convey complex, serious political statements in a nutshell, and we did our best.”

She was not formally charged until six months later, in May this year. She found out she was charged from a journalist working for Al Jazeera, she told the court.

At this point, the support for Ms Hussain from activists and campaigners grew increasingly vocal. When she first appeared at the magistrates court in June – visibly pregnant – to enter her not guilty plea, protesters stood outside the court held copycat “coconut” placards.

The term “coconut” is instantly recognisable to many people from black and Asian communities in the UK.

It is a word with a generally negative meaning and can range from light-hearted banter to more severe criticism or insults.

What the court had to contend with was whether, on Ms Hussain’s placard, it could be considered racially abusive.

Prosecutor Jonathan Bryan argued coconut was a well-known racial slur. “[It has] a very clear meaning – you may be brown on the outside, but you are white on the inside,” Mr Bryan told the court.

“In other words, you’re a ‘race traitor’ – you’re less brown or black than you should be.”

Mr Bryan said that Ms Hussain had crossed the line from legitimate political expression to racial insult.

This was not the first time the term “coconut” has come before the courts: in 2009 Shirley Brown, the first black Liberal Democrat elected to Bristol City Council, used the term to describe Conservative councillor Jay Jethwa during a heated debate about funding for the council’s Legacy Commission.

The following year, in 2010, Ms Brown was convicted of racial harassment for the comment. She was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £620 in costs. Mr Bryan referenced Ms Brown’s case during this week’s trial.

For Ms Hussain, one of those who’s been particularly fervent in his support is the writer and anti-racism campaigner Nels Abbey.

“The word ‘coconut’ didn’t fall out of a coconut tree, to quote Kamala Harris’s mum,” Mr Abbey told me after the trial’s first day, adding that the word “fell out of our experience as former colonised people”.

The term emerged as a way of critiquing those who “collaborated with our oppressors”, he said.

“This is our language,” he said. “We share this language because we share a history, we share origins and share a community… You cannot criminalise people’s history, and the language that emerged from that.”

In court, this was echoed by two academic experts in racism who gave evidence in support of Ms Hussain – Prof Gus John and Prof Gargi Bhattacharyya.

They quoted postcolonial theorist Frantz Fanon, Black liberation activist Marcus Garvey, the late poet Benjamin Zephaniah, and comedian Romesh Ranganathan, who has frequently joked that his mum calls him a coconut for not speaking Tamil.

These were citations more commonly heard in a university lecture hall than a courtroom.

The court heard that the investigating team had also contacted three experts in racism to give evidence for the prosecution, but they had all refused. One of those, Black Studies specialist Prof Kehinde Andrews, sent “quite a lengthy response” saying the word was not a racial slur, and asked that this be shared with the CPS.

Prof John told the court he was “disappointed” that the CPS hadn’t called any experts to support their case.

“I’d have wanted to be informed and educated on when coconut is a racist slur,” he said. “I would have loved to see the evidence of that. I’m not aware of that at all.”

Ms Hussain wrote in her statement that “coconut” was “common language, particularly in our culture”.

Asked by her barrister Mr Menon what she meant by that, she answered that she had grown up hearing the word used among South Asians.

“If I’m truly honest, sometimes, when I was younger, my own dad called me a coconut,” she said, prompting laughter from the public gallery.

Ms Hussain also argued that her use of the term was a form of political critique against what she said were “politicians in high office who perpetuate and push racist policies”.

On Friday afternoon, District Judge Vanessa Lloyd ruled that the placard was “part of the genre of political satire”, and that the prosecution had “not proved to a criminal standard that it was abusive”.

As the verdict was read out, cheers and whooping erupted from the public gallery while Ms Hussain burst into tears.

Outside the court she said: “The damage done to my reputation and image can never be undone.

“The laws on hate speech must serve to protect us more, but this trial shows that these rules are being weaponised to target ethnic minorities.

“It goes without saying that this ordeal has been agonising for my family and I. Instead of enjoying my pregnancy I’ve been vilified by the media, I’ve lost my career, I’ve been dragged through the court system.”

But, she said, “I’m more determined than ever to continue using my voice” for Palestinians.

A video game trafficking ring has been smashed by police in Italy, after fake vintage consoles and games worth almost €50m ($55.5m) were seized.

Among the counterfeit games were popular titles from the 1980s and 90s, including Mario Bros., Street Fighter and Star Wars.

The pirated consoles were imitations of the iconic devices produced by Nintendo, Sega and Atari and did not meet strict safety standards.

New versions of video games and gaming consoles that were released decades ago have recently soared in popularity and command high prices, in a cultural trend known as “retrogaming”.

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Around 12,000 consoles holding over 47 million pirated video games were seized by police, Alessandro Langella, head of the economic crime unit for Turin’s financial police, told the AFP news agency.

The haul had an estimated value of €47.5m, Mr Langella said, a figure which includes the value of the consoles and hundreds of licenses for the pirated programs.

They were “all from China” and were imported to be sold in specialised shops or online, Mr Langella said.

All the devices were fitted with non-certified batteries and electrical circuits and did not meet EU technical or safety standards.

The seized games have been destroyed.

Nine Italian nationals have been arrested and charged with trading in counterfeited goods.

If found guilty, they face up to eight years in prison.

On TikTok, #retrogaming has amassed more than 170 million posts.

The phenomenon is “experiencing a phase of strong popularity and commercial expansion,” Mr Langella said.

Old games and second-hand consoles are in high demand, with a working Super Nintendo system with games for sale online at between £100 ($131) – £275 depending on condition.

In 2021, a sealed copy of video game Super Mario 64 sold at auction for more than $1.5m, shattering records.

The situation is critical, a Ukrainian military officer in the east told the BBC near the front line south of Pokrovsk.

Russia’s military strategy now appears to be surrounding the city, which is a key transportation hub in the region.

The officer, who preferred to stay anonymous, said his military leadership want to hold their positions at all costs, often leading to the loss of troops and resources.

That approach, he says, was resulting in a number of “cauldrons”, large territories surrounded by the Russian forces.

One of them is south of Pokrovsk – between Nevelske, Hirnyk and Krasnohorivka.

“We are not planning to advance towards the city of Donetsk any time soon, so why are we holding positions near Nevelske when we’re losing Hirnyk?” said the officer.

Far better to retreat to Hirnyk, he believes, with a minimum loss of resources and hold those positions.

“When your enemy has more people and resources than you do, this strategy is reckless,” the Ukrainian officer added.

“Look at the Donetsk region, it looks like a squid. [To defend all the] tentacles, you need a far bigger number of positions, observation posts. You need to hold back far bigger assault groups because the Russians are trying to attack from all sides.”

So, instead of withdrawing and reduce the length of the line they need to defend, the officer says, brigades get wiped out fighting along the entire perimeter of the “cauldron” simply because the main criteria of success for generals is to hold positions.

Roman Pohorily, an analyst and co-founder of the Deep State map that monitors the latest frontline developments in Ukraine, says Ukrainian troops have now pulled back from the village of Nevelske to avoid an encirclement.

That means the threat of being trapped is less acute, but the military officer at the front says pulling back should have been done long before.

Lives and resources have been wasted on something that they couldn’t hold anyway, he argues.

Russian troops are now advancing towards Kurakhove, a city 35km (21 miles) south of Pokrovsk. Ukrainian forces in that area confirm the fighting in their sectors has intensified lately.

This development is also reflected in the daily briefings of Ukraine’s General Staff. On Thursday they reported that there were 32 clashes in the Pokrovsk direction and 48 in the Kurakhove direction.

“They’re trying to strengthen their flanks so that they can get closer to Pokrovsk, half encircle it and then start erasing the city to the ground,” says Maj Serhiy Tsekhotsky from the 59th Brigade.

Lt Col Oleh Demyanenko, who commands a tank battalion of the 110th brigade, also says that Russian forces are now pushing along the sides, in addition to a direct assault on Pokrovsk.

However, he claims that the Russians are now focusing mostly on the southern flank – that’s the Kurakhove direction.

Russian troops assault Ukrainian positions with small groups and often they’re not accompanied by armoured vehicles, soldiers say.

“They send two or three people who try to reach a certain point in the field,” explains Maj Tsekhotsky. “Then others try to get to that point as well. And when they have 10-15 people, they try to attack us.”

What makes the Kurakhove area challenging both to defend and to advance is that it’s flat, says Nazar Voytenkov from the 33rd Brigade.

“We constantly shell fields. Russians lose their vehicles and people.”

He says his brigade is successfully holding its position on the front line.

Kurakhove is linked to Pokrovsk with roads that are part of the infrastructure to move troops and supplies on the front line.

If the Russians take that city, then they can go north to attack Pokrovsk from a new direction, says analyst Roman Pohorily.

Another possibility is that they might attack Ukrainian troops in Vuhledar from behind, he adds. That’s a city on the southern part of the Donbas frontline that the Russians have been trying to seize since the beginning of their full-scale invasion.

Strategic mistakes made in the past mean that there is only one way left to defend Pokrovsk and stop the Russians seizing the entire Donetsk region, according to the officer on the front line.

“To have another Bakhmut”, in his words, referring to the city in eastern Ukraine that Kyiv defended for nearly a year before retreating, with the city in ruins.

“[They] will throw a lot of people and let them die there.”

One of England’s largest school academy trusts is set to ban phones during the school day.

Ormiston Academies Trust confirmed to the BBC it was phasing out access to smartphones for around 35,000 pupils at its 42 state schools across the country.

A spokesperson for the trust told the BBC that “teaching and learning, behaviour and children’s mental health are all impacted negatively by mobile phones”.

Earlier this year, the Department for Education under the previous Conservative government issued guidance intended to stop the use of mobile phones during the school day to “minimise disruption and improve behaviour in classrooms”.

Ormiston’s new measures will be put in place across all of its schools – which include six primaries and 32 secondaries, spanning as far north as Cheshire and as far south as the Isle of Wight.

Eight of its secondary schools have already piloted “different approaches” to the policy for the autumn term after consultation with parents, including one institution which has gone phone-free.

It has been “really successful” and “popular” with parents and students, the spokesperson said.

Access to phones is already prohibited at the trust’s primary, special needs and alternative provision schools.

“We want schools to do this at their pace – they are best placed to make the decisions because they know their schools best, and because we want them to take their parent and pupil communities with them,” the spokesperson added.

Lift Schools, another multi-academy trust, told the BBC all 57 of its institutions operated a no-smartphones approach “so that students can focus on their learning”. Many of the schools use pouches which lock the device away during the day.

Rebecca Mahony, principal of the all-through Birkenhead High School Academy, told the BBC phones had been completely banned this year for junior students.

She said it followed an internal survey conducted by the school, in Wirrall in north-west England, which showed students as young as seven had been contacted online by strangers, asked to share photos of themselves and exposed to inappropriate content.

The school already had a policy of securing phones in lockers for its secondary students, which was first introduced seven years ago because pupils were becoming distracted, anxious and addicted to their devices, she added.

She said there was initially some pushback from parents who “wanted access to their children at all times” and “obviously the children didn’t like it at all” but now it is normal.

“I think parents are terrified and don’t know how to say no to their children. There’s a lot of peer pressure as well as far as buying phones for their children is concerned.”

But some parents have raised concerns with the BBC about the impact a total ban could have.

Joe Mayatt, 37, from Hastings, has four children in two schools – one requires students to put phones in pouches and the other, Ark Alexandra Academy, has a total ban.

“The total ban is dangerous and irresponsible,” he said, explaining that his children relied on phones to find bus times and pay for things.

“I’d rather they could get in touch with me at any time. I agree they shouldn’t be used during the school day, but the school is neglecting their welfare before and after”, he added.

Helena Dollimore, MP for Hastings and Rye, raised the issue in Parliament this week, saying parents supported limiting phone use at the school but were concerned about safety on their journeys to and from home.

Announcing its policy this summer, the school’s vice principal, Sarah Butters, said becoming mobile-free was “the right thing to do” as phones were a distraction and had a negative impact on mental health.

The school did not have the resources and could not take on the liability to store nearly 1,800 phones, she said.

She said it was a misconception children were safer with phones, as they could be targets for theft. A parent could see when their child was registered as arriving via the school app, she added.

The BBC has approached the school for further comment.

Sian Jones, 43, from Hertfordshire, said her 12-year-old son uses a mobile phone app to monitor his glucose levels for Type 1 diabetes.

“The app saves his life every single day. He needs his phone,” she said.

“His school has been very understanding and accommodating about him having his phone.”

Tom Bennett, behaviour advisor for the Department for Education, told BBC Breakfast the “smartest thing” a school could do was ban smartphones, which he described as “attention hoovers”.

He said the government could go further than the department’s guidance and make it a statutory requirement for schools to ban phones, apart from in exceptional circumstances allowed by the head teacher.

What is it called when an artist’s first album is already a greatest hits collection?

That’s the question I kept asking during Chappell Roan’s first UK show of 2024 on Friday.

Normally, concerts ebb and flow, but the audience at the Manchester Academy knew more than just the singles. They sang every word, every of every song – some with mascara running, others with hands clasped to their chests.

At times, Chappell herself was drowned out. At others, she simply stopped and listened, as the fans chanted her lyrics back at her.

It’s a phenomenon – or, to use Chappell’s terminology, a Femininomenon – that only occurs once in a blue moon.

I saw it when Olivia Rodrigo played her first UK dates in 2022. I saw it when One Direction hit Wembley Stadium. And I saw it on the first leg of Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black tour, before excitement turned to concern.

It happens when an artist speaks directly to their fans. More accurately, it happens when fans feel like an artist is speaking on their behalf.

For Chappell’s audience, the devotion is particularly potent because of what she represents.

The 26-year-old is the first pop star to achieve mainstream success as an openly queer person, rather than coming out as part of their post-fame narrative.

Her debut album, The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess, is a real-life coming of age story, full of messy, complex relationships and tentative sexual experimentation.

She made the first half of it while dating a man, but the lyrics betrayed her true feelings.

“I wrote a lot of queer songs while I was dating him, even though I had never even kissed a girl,” she told the Q with Tom Power podcast last year..

“It was something I wanted so bad, but I didn’t know how to make it real,” she added, in a BBC interview this April.

In those songs, Roan draws on the power-pop sounds of Lady Gaga and Britney Spears, skewing them with campy cheerleader chants and bawdy sexual asides.

Her calling card is Pink Pony Club, the semi-autobiographical story of a small-town girl’s transformation into a go-go dancer, written after her first visit to a Los Angeles gay club in her early 20s.

But her break-out hit was this year’s Good Luck Babe, about a fling with a girl who insists she’s not gay.

At first, the song is one big eye-roll: Just shut up and admit the truth, Chappell insists, before you get trapped in a loveless, heterosexual marriage of convenience.

Then, in the closing bars, the song slows down like a toy whose batteries have run out. It’s the end of the argument. Chappell has screamed her case to the point of exhaustion. She drops an octave and sings, “and her voice is quietly resigned. This is one last plea, and she knows it will fall on deaf ears.

It’s superb songwriting – pointed and specific, full of meaning.

Fans in Manchester said lyrics like those make her more important than other pop stars.

“Being a big, mainstream queer artist is really important,” said Manchester fan Sarah. “She’s what we’ve been waiting for in pop music for a long time.”

“When I first heard her, I looked her up and I was like, ‘She looks like me, she’s queer like me and she’s killing it’,” agreed Bethan, who had travelled to the show from Bristol.

“I was like, that’s my girl.”

“If I was a younger, like a teenager, looking up to Chappell Roan, that would have been really inspiring,” added Kim, a Newcastle fan who was at the gig to celebrate her third wedding anniversary with her wife, Jules.

“It’s something I would have really gripped onto. It would have helped us through the coming out phase.”

For the uninitiated, Chappell Roan was born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz in the conservative city of Willard, Missouri, in 1998.

The eldest of four children, she grew up in a trailer park and attended church three times a week, where she was taught that being gay was a sin.

Shy and awkward, her life changed in 2014 when a song she’d written at summer camp and uploaded to YouTube caught the attention of several record labels.

Whisked out to Los Angeles and signed to Atlantic Records, she released her first EP, a downbeat, singer-songwriter affair, in 2017.

It sold poorly and when the pandemic hit, she was dropped amid a round of money-saving lay-offs. Despondent, she went back to Missouri and took a job serving coffee at a drive-through donut shop.

But she stayed in touch with one of her collaborators, Daniel Nigro, who was simultaneously working with another up-and-coming pop star called Olivia Rodrigo.

When Rodrigo’s career took off, Nigro used the cachet to sign Chappell to his own label and they wrote her album together, discarding the self-seriousness of her teenage material and diving headfirst into hedonism.

“A lot of it is audience participation based,” she told me earlier this year. “I just tried to think, what’s really hooky and what would be fun to sing with a crowd. Those were my parameters.”

The album came out to almost universal disinterest last September, selling just 3,000 copies in its first week. But it ended up on a few critics’ end-of-year lists and, as word began to spread, Roan went out as a support act on Rodrigo’s Guts tour.

After the first few dates, fans started coming to the shows early just to see her performance.

But the hot streak really kicked off with her televised set at the Coachella Festival in California this April. When Chappell leaned into the TV cameras and declared: “I’m your favourite artist’s favourite artist,” the show went viral. It’s subsequently been watched more than a million times.

She went on to dominate New York’s Governors Ball, where she memorably coated herself in green body paint and dressed as the Statue of Liberty; and Chicago’s Lollapalooza, where she drew the festival’s biggest-ever crowd – some 80,000 people – even though she wasn’t a headliner.

By the summer, The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess had ascended to the top of the UK album charts. Earlier this week, she won best new artist at the MTV Awards.

As is so often the way, however, success has come at a price.

Chappell took to social media last month, asking some fans to stop being obsessive and “creepy”, after one grabbed her and kissed her in a bar. In another incident, police at LAX Airport had to intervene when a fan who wanted an autograph wouldn’t take “no” for an answer.

“I’ve been in too many nonconsensual physical and social interactions and I just need to lay it out and remind you, women don’t owe you [anything],” wrote the singer on Instagram.

The audience in Manchester took no such liberties. They were “day one” fans – people who’d bought their tickets in January, before the singer’s meteoric rise to fame – and they wanted to celebrate with her.

Scalpers were offering over £1,000 for tickets that had a face value of £19.50 – but no-one was selling.

Instead, they came dressed in the mermaid outfits Chappell had requested. There were fishtails, bikinis, and crowns befitting of Princess Ariel. One brave fan came dressed as a jellyfish. A couple who described themselves as “masculine-presenting” lesbians wore sailors outfits.

Chappell also joined the fun, wearing a one-piece bodysuit encrusted with pearls and seashells.

And she dedicated the show to the fans, saying their acceptance mattered as much to her, as her music did to them.

“Thank you for dressing up,” she said. “Thank you for being here and showing up for the [LGBTQ+] community.

“I really needed this when I was 15. I needed it so bad to be in a room full of people that looked like me.

“The people in my hometown would call gay people clowns. That’s why I actually wear white face [drag make-up], because of how those people called us clowns.

“I was like, ‘Bitch I’ll show you a clown’.”

Cue a deafening round of applause.

And that’s before we even discuss the show itself.

As a performer, Chappell is the full package. She doesn’t have the budget (yet) for a spectacular stage set, but she’s a pyrotechnic all of her own – a finger-snapping, hair-tossing, force of nature.

Backed by a full live band, her vocals are flawless. She moves seamlessly between her lower and upper registers, belting the high notes with a slight country twang, but equally capable of dropping to a hushed, heartbroken whisper.

Highlights included Coffee – a tentative ballad about meeting up with an ex – and the lemon-bitter My Kink Is Karma, which got an invigoratingly grungy rock makeover.

The crowd participation moments that the star envisaged in the recording studio also came to bounteous fruition.

Hot To Go, which she’s described as “YMCA, but gayer”, came with big goofy dance moves; and Red Wine Supernovas’s singalong chorus gave me actual goosebumps.

Amusingly, the singer says her teenage self would have been horrified by this spectacle.

“I think she would be like, ‘Oh my God, you’re so corny’,” she told me in April.

“I don’t think I’d have allowed myself to be silly back then. She’d think I’d sold out. But I’m not a sellout. I’m actually just having a good time.

“I love pop music and I make silly pop music because people want to have fun.”

Mission accomplished.

• Femininomenon
• Naked In Mahattan
• Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl
• Love Me Anyway
• Picture You
• Hot To Go
• After Midnight
• Coffee
• Casual
• Subway
• Red Wine Supernova
• Good Luck, Babe
• My Kink Is Karma
• California
• Pink Pony Club

There have been 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.

But no confirmation came from talks between US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in Washington on Friday.

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 have an even greater range of 300km.

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.

The Institute for the Study of War think tank (ISW) has identified around 200 Russian bases that would be in range of Storm Shadows fired from Ukraine. Some further additional bases would come into range if the US approves the use of ATACMS missiles in Russia.

But one ex-US official told the BBC that there was scepticism in the White House and the Pentagon about how much difference using Storm Shadow missiles inside Russia would make to Ukraine’s war effort.

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. Ukraine doesn’t have many missiles, and the UK has very few left to give.

And it has been widely reported that, in anticipation of this permission being given, Moscow has already moved the bulk of its air assets and ammunition deeper into Russia, beyond the range of Ukraine’s missiles.

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.

One reason President Putin views the use of Storm Shadow as a direct intervention in the war by the US and UK is his belief that Ukrainian troops cannot use long-range missile systems without the aid of Western specialists.

He told reporters in Russia that “only servicemen of Nato countries can input flight missions into these missile systems,” adding that Kyiv also relies on satellite intelligence supplied by the West to choose targets.

Manufacturer MBDA declined to comment on the claims when approached by the BBC, directing queries to the UK Ministry of Defence.

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s presidential office also declined to address Putin’s allegations, saying they could not comment on “special technical details regarding weapons”.

Justin Crump cast doubt on Putin’s claim, telling the BBC that if “that claim were true, then Russia would have made it more clearly when the weapons were first supplied, and when they conducted successful and impactful operations against for example the Black Sea Fleet HQ in occupied Crimea”.

“The missile is available for export sales; is Russia seriously saying that any buyer would have to have a Nato/UK team to program and use the missile? That must presumably be buried deep in the fine print of the brochure, and wouldn’t make it an appealing prospect,” he noted.

In the hours before the prime minister was taken by motorcade to the White House, he and his team were in a secure room at the nearby British Embassy.

This is a room designed for conversations spies are not meant to hear, however sophisticated their techniques for eavesdropping and intercepting digital exchanges.

The Downing Street team were talking to British government staff in Ukraine and Russia, assembling their briefing and approach for their forthcoming conversation with President Biden.

They arrived at the White House in the late afternoon Washington time, the president showing Sir Keir Starmer around the Rose Garden before heading for the Blue Room.

On each side of a long rectangular table, the two delegations, the prime minister and president with seven colleagues each alongside them.

For just a few minutes, we reporters were invited in too.

Warm words from the leaders followed by loud questions and prompt ejection for the journalists.

What followed was about 90 minutes of conversation in private.

Ukraine dominated, but not to the exclusion of other issues – not least the Middle East, China and Iran.

Downing Street had sought in advance to portray this as an opportunity for a deeper conversation than the usual round of international summits often allow.

But why bother when President Biden is soon to be yesterday’s man, out of office, power and influence in four months time?

The urgency of the issues on the table, I am told.

Take Ukraine: an ally of both the UK and the US, still in desperate need of ongoing help as its friends weigh up how best to provide it – and at what cost.

The UK has been “forward facing” as it was put to me in making the case to others to agree to Kyiv’s request to be allowed to fire western missiles into Russia.

President Biden is sceptical, fearful it could drag America and Europe into direct conflict with Moscow.

That is just what Vladimir Putin has been hinting at in the last few days.

Then again his sabre rattling in the past hasn’t come to much, so perhaps it wouldn’t again?

But maybe, this time, it would.

Diplomacy and intelligence turning to the psychology of a leader at war, attempting to second guess how he might react.

Would he really contemplate a military attack on a Nato member state – with the frightening potential of hauling the whole western alliance into war with Russia?

And, if not that, would Ukraine’s allies stomach lower level aggression in retaliation, such as cyber attacks or damaging sub-sea communication cables?

There was little expectation this meeting would resolve the question about western missiles, not least because further conversations with others at the United Nations are expected shortly.

Afterwards, the prime minister wouldn’t be drawn on whether he had persuaded the president to change his mind.

This is a conflict without obvious end which presents too no end of thorny dilemmas based around a recurring theme: how to defeat Russia without provoking Moscow.

What could be the consequences of action?

And what could be the consequences of inaction?

It is the essence of the West’s challenge since the full scale invasion of Ukraine two and a half years ago.

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One day when struggling to get to grips with a spreadsheet to calculate his annual budget for art supplies, an idea popped into the mind of Ghanaian visual artist Joseph Awuah-Darko.

He could use the database to track his bipolar disorder, a mental illness that causes huge swings in a person’s moods, energy and concentration levels.

“I’m a visual learner and I thought: ‘Why don’t I use colour as a language?’” Awuah-Darko told the BBC.

“Colour allows me to express things that I can’t really capture in words.”

The 28-year-old started allocating to every hour a colour that represented how he was feeling at that point in time – with red being the most depressive state, and pastel blue the most positive.

“It became something that became addictive – and cathartic. And an interesting way of monitoring my life.”

Out of those meticulous digital records, the artist has also created a series of abstract oil paintings – portraits of his days.

His first UK solo exhibition, How’s Your Day Going?, “makes exterior” his struggles with bipolar disorder, with which he was diagnosed at the age of 16 when he had a breakdown at school.

Some days are better than others, as the blocks of colour in his worksheets show.

He uses oil sticks to create vertical linear stripes on the canvas – in blacks, browns, reds, oranges, yellows, blues and greens.

Some paintings are almost as neat and precise as the coloured spreadsheet cells – others are less ordered.

The artist does not wait for one paint to dry before he applies the next colour – and as the wet paints run into each other, new colours are created.

This mixing, says Awuah-Darko, reflects the nuances and complexities of his own emotions.

“It’s beautiful to see how, even though I have given these strict schematic colour assignments to my moods, emotions aren’t sanitised,” he says.

“They are messy, and they flow into each other,“ he says.

Awuah-Darko was born in London to Ghanaian parents, but he grew up in Ghana, has travelled a lot and now lives in the Belgian capital, Brussels.

The colours he uses to capture his emotions depend on where he is in the world – and partly reflects “the nature of what I feel about the environment I’m in”.

The deep, warm blue-green of teal is a colour that he most associates with Brussels.

Teal covers a whole range of emotions and energies that he feels – somewhere in the middle between the deep, disruptive depression of red and the positivity of lighter blues.

He often paints while in “a state of teal”.

“I’m deep in thought and lost in the void of my own imaginations,” he says.

“I’m not exactly bursting with joy,” he laughs,” but I am engaging my mind and my hands in a way that I feel is productive.”

Yellow is what Awuah-Darko describes as “a nuanced state of anxiety”. It could be a moment of disappointment or rejection.

“It’s not an absolute negative,” he says, “but it is something that could break you down – if you chose to allow it to.”

The first painting Awuah-Darko created in the How’s Your Day Going? series is entitled June 15 PM.

The date is the day recorded in the spreadsheet – and “PM” reflects that he finished the painting at night.

The image holds particular “emotional gravitas” for the artist because he says it is when he accepted that his life was going to be based for the foreseeable future in Brussels – not Accra, Ghana’s capital.

Awuah-Darko left Ghana because he wanted to live openly as a gay man – and he felt he could not do that because of restrictive legislation passed by Ghana’s parliament in February 2024.

The bill – which is yet to be signed into law by the president – imposes heavy sentences on gay, lesbian and bisexual people, anyone who identifies as transgender, as well as those seen as allies.

“I created June 15th at a time when I was really reconciling with what it meant to be an immigrant. That was daunting, heavy, beautiful and exciting.”

Awuah-Darko was inspired to transform the “spreadsheet diaries” into paintings by a two-month artist residency he attended earlier this year at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in the US.

The late German-born American artist Josef Albers put colour at the centre of his work and has inspired generations of artists.

“At the residency, I learned about the power of colour as language, as vocabulary, and it really enhanced my ability to capture that in my abstract painting.”

Awuah-Darko also pays homage in his art to the bold and colourful work of Atta Kwami – one of Ghana’s most respected artists who came from Kumasi but spent many years in the UK where he died in 2021.

“There’s such an honesty about his painting and such a reverence for the colours he uses, which are so linked to his upbringing in Ghana and to how he viewed the world through lines and spaces.”

Another influence is Anni Albers, one of the world’s leading textile designers and printmakers, and wife of Josef Albers, who blurred the lines between the ancient craft of hand-weaving and modern art.

Awuah-Darko drew on Albers’ work for his most recent paintings – and also his own heritage.

He comes from an influential family of financiers and chiefs in the south-central Ashanti region of Ghana.

The ancestral home is very close to Bonwire, the birthplace of the world-famous kente fabric, and the artist grew up wearing the traditional multi-coloured cloth.

He also learned how to weave it using a hand loom, stripe by stripe, colour by colour – a process that he finds “cathartic and meditative”.

His paintings are reminiscent of kente cloth, and the process has, he says, been “almost like weaving with paint”.

“It’s super interesting to see how my heritage has manifested itself in my work – beyond the way in which it obviously addresses my battle with depression.”

You can find out more about bipolar disorder here

• Ghana’s LGBT terror: ‘We live in fear of snitches’
• The Ghanaian clothing London’s brutalist icon
• Kente – the Ghanaian cloth that’s on the catwalk
• The artist ‘not surprised’ to be a best-seller
• How luxury African fashion has wowed Europe’s catwalks

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.

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.

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.

A number of senior Republican politicians have also publicly criticised Ms Loomer and cautioned against Trump bringing her into his inner circle.

“Laura Loomer is a crazy conspiracy theorist who regularly utters disgusting garbage intended to divide Republicans,” North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“A DNC [Democratic National Committee] plant couldn’t do a better job than she is doing to hurt President Trump’s chances of winning re-election,” Mr Tillis added.

Speaking at a news conference in California on 13 September, Trump said only that Ms Loomer is “a supporter” and that he was unaware of recent comments she made about Harris, or her comments about 9/11.

“I don’t control Laura. Laura has to say what she wants. She’s a free spirit,” he added

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

But on Twitter/X, 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”.

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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”.

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged 206 prisoners of war in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Russia’s ministry of defence said its 103 released servicemen released came from among those captured during the Kursk incursion.

Posting pictures of some of those released on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Our people are home”.

Last month, Ukrainian forces launched a surprise attack across the Russian border, advancing up to 30km (18 miles) into the Kursk region.

Zelensky said those Ukrainians released included 82 privates and sergeants and 21 officers from the armed forces, national guard, border guards, and police.

He said they had been captured defending the regions of Kyiv, Donetsk, Mariupol, Azovstal, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv.

Russia said its released soldiers were in Belarus and would be given the “necessary psychological and medical assistance” and would be allowed to contact their relatives before being returned to Russia.

The UAE, which has remained broadly neutral in the conflict, has acted as a mediator for previous prisoner swaps.

In August, following the Kursk incursion, an initial exchange was completed involving 230 prisoners in total.

Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk was in part intended to draw troops away from Russia’s operations in eastern Ukraine.

The latest swap comes as Russia said it had recaptured a village in eastern Ukraine, where it has made a number of advances over recent weeks.

On Saturday, the ministry of defence said its forces had taken the village of Zhelanne Pershe in the Pokrovsk district.

It is less than 30km (19 miles) from the town of Pokrovsk, which is home to a key railway station and sits at the intersections of several important roads.

The town plays a crucial role as a logistics hub for Ukrainian forces in the eastern region of Donbas, and has for months been a key target for Russian forces.

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.”

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

In Cardigan Bay, bottle-nosed dolphin Tallie and her newborn Summer have been delighting wildlife spotters in recent days.

But few lucky enough to spot the cow and its calf will know they are both named after a 22-year old Sea Watch intern who died a little over four months ago.

Tallie Brazier was killed in a car crash on the A5117 in Elton, Cheshire, on 15 April.

Her mother Adele Nightingale said she would have been incredibly touched by the gesture.

“I just wish she was here to see it,” she said.

Tallie, who was from Oswestry, Shropshire, graduated from Bangor University last year with a degree in Marine Biology with Vertebrate Zoology.

She then spent the summer working as an intern at Sea Watch in New Quay, Ceredigion, where she actually spotted and logged the dolphin that would go on to share her name.

“We would very often get video calls when she was on the boat and there’d be a pod of dolphins behind her and you’d hear squeals of delight and joy at what they’d seen,” said Adele.

Sea Watch is a national marine environmental charity working to improve the conservation of whales, dolphins and porpoises in the seas around Britain and Ireland.

Its flagship project in New Quay monitors Cardigan Bay’s 200 dolphins, the only semi-resident population of bottlenose dolphins in Wales, and the largest in the UK.

Adele said Tallie’s love of sealife began after watching animated film Finding Nemo when she was two or three years old.

Then from junior school she decided she wanted to work with dolphins and began scuba diving at eight. She eventually became a Padi-qualified rescue diver, diving all over the world.

This month she was due to return to Bangor to begin her Master’s in Marine Predator Ecology.

“She had so much to do and so much to live for,” said Adele.

On the day of the crash, Tallie and her boyfriend had been heading out for lunch and a day of shopping.

“It was a very ordinary Monday,” Adele said.

“All the times she’s gone diving 22 metres and I’ve been worried about her, but I did not worry that day.”

Adele was working from home when she received a text message from Tallie’s phone saying it had been involved in a collision.

It included a pin location.

“I tried to phone her straight away, her sister was here and we were both trying to phone her,” said Adele.

“I phoned her dad and he said he’d had [the text] as well.”

The three of them made the 40-minute drive to Elton while desperately trying to get through to Tallie.

But as they got nearer, they realised the road was closed and they could see ambulances and a helicopter ahead.

They made themselves known to the police and were blue-lit to the hospital.

“It was at the hospital while we were in the relatives’ room that the doctor came in and told us that Tallie hadn’t survived the crash,” said Adele.

“I don’t remember a great deal. My younger daughter says that all she can remember is that I was screaming.

“I remember saying to the nurse ‘it should be me, I would take her place’. It felt very surreal.”

She said they were taken to see Tallie to say goodbye.

“I can still see that, I can still see Tallie on the resus table. Then the police talked to us and brought us home,” said Adele.

Months on, the events of that day still don’t seem real.

“I still think she’s going to walk in. I can’t quite take in that this is permanent, that she’s gone forever,” she said.

At Tallie’s funeral, instead of flowers, the family asked for donations and raised almost £3,000.

Then TNS FC in Oswestry, who Tallie had played for as a goalie when she was younger, set up The Tallie Brazier Cup, which raised more than £6,000.

They donated the money to Sea Watch who set up the Tallie Brazier Scholarship, which will fund an intern next year.

Sea Watch then suggested naming a dolphin after Tallie.

“If she was here she’d be absolutely amazed, she would be so touched by that,” said Adele.

Then last week Adele received another call from Sea Watch.

“They got in touch to say the Tallie dolphin has actually got a calf… and they asked us if we would like to name Tallie’s calf,” she said.

They settled on Summer – Tallie’s middle name.

Sea Watch estimates Summer was born between 16 and 19 August as Tallie was seen without a calf on the morning of the 16th and then with a calf on the 19th.

“We are absolutely honoured that Sea Watch came up with the idea and that they have done that for Tallie,” said Adele.

“The outpouring of love and respect for Tallie from the town, from the university, from TNS, from Sea Watch has meant an awful lot to me.

“I’ve always been proud of both of my girls and I’m still proud of Tallie, she’s raising that awareness.”

She said talking and being surrounded by family, work colleagues, friends and Tallie’s friends had been key to processing her grief.

“The best thing anybody ever says to me when I see them is ‘I have no words’,” said Adele.

“I’ve heard a lot of platitudes and I understand that very often they come from places of good intention but the best thing anybody can say is ‘I have no idea how you’re feeling’… it really is one of those situations where unless you’ve walked in these shoes, you really don’t know and cannot even imagine.”

Now, Adele says the the focus is on keeping her intelligent, funny, considerate and affectionate daughter’s memory alive.

“It is really important to me,” said Adele.

“She mattered, she absolutely mattered to all of us and the world has lost a really good person.”

The Prince and Princess of Wales have made a donation to help replenish stock at a south London food bank which had thousands of pounds worth of goods stolen.

Southwark Foodbank, which is operated by Pecan on Peckham High Street, was targeted by thieves on Sunday who took about £3,000 of food and hygiene products, as well as a laptop.

Pecan chief executive Peter Edwards said: “This surprise donation by the Prince and Princess of Wales – following such a difficult spell for their family – underlines their kindness and decency.

“After serious ill health, their first thought was of how to help others.”

He added: “Their generosity will inspire staff and volunteers to redouble Pecan’s efforts to alleviate poverty in London.”

The food bank said its food stocks had now been replenished, following a surge in donations from members of the public.

Kensington Palace said Prince William and Catherine had heard about the burglary and wanted to offer their support.

The food bank said the couple had pledged £3,500.

Staff and volunteers had been “very distressed” to be met with empty shelves when they discovered the theft on Monday morning, Mr Edwards said.

Burglars had forced their way into the warehouse, causing damage in the process.

Mr Edwards said there had been an “overwhelming reaction” from individuals, businesses and the local council, adding: “We thank them all for their support at the end of a very tough week.

“We are delighted that after such a difficult time for their own family, the Waleses thought of us and the people of the community in need across Southwark, and that’s testament to their decency and compassion.”

Mr Edwards previously told the BBC the burglary had had a “devastating impact” which hit “the most vulnerable people in our community”.

It followed four other break-ins at two London food banks over the past 14 months including at Lewisham Foodbank in south-east London, where a large quantity of cash that would have been spent on food was stolen in July last year.

The Metropolitan Police has said no arrests had been made over Sunday’s burglary, during which a laptop, phone and food was stolen.

A selection of striking news photographs taken around the world this week.

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”.

Ballerina Michaela Mabinty DePrince, who performed with Beyoncé and was seen by many as a trailblazer, has died at the age of 29.

A spokesperson announced her death on her personal Instagram page and in a statement her family said she was an “unforgettable inspiration to everyone who knew her or heard her story”.

The cause of death has not been given.

DePrince made a remarkable journey from suffering as an orphan in war-torn Sierra Leone to numerous accolades in the world of international dance.

Her family said her death had been “sudden”, adding: “Michaela touched so many lives across the world, including ours.”

Tributes have been pouring in, including from others in the ballet community.

“Despite being told the ‘world wasn’t ready for black ballerinas’ or that ‘black ballerinas weren’t worth investing in,’ she remained determined, focused, and began making big strides,” American ballerina Misty Copeland wrote on social media.

Born in Kenema, Sierra Leone, in 1995, DePrince was sent to an orphanage at the age of three after both of her parents died during the civil war.

She has spoken in the past about how she was seen as a “devil’s child” in the orphanage because she suffered from vitiligo, a condition in which patches of skin lose pigmentation.

But she was adopted aged four by an American couple and moved to New Jersey. Her adoptive mother quickly noticed her obsession with ballet and enrolled her in classes.

She rose to fame after graduating from high school and made history as the youngest principal dancer at the Dance Theatre of Harlem.

DePrince has performed across the world, including in Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” music video album.

She joined the prestigious Boston Ballet as a second soloist in 2021 and starred in the TV show Dancing with the Stars when she was just 17.

A dedicated humanitarian, DePrince also advocated for children affected by conflict and violence.

Her spokesperson wrote that her artistry “touched countless hearts” and her spirit had “inspired many, leaving an indelible mark on the world of ballet, and beyond”.

They added: “Her life was one defined by grace, purpose, and strength. Her unwavering commitment to her art, her humanitarian efforts, and her courage in overcoming unimaginable challenges will forever inspire us.

“She stood as a beacon of hope for many, showing that no matter the obstacles, beauty and greatness can rise from the darkest of places.”

More men have come forward to the BBC accusing the former chief executive of Abercrombie & Fitch and his British partner of sexual exploitation. Some allege they were abused, and some that they were injected with drugs.

Luke says he was shocked as he was guided into Mike Jeffries’ presidential suite in a hotel in Spain. “It was like a movie set of an Abercrombie store,” he recalls of the event in 2011. “And I thought we were going to do a photoshoot.”

He says the room was dimly lit with erotic photos of men’s abs adorning the dark walls. In the middle, a group of assistants dressed in Abercrombie & Fitch uniforms – polos, blue jeans and flip-flops – were casually folding clothes on a table, pretending to be shop workers, he says.

Then aged 20, Luke says he had been offered the chance of being in a company advert if he flew from his home in Los Angeles to Madrid to meet the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F).

Luke says the proposal had come via a modelling website from a man who said he worked as a talent scout and executive assistant for Mr Jeffries – then head of the billion-dollar teen retailer.

In the suite, he says Mr Jeffries’ assistants began engaging in role-play, encouraging him to act as a shirtless greeter, a hallmark of A&F stores at the time. Luke says he remembers the talent scout saying: “Now I have two very important guests, and these are going to be the customers that you need to impress and entertain because they’re going to be buying a lot of clothes from you.”

At that moment, he says Mr Jeffries and his life partner, Matthew Smith, came out of a corner of the room. They immediately started touching him and Mr Jeffries forcibly kissed him, he says. “I was trying to avoid the whole situation as much as I could, but Michael was very aggressive.” He says the Abercrombie boss then performed oral sex on him.

“I tried to say no repeatedly. And then I just got kind of convinced to do something. But I constantly was saying no, and I wanted to go.”

___

Luke (not his real name) is one of eight more men who have spoken to the BBC in the past year since we revealed allegations of sexual exploitation at events hosted by Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith. The FBI launched an investigation following the BBC’s reporting, and 20 men in total have now told us they attended or helped organise these events.

As well as Luke’s allegation, the new witnesses reveal fresh details about the scale of the events, which took place from at least 2009 until 2015 while Mr Jeffries was chief executive.

The BBC previously found there had been a sophisticated operation involving a middleman tasked with finding men for these events, but the new testimonies detail additional recruitment methods.

The men also raise new questions about the role of Mr Jeffries’ assistants – a select group of young men in A&F uniforms who travelled around the world with him and supervised these sex events.

According to multiple men, Mr Jeffries’ assistants injected some attendees in the penis with what they were told was liquid Viagra.

Chris, not his real name, told the BBC he felt he was “going to die” after one of these injections caused an extreme reaction during an event at one of Mr Jeffries’ New York homes. Feeling “hot, dizzy” and in shock, he said nobody called for an ambulance. Still disorientated, he said Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith, who had been waiting in another room, then tried to have sex with him.

Former model Keith Milkie, 31, says one of Mr Jeffries’ assistants had also “bragged” about having done some work for Abercrombie & Fitch at the same time as working at these sex events. He says this assistant was named on an event itinerary and the BBC found he also had an A&F company email.

While personal assistants of Mr Jeffries’ were often dressed in A&F uniforms, this is the first claim that a member of A&F staff was involved in the running of Mr Jeffries’ sex events. When the BBC asked the company about this, it declined to answer, saying it does not comment on legal matters.

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Mr Jeffries, 80, Mr Smith, 61, and A&F – which also owns the brand Hollister – are facing a civil lawsuit alleging the retailer funded a sex-trafficking operation over the two decades he had been in charge.

Mr Smith and Mr Jeffries did not respond to requests for comment. However, their lawyers’ have previously said they deny allegations of wrongdoing, adding: “The courtroom is where we will deal with this matter.”

One former attendee, Diego Guillen, who says he has been interviewed by the FBI, told the BBC he was paid $500 (£380) every Saturday to make wake-up calls to men expected to attend these sex events in 2011. He estimated he made about 80 calls over seven months.

Mr Guillen, 42, says there was also a roster of attendees. Other sources have said this “database” could have as many as 60 different men on it at any given time, revealing a snapshot of the scale of those recruited.

He says he had initially attended sex events at Mr Jeffries’ former New York homes after being recruited on the street by the couple’s middleman, James Jacobson.

Mr Guillen, now a lawyer and real estate broker who runs his own firm, says he had never had sex for money before, but at the time he was unemployed and homeless, sleeping in a friend’s office. Despite his circumstances then, he says he did not feel exploited.

After the FBI turned up at his door, Mr Guillen says he contacted Mr Jeffries’ lawyer who sent a private investigator to interview him to help build their legal defence.

Mr Guillen says the other men present at the events he attended had been “under no obligation, under zero pressure” and “paid quite well”.

“Michael and Matthew are high profile gay men and liked having sex with young, handsome men. And being older, they knew that the real way to get this done was to be generous,” he says. “But with full consent and making sure that the [men] wanted it and liked it. And that’s it.”

Unlike other men who were recruited by the middleman, Luke says his initial contact was an assistant working for Mr Jeffries’ family office – a private company run by Mr Smith, which managed the then-CEO’s wealth and properties.

Luke says this assistant interviewed him over Skype, telling him to expect to be topless for the Madrid hotel photoshoot, but there were no obvious red flags. This man then organised his travel and accommodation, he says.

“It didn’t seem like anything too out of the ordinary for me because even working at an Abercrombie store when I was younger, there was guys who would stand outside shirtless. That was like a trademark thing,” says Luke.

Leaked travel plans show Mr Jeffries was scheduled to be in Madrid several times in 2011 ahead of opening a real A&F store.

The night before the event, Luke says he was paid €3,500 (£2,950) in cash, which he believed was “general spending money” for the three days he was in Madrid. But he says the assistant was “vague” about the plan.

He says in the hotel suite, Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith began having sex with two slightly older men – one he thought was in his 30s and the other in his 40s – present for the same event. Luke says Mr Jeffries’ then started kissing him. Soon after, he says Mr Jeffries performed oral sex on him and Mr Smith attempted to do the same. He says he tried to perform “some sort of oral” sex on Mr Jeffries, but “couldn’t”.

“I’m getting fired because I didn’t do what this guy wanted,” Luke remembers thinking, believing he was about to lose his chance of a modelling job. “I could have just ran out of that room, but I didn’t even know how I would have gotten out.”

Luke says he felt unable to leave as Mr Jeffries’ assistants – whom he perceived as security staff – were “watching exits”.

Back home in the US, he says he felt unable to report what happened because of the non-disclosure agreement he had signed prior to the event.

“There’s an immense amount of shame associated with this idea that you’re not a masculine man if you’ve been molested or taken advantage of by another man,” says Luke, who identifies as straight.

“My whole life I’ve struggled with people thinking that I’m gay and I got bullied in high school because I have a soft voice. The last thing on earth I was going to do is say something emasculating, like, I got molested and orally raped by a guy.”

Luke says what happened in Madrid was “rocket fuel” for a drug addiction he later developed. In 2016, he was arrested for selling drugs and served six months in a correctional boot camp. He now runs his own business alongside helping people with addictions.

Keith Milkie says he attended numerous events hosted by Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith between 2012 and 2014. He says he understood these events would be sexual but that nothing Mr Jacobson said could “prepare you for what’s going to happen” next.

Then aged about 20, Mr Milkie says he had been struggling to pay his rent after being invited to move to New York by an agent, who ran a house full of aspiring models. He says a housemate soon introduced the idea of escorting, and a contact later introduced him to Mr Jacobson.

Mr Milkie, who identified as straight at the time, says he found some of the events “uncomfortable” and “painful”. On one occasion, in Paris, he says Mr Jeffries instructed him to have sex with another man, which he “did not want or enjoy”.

During another, he says he was verbally abused by Mr Jeffries after saying “no” to a risky sexual act while on board the Queen Mary 2, an ocean liner which sails from England to New York. He says Mr Jeffries was drunk and tried to insert a “bleeding finger” into him.

“I was in the bed putting on a fake smile, crying on the inside,” he says. “Here I am in the middle of the ocean having this person four times my age in that position of power and influence belittle me to death and literally call me worthless… simply because I said no to something.”

He says Mr Jacobson paid him about $24,000 (£18,400) in cash for the seven-night cruise.

According to his event itineraries, which had been sent by Mr Jacobson, another of these sex events was just days after it had been publicly announced Mr Jeffries was stepping down as CEO of A&F in December 2014. Mr Milkie believes that final meeting marked the end of these events.

“The personification of Mike Jeffries is Abercrombie. He had the hair plugs, the plastic surgery, he wore the clothes, he wore the flip-flops. I mean, you talk about power. He projected his image on the entire country. His places where he lived were literally an Abercrombie store. It was like fantasy land,” he says.

“Without that sort of power, that sort of fear and influence, I imagine it’s just like a lot harder to keep people quiet, which is why years later people are talking about it.”

After the BBC’s initial investigation was published last year, A&F announced it was opening an independent investigation into the allegations raised. When we recently asked when this report will be completed – and if the findings would be made public – the company declined to answer.

Like Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith, the brand has been trying to get the civil lawsuit against it dismissed, arguing it had no knowledge of “the supposed sex-trafficking venture” led by its former CEO – which it has been accused of having funded.

Earlier this year, a US court ruled that A&F must cover the cost of Mike Jeffries’ legal defence as he continues to fight the civil allegations of sex-trafficking and rape. The judge ruled the allegations were tied to his corporate role after he sued the brand for refusing to pay his legal fees.

The brand said it does not comment on legal matters. However, in its defence submitted to court, A&F said its current leadership team was “previously unaware of” the allegations until the BBC contacted it, adding the company “abhors sexual abuse and condemns the alleged conduct” by Mr Jeffries and others.

Mr Jacobson – the middleman – previously said in a statement through his lawyer that he took offence at the suggestion of “any coercive, deceptive or forceful behaviour on my part” and had “no knowledge of any such conduct by others”.

When she walks into the courthouse in the French city of Avignon, flanked by her children and a team of lawyers, Gisèle Pelicot cuts an unassuming figure.

The 72-year-old mother and grandmother, her hair styled into a neat bob, wears colourful dresses and Breton tops. She looks down as she passes the dozens of journalists gathered by the entrance, her eyes hidden by round-framed sunglasses.

Behind them, as she has put it, lies a “field of ruins”.

Nearly every day since 2 September, Gisèle Pelicot has been at the centre of a trial in which 51 men are accused of raping her, including the man she was married to for 50 years.

As her story has rippled through France since the trial began, she has become a symbol of courage and resilience.

“I was sacrificed on the altar of vice,” she said, explaining how she had learned that Dominique Pelicot had drugged her to sleep and recruited men to treat her “like a rag doll” for over 10 years.

The trial, due to run until December, has so far heard evidence from lawyers, police, psychiatrists, and from another woman whose husband drugged and raped her following instructions by Dominique.

The Pelicots’ daughter, Caroline, who believes her father abused her when she was unconscious, has also taken the stand.

Dominique Pelicot has admitted the charges against him, although he denies abusing his daughter.

Unsettling details of the defendants’ pasts, psyches and alleged crimes have filled the airwaves, news websites and social networks.

This kind of access has only become possible because Gisèle has waived her right to anonymity.

In a case of such magnitude it is an unusual decision, not least because it means thousands of videos of the alleged rapes filmed by Dominique Pelicot – in some cases surreptitiously – will eventually be played in open court.

Gisèle’s only request was that her children be allowed to leave the room when that happens.

Her legal team said opening up the trial would shift the “shame” back on to the accused.

Above all, the case has ignited a painful – and often uncomfortable – discussion about rape that many in France say is long overdue.

Protests were due to be held across the country on Saturday “in support of Gisèle Pelicot and of all rape victims”.

When Gisèle gave evidence that she had to “start over from scratch” and was now only living off a small pension, an influencer set up an online collection that made €40,000 (£33,700) in under a day. It was quickly shut down following a request from Gisèle’s legal team, who saw it as a possible distraction.

One key issue this case has thrown up is the little-discussed phenomenon of chemical submission – drug-induced assault in the home.

In 2022, 1,229 people in France suspected they had been drugged without their knowledge, according to Leila Chaouachi, a pharmacist at the Paris addiction monitoring centre and an expert on drug rape.

That number is probably “only the tip of the iceberg”, she believes. Victims often hesitate to file legal complaints because they know the assailant, they might be ashamed, or they have hazy memories of what happened.

Complaints also need to be filed before the substances disappear from the body, which is not always possible.

For the 10 years her husband was drugging her, Gisèle Pelicot had unexplained neurological symptoms as well as gynaecological issues, and yet no-one put the clues together.

It points to a lack of awareness of chemical submission as a phenomenon.

Dr Chaouachi says training healthcare professionals and police is important, because the key to stemming the issue lies in recognising that there are others out there besides Gisèle.

“We have the right to be shocked, but we also need to recognise that these aren’t isolated cases,” she says.

“When we only focus on the justice system and investigators, we’re hiding behind them in some way. I think it’s a broader societal issue, and therefore it’s societal change that we need.”

Judging from opinions voiced on the streets of Paris, that view is not universally accepted.

“It’s a private affair,” said one man, who thought the case was awful but still an isolated event and not one for public debate.

“I don’t understand why the media are making such a big deal about it. It is because people like drama, gossip.”

A friend agreed: “If you hadn’t asked the question, we would’ve never discussed this.”

But a female companion said they were both wrong: “It’s important this case is public… it raises a broader issue and raising awareness of it is necessary for change.”

What has shocked so many in France is the sheer number of men involved in the case.

Police were only able to identify 50 suspects out of the 83 that appeared in Dominique Pelicot’s videos.

Their ages range from 26 to 68 and they hail from all walks of life – firefighters, pharmacists, labourers and journalists. Many are fathers and husbands.

Of the other men accused, 15 admit rape, but all the others admit only to taking part in sexual acts.

“What shocked me even more is that so many men could have done this – more than 50 ‘normal’ men, who all lived nearby,” said Caroline, a 43-year-old doctor from Paris.

“[Pelicot] didn’t even have to look very far for them. It really scares me because it is a reflection of society. It’s not the norm, but there are too many.”

Céline Piques of feminist organisation Osez le Féminisme hopes the fact that the accused come from ordinary backgrounds and all kinds of professions will mean that this trial has a lasting impact.

“It demolishes the myth of the rapist who is a psychopath… they raped because they were sure of their impunity.”

Another concern that has not escaped the large numbers of women across France who are following the Pelicot case is that many other men knew and did nothing.

Dominique Pelicot had invited men to have sex with his wife “without her knowledge” in a post on the Coco.gg website, which was shut down only last June. Last year it counted 500,000 visitors a month.

“One hundred per cent of these people… never made a phone call to stop this abuse,” says Céline Piques. “Not one man thought about informing the police of these criminal facts.”

The Avignon trial is also dredging up questions over the language surrounding rape.

The defence of many of the accused hinges on the premise they did not “know” they were raping Gisèle – in other words, that they thought they were having consensual intercourse with her.

Some have accused Dominique Pelicot of “manipulating” them into believing they were taking part in an erotic game in which Gisèle was only pretending to be asleep because she was shy.

At least two of the defendants stated they did not feel they had raped Gisèle because she had been “offered” to them by her own husband, and one man said he did not consider his actions rape because “for me, rape is when you grab someone off the street”.

“I don’t have the heart of a rapist,” he added.

Summing up this line of defence earlier this week, Guillaume De Palma, a lawyer for six of the defendants, caused outrage when he said that “rape is not always rape”, and argued that “without the intention of committing rape, there is no rape”.

In French law, rape is sexual penetration obtained by constraint, violence or surprise – and Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyers are expected to argue that “surprise” covers the case of a sedated or unconscious woman.

But the comments caused outrage and dismay in the courtroom and beyond.

Gisèle’s daughter Caroline stormed out of the trial exclaiming “I am ashamed of the justice system”, while the president of the court suspended the session amid a mood that reporters described as “extremely tense”.

Other lawyers reportedly distanced themselves from De Palma’s comments.

With the trial due to run for three more months, France’s soul searching will continue.

“It has shown how far behind we are at all levels,” said Sandrine Josso, an MP who was the victim of an attempted drug rape by a senator in 2023.

Thanks to Gisèle Pelicot, she said “we lift the veil, and we discover a lot of things”.

The ordinary nature of the couple at the centre of the trial – middle-class pensioners and grandparents – has made it easy for observers to identify with the story.

“I thought it could be my mother, my sister… and my father,” said Charley, a 35-year-old man living in Paris.

“For me, it’s the trial of the century,” he added.

“There will be a before – and there will be an after.”

Donald Trump has said he will mass deport migrants in a small Ohio town that has been rocked by baseless claims its Haitian influx are eating pets.

“We’re going to start with Springfield,” Trump said on Friday, adding the town had been “destroyed” by immigration.

Springfield officials say the debunked claim of pet-eating has sent shockwaves through its community, and led to violent threats that have shut schools.

President Joe Biden appealed for calm on Friday, calling criticism of Haitians in Springfield “simply wrong”.

“This has to stop, what he’s doing. It has to stop,” Mr Biden said of Trump’s statements.

The Republican candidate’s promise comes after nearly a week of false claims about migrants killing pets in Springfield.

The claims of animal eating, which Trump repeated in his debate with Kamala Harris on Tuesday, has been denied by Springfield’s police chief and mayor, as well as Ohio Governor Mike DeWine.

On Friday, three schools in Springfield were evacuated due to bomb threats. At least one of the threats made disparaging comments about Haitians, according to Springfield Mayor Bob Rue.

It comes after city hall and several other buildings, as well as one school, were evacuated on Thursday because of threats.

Trump was asked whether he was considering a visit to the town during a press conference at his golf course in Los Angeles on Friday.

“I can say this, we will do large deportations from Springfield, Ohio – large deportations. We’re going to get these people out. We’re bringing them back to Venezuela,” he said.

The migrants in Springfield are mostly from Haiti, and have legal permission to be in the US under a federal programme for Haitians.

It was not immediately clear why Trump mentioned Venezuela. Throughout his remarks he made references to an influx of Venezuelan migrants to Aurora, Colorado, and said deportations would also begin there if he won the presidential election in November.

In Tuesday’s debate, Trump touched on viral claims that a Venezuelan gang had taken over an apartment complex in Aurora.

Aurora police arrested 8 suspected members of the Tren de Aragua criminal group on Wednesday.

The department acknowledged that gang members had “significantly affected” unspecified apartment complexes in the city, though the police chief denied that criminals had taken over any building in Aurora.

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Marieha Hussain had marched for three hours with her family, and the children with them were getting tired.

“We opened some snacks to keep them going,” she said. They were part of a 300,000-strong group at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in central London on 11 November 2023.

“Then, somebody from my side of the street where I was standing called out and asked: ‘Can I take a picture of your placard?’”

This wasn’t the first time she’d been asked for a picture. Her family’s placards, she said, had drawn a lot of attention.

On one side of the placard was a cartoon of Suella Braverman, then the Home Secretary, dressed like Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians. Ms Hussain held up the sign and posed.

“The voice called out, ‘no, not that one, can you turn it around please?’ – and I did.

“And that was it.”

Her account was told to Westminster Magistrates Court this week during her two-day trial on a charge of a racially aggravated public order offence.

She was accused of this offence – of which she was found not guilty on Friday – because of what was on the other side of that placard.

It was a drawing of a palm tree with coconuts falling off it; pasted over two of those coconuts were the faces of Ms Braverman and of the then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

At the heart of this case was the word “coconut” – and whether it could be considered racially abusive.

Ms Hussain told the court that on the drive home from the demonstration, a family friend messaged to tell her that her photo had been posted by an anonymous right-wing blog called Harry’s Place and that it was going viral on X (it has since been viewed more than four million times).

“It doesn’t get more racist than this,” the post said. “Among anti-racists you get the worst racists of them all.”

Underneath she then saw a reply from the Metropolitan Police, saying that they were “actively looking for” her.

Chris Humphreys, a member of Metropolitan Police staff working in the force’s communications team that day, saw the post after the Met was tagged in it. “The account that posted it typically generates a significant response,” Mr Humphreys told the court. He was called to give evidence on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service.

In the 10 months since that day, anonymous accounts on social media called her a racist while tabloid newspapers published details of her family and the cost of her parents’ home. Ms Hussain, 37, also lost her job as a secondary school teacher.

After the Metropolitan Police posted that they wished to identify Ms Hussain, she consulted with solicitors and voluntarily attended a police station three days later, on 14 November, she told the court.

There, she gave them a prepared statement outlining who she was, what had happened that day, and her reasons for making the sign.

“I am a teacher of almost 10 years standing with an academic background in psychology,” she wrote in the statement. “It is exceptionally difficult to convey complex, serious political statements in a nutshell, and we did our best.”

She was not formally charged until six months later, in May this year. She found out she was charged from a journalist working for Al Jazeera, she told the court.

At this point, the support for Ms Hussain from activists and campaigners grew increasingly vocal. When she first appeared at the magistrates court in June – visibly pregnant – to enter her not guilty plea, protesters stood outside the court held copycat “coconut” placards.

The term “coconut” is instantly recognisable to many people from black and Asian communities in the UK.

It is a word with a generally negative meaning and can range from light-hearted banter to more severe criticism or insults.

What the court had to contend with was whether, on Ms Hussain’s placard, it could be considered racially abusive.

Prosecutor Jonathan Bryan argued coconut was a well-known racial slur. “[It has] a very clear meaning – you may be brown on the outside, but you are white on the inside,” Mr Bryan told the court.

“In other words, you’re a ‘race traitor’ – you’re less brown or black than you should be.”

Mr Bryan said that Ms Hussain had crossed the line from legitimate political expression to racial insult.

This was not the first time the term “coconut” has come before the courts: in 2009 Shirley Brown, the first black Liberal Democrat elected to Bristol City Council, used the term to describe Conservative councillor Jay Jethwa during a heated debate about funding for the council’s Legacy Commission.

The following year, in 2010, Ms Brown was convicted of racial harassment for the comment. She was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £620 in costs. Mr Bryan referenced Ms Brown’s case during this week’s trial.

For Ms Hussain, one of those who’s been particularly fervent in his support is the writer and anti-racism campaigner Nels Abbey.

“The word ‘coconut’ didn’t fall out of a coconut tree, to quote Kamala Harris’s mum,” Mr Abbey told me after the trial’s first day, adding that the word “fell out of our experience as former colonised people”.

The term emerged as a way of critiquing those who “collaborated with our oppressors”, he said.

“This is our language,” he said. “We share this language because we share a history, we share origins and share a community… You cannot criminalise people’s history, and the language that emerged from that.”

In court, this was echoed by two academic experts in racism who gave evidence in support of Ms Hussain – Prof Gus John and Prof Gargi Bhattacharyya.

They quoted postcolonial theorist Frantz Fanon, Black liberation activist Marcus Garvey, the late poet Benjamin Zephaniah, and comedian Romesh Ranganathan, who has frequently joked that his mum calls him a coconut for not speaking Tamil.

These were citations more commonly heard in a university lecture hall than a courtroom.

The court heard that the investigating team had also contacted three experts in racism to give evidence for the prosecution, but they had all refused. One of those, Black Studies specialist Prof Kehinde Andrews, sent “quite a lengthy response” saying the word was not a racial slur, and asked that this be shared with the CPS.

Prof John told the court he was “disappointed” that the CPS hadn’t called any experts to support their case.

“I’d have wanted to be informed and educated on when coconut is a racist slur,” he said. “I would have loved to see the evidence of that. I’m not aware of that at all.”

Ms Hussain wrote in her statement that “coconut” was “common language, particularly in our culture”.

Asked by her barrister Mr Menon what she meant by that, she answered that she had grown up hearing the word used among South Asians.

“If I’m truly honest, sometimes, when I was younger, my own dad called me a coconut,” she said, prompting laughter from the public gallery.

Ms Hussain also argued that her use of the term was a form of political critique against what she said were “politicians in high office who perpetuate and push racist policies”.

On Friday afternoon, District Judge Vanessa Lloyd ruled that the placard was “part of the genre of political satire”, and that the prosecution had “not proved to a criminal standard that it was abusive”.

As the verdict was read out, cheers and whooping erupted from the public gallery while Ms Hussain burst into tears.

Outside the court she said: “The damage done to my reputation and image can never be undone.

“The laws on hate speech must serve to protect us more, but this trial shows that these rules are being weaponised to target ethnic minorities.

“It goes without saying that this ordeal has been agonising for my family and I. Instead of enjoying my pregnancy I’ve been vilified by the media, I’ve lost my career, I’ve been dragged through the court system.”

But, she said, “I’m more determined than ever to continue using my voice” for Palestinians.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has held “productive” talks with US President Joe Biden about Ukraine – but he did not signal any decision on allowing Kyiv to fire long-range missiles into Russia.

Sir Keir said the talks in Washington concentrated on “strategy”, rather than a “particular step or tactic”.

The White House said the pair had also expressed “deep concern about Iran and North Korea’s provision of lethal weapons to Russia”.

Early on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had launched over 70 Iranian-made drones across Ukraine overnight, and that his country needed more air defence and long-range capabilities “to protect life and our people”.

• Analysis: Starmer-Biden talks were about second-guessing Putin
• What are Storm Shadow missiles and why are they crucial for Ukraine?
• Ukraine in maps: Tracking the war with Russia

“We are working on this with all Ukrainian partners,” he said.

Ahead of the talks at the White House, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Western nations not to let Ukraine fire long-range missiles at Russia.

Putin said such a move would represent Nato’s “direct participation” in the Ukraine war.

But former defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme Nato should let Ukraine fire long-range missiles in Russia in spite of Putin’s threats, adding that wrangling was just benefiting the Russian president.

“I’m just disappointed that it’s yet again another tug of war around another capability,” the former Conservative MP said.

Kurt Volker, former US special representative for Ukraine negotiations said Putin’s comments were made to prevent further Western action.

“The reason Putin says those things is to achieve the result of deterring us from doing things – not that it has any bearing on what he’s really going to do or really thinks,” he told the Today programme.

Commenting on the debate over long-range missiles, he said the US “overplays the sense that this is a new red line that this would be so provocative to Russia that it would create some kind of new escalation”.

Addressing reporters ahead of his meeting with Sir Keir at the White House, Biden said: “I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin”.

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

However, Zelensky has repeatedly called on Kyiv’s Western allies to authorise such use, saying it is the only way to bring about an end to the war.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukrainian cities and front lines have been under daily bombardment from Russia.

Many of the missiles and glide bombs that hit Ukraine’s military positions, blocks of flats, energy facilities and hospitals are launched by Russian aircraft deep inside Russia.

Kyiv says not being allowed to hit the bases from which these attacks are launched hinders its self-defence capability.

The UK previously said Ukraine had a “clear right” to use British-provided weapons for “self-defence” which “does not preclude operations inside Russia”, following Kyiv’s surprise cross-border incursion last month.

However, this excludes the use of long-range Storm Shadow missiles in territory outside Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders.

The US provided long-range missiles to Ukraine earlier this year, but like Kyiv’s other Western allies these have not been authorised for use on targets deep inside Russia.

Asked if he was intimidated by Putin’s threats of a potential war with Nato, Sir Keir said “the quickest way to resolve” the war in Ukraine “lies through what Putin actually does”.

Sir Keir said the White House meeting with Biden was an opportunity to discuss the strategy in relation to Ukraine, “not just a particular step or tactic”.

The pair also discussed the situation in the Middle East, where the Israel-Gaza war has been raging for nearly a year, and “other areas across the world”, Sir Keir added.

He told reporters they would get another opportunity to discuss these issues at the United Nations General Assembly next week.

In a separate briefing on Friday, ahead of the two leaders’ meeting, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Washington was not planning any change in the limits it has placed on Ukraine’s use of US-made weapons to hit Russian territory.

Earlier on Friday, Moscow expelled six British diplomats, revoking their accreditation and accusing them of spying.

The country’s security service, the FSB, said in a statement it had received documents indicating Britain’s involvement in inflicting “a strategic defeat” on Russia. The accusations were dismissed by the UK Foreign Office as “completely baseless”.

In an interview with the BBC, UK defence analyst Justin Crump said Putin was testing the new Labour government and the outgoing Biden administration.

“Ultimately Russia already supplies weapons to the UK’s adversaries, and is already engaged in ‘active measures’ such as subversion, espionage, sabotage, and information/cyber operations against Nato members’ interests.

“This may all accelerate, but picking a fight against all of Nato is not something Russia can afford given how hard they’re struggling against just Ukraine,” Mr Crump added.

Also on Friday, the US announced new sanctions against the Russian media channel RT, accusing it of being a “de facto arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus”.

The top US diplomat, Antony Blinken, told reporters RT is part of a network of Russian-backed media outlets, which have sought to covertly “undermine democracy in the United States”.

In response to US allegations that RT had sought to influence elections, the broadcaster’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan – who was sanctioned by the US last week – said they were excellent teachers, adding that many RT staff had studied in the US, and with US funding.

Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said there should be a “new profession” in the US, of specialist in sanctions imposed on Russia.

The situation is critical, a Ukrainian military officer in the east told the BBC near the front line south of Pokrovsk.

Russia’s military strategy now appears to be surrounding the city, which is a key transportation hub in the region.

The officer, who preferred to stay anonymous, said his military leadership want to hold their positions at all costs, often leading to the loss of troops and resources.

That approach, he says, was resulting in a number of “cauldrons”, large territories surrounded by the Russian forces.

One of them is south of Pokrovsk – between Nevelske, Hirnyk and Krasnohorivka.

“We are not planning to advance towards the city of Donetsk any time soon, so why are we holding positions near Nevelske when we’re losing Hirnyk?” said the officer.

Far better to retreat to Hirnyk, he believes, with a minimum loss of resources and hold those positions.

“When your enemy has more people and resources than you do, this strategy is reckless,” the Ukrainian officer added.

“Look at the Donetsk region, it looks like a squid. [To defend all the] tentacles, you need a far bigger number of positions, observation posts. You need to hold back far bigger assault groups because the Russians are trying to attack from all sides.”

So, instead of withdrawing and reduce the length of the line they need to defend, the officer says, brigades get wiped out fighting along the entire perimeter of the “cauldron” simply because the main criteria of success for generals is to hold positions.

Roman Pohorily, an analyst and co-founder of the Deep State map that monitors the latest frontline developments in Ukraine, says Ukrainian troops have now pulled back from the village of Nevelske to avoid an encirclement.

That means the threat of being trapped is less acute, but the military officer at the front says pulling back should have been done long before.

Lives and resources have been wasted on something that they couldn’t hold anyway, he argues.

Russian troops are now advancing towards Kurakhove, a city 35km (21 miles) south of Pokrovsk. Ukrainian forces in that area confirm the fighting in their sectors has intensified lately.

This development is also reflected in the daily briefings of Ukraine’s General Staff. On Thursday they reported that there were 32 clashes in the Pokrovsk direction and 48 in the Kurakhove direction.

“They’re trying to strengthen their flanks so that they can get closer to Pokrovsk, half encircle it and then start erasing the city to the ground,” says Maj Serhiy Tsekhotsky from the 59th Brigade.

Lt Col Oleh Demyanenko, who commands a tank battalion of the 110th brigade, also says that Russian forces are now pushing along the sides, in addition to a direct assault on Pokrovsk.

However, he claims that the Russians are now focusing mostly on the southern flank – that’s the Kurakhove direction.

Russian troops assault Ukrainian positions with small groups and often they’re not accompanied by armoured vehicles, soldiers say.

“They send two or three people who try to reach a certain point in the field,” explains Maj Tsekhotsky. “Then others try to get to that point as well. And when they have 10-15 people, they try to attack us.”

What makes the Kurakhove area challenging both to defend and to advance is that it’s flat, says Nazar Voytenkov from the 33rd Brigade.

“We constantly shell fields. Russians lose their vehicles and people.”

He says his brigade is successfully holding its position on the front line.

Kurakhove is linked to Pokrovsk with roads that are part of the infrastructure to move troops and supplies on the front line.

If the Russians take that city, then they can go north to attack Pokrovsk from a new direction, says analyst Roman Pohorily.

Another possibility is that they might attack Ukrainian troops in Vuhledar from behind, he adds. That’s a city on the southern part of the Donbas frontline that the Russians have been trying to seize since the beginning of their full-scale invasion.

Strategic mistakes made in the past mean that there is only one way left to defend Pokrovsk and stop the Russians seizing the entire Donetsk region, according to the officer on the front line.

“To have another Bakhmut”, in his words, referring to the city in eastern Ukraine that Kyiv defended for nearly a year before retreating, with the city in ruins.

“[They] will throw a lot of people and let them die there.”

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.

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

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

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

As election day approaches, we’ll be keeping track of the polls and seeing what effect the campaign has on the race for the White House.

Just over 67 million people tuned in to watch Harris and Trump go head to head in the debate in Pennsylvania on 10 September. But what do the polls tell us about who won?

A Reuters/Ipsos poll of 1,400 registered voters who had heard at least something about the debate found that 53% said Harris won and 24% said Trump won. It also suggested Harris had a lead of five points over her rival nationally, 47% to 42% – up from 45% to 41% in August.

A YouGov poll of 1,400 adults in the US had similar conclusions – of those who had watched the debate, 55% said Harris won and 25% said Trump. Even so, it found no change in voting intentions, with Harris having the same lead of 46% to 45% as before the debate.

There was also no bump for Harris in a Morning Consult poll of 3,300 likely voters that put her lead at 50% to 45% – although Trump was down one point from 46% in their poll before the debate.

The data we have at the moment suggests that although a majority of those watching the debate felt Harris came out on top, her performance might not necessarily translate to more votes because so many Americans have already made their minds up on who they are supporting.

• Anthony Zurcher analysis: Who won the Harris-Trump debate?
• Watch key moments from Harris-Trump clash

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

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

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

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

That’s because the US uses an electoral college system, in which each state is given a number of votes roughly in line with the size of its population. A total of 538 electoral college votes are up for grabs, so a candidate needs to hit 270 to win.

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

• What is the electoral college?

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

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

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

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

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

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

You can read more about the 538 methodology here.

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

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

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

• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
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• EXPLAINER: Seven swing states that could decide election
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• Read more about: Kamala Harris | Donald Trump | US election