Conversations in Tyre in southern Lebanon happen in a hurry now. It’s not wise to linger on the streets, and there are fewer and fewer people to talk to.

Chats can be cut short by the rumble of Israeli bombing, or the sound of outgoing rocket fire by Hezbollah – which can attract incoming fire.

Israeli drones buzz overhead.

You drive fast, but don’t speed, knowing there are eyes in the sky. Mostly you are the only car on an empty road – which can make you a target.

That knowledge is always with us, like the body armour we now wear.

But civilians here have no armour plating to shield them, and many Lebanese no longer have a roof over their heads. More than one million have been forced to flee, according to the Prime Minister, Najib Mikati.

War has created a vacuum here – sucking the life out of this ancient city proud of its Roman ruins, and golden sandy beach.

Streets are empty, and shops shuttered. The seashore is deserted. Windows rattle with Israeli air strikes.

The local civil defence headquarters lies abandoned – rescue teams were forced to evacuate – to save themselves after they got a telephone warning from Israel.

Israeli strikes are getting louder and closer to our hotel – in recent days several strikes on the hills opposite us appear to involve some of Israel’s most destructive bombs, weighing in at 1000lb.

And then there is the Hezbollah factor. Even as the armed group is trying to hold off invading Israeli troops on Lebanese soil, it is controlling the international media in the city of Tyre. It limits our movements, though it has no control over what we write or broadcast.

In hospitals, doctors look weary and overwhelmed. Many no longer go home because it is too dangerous to travel.

Instead, they tend to patients like nine-year-old Mariam, whose left leg is in a cast, and whose arm is heavily bandaged. She lies sleeping in a bed in Hiram Hospital, dark hair framing her face.

“She came in as part of a family of nine,” said Dr Salman Aidibi, the hospital CEO.

“Five of them were also treated. We operated on Mariam, and she is doing much better. We hope to send her home today. Most casualties are given first aid here and stabilised before being sent to other centres, because this hospital is on the front line.”

He says the hospital receives about 30-35 injured women and children a day, and it is taking its toll on staff.

“We need to be positive while we’re working,” he said. “It’s when we stop and contemplate, remember, that’s when we get emotional.”

Asked about what may lie ahead his response comes with a sigh. “We are in a war,” he says. “A destructive war on Lebanon. We hope for peace, but we are prepared for all eventualities.”

Also prepared for the worst is Hassan Manna. He’s staying put in Tyre as war tightens its grip. And he is staying open for business at the small coffee shop he has run for the past 14 years. Locals still pass by for a chat and some reassurance in the form of small plastic cups of sweet coffee.

“I’m not leaving my country,” Hassan told me. “I’m not leaving my house. I’m staying in my place, with my children. I’m not afraid of them (the Israelis).

“The whole world is out on the streets. We don’t want to be humiliated like that.

“Let me die in my house.”

Five of his neighbours were killed in their home by an Israeli air strike last weekend. Hassan saw it happen and was thrown in the air by two incoming Israeli missiles.

He managed to walk away with just an injured arm.

Was there a Hezbollah target there? We don’t know. Hassan says the dead were all civilians and members of one family, including two women and a baby.

Israel says its targets are Hezbollah fighters and their facilities, and not the people of Lebanon. Many here say otherwise – including doctors, and witnesses like Hassan.

Israel says it is taking steps to minimise the risk of harming civilians – accusing Hezbollah of hiding its infrastructure among civilian populations.

“There was nothing (no weapons) there,” Hassan insisted. “If there was, we would have left the area. There was nothing to be bombed. The woman was 75.”

After the strike he dug in the rubble for survivors until he collapsed and was taken to hospital himself.

When he speaks of his neighbours his voice breaks with anger and grief – and his eyes fill with tears.

“It’s unjust,” he said, “totally unjust. We know the people. They were born here. I swear I wish I had died with them.”

Ten days ago, we got the view in a Christian area, close to the border.

One local woman – who asked not to be named – told me everyone was living on their nerves.

“The phone is constantly beeping,” she said. “We can never know when (Israeli) attacks are coming. It’s always tense. Many nights we can’t sleep.”

We were interrupted by the sound of an Israeli air strike, which sent smoke rising from distant hills.

She reeled off a list of villages nearer the border – now deserted and destroyed after the past year of tit for tat exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel.

She said the damage in these areas was already far greater than in the five-week war of 2006. “If people want to come back later”, she said, “there are no houses left to come back to.

“And there is no house that did not lose relatives,” she said, “either close or distant. All the men are Hezbollah.”

Before the war the armed group was always “bragging about its weapons, and saying it would fight Israel forever,” she told me. “Privately, even their followers are now shocked at the quality and quantity of attacks by Israel.”

Few here would dare to guess at the future. “We have entered a tunnel,” she said, “and until now we cannot see the light.”

From Tel Aviv, to Tehran, to Washington no one can be sure what is coming next, and what the Middle East will look like the day after.

In the year 1939, as German tanks and soldiers invaded Poland, a famous Polish artist and his film-star wife pawned off their jewellery and fled the country.

Stefan Norblin and Lena left behind their dream home, which they were in the process of building, and their entire artistic legacy in exchange for safety.

The couple aimed to seek refuge in America and travelled across Romania, Turkey and Iraq, finally arriving in colonial India, where they spent six years.

Their lengthy stopover resulted in the unlikely collaboration between the artist and Indian maharajas (rulers), and gave India some of its finest artworks that blend Western aesthetics with Indian iconography.

Between 1941 and 1946, several Indian kings commissioned Norblin to decorate their palaces with paintings, and even design their interiors in the art deco style – a modernist style that celebrates innovation and technology.

Norblin rose to the occasion by painting beautiful murals of Hindu gods, entire scenes from Hindu epics Mahabharata and Ramayana and even the country’s famed tigers, leopards and elephants in his characteristic blended style.

His paintings can be found in the Umaid Bhawan Palace in Rajasthan state – the home of the ruler of the erstwhile princely state of Jodhpur, which has now been converted into a luxury hotel – as well as the palace of the rulers of Morbi in Gujarat state.

He also painted portraits for the Maharaja of Ramgarh in Bihar state, but these artworks have been lost to time, says Claus-Ullrich Simon, an expert on Norblin, in Chitraanjali – a documentary which chronicles the artist’s works in India.

His murals are grand and vibrant, infused with a sense of movement and emotion. They depict recognisable characteristics of the art deco style, like minimalist, elongated human figures, geometric shapes and bold colours; but they are fused with innovative interpretations of traditional Indian imagery, including the features and postures of Hindu gods.

Norblin was born in 1892 in Warsaw into a wealthy family of industrialists. His father wanted him to become a businessman and sent him to study commerce in Antwerp, Belgium. But Norblin’s interests lay in painting, a gene he probably inherited from his great-uncle who was a descendant of a famous French painter.

So, a young Norblin quit his studies and set off for Europe, where he visited numerous galleries and made illustrations for magazines in Belgium, France and England, writes Agnieszka Kasprzak in the article The Unplanned Return of Stefan Norblin.

He later returned to Warsaw and took up work as a graphic artist, stage designer and book illustrator and gradually developed a fan-following among the social elite. Norblin was best known for his portraits.

He met and married Lena, his second wife, in 1933 and the influential couple lived a comfortable life in Warsaw. But World War Two uprooted them from their homeland and transported them to the shores of far-away India.

The couple first arrived in Bombay (now Mumbai) in British India, and were greeted by a confluence of cultures, religions and languages, says architect Rahul Mehrotra in Chitraanjali. Here, the couple set up home and Norblin began exhibiting his work in top galleries, attracting the attention of rich patrons.

In the 1930s and 40s, the art deco style was a huge trend in Europe, but it had not yet permeated the architectural landscape of India. But the sons of many of India’s maharajas were exposed to the style when they travelled abroad to study.

And so, when Maharaja Mahendrasinhji’s son was building a new palace in Morvi (now Morbi) – which he christened The New Palace – he wanted it designed and furnished in the art deco style.

He tasked Norblin with beautifying the interiors of the place with his paintings. The artist made massive murals depicting hunting scenes, Hindu god Shiva lost in prayer, portraits of the ruler’s ancestors and imagery that captured the flora and fauna of the area. His human figures have a mix of dark and light complexions and a mystical, nymph-like quality.

The artist’s next big commission came from Umaid Singh, who invited Norblin to decorate and design the interiors of the royal residence in Jodhpur. The request was perhaps the result of a shipping accident, which destroyed the furniture the maharaja had ordered from London, Kasprzak writes in her paper, Polish Artist At The Service of Maharajas.

One can see some of Norblin’s finest work in the sprawling Umaid Bhawan Palace. Most captivating are his murals of the goddess Durga, who is often depicted riding a lion and slaying a demon. The goddess is also depicted having many hands, each carrying a lethal weapon.

In one of Norblin’s paintings of Durga, the goddess looks almost like an Egyptian princess; in another, strokes of black paint give shape to the goddess, making her look almost like a shadow streaking across the wall.

In one of the rooms called The Oriental Room, Norblin has painted a series of six murals depicting important scenes from the Ramayana, including goddess Sita’s abduction by the demon king Ravana and her walking into the fire to prove her chastity to her husband, Lord Ram. Norblin has also designed entire rooms in the palace, including the king’s and queen’s suites, the sitting room and dining areas.

Over time, several of Norblin’s paintings were damaged due to a lack of care, heat and humidity, but they have now been restored by the Polish government. His works have been exhibited in Poland and India, but they remain unknown to many. That’s probably because the artist didn’t enjoy the same amount of success after he left India for America.

The artistic community in San Francisco, where the family set up home, was not as welcoming of the Polish artist. He received few commissions and after a while, he stopped painting as his eyesight began to falter due to glaucoma. His wife, once a famous actress, took up work as a manicurist in a beauty salon to support them.

The family struggled to make ends meet and Norblin slipped into depression. In 1952, the artist took his own life, not wanting to become a burden on his family. With his death, the legacy of his paintings in India slipped into oblivion, until they were re-discovered by Claus-Ullrich Simon in the 1980s.

Since then, a lot has been done to bring the artist’s work back into the spotlight, but a lot more remains to be done.

Love was in the air this week as one of the UK’s most iconic wedding venues married 100 couples, for £100 each, to celebrate 100 years of hosting marriages.

The Old Marylebone Town Hall has held marriages of musical legends, footballers and Hollywood stars and usually costs between £621 and £1,230 per ceremony.

I’m fortunate enough to have joined that glitzy list after I tied the knot at the event on Tuesday.

The superstition of not seeing the bride before walking down the aisle was literally blown out of my mind as my wife-to-be Paige blasted her hair dryer at 04:30 on Tuesday.

By 10:20 Paige and I were officially husband and wife – as quick as that.

We almost felt like celebrities – my BBC colleagues and newspaper reporters interviewed us while photographers asked us to pose alongside the 99 other couples here, tying the knot, renewing their vows or forming a civil partnership.

I caught up with some of the other couples I shared this surreal day with.

When Chris Jamieson-Green was offered a midday spot to get married at The Old Marylebone Town Hall, staff had to double check if he was sure. Only because he had not yet proposed to his then-girlfriend.

He popped the question during a trip to the Yorkshire Moors and after Sam Jamieson-Green said yes, Chris blurted out that he had already booked the venue – luckily Samantha, 35, was on-board with the idea.

Fast forward to midday on Tuesday and there they were, on the back of a London bus having a “a little photo shoot” and “bringing a bit of brightness to people’s day”, Sam, from Newport, says.

“We had brollies and I wore my dress under a coat,” she adds.

“Regardless of the weather we were going to enjoy ourselves – we had family from all over the world.”

Chris, 33, from Leicestershire, says one of the nicest things about the day was that “even during our ceremony we heard clapping next door”.

Each couple was invited to have up eight human guests come inside the town hall and in to the room to see them get married.

Two pets were allowed – and one of those was Marvin, a local celebrity of his own having just won the recent Marylebone Village summer fayre dog competition.

“Marvin was a very good boy,” Dan McKinley, 27, says, recalling how his four-legged friend went viral on X when TV crews at the 100 weddings event caught him wagging his tail.

His wife Daisy McKinley, 27, says “it was class” – despite the rain. “We got soaked. Every time we walked out it chucked it done but it was still ten out of ten.”

Daniel and Danielle Mason, from Fareham in Hampshire, were one of the last couples to get married – when they got hitched at 21:30 at night.

“We were in the bar until the time to leave,” Danielle, 35, says. “We all traipsed round the corner and then traipsed back.

“Walking down the street people were giving compliments – even a Pizza Express chef started to clap us.”

“I loved every second of it” Daniel, 44, adds. “I liked the fact our wedding was different – it freed us up to do what we wanted, when we wanted.

“I was so impressed with the town hall. Part of the fun was the BBC coverage – because it really made it.

“We tried to explain back home what we were doing and as soon as we said it was being covered by the BBC all of our friends were really engaged, watching and texting one another in WhatsApp groups.

“It was a well-oiled machine. It was like they did that every single day.”

Filippa Evans-Grindrod and Harry Grindrod took plenty of snaps with their photographer in the grand backstreets of Marylebone.

Not content with sitting still after their midday service, the pair – who had a wedding bouquet tucked into their weekend bag – dashed across the capital on the tube to St Pancras International station to kickstart their mini-honeymoon.

“I certainly had some looks while waiting for the platform at St Pancras to be announced,” Filippa says of their trip to Brussels.

To make things even better, the train manager upgraded them to first class.

“Despite having just eaten we were given another three-course meal and continuous champagne,” Harry says.

“We were a little worse for wear by the time we got to Belgium.”

100 Weddings in One Day

BBC News goes behind the scenes as the Old Marylebone Town Hall venue marks a century by holding 100 ceremonies in 14 hours.

If you’re in the UK, watch on BBC iPlayer

Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu is expected to seek a bailout during his visit to India this week as the archipelago nation stares at an economic crisis with fears of debt default.

It’s Muizzu’s first official bilateral visit after he was voted to power late last year following a campaign centred on an ‘India out’ policy, with a promise to reduce Delhi’s influence.

Since then, ties have been strained between the countries but experts say the visit indicates that the Maldives can’t afford to ignore its giant neighbour.

The foreign exchange reserves of the Maldives stood at about $440m (£334m) in September, just enough for one-and-a-half months of imports.

Last month, global agency Moody’s downgraded the Maldives’ credit rating, saying that “default risks have risen materially”.

An Indian bailout will bolster the country’s foreign currency reserves.

Before visiting India, Muizzu chose to travel to Turkey and China – his visit to the latter in January was seen as a high-profile diplomatic snub to Delhi as previous Maldivian leaders first visited Delhi after being elected. Around the same time, a controversy erupted in India after three Maldivian officials made derogatory comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“President Muizzu’s visit is a turnaround in several ways,” says Azim Zahir, a Maldives analyst and lecturer at the University of Western Australia.

“Most notably, the visit is a realisation of how dependent the Maldives is on India, a dependency that no other country will find easy to fill,” he says.

The Maldives consists of about 1,200 coral islands and atolls located in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The archipelago has a population of about 520,000 compared to India’s 1.4 billion.

As a small island nation, the Maldives depends on its giant neighbour India for most of its food, infrastructure building and healthcare.

Delhi and Male have not officially confirmed that a financial package for the Maldives is on the agenda during the visit. But experts believe it will be part of the discussion.

“The key priority of Muizzu’s visit is to secure a financial helpline in the form of grant-in-aid and restructuring debt repayments,” a senior Maldivian editor, who did not want to be identified, told the BBC.

Muizzu also wants a “$400m currency swap deal sought by the Maldives central bank to shore up depleted foreign exchange reserves”, he added.

The ratings agency Moody’s further expressed serious concerns over Male’s financial situation, saying that “(foreign) reserves remain significantly below the government’s external debt service of around $600m in 2025 and over $1bn in 2026”.

The public debt of the Maldives is about $8bn, including about $1.4bn it owes each to China and India.

“Despite Muizzu stating on several occasions that China has given a green signal for deferring debt payments for five years, financial assistance from Beijing has not been forthcoming,” the Maldivian editor said.

With no other country coming to the rescue, it appears that Muizzu is now reaching out to India to mend strained ties.

“It’s about resetting the tone and negative rhetoric from senior officials of Muizzu’s government that has considerably impacted Indian tourist arrivals,” says Zahir.

India has long wielded influence over the Maldives, whose strategic position in its backyard allowed it to monitor a crucial part of the Indian Ocean. But Muizzu wanted to change that by moving closer to China.

In January, Muizzu’s administration gave an ultimatum to India to withdraw about 80 troops based in the country. Delhi said they were stationed there to man and operate two rescue and reconnaissance helicopters and a Dornier aircraft it had donated years ago.

In the end, both countries agreed to replace troops with Indian civilian technical staff to operate the aircraft.

A month after assuming charge, Muizzu’s administration also announced that it would not renew a hydrographic survey agreement with India that was signed by the previous government to map the seabed in the Maldivian territorial waters.

Then a row broke out after three of his deputy ministers made controversial comments about Modi, calling him a “clown”, “terrorist” and a “puppet of Israel”.

The remarks set off an uproar and calls to boycott the Maldives on Indian social media. Male said the comments were personal and did not represent the views of the government. The three ministers were suspended from the cabinet.

In what was seen as a thinly-veiled criticism of the reaction on Indian social media, Muizzu said at the time: “We may be small, but that doesn’t give you the licence to bully us.”

Muizzu’s administration also allowed the port call of a Chinese research ship, Xiang Yang Hong 3, much to Delhi’s displeasure. Some saw it as a mission to collect data which could – at a later date – be used by the Chinese military in submarine operations.

Nevertheless, there was a thaw in bilateral ties after Muizzu attended the swearing-in ceremony of Modi after he was elected for a third consecutive term in June this year.

In August, Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar’s visit also gave a reboot to bilateral ties.

“The Maldives is one of the cornerstones of our ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy,” Jaishankar said in Male.

“To put it succinctly in the words of my Prime Minister Narendra Modi – for India, neighbourhood is a priority and, in the neighbourhood, Maldives is a priority,” he added.

For Delhi, it’s a welcome change as it recently witnessed the ouster of the India-friendly government of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh and the return of KP Sharma Oli, who used to criticise India’s policies, as the prime minister of Nepal.

Muizzu has realised that antagonising India is not an option and his pragmatism is not without reason. The number of Indian tourists visiting the Maldives dropped by 50,000 in the past year, resulting in an estimated loss of about $150m.

He is aware if he doesn’t get financial support from India, the Maldives could become a paradise lost. That’s why his India visit is crucial.

Nearly three months after an assassin’s bullet came close to taking his life, former President Donald Trump returned to Butler, Pennsylvania – a place of “tragedy and heartache” – to promise his supporters victory in the 5 November presidential election.

One person – a volunteer fire chief – was killed in the 13 July shooting, which also left two bystanders seriously wounded and Trump shot in the ear.

“For 15 seconds, time stood still,” Trump told the crowd. “This vicious monster unleashed evil… the villain did not succeed in his goal.”

For Saturday’s rally, though, security was tight – a result of increased scrutiny of the Secret Service in the wake of two attempts on Trump’s life – the second last month at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Also in attendance were Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, as well as son Eric Trump, daughter-in-law Lara Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk, who endorsed Trump after the earlier shooting.

Trump largely stuck to familiar talking points during his speech, railing against the “corrupt system”, promising to bring “respect” back to US foreign policy and vowing to shut the “open border”, which he claims is a source of crime.

“You deserve a government that protects and respects its own citizens, and defends your sovereignty, your security, your dignity and your freedom,” he told the thousands gathered at the showgrounds in Butler to large applause.

He also struck out at his political opponents, accusing them of “slandering” him and attempting to interfere in the election, and “who knows – maybe even tried to kill me.”

“But I’ve never stopped fighting for you,” he added. “Never will.”

Trump repeatedly referenced the previous shooting, and the event included a moment of silence for Corey Competore, the volunteer firefighter who was killed in the July shooting.

“He’s become somewhat of a folk hero,” Trump added. “Our beautiful Corey.”

• Unanswered questions as Trump returns to Butler
• Defiant Butler tries to heal
• Wife of man killed at Trump rally struggles with loss

The former president had fulsome praise for Elon Musk and went out of his way to invite him to the stage.

The tech billionaire told the crowd he thought this was “the most important election of our lifetime” and exhorted voters to register and elect Trump.

Between 25,000 and 30,000 people were expected at the rally, which snarled traffic to a standstill in the rural town north of Pittsburgh for the entirety of Saturday. Many waited for as many as 10 hours in harsh sun to be let in past a long string of vendors selling Trump-Vance campaign flags, hats, signs and orange wigs meant to emulate the former president.

“I certainly admire his willingness to come back here and give the speech he was denied last time,” said Teresa Wilson, a former US Marine who also attended the previous rally on 13 July.

“I’d understand if he avoided coming back – I know some spectators who didn’t want to return, and some who were very apprehensive,” she added. “If he can stand in the place of the previous attempt, then we as his constituency can certainly show up to offer our support.”

With just 31 days to go until Americans vote, polls show Trump and Kamala Harris in a tight race in Pennsylvania – a hotly contested battleground state that could prove pivotal.

Data from the New York Times and Siena College, for example, shows the two nearly deadlocked in a tie, 49% to 48% in Harris’s favour.

In dozens of interviews with Trump supporters at the rally, most identified the economy – particularly inflation – as their primary concern ahead of the election.

“We’re not being taken care of. People can’t afford food. They can barely afford gas [petrol],” said Jessenia Anderson, a voter who was at the rally wearing a red “Latinas for Trump” T-shirt. “I have a family, but I find myself making cheaper [meals], buying cheaper things.”

Others – such as rapper Sean Moon, a Tennessee voter – pointed to the US-Mexico border and concern over immigration as the main reason they supported the former president.

Migrant crossings over the US southern border hit record levels under the Biden-Harris administration but the numbers have dropped significantly in recent months.

“That’s an existential threat for this country,” said Mr Moon, the son of a North Korean refugee, about migrant crossings. The event in Butler, he said, was his 15th consecutive Trump rally.

“There are people coming in without being vetted. They tell untruths and get rewarded for it.”

• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
• EXPLAINER: What Harris or Trump would do in power
• ANALYSIS: Only one candidate is talking about China
• DISINFO: Pro- and anti-Trump voters united by one belief
• POLLS: Who is winning the race for the White House?

With one month to election day, the contest between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris is the electoral equivalent of a bare-knuckle brawl.

The race for the White House still appears deadlocked, both nationally and in battleground states, so victory will be decided by the slimmest of margins – every new voter engaged, every undecided voter swayed, could help land a knock-out punch.

“In any super close race, where the electorate is divided down the middle, a difference of a percentage point or two could be decisive,” says David Greenberg, a presidential historian at Rutgers University.

While party strategists are focused on how to earn that decisive edge, it could just as easily be an event out of their control, an unexpected twist, that upends the campaign in the final weeks.

It’s already been a year of political shockwaves – from one candidate surviving two assassination attempts and being convicted of a crime, to another, President Joe Biden, dropping out of the race in favour of his much younger vice-president.

However, when the surprises drop in October – think Trump’s Access Hollywood tape or Hillary Clinton’s emails in 2016 – there is scarcely time left to recover or regain momentum after a misstep or bad news cycle.

This week alone, there were several new rumbles that could turn into political storms by 5 November.

The first potential political storm was a literal one. Hurricane Helene tore through two key electoral battlegrounds last week, Georgia and North Carolina. Because of the intense focus on both states during this presidential race, a humanitarian disaster, with a death toll already over 130, has also become a political issue.

Harris pledged long-term aid to the region at a stop in Georgia earlier this week, and visited those affected by the storm in North Carolina on Saturday.

“We’re here for the long haul,” she said in Georgia.

Meanwhile, both states are essentially must-wins for Trump, and polls show a dead heat. While visiting Georgia, the former president claimed that Americans were losing out on emergency relief money because it had been spent on migrants. In fact, the two distinct programmes have separate budgets, and the Biden administration accused Republicans of spreading “bold-faced lies” about funding for the disaster response.

When disaster strikes, it’s not easy for the government to keep everyone happy. If Trump’s attacks land, any voter dissatisfaction with recovery efforts could potentially impact the result in two of the most closely-watched states in the country.

Thousands of miles from the disaster-ravaged American southeast, a manmade crisis continues to inject itself into American politics. The Gaza war is in danger of expanding into a regional conflagration, as Israeli forces fought Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon and Iran launched hundreds of missiles at Israel earlier this week.

While Harris has presented herself as a candidate of change, she put no distance between herself and the current administration when it comes to US-Israeli policies. That comes with risks.

Hopes for any kind of pre-election ceasefire in Gaza appear firmly dashed, and the White House at this point is trying to ensure that the inevitable Israeli response to Tuesday’s Iranian strike doesn’t lead to all-out war.

On Thursday night, Biden was not exactly reassuring.

“I don’t believe there’s going to be an all-out war,” he said. “I think we can avoid it. But there’s a lot to do yet.”

The war is also having consequences at home for Democrats, even if American voters usually don’t think directly about foreign policy when they cast their ballots.

Harris’s commitment to continue supplying arms to Israel is a problem for two key segments of the Democratic base: Arab-Americans in the must-win state of Michigan, and young voters on campuses, where anti-war protests could start up again.

The conflict in the Middle East has also fuelled pocketbook concerns. Biden’s mention of the possibility that Israel would target Iranian refineries caused the price of oil to jump more than 5% on Thursday.

If there’s one thing that American consumers are particularly sensitive to, it’s higher prices at the petrol pump.

Across the board, public opinion surveys continue to show that the economy is the top issue for American voters. And Harris and the Democrats received some good news on that front on Friday, with the latest employment figures showing robust job growth over the past few months and an unemployment level that dropped to 4.1%.

According to Mr Greenberg, however, voter concerns on the economy are about more than the latest job figures.

“When people complain about the economy, what they’re really complaining about is the longer-term failure in certain parts of the country – rural America’s de-industrialised communities,” he says. “Those are parts of the country that are hurting even in a good economy.”

For most of the election season, Trump has fared better than Harris when voters are asked who they think would do a better job with the economy, including in a recent CNN poll. But there are signs his lead may not be set in stone, such as a Cook Political Report survey of swing states that showed the two candidates tied on who would be best at dealing with inflation.

One looming economic pitfall for Democrats also evaporated this week – the dockworkers strike, which had briefly shut down critical ports on the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico for the first time in 50 years. Both parties agreed to return to the bargaining table in January, re-opening the ports. If a work stoppage had continued, it could have disrupted supply chains and driven up consumer prices in the weeks before the election.

Meanwhile, undocumented crossings at the US-Mexico border have returned to pre-Covid pandemic levels, after hitting a record high of 249,741 last December.

While the impact of that border surge is still being felt in many American cities, the urgency of the crisis may be diminishing.

While much of this week’s news could spell trouble for Harris and the Democrats, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Trump.

His conduct during the 6 January attack on the US Capitol once again came into focus on Wednesday, when a federal judge released a document from special counsel Jack Smith outlining his case and evidence against Donald Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election result.

The document, which argued that the former president should not be given presidential immunity from prosecution, contained new details about Trump’s words and actions leading up to the Capitol riot by his supporters.

A recent CNN poll shows that voters favour Harris over Trump on issues of “protecting democracy” by 47% to 40% – so anything that renews attention on the chaotic final weeks of Trump’s presidency could be to the Democrat’s advantage.

The term “October surprise” has been a fixture in American political lexicon for nearly 50 years. Campaigns dread the unexpected headline or crisis that pushes their candidates off message and changes the trajectory of a race.

Even the smallest ripple in public opinion might deliver the White House in a year when the electoral margins in the swing states could be measured in only tens of thousands of votes.

November’s balloting, says Mr Greenberg, is shaping up to be a nail-biter.

“I don’t have any fingernails left,” he says. “I could totally imagine this election going either way with extremely significant consequences riding on that vote no matter where your loyalty is.”

• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
• EXPLAINER: What Harris or Trump would do in power
• ANALYSIS: Only one candidate is talking about China
• DISINFO: Pro- and anti-Trump voters united by one belief
• POLLS: Who is winning the race for the White House?

North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of the race for the White House in his twice weekly US Election Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

For Tim Chan, who is unable to speak, facilitated communication is “a lifeline” that allows him to do things he once thought impossible, such as socialising, or studying for his PhD.

“I was presumed incompetent, and ignored or dismissed,” the 29-year-old, who was diagnosed with autism as a toddler, says using a text-to-voice tool in his home in Melbourne.

Facilitated communication involves someone guiding the hand, arm or back of a non-verbal person, so that they can point to letters or words on a bespoke keyboard.

Mr Chan’s facilitator is his mother Sarah, and, over the past 20 years, her support has “faded” to a slight touch of his shoulder, which he says keeps him “focused”.

Advocates insist it is a miracle tool, one which gives disabled people a voice.

But a growing chorus of experts, families and even former facilitators want it banned, due to research indicating that the likely author of the messages is the facilitator, not the communicator.

They cite a string of criminal allegations made by non-verbal people using the method which have been dismissed by the courts and investigators.

The debate has sparked allegations of ableism, ruined legacies, inspired a new Louis Theroux documentary, and an international conversation about the power dynamics between disabled people and those who care for them.

Facilitated communication was created in 1977 by Australian disability advocate Rosemary Crossley, who died last year and left a complex legacy.

To those who knew her, she’s remembered as champion for “people with little or no functional speech”.

But others say her communications invention – and her formidable defence of it – were misguided and harmful. It is still used worldwide, despite being widely criticised.

The first notable subject to use facilitated communication was Anne McDonald, a non-verbal Australian woman with cerebral palsy, a severe intellectual disability, and no control over her limbs.

At the time, Crossley claimed that McDonald – then 16 – could communicate by pointing at magnetic letters while Crossley supported her upper arm.

Within weeks McDonald was spelling out whole sentences and doing fractions, despite having no formal education and being institutionalised since age three.

Some of Crossley’s colleagues expressed surprise that McDonald, who’d never read, could suddenly write eloquent prose, and cite literary references, when her arm was held by the highly educated Crossley.

One who raised questions was the institution’s head paediatrician and psychiatrist Dr Dennis Maginn, who wouldn’t validate Crossley’s communication theory without independent testing.

McDonald later accused him, facilitated by Crossley’s supported typing, of attempting to smother her to death with a pillow. Homicide investigators dismissed the claims, but his career never recovered.

“My thoughtful, introspective and well-intentioned father went through living hell,” his son, lawyer Paul Maginn, says, adding that “any right-thinking person” could see the allegation had been made up by Crossley.

Crossley even had her own initial doubts about the technique, writing at the time: “What I did not know was whether I was subconsciously manipulating [Anne] or imagining her hand movements.’’

McDonald – who ended up leaving the institution and living with Crossley – went on to use the method with other facilitators. She also earned a humanities degree and co-authored the book Annie’s Coming Out, which was turned into an award-winning film.

But despite all these achievements, McDonald’s mother Beverley “never believed” that her daughter could communicate: “I asked her questions and got nowhere,” she told the ABC in 2012, after her daughter died.

For Marlena Katene, facilitated communication has allowed her to “connect and say whatever I want”.

The 33-year-old Gold Coast native selects words using a keyboard. Her facilitator Bert, or a text-to-voice tool, then reads them aloud.

Speaking to the BBC both with and without Bert, Ms Katene says it’s “frustrating being constantly tested to be validated” and that “communication is about humanity more than science”.

She finds it alarming that some academics and disability advocacy organisations have led campaigns to disprove what she says is an effective method for thousands worldwide.

But experts have uncovered different findings, using a ‘double-blind’ experiment.

The method involves the facilitator and communicator being separated and given different prompts to study, such as a picture, before coming back together to take a test.

In more than 30 empirical studies, the non-verbal person ends up typing the prompts the facilitator was shown, meaning there’s no convincing evidence that messages written using facilitated communication are authored by the person with a disability.

“The science just isn’t there,” Howard Shane, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, tells the BBC.

Courts have reached the same conclusion.

A bevy of parents and caregivers have found themselves on trial over allegations – often sexual abuse – unearthed by facilitated communication.

Prof Shane has given evidence in 12 such cases – including that of Jose Cordero, who spent 35 days in a Miami jail and was barred from seeing his family for months after being accused, via a facilitator, of sexually abusing his seven-year-old autistic son. The case was dropped, citing a lack of credibility in facilitated communication.

In every trial he’s been involved in, testing proved the facilitator was the author of the accusations, Prof Shane says, or “they refused to participate” in testing altogether, citing “anxiety”.

But one of the most high profile facilitated communication cases – now the subject of a Netflix documentary – questioned whether the method could be used to provide proof of consent.

In 2015, university professor Anna Stubblefield was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault for raping a non-verbal 33-year-old man with severe mental disabilities and cerebral palsy. Facilitated communication testimony from the man was ruled unreliable under New Jersey’s test for scientific evidence.

Two years later, an appeals court overturned Stubblefield’s conviction, ordering a retrial on the basis that it was a violation of her rights to not allow her to use facilitated communication as a defence. In 2018 she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to time served.

She maintains the relationship was consensual and that the two were “intellectual equals in love”. Prof Shane’s controlled testing concluded that the man had the intellectual ability of a six-month-old.

Testifying in Stubblefield’s case James Todd, a psychology professor at Eastern Michigan University, argued that the university where Stubblefield received her training held some responsibility for the crime. He said Syracuse University was “championing facilitated communication over clear and established science,” and implored it to “renounce and repudiate” the technique for its “dangerous harms.”

Syracuse University, one of the only universities with a facilitated communication institute, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

The BBC approached five different academic experts on facilitated communication worldwide to speak about the technique. All declined.

At least 30 medical associations worldwide oppose facilitated communication. Many, such as the UK’s National Autistic Society, warn that it’s “ineffective” and able to cause “significant harm.”

Other opponents include the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, The American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Paediatrics and Speech Pathology Australia.

These organisations cite peer-reviewed evidence indicating the technique is discredited pseudoscience and have flagged the risks it poses to disabled people, their families, and facilitators themselves, because of potential false allegations.

Clinical psychologist Adrienne Perry has warned the non-verbal person “is made a ‘screen’ for a facilitator’s hostilities, hopes, beliefs or suspicions”.

For speech trainer Janyce Boynto – who did her facilitated communication training at the University of Maine – the discovery was shocking.

She’d been facilitating the communication of a 16-year-old non-verbal autistic girl, who’d accused her father and brother of sexual abuse via Ms Boynton’s facilitation. Prof Shane was called in to do a double-blind test with pictures.

“It turned out, even though I believed in facilitated communication, I was the author of all the answers,” Ms Boynton tells the BBC. “It was irrefutable. You just didn’t realise it.”

It left her feeling “terrible, confused and devastated”.

“I believe most facilitators are sincere,” she says. “They want to believe it’s true.”

Today, Tim Chan types that such criticisms are “extremely damaging”.

“We start doubting our ability to be a person in our own right,” he says, via his mum’s facilitation.

He has never undertaken the double-blind test.

“Testing a person with non-verbal autism will make them very anxious. They process information differently,” Ms Chan says. “It’s possible there’s some unconscious cueing going on. I don’t know,” she adds.

Prof Shane and academic specialists in speech, communications, psychology, and developmental disabilities all say the technique should be banned. “I recently worked on a case where somebody was in jail for a year before it finally emerged no testing was done,” Prof Shane says. “He was released when testing showed the allegations were false.”

But facilitated communication is still practised in some specialised schools, disability centres and institutes in the USA, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

Part of the reason, Prof Shane says, is that families and facilitators “believe so strongly” their child has hidden skills.

“They need to accept the children for who they are – rather than what they’d like them to be.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticised French President Emmanuel Macron over his call to halt arms deliveries to Israel for use in Gaza.

Macron told France Inter radio that “the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza”.

At a summit in Paris on Saturday, the French president reiterated his concern over the conflict in Gaza continuing despite ceasefire calls, and he also criticised Israel’s decision to send ground troops into Lebanon.

Netanyahu responded: “Shame on them,” referring to Macron and other Western leaders who have called for what he described as an arms embargo on Israel.

In a video released by his office, Netanyahu said “Israel will win with or without their support”, adding that calling for an arms embargo was “a disgrace”.

In an interview with the French broadcaster, which was recorded on Tuesday and aired on Saturday, Macron said “France is not delivering any” weapons to Israel.

He added: “I think we are not being heard.”

“I think it is a mistake, including for the security of Israel,” he said, adding that the conflict was leading to “hatred”.

Macron also said that avoiding an escalation in Lebanon was a “priority” and that “Lebanon cannot become a new Gaza”.

Netanyahu’s office responded by saying that any country that did not stand with Israel was supporting Iran and its allies and proxies.

Netanyahu said: “As Israel fights the forces of barbarism led by Iran, all civilised countries should be standing firmly by Israel’s side.

“Yet, President Macron and other Western leaders are now calling for arms embargoes against Israel. Shame on them.”

Macron’s office later said that France is a “steadfast friend of Israel”, adding that Netanyahu’s reaction was “excessive and detached from the friendship between France and Israel”.

Speaking at the at the 19th Francophonie Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris on Saturday, Macron said that while both the US and France had called for a ceasefire in Lebanon, he added: “I regret that Prime Minister Netanyahu has made another choice, has taken this responsibility, in particular, for ground operations on Lebanese soil.”

However, Macron reaffirmed Israel’s right to self-defence and said that he would be meeting relatives of Franco-Israelis held hostage in Gaza on Monday.

Monday will mark the first anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage. More than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry says.

Mozambique is set for a watershed election that will see a change of the presidential guard, with the era of leaders who forged their careers in the trenches of the independence war against Portuguese rule coming to an end.

For the first time, the once all-powerful Frelimo party is fielding a presidential candidate who was born after independence – the charismatic 47-year-old Daniel Chapo, who it hopes will rally voters fed up with its 49-year rule.

“In some places Frelimo campaign members have been booed and openly rejected,” political commentator Charles Mangwiro tells the BBC.

Mozambique – strategically located along the southern African coast and rich in natural resources, but hit by an insurgency in the remote north – will hold presidential elections on Wednesday, along with parliamentary and gubernatorial elections.

President Filipe Nyusi is stepping down at the end of his two terms and hopes to hand the reigns of power to Chapo. His government had to deal with the fallout of the “tuna bond” corruption scandal – which triggered the country’s worst economic crisis.

In comparison, Chapo is a breath of fresh air – and draws big crowds at rallies across the country as he distances himself from the corruption that has plagued Frelimo for much of its rule since independence in 1975.

“Brother Dan is honesty in person… He is the voice of hope we want to embrace… It’s time for change,” say the lyrics of one of his campaign songs.

But human rights activist and journalist Mirna Chitsungo says she doubts whether Chapo can convince all voters that he can change Frelimo.

“If we have a degraded country, it is because of corruption. He faces the challenge of promising to fight this evil while belonging to a party that, on a large scale, has perpetuated corruption,” she told the BBC.

Counting in Chapo’s favour is the fact that he is a relative newcomer in the political arena, having joined government only in 2011 as a district administrator, rising by 2019 to become governor of the southern Inhambane province until taking over as general secretary of Frelimo in May.

But his critics say that to ensure victory, Frelimo has a back-up plan: fraud.

A leading non-governmental organisation in Mozambique, Centro de Integridade Pública, says its research showed that around 5% of the names on the voters’ roll are fake, or so-called “ghost voters” – that is a figure of nearly 900,000.

“The simple fact is that data published by the CNE [Central National Elections Commission] itself shows that 878,868 more voters were registered than there are voting age adults in some provinces, and thus these are ghost voters on the voters roll,” Mozambique analyst Joe Hanlon told the BBC.

Miguel de Brito, from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, notes that the “ghost voters” are not evenly distributed across the country – only seven key provinces out of 10 have registered more voters than people.

For instance, one-third of all the people registered in Gaza Province, which usually votes overwhelmingly for Frelimo, are thought to be “ghost voters”.

It is also the area where large numbers of people leave every year for work in South Africa.

“It’s gotten worse, this year we managed to register nationally almost 105% of the voting age population,” Mr De Brito told the BBC.

Both the election commission and Frelimo deny any foul play, insisting that the elections will be free and fair.

Chapo is facing a challenge from three other candidates:

• Venâncio Mondlane, an independent
• Ossufo Momade of the main opposition Renamo party, and
• Lutero Simango, who is spearheading the campaign of the third-biggest party, the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM), with a promise to build more factories and lower the cost of living.

Of the three, Mondlane is the fresh face, vying for the presidency for the first time after breaking away from Renamo.

With the slogan “Save Mozambique – this country is ours”, the 50-year-old is proving to be a big hit, especially in the campaign to win the youth vote.

“He [Mondlane] uses this slogan everywhere and he tries to explain to young voters that they should take pride in being Mozambican because conditions are there for them not to be poor or unemployed,” Mangwiro explains.

“He draws large numbers at his campaign rallies and people are not frog-marched to attend – come rain, cold or sun.”

A former banker, Mondlane first made his mark when he ran for mayor of the capital, Maputo, in local elections last year.

Many people believed that he won – alleging the result was then rigged in favour of Frelimo’s candidate.

Mondlane fought that election under the banner of Renamo, but quit the party after Momade, 60, refused to make way for him to take over.

Momade became Renamo’s leader following the death of its long-time leader Afonso Dhlakama in 2018.

He is widely credited for signing a peace deal with Nyusi to end a civil war that had raged between Renamo fighters and government forces.

Momade ran for the presidency in elections in 2019, and claimed that he was robbed of victory by Nyusi, but remained committed to the peace deal.

Though he is confident of winning this time, his chances have been hampered by Mondlane’s entry into the race – a point that Chitsungo, the human rights activist, made when she said that Mondlane is seen by many Renamo voters as a “young man with the spirit of Dhlakama”.

“It is as if we are having elections with a resurrected Dhlakama, a rejuvenated Dhlakama. So, we have this novelty,” she pointed out.

Chapo is hoping that the Renamo vote will be split between the two men, improving his chances of clinching victory.

In a sign of his determination to win, Chapo has travelled to next-door neighbour South Africa to raise funds for his campaign, hosting a banquet in an upmarket suburb of Johannesburg.

He also addressed ordinary Mozambicans in the city, urging them to cast their ballots for him at the embassy where they were able to register to vote earlier in the year.

“This is a candidacy for renewal,” he told the crowd. “This is a unique opportunity I have to make a difference, almost 50 years after independence.”

Mondlane also took his campaign to Johannesburg, visiting a fresh-produce market that Mozambicans run in the city.

“I’ll sort out the problems that led you to abandon Mozambique,” he said.

The violence in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, which has witnessed jihadist attacks since 2017 that have halted the lucrative liquefied natural gas projects there, has not been a major election issue.

Rwandan and South Africans troops, deployed several years ago to deal with the insurgents, are still on the ground for now – though Ziyanda Stuurman, from political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, says there has been an “uptick in the frequency and severity of insurgent attacks since January”.

Most analysts agree the biggest challenge for any new president will be creating economic opportunities and jobs in a country where 62% of the population live in extreme poverty, on less than $1.90 (£1.45) a day.

But the election race is still wide open, with candidates and parties holding their final campaign rallies on Sunday.

Refusing to bet on who will win on Wednesday, Mangwiro, the political analyst, says: “It’s too close to call.”

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A few metres from a charred home in Kibbutz Be’eri, Simon King tends to a patch of ground in the sunshine. The streets around him are eerily quiet, the silence punctuated only by the sound of air strikes that ring in the near distance.

In this community almost a year ago, 101 people were killed after gunmen from Hamas and other groups rampaged through Be’eri’s tree-lined streets, burning homes and shooting people indiscriminately. Another 30 residents and their family members were taken to Gaza as hostages.

Survivors hid in safe rooms all day and long into the night – exchanging horrifying details with each other over community WhatsApp groups, as they tried to make sense of what was happening.

The kibbutz was a strong community, where people lived and operated together as one. Neighbours were more like extended family. It is one of a small number of kibbutzim in Israel that still operates as a collective.

But now, post-7 October, the collective is splintered – psychologically and physically.

About one in 10 were killed. Only a few of the survivors have returned to their homes. Some travel back to the kibbutz daily to work, but can’t face overnight stays. Many, after months in a hotel, are now living in prefabricated buildings on another kibbutz 40km (25 miles) away.

The community, built up over nearly 80 years, is being tested like never before, and its future is uncertain.

There are reminders everywhere of those who didn’t survive – says Dafna Gerstner, who grew up in Be’eri, and spent 19 terrifying hours on 7 October holed up in a safe room – designed to protect residents from rocket attacks.

“You look to the left and it’s like, ‘Oh it’s my friend who lost her parents.’ You look to the right, ‘It’s my friend who lost her father,’ [and then] ‘She lost her mother.’ It’s everywhere you look.”

Inside Be’eri, surrounded by a high fence topped with barbed wire, you are never far from a house completely burnt or destroyed, or an empty patch of land where a home, wrecked that day, has been demolished.

Some streets might, upon first glance, appear almost untouched – but look closely and even there you will see markings spray-painted on walls by military units on or after 7 October. Houses where people were killed or kidnapped have black banners on the facades with their names and photos.

In the carcass of one burnt-out home, a board game rests on top of a coffee table, next to a melted television remote control. Food, long-rotten, is still in the fridge-freezer and the smell of burning lingers.

“Time stood still in the house,” says Dafna, 40, as she pokes through the ash-covered wreckage. She and her family had been playing that board game on the eve of the attacks.

Here, her disabled father and his Filipina carer hid for hours in their fortified safe room, as their home burned down around them. Dafna says it is a miracle they both survived.

Her brother did not. A member of Be’eri’s emergency response squad, he was killed in a gunfight at the kibbutz’s dental clinic. Dafna was staying in his house at the time, on a visit from her home in Germany.

Dozens of buildings in Be’eri are spattered with bullet holes – including the nursery. The play park and petting zoo are empty. No children have moved back, and the animals have been sent to new homes.

The kibbutz’s empty streets sometimes come alive, though, in a surprising way – with organised tours for visitors, who give donations.

Israeli soldiers, and some civilians from Israel and abroad, come to see the broken homes, and hear accounts of the devastation, in order to understand what happened.

Two of those who volunteer to lead the tours, Rami Gold and Simon King, say they are determined to ensure what happened here is remembered.

Simon, 60, admits this can be a difficult process.

“There’s a lot of mixed feelings and [the visitors] don’t really know what to ask but they can see and hear and smell… it’s a very heavy emotional experience.”

Rami, 70, says these occasions are often followed by restless nights. Each tour, he says, takes him back to 7 October.

He is one of the few who moved back to Be’eri after the attacks.

And the tours are not popular with everyone. “At some point it felt like someone took over the kibbutz – everybody was there,” Dafna says.

But Simon says the stories have to be told. “Some don’t like it because it’s their home and you don’t want people rummaging around,” he says. “But you have to send the message out, otherwise it will be forgotten.”

At the same time, both he and Rami say they are looking to the future, describing themselves as “irresponsible optimists”. They continue to water the lawns and fix fences, amid the destruction, as others build new homes that will replace those destroyed.

Simon describes the rebuilding as therapy.

Established in 1946, Be’eri is one of 11 Jewish communities in this region set up before the creation of the state of Israel. It was known for its left-leaning views, and many of its residents believed in, and advocated for, peace with the Palestinians.

After the attacks, many residents were moved into a hotel by the Dead Sea – the David Hotel – some 90 minutes’ drive away.

In the aftermath of the attacks, I witnessed their trauma.

Shell-shocked residents gathered in the lobby and other communal areas, as they tried to make sense of what had happened, and who they had lost, in hushed conversations. Some children clung to their parents as they spoke.

Still now, they say, the conversations have not moved on.

“Every person I speak to from Be’eri – it always goes back to this day. Every conversation is going back to dealing with it and the effects after it. We are always talking about it again and again and again,” says Shir Guttentag.

Like her friend Dafna, Shir was holed up that day in her safe room, attempting to reassure terrified neighbours on the WhatsApp group as Hamas gunmen stormed through the kibbutz, shooting residents and setting homes on fire.

Shir twice dismantled the barricade of furniture she had made against her front door to let neighbours in to hide. She told her children, “it’s OK, it’s going to be OK” as they waited to be rescued.

When they were eventually escorted to safety, she looked down at the ground, not wanting to see the remains of her community.

In the coming months at the Dead Sea hotel, Shir says she struggled as people began to leave – some to homes elsewhere in the country or to stay with families, others seeking to escape their memories by heading abroad.

Each departure was like “another break-up, another goodbye”, she says.

It is no longer unusual to see someone who is crying or looking sad among Be’eri’s grieving residents.

“In normal days it would have been like, ‘What happened? Are you OK?’ Nowadays everyone can cry and no-one asks him why,” Shir says.

Shir and her daughters, along with hundreds of other Be’eri survivors, have now moved to new, identical prefabricated homes, paid for by the Israeli government, on an expanse of barren land at another kibbutz, Hatzerim – about 40-minutes drive from Be’eri.

I was there on moving day.

It feels a world away from the manicured lawns of Be’eri, though grass has now been planted around the neighbourhood.

When single mother Shir led her daughters, aged nine and six, into their new bungalow, she told me her stomach was turning from excitement and nerves.

She checked the door to the safe room, where her children will sleep every night, noting that it felt heavier than the door at Be’eri. “I don’t know if it’s bulletproof. I hope so,” she said.

She chose not to bring many items from Be’eri because she wants to keep her home there as it was – and to remind herself that she will one day return.

The mass move to Hatzerim happened after it was put to a community vote – as is the case with all major kibbutz decisions. It is estimated about 70% of Be’eri’s survivors will live there for the time being. About half of the kibbutz’s residents have moved in so far, but more homes are on the way.

The journey from Hatzerim to Be’eri is shorter than it was from the hotel – and many people make the trip every day, to work in one of the kibbutz’s businesses, as they did before.

Shir travels to Be’eri to work at its veterinary clinic, but can’t imagine returning to live there yet.

“I don’t know what needs to happen, but something drastic, so I can feel safe again.”

In the middle of the day, the Be’eri lunch hall fills with people as they gather to eat together.

Shir, like many others, has reluctantly applied for a gun licence, never wanting to be caught off-guard again.

“It’s for my daughters and myself because, on the day, I didn’t have anything,” she says.

Her mother’s long-term partner was killed that day. When they talk about it, her mother says: “They destroyed us.”

Residents say they have relied on the support of their neighbours over the past year, but individual trauma has also tested a community that has historically operated as a collective.

The slogan at Be’eri is adapted from Karl Marx: “Everyone gives as much as he can and everyone gets as much as he needs.” But these words have now become hard to live by.

Many residents of working age are employed by Be’eri’s successful printing house, and other smaller kibbutz businesses. Profits are pooled and people receive housing and other amenities based on their individual circumstances.

However, the decision of some people not to return to work has undermined this principle of communal labour and living.

And if some residents decide they can never return to Be’eri that could, in turn, create fresh problems.

Many have little experience of non-communal living and would struggle financially if they lived independently.

The 7 October attack has also quietened calls for peace.

The kibbutz used to have a fund to support Gazans. Some residents would also help arrange medical treatment for Gazans at Israeli hospitals, members say.

Now, among some, strong views to the contrary are shared in person and on social media.

“They’ll [Gazans] never accept our being here. It’s either us or them,” says Rami.

Several people bring up the killing of resident Vivian Silver – one of Israel’s best-known peace advocates.

“For now, people are very mad,” Shir says.

“People still want to live in peace, but for now, I can’t see any partner on the other side.

“I don’t like to think in terms of hate and anger, it’s not who I am, but I can’t disconnect from what happened that day.”

Shir wears a necklace engraved with a portrait of her lifelong friend Carmel Gat, who was taken hostage from Be’eri that day.

Her biggest dream was that they would be reunited – but, on 1 September, Carmel’s body was found alongside five other hostages.

The IDF said they had been killed by Hamas just hours before a planned rescue attempt. Hamas said the hostages were killed in air strikes – but an autopsy on the returned bodies concluded they had all been shot multiple times at close range.

Be’eri is still waiting and hoping for the return of others. So far, 18 have been brought back alive, along with two dead bodies, while 10 are still in Gaza, at least three of whom are believed to still be alive.

Behind Dafna’s father’s house, 37-year-old Yuval Haran stands in front of the home where his father was killed, and many relatives were taken hostage, on 7 October. His brother-in-law Tal is still being held in Gaza.

“Until he comes back, my clock is still on 7 October. I don’t want revenge, I just want my family back, I just want to have a quiet peaceful life again,” Yuval says.

In all, some 1,200 people were killed across southern Israel on 7 October, with 251 taken to Gaza as hostages. Since then, in the Israeli military operation in Gaza, more than 41,000 people have been killed according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Hundreds of people – combatants and civilians – have also been killed in Lebanon in Israeli air strikes against the armed group Hezbollah, in a significant escalation of their long-running conflict.

Residents from Be’eri say that before 7 October, despite their proximity to the Gaza fence, they always felt safe – such was their faith in the Israeli military system. But that faith has now been shaken.

“I’m less confident and I’m less trusting,” Shir says.

She relives the events in her dreams.

“I wake up and I remind myself it’s over. But the trauma is, I think, for life. I don’t know if I can ever feel fully safe again.”

This summer Rami and Simon also took on the sombre task of digging graves for Be’eri’s dead, who are only just being moved back to the kibbutz from cemeteries elsewhere in Israel.

“After the 7th [October] this area was a military zone, we couldn’t bury them here,” says Rami, as he looks over the graves, a rifle slung across his body.

Simon says it brings up strong and passionate feelings – “but in the end they’re back at home”.

Each time a person is returned, the kibbutz holds a second funeral, with many residents in attendance.

Shir, in the temporary site at Hatzerim, says that for now, she is drawing strength from the community around her.

“We’re not whole, but we will be I hope,” she says.

“It’s a grieving community – sadder and angrier – but still a strong community.”

Bridget Jones fans have long adored the films for their cringe-worthy, hilarious and heartwarming scenes.

But Hugh Grant has warned that the fourth instalment in the franchise – due out on Valentine’s Day next year – will have a very different tone.

“As well as being extremely funny, it’s very, very sad,” said the actor, who will reprise his role as the dashing antagonist Daniel Cleaver.

He also revealed that there was “no obvious role” for him in the film, but “they wanted to cram me in”.

Oscar-winner Renée Zellweger is also back as the title character in Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy.

The film takes its title from the latest Bridget Jones novel, which was published in 2013.

In the book, readers rejoin Bridget in her 50s, a mother to two children and widowed following the death of her husband Mark Darcy.

Darcy was played by Colin Firth in the earlier Bridget Jones movies.

The production studio has not commented on how closely the new film will follow the storyline of its paperback namesake, but it has been revealed author Helen Fielding has written the script.

Speaking on the Graham Norton show, Grant indicated that Fielding had used a real-life tragedy to come up with the plotline.

“She had a sad story,” he said.

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“She got married to an American screenwriter, she had children and then he died.”

Grant said that Fielding then started writing a novel about a woman raising children by herself, and then realised the main character was “a bit like Bridget”.

“So she made it into a Bridget Jones book,” he said.

“And as well as being extremely funny, it’s very, very sad.”

Grant, who is best known for starring in romcoms including Notting Hill and Four Weddings and a Funeral, did not appear in the third film.

He said that initially, he felt there was “absolutely no role” for his character, Daniel, in the fourth version either.

“But they wanted to cram me in,” he said.

So he said he sat down with producers to help shape the character, who was known in the earlier films for being a serial womaniser.

“I felt that what they proposed was fine, but not great.

“And I felt that he needed a third dimension, he’s in his 60s now, you can’t just have him smoothing his way down King’s Road eyeing up young girls.

“Something needs to have happened to him in the interim.

“So we invented a rather good – I invented a rather good – interim story.”

The final version got his approval, he said.

“It’s actually a very good and moving script. And I say that as someone who’s horrid about scripts. This was brilliant.”

Fielding’s first book Bridget Jones’s Diary was published in 1996 and a sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason was released three years later.

Written in the form of a personal diary, the novels chronicle the life of a hapless 30-something single working woman living in London.

In 2001, the first film adaptation starring American actress Zellweger, with Grant as Daniel Cleaver and Colin Firth as Mark Darcy, was released.

Zellweger was Oscar-nominated for the role and, in 2004, the sequel was released, although it was not as critically well received.

Emma Thompson, who debuted her character of Bridget’s despairing obstetrician in the third film, Bridget Jones’s Baby, is also set for a return in the fourth film.

New faces on the cast list include Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave) and Leo Woodall (One Day), who is rumoured to play Bridget’s younger love interest as she faces dating anew.

Fielding previously said she had decided to write Mark Darcy out of the series because she didn’t want Bridget to become “a smug married”, a fate deemed utterly lamentable by earlier musings of Jones.

At least four hospitals in Lebanon announced on Friday that they were suspending work because of Israeli strikes, while a Hezbollah-affiliated health organisation said that 11 paramedics had been killed in the past 24 hours.

The four closures capped two weeks of Israeli strikes on hospitals and healthcare workers in Lebanon that have shuttered at least 37 facilities and killed dozens of medical staff, according to the World Health Organisation.

Late on Friday night, the Israeli army issued a statement alleging that Hezbollah was using medical vehicles to transport fighters and weapons, warning that it would strike any vehicle it suspected of being used for military purposes.

Hospital staff in southern Lebanon told the BBC that health facilities treating wounded civilians had been hit with direct Israeli strikes. The BBC has approached the IDF for comment.

Dr Mounes Kalakish, director of the Marjayoun governmental hospital in southern Lebanon, told the BBC that the hospital had no choice but to close on Friday after an airstrike hit two ambulances at the hospital’s entrance way on Friday, killing seven paramedics.

“The nurses and doctors were terrified,” he said. “We tried to calm them and carry on working, but it was not possible.”

The emergency director of the hospital, Dr Shoshana Mazraani, said she was sitting at the front of the building when the strike happened. She said that she heard the cries of the paramedics who were hit and ran towards the damaged ambulances, but was warned to stay back by colleagues fearful of a follow up strike.

The Marjayoun hospital had already been hanging on by a thread, Dr Mazraani said, with a core team of just 20 doctors remaining from the centre’s usual 120 staff. The closure on Friday was a “tragedy for the region”, she said.

“We serve a huge population here, many villages. We had 45 inpatient beds, all now empty. We were the only hospital providing dialysis in the region, for example. We have had to turn away emergency patients and tell others to leave.”

Rita Suleiman, the nursing director at the Saint Therese hospital, on the edge of Beirut’s southern suburbs, told the BBC that the hospital had also struggled on after being badly damaged by a strike on Friday but was later forced to suspend all services.

Other hospitals were carrying on with severely limited services. Dr Mohammed Hamadeh, director of the Tebnine hospital, told the BBC on Friday a nearby strike had rocked the building.

“The blast was very close,” he said. “We are still trying to operate but we cannot leave the confines of the hospital because it is too dangerous.”

Late on Friday night, the Salah Ghandour hospital in Bint Jbeil announced it had closed after being “violently shelled”, following an order from the Israeli army to evacuate.

The Israeli army said it was targeting a mosque adjacent to the hospital which it claimed was being used by Hezbollah fighters.

The strikes on healthcare facilities have not been limited to the south of Lebanon. Israel hit a medical centre in central Beirut on Thursday belonging to the Hezbollah-linked Islamic Health Organisation, killing nine and wounding 14. The Israeli army said the strike targeted “terror assets”.

The Lebanese Red Cross said on Thursday that four of its paramedics were wounded in a strike on a convoy evacuating patients, despite the organisation co-ordinating with the Israeli army.

Gabriel Karlsson, country manager in Beirut for the British Red Cross, told the BBC: “Health and aid workers must be able to help those in need without fearing for their own safety. Teams from the Red Cross and Red Crescent are a lifeline, supporting communities tirelessly – they must be protected.”

World Health Organisation director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday that 28 healthcare workers had been killed in Lebanon over the previous 24 hours, and many other healthcare staff were no longer reporting for work because of the strikes.

Dr Kalakish, the director of the Marjayoun hospital, told the BBC that prior to the strike that closed his hospital it was already operating with no anaesthesiologist or other specialists.

Some staff had fled the bombardment for their own safety, he said, while others had been prevented from reaching the hospital because of air strikes on nearby roads.

Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad said on Thursday that 97 rescue workers had been killed since Hezbollah and Israel began fighting last October.

More than 40 of those – paramedics and firefighters – were in just three days this past week, he said.

There have been many moments of extreme danger over the past year. This is the worst.

In the past seven days, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been assassinated, Israel has launched a ground invasion of Lebanon, and Iran has fired nearly 200 ballistic missiles at targets across Israel.

Western and regional powers – led by the US – have pushed for de-escalation. The UN Security Council called for an “immediate end” to hostilities and the G7, which includes the US, UK and Germany, has called for “restraint”.

But so far those efforts have failed – and the Middle East stands closer than ever to all-out war.

Here’s how the last week played out.

As the sun set over Beirut on 27 September, the south of the city was hit by a series of huge explosions.

Several apartment buildings had been struck, leaving a huge crater in the ground. Plumes of dust and debris filled the skyline, visible from across the Lebanese capital.

The strike, aimed at an underground bunker, killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Seen as a prize-target, Nasrallah had not been seen in public for years for fear of being assassinated by Israel.

His death capped a week of ramped-up Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah that had left more than 500 people dead.

The week before that, a series of walkie-talkie and pager explosions targeting the group left at least 32 dead and over 3000 injured.

Nasrallah’s death wiped all hopes of a de-escalation, which just hours earlier had seemed possible.

A US proposal for a 21-day ceasefire had been discussed on the sidelines of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York. Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon had even said his side was “open to ideas”.

But hours after the strike, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on an early flight home from the UN – and any lingering hopes of diplomacy prevailing faded away.

Three days later, Israeli forces crossed into Lebanon, marking the start of a ground invasion.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its operations would be “limited and targeted”.

Fighting so far has driven nearly 1.2 million people from their homes, according to Lebanon’s crisis unit. At least 8 Israeli soldiers have been killed.

Israel says the operation is aimed at stopping Hezbollah’s ability to launch rockets and drones over the border – something it has done on an almost daily basis since Hamas, its Palestinian ally, launched a deadly raid into southern Israel almost a year ago, triggering the current Gaza war.

Now Israeli troops are fighting a ground war on two fronts simultaneously: Gaza and Lebanon. That hasn’t happened in decades.

The last war between Israel and Hezbollah, in 2006, ended inconclusively with UN Resolution 1701, which stipulated Hezbollah withdrew its forces from southern Lebanon.

That never happened, and with Iranian support, Hezbollah grew in strength.

Israel has not said that it wants to remove Hezbollah entirely from Lebanon’s political landscape (as it has with Hamas in Gaza), but for all its talk of this being a “limited and targeted” operation, it’s clear that Israel is ruthlessly determined to cut Hezbollah down in size.

Spurred by an astonishing two and a half weeks, Israel is in an ambitious frame of mind.

The next day, at around 19:30 local time, 10 million Israelis were sent running for bomb shelters across the country after Iran launched nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel.

The nation’s air defence system sprang into action – and allies including the US and UK were involved in repelling the attack – another sign of the broadening scope of the conflict.

The IDF said most of the missiles were intercepted, but that a small number struck central and southern Israel. The only person reported to have been killed was a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank.

With its biggest proxy group in disarray, Tehran calculated that to restore some semblance of deterrence it needed to do something more dramatic than its last well-telegraphed missile and drone attack on Israel in April.

Hence the larger number of ballistic missiles and the lack of advance notice.

But while the attack was more than purely demonstrative, it did not appear to signal Iran’s desire for an all-out fight.

That’s hardly surprising. If it came to a full-on war, Iran knows that it would lose, and badly.

It could even herald the end of the Islamic Republic.

Israel, with powerful western allies – and a smattering of Middle Eastern neighbours willing to help shoot down Iranian missiles – is a regional superpower.

Iran, economically fragile and led by an unpopular government, is no match. Nor does it have the sort of allies that would be willing to spring to its defence in the event of a confrontation.

The supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, made suitably defiant noises at Friday prayers in Tehran, but Iran knows it cannot afford to escalate much further.

Despite Hezbollah’s devastating losses, it has vowed to fight on in Lebanon.

And history shows us it is easy for Israel to enter Lebanon, but difficult for them to leave.

As for Israel’s response to Iran, the region – and the world – has been on tenterhooks since Tuesday.

US president Joe Biden said he has discouraged Israel from striking Iranian nuclear or oil facilities as part of its retaliation.

A severe reaction seems inevitable, though, and some of Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent rhetoric suggests that he might be thinking, ultimately, of regime change in Iran.

But Israel’s immediate objectives are closer to home. “Total victory” in Gaza and removing the threat posed by Hezbollah along the northern border.

Israeli leaders point out that they at war on many fronts. Benjamin Netanyahu says there are seven: Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank, Yemen, Iran, Iraq and Syria.

It’s true that over the past year, attacks have come from all these directions, even though pro-Iranian groups in Iraq and Syria have so far posed little real threat.

We’re not seeing an all-out regional war just yet, but with so many players feeling they have a stake in it, the war in Gaza has metastasised in a dramatic fashion.

Iran’s missile strikes on Israel were “correct, logical, and lawful”, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a vast crowd which had gathered to hear him speak in Tehran on Friday.

The country’s supreme leader described the attack as the “minimum punishment” for what he called Israel’s “astonishing crimes” while leading Friday prayers in the capital, something he has not done since 2020.

Khamenei’s speech came three days after Iran fired nearly 200 missiles at Israel, in what it said was retaliation for the assassination of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

The Farsi-speaking supreme leader delivered part of his speech in Arabic to address Palestinian and Lebanese supporters.

During his sermon, Khamenei praised Nasrallah and voiced support for Hamas and Hezbollah, which he said provided “vital service to the entire region and the entire Islamic world”.

He said Iran-aligned armed groups “will not back down” in their conflict with Israel, which entered a new phase after Hamas launched deadly raids into Israel almost one year ago.

Iran is the main backer of Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as other armed groups around the Middle East which have attacked Israel. They often dub themselves the “Axis of Resistance”.

In recent weeks, several senior leaders of Iran-backed groups and Iran’s powerful military wing, the Revolutionary Guards, have been killed in Israeli strikes or presumed Israeli assassinations.

The supreme leader’s appearance in front of a crowd of tens of thousands in Tehran is a sign of the gravity of the moment for the Iranian regime, which is facing widespread domestic discontent.

It could be read as an attempt to show strength and restore Iran’s credibility as leader of the “Axis of Resistance”.

The public appearance was also intended to show that Khamenei is not in hiding, after reports emerged that he had been taken to a secure location following Nasrallah’s assassination.

The Grand Mosalla Mosque was flooded with people after Iranians were given free transport to attend the sermon. A large Palestinian flag was seen in the crowd.

Khamenei holds ultimate power in Iran, but very rarely leads Friday prayers himself.

The last time he did was in 2020, after the US killed Iran’s most senior military commander, Qassem Soleimani. The time before that was in 2012.

Iran is still reeling from the loss of its allies Nasrallah and Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran in July.

Israel is widely considered to be behind Haniyeh’s killing, though it has never commented on his death.

Khamenei also told the crowd that Iran would retaliate if, as expected, Israel launches a response to Tuesday’s missile attack.

“If we needed to do that again, we would do it again in the future,” Khamenei told supporters.

On Thursday, US President Joe Biden suggested a possible Israeli strike on Iran’s oil infrastructure had been discussed, as Israel continued to weigh up how to strike back at Tehran.

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.

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 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, President 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 financial 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, 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 state, the Soviet Union, which collapsed 74 years after it was foundEd.

“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 is 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, China’s top leaders vowed to go beyond interest rate cuts and tap government funds to boost economic growth.

However, other than 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 challenges China’s economy faces will not go away.

Economists see tackling entrenched issues 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 to 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.”

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.

Katie Smith has had an addiction for as long as she can remember. Something she feels compelled to dozens of times a day.

The 30-year-old finds herself repeatedly opening the Rightmove app, despite the fact she has no intention of moving house anytime soon.

“Rightmove is my porn,” laughs Katie, from Stone, Staffordshire. “It’s like being a modern day peeping Tom,” she says, referring to the number of homes she looks inside, all from the comfort of her smartphone.

Last week, after a day trip to Knutsford, Cheshire, she spent the evening looking at all the houses for sale there – regardless of price. And during a recent weekend in London, she loved looking at “how expensive houses in Richmond are”, which was close to her hotel.

Property portals like Rightmove, Zoopla and On the Market are goldmines of user data about both homebuyers and sellers.

Zoopla told the BBC that 1,860 properties are viewed every minute on its website and app, while the figure is even higher for Rightmove – nearly 10,000 properties viewed per minute.

Rightmove recently rejected a fourth takeover bid by Rupert Murdoch’s REA Group, saying the latest £6.2bn offer undervalued the company and its future prospects, showing just how valuable the data it holds is.

The websites themselves acknowledge that not all their users may actually be looking to move home, so what is it that keeps people scrolling?

Katie, who previously worked in interior design, says she loves to check how quickly properties might sell and has a list of favourite homes she has looked at.

“I love character properties, things with features like beautiful Georgian homes,” she says.

While she and her partner are planning to move out of her rented accommodation in about six months, there is no immediate or urgent need to search.

“He thinks I am looking at more houses because of this, but it’s not – it’s just because I love it!”

Sam Kennedy Christian, who lives in Herne Bay in Kent with her husband and two children, uses Zoopla to look at her dream purchases.

“I love imagining what I’d get if we won the lottery… specifically in the Isle of Man where I grew up and my family still live,” she says.

They moved closer to the seaside during the pandemic as many people looked for more outdoor space.

Sam says she enjoys refreshing the Zoopla app as part of her “bedtime scrolling” routine, or while waiting for the baby to drop off to sleep.

She also keeps an eye on similar properties in the local market, although they are not intending to sell anytime soon.

“I especially love a floorplan – you can get a real handle on a house, and how you might use the space.”

When we browse property websites, we’re engaging in “a form of escapism that taps into the brain’s reward systems,” says Louisa Dunbar, the founder of OrangeGrove, a research agency that uses behavioural science to improve business websites.

“Visualising ourselves in these desirable homes triggers the dopamine system, giving us a sense of pleasure, even if we’re not planning to buy. It’s a chance to mentally step into a better life.”

She says that certain features of property portals can play a big role on what we might click on.

High-quality photos may encourage viewers to picture themselves living in a property, while the use of badging listings with terms like “Highlight” or “Just added” fuels the fear of missing out.

These psychological triggers can keep us engaged as we nose around the neighbour’s living room, or imagine a better future, she says.

Users may love these property sites, but are they worth it to estate agents, given most online viewings will not turn into actual enquiries?

Some agents have expressed unease at the high cost to advertise, particularly on Rightmove as the market leader. They say they provide all the photos and listings information about the houses for sale and are then having to pay to do it. It means these high costs can limit their ability to advertise in local newspapers or other places.

One estate agent, who did not wish to be named, told the BBC: “Right now, it’s a case of not being able to live without the likes of Rightmove. The prices [for estate agents] are going up faster than I’d like and I worry about the stranglehold they have on the market.

“But, even if many users are just idly browsing without any real intention of moving, it is still worth it to have properties on there.”

Rightmove responded, saying it has “a variety of different packages to suit businesses of different sizes and needs and the average [agent] spends £1,497 per month”.

Both Rightmove and Zoopla are bullish about the future, saying that confidence in the market is recovering as mortgage rates fall. On Thursday, Zoopla said the number of homes for sale on its platform is growing.

And for now they seem to be attracting everyone whether you’re an idle browser just nosing around, fantasising perhaps about castles you can never afford, a homeowner checking on how the value of your home compares with your neighbours’, or even an actual genuine buyer.

The eight couples have wedded, their week-long honeymoons are over and now they are adjusting to married life, living on top of each other in small London apartments.

But can they really be coached into loving each other?

Channel 4’s Married at First Sight is a bold social experiment, where single people marry total strangers, meeting for the first time at the altar.

In this series, several couples are off to a rocky start – issues of attraction, clashing personalities and avoidant behaviour has been plaguing some participants.

To help them navigate the trials and tribulations of marriage the show has three matchmaking experts – Paul Brunson, Mel Schilling and Charlene Douglas.

With most couples relying heavily on the advice from them, to what extent is what we see on TV similar to the therapy that happens in a real counselling room?

Psychotherapeutic Counsellor Emma Loker explains that the format of the show is “somewhat like group therapy” as couples discuss their relationships with the experts in front of everyone at the commitment ceremonies.

The ceremonies are filmed across a full day, meaning the couples get more time with the experts than is seen in the condensed one hour of television.

During the ceremony, it’s not uncommon for the other participants to gasp, tut, cry and pull all sorts of faces, which Loker says is a key difference, as in a counselling room “people will be told to be respectful of one another”.

The couples live in the same complex, meaning they often confide in each other about their relationships.

I’m the first to speed dial my friends to moan about my partner, but where my friends keep my relationship drama a secret, most MAFS participants are eager to share their titbit of gossip with others.

Dr Sham Singh, a US based psychiatrist says “external support may be well-meant, but too many voices can be confusing”.

“Therapy is a place where both partners get to be heard without some outside bias”, he explains, adding that he helps couple “strengthen their direct communication so that they become confident enough to tackle an issue first before involving others”.

The matchmakers have advised couples to focus on direct communication, but this can sometimes be challenging, due to the format of the show.

It includes prompt questions for the couples to address, at the weekly dinner parties, which can fuel the drama.

In response, a spokesperson for MAFS tells the BBC the show “is unscripted and observational, and reflects the wide variety of sometimes complex and challenging relationship dynamics that exist in the real world”.

The matchmakers have been known to give participants a telling-off for certain behaviours or comments that they deem unacceptable.

Life coach Paul told Eve she wasn’t “giving this experiment any bit of fairness”, while his fellow expert Mel called her out for “lying” at the commitment ceremony.

But counsellor Jonathan Eddie says he would “absolutely never” tell a client off.

Susie Masterson, a trauma therapist, explains that the experts may be expressing disappointment “as a way to reflect how friends or family might react in a real-world setting, which can help couples understand how their behaviour impacts others”.

Lou Campbell, a relationship counsellor, explains that the telling-off “is entirely made for TV” as qualified therapists “challenge behaviours” but don’t scold their clients.

She thinks the matchmakers using this technique is concerning because “many participants seem quite vulnerable and could benefit from real individual therapy”.

Counsellor Loker has reservations about the experts giving guidance as they could “unintentionally give harmful advice or miss critical emotional red flags that could exacerbate issues in the relationship”.

A MAFS spokesperson said the “onscreen experts bring a wealth of experience, and are qualified specialists in a range of disciplines, from psychodynamic and psychosexual therapy, to couples counselling, life coaching and matchmaking.

“They offer the couples informed and educated advice and guidance throughout the process.”

The spokesperson added that additional offscreen psychological support is also available to the contributors.

One of the issues troubling some couples this year is physical attraction, and the experts have have reprimanded Adam and Casper for their “unkind” words and “nonsense” excuses as they have both said they are not attracted to “curvy girls”.

“Those sound like personal judgements and it’s an ethical principal that we are not judgemental,” explains counsellor Eddie.

When it comes to physical attraction, therapist Dr Olivia Lee recommends “small acts of kindness, open dialogue, and intentional time together”.

This advice is very similar to what the experts told the two men struggling to find their wives attractive because they aren’t petite or brunette.

Dr Lee says there are definitely some similarities between advice from the experts and qualified therapists “especially when it comes to fostering open communication, addressing conflict, and exploring emotional needs”.

Mel’s intervention with Caspar definitely seems to have helped the couple, but Dr Lee cautions that the advice the experts dish out is often too short-term for it to have a lasting impact.

One of the most stark differences between the show’s experts and qualified counsellors is that the former often want their matchmaking to succeed so encourage participants to stay on the show.

“I have no vested interest in the outcome of my clients’ relationships, my focus is on supporting them in whatever direction feels most authentic for them,” Masterson says.

Similarly, the experts told Richelle she had to commit to the process fully which is understandable for the TV experiment,

Masterson explains that ultimatums are not usually used by qualified counsellors as it’s not her job “to force couples to stay together”.

She adds that Richelle’s “signs of avoidant attachment could be an underlying therapeutic challenge” which the experts may not qualified to help her with.

While it’s clear that the experts are well intentioned in their advice and it can be somewhat helpful, Dr Lee says it’s important to remember that the primary focus of the show is to entertain and what the experts say “shouldn’t be considered sound therapeutic advice”.

Advice from a qualified counsellor is more likely to help a flailing marriage than the opinions of matchmakers, but in the context of a reality TV show, the experts strike a pretty good balance between being helpful and entertaining.

Wall Street, American Psycho, The Wolf of Wall Street… for decades, the image of the banker has loomed large in popular culture.

And after the 2008 financial crisis, the reputation of finance workers took a big hit, according to one of the creators of banking drama Industry.

Konrad Kay, who co-writes the series, says bankers faced a “lazy” and “villainous stereotype” at the time – with a perception that they needed “bringing down a peg or two”.

Industry is a critically-acclaimed drama set inside the fictional London office of Pierpoint & Co, a prestigious, high-pressure, sex-and-drug-fuelled international investment bank. It is now airing its third series.

Critics have called the series – that introduces new character Sir Henry Muck, a hyper-privileged eco-entrepreneur played by Game of Thrones star Kit Harington – an “excitingly ornate rollercoaster” and “more thrilling than ever”.

For Kay and co-creator Mickey Down, who both previously worked in finance, their show is not a simple question of whether bankers are good or bad.

“I guess what the show is saying, and we’re never didactic about this stuff, is that Pierpoint and the wider capitalist enterprise turbocharge some of their worst instincts,” says Kay.

Ultimately, bankers are “neither villains nor rock stars”, he adds.

Industry looks at some of the nuances of the financial world, the writers say, and especially the people at the beginning of their careers.

According to Down, the show is driven by the characters who have the least amount of power.

Industry follows three Gen-Z finance workers: Harper Stern (played by Myha’la), Robert Spearing (Harry Lawtey) and Yasmin Kara-Hanani (Marisa Abela).

Down adds that Industry is about realising there are “different ceilings for everyone” – and that your background, race and gender can “have a huge bearing on how successful you can be”.

This is partly why the co-writers say they portray the character of Harper, arguably the most ruthless of the three main characters, “with love”.

“People obviously throw a lot of words at these characters, insults sometimes, especially at Harper, saying she’s awful, she’s heinous, she’s selfish, all that stuff,” says Down, adding: “We write her from a place of understanding.

“We write her as a young black woman who has come from a disadvantaged background, who is ridiculously ambitious and will do everything to achieve her goals – and that is thrilling.”

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.

Butler County in Western Pennsylvania is rock-solid Trump country.

In front yards, on the sides of roads and at filling stations, the messages on the billboards are blunt.

“Bulletproof” is one, on a picture of the former president with his fist raised, moments after he was shot in this very town.

Another, more overtly political, reads: “Even my dog hates Biden.”

The former president got twice as many votes as Joe Biden here in 2020, beating Hillary Clinton in 2016 by a similar margin. In fact, this county has only voted Democrat once in the past 150 years of presidential elections.

Butler has always been proud to be known as the home of the American Jeep but this year it is better remembered for one thing – where a former Republican president was inches away from being assassinated.

A bullet grazed his ear that day, on 13 July, and Butler is undergoing its own healing process as Donald Trump returns to the same spot, the Farm Show grounds, for a rally on Saturday evening.

Trump’s speech is expected to begin at about 17:00 local time (21:00 GMT), with the site reportedly already in lockdown ahead of his visit.

For the first time since publicly endorsing the former president, Elon Musk – the boss of X, Tesla and SpaceX – has confirmed he will be in the audience.

Ahead of Trump’s return to Butler, the BBC has spoken to some of the people who were just a few feet away from him as the gunfire rang out back in July.

There is sadness and guilt among local Republicans and resentment, too, that their county – so staunchly pro-Trump – was where this happened.

“That was the saddest moment of my life,” said Jim Hulings, chairman of the Butler County Republican Party, who was 30ft away at the time and thought Trump had been killed. “I was horrified to think that somebody had the audacity to shoot a great man.”

Jondavid Longo, the mayor of Slippery Rock, a small town just a few miles away, was on stage moments before the shooting, part of the warm-up act.

When the gunman began to fire, he instinctively used his body to cover his pregnant wife. He says he replays the incident in his mind every day.

“It’s a difficult thing for us to come to terms with,” he said. There is guilt that somebody else did lose their life that day, he says, and two others were seriously injured.

• Unanswered questions as Trump returns to Butler
• Wife of man killed at Trump rally struggles with loss

That person was Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old former volunteer fire fighter, who died after throwing himself in front of the bullets to protect his wife and daughters.

His widow Helen seems lost and distracted when I meet her. It’s clear she’s struggling.

“I think about it every day. I see it every time I close my eyes.”

She and Corey were childhood sweethearts, married for 29 years. And both staunch supporters of Trump.

They joked that day that the former president was going to invite Corey up on stage, she said. Days later, his fire chief’s jacket was taken to the Republican convention in Milwaukee and placed on stage as Trump made his acceptance speech for the nomination.

“I just cried because, you know, I said he got his moment on stage with Trump.”

Like Helen, Trump supporters in Butler have dozens of questions about how it could have happened.

While the motive of the 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Crooks, remain obscure, what has become much clearer is the series of security blunders that led to him pulling the trigger.

Two hours before he opened fire, he was able to fly a drone around the site without being detected because Secret Service counter-surveillance equipment was not working.

Communications failures meant that suspicious sightings of Crooks an hour and a half before he shot at Trump were not passed on to all elements of the Secret Service.

More than half an hour before the shooting, he was seen by police using a rangefinder pointed at the stage – a device often used by hunters pursuing their prey.

Yet a little over 25 minutes later, Crooks had managed to climb on to the roof of a local business and fire eight shots. Seconds later he was dead, a single shot to the head from a Secret Service sniper.

Those few seconds are still haunting many of those who witnessed it.

Lucie Roth can be seen in the VIP seats behind Trump in one of the most recognisable pictures of the shooting, taken by a Reuters photographer.

She initially thought the gunfire was fireworks but then she heard screams to “Get down!” and dropped to the floor.

“I truly thought he was dead. I saw the Secret Service pile on top of him like he was the quarterback at a football game.”

She was still down when she heard the crowd roar and cheer, and knew then he was OK.

Renae Billow and her 11-year-old son and Trump impersonator, Gino Benford, were a few feet away from Lucie and Gino is clearly visible in the Reuters photo, complete with a blond wig and a dark suit.

Speaking from the family home in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Gino says he was both scared and calm, “half and half”, when the shots rang out.

“I thought, who would want to do this to such a great president?”

Reporting from just outside the rally that night, we began to interview people as they left.

But one man stood out. He was wearing a Trump hat with fake orange hair sprouting out of it and holding a can of beer.

Greg Smith’s words, in which he described how he had seen the gunman on the roof and tried to warn the Secret Service, reverberated around the world.

• Witness tells BBC he saw gunman on roof

It provided the first hint at the catastrophic security failure and a clip of the interview was viewed by tens of millions of people on social media.

Meeting him again this week at his store, just yards from the scene of the shooting, he still feels angry.

“I was very frustrated when I talked to you, extremely frustrated because I think of the time frame. He was on that roof for minutes, crawling, and we were pointing and yelling.”

“I remember thinking ‘Why? Why isn’t someone doing something? How is this happening? How do I still hear President Trump talking as this is going on?'”

There is also pride in what he did in speaking out. People tell him he is part of history, the first person to tell the world what happened.

As someone who usually shuns the limelight, he added: “I jumped out of my comfort zone and did that. And I’m glad that it went like it did, that everything I told you that night has proven to be true.”

Greg, who that day was listening to Trump from outside the rally, does not plan to go to Saturday’s event. He says his 12-year-old son has been traumatised by it, jumping whenever he hears fire works.

Despite still feeling angry about the security lapses, Helen Comperatore and her daughters will go back.

It’s what Corey would have wanted, she says.

“I have tried to do that with everything I do, what would he want me to do? What would Corey do? And that’s how I go.”

• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
• EXPLAINER: What Harris or Trump would do in power
• ANALYSIS: Only one candidate is talking about China
• DISINFO: Pro- and anti-Trump voters united by one belief
• POLLS: Who is winning the race for the White House?

Set against a backdrop of cliffside mansions, bronzed bodies, and vast ocean views – Bondi is the go-to suburb for international brands looking to launch down under.

So, when news broke on TikTok that a Crumbl Cookie pop-up was coming to Sydney’s iconic beachside hub, few raised questions.

With a host of famous fans, the US-based bakery chain – which only sells domestically and in Canada – has secured a cult-like following.

But when Australian foodies sunk their teeth into the treats, outrage spread like wildfire after it became clear they were eating days-old goods, sold by a few enterprising locals – with no connection to Crumbl – who had brought the cookies back in suitcases from Hawaii.

Adding insult to injury was the eye-watering price tag, with consumers paying A$17.50 ($12;£9) for the stale snacks, which had aged inside the belly of a commercial airline.

Labelled the great “cookie controversy” and “Crumblgate” by commentators, the doughy drama has sparked debate online – prompting calls for legal action to be taken against the sellers, as well as jabs against those willing to pay such an exorbitant amount simply to be pictured indulging in the latest trendy treat.

It even inspired a last-minute Washington Post Food review of the cookies, which ruled them “underwhelming” and “under baked”.

The saga unfolded after scores of people spent the day snaking around a commercial block in North Bondi on Sunday to secure their brightly coloured signature Crumbl box.

All of it was seemingly captured on TikTok – often in real-time – as consumer after consumer filmed themselves biting into the hardened treats, responding with a series of grimaces rather than delight.

“This is actually very bad… the texture is just weird,” one vlogger said.

“I spent A$150 on 10 cookies,” another woman blurted out mid-video, before offering a scathing review.

Another group recorded themselves simply sniffing the battered treats, before offering a ranking of 3/10.

The founder of the US company, quickly took to social media to clarify that the Australian pop-up, was not affiliated with his firm.

All of which prompted a confusing story, followed by an apology by the Sydney organisers.

In a statement, a spokesperson – who declined to give his full name – said that hundreds of the cookies had been purchased while on a trip to Hawaii and then brought back to Australia in luggage.

He said that everything the pop-up had done – including using professionally shot photographs of the sweets and mimicking the Crumbl branding – was “legal”.

And that they’d tried to adhere to the Crumbl storage requirements, which advises that the products can still be consumed after three days, if kept in an airtight container.

“We kept them to these requirements. Some were warmed to enhance their texture, which is what Crumbl does as well.

“We apologise that they don’t live up to expectations. However, they are just cookies at the end of the day,” the statement added.

The strangeness of a group of people “going on an international flight to go and procure biscuits” is not lost on Australian marketing expert Andrew Hughes, however he says the bait and switch tactics are far from new.

One recent example he pointed to was when scores of people bought tickets to a so-called Bridgerton-themed ball in Detroit, Michigan.

But instead of being met with the glitz, glamour and expensive food event organisers had promised, they were left with soggy noodles, a single violin, and a pole dancer.

To understand how these viral scams lure people in, it’s important to examine the powerful emotions elicited by the “fear of missing out” – or FOMO for short – Hughes says.

“In an age where information travel so quickly… people don’t want to be behind the curve. They act out of impulse instead of logic,” he explains.

It’s unclear whether the Crumbl spin off violated Australian consumer law, or whether those affected have grounds to act.

But beyond a few cease-and-desist letters, Hughes thinks it’s unlikely the US-brand will take further action.

“They’ll deny it. They’ll say it’s bad. But at the end of the day, it’s good publicity because it raises their brand awareness in Australia.

“All of a sudden, people who hadn’t heard of them are now talking about them.”

Alex Green is clear – without immunotherapy, he would have died in 2019.

His advanced melanoma skin cancer was only stopped by the revolutionary treatment that recruits the body’s own immune system to fight the disease.

But unfortunately at the moment the majority of people with cancer see no benefit from immunotherapy.

Many suffer a relapse or experience significant side effects, which can include painful inflammation in the bowel, skin or the lungs.

So now a new multimillion-pound research programme aims to discover why at least half of all patients fail to respond to immunotherapy or suffer from those debilitating side effects.

Now 42, Alex was initially diagnosed with melanoma in 2012.

He was treated with surgery, but three years later the disease had spread to his lymph nodes.

Alex underwent several operations to remove the tumours, followed by a course of post-surgery radiotherapy, and then later, immunotherapy.

“I finished radiotherapy and my scans were clear, however under two years later my cancer returned,” he said.

“I was offered immunotherapy and it completely saved my life.

“Without it I was expected to have died in 2019, leaving behind my wife and two children, then aged four and seven.

“It was a life-changing treatment for me and I’m now in my eighth year of complete remission and able to lead a normal and active life.”

But Alex, a lawyer who lives in Surrey, warns the treatment is not straightforward.

“Whilst the treatment’s results have been amazing, it did come with some tough challenges,” he said.

“I suffered from some pretty significant side effects, which resulted in me being hospitalised for two weeks.

“I’m very clear on the importance of researching and understanding immunotherapy side effects to make the treatment as effective and as kind as possible.”

The research project involves 16 academic institutions and NHS trusts and health boards from across the UK, working alongside 12 bioscience and technology companies.

One of the issues the researchers will look at is a lack of testable and usable biomarkers, which are the tiny molecules which can tell doctors whether someone is likely to benefit from a given drug.

Identifying these biomarkers could help in two ways – both selecting those patients who are most likely to benefit, but also possibly opening up new treatments, like vaccines and cell therapies.

The project will involve 3,000 patients who have already completed their treatment and then 3,000 more who are starting treatment across the UK for breast, bladder, kidney and skin cancer.

Other forms of cancer could be added as the research progresses.

Professor Samra Turajlic, who is a cancer specialist at the Royal Marsden hospital, will be leading the project at the Francis Crick Institute in London.

Prof Turajlic says huge progress has been made in cancer treatment in recent years using immunotherapy.

“We are still underserving many patients due to treatment failure and side effects,” she said.

“We have a unique opportunity in the UK, especially given the NHS, to address this challenge.

“Research on this scale can get us one step closer to better tests in the clinic, but also fuel more discoveries regarding cancer immunology and new therapies.

“Ultimately, we want to speed up the delivery of personalised medicine for a disease that affects huge numbers of people across the UK every year.”

Funding for the project comes from various sources, including £9m from the government-run Office for Life Sciences and the Medical Research Council – two organisations that support research and innovation to improve healthcare in the UK. An additional £12.9m comes from industry.

The project is part of a bigger commitment from the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology for £145m to support cancer diagnosis and treatment and has the backing of Science and Technology Minister Peter Kyle.

“Cancer is a disease that has brought pain, misery and heartbreak to every family in the country, including my own,” he said.

“But through government working in partnership with the NHS, researchers, and business, we can harness science and innovation to bring the detection and treatment of this horrendous disease firmly in to the 21st Century, keeping more families together for longer.

“The UK’s scientists, researchers and captains of industry have brilliant ideas that aren’t just going to boost our health – they’ll boost our economy too, helping to build a virtuous circle for more investment in both health and research which will ultimately drive up living standards.”

A political row has erupted after Donald Trump claimed Americans hit hard by Hurricane Helene were losing out on emergency relief money because it had been spent on migrants.

The White House swiftly rebutted the claims and accused Republicans of spreading “bold-faced lies” about funding for the disaster response.

On Wednesday US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), which he oversees, was short on cash for the rest of hurricane season.

Trump and his allies expressed outrage that the agency had spent over $640m (£487m) on housing migrants.

But officials pointed out that this funding, authorised by Congress, was part of an entirely different programme run by Fema unconnected to disaster relief.

With less than a month to go before the White House election, Trump and the Democratic nominee Kamala Harris are neck and neck in the handful of swing states, such as storm-hit North Carolina and Georgia, that will decide the vote.

The deadliest mainland US hurricane since Katrina in 2005, Helene tore through the south-east last week, claiming at least 225 lives and leaving hundreds more missing.

Both Trump and Vice-President Harris have made trips to some of the affected states.

Republicans have attempted to link the disaster relief effort to immigration – an issue seen as a strength for Trump – but have spread misinformation about how government money is used.

At an event in Evans, Georgia, on Friday, Trump said, without evidence, that: “A lot of the money that was supposed to go to Georgia and supposed to go to North Carolina and all of the others is going and has gone already.

“It’s been gone for people that came into the country illegally, and nobody has ever seen anything like that. That’s a shame.”

Fema did receive a budget from Congress – $640m in the last fiscal year – to provide housing to immigrants applying for US citizenship.

But the cash came via a federal immigration agency, Customs and Border Protection.

It was spent through Fema’s Shelter and Services Program (SSP) and is a separate pot of money to the agency’s Disaster Relief Fund of nearly $20bn, which is used to respond to hurricanes and other natural disasters.

Fema’s disaster relief budget for the year expired at the end of September and the agency is currently running on temporary funding while Congress negotiates a new annual budget.

The agency has responded to Trump’s claim with a dedicated fact-check page, and a statement from the Department of Homeland Security.

“This is false,” Fema said in a statement. “No money is being diverted from disaster response needs.”

So far, more than $45m has been given to communities affected by Hurricane Helene, said the agency.

Fema has also shipped over 11.5m meals and 12.6m litres of water in the aftermath of Helene, said Vice-President Harris on Friday, adding that more than 5,600 federal personnel were on the ground.

But Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday that it was “madness” for billions of dollars in foreign aid to be sent to Ukraine, instead of to American citizens who had lost everything in the storm.

Meanwhile, critics of Trump have pointed out that when he was president back in 2019, $155m was transferred from Fema’s operating budget to fund deportations of migrants to Mexico.

When South Indian star Sid Sriram thinks back starting out in the music industry, the word “disrupter” comes to his mind.

His debut in Tamil cinema got a “lot of pushback”, he says.

Indian-born, American-raised Sriram blends a unique Carnatic (South Indian) singing style with soul and R&B influences from his youth.

He says Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Luther Vandross are big inspirations.

People questioned “what kind of voice is this? Why is he singing like this?” says Sriram.

But he didn’t let the early criticism stop him and has largely let his music do the talking.

This year he became the first South Indian to perform at Coachella, opened for US indie star Bon Iver on his US tour and is about to embark on the UK leg of his All Love No Hate tour.

It will be his biggest solo UK show, in front of a crowd at the O2 Arena in London.

“I’ve always had the vision to take our music and elevate it to the highest level,” Sriram explains to BBC Asian Network’s Tamil and South Indian music show.

A wave of South Asian musicians have been appearing in mainstream spaces and collaborating with western artists.

Punjabi megastar Diljit Dosanjh featured on The Tonight Show, AP Dhillon worked with Stormzy and Arijit Singh brought out Ed Sheeran at his concert.

Sriram says the success of these artists inspires him to do the same with his Carnatic style.

“My mission since the beginning has been to take my Carnatic musical roots and amplify them across the globe,” he says.

Sriram, who is best known for songs such as Srivalli, Kalaavathi and Neeli Neeli Aakasam, says he felt “the world wasn’t ready” when he first entered the West.

“Now, over a decade later, it’s clear to me that the world is not only ready for this perspective, but they need it. It’s an exciting time.”

Describing himself as a “cultural bridge between two different worlds”, Sriram says being that conduit is what he has “always wanted to do.”

During his Coachella set, Sriram performed a Tamil religious song known as Thiruppugazh which went viral online.

“It was very affirming for me and inspiring for sure,” he says.

He is also signed to label Def Jam, which has artists such as Rihanna, Justin Bieber and Pusha T.

Last year he went viral with his critically acclaimed NPR Tiny Desk concert and released Sidharth, an album in English which mixes Carnatic music with R&B and indie rock influences.

Sriram says that album has helped open up Tamil music to a new audience.

“Even if I’m doing an English album show I’ll still sing some Tamil film songs and I always get non-South Asian people texting me like: ‘Whoa, what was that song?’

“I call myself an ambassador of my language, my culture, my people and if I call myself that then I have to put action to that.”

While Diljit Dosanjh and Arijit Singh cover the globally popular Bollywood and bhangra genres, Sriram is the first Carnatic singer since AR Rahman to do the same.

AR Rahman was one of the first South Indian artists to work with mainstream acts, but he did so using Bollywood and film music, most notably with the Oscar-winning soundtrack for Slumdog Millionaire.

Sriram contacted AR Rahman after Slumdog Millionaire, which, to his pleasant surprise, gave him his first break.

It’s a journey he is keen to celebrate in the UK show, where he will play Tamil cinema hits from his debut to now.

“I love performing in the UK because it feels like the audience understands my roots, as well as a lot of the cultural touch points I grew up with in California.

“The resonance is special.

“I came to the UK for the first time last year and it immediately felt like home,” he says.

But he’s not settling.

There is “more to come” which includes Sriram’s own original Tamil music, as opposed to tunes composed by others.

“The next wave is just putting out music in my mother tongue that feels like it’s just pushing the boundary.

“In the way I would if I was making English music and continuing to expand.”

A child in the Canadian province of Ontario has died from rabies after being exposed to a bat in their bedroom, Canadian health officials have said.

The death was made public by Dr Malcolm Lock of the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit, who told councillors at a board meeting on Wednesday that the unnamed child was exposed to the virus in an area north of Sudbury.

“They woke up with a bat in their bedroom,” Dr Lock said, adding that the parents did not see signs of a bite or scratches and did not get the child a rabies vaccine as a result.

It marks the first domestically-acquired case of human rabies in Ontario since 1967.

The child, whose age was not shared by officials, was taken to hospital after the incident in early September and later died.

Rabies is a rare but deadly viral disease that can be spread to humans from an infected animal – such as bats, coyotes, foxes or raccoons – most commonly through its saliva.

The disease, which can cause severe damage to the brain and the spinal cord, nearly always causes death once symptoms have appeared, according to the World Health Organization.

Dr Lock said the percentage of bats with rabies in the southern Ontario region he oversees has increased from less than 10% to 16% in recent years.

“It’s extremely important that anyone who has a form of exposure [to bats] seeks medical attention,” he said, adding that treatment and vaccination should be quickly sought, even if bite marks aren’t immediately visible.

According to Health Canada, the Canadian government’s health department, cases of rabies among humans in the country are rare.

Since reporting began in 1924, there have been 28 cases of rabies across six provinces, all of which were fatal.

The health agency said that nearly all human cases of rabies in Canada are a result of exposure to bats, or due to exposure to rabies while in another country.

In the US, fewer than 10 people die from rabies each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This is a “dramatic decline” from the 1960s, the healthy agency said, driven largely by prevention efforts.

There were 25 cases of human rabies documented in the US from 2009 to 2018, the CDC said, seven of which were contracted outside of the country.

Like Canada, humans in the US are more commonly exposed to rabies through rabid bats, which are found in all US states except Hawaii.

In the UK, all rabies since 1902 were a result of an infection that occurred abroad, according to data by the British government. There have been 26 cases reported since 1946, all involving people who got infected outside of the UK.

In 2002, a licensed bat handler in Scotland died from an infection with a rabies-like virus that is present in a small number of indigenous bats – though a subsequent study found they pose little threat to people.

The latest documented case was in 2018 involving a traveller who was bitten by a cat in Morocco.

The convictions of Erik and Lyle Menendez, who were jailed more than three decades ago for the murder of their parents in the US, are set to be reviewed.

The brothers shot Jose and Kitty Menendez at their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989, in what prosecutors said was a plot to inherit their father’s fortune.

On Thursday, LA County district attorney George Gascon said there was “a moral and an ethical obligation” to review evidence submitted by the brothers last year, which claimed they were sexually abused by their father and acted in self-defence.

There has been renewed public interest in the murders since a Netflix series depicting the events was released in September.

During the original trial, prosecutors said the killings were motivated by greed.

They said the brothers spent much of their large inheritance on Rolex watches, cars and luxury property prior to becoming suspects.

These allegations of lavish spending, aired in a widely watched televised trial, made the case notorious in the US.

That original trial ended with a hung jury after the Menendez brothers submitted allegations of abuse spanning several years.

At a second trial, the abuse claims were largely withheld. The brothers were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1996.

Lyle Menendez was 21 and Erik Menendez was 18 at the time of the murders.

New evidence now being considered includes a 1988 letter from Erik Menendez to his cousin, which reportedly appears to reference his father’s abuse.

“None of this information has been confirmed,” Gascon – the most senior prosecutor in LA Country – told a news conference.

He continued: “We are not, at this point, ready to say that we either believe or do not believe that information.

“But we’re here to tell you that we have a moral and an ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us.”

He added that his team was “not saying there was anything wrong with the original trial”.

Gascon said a review could potentially lead to resentencing or a new trial. A hearing is set for 26 November, the BBC’s US partner CBS News reports.

Gascon said his office had received an influx of calls following the release of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story on Netflix

The drama has caused controversy, with relatives saying the brothers had been “victimised by this grotesque shockadrama”.

The show’s creator Ryan Murphy has defended the series, and described the family’s negative reaction as “predictable at best”.

On Thursday, reality TV star Kim Kardashian voiced her support for the brothers, further fuelling renewed popular interest in the case.

“They are not monsters. They are kind, intelligent, honest men,” she said in an article for NBC News.

Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu is expected to seek a bailout during his visit to India this week as the archipelago nation stares at an economic crisis with fears of debt default.

It’s Muizzu’s first official bilateral visit after he was voted to power late last year following a campaign centred on an ‘India out’ policy, with a promise to reduce Delhi’s influence.

Since then, ties have been strained between the countries but experts say the visit indicates that the Maldives can’t afford to ignore its giant neighbour.

The foreign exchange reserves of the Maldives stood at about $440m (£334m) in September, just enough for one-and-a-half months of imports.

Last month, global agency Moody’s downgraded the Maldives’ credit rating, saying that “default risks have risen materially”.

An Indian bailout will bolster the country’s foreign currency reserves.

Before visiting India, Muizzu chose to travel to Turkey and China – his visit to the latter in January was seen as a high-profile diplomatic snub to Delhi as previous Maldivian leaders first visited Delhi after being elected. Around the same time, a controversy erupted in India after three Maldivian officials made derogatory comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“President Muizzu’s visit is a turnaround in several ways,” says Azim Zahir, a Maldives analyst and lecturer at the University of Western Australia.

“Most notably, the visit is a realisation of how dependent the Maldives is on India, a dependency that no other country will find easy to fill,” he says.

The Maldives consists of about 1,200 coral islands and atolls located in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The archipelago has a population of about 520,000 compared to India’s 1.4 billion.

As a small island nation, the Maldives depends on its giant neighbour India for most of its food, infrastructure building and healthcare.

Delhi and Male have not officially confirmed that a financial package for the Maldives is on the agenda during the visit. But experts believe it will be part of the discussion.

“The key priority of Muizzu’s visit is to secure a financial helpline in the form of grant-in-aid and restructuring debt repayments,” a senior Maldivian editor, who did not want to be identified, told the BBC.

Muizzu also wants a “$400m currency swap deal sought by the Maldives central bank to shore up depleted foreign exchange reserves”, he added.

The ratings agency Moody’s further expressed serious concerns over Male’s financial situation, saying that “(foreign) reserves remain significantly below the government’s external debt service of around $600m in 2025 and over $1bn in 2026”.

The public debt of the Maldives is about $8bn, including about $1.4bn it owes each to China and India.

“Despite Muizzu stating on several occasions that China has given a green signal for deferring debt payments for five years, financial assistance from Beijing has not been forthcoming,” the Maldivian editor said.

With no other country coming to the rescue, it appears that Muizzu is now reaching out to India to mend strained ties.

“It’s about resetting the tone and negative rhetoric from senior officials of Muizzu’s government that has considerably impacted Indian tourist arrivals,” says Zahir.

India has long wielded influence over the Maldives, whose strategic position in its backyard allowed it to monitor a crucial part of the Indian Ocean. But Muizzu wanted to change that by moving closer to China.

In January, Muizzu’s administration gave an ultimatum to India to withdraw about 80 troops based in the country. Delhi said they were stationed there to man and operate two rescue and reconnaissance helicopters and a Dornier aircraft it had donated years ago.

In the end, both countries agreed to replace troops with Indian civilian technical staff to operate the aircraft.

A month after assuming charge, Muizzu’s administration also announced that it would not renew a hydrographic survey agreement with India that was signed by the previous government to map the seabed in the Maldivian territorial waters.

Then a row broke out after three of his deputy ministers made controversial comments about Modi, calling him a “clown”, “terrorist” and a “puppet of Israel”.

The remarks set off an uproar and calls to boycott the Maldives on Indian social media. Male said the comments were personal and did not represent the views of the government. The three ministers were suspended from the cabinet.

In what was seen as a thinly-veiled criticism of the reaction on Indian social media, Muizzu said at the time: “We may be small, but that doesn’t give you the licence to bully us.”

Muizzu’s administration also allowed the port call of a Chinese research ship, Xiang Yang Hong 3, much to Delhi’s displeasure. Some saw it as a mission to collect data which could – at a later date – be used by the Chinese military in submarine operations.

Nevertheless, there was a thaw in bilateral ties after Muizzu attended the swearing-in ceremony of Modi after he was elected for a third consecutive term in June this year.

In August, Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar’s visit also gave a reboot to bilateral ties.

“The Maldives is one of the cornerstones of our ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy,” Jaishankar said in Male.

“To put it succinctly in the words of my Prime Minister Narendra Modi – for India, neighbourhood is a priority and, in the neighbourhood, Maldives is a priority,” he added.

For Delhi, it’s a welcome change as it recently witnessed the ouster of the India-friendly government of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh and the return of KP Sharma Oli, who used to criticise India’s policies, as the prime minister of Nepal.

Muizzu has realised that antagonising India is not an option and his pragmatism is not without reason. The number of Indian tourists visiting the Maldives dropped by 50,000 in the past year, resulting in an estimated loss of about $150m.

He is aware if he doesn’t get financial support from India, the Maldives could become a paradise lost. That’s why his India visit is crucial.

With one month to election day, the contest between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris is the electoral equivalent of a bare-knuckle brawl.

The race for the White House still appears deadlocked, both nationally and in battleground states, so victory will be decided by the slimmest of margins – every new voter engaged, every undecided voter swayed, could help land a knock-out punch.

“In any super close race, where the electorate is divided down the middle, a difference of a percentage point or two could be decisive,” says David Greenberg, a presidential historian at Rutgers University.

While party strategists are focused on how to earn that decisive edge, it could just as easily be an event out of their control, an unexpected twist, that upends the campaign in the final weeks.

It’s already been a year of political shockwaves – from one candidate surviving two assassination attempts and being convicted of a crime, to another, President Joe Biden, dropping out of the race in favour of his much younger vice-president.

However, when the surprises drop in October – think Trump’s Access Hollywood tape or Hillary Clinton’s emails in 2016 – there is scarcely time left to recover or regain momentum after a misstep or bad news cycle.

This week alone, there were several new rumbles that could turn into political storms by 5 November.

The first potential political storm was a literal one. Hurricane Helene tore through two key electoral battlegrounds last week, Georgia and North Carolina. Because of the intense focus on both states during this presidential race, a humanitarian disaster, with a death toll already over 130, has also become a political issue.

Harris pledged long-term aid to the region at a stop in Georgia earlier this week, and visited those affected by the storm in North Carolina on Saturday.

“We’re here for the long haul,” she said in Georgia.

Meanwhile, both states are essentially must-wins for Trump, and polls show a dead heat. While visiting Georgia, the former president claimed that Americans were losing out on emergency relief money because it had been spent on migrants. In fact, the two distinct programmes have separate budgets, and the Biden administration accused Republicans of spreading “bold-faced lies” about funding for the disaster response.

When disaster strikes, it’s not easy for the government to keep everyone happy. If Trump’s attacks land, any voter dissatisfaction with recovery efforts could potentially impact the result in two of the most closely-watched states in the country.

Thousands of miles from the disaster-ravaged American southeast, a manmade crisis continues to inject itself into American politics. The Gaza war is in danger of expanding into a regional conflagration, as Israeli forces fought Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon and Iran launched hundreds of missiles at Israel earlier this week.

While Harris has presented herself as a candidate of change, she put no distance between herself and the current administration when it comes to US-Israeli policies. That comes with risks.

Hopes for any kind of pre-election ceasefire in Gaza appear firmly dashed, and the White House at this point is trying to ensure that the inevitable Israeli response to Tuesday’s Iranian strike doesn’t lead to all-out war.

On Thursday night, Biden was not exactly reassuring.

“I don’t believe there’s going to be an all-out war,” he said. “I think we can avoid it. But there’s a lot to do yet.”

The war is also having consequences at home for Democrats, even if American voters usually don’t think directly about foreign policy when they cast their ballots.

Harris’s commitment to continue supplying arms to Israel is a problem for two key segments of the Democratic base: Arab-Americans in the must-win state of Michigan, and young voters on campuses, where anti-war protests could start up again.

The conflict in the Middle East has also fuelled pocketbook concerns. Biden’s mention of the possibility that Israel would target Iranian refineries caused the price of oil to jump more than 5% on Thursday.

If there’s one thing that American consumers are particularly sensitive to, it’s higher prices at the petrol pump.

Across the board, public opinion surveys continue to show that the economy is the top issue for American voters. And Harris and the Democrats received some good news on that front on Friday, with the latest employment figures showing robust job growth over the past few months and an unemployment level that dropped to 4.1%.

According to Mr Greenberg, however, voter concerns on the economy are about more than the latest job figures.

“When people complain about the economy, what they’re really complaining about is the longer-term failure in certain parts of the country – rural America’s de-industrialised communities,” he says. “Those are parts of the country that are hurting even in a good economy.”

For most of the election season, Trump has fared better than Harris when voters are asked who they think would do a better job with the economy, including in a recent CNN poll. But there are signs his lead may not be set in stone, such as a Cook Political Report survey of swing states that showed the two candidates tied on who would be best at dealing with inflation.

One looming economic pitfall for Democrats also evaporated this week – the dockworkers strike, which had briefly shut down critical ports on the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico for the first time in 50 years. Both parties agreed to return to the bargaining table in January, re-opening the ports. If a work stoppage had continued, it could have disrupted supply chains and driven up consumer prices in the weeks before the election.

Meanwhile, undocumented crossings at the US-Mexico border have returned to pre-Covid pandemic levels, after hitting a record high of 249,741 last December.

While the impact of that border surge is still being felt in many American cities, the urgency of the crisis may be diminishing.

While much of this week’s news could spell trouble for Harris and the Democrats, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Trump.

His conduct during the 6 January attack on the US Capitol once again came into focus on Wednesday, when a federal judge released a document from special counsel Jack Smith outlining his case and evidence against Donald Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election result.

The document, which argued that the former president should not be given presidential immunity from prosecution, contained new details about Trump’s words and actions leading up to the Capitol riot by his supporters.

A recent CNN poll shows that voters favour Harris over Trump on issues of “protecting democracy” by 47% to 40% – so anything that renews attention on the chaotic final weeks of Trump’s presidency could be to the Democrat’s advantage.

The term “October surprise” has been a fixture in American political lexicon for nearly 50 years. Campaigns dread the unexpected headline or crisis that pushes their candidates off message and changes the trajectory of a race.

Even the smallest ripple in public opinion might deliver the White House in a year when the electoral margins in the swing states could be measured in only tens of thousands of votes.

November’s balloting, says Mr Greenberg, is shaping up to be a nail-biter.

“I don’t have any fingernails left,” he says. “I could totally imagine this election going either way with extremely significant consequences riding on that vote no matter where your loyalty is.”

• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
• EXPLAINER: What Harris or Trump would do in power
• ANALYSIS: Only one candidate is talking about China
• DISINFO: Pro- and anti-Trump voters united by one belief
• POLLS: Who is winning the race for the White House?

North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of the race for the White House in his twice weekly US Election Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticised French President Emmanuel Macron over his call to halt arms deliveries to Israel for use in Gaza.

Macron told France Inter radio that “the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza”.

At a summit in Paris on Saturday, the French president reiterated his concern over the conflict in Gaza continuing despite ceasefire calls, and he also criticised Israel’s decision to send ground troops into Lebanon.

Netanyahu responded: “Shame on them,” referring to Macron and other Western leaders who have called for what he described as an arms embargo on Israel.

In a video released by his office, Netanyahu said “Israel will win with or without their support”, adding that calling for an arms embargo was “a disgrace”.

In an interview with the French broadcaster, which was recorded on Tuesday and aired on Saturday, Macron said “France is not delivering any” weapons to Israel.

He added: “I think we are not being heard.”

“I think it is a mistake, including for the security of Israel,” he said, adding that the conflict was leading to “hatred”.

Macron also said that avoiding an escalation in Lebanon was a “priority” and that “Lebanon cannot become a new Gaza”.

Netanyahu’s office responded by saying that any country that did not stand with Israel was supporting Iran and its allies and proxies.

Netanyahu said: “As Israel fights the forces of barbarism led by Iran, all civilised countries should be standing firmly by Israel’s side.

“Yet, President Macron and other Western leaders are now calling for arms embargoes against Israel. Shame on them.”

Macron’s office later said that France is a “steadfast friend of Israel”, adding that Netanyahu’s reaction was “excessive and detached from the friendship between France and Israel”.

Speaking at the at the 19th Francophonie Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris on Saturday, Macron said that while both the US and France had called for a ceasefire in Lebanon, he added: “I regret that Prime Minister Netanyahu has made another choice, has taken this responsibility, in particular, for ground operations on Lebanese soil.”

However, Macron reaffirmed Israel’s right to self-defence and said that he would be meeting relatives of Franco-Israelis held hostage in Gaza on Monday.

Monday will mark the first anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage. More than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry says.

Conversations in Tyre in southern Lebanon happen in a hurry now. It’s not wise to linger on the streets, and there are fewer and fewer people to talk to.

Chats can be cut short by the rumble of Israeli bombing, or the sound of outgoing rocket fire by Hezbollah – which can attract incoming fire.

Israeli drones buzz overhead.

You drive fast, but don’t speed, knowing there are eyes in the sky. Mostly you are the only car on an empty road – which can make you a target.

That knowledge is always with us, like the body armour we now wear.

But civilians here have no armour plating to shield them, and many Lebanese no longer have a roof over their heads. More than one million have been forced to flee, according to the Prime Minister, Najib Mikati.

War has created a vacuum here – sucking the life out of this ancient city proud of its Roman ruins, and golden sandy beach.

Streets are empty, and shops shuttered. The seashore is deserted. Windows rattle with Israeli air strikes.

The local civil defence headquarters lies abandoned – rescue teams were forced to evacuate – to save themselves after they got a telephone warning from Israel.

Israeli strikes are getting louder and closer to our hotel – in recent days several strikes on the hills opposite us appear to involve some of Israel’s most destructive bombs, weighing in at 1000lb.

And then there is the Hezbollah factor. Even as the armed group is trying to hold off invading Israeli troops on Lebanese soil, it is controlling the international media in the city of Tyre. It limits our movements, though it has no control over what we write or broadcast.

In hospitals, doctors look weary and overwhelmed. Many no longer go home because it is too dangerous to travel.

Instead, they tend to patients like nine-year-old Mariam, whose left leg is in a cast, and whose arm is heavily bandaged. She lies sleeping in a bed in Hiram Hospital, dark hair framing her face.

“She came in as part of a family of nine,” said Dr Salman Aidibi, the hospital CEO.

“Five of them were also treated. We operated on Mariam, and she is doing much better. We hope to send her home today. Most casualties are given first aid here and stabilised before being sent to other centres, because this hospital is on the front line.”

He says the hospital receives about 30-35 injured women and children a day, and it is taking its toll on staff.

“We need to be positive while we’re working,” he said. “It’s when we stop and contemplate, remember, that’s when we get emotional.”

Asked about what may lie ahead his response comes with a sigh. “We are in a war,” he says. “A destructive war on Lebanon. We hope for peace, but we are prepared for all eventualities.”

Also prepared for the worst is Hassan Manna. He’s staying put in Tyre as war tightens its grip. And he is staying open for business at the small coffee shop he has run for the past 14 years. Locals still pass by for a chat and some reassurance in the form of small plastic cups of sweet coffee.

“I’m not leaving my country,” Hassan told me. “I’m not leaving my house. I’m staying in my place, with my children. I’m not afraid of them (the Israelis).

“The whole world is out on the streets. We don’t want to be humiliated like that.

“Let me die in my house.”

Five of his neighbours were killed in their home by an Israeli air strike last weekend. Hassan saw it happen and was thrown in the air by two incoming Israeli missiles.

He managed to walk away with just an injured arm.

Was there a Hezbollah target there? We don’t know. Hassan says the dead were all civilians and members of one family, including two women and a baby.

Israel says its targets are Hezbollah fighters and their facilities, and not the people of Lebanon. Many here say otherwise – including doctors, and witnesses like Hassan.

Israel says it is taking steps to minimise the risk of harming civilians – accusing Hezbollah of hiding its infrastructure among civilian populations.

“There was nothing (no weapons) there,” Hassan insisted. “If there was, we would have left the area. There was nothing to be bombed. The woman was 75.”

After the strike he dug in the rubble for survivors until he collapsed and was taken to hospital himself.

When he speaks of his neighbours his voice breaks with anger and grief – and his eyes fill with tears.

“It’s unjust,” he said, “totally unjust. We know the people. They were born here. I swear I wish I had died with them.”

Ten days ago, we got the view in a Christian area, close to the border.

One local woman – who asked not to be named – told me everyone was living on their nerves.

“The phone is constantly beeping,” she said. “We can never know when (Israeli) attacks are coming. It’s always tense. Many nights we can’t sleep.”

We were interrupted by the sound of an Israeli air strike, which sent smoke rising from distant hills.

She reeled off a list of villages nearer the border – now deserted and destroyed after the past year of tit for tat exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel.

She said the damage in these areas was already far greater than in the five-week war of 2006. “If people want to come back later”, she said, “there are no houses left to come back to.

“And there is no house that did not lose relatives,” she said, “either close or distant. All the men are Hezbollah.”

Before the war the armed group was always “bragging about its weapons, and saying it would fight Israel forever,” she told me. “Privately, even their followers are now shocked at the quality and quantity of attacks by Israel.”

Few here would dare to guess at the future. “We have entered a tunnel,” she said, “and until now we cannot see the light.”

From Tel Aviv, to Tehran, to Washington no one can be sure what is coming next, and what the Middle East will look like the day after.

Bridget Jones fans have long adored the films for their cringe-worthy, hilarious and heartwarming scenes.

But Hugh Grant has warned that the fourth instalment in the franchise – due out on Valentine’s Day next year – will have a very different tone.

“As well as being extremely funny, it’s very, very sad,” said the actor, who will reprise his role as the dashing antagonist Daniel Cleaver.

He also revealed that there was “no obvious role” for him in the film, but “they wanted to cram me in”.

Oscar-winner Renée Zellweger is also back as the title character in Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy.

The film takes its title from the latest Bridget Jones novel, which was published in 2013.

In the book, readers rejoin Bridget in her 50s, a mother to two children and widowed following the death of her husband Mark Darcy.

Darcy was played by Colin Firth in the earlier Bridget Jones movies.

The production studio has not commented on how closely the new film will follow the storyline of its paperback namesake, but it has been revealed author Helen Fielding has written the script.

Speaking on the Graham Norton show, Grant indicated that Fielding had used a real-life tragedy to come up with the plotline.

“She had a sad story,” he said.

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“She got married to an American screenwriter, she had children and then he died.”

Grant said that Fielding then started writing a novel about a woman raising children by herself, and then realised the main character was “a bit like Bridget”.

“So she made it into a Bridget Jones book,” he said.

“And as well as being extremely funny, it’s very, very sad.”

Grant, who is best known for starring in romcoms including Notting Hill and Four Weddings and a Funeral, did not appear in the third film.

He said that initially, he felt there was “absolutely no role” for his character, Daniel, in the fourth version either.

“But they wanted to cram me in,” he said.

So he said he sat down with producers to help shape the character, who was known in the earlier films for being a serial womaniser.

“I felt that what they proposed was fine, but not great.

“And I felt that he needed a third dimension, he’s in his 60s now, you can’t just have him smoothing his way down King’s Road eyeing up young girls.

“Something needs to have happened to him in the interim.

“So we invented a rather good – I invented a rather good – interim story.”

The final version got his approval, he said.

“It’s actually a very good and moving script. And I say that as someone who’s horrid about scripts. This was brilliant.”

Fielding’s first book Bridget Jones’s Diary was published in 1996 and a sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason was released three years later.

Written in the form of a personal diary, the novels chronicle the life of a hapless 30-something single working woman living in London.

In 2001, the first film adaptation starring American actress Zellweger, with Grant as Daniel Cleaver and Colin Firth as Mark Darcy, was released.

Zellweger was Oscar-nominated for the role and, in 2004, the sequel was released, although it was not as critically well received.

Emma Thompson, who debuted her character of Bridget’s despairing obstetrician in the third film, Bridget Jones’s Baby, is also set for a return in the fourth film.

New faces on the cast list include Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave) and Leo Woodall (One Day), who is rumoured to play Bridget’s younger love interest as she faces dating anew.

Fielding previously said she had decided to write Mark Darcy out of the series because she didn’t want Bridget to become “a smug married”, a fate deemed utterly lamentable by earlier musings of Jones.

Love was in the air this week as one of the UK’s most iconic wedding venues married 100 couples, for £100 each, to celebrate 100 years of hosting marriages.

The Old Marylebone Town Hall has held marriages of musical legends, footballers and Hollywood stars and usually costs between £621 and £1,230 per ceremony.

I’m fortunate enough to have joined that glitzy list after I tied the knot at the event on Tuesday.

The superstition of not seeing the bride before walking down the aisle was literally blown out of my mind as my wife-to-be Paige blasted her hair dryer at 04:30 on Tuesday.

By 10:20 Paige and I were officially husband and wife – as quick as that.

We almost felt like celebrities – my BBC colleagues and newspaper reporters interviewed us while photographers asked us to pose alongside the 99 other couples here, tying the knot, renewing their vows or forming a civil partnership.

I caught up with some of the other couples I shared this surreal day with.

When Chris Jamieson-Green was offered a midday spot to get married at The Old Marylebone Town Hall, staff had to double check if he was sure. Only because he had not yet proposed to his then-girlfriend.

He popped the question during a trip to the Yorkshire Moors and after Sam Jamieson-Green said yes, Chris blurted out that he had already booked the venue – luckily Samantha, 35, was on-board with the idea.

Fast forward to midday on Tuesday and there they were, on the back of a London bus having a “a little photo shoot” and “bringing a bit of brightness to people’s day”, Sam, from Newport, says.

“We had brollies and I wore my dress under a coat,” she adds.

“Regardless of the weather we were going to enjoy ourselves – we had family from all over the world.”

Chris, 33, from Leicestershire, says one of the nicest things about the day was that “even during our ceremony we heard clapping next door”.

Each couple was invited to have up eight human guests come inside the town hall and in to the room to see them get married.

Two pets were allowed – and one of those was Marvin, a local celebrity of his own having just won the recent Marylebone Village summer fayre dog competition.

“Marvin was a very good boy,” Dan McKinley, 27, says, recalling how his four-legged friend went viral on X when TV crews at the 100 weddings event caught him wagging his tail.

His wife Daisy McKinley, 27, says “it was class” – despite the rain. “We got soaked. Every time we walked out it chucked it done but it was still ten out of ten.”

Daniel and Danielle Mason, from Fareham in Hampshire, were one of the last couples to get married – when they got hitched at 21:30 at night.

“We were in the bar until the time to leave,” Danielle, 35, says. “We all traipsed round the corner and then traipsed back.

“Walking down the street people were giving compliments – even a Pizza Express chef started to clap us.”

“I loved every second of it” Daniel, 44, adds. “I liked the fact our wedding was different – it freed us up to do what we wanted, when we wanted.

“I was so impressed with the town hall. Part of the fun was the BBC coverage – because it really made it.

“We tried to explain back home what we were doing and as soon as we said it was being covered by the BBC all of our friends were really engaged, watching and texting one another in WhatsApp groups.

“It was a well-oiled machine. It was like they did that every single day.”

Filippa Evans-Grindrod and Harry Grindrod took plenty of snaps with their photographer in the grand backstreets of Marylebone.

Not content with sitting still after their midday service, the pair – who had a wedding bouquet tucked into their weekend bag – dashed across the capital on the tube to St Pancras International station to kickstart their mini-honeymoon.

“I certainly had some looks while waiting for the platform at St Pancras to be announced,” Filippa says of their trip to Brussels.

To make things even better, the train manager upgraded them to first class.

“Despite having just eaten we were given another three-course meal and continuous champagne,” Harry says.

“We were a little worse for wear by the time we got to Belgium.”

100 Weddings in One Day

BBC News goes behind the scenes as the Old Marylebone Town Hall venue marks a century by holding 100 ceremonies in 14 hours.

If you’re in the UK, watch on BBC iPlayer

For Tim Chan, who is unable to speak, facilitated communication is “a lifeline” that allows him to do things he once thought impossible, such as socialising, or studying for his PhD.

“I was presumed incompetent, and ignored or dismissed,” the 29-year-old, who was diagnosed with autism as a toddler, says using a text-to-voice tool in his home in Melbourne.

Facilitated communication involves someone guiding the hand, arm or back of a non-verbal person, so that they can point to letters or words on a bespoke keyboard.

Mr Chan’s facilitator is his mother Sarah, and, over the past 20 years, her support has “faded” to a slight touch of his shoulder, which he says keeps him “focused”.

Advocates insist it is a miracle tool, one which gives disabled people a voice.

But a growing chorus of experts, families and even former facilitators want it banned, due to research indicating that the likely author of the messages is the facilitator, not the communicator.

They cite a string of criminal allegations made by non-verbal people using the method which have been dismissed by the courts and investigators.

The debate has sparked allegations of ableism, ruined legacies, inspired a new Louis Theroux documentary, and an international conversation about the power dynamics between disabled people and those who care for them.

Facilitated communication was created in 1977 by Australian disability advocate Rosemary Crossley, who died last year and left a complex legacy.

To those who knew her, she’s remembered as champion for “people with little or no functional speech”.

But others say her communications invention – and her formidable defence of it – were misguided and harmful. It is still used worldwide, despite being widely criticised.

The first notable subject to use facilitated communication was Anne McDonald, a non-verbal Australian woman with cerebral palsy, a severe intellectual disability, and no control over her limbs.

At the time, Crossley claimed that McDonald – then 16 – could communicate by pointing at magnetic letters while Crossley supported her upper arm.

Within weeks McDonald was spelling out whole sentences and doing fractions, despite having no formal education and being institutionalised since age three.

Some of Crossley’s colleagues expressed surprise that McDonald, who’d never read, could suddenly write eloquent prose, and cite literary references, when her arm was held by the highly educated Crossley.

One who raised questions was the institution’s head paediatrician and psychiatrist Dr Dennis Maginn, who wouldn’t validate Crossley’s communication theory without independent testing.

McDonald later accused him, facilitated by Crossley’s supported typing, of attempting to smother her to death with a pillow. Homicide investigators dismissed the claims, but his career never recovered.

“My thoughtful, introspective and well-intentioned father went through living hell,” his son, lawyer Paul Maginn, says, adding that “any right-thinking person” could see the allegation had been made up by Crossley.

Crossley even had her own initial doubts about the technique, writing at the time: “What I did not know was whether I was subconsciously manipulating [Anne] or imagining her hand movements.’’

McDonald – who ended up leaving the institution and living with Crossley – went on to use the method with other facilitators. She also earned a humanities degree and co-authored the book Annie’s Coming Out, which was turned into an award-winning film.

But despite all these achievements, McDonald’s mother Beverley “never believed” that her daughter could communicate: “I asked her questions and got nowhere,” she told the ABC in 2012, after her daughter died.

For Marlena Katene, facilitated communication has allowed her to “connect and say whatever I want”.

The 33-year-old Gold Coast native selects words using a keyboard. Her facilitator Bert, or a text-to-voice tool, then reads them aloud.

Speaking to the BBC both with and without Bert, Ms Katene says it’s “frustrating being constantly tested to be validated” and that “communication is about humanity more than science”.

She finds it alarming that some academics and disability advocacy organisations have led campaigns to disprove what she says is an effective method for thousands worldwide.

But experts have uncovered different findings, using a ‘double-blind’ experiment.

The method involves the facilitator and communicator being separated and given different prompts to study, such as a picture, before coming back together to take a test.

In more than 30 empirical studies, the non-verbal person ends up typing the prompts the facilitator was shown, meaning there’s no convincing evidence that messages written using facilitated communication are authored by the person with a disability.

“The science just isn’t there,” Howard Shane, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, tells the BBC.

Courts have reached the same conclusion.

A bevy of parents and caregivers have found themselves on trial over allegations – often sexual abuse – unearthed by facilitated communication.

Prof Shane has given evidence in 12 such cases – including that of Jose Cordero, who spent 35 days in a Miami jail and was barred from seeing his family for months after being accused, via a facilitator, of sexually abusing his seven-year-old autistic son. The case was dropped, citing a lack of credibility in facilitated communication.

In every trial he’s been involved in, testing proved the facilitator was the author of the accusations, Prof Shane says, or “they refused to participate” in testing altogether, citing “anxiety”.

But one of the most high profile facilitated communication cases – now the subject of a Netflix documentary – questioned whether the method could be used to provide proof of consent.

In 2015, university professor Anna Stubblefield was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault for raping a non-verbal 33-year-old man with severe mental disabilities and cerebral palsy. Facilitated communication testimony from the man was ruled unreliable under New Jersey’s test for scientific evidence.

Two years later, an appeals court overturned Stubblefield’s conviction, ordering a retrial on the basis that it was a violation of her rights to not allow her to use facilitated communication as a defence. In 2018 she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to time served.

She maintains the relationship was consensual and that the two were “intellectual equals in love”. Prof Shane’s controlled testing concluded that the man had the intellectual ability of a six-month-old.

Testifying in Stubblefield’s case James Todd, a psychology professor at Eastern Michigan University, argued that the university where Stubblefield received her training held some responsibility for the crime. He said Syracuse University was “championing facilitated communication over clear and established science,” and implored it to “renounce and repudiate” the technique for its “dangerous harms.”

Syracuse University, one of the only universities with a facilitated communication institute, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

The BBC approached five different academic experts on facilitated communication worldwide to speak about the technique. All declined.

At least 30 medical associations worldwide oppose facilitated communication. Many, such as the UK’s National Autistic Society, warn that it’s “ineffective” and able to cause “significant harm.”

Other opponents include the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, The American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Paediatrics and Speech Pathology Australia.

These organisations cite peer-reviewed evidence indicating the technique is discredited pseudoscience and have flagged the risks it poses to disabled people, their families, and facilitators themselves, because of potential false allegations.

Clinical psychologist Adrienne Perry has warned the non-verbal person “is made a ‘screen’ for a facilitator’s hostilities, hopes, beliefs or suspicions”.

For speech trainer Janyce Boynto – who did her facilitated communication training at the University of Maine – the discovery was shocking.

She’d been facilitating the communication of a 16-year-old non-verbal autistic girl, who’d accused her father and brother of sexual abuse via Ms Boynton’s facilitation. Prof Shane was called in to do a double-blind test with pictures.

“It turned out, even though I believed in facilitated communication, I was the author of all the answers,” Ms Boynton tells the BBC. “It was irrefutable. You just didn’t realise it.”

It left her feeling “terrible, confused and devastated”.

“I believe most facilitators are sincere,” she says. “They want to believe it’s true.”

Today, Tim Chan types that such criticisms are “extremely damaging”.

“We start doubting our ability to be a person in our own right,” he says, via his mum’s facilitation.

He has never undertaken the double-blind test.

“Testing a person with non-verbal autism will make them very anxious. They process information differently,” Ms Chan says. “It’s possible there’s some unconscious cueing going on. I don’t know,” she adds.

Prof Shane and academic specialists in speech, communications, psychology, and developmental disabilities all say the technique should be banned. “I recently worked on a case where somebody was in jail for a year before it finally emerged no testing was done,” Prof Shane says. “He was released when testing showed the allegations were false.”

But facilitated communication is still practised in some specialised schools, disability centres and institutes in the USA, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

Part of the reason, Prof Shane says, is that families and facilitators “believe so strongly” their child has hidden skills.

“They need to accept the children for who they are – rather than what they’d like them to be.”

Voters in the US go to the polls on 5 November to elect their next president.

The election was initially a rematch of 2020 but it was upended in July when President Joe Biden ended his campaign and endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris.

The big question now is – will America get its first woman president or a second Donald Trump term?

As election day approaches, we’ll be keeping track of the polls and seeing what effect the campaign has on the race for the White House.

Harris has been ahead of Trump in the national polling averages since she entered the race at the end of July, as shown in the chart below with the latest figures rounded to the nearest whole number.

The two candidates went head to head in a televised debate in Pennsylvania on 10 September that just over 67 million people tuned in to watch.

A majority of national polls carried out in the week after suggested Harris’s performance had helped her make some small gains, with her lead increasing from 2.5 percentage points on the day of the debate to 3.3 points just over a week later.

That marginal boost was mostly down to Trump’s numbers though. His average had been rising ahead of the debate, but it fell by half a percentage point in the week afterwards.

You can see those small changes in the poll tracker chart below, with the trend lines showing how the averages have changed and the dots showing the individual poll results for each candidate.

While these national polls are a useful guide as to how popular a candidate is across the country as a whole, they’re not necessarily an accurate way to predict the result of the election.

That’s because the US uses an electoral college system, in which each state is given a number of votes roughly in line with the size of its population. A total of 538 electoral college votes are up for grabs, so a candidate needs to hit 270 to win.

There are 50 states in the US but because most of them nearly always vote for the same party, in reality there are just a handful where both candidates stand a chance of winning. These are the places where the election will be won and lost and are known as battleground states or swing states.

• What is the electoral college?

Right now, the polls are very tight in the seven states considered battlegrounds in this election with just one or two percentage points separating the candidates.

That includes Pennsylvania, which is key as it has the highest number of electoral votes of the seven states and therefore winning it makes it easier to reach the 270 votes needed.

In a sign of how the race has changed since Harris became the Democratic nominee, on the day Biden quit the race he was trailing Trump by nearly five percentage points on average in these seven states.

One thing to note is that there are fewer state polls than national polls being carried out at the moment so we have less data to go on and every poll has a margin of error that means the numbers could be higher or lower.

But looking at the trends since Harris joined the race does help highlight the states in which she seems to be in a stronger position, according to the polling averages.

In the chart below you can see that Harris has been leading in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin since the start of August – but the margins are still small.

All three had all been Democratic strongholds before Trump turned them red on his path to winning the presidency in 2016. Biden retook them in 2020 and if Harris can do the same this year then she will be on course to win the election.

The figures we have used in the graphics above are averages created by polling analysis website 538, which is part of American news network ABC News. To create them, 538 collects the data from individual polls carried out both nationally and in battleground states by lots of polling companies.

As part of its quality control, 538 only includes polls from companies that meet certain criteria, like being transparent about how many people they polled, when the poll was carried out and how the poll was conducted (telephone calls, text message, online, etc).

You can read more about the 538 methodology here.

At the moment, the polls suggest that Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are within a couple of percentage points of each other in swing states – and when the race is that close, it’s very hard to predict winners.

Polls underestimated support for Trump in both 2016 and 2020. Polling companies will be trying to fix that problem in a number of ways, including how to make their results reflect the make-up of the voting population.

Those adjustments are difficult to get right and pollsters still have to make educated guesses about other factors like who will actually turn up to vote on 5 November.

• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
• ANALYSIS: Harris goads Trump into flustered performance
• EXPLAINER: Seven swing states that could decide election
• IMMIGRATION: Could Trump really deport a million migrants?
• FACT CHECK: Was US economy stronger or weaker under Trump?
• Read more about: Kamala Harris | Donald Trump | US election

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.

Nearly three months after an assassin’s bullet came close to taking his life, former President Donald Trump returned to Butler, Pennsylvania – a place of “tragedy and heartache” – to promise his supporters victory in the 5 November presidential election.

One person – a volunteer fire chief – was killed in the 13 July shooting, which also left two bystanders seriously wounded and Trump shot in the ear.

“For 15 seconds, time stood still,” Trump told the crowd. “This vicious monster unleashed evil… the villain did not succeed in his goal.”

For Saturday’s rally, though, security was tight – a result of increased scrutiny of the Secret Service in the wake of two attempts on Trump’s life – the second last month at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Also in attendance were Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, as well as son Eric Trump, daughter-in-law Lara Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk, who endorsed Trump after the earlier shooting.

Trump largely stuck to familiar talking points during his speech, railing against the “corrupt system”, promising to bring “respect” back to US foreign policy and vowing to shut the “open border”, which he claims is a source of crime.

“You deserve a government that protects and respects its own citizens, and defends your sovereignty, your security, your dignity and your freedom,” he told the thousands gathered at the showgrounds in Butler to large applause.

He also struck out at his political opponents, accusing them of “slandering” him and attempting to interfere in the election, and “who knows – maybe even tried to kill me.”

“But I’ve never stopped fighting for you,” he added. “Never will.”

Trump repeatedly referenced the previous shooting, and the event included a moment of silence for Corey Competore, the volunteer firefighter who was killed in the July shooting.

“He’s become somewhat of a folk hero,” Trump added. “Our beautiful Corey.”

• Unanswered questions as Trump returns to Butler
• Defiant Butler tries to heal
• Wife of man killed at Trump rally struggles with loss

The former president had fulsome praise for Elon Musk and went out of his way to invite him to the stage.

The tech billionaire told the crowd he thought this was “the most important election of our lifetime” and exhorted voters to register and elect Trump.

Between 25,000 and 30,000 people were expected at the rally, which snarled traffic to a standstill in the rural town north of Pittsburgh for the entirety of Saturday. Many waited for as many as 10 hours in harsh sun to be let in past a long string of vendors selling Trump-Vance campaign flags, hats, signs and orange wigs meant to emulate the former president.

“I certainly admire his willingness to come back here and give the speech he was denied last time,” said Teresa Wilson, a former US Marine who also attended the previous rally on 13 July.

“I’d understand if he avoided coming back – I know some spectators who didn’t want to return, and some who were very apprehensive,” she added. “If he can stand in the place of the previous attempt, then we as his constituency can certainly show up to offer our support.”

With just 31 days to go until Americans vote, polls show Trump and Kamala Harris in a tight race in Pennsylvania – a hotly contested battleground state that could prove pivotal.

Data from the New York Times and Siena College, for example, shows the two nearly deadlocked in a tie, 49% to 48% in Harris’s favour.

In dozens of interviews with Trump supporters at the rally, most identified the economy – particularly inflation – as their primary concern ahead of the election.

“We’re not being taken care of. People can’t afford food. They can barely afford gas [petrol],” said Jessenia Anderson, a voter who was at the rally wearing a red “Latinas for Trump” T-shirt. “I have a family, but I find myself making cheaper [meals], buying cheaper things.”

Others – such as rapper Sean Moon, a Tennessee voter – pointed to the US-Mexico border and concern over immigration as the main reason they supported the former president.

Migrant crossings over the US southern border hit record levels under the Biden-Harris administration but the numbers have dropped significantly in recent months.

“That’s an existential threat for this country,” said Mr Moon, the son of a North Korean refugee, about migrant crossings. The event in Butler, he said, was his 15th consecutive Trump rally.

“There are people coming in without being vetted. They tell untruths and get rewarded for it.”

• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
• EXPLAINER: What Harris or Trump would do in power
• ANALYSIS: Only one candidate is talking about China
• DISINFO: Pro- and anti-Trump voters united by one belief
• POLLS: Who is winning the race for the White House?