Romania has set up displacement camps and launched rescue operations after floods killed at least four people and destroyed thousands of homes in the east of the country.

Military boats and planes are being used to move people to safety, and Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu has said the priority now is to prevent further loss of life.

Recent days have seen torrential rain sweep through central and eastern Europe, swelling rivers and triggering flood warnings in the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary.

The flood barriers in Czech capital Prague have been raised, while in parts of Poland residents have been evacuated.

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 there was a “difficult situation” in the areas surrounding four rivers.

In the southwest, the River Biala has exceed safe levels by two meters, and there is particular concern about the nearby towns of Morow and Glucholazy.

Glucholazy resident Piotr Jakubiec said he had prepared sandbags and pumps to divert the water but that it was “impossible to predict what’s going to happen”.

“This is the second time in my life that I’ve seen such a phenomenon. It’s a nightmare for the people who live here,” he said.

Another resident, Zofia Owsiaka, said that everyone in the town was “scared” and that there seemed to be “no hope of the rain stopping”.

“Of course I’m scared. Water is the most powerful force of nature. Everyone is scared,” she said.

In the town of Wroclaw, thousands of residents had to use the staircases of the high-rise blocks because the lifts were shut amid flooding fears, local media reported.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has sought to reassure the public that the forecasts are “not overly alarming” and that the threat does not extend across the whole country.

In the Czech Republic, the highest flood alert had been declared in 38 different locations.

In Prague, flood barriers have been raised, embankments have been closed to the public, and the zoo has been closed.

On Friday morning, a one-metre-thick steel gate was used to close off the so-called Devil’s Canal or , which runs through the city.

The gate is part of a nationwide network of flood defences installed to prevent a repeat of catastrophic damage caused by flooding in 1997 and 2002.

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.

In Austria, which officials say experienced its hottest August since records began, many regions are expecting 10-20cm of rain in a matter of days. In parts of the north, over 20cm is forecast.

Storm warning centre UWZ said some parts will see previous records for the entire month of September “surpassed in just a few days”.

Manuel Kelemen, a forecaster for Puls24 TV, said that “what we’re experiencing is extraordinary, if not unprecedented”.

Flooding and landslides are also possible, with gale force winds expected in capital Vienna, and heavy snowfall in the west has also caused travel disruption.

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

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.

For months, an unusual monument sat in an oak-lined square at the heart of Tasmania’s capital: a pair of severed bronze feet.

A statue of renowned surgeon-turned-premier William Crowther had loomed over the park in Hobart for more than a century. But one evening in May, it was chopped down at the ankles and the words “what goes around” graffitied on its sandstone base.

It was a throwback to another night more than 150 years ago, when Crowther allegedly broke into a morgue, sliced open an Aboriginal leader’s head and stole his skull – triggering a grim tussle over the remaining body parts.

Tasmania had become the centre of coloniser efforts to eradicate Aboriginal people in Australia. And the sailor on the slab – William Lanne – was touted as the last man on the island, making his remains a twisted trophy for white physicians.

Some see Crowther as an unfairly maligned man of his time, and his effigy as an important part of the state’s history, warts and all.

But for Lanne’s descendants, it represents colonial brutality, the dehumanising myth that Tasmanian Aboriginal people are extinct, and the whitewashing of the island’s past.

“You walk around the city anywhere and you’d never know Aborigines were here,” Aboriginal activist Nala Mansell says.

Now the dismembered statue has become a symbol of a city – and a nation – struggling to reckon with its darkest chapters.

Few places encapsulate the issue quite like Risdon Cove – called piyura kitina by the Palawa Aboriginal people.

Tucked beside a creek, a monument proudly marks it as the first British settlement on what was then called Van Diemen’s Land.

For Tasmanian Aboriginal people, though, this hillside on the outskirts of Hobart is “ground zero for invasion”.

“It’s the first landing and not coincidentally the first massacre [of our people],” Nunami Sculthorpe-Green tells the BBC one overcast afternoon.

Startled from their reverie, flurries of native hens – which piyura kitina is named after – scatter over the mossy grass as we arrive.

A wallaby hastily bounds towards sparse gum trees. It’s from that direction that Mumirimina men, women and children would have come down the slope on 3 May 1804, singing as they hunted kangaroos.

They were met with muskets and cannons.

The events of that day – and the death toll – are disputed. What is not contested is that this marked the start of a determined effort by British settlers to get rid of the original Tasmanians, nine nations of up to 15,000 people.

War broke out and Aboriginal people were hunted across the island, the survivors rounded up and sent to what have been described as death camps.

“If that happened anywhere in the world today, it would be referred to as ethnic cleansing,” says Greg Lehman, a Palawa professor of history.

Ripped from his homelands as a child, Lanne survived two of those camps before living out his final years as a shipmate and beloved advocate for his people.

Even before he died of disease in 1869, aged only 34, letters show that powerful men in Hobart had begun scheming.

“There’s no way that that young man was going to be allowed to lie in a grave. No way,” historian Cassandra Pybus tells the BBC.

The theft of Aboriginal remains had long been normalised, she says, but reached a fever pitch in Tasmania as the number of its original inhabitants dwindled.

Lanne’s skull was sought to prove since-discredited theories about Tasmanian Aboriginal people – that they were the missing link between humans and Neanderthals, a distinct race so primitive they didn’t even know how to make fire.

Before he was buried, his hands and feet would also be cut off and pocketed by physicians. Some historians say his grave was robbed as well, and every bone in his body taken.

Crowther always denied any involvement in stealing Lanne’s remains – his backers called the allegations a witch hunt – but the town was horrified, and he was suspended from his honorary position at the hospital.

For First Nations people, who believe their spirits can only rest once returned to their land, what happened was especially distressing.

But within two weeks, Crowther was elected to state parliament, and he’d soon rise to be Tasmania’s premier for an unremarkable six months.

By contrast, Lanne’s skull appears to have wound up on the other side of the globe at a UK university, and his people were soon declared extinct.

Except they were not.

Today’s Palawa people trace their ancestry to a dozen women who survived, while other groups – which some do not recognise as Aboriginal – also say they descend from a handful of people who managed to evade capture in the 1800s.

Yet, for the past 150 years, Tasmanian Aboriginal people say they have been fighting to be visible, in the history pages and in everyday life.

The lie that they were extinct is largely blamed on outdated views about ethnic identity. But others say it was also a strategic decision – to deny Tasmanian Aboriginal people rights, and to snuff out their culture.

The impact has been devastating. Many Palawa people speak of being persecuted for their Indigenous blood in one breath and denied their identity because of their white ancestry in the next.

Even now, many feel there are huge swathes of their history missing – or wilfully ignored.

Nala points out all she was taught about Tasmanian Aboriginal culture and history at her Hobart school was a brief lesson on boomerangs and didgeridoos – although her people used neither.

And aside from a walking track named after Truganini – Lanne’s wife and a leader in her own right – there are no sites celebrating Aboriginal people around the city.

“The way they tell stories about Aboriginal people… they want you to think that it’s somewhere really far away from where you are, and that it’s something that happened a really long time ago,” Nunami says.

Unimpressed, the 30-year-old history graduate started Black Led Tours to fill the gap.

“I realised that I was walking to work the exact same way Truganini used to walk her dogs. And I realised that my parents met at the pub where William Lanne died. I also realised that the Crowther statue was right next to my bus stop.

“And I thought: does everybody know that this is right here, where we live and where we work?”

When unveiling the effigy in 1889, the then-premier said Crowther was not “a perfect man”, but one who spent his time doing good.

His scandal overlooked, until recently he was remembered for offering free health care to the poor.

That rankles Tasmanian Aboriginal people like Nala: “It’s just a kick in the guts.”

As spokeswoman for the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, she led a renewed campaign to take down the memorial.

“To us, it would be no different to having a statue of Martin Bryant,” she says, referring to the gunman who massacred 35 people at nearby Port Arthur in 1996.

But some, like Jeff Briscoe – who lost the legal case to prevent the statue’s removal – believe the sculpture has priceless heritage value as the only memorial in the state “funded totally by the public”.

“At the time, it was a significant memorial and everyone was proud of it. In 2024, should the perceptions of a few people override all that?

“It’s not as if he was going around shooting people… he maybe had been involved in the mutilation of a body, but they all were.

“They’re bringing the bar down so low that no memorial from colonial times will be safe in Australia.”

Cassandra Pybus says there is no doubt that Crowther did mutilate Lanne, citing letters he wrote. However, she had argued, like Mr Briscoe, that taking down the statue would set a dangerous precedent, because “everybody was racist”.

She had wanted it to remain so the site could be used to educate people about how the first Tasmanians were treated.

The statue’s fate divided even Crowther’s living descendants, with some publicly supporting the calls for removal, and others distressed by them.

Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds says the council voted to remove the statue in 2022 “as a commitment to telling the truth of our city’s history, and as an act of reconciliation with the Aboriginal community” – the first decision of its kind in Australia.

They did it after a rigorous consultation and with the support of the “silent majority”, she adds.

Ultimately, she says, the statue is a sign of how desperate Crowther was to repair his reputation, not his significance to the state: “[He’s] not that important.”

But while the council worked through red tape, some grew impatient and took it down themselves.

For Lanne’s descendants, their relief at the long-awaited fall of the statue is tinged with pain. They feel Lanne has been reduced to his death.

“He had a whole life… and just as he advocated for our people’s rights, we will advocate for his story to be remembered and him to be respected for who he was,” Nunami says.

The Crowther statue is not unique. Countless similar landmarks or monuments – which joke about massacres, include racial slurs or celebrate alleged killers – are still standing across Australia.

Many, like Greg, believe removing or renaming them could be a natural starting point for the “truth-telling” the country needs, to reconcile with its First Peoples, the oldest living culture on the planet.

“You’d think that it was just a bunch of happy free settlers and not-so-happy convicts who jumped off the First Fleet… and bingo, there you’ve got modern Australia,” he says.

“For Australia to have an honest and powerful relationship with itself, it must have an honest relationship with the past.”

But after a proposal for an Indigenous political advisory body was defeated at a referendum last year, any movement towards a national truth-telling inquiry has stalled – though many states are setting up their own.

There are still many, like Jeff Briscoe, who believe a “truth-telling” process would be a divisive and unnecessary rehashing of the past – views echoed by a bloc of conservative politicians who also oppose a treaty.

“Nowadays people want Aborigines to stand in front of them and say welcome to our country. They want us to dance for them. They want us to teach them our language. They don’t mind if we put some of our paintings in the mall,” Nala says.

“But if you talk about… any type of benefit for the Aboriginal community, or taking back anything that was stolen from us, it’s a completely different ballgame.”

However she is among those who feel like the tide is slowly turning.

“The Crowther statue… is the first time I’ve ever thought, ‘Wow, white people – they’re starting to get it’,” Nala says.

The council was still deciding what should replace the sculpture when it met its unexpected end.

But many wanted the severed feet to remain in the square – as is – arguing they made a wryly “funny” and “profound” statement.

However earlier this week, the council plucked the ankles from their perch, to reunite them with the rest of the effigy, citing heritage law requirements.

But Nunami says even the now empty plinth illustrates the story of Crowther and Lanne far better than the statue ever did.

“We get to say we, as the public, learnt, we grew, and we changed the narrative of this place… Look here, we cut that down.”

When I started at BBC News three years ago, a work friend gave me some advice about my new colleague Huw Edwards.

“You can be funny,” they said. “But don’t be funnier than Huw.

“You can be clever, but don’t be too clever.”

It was a light-hearted warning about a presenter who, back then, was top of the pack, highly regarded by many in the newsroom for his brilliance, his wit and his diligent professionalism.

But in the past year, Edwards has gone from being king of the BBC newsroom – paid almost as much as the director general – to a convicted sex offender who on Monday will be sentenced for making indecent images of children.

He has admitted having 41 indecent images, which had been sent to him by another man on WhatsApp. They included seven category A images – the most serious classification. Two involved a child aged about seven to nine.

All the abused children in these images have experienced the worst of humanity. They are victims of depravity.

Before we learnt of his offences, there had been a lingering sympathy for Edwards from some colleagues.

Discovering that the presenter was guilty of such horrendous crimes rocked people in the newsroom to their core.

One BBC staffer speaks of “feeling sick”.

Another describes it as “a bombshell”.

“We were frozen watching those images of him wearing his sunglasses walking to court. Was it defiance? Was it shame? Nobody knows.

“There’s upset and anger at what he’s done, the levels he’s fallen to, how it’s impacted the rest of us and what it’s done to the BBC.”

For staff, particularly those who worked alongside him, it’s been a difficult year.

“There have been so many twists and turns, it has felt like a blow every time another horror has been unveiled. It has felt unending.”

When the Sun newspaper published its revelations in July 2023 about an unnamed presenter paying a “young person” for sexually explicit images, there was shock.

Many of us knew from the start that the presenter was Edwards because he had disappeared from the presenting rota.

It was a testing story for me and my colleagues to cover.

Every word we said and wrote was scrutinised and yet we knew so little about the facts ourselves. Supported by brilliant producers and editors, I reported the story as I understood it.

But many – both inside and outside the BBC – argued Edwards’ privacy had been invaded. And having to report about a colleague – not just any colleague but the face of News at Ten – was relentless.

When his name was revealed, and we learned of his mental health struggles and that the police said there had been no criminality in that case, some even felt sympathy and concern.

Then for nine months we heard nothing official – until a terse statement in April that he had resigned from the BBC.

With no warm words about Edwards in that statement, there was a clue that relations had entirely broken down. Even so, nobody was prepared for what was to come.

BBC chair Samir Shah told the House of Lords’ communications and digital committee last week that he and other colleagues “feel angry and betrayed”.

When he sent an email to staff after we learned that Edwards had been charged and pleaded guilty, he called the former broadcaster “the villain of this piece”.

A senior insider told me: “No-one wants to be in a situation where your flagship presenter, known up and down the country, and the voice of trust in everyone’s household, is convicted of a crime of this nature.

“It’s so far from your radar of things you might have to deal with.”

I understand there was widespread fury in the senior team that Edwards had denied all wrongdoing while he knew he’d had images of serious child abuse on his mobile phone.

Both staff and management feel bruised.

Edwards has been involved in serious offences involving children. We must never forget the victims of these crimes.

Edwards is the criminal, not the BBC, although some suspect he is being used as a way to bash the organisation for ideological reasons.

As one senior insider put it to me, with a heavy dose of sarcasm, “at the end of the day, it’s always the BBC’s fault”.

But the corporation has faced some important questions through this bruising year.

It has asked Edwards to return about £200,000 paid to him in the five months after he was arrested before he resigned.

But why did it continue to pay his salary once top brass knew of the arrest? Some HR and legal voices have told me that the BBC behaved appropriately, balancing its duty of care and contractual responsibilities to an employee with wider reputational concerns.

But director general Tim Davie, speaking to the Lords committee, questioned whether the BBC could have been “more muscular in the situation with regard to payment”.

A very small group of senior people knew about the arrest in November (and we’re told the police had asked the BBC to keep it confidential).

They were informed that some of the images were category A, although they did not suspect the photographs involved such young children. The Sun story concerned a young person who was 17 initially – that context led to a belief that the images involved older teens.

Even so, they knew the images included category A photographs. BBC News staff I’ve spoken to, including senior people, do not believe that the civil enforcement of an employment contract would have kept him in his job, when the allegations were so serious.

A “more muscular” approach, certainly in hindsight, would have helped protect the BBC’s reputation.

The disciplinary process the BBC launched into Edwards after the Sun claims – including details of other allegations made about him – has never been published. I have been told that’s standard across organisations, but it’s led to accusations of a lack of transparency.

The BBC has launched an independent review to strengthen workplace culture. The chair told staff he is “particularly exercised by the continuing problem of how we handle bad behaviour by those in power at the BBC”.

Some I have spoken to say they don’t feel reassured.

“The review that was done into the complaints made against him has been suppressed. So there’s no faith. It’s convenient for the BBC that he doesn’t work for the BBC any more. So they’ve done away with it.”

One senior figure rejects the idea of “a huge backlash about that”.

Another insider points to the “complex” power structures in media organisations where managers have power but the “talent” are also powerful because of their influence and status.

“The companies who employ them have to be even more vigilant, and on top of those power dynamics.”

When Edwards boarded a train from Edinburgh to London after presenting the News at Ten from the Scottish capital on 5 July 2023, his career and his place in TV history seemed secure.

He’d negotiated a £40,000 payrise taking his salary up to more than £475,000. He was so trusted by the BBC, he’d been chosen as the person to announce the death of the Queen.

A talented pianist, he’d also been announced as a new face of the BBC Proms and was due to appear on the One Show that week to talk about it.

His appearance was shelved. He would not host his first Prom, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, and he had presented the news for the last time.

In a face-to-face meeting the day after presenting from Edinburgh, Edwards was told of the Sun’s claims. A few days later, he was suspended.

Just last week, he apparently updated his Linkedin profile to say he is “available for no charge to charities and not-for-profit organisations” (the profile appears to have since been deleted).

That raised eyebrows among some colleagues – an insight perhaps into the mind of someone they once thought they knew.

When he presented the News at Ten, Edwards would sit on a bank of desks in the middle of the newsroom, opposite whoever was editing the Six and Ten o’clock news programmes.

With his long-standing journalistic pedigree and status in the BBC firmament, colleagues deferred to him and, editorially, he often got his way.

That’s fairly common with the big beasts of broadcasting, and there was nobody bigger than Edwards.

When my friend warned me, as I took up my job, to keep him on side, it made me think of Henry VIII in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, with Edwards a TV presenter Tudor monarch.

“You can be merry with the king, you can share a joke with him,” Mantel writes in Bring Up The Bodies.

But courtiers compare Henry VIII to a tamed lion.

“You tousle its mane and pull its ears, but all the time you’re thinking, those claws, those claws, those claws.”

Venezuelan authorities say they have arrested three US citizens, two Spaniards and one Czech citizen suspected of plotting to destabilise the country.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said hundreds of weapons had also been seized, and that the detainees were plotting to assassinate Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and other top officials.

It comes two days after Washington sanctioned 16 Venezuelan officials who are closely aligned with President Maduro, following his disputed election victory.

The Venezuelan government said the Spaniards detained were linked to Madrid’s National Intelligence Centre (CNI). However, Spanish government sources have told local media the two do not belong to the intelligence organisation.

In a news conference on Saturday Cabello said: “The CIA is leading this operation, and that does not surprise us but they, the National Intelligence Centre of Spain, have always maintained a low profile knowing that the CIA operates in this area.

“These two detainees even tell us about a group of mercenaries they are looking for to bring to Venezuela with very clear objectives to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, myself, and another group of comrades who are leading our party and our revolution.”

The US has rejected the accusations.

“Any claims of US involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro are categorically false,” according to the State Department, who says Washington “continues to support a democratic solution to the political crisis in Venezuela”.

The arrests come amid a feud between the Maduro government and the US and Spain.

Cabello said the Spaniards were detained in Puerto Ayacucho, south of the capital Caracas.

Spanish authorities have requested more information from Venezuela, with the Spanish embassy requesting access to those detained.

“They contacted French mercenaries, they contacted mercenaries from eastern Europe and they are in an operation to try to attack our country,” Cabello said, adding that 400 firearms were confiscated in the operation.

On Friday, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil summoned Spain’s ambassador in Caracas to protest at a minister’s description of the Venezuelan government as a “dictatorship”, after days of mounting bilateral tensions.

On Thursday, the US Treasury said it was targeting “key officials involved in Maduro’s fraudulent and illegitimate claims of victory and his brutal crackdown on free expression following the election”.

Maduro was declared the winner of July’s presidential election by Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), which is closely aligned with the government.

But the CNE has not published any detailed voting tallies supporting a Maduro victory. Data published by the opposition suggests its candidate, Edmundo González, won instead.

It was the submersible that promised passengers the trip of a lifetime. A chance to descend 3,800m (12,500ft) to the Atlantic depths to visit the wreck of the Titanic.

But last year, a dive by Oceangate’s Titan sub went tragically wrong. The vessel suffered a catastrophic failure as it neared the sea floor, killing all five people onboard.

The US Coast Guard is holding a public hearing on 16 September to examine why the disaster happened, from the sub’s unconventional design to ignored safety warnings and the lack of regulation in the deep.

Titan began its descent beneath the waves on the morning of 18 June 2023.

On board were Oceangate’s CEO Stockton Rush, British explorer Hamish Harding, veteran French diver Paul Henri Nargeolet, the British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman.

Later that day, after the craft failed to resurface, the US Coast Guard was notified, sparking a vast search and rescue operation.

The world watched and waited for news of the missing sub. But on 22 June, wreckage was discovered about 500m (1,600ft) from Titanic’s bow. Titan had imploded just one hour and 45 minutes into the dive.

These are five key questions that still need to be answered.

Those on Titan could stay in contact with the support ship, the Polar Prince, with text messages sent through its onboard communications system. The log of these exchanges could reveal if there were any indications that the sub was failing.

The vessel also had an acoustic monitoring device – essentially mics fixed to the sub listening for signs it was buckling or breaking.

“Stockton Rush was convinced that if there was an imminent failure of the submersible, they would get an audio warning on that system,” explains Victor Vescovo, a leading deep sea explorer.

But he said he was highly sceptical that this would have provided enough time for the sub to return to the surface. “The issue is how quickly would that warning happen?”

If there were no apparent problems during the descent and alarms failed to sound, those on board could have been unaware of their imminent fate.

The implosion itself was instantaneous, there would have been no time for the passengers to even register what was happening.

Forensic experts have been examining Titan’s wreckage to find the root of the failure.

There were several issues with its design.

The viewport window was only rated to a depth of 1,300m (4,300ft) by its manufacturer, but Titan was diving almost three times deeper.

Titan’s hull was also an unusual shape – cylindrical, rather than spherical. Most deep-sea subs have a spherical hull, so the effect of the crushing pressure of the deep is distributed equally.

The sub’s hull was also made out of carbon fibre, an unconventional material for a deep-sea vessel.

Metals such as titanium are most commonly used as they are reliable under immense pressures.

“Carbon fibre is considered to be a material that is unpredictable [in the deep ocean],” explains Patrick Lahey, CEO of Triton Submarines, a leading manufacturer.

Every time Titan went down to the Titanic – and it had made multiple dives – the carbon fibre was compressed and damaged.

“It was getting progressively weaker because the fibres were breaking,” he said.

The junctions between different materials also gave cause for concern. The carbon fibre was attached to two rings of titanium, creating weak points.

Patrick Lahey said the commercial sub industry had a longstanding, unblemished safety record.

“The Oceangate contraption was an aberration,” he told BBC News.

Ships, aircraft and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) were scrambled to the Atlantic to try to find Titan.

A couple of days into the search, there were reports of underwater noises picked up by a search plane’s sonar, raising the possibility they were coming from the sub.

ROVs were sent to locate the source but found nothing.

It is still not clear what the sounds were – the ocean is noisy and even more so during an operation like this.

A more pertinent subsea sound was detected by the US Navy’s sonar system at the time the sub went missing – an acoustic signal consistent with an implosion. The information was only made public on the day the remains of Titan were found.

It is not known when the US Coast Guard was told of the noise – or whether the families and friends waiting on the sub’s support ship were informed.

Eventually the deep-sea robots returned to where Titan had gone missing and the wreckage was found.

Rory Golden, who was on the Oceangate expedition when contact was lost, recently told the BBC those on board the surface vessel experienced four days of fear and “false hope”.

Many were concerned about Oceangate’s sub.

Victor Vescovo says he was so worried, he had urged several passengers against diving on Titan – including his friend Hamish Harding, one of the five who died.

“I told him, in no uncertain terms, that he should not get in the submersible,” he said.

Fears about safety were also brought directly to Oceangate – including by the company’s former director of marine operations, David Lochridge, who assessed the sub while it was being developed.

US court documents from 2018 show that Lochridge had identified numerous “serious safety concerns” and the lack of testing could “subject passengers to potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible”.

Engineers from the Marine Technology Society also said that Oceangate’s experimental approach could result in “negative outcomes (from minor to catastrophic)” in a letter shared with Stockton Rush.

In an email exchange shown to BBC News last year, deep-sea specialist Rob McCallum told Rush that the sub should not be used for commercial deep dive operations and was placing passengers in a “dangerous dynamic”.

In response, Rush said he had “grown tired of industry players who try to use a safety argument to stop innovation” and dismissed warnings that he would kill someone as “baseless”.

With the death of Oceangate’s CEO, we will never be able to ask why he chose not to listen to these concerns. But the public hearings could reveal who else at the company knew about them – and why no action was taken.

Deep-sea submersibles can go through an extensive safety assessment carried out by independent, specialist, marine organisations such as the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) or DNV (a global accreditation organisation based in Norway).

Oceangate chose not to put Titan through this process.

The assessment would have confirmed whether the vessel – from its design through to construction, testing and operations – met certain standards.

Most operators opt to have their deep-sea subs certified – but it is not mandatory.

Rush described his sub as “experimental” and, in a blog post in 2019, he argued that certification “slowed down innovation”.

In an email exchange with Rob McCallum, he said he didn’t need a piece of paper to show Titan was safe, and that his own protocols and the “informed consent” of passengers were enough.

The passengers on Titan paid up to $250,000 (£191,135) for a place. They all had to sign a liability waiver.

Irish businessman Oisin Fanning made two dives in Titan in 2022 – the last before the sub’s fatal disaster.

He said the Oceangate team took safety seriously, with extensive briefings before each descent. But it wasn’t made clear to him that Titan had not been certified.

“I would be lying if I said I didn’t think there had been something like that done already – that it conformed with certain norms,” he said.

“We all knew that the Titan was experimental. We were very confident, because obviously there’d been a few dives before that, and it seemed to be working well.”

The public hearings will last for two weeks. The hope is the answers it provides could prevent a disaster like this from happening again.

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.”

DePrince’s sister, Mia Mabinty DePrince, described being “in a state of shock and deep sadness” as “my beautiful sister is no longer here”.

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.

• Michaela DePrince: The war orphan who became a ballerina

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.”

“From the very beginning of our story back in Africa, sleeping on a shared mat in the orphanage, Michaela (Mabinty) and I used to make up our own musical theatre plays and act them out,” Mia wrote in a statement.

DePrince’s sister said the pair used to create their own ballets as children, “she would choreograph, and I was the composer and conductor”.

She “left her footprints in the sand and on so many stages across the world. She will be truly missed,” Mia added.

The two girls, who were mat-mates at the orphanage, were adopted by an American woman, Elaine DePrince.

In an interview with the BBC’s Newshour programme, DePrince’s siblings – Eric and Mia – said the family was grieving two deaths this week: Michaela’s and that of their mother Elaine.

“I had just gotten off the phone with my mum’s doctor with her news when I was alerted about my sister, it just didn’t seem believable.

“It was really hard to hear because I normally pick up the phone to call my mum with anything, and it occurred to me that I couldn’t call her,” Mia told the BBC.

Elaine enrolled then five-year-old DePrince in the Rock School of Dance in Philadelphia, making the 45-minute drive from New Jersey every day.

DePrince was an ambassador for the charity War Child, and her siblings say they hope to continue on her legacy.

Her brother, Eric DePrince, told the BBC he hopes the world can remember his sister “as someone who worked hard to improve the lives of 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.

The number of people taking ADHD medication is at a record high – and the NHS is feeling the strain as it tries to diagnose and treat the condition.

Since 2015, the number of patients in England prescribed drugs to treat ADHD has nearly trebled, and BBC research suggests that it would take eight years to assess all the adults on waiting lists.

Last year, ADHD was the second-most viewed condition on the NHS website. Concern about this rising demand has prompted the NHS in England to set up a taskforce.

So what’s going on and where will it end? Is ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) becoming more common? Are we just getting better at recognising it? Or is it being over-diagnosed?

It turns out it’s not just you and I who have been taken by surprise – so have the experts.

Dr Ulrich Müller-Sedgwick, the ADHD champion for the UK’s Royal College of Psychiatrists, says: “Nobody predicted that the demand would go up so massively over the last 15 years, and especially the last three years.” He’s been running adult ADHD clinics since 2007. At the time, he says, there were just a few of them.

ADHD is a fairly novel condition – it’s only 16 years since the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) officially recognised it in adults. When considering whether it might keep increasing, Dr Müller-Sedgwick argues that there are two different concepts to consider: prevalence and incidence.

Prevalence is the percentage of people who have ADHD – Dr Müller-Sedgwick predicts that will stay pretty steady at 3 to 4% of adults in the UK.

Incidence is the number of new cases – people getting a diagnosis. That’s where we’re seeing an increase. He explains: “What has changed is the number of patients we are diagnosing. It’s almost like the more we diagnose, the more word spreads.”

Prof Emily Simonoff echoes this. She is a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the King’s Maudsley Partnership for Children and Young People. She thinks about 5 to 7% of children have ADHD in the UK – and says: “It’s pretty similar across the world, that’s been consistent and it hasn’t actually risen.”

Prof Simonoff agrees that there’s been a “steep incline” in people coming forward for assessment since the pandemic – but says this comes after years of “long-term under-recognition”.

She points to statistics on ADHD drugs. She would expect about 3 to 4% of children in the UK to need ADHD medication, but in reality, only 1 to 2% are actually using it. She thinks this shows that we are still underestimating the scale of the issue.

Prof Simonoff explains: “I think that’s an important starting point for when we say, ‘My goodness, why are we seeing all these children now – are we over-identifying ADHD?’ We have under-diagnosed or under-recognised ADHD in the UK for many, many years.”

In other words, we can expect more people to be diagnosed with ADHD now because services are playing catch-up.

Thea Stein is chief executive of health think tank the Nuffield Trust. She’s got her own description for the recent increase in demand: “the Hump”. She says: “Diagnosis or desire to be diagnosed has risen because of knowledge and visibility – [it’s as] simple as that.”

According to Stein, the most immediate task is getting through the Hump, assessing the huge backlog of people on ADHD waiting lists. Then, in the longer-term, she thinks society will get better at spotting ADHD sooner in children. She hopes this will mean that they get better support from an early age, and take some of the pressure off adult services.

She says: “I have real optimism that we will come through this period of time to a much better place as a society. What I don’t have optimism about is that this is a quick fix.”

ADHD might be a new concept, but people struggling to concentrate is an old problem.

In 1798, Scottish doctor Sir Alexander Crichton wrote about a “disease of attention” with “an unnatural degree of mental restlessness.”

He explained: “When people are affected in this manner… they say they have the fidgets.”

ADHD goes beyond problems concentrating or being hyperactive, though. People with it can struggle regulating their emotions and impulses. It’s been linked to substance abuse and financial difficulties as well as higher rates of crime and even car crashes.

All the experts I speak to firmly agree on one point: it is much better for someone with ADHD to be diagnosed and treated as early as possible.

Dr Müller-Sedgwick says there’s a “risk of really bad outcomes”. But he lights up when he describes how diagnosis and treatment can transform lives.

He says: “I have seen so many patients getting better, getting back into work or back into education. I have seen parents who were going through family court proceedings who were able to be better parents.

“That’s why we work in this field, it’s a really rewarding part of mental health to work in.”

Currently, ADHD treatment revolves around medication and therapy, but there are other options on the horizon.

A patch worn by children with ADHD on their foreheads during sleep – connected to a device that sends stimulating pulses into the brain – is on sale in the United States. It’s not prescribed in the UK, but academics here and in the US are working on clinical trials looking into it.

Prof Katya Rubia is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at King’s College London – as she puts it, “My work over the last 30 years or so is basically imaging ADHD, understanding what is different in the brains [of people with ADHD].”

She explains that certain parts of ADHD brains, including the frontal lobe, are slightly smaller and also less active. Prof Rubia is trying to kickstart those areas of the brain, and is working on a study looking at the trigeminal nerve – it goes directly to the brain stem and can increase activity in the frontal lobe.

She says: “This is all very new. If we find an effect, we have a new treatment.” While that is yet to be proven, she does add: “If everything goes well, it could be on the market in two years.”

So, the hope is that, in the not-too-distant future, there will be more ways to treat ADHD without medication. In the meantime, though, the challenge is getting through that “hump” of people waiting to be assessed – with the belief that, over time, the increase in diagnoses should lessen.

See BBC Action Line for support on issues around ADHD

Read ADHD advice from the NHS

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

Hear two new episodes on BBC Sounds or here if you are outside the UK

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”.

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.

If the Duke of Sussex uses his 40th birthday to reflect on the past decade, he’ll have plenty to ponder.

Prince Harry will celebrate privately on Sunday, with his wife and children, in Montecito in California before heading off on a break with friends.

The last ten years of his life have been tumultuous.

Will the next decade be a smoother ride?

It’s not a question that’s easy to answer. As always with Harry and the Duchess of Sussex, views are polarised and entrenched.

I first met Prince Harry in the months before his 30th birthday. He’s now told the BBC it was a period in his life when he felt “anxious”.

Back then, we chatted about travelling by tube – something he told me he’d never done. He joked with a BBC colleague I was with. And he talked about his plans for the future away from the comfort and shelter the Army had provided.

I remember walking home thinking how restless Prince Harry had seemed.

Definitely chatty and entertaining. Enthusiastic and energised. But also restless.

I last met Prince Harry in May of this year. Now he’s a husband, father, ex-soldier, former working member of the royal family and resident of California. The chat about the London Underground felt like a lifetime ago.

We spent around an hour filming with him at a central London hotel where we watched him lead the games at a children’s party for one of his charities. He couldn’t resist joining in and was an impressive winner of the “who could eat a strawberry lace the fastest” competition.

In many ways we were watching the Harry of old. He was informal and fun. He mucked in and chatted to just about everyone.

In the noise of leaving royal life behind, this version of Prince Harry hasn’t been on show as often.

In recent weeks, there have been suggestions that we might see a bit more of Prince Harry in UK, that he was feeling the pull of his former home and reaching out to old friends and those he’d previously worked with about spending more time here.

But there is little evidence to back up those rumours.

One friend of Harry told me a return to the UK wasn’t on the cards. “Why would he give up everything he’s achieved there to return here? His life is now in America.”

But those close to him say he’d like to come over more regularly to work with the charities and organisations he supports.

Security is the problem. The row with the Home Office about the level of police protection he gets in the UK is ongoing.

The bottom line is Harry doesn’t feel his safety is guaranteed in the UK.

When he was here earlier in the year, he was offered a place to stay at a royal residence in London.

He turned it down believing his royal location would become public knowledge, attract media attention and make his movements around London difficult and risky.

Instead, he stayed under the radar, based with his team in a London hotel.

The physical distance between the prince and some of the organisations he works with has meant relationships have changed.

But Harry’s team from his Archewell Foundation and many of the projects I talked to said the prince was an active and engaged partner, even if he was thousands of miles away.

Later this month, he’ll be in New York working with a number of organisations including the Halo Trust, which helps clear landmines and rebuild communities in areas of conflict.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the Halo Trust set up a call between Harry and some of the organisation’s staff in Donbas, eastern Ukraine.

“This wasn’t a quick how are you doing, thinking of you. It was a long conversation and it really meant a lot to them,” said Louise Vaughan from the Halo Trust.

• Listen: Prince Harry at 40 – time to reconcile?

Back in Montecito, California, Harry’s life moves between the routine of the school run to hanging out with A-list friends.

There are occasional photos published of Harry walking the dogs or Meghan having lunch with friends but with their own security team they have been able to live a relatively normal existence.

Just last weekend, Harry and his Meghan were at the opening of a new bookshop in the town.

On the surface it appeared a relatively modest affair until you looked at the guest list – Oprah Winfrey, Ellen de Generes and her wife Portia de Rossi were there too.

The Montecito circle is exclusive, discreet and rich. It’s provided a lavish refuge for Harry and Meghan and given them a degree of protection from the public spotlight.

But the Duke needs to continue making money. Maintaining their home and security detail isn’t cheap.

The multi-million dollar deal with Netflix remains in place where other lucrative contracts have ended.

In December comes “Polo” – a series looking at the “elite world of professional polo”. It is a sport loved by generations of royals. Harry is the executive producer.

And in just weeks, the paperback version of Harry’s memoir “Spare” will be published, after the hardback sold six million copies and became the fastest selling non-fiction book of all time.

Unusually for a memoir of this kind, the new paperback won’t have any updates or additional chapters. There will be no take on the Coronation which the prince attended; no insight into how difficult it has been with his father and sister-in-law unwell.

Is this an olive branch from Prince Harry? A recognition that the bombshells revealed in the first version of “Spare” caused so much damage that to say anything else, after a challenging few months for the royal family, would be unpalatable?

Maybe.

The state of the relationship between Prince Harry and his royal family still fascinates.

And there’s some evidence on the smallest of shifts in family relations.

News of the King’s cancer diagnosis brought Harry straight back to the UK to see his father in February.

He was here in the UK for 24 hours and only spent around half an hour with the King. It was a strangely short visit that many found hard to understand.

But the fact that Harry flew over and the King made time to see him suggested there was potential for a fix in that fractured relationship.

It is a different story, for now, with his brother.

The Prince of Wales and his younger sibling do not talk. There is anger, frustration and bitterness that shows no sign of easing.

Harry’s TV interviews, book and public criticism of the royal family has been too much for his older brother and several other senior royals.

“I just can’t see a fix,” said a source who’d worked with William and Harry. “It’s been a long time now and they haven’t found a peace. Their lives are now very separate. It’s sad.”

As he reaches a milestone birthday, mending his broken family relationships will be complicated and slow. Some bonds feel like they could be beyond repair.

Prince Harry has made some life-changing choices over the past decade.

He has left behind the “anxious” and restless 30-year-old restless prince and replaced him with the 40-year-old royal outsider, “excited” about his next decade.

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 UK 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 ability to defend itself.

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.

How much is too much for a caffeine fix?

Prices like £5 in London or $7 in New York for a cup of coffee may be unthinkable for some – but could soon be a reality thanks to a “perfect storm” of economic and environmental factors in the world’s top coffee-producing regions.

The cost of unroasted beans traded in global markets is now at a “historically high level”, says analyst Judy Ganes.

Experts blame a mix of troubled crops, market forces, depleted stockpiles – and the world’s smelliest fruit.

So how did we get here, and just how much will it impact your morning latte?

In 2021, a freak frost wiped out coffee crops in Brazil, the world’s largest producer of Arabica beans – those commonly used in barista-made coffee.

This bean shortfall meant buyers turned to countries like Vietnam, the primary producer of Robusta beans, that are typically used in instant blends.

But farmers there faced the region’s worst drought in nearly a decade.

Climate change has been affecting the development of coffee plants, according to Will Firth, a coffee consultant based in Ho Chi Minh City, in turn impacting bean yields.

And then Vietnamese farmers pivoted to a smelly, yellow fruit – the durian.

The fruit – which is banned on public transport in Thailand, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong because of its odour – is proving popular in China.

And Vietnamese farmers are replacing their coffee crops with durian to cash in on this emerging market.

Vietnam’s durian market share in China almost doubled between 2023 and 2024, and some estimate the crop is five times more lucrative than coffee.

“There’s a history of growers in Vietnam being fickle in response to market price fluctuations, overcommitting, and then flooding the market with quantities of their new crop,” Mr Firth says.

As they flooded China with durian, Robusta coffee exports were down 50% in June compared to the previous June, and stocks were now “near depleted”, according to the International Coffee Organisation.

Exporters in Colombia, Ethiopia, Peru and Uganda have stepped up, but have not produced enough to ease a tight market.

“Right at [the] time when things started to rev up for demand of Robusta, is right when the world was scrambling for more supply,” explains Ms Ganes.

This means Robusta and Arabica beans are now trading at near-record highs on commodity markets.

Is the shifting global coffee economy actually impacting the price of your coffee on a high street? The short answer: potentially.

Wholesaler Paul Armstrong believes coffee drinkers may soon face the “crazy” prospect of paying more than £5 in the UK for their caffeine fix.

“It’s a perfect storm at the minute.”

Mr Armstrong, who runs Carrara Coffee Roasters based in the East Midlands, imports beans from South America and Asia, which are then roasted and sent to cafés around the UK.

He tells the BBC he recently increased his prices, hoping it would account for the higher asking prices – but says costs have “only intensified” since.

He adds that with some of his contracts ending in the coming months, cafés he serves will soon have to decide whether to pass the higher costs on to their customers.

Mr Firth says some segments of the industry will be more exposed than others, though.

“It’s really the commercial quantity coffee that will experience the most disuption. Instant coffee, supermarket coffee, stuff at the gas station – that’s all going up.”

Industry figures caution that a high market price for coffee may not necessarily translate into higher retail prices.

Felipe Barretto Croce, CEO of FAFCoffees in Brazil, agrees that consumers are “feeling the pinch” as consumer prices have risen.

But he argues that is “mostly due to inflationary costs in general”, such as rent and labour, rather than the cost of beans. Consultancy Allegra Strategies estimates beans contribute less than 10% of the price of a cup of coffee.

“Coffee is still very cheap, as a luxury good, if you make it at home.”

He also says that the cost of lower-quality beans rising means high-quality coffee may now be seen as better value.

“If you go into a speciality coffee shop in London and get a coffee, versus a coffee in Costa Coffee, the difference [in price] between that cup and the speciality coffee is much smaller than it used to be.”

But there is hope of price relief on the horizon.

The upcoming spring crop in Brazil, which produces a third of the world’s coffee, is now “crucial”, according to Mr Croce.

“What everyone is looking at is when the rains will return,” he says.

“If they return early, the plants should be healthy enough and the flowering should be good.”

But if the rains come as late as October, he adds, yield predictions for next year’s crop will fall and market stress will continue.

In the long term, climate change poses serious challenges for the global coffee industry.

A study from 2022 concluded that even if we drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the area most highly suited for growing coffee could decline by 50% by 2050.

One measure to future-proof the industry that has the support of Mr Croce is a “green premium” – a small tax levied on coffee given to farmers to invest in regenerative agricultural practices, which help protect and sustain the viability of farmlands.

So while smelly fruit is partly responsible for price rises now – a changing climate may ultimately strain the affordability of coffee in the years to come.

Stars of Baby Reindeer, The Bear and The Crown are among those gearing up for the Emmys, the television industry’s most prestigious awards ceremony.

Ripley, Shogun, Abbott Elementary, Slow Horses, 3 Body Problem and Only Murders in the Building are among the other shows competing for the top prizes in Los Angeles.

Big names in the running for acting honours include Idris Elba, Jennifer Aniston, Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster and Robert Downey Jr.

Sunday’s event comes just eight months after the last Emmys ceremony, which was delayed from its usual September slot to this January because of the Hollywood strikes.

This year’s hosts are Canadian father-and-son duo Eugene Levy and Dan Levy.

The pair are best known for starring together in and creating Schitt’s Creek, the sitcom that blew up during the first Covid lockdown and dominated the 2020 Emmy Awards.

Before that, dad Eugene, 77, had a long and successful career in film and television, with roles in American Pie and For Your Consideration, while Dan, 41, has appeared in Sex Education, Modern Family and Netflix film Good Grief.

“For two Canadians who won our Emmys in a literal quarantine tent, the idea of being asked to host this year in an actual theatre was incentive enough,” the pair said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to be able to raise a glass to this extraordinary season of television.”

Elsewhere, Selena Gomez, Billy Crystal, Viola Davis, Jimmy Kimmel, Christine Baranski, Lily Gladstone, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph and Steve Martin will all present individual awards.

It looks like some kind of West Wing reunion could be on the cards too, as Martin Sheen, Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, Jimmy Smits, Dulé Hill and Janel Moloney are all listed on the category presenters’ list.

A Happy Days reunion is also likely, with Ron Howard and Henry Winkler both set to appear as the show celebrates its 50th anniversary.

The Emmys split their nominations into three categories – comedy, drama and limited series.

Traditionally, the most prestigious category of the night is best drama series – and the same shows often win year after year.

Seven of the last nine years have seen either Succession or Game of Thrones take the top Emmy. But now both have ended, the field is open for a potential newcomer to take their place.

This year’s best drama nominees are 3 Body Problem, The Morning Show, Fallout, Shogun, The Gilded Age, Slow Horses and Mr and Mrs Smith, alongside another previous winner, The Crown.

Arguably the most interesting category this year is best limited series, where Baby Reindeer leads the field.

Scottish comedian Richard Gadd’s account of being stalked by a woman for several years, and being sexually abused by a male TV industry figure, has been the most talked about show of the year.

But the real-life woman who allegedly inspired the stalker character is suing Netflix for defamation, negligence and privacy violations. Could that take some of the shine off the show and cost it votes at the Emmys?

Baby Reindeer’s competitors for best limited series are Fargo, Lessons in Chemistry, Ripley and True Detective: Night Country.

Meanwhile, nominees in the comedy categories include Hacks, Reservation Dogs, Abbott Elementary, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Palm Royale, What We Do in the Shadows and Only Murders in the Building.

However, the comedy categories are likely to be dominated by The Bear, something which is in itself controversial because many people think the show isn’t a comedy and shouldn’t be competing there.

Far be it from us to speculate about why this show is submitted as a comedy – but some people might wonder if it’s because this category is a little easier to win, with less serious competition than in drama.

Having said that, the third season of The Bear has not been as acclaimed by critics or loved by fans as the first two, so there’s no guarantee it will score as many wins as its earlier seasons did.

Read more about the Emmy-nominated shows:

• Woman sues Netflix over Baby Reindeer character
• Shogun: A guide to the hit Japanese samurai epic as its finale cuts deep
• The Bear star on her first time directing the show
• Curb Your Enthusiasm: Larry David comedy concludes after 12 series
• Gary Oldman wants to star in Slow Horses ‘for the long run’
• 3 Body Problem: Game of Thrones creators swap dragons for aliens
• The Crown star on her shock when the Queen died

As usual, the main ceremony is taking place a week after the Creative Arts Emmys, which saw Dick Van Dyke and Jamie Lee Curtis among the winners.

The ceremony will begin at the Peacock Theatre in LA at 20:00 ET/17:00 PT on Sunday.

US viewers can watch it live on ABC, or on streaming service Hulu the next day.

In the UK, it will start at 01:00 BST on Monday morning. But no UK broadcaster is scheduled to show it.

Outstanding drama series

• The Crown
• Fallout
• The Gilded Age
• The Morning Show
• Mr & Mrs Smith
• Shogun
• Slow Horses
• 3 Body Problem

Outstanding comedy series

• Abbott Elementary
• The Bear
• Curb Your Enthusiasm
• Hacks
• Only Murders in the Building
• Palm Royale
• Reservation Dogs
• What We Do in the Shadows

Outstanding limited or anthology series

• Baby Reindeer
• Fargo
• Lessons in Chemistry
• Ripley
• True Detective: Night Country

Outstanding lead actor in a drama series

• Idris Elba – Hijack
• Donald Glover – Mr & Mrs Smith
• Walton Goggins – Fallout
• Gary Oldman – Slow Horses
• Hiroyuki Sanada – Shogun
• Dominic West – The Crown

Outstanding lead actress in a drama series

• Jennifer Aniston – The Morning Show
• Carrie Coon – The Gilded Age
• Maya Erskine – Mr & Mrs Smith
• Anna Sawai – Shogun
• Imelda Staunton – The Crown
• Reese Witherspoon – The Morning Show

Outstanding lead actor in a comedy series

• Matt Berry – What We Do in the Shadows
• Larry David – Curb Your Enthusiasm
• Steve Martin – Only Murders in the Building
• Martin Short – Only Murders in the Building
• Jeremy Allen White – The Bear
• D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai – Reservation Dogs

Outstanding lead actress in a comedy series

• Quinta Brunson – Abbott Elementary
• Ayo Edebiri – The Bear
• Selena Gomez – Only Murders in the Building
• Maya Rudolph – Loot
• Jean Smart – Hacks
• Kristen Wiig – Palm Royale

Outstanding lead actor in a limited or anthology series or movie

• Matt Bomer – Fellow Travelers
• Richard Gadd – Baby Reindeer
• Jon Hamm – Fargo
• Tom Hollander – Feud: Capote vs The Swans
• Andrew Scott – Ripley

Outstanding lead actress in a limited or anthology series or movie

• Jodie Foster – True Detective: Night Country
• Brie Larson – Lessons in Chemistry
• Juno Temple – Fargo
• Sofía Vergara – Griselda
• Naomi Watts – Feud: Capote vs The Swans

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.

Among the more than 67 million people who tuned in to the first US presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris was Lila Rose.

The young and charismatic founder of the anti-abortion group Live Action had hoped for big things from the Republican candidate: a bold display of anti-abortion beliefs and a promise to turn those beliefs into law.

She was quickly disappointed. While Trump criticised Democrats’ “extreme” abortion policies, he refused to take a position on a national ban, saying instead that the issue should be left to the states.

And he called himself a “leader” on IVF, putting himself at odds with Ms Rose and many in her movement, who oppose the procedure because it often involves destroying embryos.

“It was painful to watch,” Ms Rose said of Trump’s performance.

Ms Rose, 36, had always had reservations about Trump’s anti-abortion bona fides, after years of shifting positions (including previously declaring himself pro-choice) and his openness to what she called “concerning compromises”. But she, like most in her movement, had been encouraged by his first term and the three Trump-appointed Supreme Court nominees who went on to overturn Roe v Wade and end the nationwide right to abortion.

Then Trump changed course, and her disillusionment with the former president swelled. Now on his third White House run, Trump seems to be working to appeal to all sides.

He hinted he would sign federal abortion legislation, before later walking it back. He called the state-wide restrictions that came into place after Roe v Wade fell “a beautiful thing”. But later, he said abortion bans early in pregnancy went too far, suggesting Republican candidates needed to be moderate enough on the issue to “win elections”.

This summer, during the Democratic National Convention, the former president posted a statement online saying his future administration would be “great for women and their reproductive rights” – language typically used by pro-choice activists.

By late August, Ms Rose had had enough, telling her more than one million followers that Trump was “making it impossible” to vote for him.

“It’s very clear that Trump is less pro-abortion than Kamala Harris,” she told the BBC on Thursday. “But our movement’s goal is not just to accept whatever the least worst candidate is and show up for them. Our goal is to help candidates who are going to be fighters for the pre-born.”

One of the most prominent leaders in the anti-abortion movement, Ms Rose’s defection signals a potential problem with Trump’s new strategy. As Trump attempts to moderate on abortion, he risks alienating some within his socially conservative base. And in an election that may be decided by a razor-thin margin, if those voters stay home in November it could cost Trump the White House.

“When a strategy like that works, you can kind of be anything to everyone,” said Mary Ziegler, a legal historian and expert on the US abortion debate. “And when it stops working you wind up being nothing to everyone.”

His campaign did not respond to an immediate request for comment.

Trump in 2016, and again in 2020, had held social conservatives close. He embraced anti-abortion activists and championed their movement, becoming the first sitting president to attend the March for Life, the country’s largest annual anti-abortion demonstration.

He delivered for social conservatives in a way that few Republican presidents ever had, Ms Ziegler said.

“Trump, I think, always understood with his first two races that he would be politically dead in the water without the movement,” she said. “So there was much more catering to them.”

In return, these voters turned out overwhelmingly for Trump. In 2020, the former president claimed 84% of white evangelical Christians – some of the most socially conservative voters in the country – up from the already high 77% in 2016.

But Trump was reportedly spooked by his party’s underperformance in the 2022 midterm elections – which he and many analysts attributed to the fall of Roe v Wade – and aware of the broad public support for abortion access. So, this time around, Trump has seemed to soften on the issue.

By the time the Republican primary elections began at the start of the year, he had started to criticise six-week abortion bans, promising to find a national standard that would please everyone. “Both sides are going to like me,” he said last year.

And over the summer, confronted with more questions about what his White House would do on abortion, Trump could not settle on an answer.

He indicated he wanted a national “standard” for abortion but has since backed away from any commitment. He said he believed in states’ authority over abortion policy but intervened in several state battles over abortion, often in opposition to social conservatives.

He came out against Florida’s six-week abortion ban, saying you “need more than six weeks” and appeared to signal he would vote for a November referendum that would protect abortion in the state. A day later, after intense pressure from anti-abortion activists, he said he would vote against it.

These contortions have strained relationships with key anti-abortion allies.

“It’s disconcerting for our students and for our movement,” said Kristan Hawkins, head of Students for Life, one of the largest anti-abortion organisations in the country. “And what I’ve conveyed to the campaign personally is that this strategy is not a winning strategy.”

A growing number of voices within the social conservative movement have started to say the same: that by playing to the middle on abortion, Trump may lose must-win voters, without actually attracting anyone new.

“The frustration for pro-lifers is that Trump is saying things he thinks might ultimately reach more moderate voters, which frankly is not going to work,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of the Florida-based anti-abortion group Liberty Counsel. “And in doing that you’re causing consternation among other voters who are otherwise with you. There’s no point for him engaging in this.”

There is no indication that Trump is facing any wide-scale exodus of social conservatives from his party, and both Mr Staver and Ms Hawkins said they would still be casting their ballots for Trump.

But in an election that could hinge on a narrow slice of voters, in just a handful of states, some experts say Trump’s abortion wavering could still cost him the election.

John Feehery, a Republican strategist, estimated that some 80% of white evangelical Christians – who make up about 14% of the American electorate – need to turn out for Trump to deliver him a win.

“I don’t think there’s a danger of white evangelicals voting for Harris, I think there’s a real danger of them not voting,” Mr Feehery said, adding that “10,000 votes” could be enough to tip the scales.

That risk could explain the reticence of most anti-abortion leaders to talk publicly about abandoning the Republican candidate.

Indeed, some in the movement have expressed frustration with Ms Rose’s position, saying that while Trump is not the ideal candidate, he is still better for their cause than any Democratic opponent.

Ms Hawkins of Students for Life has begun to focus her messaging, increasingly, on Harris, telling followers that the harm her administration could do – in the number of abortions alone – would eclipse any missteps by Trump.

“I know we’ll be able to work with his administration,” she said. “When you believe, as pro-life activists do, that babies are dying that have a right to be born, I don’t feel I can morally take a position of sitting this out.”

But Ms Rose has shrugged off any criticism that her position may inadvertently assist Harris, and her decidedly pro-choice agenda. For her, good enough is not good enough when it comes to abortion, and to Donald Trump.

“I know it’s painful for a lot of you guys to hear this, people that want to go out and vote cheerfully for Trump because Kamala Harris is such a disaster… but we have to tell the truth,” she told followers the morning after the debate.

“Abortion is the innocent killing of a human child,” she said. “We need to oppose it loudly.”

More than a decade after leaving her abusive ex-husband, Lauren is still trapped in their joint mortgage.

Her ex stopped making repayments, blocked attempts to sell or remortgage the property and withheld child maintenance.

Lauren, not her real name, told the BBC she and her children were left penniless.

It comes as a charity warns domestic abusers are using joint mortgages as a weapon. Meanwhile, the banking industry is working to break the cycle of economic abuse.

A survey, published on Wednesday, of 1,000 women who held a joint mortgage in the last two years by charity Surviving Economic Abuse found one in eight experienced joint mortgage abuse.

The majority of those surveyed said the cost of living made their situation worse and the joint mortgage prevented them leaving their unsafe living arrangement.

Lauren told the BBC: “[The abuse] started with name-calling shortly after we moved in together then, after the birth of my oldest child, things turned physical.”

Shortly after giving birth to their child, Lauren’s ex-husband tried to rape her and, on another occasion, he broke her wrist.

After he violently assaulted one of her children, Lauren decided to leave.

Throughout their marriage, her ex-husband had also exerted control over their family finances.

Economic abuse, which is recognised in the Domestic Violence Act, is estimated to occur in 95% of domestic abuse.

And for many people like Lauren, it can continue long after a victim escapes their home.

Despite Lauren being awarded the house in the divorce, her abuser remains on their joint mortgage, and she told the BBC her ex had blocked attempts to sell and remortgage the property and racked up huge debts in their name.

It could have been different had Lauren been able to quickly sell the family home.

“It’s sickening. The sale of the house would have given us a secure and fresh start,” she said.

Joint mortgages make buying a property easier, allowing people to borrow more money than on their own.

However, a joint mortgage can cause economic devastation if someone refuses to pay their agreed share, agree to new terms, or sell up. An abuser can continue to exert financial control.

A survey, published on Wednesday, of 1,000 women who held a joint mortgage in the last two years by charity Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) found one in eight experienced joint mortgage abuse.

The majority of those surveyed said the cost of living made their situation worse and the joint mortgage prevented them leaving their unsafe living arrangement.

The charity is calling on ministers to set up an urgent cross-government task force alongside the banking trade body, UK Finance, to better handle cases of mortgage-based abuse.

“Perpetrators can use joint liability to cause a lot of economic harm,” said Deirdre Cartwright, public affairs and policy manager at SEA.

Financial analyst Sarah Coles, from Hargreaves Lansdown, says anyone can become a victim. Her advice includes:

• If you are in immediate danger, you should call the police on 999, and call your bank
• Seek advice from specialist domestic violence organisations that can support you. The BBC’s Action Line has links to those who can help
• As long as you are not in immediate danger, make sure you have copies of your financial documents
• Try not to share passwords with partners to access financial information
• Try to educate yourself as much as possible on your mortgage, insurance and all your finances, even if you are in a healthy relationship
• If you can, try saving money of your own

A separate survey by the Building Societies Association (BSA) suggested many secret savers were setting money aside without telling a partner.

Primarily, this was done to maintain a feeling of independence, but the next most popular reason was to use it as an escape fund.

However, there remain millions of people in the UK with little or no savings. The survey suggested women were almost twice as likely as men to have less than £100 put aside.

The financial sector has made progress in recent years to support those experiencing and fleeing from domestic violence.

TSB recently announced an Emergency Flee Fund, offering payments of up to £500. Starling Bank has also made progress in stopping abusers sending messages to their victims through payments.

Many bank branches have safe spaces, where someone can speak privately.

However, joint mortgages, because of the contractual obligation to both parties, can be weaponised long after initial separation. Under current laws, any contractual changes require both parties’ consent.

Owning your own home with a partner also affects access to vital resources to help people leave an abuser and severely limits access to legal aid and representation.

In addition to bearing the brunt of joint mortgage payments, some also have to incur expensive legal fees during court proceedings.

“Financial abuse is a horrendous crime,” said Fiona Turner, head of vulnerability policy at banking trade body UK Finance.

“We need a quicker route to getting debts and mortgages separated and getting parties delinked.”

Whatever the challenges, campaigners and survivors say economic abuse should not stop women leaving dangerous partners when their life and safety is at risk.

“There should be more understanding from lenders on mitigating circumstances,” said Ms Coles.

“Leaving is not easy, but it is worth it.”

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”.

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”.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

US pop star Cher has dropped her bid for legal control over her son’s personal and financial affairs, according to his lawyers.

The singer applied for a conservatorship last December, citing 48-year-old Elijah Blue Allman’s alleged substance abuse and mental health issues.

The law firm representing him, Cage & Miles, told the BBC in a statement that the outcome “allows the parties to focus on healing and rebuilding their family bond, a process that began during mediation and continues today”.

Cher’s lawyers said during a brief hearing at Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday that the family members had reached a private settlement, US media report.

The BBC has contacted Cher’s attorney for comment.

The dismissal comes after the If I Could Turn Back Time singer and her son agreed to pause their court battle in May to try to resolve the matter privately, US media reported at the time.

When she first filed for the conservatorship, Cher argued that Mr Allman was “substantially unable to manage his financial resources”.

A conservatorship is typically granted by a court for individuals who are unable to make their own decisions, like those with dementia or other mental illnesses.

It can be used to manage someone’s financial or medical affairs.

Before the end of 2023, Mr Allman was set to receive assets from a trust – set up by his late father, musician Gregg Allman – under which he was entitled to regular payments.

Cher, 78, had filed two immediate temporary conservatorship requests, both of which were denied, though a bid for a longer-term conservatorship had not been resolved.

In court filings, lawyers for Cher said the singer was “concerned that any funds distributed to Elijah will be immediately spent on drugs, leaving Elijah with no assets to provide for himself and putting Elijah’s life at risk”.

The filing said that she had “worked tirelessly to get Elijah into treatment and get him the help he needs”.

Her son, meanwhile, said that after struggling with addiction and previous poor financial choices, he was sober and receiving regular treatment.

In rejecting the temporary conservatorship bids, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jessica Uzcategui said Mr Allman had proven he had “managed his finances” and “remained drug free”.

The judge said at the time that the star’s desire for conservatorship came from a place of concern, but her legal team was arguing based on hypotheticals and “fears”.

Cher last year denied a claim by her son’s wife that the pop star had hired four men to kidnap him from a New York City hotel room.

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.

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

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

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.”

DePrince’s sister, Mia Mabinty DePrince, described being “in a state of shock and deep sadness” as “my beautiful sister is no longer here”.

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.

• Michaela DePrince: The war orphan who became a ballerina

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.”

“From the very beginning of our story back in Africa, sleeping on a shared mat in the orphanage, Michaela (Mabinty) and I used to make up our own musical theatre plays and act them out,” Mia wrote in a statement.

DePrince’s sister said the pair used to create their own ballets as children, “she would choreograph, and I was the composer and conductor”.

She “left her footprints in the sand and on so many stages across the world. She will be truly missed,” Mia added.

The two girls, who were mat-mates at the orphanage, were adopted by an American woman, Elaine DePrince.

In an interview with the BBC’s Newshour programme, DePrince’s siblings – Eric and Mia – said the family was grieving two deaths this week: Michaela’s and that of their mother Elaine.

“I had just gotten off the phone with my mum’s doctor with her news when I was alerted about my sister, it just didn’t seem believable.

“It was really hard to hear because I normally pick up the phone to call my mum with anything, and it occurred to me that I couldn’t call her,” Mia told the BBC.

Elaine enrolled then five-year-old DePrince in the Rock School of Dance in Philadelphia, making the 45-minute drive from New Jersey every day.

DePrince was an ambassador for the charity War Child, and her siblings say they hope to continue on her legacy.

Her brother, Eric DePrince, told the BBC he hopes the world can remember his sister “as someone who worked hard to improve the lives of others”.

Kamala Harris has conducted the first solo interview of her White House campaign since she took up the baton as the Democrats’ presidential candidate nearly two months ago.

The US vice-president sat down with a local ABC News station in the key swing state of Pennsylvania to discuss the economy, a political vulnerability, and gun control.

Reacting to the interview, her Republican rival, Donald Trump, said she “had a very hard time yesterday answering the simplest of questions”.

Harris and Trump are in a dead heat in Pennsylvania and other battleground states ahead of November’s White House election, according to opinion polls.

During Friday’s 11-minute sit-down in Johnston, Harris was asked how she would bring down prices for Americans. Inflation has been receding since it surged early in the Biden administration to a 40-year high, even as unemployment fell to historic lows.

She said she would give small-business owners a $50,000 (£38,000) tax deduction to start their enterprises and a $25,000 down payment for first-time homebuyers. The price-tag for the plan and who might qualify are unclear.

Last month Harris proposed the “first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food”, though she did not mention that idea in Friday’s interview. It had provoked criticism from economists and business groups, and Trump likened it to Soviet-style price controls.

Harris also told the local ABC station on Friday that she supports constitutional gun rights, but wants to see semi-automatic weapons prohibited.

“I feel very strongly that it is consistent with the Second Amendment and your right to own a gun to also say we need an assault weapons ban,” she said. “They’re literally tools of war.”

Harris went on to take a swing at Trump, saying the American people need someone to bring the country together, unlike her rival, who she said was “trying to have us point our fingers at each other”.

She was also asked how she differed from the current US president, who suspended his campaign on 21 July and endorsed her. Harris repeated a line from the debate, saying she is “obviously not Joe Biden”.

She also said she would “offer a new generation of leadership”.

Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social on Saturday morning that the interview was “a world salad, a real mess!”

Harris’ campaign was boosted this week when opinion polls suggested she won her first debate on Tuesday with Trump. The Republican has since said he will not debate her again, claiming he was the winner.

Amid calls for her to grant more media access, Harris last month sat down on CNN for her first interview since becoming the nominee, joined by her running mate Tim Walz.

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?

Romania has set up displacement camps and launched rescue operations after floods killed at least four people and destroyed thousands of homes in the east of the country.

Military boats and planes are being used to move people to safety, and Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu has said the priority now is to prevent further loss of life.

Recent days have seen torrential rain sweep through central and eastern Europe, swelling rivers and triggering flood warnings in the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary.

The flood barriers in Czech capital Prague have been raised, while in parts of Poland residents have been evacuated.

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 there was a “difficult situation” in the areas surrounding four rivers.

In the southwest, the River Biala has exceed safe levels by two meters, and there is particular concern about the nearby towns of Morow and Glucholazy.

Glucholazy resident Piotr Jakubiec said he had prepared sandbags and pumps to divert the water but that it was “impossible to predict what’s going to happen”.

“This is the second time in my life that I’ve seen such a phenomenon. It’s a nightmare for the people who live here,” he said.

Another resident, Zofia Owsiaka, said that everyone in the town was “scared” and that there seemed to be “no hope of the rain stopping”.

“Of course I’m scared. Water is the most powerful force of nature. Everyone is scared,” she said.

In the town of Wroclaw, thousands of residents had to use the staircases of the high-rise blocks because the lifts were shut amid flooding fears, local media reported.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has sought to reassure the public that the forecasts are “not overly alarming” and that the threat does not extend across the whole country.

In the Czech Republic, the highest flood alert had been declared in 38 different locations.

In Prague, flood barriers have been raised, embankments have been closed to the public, and the zoo has been closed.

On Friday morning, a one-metre-thick steel gate was used to close off the so-called Devil’s Canal or , which runs through the city.

The gate is part of a nationwide network of flood defences installed to prevent a repeat of catastrophic damage caused by flooding in 1997 and 2002.

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.

In Austria, which officials say experienced its hottest August since records began, many regions are expecting 10-20cm of rain in a matter of days. In parts of the north, over 20cm is forecast.

Storm warning centre UWZ said some parts will see previous records for the entire month of September “surpassed in just a few days”.

Manuel Kelemen, a forecaster for Puls24 TV, said that “what we’re experiencing is extraordinary, if not unprecedented”.

Flooding and landslides are also possible, with gale force winds expected in capital Vienna, and heavy snowfall in the west has also caused travel disruption.

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

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.

For months, an unusual monument sat in an oak-lined square at the heart of Tasmania’s capital: a pair of severed bronze feet.

A statue of renowned surgeon-turned-premier William Crowther had loomed over the park in Hobart for more than a century. But one evening in May, it was chopped down at the ankles and the words “what goes around” graffitied on its sandstone base.

It was a throwback to another night more than 150 years ago, when Crowther allegedly broke into a morgue, sliced open an Aboriginal leader’s head and stole his skull – triggering a grim tussle over the remaining body parts.

Tasmania had become the centre of coloniser efforts to eradicate Aboriginal people in Australia. And the sailor on the slab – William Lanne – was touted as the last man on the island, making his remains a twisted trophy for white physicians.

Some see Crowther as an unfairly maligned man of his time, and his effigy as an important part of the state’s history, warts and all.

But for Lanne’s descendants, it represents colonial brutality, the dehumanising myth that Tasmanian Aboriginal people are extinct, and the whitewashing of the island’s past.

“You walk around the city anywhere and you’d never know Aborigines were here,” Aboriginal activist Nala Mansell says.

Now the dismembered statue has become a symbol of a city – and a nation – struggling to reckon with its darkest chapters.

Few places encapsulate the issue quite like Risdon Cove – called piyura kitina by the Palawa Aboriginal people.

Tucked beside a creek, a monument proudly marks it as the first British settlement on what was then called Van Diemen’s Land.

For Tasmanian Aboriginal people, though, this hillside on the outskirts of Hobart is “ground zero for invasion”.

“It’s the first landing and not coincidentally the first massacre [of our people],” Nunami Sculthorpe-Green tells the BBC one overcast afternoon.

Startled from their reverie, flurries of native hens – which piyura kitina is named after – scatter over the mossy grass as we arrive.

A wallaby hastily bounds towards sparse gum trees. It’s from that direction that Mumirimina men, women and children would have come down the slope on 3 May 1804, singing as they hunted kangaroos.

They were met with muskets and cannons.

The events of that day – and the death toll – are disputed. What is not contested is that this marked the start of a determined effort by British settlers to get rid of the original Tasmanians, nine nations of up to 15,000 people.

War broke out and Aboriginal people were hunted across the island, the survivors rounded up and sent to what have been described as death camps.

“If that happened anywhere in the world today, it would be referred to as ethnic cleansing,” says Greg Lehman, a Palawa professor of history.

Ripped from his homelands as a child, Lanne survived two of those camps before living out his final years as a shipmate and beloved advocate for his people.

Even before he died of disease in 1869, aged only 34, letters show that powerful men in Hobart had begun scheming.

“There’s no way that that young man was going to be allowed to lie in a grave. No way,” historian Cassandra Pybus tells the BBC.

The theft of Aboriginal remains had long been normalised, she says, but reached a fever pitch in Tasmania as the number of its original inhabitants dwindled.

Lanne’s skull was sought to prove since-discredited theories about Tasmanian Aboriginal people – that they were the missing link between humans and Neanderthals, a distinct race so primitive they didn’t even know how to make fire.

Before he was buried, his hands and feet would also be cut off and pocketed by physicians. Some historians say his grave was robbed as well, and every bone in his body taken.

Crowther always denied any involvement in stealing Lanne’s remains – his backers called the allegations a witch hunt – but the town was horrified, and he was suspended from his honorary position at the hospital.

For First Nations people, who believe their spirits can only rest once returned to their land, what happened was especially distressing.

But within two weeks, Crowther was elected to state parliament, and he’d soon rise to be Tasmania’s premier for an unremarkable six months.

By contrast, Lanne’s skull appears to have wound up on the other side of the globe at a UK university, and his people were soon declared extinct.

Except they were not.

Today’s Palawa people trace their ancestry to a dozen women who survived, while other groups – which some do not recognise as Aboriginal – also say they descend from a handful of people who managed to evade capture in the 1800s.

Yet, for the past 150 years, Tasmanian Aboriginal people say they have been fighting to be visible, in the history pages and in everyday life.

The lie that they were extinct is largely blamed on outdated views about ethnic identity. But others say it was also a strategic decision – to deny Tasmanian Aboriginal people rights, and to snuff out their culture.

The impact has been devastating. Many Palawa people speak of being persecuted for their Indigenous blood in one breath and denied their identity because of their white ancestry in the next.

Even now, many feel there are huge swathes of their history missing – or wilfully ignored.

Nala points out all she was taught about Tasmanian Aboriginal culture and history at her Hobart school was a brief lesson on boomerangs and didgeridoos – although her people used neither.

And aside from a walking track named after Truganini – Lanne’s wife and a leader in her own right – there are no sites celebrating Aboriginal people around the city.

“The way they tell stories about Aboriginal people… they want you to think that it’s somewhere really far away from where you are, and that it’s something that happened a really long time ago,” Nunami says.

Unimpressed, the 30-year-old history graduate started Black Led Tours to fill the gap.

“I realised that I was walking to work the exact same way Truganini used to walk her dogs. And I realised that my parents met at the pub where William Lanne died. I also realised that the Crowther statue was right next to my bus stop.

“And I thought: does everybody know that this is right here, where we live and where we work?”

When unveiling the effigy in 1889, the then-premier said Crowther was not “a perfect man”, but one who spent his time doing good.

His scandal overlooked, until recently he was remembered for offering free health care to the poor.

That rankles Tasmanian Aboriginal people like Nala: “It’s just a kick in the guts.”

As spokeswoman for the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, she led a renewed campaign to take down the memorial.

“To us, it would be no different to having a statue of Martin Bryant,” she says, referring to the gunman who massacred 35 people at nearby Port Arthur in 1996.

But some, like Jeff Briscoe – who lost the legal case to prevent the statue’s removal – believe the sculpture has priceless heritage value as the only memorial in the state “funded totally by the public”.

“At the time, it was a significant memorial and everyone was proud of it. In 2024, should the perceptions of a few people override all that?

“It’s not as if he was going around shooting people… he maybe had been involved in the mutilation of a body, but they all were.

“They’re bringing the bar down so low that no memorial from colonial times will be safe in Australia.”

Cassandra Pybus says there is no doubt that Crowther did mutilate Lanne, citing letters he wrote. However, she had argued, like Mr Briscoe, that taking down the statue would set a dangerous precedent, because “everybody was racist”.

She had wanted it to remain so the site could be used to educate people about how the first Tasmanians were treated.

The statue’s fate divided even Crowther’s living descendants, with some publicly supporting the calls for removal, and others distressed by them.

Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds says the council voted to remove the statue in 2022 “as a commitment to telling the truth of our city’s history, and as an act of reconciliation with the Aboriginal community” – the first decision of its kind in Australia.

They did it after a rigorous consultation and with the support of the “silent majority”, she adds.

Ultimately, she says, the statue is a sign of how desperate Crowther was to repair his reputation, not his significance to the state: “[He’s] not that important.”

But while the council worked through red tape, some grew impatient and took it down themselves.

For Lanne’s descendants, their relief at the long-awaited fall of the statue is tinged with pain. They feel Lanne has been reduced to his death.

“He had a whole life… and just as he advocated for our people’s rights, we will advocate for his story to be remembered and him to be respected for who he was,” Nunami says.

The Crowther statue is not unique. Countless similar landmarks or monuments – which joke about massacres, include racial slurs or celebrate alleged killers – are still standing across Australia.

Many, like Greg, believe removing or renaming them could be a natural starting point for the “truth-telling” the country needs, to reconcile with its First Peoples, the oldest living culture on the planet.

“You’d think that it was just a bunch of happy free settlers and not-so-happy convicts who jumped off the First Fleet… and bingo, there you’ve got modern Australia,” he says.

“For Australia to have an honest and powerful relationship with itself, it must have an honest relationship with the past.”

But after a proposal for an Indigenous political advisory body was defeated at a referendum last year, any movement towards a national truth-telling inquiry has stalled – though many states are setting up their own.

There are still many, like Jeff Briscoe, who believe a “truth-telling” process would be a divisive and unnecessary rehashing of the past – views echoed by a bloc of conservative politicians who also oppose a treaty.

“Nowadays people want Aborigines to stand in front of them and say welcome to our country. They want us to dance for them. They want us to teach them our language. They don’t mind if we put some of our paintings in the mall,” Nala says.

“But if you talk about… any type of benefit for the Aboriginal community, or taking back anything that was stolen from us, it’s a completely different ballgame.”

However she is among those who feel like the tide is slowly turning.

“The Crowther statue… is the first time I’ve ever thought, ‘Wow, white people – they’re starting to get it’,” Nala says.

The council was still deciding what should replace the sculpture when it met its unexpected end.

But many wanted the severed feet to remain in the square – as is – arguing they made a wryly “funny” and “profound” statement.

However earlier this week, the council plucked the ankles from their perch, to reunite them with the rest of the effigy, citing heritage law requirements.

But Nunami says even the now empty plinth illustrates the story of Crowther and Lanne far better than the statue ever did.

“We get to say we, as the public, learnt, we grew, and we changed the narrative of this place… Look here, we cut that down.”

It was the submersible that promised passengers the trip of a lifetime. A chance to descend 3,800m (12,500ft) to the Atlantic depths to visit the wreck of the Titanic.

But last year, a dive by Oceangate’s Titan sub went tragically wrong. The vessel suffered a catastrophic failure as it neared the sea floor, killing all five people onboard.

The US Coast Guard is holding a public hearing on 16 September to examine why the disaster happened, from the sub’s unconventional design to ignored safety warnings and the lack of regulation in the deep.

Titan began its descent beneath the waves on the morning of 18 June 2023.

On board were Oceangate’s CEO Stockton Rush, British explorer Hamish Harding, veteran French diver Paul Henri Nargeolet, the British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman.

Later that day, after the craft failed to resurface, the US Coast Guard was notified, sparking a vast search and rescue operation.

The world watched and waited for news of the missing sub. But on 22 June, wreckage was discovered about 500m (1,600ft) from Titanic’s bow. Titan had imploded just one hour and 45 minutes into the dive.

These are five key questions that still need to be answered.

Those on Titan could stay in contact with the support ship, the Polar Prince, with text messages sent through its onboard communications system. The log of these exchanges could reveal if there were any indications that the sub was failing.

The vessel also had an acoustic monitoring device – essentially mics fixed to the sub listening for signs it was buckling or breaking.

“Stockton Rush was convinced that if there was an imminent failure of the submersible, they would get an audio warning on that system,” explains Victor Vescovo, a leading deep sea explorer.

But he said he was highly sceptical that this would have provided enough time for the sub to return to the surface. “The issue is how quickly would that warning happen?”

If there were no apparent problems during the descent and alarms failed to sound, those on board could have been unaware of their imminent fate.

The implosion itself was instantaneous, there would have been no time for the passengers to even register what was happening.

Forensic experts have been examining Titan’s wreckage to find the root of the failure.

There were several issues with its design.

The viewport window was only rated to a depth of 1,300m (4,300ft) by its manufacturer, but Titan was diving almost three times deeper.

Titan’s hull was also an unusual shape – cylindrical, rather than spherical. Most deep-sea subs have a spherical hull, so the effect of the crushing pressure of the deep is distributed equally.

The sub’s hull was also made out of carbon fibre, an unconventional material for a deep-sea vessel.

Metals such as titanium are most commonly used as they are reliable under immense pressures.

“Carbon fibre is considered to be a material that is unpredictable [in the deep ocean],” explains Patrick Lahey, CEO of Triton Submarines, a leading manufacturer.

Every time Titan went down to the Titanic – and it had made multiple dives – the carbon fibre was compressed and damaged.

“It was getting progressively weaker because the fibres were breaking,” he said.

The junctions between different materials also gave cause for concern. The carbon fibre was attached to two rings of titanium, creating weak points.

Patrick Lahey said the commercial sub industry had a longstanding, unblemished safety record.

“The Oceangate contraption was an aberration,” he told BBC News.

Ships, aircraft and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) were scrambled to the Atlantic to try to find Titan.

A couple of days into the search, there were reports of underwater noises picked up by a search plane’s sonar, raising the possibility they were coming from the sub.

ROVs were sent to locate the source but found nothing.

It is still not clear what the sounds were – the ocean is noisy and even more so during an operation like this.

A more pertinent subsea sound was detected by the US Navy’s sonar system at the time the sub went missing – an acoustic signal consistent with an implosion. The information was only made public on the day the remains of Titan were found.

It is not known when the US Coast Guard was told of the noise – or whether the families and friends waiting on the sub’s support ship were informed.

Eventually the deep-sea robots returned to where Titan had gone missing and the wreckage was found.

Rory Golden, who was on the Oceangate expedition when contact was lost, recently told the BBC those on board the surface vessel experienced four days of fear and “false hope”.

Many were concerned about Oceangate’s sub.

Victor Vescovo says he was so worried, he had urged several passengers against diving on Titan – including his friend Hamish Harding, one of the five who died.

“I told him, in no uncertain terms, that he should not get in the submersible,” he said.

Fears about safety were also brought directly to Oceangate – including by the company’s former director of marine operations, David Lochridge, who assessed the sub while it was being developed.

US court documents from 2018 show that Lochridge had identified numerous “serious safety concerns” and the lack of testing could “subject passengers to potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible”.

Engineers from the Marine Technology Society also said that Oceangate’s experimental approach could result in “negative outcomes (from minor to catastrophic)” in a letter shared with Stockton Rush.

In an email exchange shown to BBC News last year, deep-sea specialist Rob McCallum told Rush that the sub should not be used for commercial deep dive operations and was placing passengers in a “dangerous dynamic”.

In response, Rush said he had “grown tired of industry players who try to use a safety argument to stop innovation” and dismissed warnings that he would kill someone as “baseless”.

With the death of Oceangate’s CEO, we will never be able to ask why he chose not to listen to these concerns. But the public hearings could reveal who else at the company knew about them – and why no action was taken.

Deep-sea submersibles can go through an extensive safety assessment carried out by independent, specialist, marine organisations such as the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) or DNV (a global accreditation organisation based in Norway).

Oceangate chose not to put Titan through this process.

The assessment would have confirmed whether the vessel – from its design through to construction, testing and operations – met certain standards.

Most operators opt to have their deep-sea subs certified – but it is not mandatory.

Rush described his sub as “experimental” and, in a blog post in 2019, he argued that certification “slowed down innovation”.

In an email exchange with Rob McCallum, he said he didn’t need a piece of paper to show Titan was safe, and that his own protocols and the “informed consent” of passengers were enough.

The passengers on Titan paid up to $250,000 (£191,135) for a place. They all had to sign a liability waiver.

Irish businessman Oisin Fanning made two dives in Titan in 2022 – the last before the sub’s fatal disaster.

He said the Oceangate team took safety seriously, with extensive briefings before each descent. But it wasn’t made clear to him that Titan had not been certified.

“I would be lying if I said I didn’t think there had been something like that done already – that it conformed with certain norms,” he said.

“We all knew that the Titan was experimental. We were very confident, because obviously there’d been a few dives before that, and it seemed to be working well.”

The public hearings will last for two weeks. The hope is the answers it provides could prevent a disaster like this from happening again.

When I started at BBC News three years ago, a work friend gave me some advice about my new colleague Huw Edwards.

“You can be funny,” they said. “But don’t be funnier than Huw.

“You can be clever, but don’t be too clever.”

It was a light-hearted warning about a presenter who, back then, was top of the pack, highly regarded by many in the newsroom for his brilliance, his wit and his diligent professionalism.

But in the past year, Edwards has gone from being king of the BBC newsroom – paid almost as much as the director general – to a convicted sex offender who on Monday will be sentenced for making indecent images of children.

He has admitted having 41 indecent images, which had been sent to him by another man on WhatsApp. They included seven category A images – the most serious classification. Two involved a child aged about seven to nine.

All the abused children in these images have experienced the worst of humanity. They are victims of depravity.

Before we learnt of his offences, there had been a lingering sympathy for Edwards from some colleagues.

Discovering that the presenter was guilty of such horrendous crimes rocked people in the newsroom to their core.

One BBC staffer speaks of “feeling sick”.

Another describes it as “a bombshell”.

“We were frozen watching those images of him wearing his sunglasses walking to court. Was it defiance? Was it shame? Nobody knows.

“There’s upset and anger at what he’s done, the levels he’s fallen to, how it’s impacted the rest of us and what it’s done to the BBC.”

For staff, particularly those who worked alongside him, it’s been a difficult year.

“There have been so many twists and turns, it has felt like a blow every time another horror has been unveiled. It has felt unending.”

When the Sun newspaper published its revelations in July 2023 about an unnamed presenter paying a “young person” for sexually explicit images, there was shock.

Many of us knew from the start that the presenter was Edwards because he had disappeared from the presenting rota.

It was a testing story for me and my colleagues to cover.

Every word we said and wrote was scrutinised and yet we knew so little about the facts ourselves. Supported by brilliant producers and editors, I reported the story as I understood it.

But many – both inside and outside the BBC – argued Edwards’ privacy had been invaded. And having to report about a colleague – not just any colleague but the face of News at Ten – was relentless.

When his name was revealed, and we learned of his mental health struggles and that the police said there had been no criminality in that case, some even felt sympathy and concern.

Then for nine months we heard nothing official – until a terse statement in April that he had resigned from the BBC.

With no warm words about Edwards in that statement, there was a clue that relations had entirely broken down. Even so, nobody was prepared for what was to come.

BBC chair Samir Shah told the House of Lords’ communications and digital committee last week that he and other colleagues “feel angry and betrayed”.

When he sent an email to staff after we learned that Edwards had been charged and pleaded guilty, he called the former broadcaster “the villain of this piece”.

A senior insider told me: “No-one wants to be in a situation where your flagship presenter, known up and down the country, and the voice of trust in everyone’s household, is convicted of a crime of this nature.

“It’s so far from your radar of things you might have to deal with.”

I understand there was widespread fury in the senior team that Edwards had denied all wrongdoing while he knew he’d had images of serious child abuse on his mobile phone.

Both staff and management feel bruised.

Edwards has been involved in serious offences involving children. We must never forget the victims of these crimes.

Edwards is the criminal, not the BBC, although some suspect he is being used as a way to bash the organisation for ideological reasons.

As one senior insider put it to me, with a heavy dose of sarcasm, “at the end of the day, it’s always the BBC’s fault”.

But the corporation has faced some important questions through this bruising year.

It has asked Edwards to return about £200,000 paid to him in the five months after he was arrested before he resigned.

But why did it continue to pay his salary once top brass knew of the arrest? Some HR and legal voices have told me that the BBC behaved appropriately, balancing its duty of care and contractual responsibilities to an employee with wider reputational concerns.

But director general Tim Davie, speaking to the Lords committee, questioned whether the BBC could have been “more muscular in the situation with regard to payment”.

A very small group of senior people knew about the arrest in November (and we’re told the police had asked the BBC to keep it confidential).

They were informed that some of the images were category A, although they did not suspect the photographs involved such young children. The Sun story concerned a young person who was 17 initially – that context led to a belief that the images involved older teens.

Even so, they knew the images included category A photographs. BBC News staff I’ve spoken to, including senior people, do not believe that the civil enforcement of an employment contract would have kept him in his job, when the allegations were so serious.

A “more muscular” approach, certainly in hindsight, would have helped protect the BBC’s reputation.

The disciplinary process the BBC launched into Edwards after the Sun claims – including details of other allegations made about him – has never been published. I have been told that’s standard across organisations, but it’s led to accusations of a lack of transparency.

The BBC has launched an independent review to strengthen workplace culture. The chair told staff he is “particularly exercised by the continuing problem of how we handle bad behaviour by those in power at the BBC”.

Some I have spoken to say they don’t feel reassured.

“The review that was done into the complaints made against him has been suppressed. So there’s no faith. It’s convenient for the BBC that he doesn’t work for the BBC any more. So they’ve done away with it.”

One senior figure rejects the idea of “a huge backlash about that”.

Another insider points to the “complex” power structures in media organisations where managers have power but the “talent” are also powerful because of their influence and status.

“The companies who employ them have to be even more vigilant, and on top of those power dynamics.”

When Edwards boarded a train from Edinburgh to London after presenting the News at Ten from the Scottish capital on 5 July 2023, his career and his place in TV history seemed secure.

He’d negotiated a £40,000 payrise taking his salary up to more than £475,000. He was so trusted by the BBC, he’d been chosen as the person to announce the death of the Queen.

A talented pianist, he’d also been announced as a new face of the BBC Proms and was due to appear on the One Show that week to talk about it.

His appearance was shelved. He would not host his first Prom, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, and he had presented the news for the last time.

In a face-to-face meeting the day after presenting from Edinburgh, Edwards was told of the Sun’s claims. A few days later, he was suspended.

Just last week, he apparently updated his Linkedin profile to say he is “available for no charge to charities and not-for-profit organisations” (the profile appears to have since been deleted).

That raised eyebrows among some colleagues – an insight perhaps into the mind of someone they once thought they knew.

When he presented the News at Ten, Edwards would sit on a bank of desks in the middle of the newsroom, opposite whoever was editing the Six and Ten o’clock news programmes.

With his long-standing journalistic pedigree and status in the BBC firmament, colleagues deferred to him and, editorially, he often got his way.

That’s fairly common with the big beasts of broadcasting, and there was nobody bigger than Edwards.

When my friend warned me, as I took up my job, to keep him on side, it made me think of Henry VIII in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, with Edwards a TV presenter Tudor monarch.

“You can be merry with the king, you can share a joke with him,” Mantel writes in Bring Up The Bodies.

But courtiers compare Henry VIII to a tamed lion.

“You tousle its mane and pull its ears, but all the time you’re thinking, those claws, those claws, those claws.”

Venezuelan authorities say they have arrested three US citizens, two Spaniards and one Czech citizen suspected of plotting to destabilise the country.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said hundreds of weapons had also been seized, and that the detainees were plotting to assassinate Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and other top officials.

It comes two days after Washington sanctioned 16 Venezuelan officials who are closely aligned with President Maduro, following his disputed election victory.

The Venezuelan government said the Spaniards detained were linked to Madrid’s National Intelligence Centre (CNI). However, Spanish government sources have told local media the two do not belong to the intelligence organisation.

In a news conference on Saturday Cabello said: “The CIA is leading this operation, and that does not surprise us but they, the National Intelligence Centre of Spain, have always maintained a low profile knowing that the CIA operates in this area.

“These two detainees even tell us about a group of mercenaries they are looking for to bring to Venezuela with very clear objectives to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, myself, and another group of comrades who are leading our party and our revolution.”

The US has rejected the accusations.

“Any claims of US involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro are categorically false,” according to the State Department, who says Washington “continues to support a democratic solution to the political crisis in Venezuela”.

The arrests come amid a feud between the Maduro government and the US and Spain.

Cabello said the Spaniards were detained in Puerto Ayacucho, south of the capital Caracas.

Spanish authorities have requested more information from Venezuela, with the Spanish embassy requesting access to those detained.

“They contacted French mercenaries, they contacted mercenaries from eastern Europe and they are in an operation to try to attack our country,” Cabello said, adding that 400 firearms were confiscated in the operation.

On Friday, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil summoned Spain’s ambassador in Caracas to protest at a minister’s description of the Venezuelan government as a “dictatorship”, after days of mounting bilateral tensions.

On Thursday, the US Treasury said it was targeting “key officials involved in Maduro’s fraudulent and illegitimate claims of victory and his brutal crackdown on free expression following the election”.

Maduro was declared the winner of July’s presidential election by Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), which is closely aligned with the government.

But the CNE has not published any detailed voting tallies supporting a Maduro victory. Data published by the opposition suggests its candidate, Edmundo González, won instead.

Among the more than 67 million people who tuned in to the first US presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris was Lila Rose.

The young and charismatic founder of the anti-abortion group Live Action had hoped for big things from the Republican candidate: a bold display of anti-abortion beliefs and a promise to turn those beliefs into law.

She was quickly disappointed. While Trump criticised Democrats’ “extreme” abortion policies, he refused to take a position on a national ban, saying instead that the issue should be left to the states.

And he called himself a “leader” on IVF, putting himself at odds with Ms Rose and many in her movement, who oppose the procedure because it often involves destroying embryos.

“It was painful to watch,” Ms Rose said of Trump’s performance.

Ms Rose, 36, had always had reservations about Trump’s anti-abortion bona fides, after years of shifting positions (including previously declaring himself pro-choice) and his openness to what she called “concerning compromises”. But she, like most in her movement, had been encouraged by his first term and the three Trump-appointed Supreme Court nominees who went on to overturn Roe v Wade and end the nationwide right to abortion.

Then Trump changed course, and her disillusionment with the former president swelled. Now on his third White House run, Trump seems to be working to appeal to all sides.

He hinted he would sign federal abortion legislation, before later walking it back. He called the state-wide restrictions that came into place after Roe v Wade fell “a beautiful thing”. But later, he said abortion bans early in pregnancy went too far, suggesting Republican candidates needed to be moderate enough on the issue to “win elections”.

This summer, during the Democratic National Convention, the former president posted a statement online saying his future administration would be “great for women and their reproductive rights” – language typically used by pro-choice activists.

By late August, Ms Rose had had enough, telling her more than one million followers that Trump was “making it impossible” to vote for him.

“It’s very clear that Trump is less pro-abortion than Kamala Harris,” she told the BBC on Thursday. “But our movement’s goal is not just to accept whatever the least worst candidate is and show up for them. Our goal is to help candidates who are going to be fighters for the pre-born.”

One of the most prominent leaders in the anti-abortion movement, Ms Rose’s defection signals a potential problem with Trump’s new strategy. As Trump attempts to moderate on abortion, he risks alienating some within his socially conservative base. And in an election that may be decided by a razor-thin margin, if those voters stay home in November it could cost Trump the White House.

“When a strategy like that works, you can kind of be anything to everyone,” said Mary Ziegler, a legal historian and expert on the US abortion debate. “And when it stops working you wind up being nothing to everyone.”

His campaign did not respond to an immediate request for comment.

Trump in 2016, and again in 2020, had held social conservatives close. He embraced anti-abortion activists and championed their movement, becoming the first sitting president to attend the March for Life, the country’s largest annual anti-abortion demonstration.

He delivered for social conservatives in a way that few Republican presidents ever had, Ms Ziegler said.

“Trump, I think, always understood with his first two races that he would be politically dead in the water without the movement,” she said. “So there was much more catering to them.”

In return, these voters turned out overwhelmingly for Trump. In 2020, the former president claimed 84% of white evangelical Christians – some of the most socially conservative voters in the country – up from the already high 77% in 2016.

But Trump was reportedly spooked by his party’s underperformance in the 2022 midterm elections – which he and many analysts attributed to the fall of Roe v Wade – and aware of the broad public support for abortion access. So, this time around, Trump has seemed to soften on the issue.

By the time the Republican primary elections began at the start of the year, he had started to criticise six-week abortion bans, promising to find a national standard that would please everyone. “Both sides are going to like me,” he said last year.

And over the summer, confronted with more questions about what his White House would do on abortion, Trump could not settle on an answer.

He indicated he wanted a national “standard” for abortion but has since backed away from any commitment. He said he believed in states’ authority over abortion policy but intervened in several state battles over abortion, often in opposition to social conservatives.

He came out against Florida’s six-week abortion ban, saying you “need more than six weeks” and appeared to signal he would vote for a November referendum that would protect abortion in the state. A day later, after intense pressure from anti-abortion activists, he said he would vote against it.

These contortions have strained relationships with key anti-abortion allies.

“It’s disconcerting for our students and for our movement,” said Kristan Hawkins, head of Students for Life, one of the largest anti-abortion organisations in the country. “And what I’ve conveyed to the campaign personally is that this strategy is not a winning strategy.”

A growing number of voices within the social conservative movement have started to say the same: that by playing to the middle on abortion, Trump may lose must-win voters, without actually attracting anyone new.

“The frustration for pro-lifers is that Trump is saying things he thinks might ultimately reach more moderate voters, which frankly is not going to work,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of the Florida-based anti-abortion group Liberty Counsel. “And in doing that you’re causing consternation among other voters who are otherwise with you. There’s no point for him engaging in this.”

There is no indication that Trump is facing any wide-scale exodus of social conservatives from his party, and both Mr Staver and Ms Hawkins said they would still be casting their ballots for Trump.

But in an election that could hinge on a narrow slice of voters, in just a handful of states, some experts say Trump’s abortion wavering could still cost him the election.

John Feehery, a Republican strategist, estimated that some 80% of white evangelical Christians – who make up about 14% of the American electorate – need to turn out for Trump to deliver him a win.

“I don’t think there’s a danger of white evangelicals voting for Harris, I think there’s a real danger of them not voting,” Mr Feehery said, adding that “10,000 votes” could be enough to tip the scales.

That risk could explain the reticence of most anti-abortion leaders to talk publicly about abandoning the Republican candidate.

Indeed, some in the movement have expressed frustration with Ms Rose’s position, saying that while Trump is not the ideal candidate, he is still better for their cause than any Democratic opponent.

Ms Hawkins of Students for Life has begun to focus her messaging, increasingly, on Harris, telling followers that the harm her administration could do – in the number of abortions alone – would eclipse any missteps by Trump.

“I know we’ll be able to work with his administration,” she said. “When you believe, as pro-life activists do, that babies are dying that have a right to be born, I don’t feel I can morally take a position of sitting this out.”

But Ms Rose has shrugged off any criticism that her position may inadvertently assist Harris, and her decidedly pro-choice agenda. For her, good enough is not good enough when it comes to abortion, and to Donald Trump.

“I know it’s painful for a lot of you guys to hear this, people that want to go out and vote cheerfully for Trump because Kamala Harris is such a disaster… but we have to tell the truth,” she told followers the morning after the debate.

“Abortion is the innocent killing of a human child,” she said. “We need to oppose it loudly.”

The number of people taking ADHD medication is at a record high – and the NHS is feeling the strain as it tries to diagnose and treat the condition.

Since 2015, the number of patients in England prescribed drugs to treat ADHD has nearly trebled, and BBC research suggests that it would take eight years to assess all the adults on waiting lists.

Last year, ADHD was the second-most viewed condition on the NHS website. Concern about this rising demand has prompted the NHS in England to set up a taskforce.

So what’s going on and where will it end? Is ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) becoming more common? Are we just getting better at recognising it? Or is it being over-diagnosed?

It turns out it’s not just you and I who have been taken by surprise – so have the experts.

Dr Ulrich Müller-Sedgwick, the ADHD champion for the UK’s Royal College of Psychiatrists, says: “Nobody predicted that the demand would go up so massively over the last 15 years, and especially the last three years.” He’s been running adult ADHD clinics since 2007. At the time, he says, there were just a few of them.

ADHD is a fairly novel condition – it’s only 16 years since the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) officially recognised it in adults. When considering whether it might keep increasing, Dr Müller-Sedgwick argues that there are two different concepts to consider: prevalence and incidence.

Prevalence is the percentage of people who have ADHD – Dr Müller-Sedgwick predicts that will stay pretty steady at 3 to 4% of adults in the UK.

Incidence is the number of new cases – people getting a diagnosis. That’s where we’re seeing an increase. He explains: “What has changed is the number of patients we are diagnosing. It’s almost like the more we diagnose, the more word spreads.”

Prof Emily Simonoff echoes this. She is a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the King’s Maudsley Partnership for Children and Young People. She thinks about 5 to 7% of children have ADHD in the UK – and says: “It’s pretty similar across the world, that’s been consistent and it hasn’t actually risen.”

Prof Simonoff agrees that there’s been a “steep incline” in people coming forward for assessment since the pandemic – but says this comes after years of “long-term under-recognition”.

She points to statistics on ADHD drugs. She would expect about 3 to 4% of children in the UK to need ADHD medication, but in reality, only 1 to 2% are actually using it. She thinks this shows that we are still underestimating the scale of the issue.

Prof Simonoff explains: “I think that’s an important starting point for when we say, ‘My goodness, why are we seeing all these children now – are we over-identifying ADHD?’ We have under-diagnosed or under-recognised ADHD in the UK for many, many years.”

In other words, we can expect more people to be diagnosed with ADHD now because services are playing catch-up.

Thea Stein is chief executive of health think tank the Nuffield Trust. She’s got her own description for the recent increase in demand: “the Hump”. She says: “Diagnosis or desire to be diagnosed has risen because of knowledge and visibility – [it’s as] simple as that.”

According to Stein, the most immediate task is getting through the Hump, assessing the huge backlog of people on ADHD waiting lists. Then, in the longer-term, she thinks society will get better at spotting ADHD sooner in children. She hopes this will mean that they get better support from an early age, and take some of the pressure off adult services.

She says: “I have real optimism that we will come through this period of time to a much better place as a society. What I don’t have optimism about is that this is a quick fix.”

ADHD might be a new concept, but people struggling to concentrate is an old problem.

In 1798, Scottish doctor Sir Alexander Crichton wrote about a “disease of attention” with “an unnatural degree of mental restlessness.”

He explained: “When people are affected in this manner… they say they have the fidgets.”

ADHD goes beyond problems concentrating or being hyperactive, though. People with it can struggle regulating their emotions and impulses. It’s been linked to substance abuse and financial difficulties as well as higher rates of crime and even car crashes.

All the experts I speak to firmly agree on one point: it is much better for someone with ADHD to be diagnosed and treated as early as possible.

Dr Müller-Sedgwick says there’s a “risk of really bad outcomes”. But he lights up when he describes how diagnosis and treatment can transform lives.

He says: “I have seen so many patients getting better, getting back into work or back into education. I have seen parents who were going through family court proceedings who were able to be better parents.

“That’s why we work in this field, it’s a really rewarding part of mental health to work in.”

Currently, ADHD treatment revolves around medication and therapy, but there are other options on the horizon.

A patch worn by children with ADHD on their foreheads during sleep – connected to a device that sends stimulating pulses into the brain – is on sale in the United States. It’s not prescribed in the UK, but academics here and in the US are working on clinical trials looking into it.

Prof Katya Rubia is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at King’s College London – as she puts it, “My work over the last 30 years or so is basically imaging ADHD, understanding what is different in the brains [of people with ADHD].”

She explains that certain parts of ADHD brains, including the frontal lobe, are slightly smaller and also less active. Prof Rubia is trying to kickstart those areas of the brain, and is working on a study looking at the trigeminal nerve – it goes directly to the brain stem and can increase activity in the frontal lobe.

She says: “This is all very new. If we find an effect, we have a new treatment.” While that is yet to be proven, she does add: “If everything goes well, it could be on the market in two years.”

So, the hope is that, in the not-too-distant future, there will be more ways to treat ADHD without medication. In the meantime, though, the challenge is getting through that “hump” of people waiting to be assessed – with the belief that, over time, the increase in diagnoses should lessen.

See BBC Action Line for support on issues around ADHD

Read ADHD advice from the NHS

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.

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• Read more about: Kamala Harris | Donald Trump | US election