Apparent Israeli bombing caused large explosions just outside Beirut’s international airport during a further night of air strikes targeting Hezbollah in the city.

The target is unclear but the airport borders Dahieh – Hezbollah’s stronghold in the capital. Plumes of smoke could be seen over the city as dawn broke on Friday.

Elsewhere, the Lebanese army said two of its soldiers had been killed in the country’s south as Israeli forces pressed on with their invasion against Hezbollah and ordered another 20 towns and villages to evacuate.

The Israeli military has not commented, but did say its troops had killed Hezbollah fighters near the border. Hezbollah said it had targeted Israeli troops on both sides of the frontier.

The two fatal attacks on the Lebanese army soldiers were just hours apart on Thursday, the third full day of the invasion.

In the first incident, the army said, one soldier was killed and another was wounded “as a result of an aggression by the Israeli enemy during an evacuation and rescue operation with the Lebanese Red Cross in Taybeh village”.

The Red Cross said four of its volunteers were also lightly wounded, and that their movements had been co-ordinated with UN peacekeepers.

The army said that in the second incident another soldier was killed “after the Israeli enemy targeted an army post in the Bint Jbeil area”.

“The personnel at the post responded to the sources of fire,” the Lebanese army added, marking a rare involvement in a conflict in which it has not engaged.

The news came as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told residents of another two dozen towns and villages in the south, including the regional capital of Nabatieh, to leave immediately for their own safety.

Unlike the communities ordered to evacuate on Tuesday, they are all located north of the Litani river, which lies about 30km (18 miles) from the border.

Before the invasion, Israel had demanded that Hezbollah’s withdraw to the Litani, in accordance with a UN Security Council resolution that ended their last war in 2006.

Speaking to the BBC from Beirut, the World Food Programme’s country director in Lebanon, Matthew Hollingworth, described the situation there as “horrific”.

“There is black smoke billowing over the southern suburbs and we see it each morning when we come to work and we see it all day long. And there’s a striking number of people who are displaced around the city.”

“There are these cars everywhere that are from people that have fled the fighting in the south of the country and the southern suburbs. There’s traffic everywhere, people sleeping outside.”

Juan Gabriel Wells, Lebanon country director with the International Rescue Committee, said nearly half of displaced people surveyed by his organisation in shelters run by the government were children under the age of 15.

Israel’s latest air strikes on Beirut come 24 hours after a residential building in the centre of the capital was hit. A civil defence agency linked to Hezbollah also said seven of its first responders were among nine people killed in the strike.

Lebanon’s health minister later said more than 40 paramedics and firefighters had been killed by Israeli fire in the past three days.

The Israeli Air Force carried out air strikes during Thursday against targets it said belonged to Hezbollah including the group’s intelligence headquarters, weapons production sites, weapons storage facilities.

Two weeks of Israeli strikes and other attacks targeting Hezbollah have killed more than 1,300 people across Lebanon and displaced more than one million, according to local authorities.

Israel went on the offensive after almost a year of cross-border hostilities sparked by the war in Gaza, saying it wanted to ensure the safe return of residents of border areas displaced by Hezbollah rocket, missile and drone attacks.

Hezbollah is a Shia Islamist military, political and social organisation that wields considerable power in Lebanon. It is designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US, the UK and other countries.

The IDF also announced on Thursday that its aircraft had struck 200 Hezbollah “terrorist targets” in southern Lebanon and elsewhere overnight, including weapons storage facilities and observation posts. About 15 Hezbollah fighters were killed when the municipality building in Bint Jbeil was hit, it said.

Later, it said a structure housing three Hezbollah commanders had been destroyed during a joint operation carried out by the air force and infantry.

Hezbollah said on Thursday evening that its fighters had “repelled failed attempts” by Israeli commandos to advance into some border villages during the day.

The group also said it had targeted “enemy gatherings” and homes on the other side of the frontier, while also continuing to fire rockets deep into northern Israel.

The IDF said more than 230 projectiles had been launched into Israeli territory over the course of the day. Most were intercepted or fell in open areas, and there were no casualty reports.

The communities sitting along Israel’s northern border fence are now a closed military zone.

Dean Sweetland, a former British soldier who moved to Israel eight years ago, is one of the few people still living in a near-empty kibbutz within sight of the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil.

He told the BBC that his house shook several times a day with rocket and anti-tank missiles fired from Lebanon, some of them intercepted by Israel’s air-defences overhead.

“We can’t continue this for another year, having Hezbollah sitting on our border just waiting to do an October 7th on us,” he said, referring to Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel last year that triggered the Gaza war.

“But my son is in the army, and do we want our kids to be in there, slaughtered, where Hezbollah has been waiting for us to go in for nearly 20 years?”

“It’s not going to be pretty,” he continued, “but if that’s what it takes, then that’s what it takes.”

As China prepared to celebrate its Golden Week holiday and mark the 75th anniversary of the People’s Republic, the ruling Communist Party rolled out a raft of measures aimed at boosting its ailing economy.

The plans included help for the country’s crisis-hit property industry, support for the stock market, cash handouts for the poor and more government spending.

Shares in mainland China and Hong Kong chalked up record gains after the announcements.

But economists warn the policies may not be enough to fix China’s economic problems.

Some of the new measures announced by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) on 24 September took direct aim at the country’s beaten-down stock market.

The new tools included funding worth 800bn yuan ($114bn; £85.6bn) that can be borrowed by insurers, brokers and asset managers to buy shares.

PBOC governor, Pan Gongsheng, also said the central bank would offer support to listed companies that want to buy back their own shares and announced plans to lower borrowing costs, and allow banks to increase their lending.

Just two days after the PBOC’s announcement, Xi Jinping chaired a surprise economy-focused meeting of the country’s top leaders, known as the Politburo.

Officials promised to intensify government spending aimed to support the economy.

On Monday, the day before China headed off for a weeklong holiday, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index jumped by more than 8%, in its best day since the 2008 global financial crisis. The move capped off a five-day rally that saw the index jump by 20%.

The following day, with markets closed on the mainland, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose by over 6%.

“Investors loved the announcements”, China analyst, Bill Bishop said.

While investors may have been popping champagne corks, Mr Xi has deeper issues to tackle.

The People’s Republic marking its 75th anniversary means it has been in existence longer than the only other major communist sate – the Soviet Union – which collapsed 74 years after its founding.

“Avoiding the fate of the Soviet Union has long been a key concern for China’s leaders,” said Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.

At the forefront of officials’ minds will be boosting confidence in the broader economy amid growing concerns that it may miss its own 5% annual growth target.

“In China targets must be met, by any means necessary,” said Yuen Yuen Ang, professor of political economy at Johns Hopkins University.

“The leadership worries that failing to meet them in 2024 will worsen a downward spiral of slow growth and low confidence.”

One of the main drags on the world’s second-largest economy has been the downturn in the country’s property market which began three years ago.

Aside from policies aimed at boosting stocks, the recently unveiled stimulus package also targeted the real estate industry.

It includes measures to increase bank lending, mortgage rate cuts and lower minimum down payments for second-home buyers.

But there’s scepticism that such moves are enough to shore up the housing market.

“Those measures are welcome but unlikely to shift the needle much in isolation,” said Harry Murphy Cruise, an economist at Moody’s Analytics.

“China’s weakness stems from a crisis of confidence, not one of credit; firms and families don’t want to borrow, regardless of how cheap it is to do so.”

At the Politburo session, leaders vowed to go beyond the interest rate cuts and tap government funds to boost economic growth.

However, beyond setting priorities like stabilising the property market, supporting consumption and boosting employment, the officials offered little in the way of details about the size and scope of government spending.

“Should the fiscal stimulus fall short of market expectations, investors could be disappointed,” warned Qian Wang, chief economist for the Asia Pacific region at Vanguard.

“In addition, cyclical policy stimulus does not fix the structural problems,” Ms Wang noted, suggesting that without deeper reforms the problems China’s economy faces will not go away.

Economists see tackling entrenched problems in the real estate market as key to fixing the broader economy.

Property is the biggest investment most families will make and falling house prices have helped undermine consumer confidence.

“Ensuring the delivery of pre-sold but unfinished homes would be key,” said a note from Sophie Altermatt, an economist with Julius Baer.

“In order to increase domestic consumption on a sustainable basis, fiscal support for household incomes needs to go beyond one-off transfers and rather come through improved pension and social security systems.”

On the day of the 75th anniversary, an editorial in the state-controlled newspaper, People’s Daily, struck an optimistic tone, recognising that “while the journey ahead remains challenging, the future is promising”.

According to the article, concepts created by President Xi such as “high-quality development” and “new productive forces” are key to unlocking that path to a better future.

The emphasis on those ideas reflects Xi’s push to switch from the fast drivers of growth in the past such as property and infrastructure investment, while trying to develop a more balanced economy based on high-end industries.

The challenge China faces, according to Ms Ang, is that the “old and the new economies are deeply intertwined; if the old economy falters too quickly, it will inevitably hinder the rise of the new”.

“This is what the leadership has come to realise and is responding to.”

The union representing tens of thousands of dockworkers across the US has agreed to suspend its strike while negotiations continue.

Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) walked out on Tuesday at 14 major ports along the east and Gulf coasts, halting container traffic from Maine to Texas.

The union says it has reached a tentative agreement on wages and will go back to work on Friday until 15 January, when they will return to the bargaining table to negotiate “all other outstanding issues”.

The action marked the first such shutdown in almost 50 years and threatened to wreak chaos amid the busy holiday shopping season and forthcoming presidential election.

“Effective immediately, all current job actions will cease and all work covered by the Master Contract will resume,” said a joint statement by the ILA and the employers’ group – United States Maritime Alliance (USMX).

Under the tentative agreement, wages would go up by 62% over the next six years, BBC News understands.

But negotiations will continue over a number of outstanding issues, including automation.

The union had been calling for a 77% wage hike, while USMX had previously increased its pay rise offer to almost 50%.

The BBC has contacted the ILA and USMX for comment.

“The short ILA strike… will surely be ranked as one of the most lucrative 3 days in labour-management history,” said Patrick L Anderson, CEO of business consultancy Anderson Economic Group.

“The ILA workers have apparently gained 60% wage increases after giving up 3 days of work in a strike that inflicted no serious damage on the US economy.”

The strike started on Tuesday after negotiations failed to produce a new six-year contract.

The walkout was the ILA’s first major stoppage since 1977.

The affected ports included some of the nation’s busiest, including in New York, Georgia and Texas. They are estimated by experts to handle more than a third of US imports and exports.

US President Joe Biden applauded the tentative agreement in a statement on Thursday evening, saying it “represents critical progress toward a strong contract”.

“I congratulate the dockworkers from the ILA, who deserve a strong contract after sacrificing so much to keep our ports open during the pandemic,” Biden said.

“And I applaud the port operators and carriers who are members of the US Maritime Alliance for working hard and putting a strong offer on the table.”

Biden noted the need for ports to be open to “ensure the availability of critical supplies” for those hit by Hurricane Helene, which has left more than 200 people dead in the US south-east.

The news that the stoppage had been suspended was also welcomed by business owners.

“The decision to end the current strike and allow the East and Gulf coast ports to reopen is good news for the nation’s economy,” said Matthew Shay, president and CEO of the National Retail Federation in a statement.

Businesses had been bracing for the possibility of a prolonged shutdown, which threatened to disrupt global trade and the US economy.

Some firms had been building up supplies as warnings of the strike circulated over the summer.

Many consumers had also been fearful and were stocking up on some supplies, like baby formula and toilet paper.

Under the 2018 contract that expired on Monday, dockworkers earned a base hourly wage of $20-$39, as well as other benefits, including royalties linked to container traffic.

Harold Daggett, head of the ILA, demanded companies agree to boost hourly pay by $5 for each year of the contract.

The union, which has about 47,000 active members according to federal filings, is also seeking protections against automation.

Country music superstar Garth Brooks has been accused of sexual assault and battery in a lawsuit filed in California state court.

The accuser, using the pseudonym “Jane Roe”, was working as a hairstylist and makeup artist for the Grammy-winning singer when he raped her, the lawsuit states.

The woman’s lawsuit alleges that he also repeatedly groped her and made sexually explicit comments to her during her employment from 2017-20.

In a statement to the BBC, Mr Brooks said the woman’s lawsuit was “extortion and defamation”.

In May 2019, the accuser alleges that Mr Brooks asked her to travel with him on his private jet to a Grammy tribute in Los Angeles.

When they arrived at the hotel, Mr Brooks had only booked a single suite with one bedroom for them both to share, according to the legal action.

Her lawsuit alleges that once inside the hotel suite, Mr Brooks appeared naked in the doorway of the bedroom before he raped her.

After the alleged attack, she says Mr Brooks continued to make sexual advances on other occasions, forcing her to put her hands on his genitals and sharing his fantasies, the lawsuit states.

The legal action also alleges Mr Brooks proposed to Jane Roe that they have a threesome with his wife, fellow country star Trisha Yearwood. The BBC has contacted Ms Yearwood for comment.

In his statement to the BBC, Mr Brooks said: “For the last two months, I have been hassled to no end with threats, lies, and tragic tales of what my future would be if I did not write a check for many millions of dollars. It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face.

“Hush money, no matter how much or how little, is still hush money. In my mind, that means I am admitting to behavior I am incapable of—ugly acts no human should ever do to another.”

He added: “I want to play music tonight. I want to continue our good deeds going forward. It breaks my heart these wonderful things are in question now. I trust the system, I do not fear the truth, and I am not the man they have painted me to be.”

Litigation over the matter began three weeks ago with an anonymous lawsuit filed in Mississippi federal court by someone described as “a celebrity and public figure who resides in Tennessee”. This was Mr Brooks.

Mr Brooks said that Jane Roe had levelled the accusation after he refused her request for salaried employment and medical benefits.

His pre-emptive legal action strongly denied her allegations, labelling them “revulsive and untrue”.

Mr Brooks’s lawsuit also said the accusations were a threat designed to cause “substantial, irreparable damage” to his reputation, family and career.

On Thursday, Jane Roe’s lawyers filed their 27-page legal action in Los Angeles Superior Court.

In addition to sexual assault and battery, her lawsuit accuses Mr Brooks of repeatedly exposing himself, making sexually explicit comments and sending inappropriate text messages.

Garth Brooks is a household name known far beyond the country music genre.

Jane Roe’s lawsuit says he is a two-time Grammy winner who has sold more than 162 million albums and is worth about $400m (£305m).

He is known for his commitment to philanthropic work, particularly supporting organisations that benefit children and provide local relief after natural disasters.

As always, the Australian Grand Prix in 2006 was an eclectic buffet of fame and power – with everyone from actress Amanda Bynes to the Dutch Prime Minister, a 70s pop star, and the original Blue Wiggle treading pit lane.

Unnoticed in a corner, making small talk with Italian driver Jarno Trulli and former Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins, was none other than 16-year-old Daniel Ricciardo.

The Perth boy had won a pass to the race – having been crowned Australian go-karting champion the year before – and on that day in April his world shifted.

Family friend and then mentor Remo Luciani jokes it was meeting Hawkins that did it: “He was practically drooling.”

But while rubbing shoulders with Formula 1 stars and feeling the rumbling roar of their engines, the shy teen got his first real taste of the life he was doggedly chasing.

“I think he saw the picture – ‘this is where I belong, this is what I want to do’,” Luciani tells the BBC.

Fast forward a few years and he’d not only become part of that world, but “a main character” in it.

But after 13 years in the sport – with an impressive 257 races, 32 podiums, and eight wins – his F1 career came to an end last week, after Red Bull dropped him from its team.

He bows out as one of the most successful and popular drivers on the circuit and the golden boy of Australian motorsport.

From the moment his motorsport-mad father let him on a go-kart track as a nine-year-old, Ricciardo has been making an impression.

“There’s those who get it at that age, and those that don’t, and he got it pretty quickly,” Tiger Kart Club stalwart John Wishart says.

Ricciardo didn’t blow the competition out of the water, but he quickly established himself as a fast but fair rival, with an infectious personality and fierce competitive spirit – a reputation he’s hung on to his entire career.

“What you see on the TV of Daniel today, he was exactly the same as a kid,” childhood friend Lewis Shugar tells the BBC.

“He was always laughing and having a good time, and if things didn’t go right for him, he still had a smile on his face,” Wishart says. “That in itself is a special talent.”

As he started to notch up race wins around Western Australia, chatter of his promise spread to the east coast.

Ricciardo soon joined Remo Racing – a self-styled development squad run by Luciani in Victoria.

“He was a very, very quick learner, and he was determined. He wanted to always go faster. I could see the hunger in him,” says Luciani – himself a karting legend and Australian Motorsport Hall of Fame inductee.

Ricciardo won his first race with the team in 2005 and went on to take out the national go-karting championship that year, while also racing Formula Ford cars in his home state.

And with that, he was on his way overseas – a “big move” that Ricciardo has said “changed everything”.

Each passing year brought a new step up the ladder. In 2006 he raced in Asia, before moving to Italy the year after, then signing to the Red Bull development programme as a “shy” and “immature” 18-year-old in 2008.

“Having that responsibility, that pressure, all of that, it forced me to grow up,” he told CNN Sport earlier this month.

In 2011 he made his long-awaited grand prix debut at Silverstone, on loan to Spanish team HRT, thrilling his supporters back home.

One described him as beating one-in-10-million odds.

“Just to sit in an F1 car is something that hardly anybody will ever do – so even just to have that opportunity is incredible,” Shugar says.

But Ricciardo wasn’t satisfied with just any spot on the grid, and by 2014 he’d earned a call up to the main Red Bull team, replacing fellow countryman Mark Webber.

“I’m ready,” Ricciardo declared at the time: “I’m not here to run around in 10th place.”

True to his word, he won three races that year, outperforming teammate and defending champion Sebastian Vettel.

Over his four years at Red Bull, he became known as the Honey Badger – for the affable demeanour which belied his killer racing instincts.

“His trademark was these terrific late-braking moves that would catch drivers by surprise,” Australian F1 journalist Michael Lamonato told the BBC.

“He always said he wanted the kind of reputation that meant he would be feared when another driver would see him in their mirrors, and I think he really achieved that.”

At the same time, his popularity off the track was soaring, even before the hit Netflix series Drive to Survive took F1 to new levels of acclaim.

“Daniel was one of the characters that was beginning to transcend the sport,” Lamonato says.

His signature shoey celebration – which is credited with popularising the practice in Australia – memeable media sound bites and humorous stunts have enamoured him to legions the world over.

“He seems like a mate, someone you could make friends with at the pub,” Melbourne fan Issy Futcher says.

“He’s made for this kind of stardom.”

The pinnacle of his career came with a gutsy win in Monaco in 2018, when he defended his lead for 50 laps while battling a failing engine, two years after a botched pit stop at the same circuit saw victory slip through his fingers.

“This was a redemption race… it really is his defining win,” Lamonato says.

But after ill-fated moves to Renault in 2019 and McLaren in 2021, where he struggled to replicate his previous success, he was left floundering in 2023 and returned to the broader Red Bull fold as a reserve driver.

He re-joined the starting line-up in its junior team – now called RB – halfway through the season though was soon derailed by a broken wrist and his form never recovered throughout 2024.

Rumours began to circulate and when the Singapore Grand Prix rolled around on 22 September, the writing was on the wall. In one last hurrah, Ricciardo was given a fresh set of tyres and set the fastest lap of the race.

After finishing last, the 35-year-old lingered in the cockpit for a beat.

In a teary post-race interview, Ricciardo said he was battling a lot of emotions.

“I’m aware it could be it,” he said. “I just wanted to savour the moment.”

He had only wanted to return to the grid if he could get podiums and so was “at peace” with his impending fate, he told Sky Sports.

Days later, Red Bull confirmed he would be replaced for the rest of the season by young Kiwi Liam Lawson – news that stirred outrage and cries of mistreatment.

Team boss Christian Horner said Ricciardo’s statistics and accolades weren’t the only measure of his success.

“From the moment you arrived at Red Bull it was obvious you were so much more than just a driver. Your constant enthusiasm, sense of humour and attitude will leave an indelible legacy,” he said.

Amid a wave of tributes from his peers, Ricciardo said it had been a “wild and wonderful” journey.

“I’ve loved this sport my whole life… It’ll always have its highs and lows, but it’s been fun and truth be told I wouldn’t change it,” he wrote on Instagram.

“Until the next adventure.”

While details of that next adventure are hotly anticipated, Lamonato says Ricciardo has already cemented himself as one of the most underrated F1 drivers.

“The best way to sum up Daniel Ricciardo is a driver of immense potential who suffered what so many do, and that is career wrong turns.”

His long career is near unmatched – only nine drivers have started more races – and his wins and podiums both put him in the top 40 drivers of all time, particularly impressive when factoring in that all were achieved without racing for the dominant team of the day.

And his legacy is already stamped at home in Australia – where karting figures say he’s inspired both an increase in grassroots participation and the next wave of Australian racing stars like Oscar Piastri and Jack Doohan.

Statistically, Ricciardo will be the fourth most successful of Australia’s F1 stars, but many think he’ll be remembered as the biggest.

“I don’t think anyone will have had an effect similar to him in terms of bringing the sport home to the audience,” Lamonato says.

“[He] did Australia proud,” Luciani concludes.

The UK has announced it is giving up sovereignty of a remote but strategically important cluster of islands in the Indian Ocean after more than half a century.

The deal – reached after years of negotiations – will see the UK hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in a historic move.

This includes the tropical atoll of Diego Garcia, used by the US government as a military base for its navy ships and long-range bomber aircraft.

The announcement, made in a joint statement by the UK and Mauritian Prime Ministers, ends decades of often fractious negotiations between the two countries.

The US-UK base will remain on Diego Garcia – a key factor enabling the deal to go forward at a time of growing geopolitical rivalries in the region between Western countries, India, and China.

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The deal is still subject to finalisation of a treaty, but both sides have promised to complete it as quickly as possible.

“This is a seminal moment in our relationship and a demonstration of our enduring commitment to the peaceful resolution of disputes and the rule of law,” the statement from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth read.

The leaders also said they were committed “to ensure the long-term, secure and effective operation of the existing base on Diego Garcia which plays a vital role in regional and global security”.

The treaty will also “address wrongs of the past and demonstrate the commitment of both parties to support the welfare of Chagossians”.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the benefits of the deal included closing “a potential illegal migration route”.

Dozens of Sri Lankan Tamils have been held in a fenced camp on the island for three years as complex legal battles are waged over their fate.

It is unclear what the announcement will mean for them.

The UK will provide a package of financial support to Mauritius, including annual payments and infrastructure investment.

Mauritius will also be able to begin a programme of resettlement on the Chagos Islands, but not on Diego Garcia.

There, the UK will ensure operation of the military base for “an initial period” of 99 years.

US President Joe Biden welcomed the “historic agreement”, saying it was a “clear demonstration that through diplomacy and partnership, countries can overcome long-standing historical challenges to reach peaceful and mutually beneficial outcomes”.

He said it secured the future of a key military base which “plays a vital role in national, regional, and global security.”

The Chagos islanders themselves – some in Mauritius and the Seychelles, but others living in Crawley in Sussex – do not speak with one voice on the fate of their homeland.

Some are determined to return to live on the isolated islands, some are more focused on their rights and status in the UK, while others argue that the archipelago’s status should not be resolved by outsiders.

Isabelle Charlot, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme, said the deal brought back hopes her family could return to her father’s island “roots”.

Plans for the Mauritius government to arrange resettlement would mean a “place that we can call home – where we will be free,” she said.

But Frankie Bontemps, a second generation Chagossian in the UK, told the BBC that he felt “betrayed” and “angry” at the news because “Chagossians have never been involved” in the negotiations.

“We remain powerless and voiceless in determining our own future”, he said, and called for the full inclusion of Chagossians in drafting the treaty.

In recent years, the UK has faced rising diplomatic isolation over its claim to what it refers to as the British Indian Ocean Territory, with various United Nations bodies, including its top court and general assembly, overwhelmingly siding with Mauritius and demanding the UK surrender what some have called its “last colony in Africa”.

The government of Mauritius has long argued that it was illegally forced to give the Chagos Islands away in return for its own independence from the UK in 1968.

At the time, the British government had already negotiated a secret deal with the US, agreeing to lease it the largest atoll, Diego Garcia, for use as a military base.

Britain later apologised for forcibly removing more than 1,000 islanders from the entire archipelago and promised to hand the islands to Mauritius when they were no longer needed for strategic purposes.

But until very recently, the UK insisted that Mauritius itself had no legitimate claim to the islands.

For decades, the tiny island nation of Mauritius struggled to win any serious international support on the issue.

A handful of Chagos islanders, who’d been forced to abandon their homes in the late 1960s and early 70s, repeatedly took the British government to court.

But it was only recently that international opinion began to shift.

African nations began to speak with one voice on the issue, pushing the UK hard on the issue of decolonialisation.

Then Brexit left many European nations reluctant to continue backing the UK’s stance in international forums.

The Mauritian government went on the attack, accusing the UK government of verbal threats.

And the Mauritians began to wage an increasingly sophisticated campaign – at the UN, in courts, and in the media – even landing and planting a flag on the archipelago without British authorisation.

The negotiations that brought about Thursday’s deal began under the previous UK government.

But the timing of this breakthrough reflects a growing sense of urgency in international affairs, not least regarding Ukraine, with the UK keen to remove the Chagos issue as an obstacle to winning more global support, particularly from African nations, with the prospect of a second Trump presidency looming.

A backlash from some voices in the UK can be expected, even though successive Conservative and Labour prime ministers have been working towards the same broad goal.

Tory leadership candidate Tom Tugendhat argued the deal had been “negotiated against Britain’s interest” and it was “disgraceful” that such talks had begun under the previous Conservative government.

He called it a “shameful retreat” that leaves “allies exposed”, while the former foreign secretary James Cleverly called it a “weak” deal.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the deal will “address the wrongs against the Chagossians of the past but it looks like it will continue the crimes long into the future”.

There must be meaningful consultations with the Chagossians or the UK, US and now Mauritius will be responsible for “a still-ongoing colonial crime”, Clive Baldwin, senior legal advisor at HRW said in a statement.

But there can be no doubting the historic significance of this moment.

Half a century or more after the UK relinquished control over almost all its global empire, it has finally agreed to hand over one of the very last pieces. It has done so reluctantly, perhaps, but also peacefully and legally.

The remaining British overseas territories are: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands. There are also two sovereign base areas on Cyprus under British jurisdiction.

Following the Chagos announcement, the governor of the Falklands said the islands are safe in British hands.

“The UK’s unwavering commitment to defend UK sovereignty [of the Falklands] remains undiminished”, Alison Blake said in a statement posted to social media.

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More than 90 years after India’s first Test match at Lord’s in 1932, Rohit Sharma’s team has made history. With a win over Bangladesh in Chennai last month, India now boasts more Test victories than losses, standing at 179 wins to 178 defeats across 580 Tests. Cricket writer Suresh Menon explores India’s remarkable transformation into a Test cricket powerhouse.

In every field of human endeavour, there are moments when circumstances and people align, sparking change.

In popular music this happened with the Beatles, where four boys emerged from the same place at the same time and created a new sound.

In sport, such changes are usually led by a single player who has around him a bunch who are almost as good. It happened in football with Pele as Brazil won three of four World Cups between 1958 and 1970 with him in the side.

With the arrival of a baby-faced Sachin Tendulkar, the fortunes of Indian cricket changed. His supporting cast was just as important to the transformation: Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh and MS Dhoni. Many would find a place in a team of all-time India greats.

Before Tendulkar’s debut in November 1989, India had won just 43 Tests and lost more than twice that number out of the 257 matches played. The remaining were draws.

In the Tendulkar era, India registered 78 wins against 60 losses out of the 217 matches played.

But it was a period when the number of draws – 79 – was still significant. Only seven wins had come in the “SANE” countries: South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and England. Draws in these countries were still seen as victory of sorts – the mindset with which India began international cricket.

Domestically, changes were happening. Led by Ganguly, and carried forward by Dhoni, India were discovering players beyond the traditional centres. If you were good enough, it didn’t matter where you were from; you would get your chance. This was despite the cricket board itself and the various local bodies often being drenched in politics.

Tendulkar retired in 2013, and since then India have won 58 while losing just 29 Tests of the 106 played. Significantly, there have been only 19 draws.

India won back-to-back series in Australia as they matched their rivals for aggression and in self-belief. This was no longer merely a cricketing change now, it was a psychological one.

Virat Kohli occasionally went beyond the pale as skipper, but he was passionate about Test cricket and passionate about winning – an attitude that seeped into the team.

Set to chase 364 in his first Test as captain in Adelaide in 2014, India nearly pulled it off and lost the match by just 48 runs.

It was a turning point. A new approach was created. Kohli, who led India in most Tests, at 68, was allergic to draws. It meant India played positive cricket at all times. Kohli drew just 16% of his Tests, the lowest among the top six captains in history. Even Clive Lloyd had 35% draws.

Kohli had a talented bunch around him – Cheteswar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul. Again, players were discovered outside the traditional centres.

Another psychological change was that India no longer worshipped at the altar of orthodoxy. Effectiveness was more important than style. Jasprit Bumrah, who fast-tracked into international cricket, and is possibly India’s greatest fast bowler, might not have made it in earlier generations. He is unorthodox; coaches would have recommended some other profession.

The cricket board too finally began to react to regular defeats abroad – India lost all Tests to Australia and England in a six-month span in 2011-12.

The golden generation was retiring. Much was made of the ineffectiveness of domestic cricket. The board decided that pitches had to help quick bowlers. It instructed curators to retain 3mm to 8mm grass on pitches. The result over a period was two-fold. India discovered a group of talented fast bowlers while also ensuring the batters could play fast bowling better.

You needed fast bowlers to win abroad consistently. The low points of Indian cricket can usually be traced to their weakness against fast bowling. In Manchester in 1952, they were dismissed twice on the same day – for 58 and 82 – as Fred Trueman and Alec Bedser ran through the side.

In the “Summer of 42” at Lord’s in 1974, they folded for 42 thanks to Geoff Arnold’s and Chris Old’s dominant bowling. It gave rise to one of the most cruel cartoons in sport, with a woman telling her husband emerging from the toilet, “You should have gone home. Now you have missed the entire Indian innings.”

However, India’s dismissal for 36 at Adelaide in 2020 inspired neither cartoons nor panic. That was accepted as a freak innings where every good ball picked a wicket and there were hardly any bad balls. But it required great confidence to pass it off as one of those things – that confidence carried India to victories in two Tests that followed, and with it the series.

There was a phase, 2002-2004, when India won Tests at Port of Spain, Leeds, Adelaide, Multan and Rawalpindi. But only in Pakistan did they win the series. Veteran writer David Frith thought India then had the finest Top 6 batting line-up in the history of the game. There was both heft and elegance, a rare combination.

But that team did not live up to its potential. This is one of the ironies of Indian cricket – that their most celebrated team did not dominate as they should have.

What the current team has is heart. That 36 in Adelaide and 78 in Leeds serve to highlight the temperament of players who can let bygones be bygones and remember only the good times. It is a rare quality in an individual, even rarer in a team.

In the past, Indian teams always had a couple of outstanding individuals on whom everything rested. With Sunil Gavaskar dismissed, half the team was gone. If the great spinners were collared, there was no one to turn to until Kapil Dev came along, and if he had a bad day, that was that.

In the 1960s, India won only one series abroad, in New Zealand. That helped consolidate India’s biggest strength: spin bowling. That most romanticised generation led by a Nawab, Mansur Ali Khan of Pataudi, with its essentially amateur spirit was necessary. Just as necessary was the one represented by Tendulkar, when India performed with greater consistency.

All this was before the Kohli-led bunch of professionals could emerge. When India were first ranked No.1 in 2009, they had not won a series in Australia, South Africa or Sri Lanka. Now only South Africa remains.

Indian cricket has moved on, and now we are looking at the end game of the recent stars: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja. Already, Rishabh Pant, Bumrah, Shubhman Gill, Yashaswi Jaiswal and a host of emerging fast bowlers have indicated they are ready to take over. India play five Tests in Australia starting in November.

Suddenly the pressure is on Australia. The Tendulkar generation constructed a solid foundation, the Kohli-Sharma one has built on that. At the end of the Chennai Test against Bangladesh, India’s wins outstripped losses, 179-178 in 580 Tests. Statistical evidence of a new India, if such were needed.

At least 20 people including children have been killed after an armed gang attacked a small town in Haiti.

Another 50 were wounded as Gran Grif gang members rampaged through Pont-Sondé in the central Artibonite region about 71km (44 miles) north-west of the capital Port-au-Prince.

Video footage shows groups of people fleeing the violence on motorbikes and on foot. A government prosecutor described the attack as “a massacre”, reported the Associated Press.

Armed gangs have taken control of large parts of Haiti and a UN-backed policing mission, led by officers from Kenya, began in June in an attempt to wrestle back control.

The exact number of dead from the attack is not clear – local media reported that more than 50 had been killed, while a Haitian human rights group put the figure at 20 or more, AP said.

Gran Grif is said to be one of the most violent of Haiti’s gangs. In January 2023 its members were accused of attacking a police station near Port-Sondé and killing six officers. It is also blamed for forcing the closure of a hospital serving more than 700,000 people.

The gang has about 100 members and has been accused of crimes including murder, rape, robberies and kidnappings, according to a UN report cited by AP. Both its founder and current leader are subject to US sanctions.

Thursday’s gang rampage comes almost a month after the Haitian authorities expanded a state of emergency to cover the whole of the country.

Prime Minister Garry Conille has vowed to crack down on the gangs, with the UN saying a “robust use of force” is needed.

It has approved the policing mission made up of 2,500 officers from various countries – including 1,000 pledged by Kenya.

Their deployment has been authorised for one year, with a review to be held after nine months.

Melania Trump seems to have joined a long line of Republican former first ladies who have come out in support of abortion rights, putting them at odds with their husbands’ public views.

In a short video clip promoting her forthcoming book, Mrs Trump expressed her support for women’s “individual freedom”, describing it as an “essential right that all women possess from birth”.

It comes a day after an excerpt of her soon-to-be-released memoir, in which she reportedly takes an even clearer pro-choice stance, was published in a newspaper report.

Mrs Trump’s apparent stance on the issue appears to contrast with the position of her husband, who has taken credit for helping overturn Roe v Wade, upending the constitutional right to abortion.

But it follows a decades-long American tradition of Republican first ladies who – since Roe v Wade was first decided in 1973 – have said legal abortion access should be protected.

In 1975, while still in the White House, First Lady Betty Ford called the Roe ruling a “great, great decision”.

Nancy Reagan waited until her husband, President Ronald Reagan, left office before she said publicly that she “believed in a woman’s choice”, but her position on the issue was reportedly well known within the White House.

Barbara Bush, wife of President George HW Bush, and her daughter-in-law, Laura Bush, wife of President George W Bush, were similar, revealing their stance on the issue after their husbands left the White House.

“I think it’s important that it remain legal, because I think it’s important for people, for medical reasons and other reasons,” Laura Bush said in a 2010 interview promoting her memoir.

Mrs Trump’s approach was different.

In a black-and-white video posted on her X account on Thursday, Mrs Trump said “there is no room for compromise when it comes to this essential right that all women possess from birth: individual freedom”.

“What does my body, my choice really mean?” Mrs Trump continued.

The video comes one day after The Guardian published an excerpt from her new book, Melania, set to be released on 8 October.

In the excerpt, quoted by the Guardian, she writes: “It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government.”

“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body? A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes,” she continues.

“Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body.

“I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life.”

Kate Andersen Brower, a journalist and author of the book First Women, said she was “shocked” by the comments.

“So shocked that I wanted to check it was real,” she said. “She’s very much been in line with her husband, so on this issue how did she spend all those years watching him derail something that she seems to care about?”

More than the other first ladies, Ms Brower said, Mrs Trump’s comments appear “diametrically opposed” to her husband’s approach on the issue.

And she is the only first lady so far to make her stance on abortion known while her husband is actively seeking re-election.

Indeed, the timing of Mrs Trump’s comments suggest a possible political angle, Ms Brower said.

“It’s not out of the realm of possibility that this was done intentionally to come out right before the election, because it could appeal to those swing state voters who are upset about the overturning of Roe v Wade,” she said. “Maybe they could see this as a sign that he [Trump] perhaps is softening on abortion.”

But Republican strategist Rina Shah offered a different view.

The notion of Mrs Trump trying to help out her husband “doesn’t track with the Melania we know”, she said.

“At this point in the game it doesn’t change anything, and she knows that,” Ms Shah said. “Early ballots have already gone out in certain places. It’s just too late.”

Abortion access is a key issue in next month’s 2024 election – and it is considered a weak point for the Republican Party, which has struggled to appeal to a conservative base that opposes the procedure and a wider electorate that supports abortion access.

Throughout the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump’s position on the issue has fluctuated.

Earlier this week, the Republican presidential nominee said for the first time that he would veto any federal abortion ban in the unlikely event that such a measure ever passed Congress.

The BBC has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has sought to capitalise on Trump’s position in an effort to galvanise voters.

She has regularly cast Trump as a threat to women’s autonomy because of the overturning of Roe v Wade, which took place after he appointed a conservative majority to the Supreme Court.

“Sadly for the women across America, Mrs Trump’s husband firmly disagrees with her and is the reason that more than one in three American women live under a Trump Abortion Ban that threatens their health, their freedom, and their lives,” Sarafina Chitika, a spokeswoman for the Harris-Walz campaign told the BBC.

A Yazidi woman who was kidnapped aged 11 in Iraq by the Islamic State group and subsequently taken to Gaza has been rescued after more than a decade in captivity there, officials from Israel, the US and Iraq said.

The Yazidis are a religious minority who mostly live in Iraq and Syria. In 2014 the Islamic State group overran the Yazidi community in Sinjar in northern Iraq, massacring thousands of men, and enslaving girls and women.

The Israeli military said the now 21-year-old’s captor in Gaza had been killed during the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas, probably as a result of an air strike.

The woman, identified as Fawzia Amin Sido, then fled to another place in Gaza.

The Israeli military said Ms Sido was eventually freed during a “complex operation coordinated between Israel, the United States, and other international actors” and taken to Iraq via Israel and Jordan.

Iraqi foreign ministry official Silwan Sinjaree told Reuters that several earlier attempts to rescue her over the course of about four months failed because of the security situation in Gaza.

Mr Sinjaree said Ms Sido was in good physical condition, but had been traumatised by her time in captivity and by the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Video shared by Canadian philanthropist Steve Maman showed Ms Sido reuniting with her family in Iraq.

Posting on X, Mr Maman said: “I made a promise to Fawzia the Yazidi who was hostage of Hamas in Gaza that I would bring her back home to her mother in Sinjar.

“To her it seemed surreal and impossible but not to me, my only enemy was time. Our team reunited her moments ago with her mother and family in Sinjar.”

The Islamic State group once controlled 88,000 sq km (34,000 sq miles) of territory stretching from eastern Iraq to western Syria and imposed its brutal rule on almost eight million people.

In August 2014, IS militants swept through Iraq’s north-western Sinjar region, which is the homeland of the Yazidi religious minority.

In numerous Yazidi villages, the population was rounded up. Men and boys over the age of 14 were separated from women and girls. The men were then led away and shot, while the women were abducted as the “spoils of war”.

Some of the Yazidi girls and women who later escaped from captivity described being openly sold or handed over into sexual slavery as “gifts” to IS members.

The Islamic State group is believed to have killed more than 3,000 Yazidis and captured 6,000 others in total.

The UN said IS committed genocide as well as multiple crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Yazidis.

Iraqi authorities say more than 3,500 members of the community have been rescued or freed and about 2,600 people remain missing.

The governor of the Falkland Islands has sought to calm concerns over the territory’s sovereignty following the UK’s deal to hand over the Chagos Islands.

The UK has agreed to give up ownership of the tropical archipelago to Mauritius, after decades of often fractious negotiations.

In light of the move, Argentina has renewed its vow to gain full sovereignty of the Falklands, with its foreign minister promising “concrete action” to ensure the islands are handed to Buenos Aires.

But in an attempt to assuage the fears of people on another strategically-important group of islands, Falklands Governor Alison Blake said the legal and historical context of the two territories are “very different”.

• UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius
• Falklands dispute may last decades – Argentina president

The UK commitment to the South Atlantic territory’s sovereignty is “unwavering” and “remains undiminished”, she said in a statement posted to social media.

In the message to residents, she said: “I would like to reassure you that the legal and historical contexts of the Chagos Archipelago and the Falkland Islands are very different.

“UK ministers have been very clear throughout the process that the UK will not agree to anything that runs the risk of jeopardising sovereignty in other Overseas Territories.

“The UK government remains committed to defending the Falkland Islanders’ right of self-determination, and the UK’s unwavering commitment to defend UK sovereignty remains undiminished.”

But Argentina’s foreign minister, Diana Mondino welcomed the step taken by Sir Keir Starmer’s Government on Thursday towards ending “outdated practices” after the UK announced the decision to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

In a post on X, referring to the Falklands, she said: “Following the path we have already taken, with concrete actions and not empty rhetoric, we will recover full sovereignty over our Malvinas Islands.

“The Malvinas were, are and will always be Argentine.”

The Falkland Islands are a British overseas territory in the south-west Atlantic Ocean. Argentina has long claimed sovereignty over the islands.

Argentina invaded in 1982 in a bid to reclaim sovereignty and said it had inherited the Falkland Islands from Spain in the 1800s.

A brief but bitter war lasting 74 days followed – with 655 Argentinian, 255 British and three Falkland deaths – before British forces regained control on 14 June 1982.

Gov Blake’s announcement came after a deal which, after years of negotiations, saw the UK hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

This includes the tropical atoll of Diego Garcia, used by the US government as a highly-secretive military base for its warships and long-range bombers.

The treaty will also “address wrongs of the past and demonstrate the commitment of both parties to support the welfare of Chagossians”, according to a joint statement from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth.

Joe Biden has said the US is discussing with Israel the possibility of Israeli strikes on Iran’s oil infrastructure.

When asked if he would support such strikes, Mr Biden said: “We’re discussing that. I think that would be a little… anyway.”

His off-the-cuff remarks, made as he left the White House, did not make clear Washington’s stance. Mr Biden has previously said he would not support Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

The price of benchmark Brent crude oil shot up by 5% immediately after the remarks. It has now increased by 10% since Iran’s large-scale missile attack on Israel on Tuesday.

• Faisal Islam: Oil price rise comes at a critical point

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran “will pay a heavy price” for Tuesday’s attack, which saw at least 180 ballistic missiles fired at Israel.

Satellite imagery published by the Associated Press news agency showed damage to the Nevatim airbase, one of the targets of the attack.

Iran said the barrage was a response to the killings of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Brig-Gen Abbas Nilforoushan.

Mr Biden told reporters that he was not expecting Israel to launch its retaliation on Thursday.

Asked as he left the White House what plans the US had to allow Israel to strike Iran, he responded: “First of all, we don’t allow Israel, we advise Israel and there’s nothing that’s going to happen today.”

A US official told Reuters news agency the US believes Israel is “still determining what exactly they will do.”

Mr Biden earlier said the US did not support strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, as touted by some in Israel, including former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett.

Bennett argued striking Iran’s nuclear facilities could “help change the face of the Middle East” and “fatally cripple this terrorist regime”.

Reports in Israeli media citing local officials suggest Israel plans to first strike Iran’s oil facilities. If Iran then hits back, Israel will target its nuclear facilities.

Speaking on Wednesday, Iran’s chief of staff Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri told state TV that it would hit infrastructure across Israel if it retaliates.

The barrage “will be repeated with bigger intensity and all infrastructure of the regime will be targeted”, Mr Bagheri said.

Mr Biden said on Wednesday he had consulted with the leaders of other G7 countries, who agreed Israel “has the right to respond, but they should respond proportionally”.

Fears over further violence between Israel and Iran, the world’s seventh largest oil producer, have put markets on edge.

Of particular concern is whether any escalation could block the Straits of Hormuz, through which a third of oil tanker traffic and a fifth of LNG frozen gas has to pass.

The price of oil has jumped 5% after US President Joe Biden said the US was discussing possible strikes by Israel on Iran’s oil industry.

Asked on a visit if he would support Israel striking Iran’s oil facilities, Biden said: “We’re discussing that.”

Iran is the seventh largest oil producer in the world, exporting around half its production abroad, mainly to China.

Since Iran’s missile attack on Israel on Monday, the price of benchmark Brent crude oil has risen 10% to $77 a barrel, although this remains below levels seen earlier this year.

Any extended rise in energy prices raises the possibility of higher petrol prices and increased gas and electricity bills, pushing up the rate of inflation.

So far this year, weaker demand from China and ample supply from Saudi Arabia have acted to hold down oil prices.

The reaction in oil markets has, so far, been far more muted than, for example, to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

But the escalation of violence in the Middle East and threat of further action is now stalking the markets.

Of particular concern is whether any escalation could block the Straits of Hormuz, through which a third of oil tanker traffic and a fifth of LNG frozen gas has to pass.

Since Russia’s war with Ukraine began, the world has become more dependent on shipped frozen gas in LNG tankers.

Even if it is Asia that is most physically dependent on the flow of oil and gas out of the Persian Gulf, the immediate price impact of such developments would be significant.

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey warned on Thursday of the “very serious” potential impact and that he was watching developments “extremely closely”.

All this could come at the very moment the world’s central bankers declared a quiet victory over the three-year inflation shock from the pandemic and Ukraine war.

It may help explain why G7 leaders are trying to moderate the expected response from Israel to Iran’s attack.

At least 18 people have been killed in an Israeli air strike in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said late on Thursday.

The Palestinian Authority-run news agency Wafa said the air strike had hit a cafe in the Tulkarm refugee camp where many civilians had been present.

The Israeli military said the air force had conducted a strike in Tulkarm in a joint operation with its Shin Bet security service and had killed the head of Hamas in Tulkarm and “other significant terrorists”.

There has been a spike in violence in the West Bank since Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Since then more than 700 Palestinians have been killed as Israeli forces have intensified their raids, saying they are trying to stem deadly Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank and Israel.

The Israeli military has carried out dozens of air strikes in the occupied West Bank in the past year, but normally using drones or helicopters.

One resident from the area told AFP news agency the Israeli had “hit a cafeteria in a three-story building.”

“There are many victims in the hospital,” the resident added, saying the death toll would likely rise.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strike had killed Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi, who it said had attempted a car bombing last month and supplied weapons.

Wafa quoted a local official as saying children and elderly people from several families had been killed in the strike.

Tulkarm was one of the towns and Palestinian refugee camps targeted during a major Israeli military operation in August.

Last month UN rights chief Volker Turk said major Israeli operations in the occupied West Bank were taking place “at a scale not witnessed in the last two decades”.

Over the past year more than 700 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry says.

Meanwhile at least 24 Israelis including members of the security forces have been killed by Palestinian attackers in the same period, according to Israeli officials.

Iranians have been expressing a mixture of pride, uncertainty and fear since their country launched a large-scale ballistic missile attack on Israel on Tuesday night.

Within minutes of the attack starting, Persian social media feeds were filled with shaky videos showing the flashes of the missiles flying overhead.

Iran’s state television broadcast pictures of groups of people cheering on the streets, waving flags and chanting “Death to Israel”.

But the mood was different online, with not everyone expressing support for the attack.

Some shared tense scenes and heated debates about a possible war between the arch-foes, after decades of keeping their conflict largely in the shadows.

The contrasting reactions laid bare the deep divisions in Iran, where there is widespread discontent at the clerical establishment and frustration over the economic troubles caused by sanctions.

On one side of the debate are those who support the government’s actions with nationalist pride, while on the other are those who fear war, economic collapse and further suppression of domestic reform movements.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Tuesday’s missile strike successfully targeted Israeli military and intelligence bases and that it was retaliation for recent killings of the leaders of its allies Hamas and Hezbollah.

The Israeli military described the attack as “indiscriminate” and said that while it had been largely thwarted by air defences, there had been casualties and millions of Israelis had been sent running to bomb shelters.

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Iran will pay for the “big mistake”.

For many supporters of the Iranian government, the attack represented a proud moment of defiance.

“Bravo to [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei! Bravo to the Revolutionary Guards!” shouted a young woman in a clip that went viral.

Such sentiment frustrated other Iranians online.

“Please distinguish between the people and the Revolutionary Guards; we are under immense pressure,” pleaded a middle-aged man in a video shared on social media.

Some Iranians felt the strike was an unnecessary provocation that would only result in making their lives worse.

“We have no choice but to protect our country, but we are the ones who suffer the consequences,” said a concerned resident of the capital, Tehran.

In the hours after the strikes, rumours surfaced that Israel might respond by targeting Iran’s oil infrastructure, which is an important part of the country’s economy.

Videos quickly surfaced showing petrol stations overwhelmed, with long queues of people as they rushed to fill up their vehicles, fearing future shortages.

The missile attack has also diminished hopes for diplomatic progress with the West and other countries in the region.

The election of Masoud Pezeshkian as the new president in July had sparked optimism among those with moderate views. Some people saw him as a potential bridge in easing regional tensions.

But one BBC Persian viewer lamented that “this attack is another step away from diplomacy and a step closer to conflict”.

“I fear this war might be used as an excuse to intensify the crackdown of us, who are fighting for freedom,” a young activist said, referring to the nationwide “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests that erupted two years ago.

Many worry that a new conflict could not only undermine calls for reform, but also empower the government to further suppress internal dissent.

Unlike after previous escalations, this time there’s a growing fear of a potentially strong retaliatory response from Israel.

And many believe that Israel’s advanced military capabilities could bring unprecedented destruction if a full-scale war broke out.

“No-one wants war, not the people, not even the officials,” said a commentator on social media.

This sense of vulnerability has made the situation feel more precarious than ever before.

Amid the growing tensions, some people even called for regime change.

“The only way to save Iran is not through war, but through toppling the current regime,” said another BBC News Persian viewer, urging the West to support Iranians in their struggle against the government.

However, many believe the country’s future should be decided internally, free from any foreign intervention, to avoid the potential chaos that outside interference might cause.

Atul Kumar, 18, was ecstatic when he found out in June that he had passed a tough examination that would allow him to join a prestigious technology college in India.

But then came the next step: paying 17,500 rupees ($281; £156) online to confirm his admission. It was a big amount for the family from Muzaffarnagar in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

His father managed to borrow the money, but Atul says he missed the online fee deadline by a few seconds, partly due to technical issues.

The family didn’t give up, filing petitions and court cases. This week, India’s top court stepped in and ordered the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Dhanbad, to restore Atul’s admission.

The Supreme Court invoked its extraordinary powers granted by India’s constitution, saying that “we cannot allow such a young talented boy to go away”.

The IITs are India’s top technology institutes, attracting more than a million candidates for nearly 18,000 seats in 23 colleges spread across the country. Students spend years in private coaching centres to prepare for the exams, and parents believe joining an IIT is a ticket to success.

Atul’s story has made headlines in India because of his financially deprived background and the challenges he overcame.

Atul is from the Dalit community, which lies at the bottom of India’s caste hierarchy and is among the most marginalised in the country.

His father Rajendra Kumar earns about 450 rupees ($5; £4) a day as a daily wage labourer and his mother weaves cots at home.

But Rajendra Kumar says that nothing was more important to him than his children’s education. He even sold his house once to fund his eldest son’s studies, he told the BBC.

Two of Atul’s brothers are studying engineering at reputed colleges, while a third is doing a bachelor’s degree from a college in Muzaffarnagar.

Atul knew he also had to study hard, and he did that for hours every day in a dark corner of his house which got little sunlight. Erratic electricity supply made things worse, with daily power cuts lasting hours.

Rajendra Kumar says buying an inverter didn’t make sense as it cost nearly 25,000 rupees.

“But I would have sold the house [again] if needed,” he adds.

Atul had joined a free coaching centre for marginalised students in a nearby city, and this year was his last out of the two attempts allowed in IIT entrance examinations.

When Atul passed the exam, his father asked for help from a local moneylender. But the man backed out two hours before the fee deadline.

The father then had to turn to his friends, who immediately chipped in with 14,000 rupees. Rajendra Kumar dipped into his savings for the remaining 3,500 rupees.

He quickly deposited the amount in his eldest son’s bank account, while Atul logged in to complete the formalities.

By then, he had just 180 seconds left for the deadline.

“We tried to complete the task that requires many more minutes’ work in three minutes,” Rajendra Kumar said.

But the portal froze suddenly, he says, and Atul missed the deadline.

In shock, no-one in the family ate for a day.

Atul’s coaching centre reached out to IIT Dhanbad but his petition says they did not help him. The desperate family wrote emails to several college authorities and moved another court, but nothing worked.

The only option left now was the Supreme Court. In 2021, the court had allowed a Dalit student to join IIT Bombay after he also couldn’t pay his admission fee on time due to financial and technical difficulties.

Atul and his father contacted that student who put them in touch with the lawyer who fought his case.

In the Supreme Court, IIT Dhanbad argued that Atul had logged into the payment portal at 3pm, which indicated that it was not a last-minute attempt. It also pointed out that Atul was sent multiple reminders through text messages, well before the deadline.

But the court asked IIT why it was so keen to oppose his admission.

The court observed that there was no reason why the petitioner would not have paid the amount if he had the means to do so and ordered IIT Dhanbad to create an additional seat for Atul in the current batch.

The Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud then wished him luck in his studies.

“All the best, do well!,” he said.

“If these fires continue, we indigenous people will die.”

Raimundinha Rodrigues Da Sousa runs the voluntary fire service for the Caititu indigenous community in the Brazilian Amazon.

Their land is supposed to be protected under the Brazilian constitution.

But it has been on fire for more than 15 days.

For her brigade, their fight feels personal.

“Today it is killing the plants, in a while it will be us, because we inhale so much,” she says.

“It is a very aggressive fire that kills everything that comes its way.”

Her father, Ademar, tells us the constant smoke has caused him respiratory problems.

“I can’t sleep due to a lack of air. It wakes me up, I feel like I’m drowning,” he says.

The Amazon has had its worst forest fires in two decades. More than 62,000 square kilometres have been burned this year already – an area bigger than countries like Sri Lanka or Costa Rica.

The world relies on the Amazon to absorb a lot of its carbon. These fires mean it is now emitting record amounts itself.

Most fires here are illegally started by humans, according to scientists, the Federal Police, and the government: loggers and miners looking to exploit land in the Amazon, or farmers turning it into pasture.

It is much rarer for fires to occur naturally in the humid, tropical rainforest.

Many fires encroach on protected reserves or indigenous land, either by accidentally getting out of hand, or set by people as deliberate attempts to grab land.

Raimundinha says that when her brigade arrives at the scene of a fire, they often find bottles of gasoline and matches.

As she speaks, she spots another plume of smoke from some trees. She is certain it was started deliberately, as they’d only just extinguished the fires there and created a natural barrier to stop it spreading, by removing any dry vegetation from the area.

Her team go to investigate. As we get nearer, there is a distinctive smell of smoke.

The landscape on the way to the fire is like a graveyard of trees, collapsed and blackened in their entirety.

The rainforest here barely merits its name. The trees still standing are charred and warped like burnt matchsticks. The ground is coated in white powder like the remains of a barbecue.

Her team try to put out the flames with hoses they use to spray water, attached to small plastic containers they wear like backpacks. The water is limited, so they have to be selective.

The problem is, as soon as one is put out, another starts.

The indigenous chief, Ze Bajaga, says that the majority of these fires are arson, set by people who “no longer want the wellbeing of humanity, or nature”.

He blames a lack of “humanity”.

In recent years, deforestation has slowed in the Amazon. But despite attempted crackdowns by state authorities, lawlessness is still rife, and the state presence feels minimal.

Some of the Amazon is privately owned by individuals or companies. Private owners are meant to conserve 80% of the rainforest on their land by law, and can develop the remaining 20%. But this is not well policed.

Some of the land is classified as a state-owned protected reserve, or as an indigenous reserve. Some land though is undesignated entirely – meaning it is not privately owned by anyone, and has also not been protected as a reserve.

Those areas are particularly vulnerable to land-grabs. Everywhere you drive or fly over in the south of Amazonas state, mines, loggers and farms are visible.

Dorismar Luiz Baruffi, a soy farmer based in the Amazonas town of Humaitá, has owned his land for many years. He is against the fires, but can explain why farming has “exploded” in the Amazon.

At the heart of his, and others’, argument is the belief more land should be productive, not just protected.

“Growth of the population has increased planting up here. I started here because the region is good, it rains well here,” he explains.

“I believe if you’re working within the law, there’s no problem. It is a place that provides food. It is a state that can produce a lot. I think there is still a lot of land to be cultivated here in Amazonas.”

Deforestation is bad for farmers too though. The fewer trees there are, the less water vapour is emitted to create rain for their crops – which some farmers burn their land to make room for.

“We did poorly this year because of the drought,” he says.

The fires may be mostly started by humans, but they have been made worse by Brazil’s worst-ever drought, which has turned the normally damp vegetation into a dry tinderbox.

The drought has seen the level of the rivers drop to historic lows, and almost 60% of the country is under stress from the drought.

The rivers, in parts, are now completely dry and resemble a parched desert.

João Mendonça and his community live by the river. But the dry riverbed means they can no longer travel on the water, meaning they are cut off from nearby towns and cities.

Every day, at dawn, they must now travel by foot to the nearest city to fill up tanks of water.

Here, dolphins can be spotted popping out of the river and blue macaws fly overhead.

But João and his fellow villagers must then carry it on their backs to their community, burning their feet on the cracked dry riverbed and occasionally passing dead river life like turtles.

They make this journey several times a day in scorching heat.

“It’s the worst drought I’ve ever seen in my life,” João says. “It has brought a lot of consequences… the absence of food on the riverside dwellers’ table. The fish are gone.”

“One of the biggest difficulties is access to the city, now the river is dry. There are elderly people, people with chronic illnesses who must make this journey.”

Sandra Gomes Vieira, who lives with a kidney disease, and her family are among those now cut off from the city.

“Before it was easier when I was feeling sick. My husband would put me in a canoe that would arrive in the city. Now, I must walk across that sand to reach it. There are days when I can’t do anything, I need people to carry me,” she says.

One of her three daughters has had to drop out of school: “She’s not studying because she couldn’t face walking across that sand in the heat. She felt sick.”

The drought is also making it harder to make a living.

“We live off selling products we grow. Now my produce is spoiling. And there is no way to take them to the city.”

The impact of these fires and the drought on people’s lives in Amazonas is clear, but their message for everybody else is too.

“There are people who don’t even care about this kind of thing,” says Raimundinha Rodrigues Da Sousa, who is battling the fires every day.

“They’re just doing it without thinking about tomorrow. But for you to live in nature, you must take care of it.”

More than 90 years after India’s first Test match at Lord’s in 1932, Rohit Sharma’s team has made history. With a win over Bangladesh in Chennai last month, India now boasts more Test victories than losses, standing at 179 wins to 178 defeats across 580 Tests. Cricket writer Suresh Menon explores India’s remarkable transformation into a Test cricket powerhouse.

In every field of human endeavour, there are moments when circumstances and people align, sparking change.

In popular music this happened with the Beatles, where four boys emerged from the same place at the same time and created a new sound.

In sport, such changes are usually led by a single player who has around him a bunch who are almost as good. It happened in football with Pele as Brazil won three of four World Cups between 1958 and 1970 with him in the side.

With the arrival of a baby-faced Sachin Tendulkar, the fortunes of Indian cricket changed. His supporting cast was just as important to the transformation: Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh and MS Dhoni. Many would find a place in a team of all-time India greats.

Before Tendulkar’s debut in November 1989, India had won just 43 Tests and lost more than twice that number out of the 257 matches played. The remaining were draws.

In the Tendulkar era, India registered 78 wins against 60 losses out of the 217 matches played.

But it was a period when the number of draws – 79 – was still significant. Only seven wins had come in the “SANE” countries: South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and England. Draws in these countries were still seen as victory of sorts – the mindset with which India began international cricket.

Domestically, changes were happening. Led by Ganguly, and carried forward by Dhoni, India were discovering players beyond the traditional centres. If you were good enough, it didn’t matter where you were from; you would get your chance. This was despite the cricket board itself and the various local bodies often being drenched in politics.

Tendulkar retired in 2013, and since then India have won 58 while losing just 29 Tests of the 106 played. Significantly, there have been only 19 draws.

India won back-to-back series in Australia as they matched their rivals for aggression and in self-belief. This was no longer merely a cricketing change now, it was a psychological one.

Virat Kohli occasionally went beyond the pale as skipper, but he was passionate about Test cricket and passionate about winning – an attitude that seeped into the team.

Set to chase 364 in his first Test as captain in Adelaide in 2014, India nearly pulled it off and lost the match by just 48 runs.

It was a turning point. A new approach was created. Kohli, who led India in most Tests, at 68, was allergic to draws. It meant India played positive cricket at all times. Kohli drew just 16% of his Tests, the lowest among the top six captains in history. Even Clive Lloyd had 35% draws.

Kohli had a talented bunch around him – Cheteswar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul. Again, players were discovered outside the traditional centres.

Another psychological change was that India no longer worshipped at the altar of orthodoxy. Effectiveness was more important than style. Jasprit Bumrah, who fast-tracked into international cricket, and is possibly India’s greatest fast bowler, might not have made it in earlier generations. He is unorthodox; coaches would have recommended some other profession.

The cricket board too finally began to react to regular defeats abroad – India lost all Tests to Australia and England in a six-month span in 2011-12.

The golden generation was retiring. Much was made of the ineffectiveness of domestic cricket. The board decided that pitches had to help quick bowlers. It instructed curators to retain 3mm to 8mm grass on pitches. The result over a period was two-fold. India discovered a group of talented fast bowlers while also ensuring the batters could play fast bowling better.

You needed fast bowlers to win abroad consistently. The low points of Indian cricket can usually be traced to their weakness against fast bowling. In Manchester in 1952, they were dismissed twice on the same day – for 58 and 82 – as Fred Trueman and Alec Bedser ran through the side.

In the “Summer of 42” at Lord’s in 1974, they folded for 42 thanks to Geoff Arnold’s and Chris Old’s dominant bowling. It gave rise to one of the most cruel cartoons in sport, with a woman telling her husband emerging from the toilet, “You should have gone home. Now you have missed the entire Indian innings.”

However, India’s dismissal for 36 at Adelaide in 2020 inspired neither cartoons nor panic. That was accepted as a freak innings where every good ball picked a wicket and there were hardly any bad balls. But it required great confidence to pass it off as one of those things – that confidence carried India to victories in two Tests that followed, and with it the series.

There was a phase, 2002-2004, when India won Tests at Port of Spain, Leeds, Adelaide, Multan and Rawalpindi. But only in Pakistan did they win the series. Veteran writer David Frith thought India then had the finest Top 6 batting line-up in the history of the game. There was both heft and elegance, a rare combination.

But that team did not live up to its potential. This is one of the ironies of Indian cricket – that their most celebrated team did not dominate as they should have.

What the current team has is heart. That 36 in Adelaide and 78 in Leeds serve to highlight the temperament of players who can let bygones be bygones and remember only the good times. It is a rare quality in an individual, even rarer in a team.

In the past, Indian teams always had a couple of outstanding individuals on whom everything rested. With Sunil Gavaskar dismissed, half the team was gone. If the great spinners were collared, there was no one to turn to until Kapil Dev came along, and if he had a bad day, that was that.

In the 1960s, India won only one series abroad, in New Zealand. That helped consolidate India’s biggest strength: spin bowling. That most romanticised generation led by a Nawab, Mansur Ali Khan of Pataudi, with its essentially amateur spirit was necessary. Just as necessary was the one represented by Tendulkar, when India performed with greater consistency.

All this was before the Kohli-led bunch of professionals could emerge. When India were first ranked No.1 in 2009, they had not won a series in Australia, South Africa or Sri Lanka. Now only South Africa remains.

Indian cricket has moved on, and now we are looking at the end game of the recent stars: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja. Already, Rishabh Pant, Bumrah, Shubhman Gill, Yashaswi Jaiswal and a host of emerging fast bowlers have indicated they are ready to take over. India play five Tests in Australia starting in November.

Suddenly the pressure is on Australia. The Tendulkar generation constructed a solid foundation, the Kohli-Sharma one has built on that. At the end of the Chennai Test against Bangladesh, India’s wins outstripped losses, 179-178 in 580 Tests. Statistical evidence of a new India, if such were needed.

For several years, Masato Kanda hardly slept.

“Three hours a night is an exaggeration,” he laughs as he speaks to the BBC from Tokyo.

“I slept for three hours consecutively before being woken up but I then went back to bed, so if you add them up, I got a bit more.”

So why was this 59 year-old bureaucrat’s schedule so punishing?

Until the end of July, he was Japan’s vice finance minister for international affairs, the country’s top currency diplomat, or yen czar.

Key to the role was fending off currency market speculators who could trigger turmoil in one of the world’s largest economies.

Historically, authorities intervened to weaken the value of the Japanese currency. A weak yen is good for exporters like Toyota and Sony as it makes goods cheaper for overseas buyers.

But when the yen plummeted during Mr Kanda’s time in office it increased the cost of importing essential items like food and fuel, causing a cost of living crisis in a country more used to seeing prices fall rather than rise.

In his three years in the role, the value of the yen against the US dollar weakened by more than 45%.

To control the yen’s slide, Mr Kanda unleashed an estimated 25 trillion yen ($173bn) to support the currency, marking Japan’s first such intervention in almost a quarter of a century.

“The Bank of Japan and the Ministry of Finance are very clear. They intervene not at a particular level of the currency, but they intervene when market volatility is too much,” says economist Jesper Koll.

Japan now finds itself on the US Treasury’s watchlist of potential currency manipulators.

But Mr Kanda argues that what he did was not market manipulation.

“Markets should move based on fundamentals but occasionally they fluctuate excessively because of speculation, and they don’t reflect fundamentals which don’t change overnight,” he says.

“When it affects ordinary consumers who have to buy food or fuel, that is when we intervened.”

While countries like the US and UK can raise interest rates to boost the value of their currencies, Japan had for years been unable to put up the cost of borrowing due to the weakness of its economy.

Professor Seijiro Takeshita of the University of Shizuoka says Japan had no other option other than to intervene in the currency markets.

“It is not the right thing to do, but in my opinion it is the only thing they can do.”

The irony is that the yen’s value jumped in recent months without Mr Kanda or his successor lifting a finger after the Bank of Japan surprised the markets with a rate hike, and the country got a new prime minister.

So was the $170bn bid to prop up the yen a waste of money?

No, says Mr Kanda and points out that his interventions actually made a profit although he emphasises that it was never a goal.

On whether or not his actions were ultimately successful he says: “It is not up to me to evaluate, but many say our exchange management stopped the excessive level of speculation.”

Markets or historians should be the final judges, he adds.

After decades of economic stagnation, Mr Kanda also sounds an optimistic note about Japan’s prospects.

“We are finally seeing investments and wages rising, and we have a chance to go back to a normal market economy,” he says.

A more surprising legacy for this “humble public servant” is him becoming a star on the internet after Japanese social media users celebrated his ability to surprise financial markets with a series of AI generated dancing videos.

“I would say that maybe half of our studio is currently working under the constant threat of being killed,” says Evgeniy Kulik.

Evgeniy is a technical producer on Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, an upcoming video game developed by Kyiv-based developer GSC Game World.

It’s a title fans of the original, released in 2007, have been awaiting for some time.

But it might not have happened at all, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

BBC Newsbeat spoke to Evgeniy about how Stalker 2’s developers kept going, losing colleagues to war, and why the studio feels it’s so important for them to complete the game.

The Chernobyl power plant was the site of the world’s worst-ever nuclear accident.

In 1986, when the country was under the control of the Soviet Union, there was an explosion at the nuclear power plant 90 miles from Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

At least 31 people were killed in the immediate aftermath and the blast created a fire that burned for 10 days, sending a plume of radioactive smoke across Europe.

A 30-mile exclusion zone was set up around the nuclear reactor to keep people out, although the Ukrainian government had begun to admit tourists into the area before Russia’s invasion.

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The original Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl, was set on an alternative timeline where a second nuclear disaster had struck, creating an array of mutant creatures and other unnatural phenomena.

Players took the role of a character tasked with exploring the post-apocalyptic setting and navigating the various factions fighting for control of the wasteland.

The decision to set the game at the site was controversial – one developer has said “the blood was still warm and it flowed in our veins” – even 30 years later.

But the game was a big hit, and Stalker 2 was first announced in 2010 – with the intention to build on the original’s survival gameplay style.

In 2018, GSC Game World announced that it was working towards an April 2022 release date.

But just two months before that arrived, Russian troops and planes began to cross the border with Ukraine.

War had begun.

Stalker 2 is now due to come out in November, but a documentary about the making of the game was released this week.

It shows members of the development team talking about the dawning realisation that Russia was about to invade.

Lead producer Mariia Grygorovych remembers commissioning buses to wait outside the company’s offices in Kyiv, ready to transport employees and their families to Ukraine’s western border.

Ultimately, just over 180 made the journey when the invasion began, with 139 choosing to stay behind and help the war effort.

Some have joined the military while others have continued to work on Stalker 2 in between their duties.

Those who evacuated eventually set up a second studio in Prague, in the Czech Republic, rebuilding motion capture and audio studios from scratch.

It also features members of the team who stayed in Ukraine talking about fighting for their country while continuing to work on the game.

“We load our weapons with one hand and make our game with the other,” says one.

Speaking to Newsbeat during the Gamescom expo in Cologne, Germany, Evgeniy tells Newsbeat much of Stalker 2’s large Russian fanbase was unsupportive during the early days of the war.

After the conflict broke out, the game’s subtitle was altered to Heart of Chornobyl, to reflect the Ukrainian spelling of the name.

Russian voiceovers and subtitles have also been removed, and GSC has refused to release the game in Russia.

The developers have blamed Ukraine’s opponent for regular attempts to hack its servers.

“We tried to get some support from those people,” says Evgeniy. “But instead we received a lot of negativity.

“So we decided to join up with the sanctions, let’s say.”

Ukraine has tried to keep cultural events going during wartime – it won Eurovision in 2022 and its largest music festival made a comeback this summer.

Evgeniy feels the same applies to Stalker 2.

“We would like to remind the world that Ukraine is capable of doing great games once again,” he says.

“Games are part of the culture as well, just like music, movies, arts, books, and so on.

“So, yeah, it is an important work to the world.”

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Evgeniy says the studio also owes it to staff who’ve upended their lives to move, or who’ve joined the military, to see their work through.

And the studio also wants to honour friends and colleagues who’ve died, such as Volodymyr Yehzov, a developer who was killed while defending Bahkmut from Russian troops.

“All those people really worked hard to make this happen and we should really push forward to make this happen and appreciate their effort,” says Evgeniy.

“To make this happen in the memory of those people.”

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays – or listen back here.

The huge asteroid that hit Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago was not alone, scientists have confirmed.

A second, smaller space rock smashed into the sea off the coast of West Africa creating a large crater during the same era.

It would have been a “catastrophic event”, the scientists say, causing a tsunami at least 800m high to tear across the Atlantic ocean.

Dr Uisdean Nicholson from Heriot-Watt University first found the Nadir crater in 2022, but a cloud of uncertainty hung over how it was really formed.

Now Dr Nicholson and his colleagues are sure that the 9km depression was caused by an asteroid hurtling into the seabed.

They cannot date the event exactly, or say whether it came before or after the asteroid which left the 180km-wide Chicxulub crater in Mexico. That one ended the reign of the dinosaurs.

But they say the smaller rock also came at the end of the Cretaceous period when they went extinct. As it crashed into Earth’s atmosphere, it would have formed a fireball.

“Imagine the asteroid was hitting Glasgow and you’re in Edinburgh, around 50 km away. The fireball would be about 24 times the size of the Sun in the sky – enough to set trees and plants on fire in Edinburgh,” Dr Nicholson says.

An extremely loud air blast would have followed, before seismic shaking about the size of a magnitude 7 earthquake.

Huge amounts of water probably left the seabed, and later cascaded back down creating unique imprints on the floor.

It is unusual for such large asteroids to crash out of our solar system on course for our planet within a short time of each other.

But the researchers don’t know why two hit Earth close together.

The asteroid that created the Nadir crater measured around 450-500m wide, and scientists think it hit Earth at about 72,000km/h.

The nearest humans have come to this scale of event was the Tunguska event in 1908 when a 50-metre asteroid exploded in the skies above Siberia.

The Nadir asteroid was about the size of Bennu, which is currently the most hazardous object orbiting near Earth.

Scientists say the most probable date that Bennu could hit Earth is 24 September 2182, according to Nasa. But it is still just a probability of 1 in 2,700.

There has never been an asteroid impact of this size in human history, and scientists normally have to study eroded craters on Earth or images of craters on other planets.

To further understand the Nadir crater, Dr Nicholson and team analysed high-resolution 3D data from a geophysical company called TGS.

Most craters are eroded but this one was well-preserved, meaning the scientists could look further into the rock levels.

“This is the first time that we’ve ever been able to see inside an impact crater like this – it’s really exciting,” says Dr Nicholson, adding there are just 20 marine craters in the world but none have been studied in detail like this.

The findings are reported in Nature Communications Earth & Environment.

A woman discovered her house had been broken into by a burglar who hung out her washing, put her shopping away and cooked a meal on her stove.

Damian Wojnilowicz, 36, was jailed for 22 months at Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday for carrying out the unusual burglary in Monmouthshire on 16 July.

The woman said she was was left too scared to stay in her own home after returning from work to find items had been moved in the garden and her recycling bin had been emptied.

The burglar left her a note saying: “Don’t worry, be happy, eat up and scratch.”

The court also heard the bird feeders had been refilled and plant pots had been moved.

Inside the house, a pair of shoes had been removed from packaging, which was placed in the recycling bin.

Prosecutor Alice Sykes said a meal had been cooked using items from the woman’s cupboard.

Shopping had been taken from a bag and placed in the fridge, which had been rearranged.

Kitchen utensils had been placed in the bin, and new ones from the shopping bag had been laid out.

And toothbrush heads had been replaced on toothbrushes, an empty bottle of wine had been placed in a rack having been drunk, and the floor had been cleaned with a mop and bucket left out.

The victim also saw a bottle of red wine had been left out next to a glass and bottle opener, and there was a bowl of sweets on the living room table.

She spoke to her neighbour who described seeing someone hanging out washing.

In a victim personal statement, the female victim said: “Two weeks after the crime until he was caught, I was living in a state of heightened anxiety I had never experienced before.

“I wondered if it was somebody who knew me, if it was going to turn into a stalking incident, if he knew I lived alone and if I had been targeted.

“I was too scared to stay in my own home and stayed with a friend.”

A second burglary took place at another home on 29 July, when the male homeowner received a CCTV alert on his phone which showed Wojnilowicz walking on his driveway.

The defendant went on to use the shower in a summerhouse to wash and clean his clothes. Food and drink had also been consumed and the hot tub had also been left dirty.

The victim asked his son-in-law to attend the property and the defendant appeared to be drunk and was holding a glass.

He was asked to leave and did so, but the burglar was later arrested. His DNA was found on fingerprints from the first property he burgled.

The homeowner said he felt “sick, horrified, and useless” when he became aware of the burglary.

Tabitha Walker, defending Wojnilowicz, said her client was homeless at the time of the offences and was undergoing a number of difficulties. She said he was apologetic to the victims, and for the harm he had caused to them.

Sentencing, Recorder Christian Jowett said: “This was a significant intrusion in their homes.”

Wojnilowicz, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary.

The court heard he has four previous convictions for offences including common assault, public order offences, and failing to surrender.

Dozens of tigers have died in zoos in south Vietnam after a bird flu outbreak, according to state media.

Three lions and a panther were also reported to have died of the virus alongside 47 tigers since August.

The H5N1 outbreak hit the Vuon Xoai zoo near Ho Chi Minh City and the My Quynh safari park in neighbouring Long An province.

An official told Reuters news agency that the animals had likely fallen ill after being fed meat from chickens which had been infected.

The Vietnamese ministry of health said two samples taken from dead tigers tested positive for bird flu, and officials are “tracking the source of the chicken to determine the cause”.

The zoos declined to comment when contacted by AFP news agency.

Advice on the World Health Organization (WHO) website warns against consuming raw or undercooked meat and eggs from regions experiencing bird flu outbreaks due to the high risk of infection.

The H5N1 strain of the virus primarily infects animals, and the WHO says almost all cases of human infection arise from close contact with infected live or dead birds, or contaminated environments.

Since 2022, there have been increasing reports of deadly outbreaks among mammals caused by influenza viruses, including H5N1.

Close to 900 human infections have been reported since 2003, of which more than half were fatal.

The UK has announced it is giving up sovereignty of a remote but strategically important cluster of islands in the Indian Ocean after more than half a century.

The deal – reached after years of negotiations – will see the UK hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in a historic move.

This includes the tropical atoll of Diego Garcia, used by the US government as a military base for its navy ships and long-range bomber aircraft.

The announcement, made in a joint statement by the UK and Mauritian Prime Ministers, ends decades of often fractious negotiations between the two countries.

The US-UK base will remain on Diego Garcia – a key factor enabling the deal to go forward at a time of growing geopolitical rivalries in the region between Western countries, India, and China.

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The deal is still subject to finalisation of a treaty, but both sides have promised to complete it as quickly as possible.

“This is a seminal moment in our relationship and a demonstration of our enduring commitment to the peaceful resolution of disputes and the rule of law,” the statement from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth read.

The leaders also said they were committed “to ensure the long-term, secure and effective operation of the existing base on Diego Garcia which plays a vital role in regional and global security”.

The treaty will also “address wrongs of the past and demonstrate the commitment of both parties to support the welfare of Chagossians”.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the benefits of the deal included closing “a potential illegal migration route”.

Dozens of Sri Lankan Tamils have been held in a fenced camp on the island for three years as complex legal battles are waged over their fate.

It is unclear what the announcement will mean for them.

The UK will provide a package of financial support to Mauritius, including annual payments and infrastructure investment.

Mauritius will also be able to begin a programme of resettlement on the Chagos Islands, but not on Diego Garcia.

There, the UK will ensure operation of the military base for “an initial period” of 99 years.

US President Joe Biden welcomed the “historic agreement”, saying it was a “clear demonstration that through diplomacy and partnership, countries can overcome long-standing historical challenges to reach peaceful and mutually beneficial outcomes”.

He said it secured the future of a key military base which “plays a vital role in national, regional, and global security.”

The Chagos islanders themselves – some in Mauritius and the Seychelles, but others living in Crawley in Sussex – do not speak with one voice on the fate of their homeland.

Some are determined to return to live on the isolated islands, some are more focused on their rights and status in the UK, while others argue that the archipelago’s status should not be resolved by outsiders.

Isabelle Charlot, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme, said the deal brought back hopes her family could return to her father’s island “roots”.

Plans for the Mauritius government to arrange resettlement would mean a “place that we can call home – where we will be free,” she said.

But Frankie Bontemps, a second generation Chagossian in the UK, told the BBC that he felt “betrayed” and “angry” at the news because “Chagossians have never been involved” in the negotiations.

“We remain powerless and voiceless in determining our own future”, he said, and called for the full inclusion of Chagossians in drafting the treaty.

In recent years, the UK has faced rising diplomatic isolation over its claim to what it refers to as the British Indian Ocean Territory, with various United Nations bodies, including its top court and general assembly, overwhelmingly siding with Mauritius and demanding the UK surrender what some have called its “last colony in Africa”.

The government of Mauritius has long argued that it was illegally forced to give the Chagos Islands away in return for its own independence from the UK in 1968.

At the time, the British government had already negotiated a secret deal with the US, agreeing to lease it the largest atoll, Diego Garcia, for use as a military base.

Britain later apologised for forcibly removing more than 1,000 islanders from the entire archipelago and promised to hand the islands to Mauritius when they were no longer needed for strategic purposes.

But until very recently, the UK insisted that Mauritius itself had no legitimate claim to the islands.

For decades, the tiny island nation of Mauritius struggled to win any serious international support on the issue.

A handful of Chagos islanders, who’d been forced to abandon their homes in the late 1960s and early 70s, repeatedly took the British government to court.

But it was only recently that international opinion began to shift.

African nations began to speak with one voice on the issue, pushing the UK hard on the issue of decolonialisation.

Then Brexit left many European nations reluctant to continue backing the UK’s stance in international forums.

The Mauritian government went on the attack, accusing the UK government of verbal threats.

And the Mauritians began to wage an increasingly sophisticated campaign – at the UN, in courts, and in the media – even landing and planting a flag on the archipelago without British authorisation.

The negotiations that brought about Thursday’s deal began under the previous UK government.

But the timing of this breakthrough reflects a growing sense of urgency in international affairs, not least regarding Ukraine, with the UK keen to remove the Chagos issue as an obstacle to winning more global support, particularly from African nations, with the prospect of a second Trump presidency looming.

A backlash from some voices in the UK can be expected, even though successive Conservative and Labour prime ministers have been working towards the same broad goal.

Tory leadership candidate Tom Tugendhat argued the deal had been “negotiated against Britain’s interest” and it was “disgraceful” that such talks had begun under the previous Conservative government.

He called it a “shameful retreat” that leaves “allies exposed”, while the former foreign secretary James Cleverly called it a “weak” deal.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the deal will “address the wrongs against the Chagossians of the past but it looks like it will continue the crimes long into the future”.

There must be meaningful consultations with the Chagossians or the UK, US and now Mauritius will be responsible for “a still-ongoing colonial crime”, Clive Baldwin, senior legal advisor at HRW said in a statement.

But there can be no doubting the historic significance of this moment.

Half a century or more after the UK relinquished control over almost all its global empire, it has finally agreed to hand over one of the very last pieces. It has done so reluctantly, perhaps, but also peacefully and legally.

The remaining British overseas territories are: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands. There are also two sovereign base areas on Cyprus under British jurisdiction.

Following the Chagos announcement, the governor of the Falklands said the islands are safe in British hands.

“The UK’s unwavering commitment to defend UK sovereignty [of the Falklands] remains undiminished”, Alison Blake said in a statement posted to social media.

You can get in touch via this link.

Next time you’re running at full tilt towards your airport gate, spare a thought for the airline staff who made sure that that gate was actually available.

Gate allocation is a surprisingly complex task.

“With 15 gates and 10 airplanes, there are more than 570 billion possibilities,” says Dr Joseph Doetsch, who has been working on the problem of gate allocation as quantum computing lead at Lufthansa Industry Solutions.

Picking the best gate for each flight can help shorten aircraft taxi times and reduce congestion, meaning that travellers spend less time waiting on the tarmac.

It also cuts down on the amount of fuel required, and thus the plane’s emissions.

Typically gates are allocated when flight schedules are published, so as much as a year ahead, but are then revisited a month in advance, a week in advance, and then finally on the day of the flight.

All sorts of priorities have to be juggled when working out where best to park an aircraft.

“For example, certain carriers may be granted access to gates near their lounges and other facilities. Additionally, flights with a high volume of connecting passengers are often placed to optimise transfer times and improve overall passenger experience,” says George Richardson, co-founder of airport management firm AeroCloud.

“Some airlines, particularly budget carriers, may opt for more cost-effective remote stands with lower parking fees, prioritising operational savings over proximity to the main terminal.”

Other factors include the direction the aircraft is coming from, the type of aircraft, the expected runway assignment, gate availability, airport staffing, customer and baggage connections and the scheduled taxiway and tarmac moves of other aircraft.

To make things worse – many of these factors can change at the last minute.

Meanwhile, delayed flights can add to the difficulties, forcing airports and airlines to reassign gates at the last minute, increasing the time passengers have to wait and potentially causing flight cancellations.

Given that level of complexity you would think that clever computer software would be handling the job, but think again.

The job of allocating gates has often been carried out using surprisingly basic tech, according to an AeroCloud survey of the challenges faced by senior airport executives.

“You’d be surprised at how many airports globally still manage the process manually,” says Mr Richardson.

Of those airport executives that responded to AeroCloud’s survey, 40% said that Excel and Word documents were used to store and manage information related to their airport operations, including gate management.

But serious investment is going into more advanced systems.

Last year, American Airlines introduced Smart Gating at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.

The system uses machine learning to assign arriving aircraft to the nearest available gate with the shortest taxi time.

Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence, where large amounts of data are used to train a system that can be tweaked to improve its results.

In the case of the American Airlines system real-time flight information and other data is used to choose which gate to send an aircraft to.

“Traditionally, our team members manually assigned gates using a legacy computer system. At Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, our largest hub, this process took around four hours to complete,” says an American Airlines spokesperson.

The new system can complete that process in 10 minutes, which has shortened aircraft taxi times by 20%, saving around 1.4 million gallons of jet fuel each year, the spokesperson adds.

Lufthansa Industry Solutions, a subsidiary of the German airline Lufthansa, is planning to use quantum computing to attack the problem.

Quantum computing uses the strange but powerful properties of quibits to solve certain types of problems much faster than traditional computers.

At the moment such computers are in their infancy.

• What is quantum computing?

Allocating gates is one problem that traditional computers and algorithms struggle to do quickly, with calculation times increasing disproportionately to the size of the problem.

But, Dr Doetsch is confident that approaches using quantum computing will crush the problem.

“Quantum algorithms will allow optimally assigning gates, and other resources, even in large airports and travel networks. These algorithms will be able to respond to changing external factors with updated optimal solutions in real time,” he says.

Lufthansa is currently investigating which of the various new quantum computing systems will be most suitable for its project.

It is running simulations that can give an indication of how effective quantum computing might be.

“In our first trials, our optimised solutions could reduce average transit times for passengers by almost 50% compared to the corresponding real-world data,” adds Dr Doetsch.

With increasing pressure on airport capacity, says AeroCloud’s Mr Richardson, these improved techniques could help reduce the amount of expansion required.

“Capacity is a big issue for many airports, and even if they wanted to introduce new carriers or destinations, physical expansion acts as a blocker.

“They need to make the optimum use of their current resources.”

Weeping relatives and friends mourned the 20 children and three teachers who died in a horrific bus fire in Thailand at a funeral on Thursday.

White and gold coffins lined the hall at Wat Khao Phraya Sangkharam School in Lan Sak, a small town in central Thailand. Relatives placed foods, clothes and toys on some of them.

A representative of the Thai royal family poured water on the coffins – a Buddhist funeral rite that symbolises purification – and placed wreaths.

Police have not determined the cause of Tuesday’s fire, which happened while the group was on a field trip. The bus driver, who turned himself in, has been charged with reckless driving causing deaths and injuries.

Nineteen children and three teachers are reported to have survived the fire. Sixteen of them are being treated in hospital for injuries. The ages of the children on board remain unclear, but the school caters for pupils between three and 15 years old.

Hundreds of people, including several cabinet ministers, attended the mass funeral. Among them was Education Minister Permpoon Chidchob, who handed out financial assistance to the victims’ families.

Authorities have carried out “merit-making ceremonies” or Buddhist rituals for those who lost their lives, the minister said.

“We made merit and prayed also for the students who are still at the hospital for their speedy recovery,” he said.

Some residents and monks in Lan Sak stayed up on Wednesday to receive the bodies from a mortuary in the capital, Bangkok.

A funeral procession was held earlier on Thursday, which saw families weeping as they clutched framed photographs of the victims.

Buddhist prayers for the victims will go on for the next four days, followed by a royal cremation ceremony next week ordered by Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

Across Thailand, teachers and students laid white flowers in their schools to mourn those who died in what is believed to be Thailand’s deadliest traffic accident in a decade.

The bus driver had told investigators the vehicle lost balance and scrapped a concrete barrier. Sparks of the collision could have set off the blaze, deputy regional police chief Chayanont Meesati said on Wednesday.

The bus, which was fuelled by compressed natural gas, had 11 gas canisters although it was permitted to install only six. The company that owned that bus told local broadcaster ThaiPBS that the vehicle had passed safety standards.

The Thai government has since ordered an inspection of all passenger buses equipped with compressed natural gas.

Tael Narach, the grandmother of a six-year-old victim told Reuters news agency she “fainted right away” on Tuesday when she got news of the fire from her son-in-law.

“I want justice and support (to get justice) for my grandchild,” said Tael, 69.

Apparent Israeli bombing caused large explosions just outside Beirut’s international airport during a further night of air strikes targeting Hezbollah in the city.

The target is unclear but the airport borders Dahieh – Hezbollah’s stronghold in the capital. Plumes of smoke could be seen over the city as dawn broke on Friday.

Elsewhere, the Lebanese army said two of its soldiers had been killed in the country’s south as Israeli forces pressed on with their invasion against Hezbollah and ordered another 20 towns and villages to evacuate.

The Israeli military has not commented, but did say its troops had killed Hezbollah fighters near the border. Hezbollah said it had targeted Israeli troops on both sides of the frontier.

The two fatal attacks on the Lebanese army soldiers were just hours apart on Thursday, the third full day of the invasion.

In the first incident, the army said, one soldier was killed and another was wounded “as a result of an aggression by the Israeli enemy during an evacuation and rescue operation with the Lebanese Red Cross in Taybeh village”.

The Red Cross said four of its volunteers were also lightly wounded, and that their movements had been co-ordinated with UN peacekeepers.

The army said that in the second incident another soldier was killed “after the Israeli enemy targeted an army post in the Bint Jbeil area”.

“The personnel at the post responded to the sources of fire,” the Lebanese army added, marking a rare involvement in a conflict in which it has not engaged.

The news came as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told residents of another two dozen towns and villages in the south, including the regional capital of Nabatieh, to leave immediately for their own safety.

Unlike the communities ordered to evacuate on Tuesday, they are all located north of the Litani river, which lies about 30km (18 miles) from the border.

Before the invasion, Israel had demanded that Hezbollah’s withdraw to the Litani, in accordance with a UN Security Council resolution that ended their last war in 2006.

Speaking to the BBC from Beirut, the World Food Programme’s country director in Lebanon, Matthew Hollingworth, described the situation there as “horrific”.

“There is black smoke billowing over the southern suburbs and we see it each morning when we come to work and we see it all day long. And there’s a striking number of people who are displaced around the city.”

“There are these cars everywhere that are from people that have fled the fighting in the south of the country and the southern suburbs. There’s traffic everywhere, people sleeping outside.”

Juan Gabriel Wells, Lebanon country director with the International Rescue Committee, said nearly half of displaced people surveyed by his organisation in shelters run by the government were children under the age of 15.

Israel’s latest air strikes on Beirut come 24 hours after a residential building in the centre of the capital was hit. A civil defence agency linked to Hezbollah also said seven of its first responders were among nine people killed in the strike.

Lebanon’s health minister later said more than 40 paramedics and firefighters had been killed by Israeli fire in the past three days.

The Israeli Air Force carried out air strikes during Thursday against targets it said belonged to Hezbollah including the group’s intelligence headquarters, weapons production sites, weapons storage facilities.

Two weeks of Israeli strikes and other attacks targeting Hezbollah have killed more than 1,300 people across Lebanon and displaced more than one million, according to local authorities.

Israel went on the offensive after almost a year of cross-border hostilities sparked by the war in Gaza, saying it wanted to ensure the safe return of residents of border areas displaced by Hezbollah rocket, missile and drone attacks.

Hezbollah is a Shia Islamist military, political and social organisation that wields considerable power in Lebanon. It is designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US, the UK and other countries.

The IDF also announced on Thursday that its aircraft had struck 200 Hezbollah “terrorist targets” in southern Lebanon and elsewhere overnight, including weapons storage facilities and observation posts. About 15 Hezbollah fighters were killed when the municipality building in Bint Jbeil was hit, it said.

Later, it said a structure housing three Hezbollah commanders had been destroyed during a joint operation carried out by the air force and infantry.

Hezbollah said on Thursday evening that its fighters had “repelled failed attempts” by Israeli commandos to advance into some border villages during the day.

The group also said it had targeted “enemy gatherings” and homes on the other side of the frontier, while also continuing to fire rockets deep into northern Israel.

The IDF said more than 230 projectiles had been launched into Israeli territory over the course of the day. Most were intercepted or fell in open areas, and there were no casualty reports.

The communities sitting along Israel’s northern border fence are now a closed military zone.

Dean Sweetland, a former British soldier who moved to Israel eight years ago, is one of the few people still living in a near-empty kibbutz within sight of the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil.

He told the BBC that his house shook several times a day with rocket and anti-tank missiles fired from Lebanon, some of them intercepted by Israel’s air-defences overhead.

“We can’t continue this for another year, having Hezbollah sitting on our border just waiting to do an October 7th on us,” he said, referring to Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel last year that triggered the Gaza war.

“But my son is in the army, and do we want our kids to be in there, slaughtered, where Hezbollah has been waiting for us to go in for nearly 20 years?”

“It’s not going to be pretty,” he continued, “but if that’s what it takes, then that’s what it takes.”

Iranians have been expressing a mixture of pride, uncertainty and fear since their country launched a large-scale ballistic missile attack on Israel on Tuesday night.

Within minutes of the attack starting, Persian social media feeds were filled with shaky videos showing the flashes of the missiles flying overhead.

Iran’s state television broadcast pictures of groups of people cheering on the streets, waving flags and chanting “Death to Israel”.

But the mood was different online, with not everyone expressing support for the attack.

Some shared tense scenes and heated debates about a possible war between the arch-foes, after decades of keeping their conflict largely in the shadows.

The contrasting reactions laid bare the deep divisions in Iran, where there is widespread discontent at the clerical establishment and frustration over the economic troubles caused by sanctions.

On one side of the debate are those who support the government’s actions with nationalist pride, while on the other are those who fear war, economic collapse and further suppression of domestic reform movements.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Tuesday’s missile strike successfully targeted Israeli military and intelligence bases and that it was retaliation for recent killings of the leaders of its allies Hamas and Hezbollah.

The Israeli military described the attack as “indiscriminate” and said that while it had been largely thwarted by air defences, there had been casualties and millions of Israelis had been sent running to bomb shelters.

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Iran will pay for the “big mistake”.

For many supporters of the Iranian government, the attack represented a proud moment of defiance.

“Bravo to [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei! Bravo to the Revolutionary Guards!” shouted a young woman in a clip that went viral.

Such sentiment frustrated other Iranians online.

“Please distinguish between the people and the Revolutionary Guards; we are under immense pressure,” pleaded a middle-aged man in a video shared on social media.

Some Iranians felt the strike was an unnecessary provocation that would only result in making their lives worse.

“We have no choice but to protect our country, but we are the ones who suffer the consequences,” said a concerned resident of the capital, Tehran.

In the hours after the strikes, rumours surfaced that Israel might respond by targeting Iran’s oil infrastructure, which is an important part of the country’s economy.

Videos quickly surfaced showing petrol stations overwhelmed, with long queues of people as they rushed to fill up their vehicles, fearing future shortages.

The missile attack has also diminished hopes for diplomatic progress with the West and other countries in the region.

The election of Masoud Pezeshkian as the new president in July had sparked optimism among those with moderate views. Some people saw him as a potential bridge in easing regional tensions.

But one BBC Persian viewer lamented that “this attack is another step away from diplomacy and a step closer to conflict”.

“I fear this war might be used as an excuse to intensify the crackdown of us, who are fighting for freedom,” a young activist said, referring to the nationwide “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests that erupted two years ago.

Many worry that a new conflict could not only undermine calls for reform, but also empower the government to further suppress internal dissent.

Unlike after previous escalations, this time there’s a growing fear of a potentially strong retaliatory response from Israel.

And many believe that Israel’s advanced military capabilities could bring unprecedented destruction if a full-scale war broke out.

“No-one wants war, not the people, not even the officials,” said a commentator on social media.

This sense of vulnerability has made the situation feel more precarious than ever before.

Amid the growing tensions, some people even called for regime change.

“The only way to save Iran is not through war, but through toppling the current regime,” said another BBC News Persian viewer, urging the West to support Iranians in their struggle against the government.

However, many believe the country’s future should be decided internally, free from any foreign intervention, to avoid the potential chaos that outside interference might cause.

Melania Trump seems to have joined a long line of Republican former first ladies who have come out in support of abortion rights, putting them at odds with their husbands’ public views.

In a short video clip promoting her forthcoming book, Mrs Trump expressed her support for women’s “individual freedom”, describing it as an “essential right that all women possess from birth”.

It comes a day after an excerpt of her soon-to-be-released memoir, in which she reportedly takes an even clearer pro-choice stance, was published in a newspaper report.

Mrs Trump’s apparent stance on the issue appears to contrast with the position of her husband, who has taken credit for helping overturn Roe v Wade, upending the constitutional right to abortion.

But it follows a decades-long American tradition of Republican first ladies who – since Roe v Wade was first decided in 1973 – have said legal abortion access should be protected.

In 1975, while still in the White House, First Lady Betty Ford called the Roe ruling a “great, great decision”.

Nancy Reagan waited until her husband, President Ronald Reagan, left office before she said publicly that she “believed in a woman’s choice”, but her position on the issue was reportedly well known within the White House.

Barbara Bush, wife of President George HW Bush, and her daughter-in-law, Laura Bush, wife of President George W Bush, were similar, revealing their stance on the issue after their husbands left the White House.

“I think it’s important that it remain legal, because I think it’s important for people, for medical reasons and other reasons,” Laura Bush said in a 2010 interview promoting her memoir.

Mrs Trump’s approach was different.

In a black-and-white video posted on her X account on Thursday, Mrs Trump said “there is no room for compromise when it comes to this essential right that all women possess from birth: individual freedom”.

“What does my body, my choice really mean?” Mrs Trump continued.

The video comes one day after The Guardian published an excerpt from her new book, Melania, set to be released on 8 October.

In the excerpt, quoted by the Guardian, she writes: “It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government.”

“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body? A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes,” she continues.

“Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body.

“I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life.”

Kate Andersen Brower, a journalist and author of the book First Women, said she was “shocked” by the comments.

“So shocked that I wanted to check it was real,” she said. “She’s very much been in line with her husband, so on this issue how did she spend all those years watching him derail something that she seems to care about?”

More than the other first ladies, Ms Brower said, Mrs Trump’s comments appear “diametrically opposed” to her husband’s approach on the issue.

And she is the only first lady so far to make her stance on abortion known while her husband is actively seeking re-election.

Indeed, the timing of Mrs Trump’s comments suggest a possible political angle, Ms Brower said.

“It’s not out of the realm of possibility that this was done intentionally to come out right before the election, because it could appeal to those swing state voters who are upset about the overturning of Roe v Wade,” she said. “Maybe they could see this as a sign that he [Trump] perhaps is softening on abortion.”

But Republican strategist Rina Shah offered a different view.

The notion of Mrs Trump trying to help out her husband “doesn’t track with the Melania we know”, she said.

“At this point in the game it doesn’t change anything, and she knows that,” Ms Shah said. “Early ballots have already gone out in certain places. It’s just too late.”

Abortion access is a key issue in next month’s 2024 election – and it is considered a weak point for the Republican Party, which has struggled to appeal to a conservative base that opposes the procedure and a wider electorate that supports abortion access.

Throughout the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump’s position on the issue has fluctuated.

Earlier this week, the Republican presidential nominee said for the first time that he would veto any federal abortion ban in the unlikely event that such a measure ever passed Congress.

The BBC has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has sought to capitalise on Trump’s position in an effort to galvanise voters.

She has regularly cast Trump as a threat to women’s autonomy because of the overturning of Roe v Wade, which took place after he appointed a conservative majority to the Supreme Court.

“Sadly for the women across America, Mrs Trump’s husband firmly disagrees with her and is the reason that more than one in three American women live under a Trump Abortion Ban that threatens their health, their freedom, and their lives,” Sarafina Chitika, a spokeswoman for the Harris-Walz campaign told the BBC.

The UK has announced it is giving up sovereignty of a remote but strategically important cluster of islands in the Indian Ocean after more than half a century.

The deal – reached after years of negotiations – will see the UK hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in a historic move.

This includes the tropical atoll of Diego Garcia, used by the US government as a military base for its navy ships and long-range bomber aircraft.

The announcement, made in a joint statement by the UK and Mauritian Prime Ministers, ends decades of often fractious negotiations between the two countries.

The US-UK base will remain on Diego Garcia – a key factor enabling the deal to go forward at a time of growing geopolitical rivalries in the region between Western countries, India, and China.

• The BBC visits the secretive Chagos Islands military base
• UN says UK military island not suitable for stranded migrants
• UK commitment to Falklands ‘unwavering’ despite Chagos deal

The deal is still subject to finalisation of a treaty, but both sides have promised to complete it as quickly as possible.

“This is a seminal moment in our relationship and a demonstration of our enduring commitment to the peaceful resolution of disputes and the rule of law,” the statement from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth read.

The leaders also said they were committed “to ensure the long-term, secure and effective operation of the existing base on Diego Garcia which plays a vital role in regional and global security”.

The treaty will also “address wrongs of the past and demonstrate the commitment of both parties to support the welfare of Chagossians”.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the benefits of the deal included closing “a potential illegal migration route”.

Dozens of Sri Lankan Tamils have been held in a fenced camp on the island for three years as complex legal battles are waged over their fate.

It is unclear what the announcement will mean for them.

The UK will provide a package of financial support to Mauritius, including annual payments and infrastructure investment.

Mauritius will also be able to begin a programme of resettlement on the Chagos Islands, but not on Diego Garcia.

There, the UK will ensure operation of the military base for “an initial period” of 99 years.

US President Joe Biden welcomed the “historic agreement”, saying it was a “clear demonstration that through diplomacy and partnership, countries can overcome long-standing historical challenges to reach peaceful and mutually beneficial outcomes”.

He said it secured the future of a key military base which “plays a vital role in national, regional, and global security.”

The Chagos islanders themselves – some in Mauritius and the Seychelles, but others living in Crawley in Sussex – do not speak with one voice on the fate of their homeland.

Some are determined to return to live on the isolated islands, some are more focused on their rights and status in the UK, while others argue that the archipelago’s status should not be resolved by outsiders.

Isabelle Charlot, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme, said the deal brought back hopes her family could return to her father’s island “roots”.

Plans for the Mauritius government to arrange resettlement would mean a “place that we can call home – where we will be free,” she said.

But Frankie Bontemps, a second generation Chagossian in the UK, told the BBC that he felt “betrayed” and “angry” at the news because “Chagossians have never been involved” in the negotiations.

“We remain powerless and voiceless in determining our own future”, he said, and called for the full inclusion of Chagossians in drafting the treaty.

In recent years, the UK has faced rising diplomatic isolation over its claim to what it refers to as the British Indian Ocean Territory, with various United Nations bodies, including its top court and general assembly, overwhelmingly siding with Mauritius and demanding the UK surrender what some have called its “last colony in Africa”.

The government of Mauritius has long argued that it was illegally forced to give the Chagos Islands away in return for its own independence from the UK in 1968.

At the time, the British government had already negotiated a secret deal with the US, agreeing to lease it the largest atoll, Diego Garcia, for use as a military base.

Britain later apologised for forcibly removing more than 1,000 islanders from the entire archipelago and promised to hand the islands to Mauritius when they were no longer needed for strategic purposes.

But until very recently, the UK insisted that Mauritius itself had no legitimate claim to the islands.

For decades, the tiny island nation of Mauritius struggled to win any serious international support on the issue.

A handful of Chagos islanders, who’d been forced to abandon their homes in the late 1960s and early 70s, repeatedly took the British government to court.

But it was only recently that international opinion began to shift.

African nations began to speak with one voice on the issue, pushing the UK hard on the issue of decolonialisation.

Then Brexit left many European nations reluctant to continue backing the UK’s stance in international forums.

The Mauritian government went on the attack, accusing the UK government of verbal threats.

And the Mauritians began to wage an increasingly sophisticated campaign – at the UN, in courts, and in the media – even landing and planting a flag on the archipelago without British authorisation.

The negotiations that brought about Thursday’s deal began under the previous UK government.

But the timing of this breakthrough reflects a growing sense of urgency in international affairs, not least regarding Ukraine, with the UK keen to remove the Chagos issue as an obstacle to winning more global support, particularly from African nations, with the prospect of a second Trump presidency looming.

A backlash from some voices in the UK can be expected, even though successive Conservative and Labour prime ministers have been working towards the same broad goal.

Tory leadership candidate Tom Tugendhat argued the deal had been “negotiated against Britain’s interest” and it was “disgraceful” that such talks had begun under the previous Conservative government.

He called it a “shameful retreat” that leaves “allies exposed”, while the former foreign secretary James Cleverly called it a “weak” deal.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the deal will “address the wrongs against the Chagossians of the past but it looks like it will continue the crimes long into the future”.

There must be meaningful consultations with the Chagossians or the UK, US and now Mauritius will be responsible for “a still-ongoing colonial crime”, Clive Baldwin, senior legal advisor at HRW said in a statement.

But there can be no doubting the historic significance of this moment.

Half a century or more after the UK relinquished control over almost all its global empire, it has finally agreed to hand over one of the very last pieces. It has done so reluctantly, perhaps, but also peacefully and legally.

The remaining British overseas territories are: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands. There are also two sovereign base areas on Cyprus under British jurisdiction.

Following the Chagos announcement, the governor of the Falklands said the islands are safe in British hands.

“The UK’s unwavering commitment to defend UK sovereignty [of the Falklands] remains undiminished”, Alison Blake said in a statement posted to social media.

You can get in touch via this link.

As China prepared to celebrate its Golden Week holiday and mark the 75th anniversary of the People’s Republic, the ruling Communist Party rolled out a raft of measures aimed at boosting its ailing economy.

The plans included help for the country’s crisis-hit property industry, support for the stock market, cash handouts for the poor and more government spending.

Shares in mainland China and Hong Kong chalked up record gains after the announcements.

But economists warn the policies may not be enough to fix China’s economic problems.

Some of the new measures announced by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) on 24 September took direct aim at the country’s beaten-down stock market.

The new tools included funding worth 800bn yuan ($114bn; £85.6bn) that can be borrowed by insurers, brokers and asset managers to buy shares.

PBOC governor, Pan Gongsheng, also said the central bank would offer support to listed companies that want to buy back their own shares and announced plans to lower borrowing costs, and allow banks to increase their lending.

Just two days after the PBOC’s announcement, Xi Jinping chaired a surprise economy-focused meeting of the country’s top leaders, known as the Politburo.

Officials promised to intensify government spending aimed to support the economy.

On Monday, the day before China headed off for a weeklong holiday, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index jumped by more than 8%, in its best day since the 2008 global financial crisis. The move capped off a five-day rally that saw the index jump by 20%.

The following day, with markets closed on the mainland, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose by over 6%.

“Investors loved the announcements”, China analyst, Bill Bishop said.

While investors may have been popping champagne corks, Mr Xi has deeper issues to tackle.

The People’s Republic marking its 75th anniversary means it has been in existence longer than the only other major communist sate – the Soviet Union – which collapsed 74 years after its founding.

“Avoiding the fate of the Soviet Union has long been a key concern for China’s leaders,” said Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.

At the forefront of officials’ minds will be boosting confidence in the broader economy amid growing concerns that it may miss its own 5% annual growth target.

“In China targets must be met, by any means necessary,” said Yuen Yuen Ang, professor of political economy at Johns Hopkins University.

“The leadership worries that failing to meet them in 2024 will worsen a downward spiral of slow growth and low confidence.”

One of the main drags on the world’s second-largest economy has been the downturn in the country’s property market which began three years ago.

Aside from policies aimed at boosting stocks, the recently unveiled stimulus package also targeted the real estate industry.

It includes measures to increase bank lending, mortgage rate cuts and lower minimum down payments for second-home buyers.

But there’s scepticism that such moves are enough to shore up the housing market.

“Those measures are welcome but unlikely to shift the needle much in isolation,” said Harry Murphy Cruise, an economist at Moody’s Analytics.

“China’s weakness stems from a crisis of confidence, not one of credit; firms and families don’t want to borrow, regardless of how cheap it is to do so.”

At the Politburo session, leaders vowed to go beyond the interest rate cuts and tap government funds to boost economic growth.

However, beyond setting priorities like stabilising the property market, supporting consumption and boosting employment, the officials offered little in the way of details about the size and scope of government spending.

“Should the fiscal stimulus fall short of market expectations, investors could be disappointed,” warned Qian Wang, chief economist for the Asia Pacific region at Vanguard.

“In addition, cyclical policy stimulus does not fix the structural problems,” Ms Wang noted, suggesting that without deeper reforms the problems China’s economy faces will not go away.

Economists see tackling entrenched problems in the real estate market as key to fixing the broader economy.

Property is the biggest investment most families will make and falling house prices have helped undermine consumer confidence.

“Ensuring the delivery of pre-sold but unfinished homes would be key,” said a note from Sophie Altermatt, an economist with Julius Baer.

“In order to increase domestic consumption on a sustainable basis, fiscal support for household incomes needs to go beyond one-off transfers and rather come through improved pension and social security systems.”

On the day of the 75th anniversary, an editorial in the state-controlled newspaper, People’s Daily, struck an optimistic tone, recognising that “while the journey ahead remains challenging, the future is promising”.

According to the article, concepts created by President Xi such as “high-quality development” and “new productive forces” are key to unlocking that path to a better future.

The emphasis on those ideas reflects Xi’s push to switch from the fast drivers of growth in the past such as property and infrastructure investment, while trying to develop a more balanced economy based on high-end industries.

The challenge China faces, according to Ms Ang, is that the “old and the new economies are deeply intertwined; if the old economy falters too quickly, it will inevitably hinder the rise of the new”.

“This is what the leadership has come to realise and is responding to.”

More than 90 years after India’s first Test match at Lord’s in 1932, Rohit Sharma’s team has made history. With a win over Bangladesh in Chennai last month, India now boasts more Test victories than losses, standing at 179 wins to 178 defeats across 580 Tests. Cricket writer Suresh Menon explores India’s remarkable transformation into a Test cricket powerhouse.

In every field of human endeavour, there are moments when circumstances and people align, sparking change.

In popular music this happened with the Beatles, where four boys emerged from the same place at the same time and created a new sound.

In sport, such changes are usually led by a single player who has around him a bunch who are almost as good. It happened in football with Pele as Brazil won three of four World Cups between 1958 and 1970 with him in the side.

With the arrival of a baby-faced Sachin Tendulkar, the fortunes of Indian cricket changed. His supporting cast was just as important to the transformation: Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh and MS Dhoni. Many would find a place in a team of all-time India greats.

Before Tendulkar’s debut in November 1989, India had won just 43 Tests and lost more than twice that number out of the 257 matches played. The remaining were draws.

In the Tendulkar era, India registered 78 wins against 60 losses out of the 217 matches played.

But it was a period when the number of draws – 79 – was still significant. Only seven wins had come in the “SANE” countries: South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and England. Draws in these countries were still seen as victory of sorts – the mindset with which India began international cricket.

Domestically, changes were happening. Led by Ganguly, and carried forward by Dhoni, India were discovering players beyond the traditional centres. If you were good enough, it didn’t matter where you were from; you would get your chance. This was despite the cricket board itself and the various local bodies often being drenched in politics.

Tendulkar retired in 2013, and since then India have won 58 while losing just 29 Tests of the 106 played. Significantly, there have been only 19 draws.

India won back-to-back series in Australia as they matched their rivals for aggression and in self-belief. This was no longer merely a cricketing change now, it was a psychological one.

Virat Kohli occasionally went beyond the pale as skipper, but he was passionate about Test cricket and passionate about winning – an attitude that seeped into the team.

Set to chase 364 in his first Test as captain in Adelaide in 2014, India nearly pulled it off and lost the match by just 48 runs.

It was a turning point. A new approach was created. Kohli, who led India in most Tests, at 68, was allergic to draws. It meant India played positive cricket at all times. Kohli drew just 16% of his Tests, the lowest among the top six captains in history. Even Clive Lloyd had 35% draws.

Kohli had a talented bunch around him – Cheteswar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul. Again, players were discovered outside the traditional centres.

Another psychological change was that India no longer worshipped at the altar of orthodoxy. Effectiveness was more important than style. Jasprit Bumrah, who fast-tracked into international cricket, and is possibly India’s greatest fast bowler, might not have made it in earlier generations. He is unorthodox; coaches would have recommended some other profession.

The cricket board too finally began to react to regular defeats abroad – India lost all Tests to Australia and England in a six-month span in 2011-12.

The golden generation was retiring. Much was made of the ineffectiveness of domestic cricket. The board decided that pitches had to help quick bowlers. It instructed curators to retain 3mm to 8mm grass on pitches. The result over a period was two-fold. India discovered a group of talented fast bowlers while also ensuring the batters could play fast bowling better.

You needed fast bowlers to win abroad consistently. The low points of Indian cricket can usually be traced to their weakness against fast bowling. In Manchester in 1952, they were dismissed twice on the same day – for 58 and 82 – as Fred Trueman and Alec Bedser ran through the side.

In the “Summer of 42” at Lord’s in 1974, they folded for 42 thanks to Geoff Arnold’s and Chris Old’s dominant bowling. It gave rise to one of the most cruel cartoons in sport, with a woman telling her husband emerging from the toilet, “You should have gone home. Now you have missed the entire Indian innings.”

However, India’s dismissal for 36 at Adelaide in 2020 inspired neither cartoons nor panic. That was accepted as a freak innings where every good ball picked a wicket and there were hardly any bad balls. But it required great confidence to pass it off as one of those things – that confidence carried India to victories in two Tests that followed, and with it the series.

There was a phase, 2002-2004, when India won Tests at Port of Spain, Leeds, Adelaide, Multan and Rawalpindi. But only in Pakistan did they win the series. Veteran writer David Frith thought India then had the finest Top 6 batting line-up in the history of the game. There was both heft and elegance, a rare combination.

But that team did not live up to its potential. This is one of the ironies of Indian cricket – that their most celebrated team did not dominate as they should have.

What the current team has is heart. That 36 in Adelaide and 78 in Leeds serve to highlight the temperament of players who can let bygones be bygones and remember only the good times. It is a rare quality in an individual, even rarer in a team.

In the past, Indian teams always had a couple of outstanding individuals on whom everything rested. With Sunil Gavaskar dismissed, half the team was gone. If the great spinners were collared, there was no one to turn to until Kapil Dev came along, and if he had a bad day, that was that.

In the 1960s, India won only one series abroad, in New Zealand. That helped consolidate India’s biggest strength: spin bowling. That most romanticised generation led by a Nawab, Mansur Ali Khan of Pataudi, with its essentially amateur spirit was necessary. Just as necessary was the one represented by Tendulkar, when India performed with greater consistency.

All this was before the Kohli-led bunch of professionals could emerge. When India were first ranked No.1 in 2009, they had not won a series in Australia, South Africa or Sri Lanka. Now only South Africa remains.

Indian cricket has moved on, and now we are looking at the end game of the recent stars: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja. Already, Rishabh Pant, Bumrah, Shubhman Gill, Yashaswi Jaiswal and a host of emerging fast bowlers have indicated they are ready to take over. India play five Tests in Australia starting in November.

Suddenly the pressure is on Australia. The Tendulkar generation constructed a solid foundation, the Kohli-Sharma one has built on that. At the end of the Chennai Test against Bangladesh, India’s wins outstripped losses, 179-178 in 580 Tests. Statistical evidence of a new India, if such were needed.

A Yazidi woman who was kidnapped aged 11 in Iraq by the Islamic State group and subsequently taken to Gaza has been rescued after more than a decade in captivity there, officials from Israel, the US and Iraq said.

The Yazidis are a religious minority who mostly live in Iraq and Syria. In 2014 the Islamic State group overran the Yazidi community in Sinjar in northern Iraq, massacring thousands of men, and enslaving girls and women.

The Israeli military said the now 21-year-old’s captor in Gaza had been killed during the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas, probably as a result of an air strike.

The woman, identified as Fawzia Amin Sido, then fled to another place in Gaza.

The Israeli military said Ms Sido was eventually freed during a “complex operation coordinated between Israel, the United States, and other international actors” and taken to Iraq via Israel and Jordan.

Iraqi foreign ministry official Silwan Sinjaree told Reuters that several earlier attempts to rescue her over the course of about four months failed because of the security situation in Gaza.

Mr Sinjaree said Ms Sido was in good physical condition, but had been traumatised by her time in captivity and by the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Video shared by Canadian philanthropist Steve Maman showed Ms Sido reuniting with her family in Iraq.

Posting on X, Mr Maman said: “I made a promise to Fawzia the Yazidi who was hostage of Hamas in Gaza that I would bring her back home to her mother in Sinjar.

“To her it seemed surreal and impossible but not to me, my only enemy was time. Our team reunited her moments ago with her mother and family in Sinjar.”

The Islamic State group once controlled 88,000 sq km (34,000 sq miles) of territory stretching from eastern Iraq to western Syria and imposed its brutal rule on almost eight million people.

In August 2014, IS militants swept through Iraq’s north-western Sinjar region, which is the homeland of the Yazidi religious minority.

In numerous Yazidi villages, the population was rounded up. Men and boys over the age of 14 were separated from women and girls. The men were then led away and shot, while the women were abducted as the “spoils of war”.

Some of the Yazidi girls and women who later escaped from captivity described being openly sold or handed over into sexual slavery as “gifts” to IS members.

The Islamic State group is believed to have killed more than 3,000 Yazidis and captured 6,000 others in total.

The UN said IS committed genocide as well as multiple crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Yazidis.

Iraqi authorities say more than 3,500 members of the community have been rescued or freed and about 2,600 people remain missing.

As always, the Australian Grand Prix in 2006 was an eclectic buffet of fame and power – with everyone from actress Amanda Bynes to the Dutch Prime Minister, a 70s pop star, and the original Blue Wiggle treading pit lane.

Unnoticed in a corner, making small talk with Italian driver Jarno Trulli and former Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins, was none other than 16-year-old Daniel Ricciardo.

The Perth boy had won a pass to the race – having been crowned Australian go-karting champion the year before – and on that day in April his world shifted.

Family friend and then mentor Remo Luciani jokes it was meeting Hawkins that did it: “He was practically drooling.”

But while rubbing shoulders with Formula 1 stars and feeling the rumbling roar of their engines, the shy teen got his first real taste of the life he was doggedly chasing.

“I think he saw the picture – ‘this is where I belong, this is what I want to do’,” Luciani tells the BBC.

Fast forward a few years and he’d not only become part of that world, but “a main character” in it.

But after 13 years in the sport – with an impressive 257 races, 32 podiums, and eight wins – his F1 career came to an end last week, after Red Bull dropped him from its team.

He bows out as one of the most successful and popular drivers on the circuit and the golden boy of Australian motorsport.

From the moment his motorsport-mad father let him on a go-kart track as a nine-year-old, Ricciardo has been making an impression.

“There’s those who get it at that age, and those that don’t, and he got it pretty quickly,” Tiger Kart Club stalwart John Wishart says.

Ricciardo didn’t blow the competition out of the water, but he quickly established himself as a fast but fair rival, with an infectious personality and fierce competitive spirit – a reputation he’s hung on to his entire career.

“What you see on the TV of Daniel today, he was exactly the same as a kid,” childhood friend Lewis Shugar tells the BBC.

“He was always laughing and having a good time, and if things didn’t go right for him, he still had a smile on his face,” Wishart says. “That in itself is a special talent.”

As he started to notch up race wins around Western Australia, chatter of his promise spread to the east coast.

Ricciardo soon joined Remo Racing – a self-styled development squad run by Luciani in Victoria.

“He was a very, very quick learner, and he was determined. He wanted to always go faster. I could see the hunger in him,” says Luciani – himself a karting legend and Australian Motorsport Hall of Fame inductee.

Ricciardo won his first race with the team in 2005 and went on to take out the national go-karting championship that year, while also racing Formula Ford cars in his home state.

And with that, he was on his way overseas – a “big move” that Ricciardo has said “changed everything”.

Each passing year brought a new step up the ladder. In 2006 he raced in Asia, before moving to Italy the year after, then signing to the Red Bull development programme as a “shy” and “immature” 18-year-old in 2008.

“Having that responsibility, that pressure, all of that, it forced me to grow up,” he told CNN Sport earlier this month.

In 2011 he made his long-awaited grand prix debut at Silverstone, on loan to Spanish team HRT, thrilling his supporters back home.

One described him as beating one-in-10-million odds.

“Just to sit in an F1 car is something that hardly anybody will ever do – so even just to have that opportunity is incredible,” Shugar says.

But Ricciardo wasn’t satisfied with just any spot on the grid, and by 2014 he’d earned a call up to the main Red Bull team, replacing fellow countryman Mark Webber.

“I’m ready,” Ricciardo declared at the time: “I’m not here to run around in 10th place.”

True to his word, he won three races that year, outperforming teammate and defending champion Sebastian Vettel.

Over his four years at Red Bull, he became known as the Honey Badger – for the affable demeanour which belied his killer racing instincts.

“His trademark was these terrific late-braking moves that would catch drivers by surprise,” Australian F1 journalist Michael Lamonato told the BBC.

“He always said he wanted the kind of reputation that meant he would be feared when another driver would see him in their mirrors, and I think he really achieved that.”

At the same time, his popularity off the track was soaring, even before the hit Netflix series Drive to Survive took F1 to new levels of acclaim.

“Daniel was one of the characters that was beginning to transcend the sport,” Lamonato says.

His signature shoey celebration – which is credited with popularising the practice in Australia – memeable media sound bites and humorous stunts have enamoured him to legions the world over.

“He seems like a mate, someone you could make friends with at the pub,” Melbourne fan Issy Futcher says.

“He’s made for this kind of stardom.”

The pinnacle of his career came with a gutsy win in Monaco in 2018, when he defended his lead for 50 laps while battling a failing engine, two years after a botched pit stop at the same circuit saw victory slip through his fingers.

“This was a redemption race… it really is his defining win,” Lamonato says.

But after ill-fated moves to Renault in 2019 and McLaren in 2021, where he struggled to replicate his previous success, he was left floundering in 2023 and returned to the broader Red Bull fold as a reserve driver.

He re-joined the starting line-up in its junior team – now called RB – halfway through the season though was soon derailed by a broken wrist and his form never recovered throughout 2024.

Rumours began to circulate and when the Singapore Grand Prix rolled around on 22 September, the writing was on the wall. In one last hurrah, Ricciardo was given a fresh set of tyres and set the fastest lap of the race.

After finishing last, the 35-year-old lingered in the cockpit for a beat.

In a teary post-race interview, Ricciardo said he was battling a lot of emotions.

“I’m aware it could be it,” he said. “I just wanted to savour the moment.”

He had only wanted to return to the grid if he could get podiums and so was “at peace” with his impending fate, he told Sky Sports.

Days later, Red Bull confirmed he would be replaced for the rest of the season by young Kiwi Liam Lawson – news that stirred outrage and cries of mistreatment.

Team boss Christian Horner said Ricciardo’s statistics and accolades weren’t the only measure of his success.

“From the moment you arrived at Red Bull it was obvious you were so much more than just a driver. Your constant enthusiasm, sense of humour and attitude will leave an indelible legacy,” he said.

Amid a wave of tributes from his peers, Ricciardo said it had been a “wild and wonderful” journey.

“I’ve loved this sport my whole life… It’ll always have its highs and lows, but it’s been fun and truth be told I wouldn’t change it,” he wrote on Instagram.

“Until the next adventure.”

While details of that next adventure are hotly anticipated, Lamonato says Ricciardo has already cemented himself as one of the most underrated F1 drivers.

“The best way to sum up Daniel Ricciardo is a driver of immense potential who suffered what so many do, and that is career wrong turns.”

His long career is near unmatched – only nine drivers have started more races – and his wins and podiums both put him in the top 40 drivers of all time, particularly impressive when factoring in that all were achieved without racing for the dominant team of the day.

And his legacy is already stamped at home in Australia – where karting figures say he’s inspired both an increase in grassroots participation and the next wave of Australian racing stars like Oscar Piastri and Jack Doohan.

Statistically, Ricciardo will be the fourth most successful of Australia’s F1 stars, but many think he’ll be remembered as the biggest.

“I don’t think anyone will have had an effect similar to him in terms of bringing the sport home to the audience,” Lamonato says.

“[He] did Australia proud,” Luciani concludes.

Joe Biden has said the US is discussing with Israel the possibility of Israeli strikes on Iran’s oil infrastructure.

When asked if he would support such strikes, Mr Biden said: “We’re discussing that. I think that would be a little… anyway.”

His off-the-cuff remarks, made as he left the White House, did not make clear Washington’s stance. Mr Biden has previously said he would not support Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

The price of benchmark Brent crude oil shot up by 5% immediately after the remarks. It has now increased by 10% since Iran’s large-scale missile attack on Israel on Tuesday.

• Faisal Islam: Oil price rise comes at a critical point

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran “will pay a heavy price” for Tuesday’s attack, which saw at least 180 ballistic missiles fired at Israel.

Satellite imagery published by the Associated Press news agency showed damage to the Nevatim airbase, one of the targets of the attack.

Iran said the barrage was a response to the killings of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Brig-Gen Abbas Nilforoushan.

Mr Biden told reporters that he was not expecting Israel to launch its retaliation on Thursday.

Asked as he left the White House what plans the US had to allow Israel to strike Iran, he responded: “First of all, we don’t allow Israel, we advise Israel and there’s nothing that’s going to happen today.”

A US official told Reuters news agency the US believes Israel is “still determining what exactly they will do.”

Mr Biden earlier said the US did not support strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, as touted by some in Israel, including former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett.

Bennett argued striking Iran’s nuclear facilities could “help change the face of the Middle East” and “fatally cripple this terrorist regime”.

Reports in Israeli media citing local officials suggest Israel plans to first strike Iran’s oil facilities. If Iran then hits back, Israel will target its nuclear facilities.

Speaking on Wednesday, Iran’s chief of staff Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri told state TV that it would hit infrastructure across Israel if it retaliates.

The barrage “will be repeated with bigger intensity and all infrastructure of the regime will be targeted”, Mr Bagheri said.

Mr Biden said on Wednesday he had consulted with the leaders of other G7 countries, who agreed Israel “has the right to respond, but they should respond proportionally”.

Fears over further violence between Israel and Iran, the world’s seventh largest oil producer, have put markets on edge.

Of particular concern is whether any escalation could block the Straits of Hormuz, through which a third of oil tanker traffic and a fifth of LNG frozen gas has to pass.

Country music superstar Garth Brooks has been accused of sexual assault and battery in a lawsuit filed in California state court.

The accuser, using the pseudonym “Jane Roe”, was working as a hairstylist and makeup artist for the Grammy-winning singer when he raped her, the lawsuit states.

The woman’s lawsuit alleges that he also repeatedly groped her and made sexually explicit comments to her during her employment from 2017-20.

In a statement to the BBC, Mr Brooks said the woman’s lawsuit was “extortion and defamation”.

In May 2019, the accuser alleges that Mr Brooks asked her to travel with him on his private jet to a Grammy tribute in Los Angeles.

When they arrived at the hotel, Mr Brooks had only booked a single suite with one bedroom for them both to share, according to the legal action.

Her lawsuit alleges that once inside the hotel suite, Mr Brooks appeared naked in the doorway of the bedroom before he raped her.

After the alleged attack, she says Mr Brooks continued to make sexual advances on other occasions, forcing her to put her hands on his genitals and sharing his fantasies, the lawsuit states.

The legal action also alleges Mr Brooks proposed to Jane Roe that they have a threesome with his wife, fellow country star Trisha Yearwood. The BBC has contacted Ms Yearwood for comment.

In his statement to the BBC, Mr Brooks said: “For the last two months, I have been hassled to no end with threats, lies, and tragic tales of what my future would be if I did not write a check for many millions of dollars. It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face.

“Hush money, no matter how much or how little, is still hush money. In my mind, that means I am admitting to behavior I am incapable of—ugly acts no human should ever do to another.”

He added: “I want to play music tonight. I want to continue our good deeds going forward. It breaks my heart these wonderful things are in question now. I trust the system, I do not fear the truth, and I am not the man they have painted me to be.”

Litigation over the matter began three weeks ago with an anonymous lawsuit filed in Mississippi federal court by someone described as “a celebrity and public figure who resides in Tennessee”. This was Mr Brooks.

Mr Brooks said that Jane Roe had levelled the accusation after he refused her request for salaried employment and medical benefits.

His pre-emptive legal action strongly denied her allegations, labelling them “revulsive and untrue”.

Mr Brooks’s lawsuit also said the accusations were a threat designed to cause “substantial, irreparable damage” to his reputation, family and career.

On Thursday, Jane Roe’s lawyers filed their 27-page legal action in Los Angeles Superior Court.

In addition to sexual assault and battery, her lawsuit accuses Mr Brooks of repeatedly exposing himself, making sexually explicit comments and sending inappropriate text messages.

Garth Brooks is a household name known far beyond the country music genre.

Jane Roe’s lawsuit says he is a two-time Grammy winner who has sold more than 162 million albums and is worth about $400m (£305m).

He is known for his commitment to philanthropic work, particularly supporting organisations that benefit children and provide local relief after natural disasters.