Israel’s attack on Iran has been anticipated since the latter launched nearly 200 ballistic missiles on Israel almost a month ago.

In a statement announcing that the operation was under way on Saturday, Israel’s military spokesman said Israel had the “right and duty” to respond and that its defensive and offensive capabilities were fully mobilised.

Iranian state media has confirmed that explosions have been heard in the west of Tehran.

But there’s no clarity as yet in precisely what the targets have been and whether they have been successfully hit by Israel.

News sites close to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards says that some military bases in the west and south-west of the Iranian capital have been targeted.

The Syrian state news agency says that Israeli air strikes have also targeted some military sites in central and southern areas of Syria.

• LIVE: Israel launches air strikes on Iran
• Explosions in Iran as Israel launches air strikes

The office of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has released a picture of him in the operations centre of the military headquarters during the attack.

For now, at least, Iranian media is playing down the impact. The true nature of what has happened is only likely to trickle out bit by bit from the Iranian authorities.

Israel may move more quickly to disclose the details of its attack. But that may depend on whether or not it plans to carry out another wave.

The Pentagon has given a briefing that the US was made aware of Israel’s plans beforehand and that there was no US involvement in the operation.

That’s significant in Washington’s efforts to try to prevent the conflict between Israel and Iran escalating into a confrontation that could move ever closer to all-out war.

The US will also be waiting for the dust to settle to see if Israel’s targets were limited to military targets or went beyond that to include facilities linked to Iran’s nuclear programme – which could trigger another major response from Tehran.

For now – on the scant evidence that is available – Israel may have heeded Washington’s warnings and reined in some of its more ambitious plans to cause maximum pain to the Iranian authorities.

Israel launched multiple air strikes on Iran in the early hours of Saturday, in response to what the Israeli military called “months of continuous attacks” from Tehran and its proxies.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it is carrying out “precise strikes on military targets” in Iran, which it accuses of “relentlessly attacking Israel” since 7 October 2023.

The IDF’s confirmation of strikes on Iran followed earlier reports by Iranian state media of several explosions in and around the capital, Tehran.

It comes after Tehran launched almost 200 ballistic missiles towards Israel on 1 October, in what the country said was a retaliation for the killing of Hamas’s political leader on Iranian soil back in July.

In a statement announcing that the operation in Iran was under way, the Israeli military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said Israel had the “right and duty” to respond and its “defensive and offensive capabilities” were “fully mobilised”.

The US, one of Israel’s closest allies, said Saturday’s strike against Israel was an “exercise of self-defence”.

“We understand that Israel is conducting targeted strikes against military targets in Iran as an exercise of self-defence and in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1,” a National Security Council spokesman told the BBC’s US news partner CBS.

The 1 October attacks were largely thwarted by Israel’s military, but a small number struck central and southern Israel.

Tehran said it had attacked Israel in retaliation for what it called the “violation of Iran’s sovereignty and the martyrdom” of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed by an explosion in Tehran in July that Iranian officials blamed on Israel, but Israeli officials did not claim responsibility.

At the time, Iran said the attack was also in response to the Israeli air strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Brig-Gen Abbas Nilforoushan, the operations commander of the IRGC’s overseas arm, the Quds Force.

That escalation came hours after Israeli troops began an invasion of southern Lebanon to remove what the military said were “Hezbollah terror targets” in border villages that posed a threat to residents of northern Israel.

• Iran’s missile attack on Israel

Speaking after Israel launched its strikes on Saturday, a White House official said President Joe Biden “has been briefed and is closely following the developments”.

However, a US defence official stressed that there had been no US involvement in the Israeli strikes on Saturday.

Iranian state media confirmed that explosions were heard in the west of Tehran. A news agency close to the Revolutionary Guards said some military bases in the west and south-west of the Iranian capital had been targeted.

The extent of the attacks and the precise targets are not yet clear.

Iranian media are denying that these attacks have caused any real damage, as reported by BBC Persian.

But the country’s aviation authority announced that flights had been cancelled on all routes until further notice.

The Syrian state news agency reported that Israeli air strikes have also targeted some military sites in central and southern areas of Syria.

A year ago, the images were searing.

With Israel still reeling from the worst attack in its history and Gaza already under devastating bombardment, it felt like a turning point.

The Israel-Palestine conflict, largely absent from our screens for years, had exploded back into view.

It seemed to take almost everyone by surprise. The US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had famously declared just a week before the attacks: “The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades.”

A year on, the region is in flames.

More than 41,000 Palestinians are dead. Two million Gazans have been displaced. In the West Bank, another 600 Palestinians have been killed. In Lebanon, another one million people are displaced and more than 2,000 dead.

More than 1,200 Israelis were killed on that first day. Since then, Israel has lost 350 more soldiers in Gaza. Two hundred thousand Israelis have been forced from their homes close to Gaza and along the volatile northern border with Lebanon. Around 50 soldiers and civilians have been killed by Hezbollah rockets.

Across the Middle East, others have joined the fight. Dogged US efforts to prevent the crisis from escalating, involving presidential visits, countless diplomatic missions and the deployment of vast military resources, have all come to nothing. Rockets have been fired from far away in Iraq and Yemen.

And mortal enemies Israel and Iran have exchanged blows too, with more almost certain to come.

Washington has rarely looked less influential.

As the conflict has spread and metastasised, its origins have faded from view, like the scene of a car crash receding in the rear view mirror of a juggernaut hurtling towards even bigger disasters.

• Listen to Paul read this article

The lives of Gazans, before and after October 7, have been almost forgotten as the media breathlessly anticipates “all-out war” in the Middle East.

Some Israelis whose lives were turned upside down that terrible day are feeling similarly neglected.

“We have been pushed aside,” Yehuda Cohen, father of hostage Nimrod Cohen, told Israel’s Kan news last week. Mr Cohen said he held Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu responsible for a “pointless war that has pitted all possible enemies against us”.

“He is doing everything, with great success, to turn the event of October 7 into a minor event,” he said.

Not all Israelis share Mr Cohen’s particular perspective. Many now see the Hamas attacks of a year ago as the opening salvo of a wider campaign by Israel’s enemies to destroy the Jewish state.

The fact that Israel has struck back – with exploding pagers, targeted assassinations, long-range bombing raids and the sort of intelligence-led operations the country has long prided itself on – has restored some of the self-confidence the country lost a year ago.

“There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach,” Mr Netanyahu confidently declared last week.

The prime minister’s poll ratings were rock bottom for months after October 7. Now he can see them creeping up again. A license, perhaps, for more bold action?

But where’s it all going?

“None of us know when the music is going to stop and where everybody will be at that point,” Simon Gass, Britain’s former ambassador to Iran, told the BBC’s Today Podcast on Thursday.

The US is still involved, even if the visit to Israel of US Central Command (Centcom) chief Gen. Michael Kurilla feels more like crisis management than an exploration of diplomatic off-ramps.

With a presidential election now just four weeks away and the Middle East more politically toxic than ever before, this doesn’t feel like a moment for bold new American initiatives.

For now, the immediate challenge is simply to prevent a wider regional conflagration.

There’s a general assumption, among her allies, that Israel has the right – even the duty – to respond to last week’s ballistic missile attack by Iran.

No Israelis were killed in the attack and Iran appeared to be aiming at military and intelligence targets, but Mr Netanyahu has nevertheless promised a harsh response.

After weeks of stunning tactical success, Israel’s prime minister seems to harbour grand ambitions.

In a direct address to the Iranian people, he hinted that regime change was coming in Tehran. “When Iran is finally free, and that moment will come a lot sooner than people think, everything will be different,” he said.

For some observers, his rhetoric carried uncomfortable echoes of the case made by American neoconservatives in the run up to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

But for all the danger of the moment, fragile guardrails do still exist.

The Iranian regime may dream of a world without Israel, but it knows that it’s far too weak to take on the region’s only superpower, especially at a time when Hezbollah and Hamas – its allies and proxies in the so-called “axis of resistance” – are being crushed.

And Israel, which would dearly like to get rid of the threat posed by Iran, also knows that it cannot do this alone, despite its recent successes.

Regime change is not on Joe Biden’s agenda, nor that of his vice president, Kamala Harris.

As for Donald Trump, the one time he seemed poised to attack Iran – after Tehran shot down a US surveillance drone in June 2019 – the former president backed down at the last moment (although he did order the assassination of a top Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani, seven months later).

Few would have imagined, a year ago, that the Middle East was heading for its most perilous moment in decades.

But looked at through that same juggernaut’s rear view mirror, the past 12 months seem to have followed a terrible logic.

With so much wreckage now strewn all across the road, and events still unfolding at an alarming pace, policy makers – and the rest of us – are struggling to keep up.

As the conflict that erupted in Gaza grinds on into a second year, all talk of the “day after” – how Gaza will be rehabilitated and governed when the fighting finally ends – has ceased, or been drowned out by the din of a wider war.

So too has any meaningful discussion of a resolution of Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians, the conflict which got us here in the first place.

At some point, when Israel feels it has done enough damage to Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel and Iran have both had their say – assuming this doesn’t plunge the region into an even deeper crisis – and the US presidential election is over, diplomacy may get another chance.

But right now, that all feels a very long way off.

US authorities say cybercriminals linked to China may have attempted to tap into the phones or networks used by former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance, a number of sources familiar with the matter confirmed to the BBC’s US news partner, CBS News.

The sources said the Trump-Vance campaign had been alerted to the fact that phones used by Trump and Vance may have been among the targets of a broader cyber attack.

People affiliated with the Harris-Walz campaign were also targeted, a person familiar told BBC News.

It is unclear how much information, if any, may have been compromised.

The Department of Justice and the FBI declined to comment on whether candidates were targeted.

A joint statement from the FBI and the Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said the US government was investigating the “unauthorised access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by actors affiliated with the People’s Republic of China”.

They said after the “malicious activity” was identified, the agencies “immediately notified affected companies, rendered technical assistance, and rapidly shared information to assist other potential victims,” adding that the investigation was ongoing.

“Agencies across the US government are collaborating to aggressively mitigate this threat and are coordinating with our industry partners to strengthen cyber defences across the commercial communications sector,” they added.

The Trump campaign blamed Democrats for the hack, claiming without evidence that it was an attempt “to prevent President Trump from returning to the White House”.

Law enforcement is currently treating the hack as an act of espionage, not as an attempt at campaign influence, one source told CBS.

Earlier this month it emerged that US telecommunications companies had been targeted in a hack.

One of the companies affected is said to be Verizon, through which the hackers are thought to have potentially targeted Trump and Vance’s data, according to the New York Times, who first reported the story.

In a statement, Verizon spokesman Rich Young said the company was “aware that a highly sophisticated nation-state actor has reportedly targeted several US telecommunications providers to gather intelligence.”

He said Verizon is assisting law enforcement agencies in the investigation and working to address any further problems.

The Trump campaign has already been the target of one hack earlier this year.

Three Iranians nationals linked to the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were charged in September with deliberately attempting to undermine a presidential campaign.

US government agencies and officials have long-warned of the threat of foreign interference in the US, including US elections.

“Our adversaries do look at American elections as points to try to influence, to try to undermine confidence in our democracy, to try to put their thumb on the scale,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in the summer. “We are clear eyed about that. And we are doing a lot to push back against it”.

In January, the issue was discussed in Congress, with FBI Director Christopher Wray warning that Chinese hackers were preparing to “wreak havoc and cause real-world harm” to the US.

Cimarron Thomas was 12 years old in 2018 when she used her father’s handgun to kill herself.

From West Virginia, USA, she played the violin, she loved elephants and chatting with her friends on Snapchat, and she was looking forward to her 13th birthday.

But she was being sexually abused and blackmailed online by a student from Northern Ireland, described as the UK’s most prolific catfisher.

Alexander McCartney, 26, from outside Newry, County Armagh, has been given a life sentence with a minimum of 20 years in jail for the manslaughter of Cimarron and the extreme sexual exploitation of other young girls.

In a tragic turn of events, Cimarron’s father, Ben, a US army veteran, took his own life 18 months later. He did not know about his daughter’s abuse or why she took her own life.

Cimarron’s grandparents, Peggy and Dale Thomas, detailed their pain in a victim impact statement read out in court.

“Our lives will never be the same again,” they said.

“We didn’t get to see her graduate, walk down the aisle, or have children.

“We have been robbed, and our lives have been changed forever.”

Cimarron Thomas lived with her mum, dad, and siblings.

They were an ordinary American family, but in 2018, a predator was about to bring destruction to their lives.

Using a fake persona, McCartney contacted her online, complimented her on her appearance, and began grooming her before she sent him an intimate photo.

The court heard that during the first abusive interaction, he kept her online for an hour and 45 minutes, demanding sexual and degrading images.

He told her if she didn’t send him more photos, he’d publish the ones he already had on the internet.

Cimarron went back to school and did not tell anyone about the abuse.

McCartney continued to pursue Cimarron and contacted her four days later using another fake account, saying: “I want to play one more time.”

Despite pleading for McCartney to stop and being visibly upset, he told her to “dry your eyes” and involve her younger sister, aged nine, in a sex act.

Cimarron refused and said she would rather kill herself.

McCartney then put up a countdown clock, telling her “goodbye and good luck”.

Three minutes later, Cimarron was found by her nine-year-old sister, who entered the room after she thought she heard a balloon pop.

She had shot herself in the head with the family’s legally-held firearm.

Cimarron was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Police have released the 911 call of the family calling for help.

On that fateful day in May 2018, Cimarron’s nine-year-old sister found her lying on the floor of her parents’ bedroom with a gun by her side.

Her family had no idea why she had taken her life and were unaware of the ordeal she had been subjected to.

Her mother, Stephanie, told investigators that she might have been unsure of her sexuality. Eighteen months later, Cimarron’s father then took his own life.

However, years later, the truth behind what had happened to Cimarron emerged.

Cimarron’s grandparents, Peggy and Dale, have taken part in an upcoming BBC documentary about McCartney, where they remember their granddaughter but speak about their suffering.

They hope that raising awareness of what they went through will prevent other families from suffering the same ordeal.

McCartney first appeared in court in Northern Ireland in late July 2019.

Police believe he targeted as many as 3,500 children on 64 devices between 2013 and 2019.

The court heard the harm McCartney caused was “unquantifiable”, and he “degraded and humiliated” victims for his own sexual gratification.

Many of his child victims have never been identified, but all their lives have been changed forever.

Then in April 2021, just before McCartney was to be arraigned on some of the charges relating to the case, investigators discovered what had happened to Cimarron.

In what is understood to be a legal first, he was charged with the manslaughter of Cimarron, which he pleaded guilty to.

McCartney eventually admitted about 185 charges involving about 70 child victims – aged between 10 and 16.

The Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland brought these forward as sample charges in order to produce an indictment the court could manage.

The court heard of the impact McCartney’s abuse had on his young victims; some said they have suffered flashbacks, shame, alopecia, and trust issues.

Other girls now felt paralysed when touched in any way by any man, that their childhoods had been stolen, and some had suicidal thoughts.

The litany of McCartney’s crimes spanned continents.

BBC News NI has spoken to a man from New Zealand, we’ve called him Stephen (not his real name), about the abuse suffered by his two girls after McCartney struck up a friendship with his eldest daughter, then 12, on Snapchat.

The girl, we’ve called her Rebecca (not her real name), believed that she was talking to another girl.

That Rebecca believed to be a friendship grew over a few months. Then McCartney asked Rebecca for a nude photograph, which she sent.

“He then used that to manipulate and blackmail her into sending more photos, which ended up including our youngest daughter as well as part of the blackmail,” Stephen said.

“And then, in time, through her contact list on Snapchat, he added Rebecca’s cousin as well, who was older at the time, and he then tried to threaten her with getting more photos.

“Thankfully, she was mature enough and smart enough to reach out to my wife, and then we went straight to the police from there.”

He said as soon as the first photo was sent, McCartney had power, adding that Rebecca was “playing by his rules”.

“He preyed on her innocence,” he added.

The father explained that his youngest daughter, who is two years younger, did not know what was happening.

“She just thought it was two sisters playing dress up and taking silly pictures, so she’s actually completely oblivious to it to this day.”

Stephen said McCartney’s offending has had a “profound impact” on his eldest daughter.

At the beginning of the year, she moved away for university but moved home after six weeks.

“I believe she missed out on opportunities because of trust issues. It’s something she’s going to deal with forever,” he said.

“We know she’s on this medication all the time, and the dark places that I’m sure her mind goes when she’s alone.”

Stephen said he and his wife have been devastated by what happened to their children, but there was a silver lining in that they were able to play a “small part in bringing him [McCartney] to justice and preventing further victims”.

The three part series, Teen Predator/ Online Killer, which looks at this case in greater detail will be available on BBC iPlayer, BBC One NI and BBC Three in the coming weeks.

The mining giants BHP and Vale have signed a deal with the Brazilian government to pay nearly $30bn (£23bn) in compensation for the Mariana dam collapse in 2015 that caused the country’s worst environmental disaster.

Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva attended the signing of the deal on Friday.

The dam collapse released toxic waste and mud, which flooded nearby towns, rivers and forests.

It killed 19 people, left hundreds others homeless, and poisoned the river.

President Lula said: “I hope the mining companies have learned their lesson; it would have cost them less to prevent the disaster.”

The dam was owned by Samarco, a joint venture between Vale and BHP.

Since the disaster, the companies have set up a foundation to compensate people, which has already carried out billions of dollars’ worth of repairs. This included building a new town to replace one of the towns that was destroyed.

However, many people in the community were still arguing they had not received justice or enough to rebuild their lives nine years on.

Separately to these legal proceedings in Brazil, more than 620,000 people had taken BHP to court in the UK, where BHP was headquartered at the time, in a trial that started earlier this week.

• ‘Nothing can bring a life back’: Brazil dam collapse survivors speak as UK trial begins

They are seeking about $47bn in damages in the civil trial. The first stage of it will determine if BHP – as a parent company – was liable. About 70,000 complainants are also taking Vale to court in The Netherlands.

Both companies deny liability and argue that this overseas legal action is “unnecessary” and duplicates legal proceedings in Brazil.

Some members of the community in Mariana had told the BBC they had joined the UK legal action after frustration that the Brazilian proceedings were taking too long, but suspected that the Brazilian settlement may be reached soon after the UK case opened due to more international pressure.

In 2016, both companies agreed to pay about $3.5bn in today’s rate in compensation but negotiations were reopened in 2021 due to the slow progress of Brazil’s justice system in resolving the dispute.

Friday’s agreement covers their past and future obligations to assist people, communities and ecosystems affected by the disaster.

The companies agreed to pay 100bn reais ($17.5bn; £13.5bn ) to local authorities over 20 years and 32bn reais towards compensating and resettling the victims and repairing the harm caused to the environment.

The remaining 38bn reais is the amount the companies say they have already paid in compensation.

Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected a visit to Ukraine by UN Secretary General António Guterres over his trip to Russia, a source in the presidential office has told the BBC.

After attending a Brics summit in the Russian city of Kazan this week, Guterres had wanted to visit Kyiv, the BBC understands.

“The president did not confirm his visit,” the source told the BBC. “After Kazan and after he shook hands with the war’s instigator and spent UN Day on the territory of the aggressor country, it would be somehow strange to host him here.”

Guterres’ visit to Russia – who launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 – was met with dismay across Ukraine.

During his visit, Guterres called for a “just peace” in Ukraine and reiterated his position to Putin that Russia’s invasion of the country was in “violation of the United Nations Charter and international law”.

In a statement ahead of Guterres’ visit to Kazan, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said: “This is a wrong choice that does not advance the cause of peace. It only damages the UN’s reputation.”

“The UN secretary general declined Ukraine’s invitation to the first Global Peace Summit in Switzerland. He did, however, accept the invitation to Kazan from war criminal Putin,” the statement added.

Held at Ukraine’s initiative, the June summit in Switzerland was attended by more than 90 nations. It condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, offering a peace proposal on how to end the war.

Moscow – who was not invited – dismissed the gathering as meaningless.

In 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

Russia does not recognise the ICC, which co-operates closely with the UN.

During the Brics summit in Kazan, Guterres issued a statement that said: “We need peace in Ukraine. A just peace in line with the UN Charter, international law and General Assembly resolutions.”

Guterres’ office justified his participation in the summit, referring to Brics’ role “in boosting global co-operation”.

Set up in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India and China, Brics was later joined by South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates.

A number of analysts say that some Brics heavyweights, like Russia and China, have been seeking to challenge the G7 group of the world’s seven largest economies.

The current G7 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US.

The UN human rights chief has said the Gaza war’s “darkest moment” is unfolding in the north of the territory, where Israel has said it is carrying out a ground offensive to stop Hamas fighters from regrouping.

“As we speak, the Israeli military is subjecting an entire population to bombing, siege and risk of starvation,” Volker Türk said.

He called on world leaders to act, saying states had a duty under the Geneva Conventions to ensure respect for international humanitarian law.

There was no immediate response from the Israeli military, but it has said its troops have killed “hundreds of terrorists” and evacuated 45,000 civilians in Jabalia since going back into the area on 6 October.

It comes as the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said he was deeply disturbed by reports that Israeli troops had raided one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the WHO had lost contact with Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia, which was overflowing with almost 200 patients amid the offensive in nearby Jabalia.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Israeli troops had detained patients, staff and displaced people, while Israel’s military said its forces were operating “in the area” based on intelligence “regarding the presence of terrorists”.

Hundreds of Palestinians have reportedly been killed and tens of thousands displaced since Israeli forces went back into Jabalia.

Residents unwilling or unable to comply with Israeli evacuation orders are said to be living in increasingly desperate conditions, with food and other essential supplies running out.

The UN human rights chief warned on Friday that the entire population of northern Gaza was being subjected to “non-stop” bombing, with hundreds of thousands ordered to move with no guarantees of return.

“Unimaginably, the situation is getting worse by the day,” Türk said.

“The Israeli government’s policies and practices in northern Gaza risk emptying the area of all Palestinians. We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity.”

He also said it was totally unacceptable that Palestinian armed groups were reportedly operating among civilians, including inside shelters for the displaced, and putting them in harm’s way.

Türk said countries around the world – all of them parties to the Geneva conventions – had to act now to uphold them.

“These are universally accepted and binding norms developed to preserve the very bare minimum of humanity. I implore you to put the protection of civilians and human rights first and not to abandon that minimum of humanity,” he said.

Significantly, Türk added that where there was a risk of genocide, all states were legally bound to prevent it. Until now, senior UN figures have mostly avoided the word genocide in relation to Gaza.

Israel has long accused the UN of bias and rejected accusations that its forces have committed war crimes. It has also vehemently denied that they are committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

On Friday morning, Gaza’s health ministry said in a statement Israeli forces had “stormed” Kamal Adwan hospital and were detaining hundreds of patients, medical staff and displaced people inside.

In the afternoon, the ministry said displaced men had been forced to take off their clothes and that some had been arrested.

A number of medical staff, including the director of the hospital Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, had also not been heard from since they were summoned to see Israeli forces stationed in the courtyard, it added.

A video posted on social media late on Thursday showed Dr Abu Safiya speaking on the telephone while walking through a busy ward with what appeared to be a shatter window and a damaged ceiling.

“Instead of receiving aid we receive tanks. Tanks that are shelling the building,” he says.

Eid Sabbah, the director of nursing, said in a voice note to Reuters news agency early Friday: “At midnight, the occupation army tanks and bulldozers reached the hospital. The terrorising of civilians, the injured and children began as [the Israeli forces] started opening fire on the hospital.”

He said the Israeli forces retreated when a delegation from the WHO arrived with an ambulance and evacuated some patients. However, tanks later returned to the surrounding area and opened fire at the hospital, hitting its oxygen stores, before troops began a raid and ordered staff and patients to leave, he added.

The ministry said two children had died in the intensive care unit after the hospital’s generators stopped and the oxygen station was hit, but there were no similar reports from medics or the WHO.

The Israeli military said it was not aware of a tank firing at the hospital.

Dr Tedros confirmed that a WHO team had reached the hospital on Thursday night “amid hostilities in the vicinity”, and transferred 23 patients and 26 caregivers to al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. They also delivered units of blood, trauma and surgical supplies.

But he added that the UN agency had lost touch with staff at the hospital since the reports of the raid emerged.

“Kamal Adwan Hospital has been overflowing with close to 200 patients – a constant stream of horrific trauma cases. It is also full of hundreds of people seeking shelter,” he warned.

“We call for an immediate ceasefire; and protection of hospitals, patients, health professionals and humanitarians.”

The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces were “operating in the area of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalia, based on intelligence information regarding the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure in the area”.

“In the weeks preceding the operation, the [forces] facilitated the evacuation of patients from the area while maintaining emergency services,” it added.

On Friday, the Israeli military’s chief of staff also visited Jabalia and told troops they were beating Hamas.

General Herzi Halevi said: “Because we are better, we are more justified and also because we are stronger – another achievement Jabalia is falling.”

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi urged US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to put pressure on Israel over the deteriorating humanitarian situation and the mass displacement of civilians in the north.

“We look at northern Gaza and we do see ethnic cleansing taking place, and that has got to stop,” he said at the start of a meeting in London.

Many Palestinians believe the Israeli military is implementing out the so-called “Generals’ Plan” in the north, which would see the forced displacement of all of the estimated 400,000 civilians there to the south followed by a siege of any remaining Hamas fighters.

The Israeli military has denied having such a plan and that it is making sure that civilians get out of harm’s way.

Safadi also warned that the Middle East stood on the “brink of regional war”, adding that every time he met Blinken the situation was getting worse, “not for lack of us trying but because we do have an Israeli government that is not listening to anybody, and that has got to stop”.

“The only path to save the region from that is for Israel to stop the aggressions on Gaza, on Lebanon, stop unilateral measures, illegal measures in the West Bank, that is also pushing the situation to the abyss,” he stated.

Blinken met with Arab leaders and foreign ministers in the UK following a diplomatic tour of the Middle East.

The US is believed to be working on a plan for post-conflict Gaza, trying to get buy-in from Arab countries even though progress on a ceasefire and hostage deal for Gaza has been stalled for weeks.

Blinken said he was having important conversations “on ending the war in Gaza and charting a path for what comes next”. He also said there was a “sense of real urgency in getting a diplomatic resolution” to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

On Thursday, Israel said it would send the head of its Mossad intelligence agency to Doha on Sunday to meet the CIA director and Qatar’s prime minister amid renewed efforts to restart the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release talks.

It came after a Hamas delegation met Egyptian security officials in Cairo. Hamas said there had been no change in its conditions for a deal, which include the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 42,840 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

For decades, Canada has cast itself as a country open to newcomers, with immigration policies tailored to boost its population, fill labour gaps and settle refugees fleeing conflict from around the world.

But in recent months, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he intends to significantly cut the number of immigrants allowed in Canada as public concern grows over inaccessible social services, high costs of living and unaffordable housing.

It is a major shift for both the country and Trudeau, who ran in 2015 on a platform of embracing multiculturalism as a key part of Canadian identity.

His government has relied on ambitious immigration targets to fuel economic growth.

In the face of criticism and plummeting approval ratings, the prime minister now says that his government miscalculated, and that Canada needs to “stabilise” its population growth so that public infrastructure can keep up.

On Thursday, Trudeau and Immigration Minister Marc Miller presented their most stringent immigration cutbacks yet – a 21% reduction of permanent residents accepted into the country in 2025.

The announcement follows other cuts to Canada’s temporary resident programmes, which include temporary foreign workers and international students.

Explaining his shift in policy, Trudeau maintained that “Canadians are justifiably proud” of their immigration system.

“It has made our economy the envy of the world,” he said. “It’s how we build strong, diverse communities.”

But Trudeau admitted that his government “didn’t get the balance quite right” when it admitted a record number of temporary residents after the Covid-19 pandemic to ease labour shortages, and that there is now a need to “stabilise” Canada’s immigration system.

His announcement comes at the heels of dwindling public support for immigration in Canada.

• Trudeau announces sharp cuts to Canada’s immigration targets
• Justin Trudeau’s sinking popularity puts him on shaky ground

A September poll by Environics Institute, which has tracked Canadians’ attitudes towards immigration since 1977, revealed that for the first time in a quarter century, a majority now say there is too much immigration.

The institute said these shifting attitudes are primarily driven by concerns over limited housing. But the economy, over-population, and how the immigration system is being managed were also cited as big factors.

In an October newsletter, Abacus Data pollster David Coletto said that the idea that “consensus around immigration is cracking is an understatement”.

“I think that consensus is now broken and expect it to be one of the most salient issues in federal and provincial politics over the next year.”

Canada has been largely welcoming to immigrants. Data shows it is a global leader in refugee resettlement, and the country has built a reputation in the last 50 years as one that values newcomers.

The Canadian Multiculturalism Act, passed in 1988, recognises diversity as an integral part of Canada’s identity. Its multicultural heritage is also protected in the constitution.

“Since the late 1990s or so, Canadian attitudes have been broadly pro-immigration,” Michael Donnelly, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto, told the BBC.

In 2019, a Pew Research report indicated that of 10 top migrant destination countries, Canada had the most positive view of immigration.

Professor Donnelly said that immigrants make up a large part of Canada’s electorate, which deters major political parties from adopting an anti-immigration stance.

Canada has also rarely faced troubles experienced elsewhere with uncontrolled migration – a benefit of its geography, being surrounded by three oceans and the US to the south – and its immigration system was seen by the public as open and well-regulated.

But these positive sentiments have changed in the last few years, Professor Donnelly said.

One reason is the unprecedented spike in temporary residents coming to Canada.

The number of international students grew nearly 30% from 2022 to 2023, according to the Canadian Bureau for International Education. Meanwhile, government data shows that the number of temporary foreign workers in Canada has doubled in the last five years.

Another factor is a growing sense that Canada’s immigration system has lost its integrity, Professor Donnelly said, partly due to miscalculations by the Canadian government.

Asylum claims spiked after Canada removed visa requirements for tourists from Mexico in 2016, forcing Canada to reimpose visa restrictions earlier this year.

Canadian media has also reported that some international students were using their temporary visa to claim permanent asylum in the country – a trend that Minister Miller called “alarming”.

Professor Donnelly said these incidents and others “have made people think that the government has lost control of the flow of immigration”.

All of these concerns, he added, are underlined by a housing crisis that has affected Canadians across the country, where a shortage of available homes has driven both rent and home prices up for many.

“People are going to see large numbers of (newcomers) coming in and housing shortages, and conclude that’s directly causal,” he said.

Professor Donnelly noted that while Canada has seen some racist rhetoric around immigration, Canadians’ changing attitudes are not primarily driven by the sentiments seen in European countries or in the neighbouring United States.

Rather, it is fuelled by people’s desire to reign in Canada’s immigration system.

“The Trudeau government is clearly trying to give an image of ‘we have this under control’,” Prof Donnelly said.

Ex-Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking and interstate prostitution.

Lawyers entered the plea on behalf of Mr Jeffries in New York federal court on Long Island as he sat alongside them in court in a navy blue suit, his face expressionless.

Sitting just one row behind Mr Jeffries was his alleged middleman, James Jacobson, who also pleaded not guilty during a hearing right after the ex-CEO.

Mr Jeffries’ British-American partner Matthew Smith, who faces the same charges, is expected to appear in New York court at a later date.

Federal prosecutors have said the men used force, fraud and coercion to engage in “violent and exploitive” sexual acts.

The FBI launched a probe into the former A&F CEO last year after a BBC investigation found several men who accused Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith of sexually abusing them at events they hosted in their New York residences and hotels around the world.

During a 10-minute court hearing on Friday in Long Island, New York Judge Steven Tiscione told Mr Jeffries he would be under house arrest, adding that he was only allowed to leave his homes in New York and Florida for medical appointments, visits with his lawyers and religious events.

Mr Jeffries posted a $10m (£7.7m) bond using his house on Fisher Island in New York as collateral.

The hearing was attended by both Mr Jeffries’ son and wife, who had to agree to use their house for the bond, as she owns the property as well.

The judge asked his wife, Susan, if she understood that their house could be foreclosed if Mr Jeffries failed to show up to court.

She told the judge she understood.

One of Mr Jeffries’ alleged victims, David Bradberry, who previously told the BBC about the alleged abuse, sat in the front row of the courtroom as the charges against the former CEO were read.

Mr Jeffries did not respond to questions from reporters on Friday afternoon as he walked out of the courtroom and stepped into a black SUV.

• LISTEN: The Abercrombie Guys

The BBC’s investigation found a sophisticated operation involving a middleman, Mr Jacobson, and a network of recruiters tasked with finding men for these events.

Prosecutors unsealed an indictment against the three men shortly after Mr Jeffries and his partner were arrested in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday. Mr Jacobson was arrested in Wisconsin.

Mr Jeffries and Mr Jacobson were released on bond. Mr Smith was detained.

Prosecutors say Mr Jeffries and his partner preyed upon “dozens” of vulnerable young men seeking careers in fashion and modelling, and exploited them for their own sexual pleasure between 2008 and 2015.

The indictment lists 15 victims who are not named.

The three men could face up to life in prison if convicted of sex trafficking and up to 20 years in prison if convicted of interstate prostitution.

US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Breon Peace, alleged on Tuesday that Mr Jeffries spent a “prolific amount of money” to traffic men to engage in sex acts with him and his partner, while staff and security guarded the events.

Mr Peace said the couple hired Mr Jacobson to recruit men for the couple, flying them to his home in New York and other locations where they were pressured to consume alcohol, Viagra, and muscle relaxants or injected with them against their will.

In its initial investigation, the BBC spoke to 12 men who described attending or organising events involving sex acts with Mr Jeffries, 80, and his British partner Mr Smith, 61.

The eight men who attended the events said they were recruited by a middleman who the BBC identified as James Jacobson.

Then, more men came forward last month. Some alleged Mr Jeffries’ assistants had injected them in the penis with what they were told was liquid Viagra.

After the BBC’s initial investigation was published last year, A&F announced it was opening an independent investigation into the allegations.

Mr Jeffries served as the CEO of the company from 1992 until 2014, when he stepped down following declining sales and left with a retirement package valued at around $25m (£20.5m).

He is next set to appear in court on 12 December.

The “most painful aspects of our past continue to resonate”, King Charles III said this week to Commonwealth leaders in Samoa, as arguments about reparations and apologies over the slave trade rumbled once again.

That’s become an occupational hazard for the Royal Family, as it can’t shake off questions about the long shadow of historic links to slavery.

It’s even more pointed in a forum such as the Commonwealth summit, with leaders representing some of the countries most affected by the legacy of colonialism and slavery.

But even if the King had a personal belief that there should be a symbolic apology or a commitment to reparations, he wouldn’t have been able to deliver it.

Monarchs speak on the advice of ministers – and on a question of such political sensitivity, his speeches will have to stay within the boundaries of government policy.

In other words, he has to stick to the script.

A week ago, Downing Street signalled quite clearly that there would not be an apology or a deal on reparations from the UK at the summit in Samoa.

That meant that whatever the King might privately think, anything he said about such historic wrongs would reflect the line set by the government.

“None of us can change the past,” the King said diplomatically, neatly aligning with Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s line that we “can’t change our history”.

That hasn’t stopped the King from going very close to the wire.

In Kenya last year, the King spoke of his “greatest sorrow and regret” at the wrongdoings of the colonial era.

In language stronger than in Samoa, he spoke of the “abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence committed against Kenyans” during their struggle for independence.

But in keeping with government policy, there was nothing that could be pinned down as an explicit apology.

The use of “sorrow” carefully avoids saying sorry. It was also used by the then-Prince Charles at the previous Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Rwanda.

Interestingly, it mirrors the closest a UK prime minister has come, when Tony Blair in 2007 formally voiced his “deep sorrow and regret” over Britain’s part in the slave trade.

At the time, there were calls for Blair to go further, but he later said he had said sorry.

Although expressing it as “sorrow” includes the emotion, it avoids the liability and expectation of compensation that might come with “sorry”.

As head of state, the King is the symbolic focus of calls for such redress, whether that’s financial reparations or some other ways addressing of historic wrongs. That’s not going to go away.

That’s awkward but he’ll take that in his stride, as it’s a political decision that he can’t change and reparations for the past seem unlikely when current UK budgets are under intense stress.

But there’s also the more complicated question of how much the monarchy, as both a family and an institution, might have a closer responsibility.

For example, the Royal African Company, founded in the 17th Century under royal patronage, has been claimed as transporting more enslaved people from Africa across the Atlantic than any other company.

But history, like people, can be full of contradictions.

When it came to Britain’s pioneering efforts to abolish slavery, in the early 19th Century, research by historian Prof Suzanne Schwarz found the Royal Family itself was divided.

The nephew of George III, the Duke of Gloucester, was one of the most important campaigners to abolish slavery – a tireless opponent of the cruel trade and a supporter of the Royal Navy’s efforts to intercept slave ships.

But before the royals feel the clouds lifting, George III’s son, the future William IV, was one of the most enthusiastic defenders of slavery.

There’s a sparkling silver service still in the possession of the Royal Collection Trust, known as the “Jamaica Service”, which was given to the future William IV by those in Jamaica who wanted to thank him for his efforts to protect the slave trade.

Before becoming King, William IV was Duke of Clarence – and Clarence House, a royal residence, is named after him.

There have been attempts in other countries to draw a line under the question of slavery.

The Dutch King delivered a formal apology, in a move co-ordinated with the country’s prime minister.

But for King Charles and other senior royals, it’s a question that continues to hang in the background, particularly when they visit a former colony or a place where the slave trade had an impact.

Prince William and Catherine’s trip to the Caribbean in 2022 was dogged by rows over whether their visit had too much of the look and feel of a colonial visit.

Any trip planners must look at traditional dancers and garlands and start having nightmares about how it might come across.

But the King, who has been walking this political tightrope for many decades, steered a careful path in Samoa.

“None of us can change the past. But we can commit, with all our hearts, to learning its lessons and to finding creative ways to right inequalities that endure,” he said.

And in a speech that was widely seen as being about the legacy of slavery – he never once actually referred to slavery at all.

US President Joe Biden has formally apologised to the Native American community for a 150-year-old Indian boarding school policy that aimed to culturally assimilate indigenous children, calling it a “sin on our soul”.

He said apologising for the “blot on American history” was one of the most consequential things he has done as president.

The federal government established Indian boarding schools from 1819 until the 1970s that forcibly removed children from their homes and families.

Ten days before the general election, Biden’s apology at an event in Arizona also gave him a chance to show support for tribal nations in a swing state that the Democratic White House ticket won just by 10,000 votes in 2020.

“I formally apologise as president of the United States for what we did, ” Biden said while visiting the tribally controlled Gila Crossing Community School outside of Phoenix. “It’s long overdue.”

The Biden administration says it has provided billions of dollars to support indigenous Americans, though communities affected say the president could do more.

The boarding schools stripped indigenous children of their heritage and tried to assimilate Alaska Native, American Indian and Native Hawaiian children into white American culture.

There were more than 523 government-funded Indian boarding schools throughout the US in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Many of these schools were run by churches.

Tens of thousands of children were forcibly abducted by the government and sent to schools far from their homes. Indigenous children often faced emotional and physical abuse, including being beaten and starved when speaking their native languages. In some cases, children died.

Under the Biden administration, the US Department of Interior launched its first-ever federal investigation of the Indian boarding school system to address its history.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary, went on a tour last year to speak with indigenous survivors.

The Department of Interior also launched an oral history project to document the experience of survivors.

In Canada, which had a similar policy, the prime minister apologised in 2008 for forcing about 150,000 indigenous children to attend state-funded Christian boarding schools.

The government also launched a truth and reconciliation commission that documented the history of the country’s residential school system.

Phil Lesh, bassist and co-founder of the US rock group The Grateful Dead, has died aged 84.

The musician’s official Instagram account said he “passed peacefully this morning”. He was surrounded by his family.

The psychedelic band, which formed in California in 1965, split 30 years later following the death of frontman Jerry Garcia.

Lesh was with them from the beginning – and also joined the group’s other surviving members for reunion US tour in 2003 and a final series of concerts in 2015.

Lesh’s Instagram account said that he “brought immense joy to everyone around him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love. We request that you respect the Lesh family’s privacy at this time.”

With a distinctive trippy blend of rock, folk, and jazz, The Grateful Dead are arguably one of the most influential bands in American history, and wrote the soundtrack for the countercultural generation of the sixties.

Lesh was born in Berkeley, California, in 1940. He started out as a violin player before switching to trumpet, and later to bass guitar when he joined The Grateful Dead in 1965.

For the next three decades his improvisational skills complemented the melodies of lead guitarist Jerry Garcia and bandmates Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzman and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan.

He was best known for the song Unbroken Chain, about the band’s connection with its audience.

Lesh also sang the wistful Box Of Rain, which he wrote while his father was dying.

Loyal fans, known as “Deadheads”, would often follow the band from city to city across the US to hear them play at packed-out concerts.

The band always made it easy for its fans to record its concerts and distribute tapes to their peers around the world.

Despite their massive following, they notched up only one top 10 hit in the US with Touch of Grey in 1987.

Although the cause of Lesh’s death is unknown, he had a series of health issues over the years.

In 2015, he announced he was being treated for bladder cancer in the US. Nine years before that he had surgery for prostate cancer and made a full recovery.

He also underwent a liver transplant in 1998, becoming a passionate advocate of organ donations.

Lesh is survived by his wife, Jill, and their two sons.

A former model has alleged in a CNN interview that she was groped by former President Donald Trump in the 1990s.

Stacey Williams says the incident occurred in 1993 after disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who she says she was in a relationship with at the time, brought her to meet Trump at Trump Tower in New York City.

“The second he [Trump] was in front of me, he pulled me into him, and his hands were just on me and didn’t come off,” Ms Williams told the broadcaster.

The Trump campaign has denied the claim, noting that the former model originally shared the story at an event called “Survivors for Kamala”, in support of Trump’s rival, the Democratic White House nominee Kamala Harris.

“These accusations… announced on a Harris Campaign call two weeks before the election, are unequivocally false,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

“It’s obvious this fake story was contrived by the Harris campaign to distract from the deeply concerning and newly unearthed allegations that the Second ‘Gentleman,’ Doug Emhoff, ‘forcefully slapped’ his ex-girlfriend.'”

Doug Emhoff, Harris’s husband, was accused by an ex-girlfriend of slapping her in 2012, reports the Daily Mail.

The BBC has not identified the reported Emhoff ex-girlfriend, who was granted anonymity by the Mail, or the veracity of her claim.

Emhoff has denied the allegation via a spokesperson. The Harris campaign has not responded to BBC requests for comment.

Ms Williams said on CNN that Trump greeted her and his hands touched “the side of my breasts, on my hips, back down to my butt, back up… they were just on me the whole time”, while Epstein and the former president smiled and talked to each other.

She described it as “an out of body experience” and said she “froze”.

Shortly after the alleged incident, Williams said that she broke up with Epstein, who was arrested for sex crimes in 2019 and died by suicide while awaiting trial.

Several women have come forward accusing Trump of sexual assault since he announced his candidacy for president in 2016. He has repeatedly denied these claims.

In 2023, a civil jury found the Republican White House nominee liable for sexually abusing E Jean Carroll, a writer.

The Washington Post has announced it will not endorse a presidential candidate in the upcoming election, provoking a backlash among some of its employees and subscribers.

CEO William Lewis said the decision was a return “to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates” and that the newspaper was ending the practice going forward.

The move breaks with decades of tradition, with the paper having endorsed a candidate in most presidential elections since the 1970s – all of whom have been Democrats.

The Washington Post Guild’s leadership – which represents workers at the paper – said it was “deeply concerned” by the decision.

It added that it was already seeing subscription cancellations from “loyal members”.

• Who’s ahead in the polls – Harris or Trump?

In its own news article on the decision, The Washington Post reported – citing two sources briefed on the sequence of events who were not authorised to speak publicly – that editorial page staffers had drafted an endorsement of Harris that was not published.

Citing the same sources, it added that the decision not to publish the endorsement was made by the paper’s owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

In a column published on The Post’s website, Mr Lewis said: “We recognise that this will be read in a range of ways, including as a tacit endorsement of one candidate, or as a condemnation of another, or as an abdication of responsibility. That is inevitable.

“We don’t see it that way. We see it as consistent with the values The Post has always stood for and what we hope for in a leader.”

He added that it was also “a statement in support of our readers’ ability to make up their own minds” on who to elect president.

Marty Baron, former executive editor of The Post, described the decision as “cowardice, with democracy as its casualty”.

“Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage,” he added.

The Washington Post Guild’s leadership criticised the move: “The message from our chief executive, Will Lewis – not from the Editorial Board itself – makes us concerned that management interfered with the work of our members in Editorial.”

The statement went on: “We are already seeing cancellations from once loyal readers. This decision undercuts the work of our of members at a time when we should be building our readers’ trust, not losing it.”

The Washington Post’s own news report on the decision has attracted hundreds of comments since the announcement, with many subscribers saying they had cancelled their subscription to the paper.

“Appalling. Cancelling my subscription immediately,” wrote one user.

Another said: “I’m 79 and was raised on the Post, took a subscription to college in Massachusetts, and am reading it now in retirement in Chicago. But this is no longer a responsible newspaper.”

Referring to the paper’s official slogan, the reader continued: “Democracy dies in darkness, indeed. WaPo is dark.”

• Live updates on the US election

The move by The Post followed a similar announcement from the Los Angeles Times last week, which said it was not endorsing a presidential candidate this year.

The editorials editor at the LA Times stepped down after the company’s decision.

“I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not OK with us being silent,” Mariel Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review. “In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.”

According to Ms Garza, the LA Times had planned to endorse Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, but the plan was blocked by the paper’s owner, billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong.

Following Ms Garza’s resignation, Mr Soon-Shiong pushed back on that assertion, writing in a social media post that he had “provided the opportunity” for the paper’s editorial board “to draft a factual analysis of all the POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE policies by EACH candidate during their tenures at the White House, and how these policies affected the nation”.

He said the board “chose to remain silent” instead of following his suggestion, which he said he accepted.

In contrast to The Washington Post and the LA Times, The New York Times endorsed Harris in September, describing her as “the only patriotic choice for president”.

Republican candidate Donald Trump received an endorsement from The New York Post on Friday – the tabloid owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

“America is ready for today’s heroic Donald Trump to reclaim the presidency,” an opinion piece in the paper read.

• SIMPLE GUIDE: How you can get most votes but lose
• EXPLAINER: The seven states that will decide the election
• GLOBAL: The third election outcome on minds of Moscow
• ON THE GROUND: Democrats take fight deep into Trump country
• WWE: Why Trump is courting old friends from the ring
• POLLS: Who is winning the race for the White House?

Three Lebanese journalists have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a building known to be housing reporters in south-eastern Lebanon, witnesses have told the BBC.

The attack was carried out on a guesthouse in a compound in Hasbaya being used by more than a dozen journalists from at least seven media organisations – with a courtyard containing cars clearly marked with “press”.

The men worked for broadcasters Al-Manar TV and Al Mayadeen TV, which issued statements paying tribute to their killed employees.

Lebanon’s information minister said the attack was deliberate and described it as a “war crime”.

The Israeli military says it targeted a Hezbollah structure, but is reviewing the incident.

Those killed were camera operator Ghassan Najjar and engineer Mohamed Reda from pro-Iranian news channel Al Mayadeen, as well as camera operator Wissam Qassem from the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar.

The Lebanese ministry of health said three others were injured in the blast.

Five reporters had been killed in prior Israeli strikes in Lebanon, including Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah.

Footage broadcast by Al-Jadeed TV – whose journalists were also sharing the house – showed a bombed-out building with a collapsed roof and floors covered in rubble.

A vehicle used for TV broadcasts was overturned on its side, its satellite dish mangled with cabling nearby.

“All official parties were told that this house was being used as a stay-house for journalists. We coordinated with them all,” an Al-Jadeed journalist, caked in concrete dust, said in a live broadcast while panting and coughing.

Lebanese journalists covering the conflict in the south of the country had to relocate from nearby Marj’youn to Hasbaya, as the former became too dangerous.

In a statement hours after the incident, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had struck a Hezbollah military structure in Hasbaya from where “terrorists were operating”.

The incident showed that proximity to “terrorist infrastructure poses a danger”, the force said.

It added: “Several hours after the strike, reports were received that journalists had been hit during the strike. The incident is under review.”

Youmna Fawwaz, a reporter for broadcaster MTV Lebanon, told the BBC that journalists in the compound were awoken at around 03:00 local time (01:00 BST) by the strike.

She said ceilings had fallen in on them, and they were surrounded by rubble and dust, with the sound of fighter jets overhead.

Each news organisation had their own building in the compound, she said, and the building housing the Al Mayadeen reporters was “obliterated” while Al-Manar employees were inside.

Ms Fawwaz said it was a media compound known as such to both Israel and Hezbollah.

“The airstrike was carried out on purpose. Everyone knew we were there. All the cars were labelled as press and TV. There wasn’t even a warning given to us.”

She added: “They are trying to terrorise us just like they do in Gaza. Israelis are trying to prevent us from covering the story.”

Lebanon’s information minister accused Israel of intentionally targeting journalists, in contravention of international law.

“The Israeli enemy waited for the journalists’ nighttime break to betray them in their sleep,” Ziad Makary wrote in a post on X.

“This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with prior planning and design, as there were 18 journalists there representing seven media institutions.”

• ‘Whole neighbourhood wiped out’ in air strike
• Satellite imagery reveals intensity of bombing in Lebanon
• The suburbs bearing the brunt of Beirut strikes

Hasbaya, about five miles (eight kilometres) from the Israeli border, is inhabited by Muslims, Christians, as well as people from the Druze ethnic and religious minority.

It has seen attacks on its peripheries in recent weeks, but this was the first strike on the settlement itself.

The attack comes as part of an expanding conflict in Lebanon, where Israel has been intensifying air strikes for weeks – as well as launching a ground invasion on border towns and villages in the south.

On Friday UN peacekeepers said they were forced to withdraw from an observation post in Zahajra, in the south-west, after it was fired on by Israeli forces earlier this week.

Unifil has accused Israel of targeting its bases several times in recent weeks, causing injuries to peacekeepers. Israel denies this and has blamed previous incidents on clashes with nearby Hezbollah fighters.

In the northern Bekaa area, the Israeli military has confirmed it attacked the Jousieh border crossing between Syria and Lebanon overnight – which it said was being used by Hezbollah and Syrian security forces to smuggle weapons.

Lebanese authorities have recorded over 1,700 air strikes across the country in the past three weeks.

Hostilities broke out between Israel and Hezbollah on 8 October last year, the day after Hamas’s attack on Israel that killed around 1,200 people. The Iran-backed armed group has since been firing rockets and drones into Israel in what it described as “solidarity” with Palestinians in Gaza.

Nearly 2,600 people in Lebanon have been killed in the current conflict, according to the country’s health ministry – many of the deaths occurring since Israel began escalating its attacks on 23 September.

Around 60,000 people in northern Israel have been displaced by Hezbollah rocket fire, and the Israeli government has declared returning them to their homes to be a key objective.

Two people were killed on Friday in a Hezbollah rocket attack on Majd al-Krum, a town near Karmiel in Israel’s north, according to a statement from the country’s foreign ministry.

In southern Lebanon, satellite imagery examined by the BBC shows Israel’s intensified bombing campaign has caused more damage to buildings in two weeks than occurred during a year of cross-border fighting.

Data shows that more than 3,600 buildings in Lebanon appear to have been damaged or destroyed between 2 and 14 October – about 54% of the total damage.

The attack on journalists in Lebanon comes days after the Israeli military accused six Al Jazeera journalists working in northern Gaza of being affiliated with Hamas or other armed Palestinian groups.

The Qatari broadcaster said it denies and “vehemently condemns” the allegations.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 123 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched a war in the territory last year.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health authority has reported more than 42,000 people killed since.

Two Israeli journalists have also been killed in the conflict.

At least 38 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in southern Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry says.

Rescue workers said nine children from one family were among those killed on the outskirts of the southern city of Khan Younis.

The Israeli military said its troops had killed numerous Hamas fighters and dismantled infrastructure during an operation in the Khan Younis area, and questioned the number of casualties reported.

It came as Israeli forces reportedly raided one of the last functioning hospitals in the north of the territory.

The WHO said it had lost contact with medics at Kamal Adwan hospital in the northern town of Beit Lahia, close to the besieged Jabalia area, while the health ministry said Israeli troops had detained staff, patients and displaced people there.

The Israeli military said its forces were operating “in the area” of Kamal Adwan based on intelligence “regarding the presence of terrorists”.

Hundreds of Palestinians have reportedly been killed and tens of thousands displaced in recent weeks by a new Israeli ground offensive in Jabalia, which the military has said aims to stop Hamas fighters regrouping.

At least two residential buildings in the south-eastern al-Manara neighbourhood of Khan Younis were hit by Israeli strikes around dawn on Friday, according to a spokesman for Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defence agency.

Fourteen people, including nine children, were killed when the home of the al-Fara family was hit, Mahmoud Bassal said. Six members of the Abdeen family were also reportedly killed in another strike.

Pictures from the scene showed relatives and neighbours searching the ruins of several destroyed buildings next a large crater.

Saleh Adel al-Fara told BBC Arabic’s Gaza Today programme that there had been clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters on Thursday evening, and that his family had gone to sleep “when things quietened down a bit”.

“Suddenly, at 2:30 in the morning, I woke up feeling suffocated and started screaming for help. I then found my older brother searching for me under the rubble, telling me that the house had been bombed,” he said.

“I don’t remember what happened next. Both my brother and sister were martyred, and my two pregnant sisters were injured.”

He added: “There are no resistance fighters among us, despite what they claim. All the wounded and dead are civilians.”

Another member of the family, Umm al-Ameer al-Fara, told AFP news agency: “The rocket fell next to us, and we were buried under the rubble. My children and sister were killed.”

The Civil Defence posted a video that it said showed its rescue workers recovering the bodies of the nine children from the al-Faras’ home. The same children were also later photographed in body bags at the nearby European Gaza hospital.

Reuters said the bodies of another three children were brought to Nasser hospital, in Khan Younis.

A resident, who asked not to be named, told BBC Arabic that Israeli fighter jets and tanks had attacked the area without any warning.

“The army stormed into our district, passing right in front of our homes with advanced machinery, and began shooting. They bombed the house of the Abdeen family, as well as the homes of some neighbours,” the man said.

“In the past, we would receive warnings via SMS to evacuate the area before military operations. This time, they targeted unarmed civilians who had nothing to do with any [armed] organisations.”

Health officials also told the Associated Press that the attack included both air and artillery strikes.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that its troops “operated following intelligence information, dismantling terrorist infrastructure and eliminating numerous terrorists” in the Khan Younis area overnight.

“Reports on the number of casualties in the area do not align with the current information held by the IDF,” it added.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 42,840 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The UK has said it would consider providing intelligence gathered from surveillance flights over Gaza to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if requested.

The ICC is already carrying out an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by both Hamas and Israel.

The Royal Air Force (RAF) has flown hundreds of surveillance flights over Gaza since last December, reportedly using Shadow R1 spy planes based in nearby Cyprus.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said these flights were to gather intelligence related to the hostages seized by Hamas on 7 October last year.

But it has also stated it is willing to share intelligence relating to war crimes with the ICC.

The MoD has denied reports it is providing wider targeting information to Israel or that RAF aircraft have been used to fly weapons into Israel during its war in Gaza.

The MoD said in a statement: “In line with our international obligations, we would consider any formal request from the International Criminal Court to provide information relating to investigations into war crimes.

“The UK is not a participant in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“Our mandate is narrowly defined to focus on securing the release of the hostages only, including British nationals, with the RAF routinely conducting unarmed flights since December 2023 for this sole purpose.”

As yet there has been no formal request from the ICC.

In May, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to believe Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leaders Yahiya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh bore criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity from the day of Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October onwards.

Deif, Haniyeh and Sinwar have all been killed in recent weeks and any request for the arrest warrants of Netanyahu and Gallant must yet be approved by ICC judges.

Following the UK general election the new Labour government lifted opposition to the ICC having the right to seek an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, a change in policy Mr Khan told the BBC he welcomed.

In recent months the British government has also restricted UK arms sales to Israel and refunded the UN agency helping Palestinians.

From the outside, it is hard to comprehend the depth of suffering experienced by civilians in Gaza.

On Monday 21 October, a video emerged from Jabalia that gave an unusually detailed insight into the pressure and the horror imposed on civilians by Israel’s current offensive in northern Gaza. Watching it, you feel almost like an eyewitness.

Every day, like many journalists who are forced to report the war from outside Gaza because Israel will not let us in, I watch many videos that emerge online, harrowing scenes of wounded, dying and bereaved people in hospitals, of men in the rubble rescuing survivors and digging out bodies, and civilians forced to move by the Israelis, walking through thick sand where roads used to be, past the unrecognisable ruins.

• Bowen: Year of killing and broken assumptions has taken Middle East to edge of deeper, wider war
• US warns Israel over Gaza aid
• Nowhere is safe in Gaza, says doctor working there

They are all horrible to see, and so was the one that came from the attack in Jabalia on Monday morning. But for me it was unusual because it showed the pain, grief, chaos, panic and hopelessness in the seconds and minutes immediately after an attack.

The moment is so extreme that taking out a phone to film it is the last thing most people do. Over many years as a reporter in wars, I have seen and experienced the same disbelief and shock. It takes time for the brain to catch up with the utterly changed reality that your eyes are seeing.

The Jabalia Boys Elementary school was attacked just after 09:00 in the morning, on 21 October. It was no longer a place of learning but had been turned into a shelter for displaced civilians, like many schools in Gaza run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. All the ones still standing, that is.

In the video, a paramedic called Nevine al Dawawi, increasingly panic-stricken, runs between dead and dying civilians, using her phone to document what is happening (when I reported this first, on the day of the strike, she was misidentified as Nabila.)

We managed to track down Nevine in Gaza City. She was able to give us her own account of what happened on Monday morning. She answered questions, and much more composed now, she played back the video.

In it, she is agitated and scared, running between civilians lying in their own blood, next to dead bodies.

“Calm down,” she screams at a badly hurt woman sitting in a pool of blood.

“I swear I don’t have anything to stop the bleeding.”

She runs down a passage pockmarked by shrapnel. On a stairwell she sees more casualties, turns away in horror, picks up a bag and says “let’s go, so no-one else gets killed”.

A man’s voice on the video says, “stay with us Nevine.” Grabbing the bag, which is full of wound dressings, she goes back to the stairwell that is running with blood. A child’s voice says, please help, my sister is dying, please help me.

A woman says my children are gone. Nevine asked how she knew.

“Look at them,” the woman says. One is very still, the other has a severe head wound and is either dead or dying.

Nevine hands over dressings, even though it is too late. They are all she has, and she is the only paramedic there.

Nevine told us that the woman on the stairs whose children were killed was Lina Ibrahim Abu Namos. Journalists working for the BBC found her in Kamal Adwan hospital in Jabalia where she is being treated for shrapnel injuries. Two of Lina’s seven children were killed, her eldest daughter and her only son.

Her husband wasn’t with them when the attack happened, as he was already being treated for wounds sustained in an earlier attack.

“I saw my daughter dying, with my own eyes. She was dying in front of me. I couldn’t stop it, and she was my eldest, my whole life, honestly, my entire life. When your eldest dies in front of you…”

“I couldn’t save her, and I was also wounded. I couldn’t handle myself, I found myself falling on the ground. I started crawling towards her.”

Nevine, the paramedic, explained that they had been “besieged” at the school for 16 or 17 days. Above them was the buzz of quadcopters, small drones used extensively by the IDF. It has a range of them, for surveillance and espionage, to issue orders through loudspeakers, for dropping bombs or firing at Palestinians they want to kill.

“We were living in so much fear. When the school was hit, we had people killed and injured. There was nothing there to eat or drink. The water tanker that was usually sent to us was bombed by the Israelis. It was like that for days. Three days ago, a quadcopter descended on the school at nine in the morning, giving us an ultimatum to get out by 10. The quadcopter loudspeaker said we had to evacuate the school because we were in a dangerous fighting zone.”

“We didn’t have time to pack our stuff. It gave us just one hour. After just 10 minutes, Israeli airplanes bombed the school. It was a big massacre with over 30 wounded and more than 10 killed.”

In the video, the wounded and dead on the bloody stairs are not the only casualties. Nevine leaves the stairwell, and runs to a man probably in his sixties, who is leaning over a pile of bags with his head in his hands. She looks to see if somehow, he has survived a severe neck wound and screams when she sees that he has not.

“Help him, he’s dead – it’s Uncle Abu Mohammed.”

Three days later I sent questions for a Palestinian freelance journalist to ask her at al Ahli hospital in Gaza City. One was about Abu Mohammed.

“He was our neighbour. His two sons were also killed… one had half his head gone.”

She talked our reporter through the video as she played it back on her phone.

“The video showed girls torn to pieces. It also shows men with their intestines protruding from stomach wounds… A 10-year-old boy had his bowels bulging outside his stomach. His mum was killed, injured in the heart.”

“Some women who were taking cover were also injured and others killed. A cleaner at the school was shredded into pieces. A 12-year-old girl had a leg blown off. So did a woman displaced from Beit Hanoun, a town in Gaza’s north. She was aged between 35 and 40.”

The day before the attack on the school, as Israel’s offensive intensified, Tor Wennesland – the senior UN diplomat in Jerusalem – issued a strong statement.

“The nightmare in Gaza is intensifying. Horrifying scenes are unfolding in the northern Strip amidst conflict, relentless Israeli strikes and an ever-worsening humanitarian crisis.”

“Nowhere is safe in Gaza. I condemn the continuing attacks on civilians. This war must end, the hostages held by Hamas must be freed, the displacement of Palestinians must cease, and civilians must be protected wherever they are. Humanitarian aid must be delivered unimpeded.”

Israel insists that it acts in self-defence, and claims its forces respect the laws of war. Almost every day for the last year in Gaza, and more recently in Lebanon it says that civilians get killed because armed groups use them as human shields.

We put that to the paramedic, Nevine al Dawawi.

The IDF claimed Hamas was using civilians as human shields, is that true?

“No, Hamas was not using civilians as human shields. They were protecting us and standing with us.”

For many in Israel, her statement that Hamas were in the area will be taken as a justification for the horrors that the IDF brought down on the civilians just after 9 in the morning on Monday 21 October.

But war crimes lawyers will ask whether the attack was justified. The laws of war say that civilians must be protected, and that casualties inflicted on them should be in proportion to the military threat faced by an attacking force.

If senior Hamas commanders were there, or a big concentration of fighters preparing to fight, perhaps the attack could be justified by the Israel Defense Forces’ own lawyers.

But if Hamas, whose structure as a fighting force has been dismantled in a year of relentless Israeli attacks, had only a few local men with guns in the area, then the attack would breach the law.

In the unlikely event that the Palestinians in the video ever had a day in court, their lawyers could say that the military threat to the IDF at that moment did not justify wounding 30 civilians, inflicting life changing injuries, and killing more than 10 others, including many children.

I am forced to use conditional tenses because I am writing this in Jerusalem, not after interviewing eyewitnesses at the scene of the attack in Jabalia in Gaza. Reporters will always struggle to get to get to the best possible version of the truth they can find when they are stopped from getting to the place where the story happened.

Israel allowed reporters into their border communities along the border with Gaza in the days after the Hamas attacks last year. I was in Kfar Azza kibbutz when they were still recovering the bodies of dead Israelis, as soldiers checked buildings with bursts of gunfire. They wanted us to see where Hamas had killed around 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and dragged more than 250 into captivity in Gaza.

The evidence is piling up that Israel has done things in Gaza that it does not want journalists to see, which is why they will not let us cross into the territory, except on rare and highly controlled visits with the army. I have been in only once, in the first month of the war, when Israeli firepower had already turned the areas of northern Gaza that I saw into a wasteland.

As a result, journalists rely on videos and statements that emerge from Palestinians inside Gaza, including some very brave journalists, and from international diplomats, medics and aid workers who are allowed into Gaza, and witnesses like Nevine with smartphones.

In the hospital, Lina Ibrahim Abu Namos was haunted by her loss of her eldest daughter, her only son, and everything they called home.

“I had seven children, and now I only have five left… What can I say? I don’t even know. By God, they have broken our hearts. We are exhausted, emotionally drained. We’ve lost everything.”

“What crime have the children committed? What have they done? What have we done to deserve this?”

“What have we done to the Israelis? I swear, they’ve destroyed our children.”

“I’m so scared. I don’t eat or drink. Nothing. All I need is for my children to stay around me, because we are scared and we’ve been displaced from one place to another. What is left for my daughters and for me? There’s no home, nowhere safe, nothing. I’m just one of many people with nowhere to go, no safety. I’m exhausted.”

Israel’s intensified bombing campaign of Lebanon has caused more damage to buildings in two weeks than occurred during a year of cross-border fighting with Hezbollah, according to satellite-based radar data assessed by the BBC.

Data shows that more than 3,600 buildings in Lebanon appear to have been damaged or destroyed between 2 and 14 October 2024. This represents about 54% of the total estimated damage since cross-border hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah broke out just over a year ago.

The damage data was gathered by Corey Scher of City University of New York and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University. They compared radar satellite images to reveal sudden changes in the height or structure of buildings which indicate damage.

Wim Zwijnenburg, an environmental expert from the Pax for Peace organisation, reviewed the satellite-based radar data and warned of the impact of Israel’s bombing.

“The Israeli military campaign seems to be creating a ‘dead zone’ in the south of Lebanon to drive out the population, and making it difficult for Hezbollah to re-establish positions, at the cost of the civilian population,” he said.

Cross-border hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah broke out after the armed Lebanese group started firing rockets in and around northern Israel in support of Palestinians on 8 October 2023, the day after its ally Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel.

Israel invaded southern Lebanon in a dramatic escalation on 30 September to destroy, it said, Hezbollah weapons and infrastructure in “limited, localised, targeted raids”.

Satellite photos, radar imagery, and military records show recent Israeli bombardment in Lebanon has focused on the southern border region. It has also expanded to central and northern areas, including the Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The Israeli army said it hit thousands of Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, including the capital, Beirut.

Most of the strikes on Beirut have targeted Dahieh, a southern suburb that is home to thousands of civilians. The Israeli military claims the area is home to Hezbollah’s command headquarters.

A series of Israeli strikes on buildings in the area killed Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah on 27 September.

Separate data from the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (Acled), which has been analysed by the BBC, indicates at least 2,700 attacks by the Israeli military on Lebanese areas from 1 September until 11 October 2024. While these attacks primarily focus on southern border areas, they have also extended to northern and central regions. Each Israeli attack can also include several bombings.

Hezbollah has carried out around 540 attacks against Israel in the same timeframe, according to Acled. Each Hezbollah attack can include a barrage of rockets, missiles and drones.

The Israeli military says air strikes in Lebanon are targeting Hezbollah infrastructure.

It regularly adds it wants to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of residents of Israeli border areas displaced by attacks from the Iran-backed group.

About 60,000 people have been evacuated from northern Israel because of near-daily attacks by Hezbollah. But some rockets have reached further south and damaged homes in and around the coastal city of Haifa.

Hezbollah reiterated it would continue sending rockets into Israel unless a ceasefire is reached. The group’s deputy secretary general claimed rockets would focus on military targets, but warned Hezbollah had the right to attack anywhere in Israel in response to strikes across Lebanon.

On the Lebanese side, many Israeli air strikes targeted the city of Tyre, the Bekaa Valley, and Beirut, according to the BBC’s analysis of the latest monthly data collected by Acled.

Lebanon’s government says up to 1.3 million people have been internally displaced, whilst Prime Minister Najib Mikati warned of the “largest displacement” in the country’s history.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been issuing evacuation orders to residents across the country, including areas of Beirut.

In the south, the army instructed residents of several villages to leave their homes and “immediately head north of the Awali River,” which meets the coast about 50 km (30 miles) from the Israeli border.

“This is a humanitarian catastrophe,” Gabriel Karlsson, Middle East Manager at the British Red Cross in Beirut, told the BBC.

He said there are insufficient shelters to accommodate so many evacuees.

“I saw children sleeping in the streets,” Karlsson added, urging humanitarian organisations to coordinate their efforts to address the escalating crisis.

Lebanese officials say at least 2,350 have been killed and over 10,000 injured in Israeli attacks. The Lebanon health minister said many casualties were civilians.

On the Israeli side, 60 people have been killed and more than 570 wounded by Hezbollah attacks, Israeli authorities say.

“Collateral damage is inevitable in war”, Amos Yadlin, the former head of Israeli military intelligence, told the BBC.

The retired major-general blamed Hezbollah for the war and claimed Israel’s ground offensive would force the group out from the border areas.

Zwijnenburg, from the Pax for Peace organisation, however, has warned of the impact of Israel’s military campaign on civilians and the populated areas.

“The heavy blast radius kills and maims civilians nearby”, he said, in reference to Israeli air strikes.

“Open-source data combined with satellite imagery also showed that civilian infrastructure such as irrigation channels, gas stations and electricity grids were damaged, which is worsening the humanitarian situation,” he added.

For years, Western critics have dismissed Brics as a relatively inconsequential entity.

But this past week, at its annual summit in Russia, the group triumphantly showcased just how far it has come.

Top leaders from 36 countries, as well as the UN Secretary General, attended the three-day event, and Brics formally welcomed four new members – Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. More membership expansions could soon follow. Brics had previously added only one new member – South Africa in 2010 – since its inception (as the Bric states) in 2006.

There’s a growing buzz around Brics, which has long projected itself as an alternative to Western-led models of global governance. Today, it’s becoming more prominent and influential as it capitalises on growing dissatisfaction with Western policies and financial structures.

Ironically, India – perhaps the most Western-oriented Brics member – is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the group’s evolution and expansion.

India enjoys deep ties with most new Brics members. Egypt is a growing trade and security partner in the Middle East. The UAE (along with Saudi Arabia, which has been offered Brics membership but hasn’t yet formally joined) is one of India’s most important partners overall. India’s relationship with Ethiopia is one of its longest and closest in Africa.

Brics’ original members continue to offer important benefits for India too.

Delhi can leverage Brics to signal its continued commitment to close friend Russia, despite Western efforts to isolate it. And working with rival China in Brics helps India in its slow, cautious effort to ease tensions with Beijing, especially on the heels of a border patrolling deal announced by Delhi on the eve of the summit. That announcement likely gave Prime Minister Narendra Modi the necessary diplomatic and political space to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the summit’s sidelines.

Additionally, Brics enables India to advance its core foreign policy principle of strategic autonomy, whereby it aims to balance relations with a wide spectrum of geopolitical players, without formally allying with any of them.

Delhi has important partnerships, both bilateral and multilateral, inside and outside the West. In that sense, its presence in an increasingly robust Brics and relations with its members can be balanced with its participation in a revitalised Indo-Pacific Quad and its strong ties with the US and other Western powers.

More broadly, Brics’ priorities are India’s priorities.

The joint statement issued after the recent summit trumpets the same principles and goals that Delhi articulates in its own public messaging and policy documents: engaging with the Global South (a critical outreach target for Delhi), promoting multilateralism and multipolarity, advocating for UN reform (Delhi badly wants a permanent seat on the UN Security Council), and criticising the Western sanctions regime (which impacts Delhi’s trade with Russia and infrastructure projects with Iran).

And yet, all this may appear to pose a problem for India.

With Brics gaining momentum, inducting new members, and attracting global discontents, the group is seemingly poised to begin implementing its longstanding vision – articulated emphatically by Beijing and Moscow – of serving as a counter to the West.

Additionally, Brics’ new members include Iran and, possibly further down the road, Belarus and Cuba – suggesting the future possibility of an outright anti-West tilt.

While India aims to balance its ties with the Western and non-Western worlds, it would not want to be part of any arrangement perceived as avowedly anti-West.

However, in reality, such fears are unfounded.

Brics is not an anti-West entity. Aside from Iran, all the new members have close ties with the West. Additionally, the many countries rumoured as possible future members don’t exactly constitute an anti-West bloc; they include Turkey, a Nato member, and Vietnam, a key US trade partner.

And even if Brics were to gain more anti-West members, the grouping would likely struggle to implement the types of initiatives that could pose an actual threat to the West.

The joint statement issued after the recent summit identified a range of plans, including an international payment system that would counter the US dollar and evade Western sanctions.

But here, a longstanding criticism of Brics – that it can’t get meaningful things done – continues to loom large. For one thing, Brics projects meant to reduce reliance on the US dollar likely aren’t viable, because many member states’ economies cannot afford to wean themselves off of it.

Additionally, the original Brics states have often struggled to see eye to eye, and cohesion and consensus will be even more difficult to achieve with an expanded membership.

India may get along well with most Brics members, but many new members don’t get along well with each other.

Iran has issues with both Egypt and the UAE, and Egypt-Ethiopia relations are tense.

One might hope that the recent easing of tensions between China and India could bode well for Brics.

But let’s be clear: despite their recent border accord, India’s ties with China remain highly strained.

An ongoing broader border dispute, intensifying bilateral competition across South Asia and in the Indian Ocean region, and China’s close alliance with Pakistan rule out the possibility of a détente anytime soon.

Brics today offers the best of all worlds for Delhi. It enables India to work with some of its closest friends in an expanding organisation that espouses principles close to India’s heart, from multilateralism to embracing the Global South.

It affords India the opportunity to stake out more balance in its relations with the West and non-Western states, in an era when Delhi’s relations with the US and its Western allies (with the notable exception of Canada) have charted new heights.

At the same time, Brics’ continuing struggles to achieve more internal cohesion and to get more done on a concrete level ensure that the group is unlikely to pose a major threat to the West, much less to become an anti-West behemoth – neither of which India would want.

The most likely outcome to emerge from the recent summit, as suggested by the joint statement, is a Brics commitment to partner on a series of noncontroversial, low-hanging-fruit initiatives focused on climate change, higher education, public health, and science and technology, among others.

Such cooperation would entail member states working with each other, and not against the West – an ideal arrangement for India.

These collaborations in decidedly safe spaces would also demonstrate that an ascendant Brics need not make the West uncomfortable. And that would offer some useful reassurance after the group’s well-attended summit in Russia likely attracted some nervous attention in Western capitals.

Georgians are going to the polls on Saturday to decide whether to end 12 years of increasingly authoritarian rule, in a decisive vote on their push to joining the European Union.

Some are describing this election as the most crucial vote since Georgians backed independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

The governing Georgian Dream party is widely expected to come first, but four opposition groups believe they can combine forces to remove it from power and revive Georgia’s EU process.

Four out of every five voters are said to back joining the EU in this South Caucasus state, which fought a five-day war with Russia in 2008.

It was only last December that the EU made Georgia a candidate. But a few months ago it froze that bid, accusing the government of democratic backsliding, over a Russia-style law that requires groups to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive 20% of funding from abroad.

About 3.5 million Georgians are eligible to vote between 04:00GMT to 16:00GMT in a high-stakes election that the opposition is calling a choice between Europe or Russia, but which the government frames as a matter of peace or war.

Politics here has become increasingly bitterly polarised, as Georgian Dream, under the guiding force of Georgia’s richest man, Bidzina Ivanishvili, seeks a fourth term of power.

If Ivanishvili’s party wins a big enough majority, he has vowed to ban the biggest opposition party, the United National Movement, because of its actions while in power before.

Georgian Dream, known as GD, is set to win about a third of the vote according to opinion polls, although they are widely seen as unreliable. If GD is to be unseated, all four of the main opposition groups will have to win upwards of 5% of the vote to qualify for the 150-seat parliament.

Pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili has backed the opposition, declaring the election will bring an end to “one-party rule in Georgia”.

She has agreed a charter with the four big groups so that if they win, a technocrat government will fill the immediate vacuum. It would then reverse laws considered harmful to Georgia’s path to the EU and move to snap elections.

Tina Bokuchava, who’s chair of the biggest opposition party, United National Movement, insists all credible polls put the opposition ahead.

But Georgian Dream has told voters that an opposition victory will trigger war with Russia, and that message has proved effective beyond the big cities.

Party billboards across the country show split pictures of devastated cities in Ukraine alongside tranquil Georgia, with the slogan: “No to war! Choose peace.”

GD’s allegation against the opposition is that it will help the West open a new front in Russia’s war in Ukraine, while Georgian Dream will keep the peace with its Russian neighbour, which went to war with Georgia in 2008 and still occupies 20% of its territory.

Although the governing party’s claim is unfounded and its billboards have been widely condemned, its slogans appear to have resonated with at least some of the public.

In Kaspi, an industrial town to the north-west of Tbilisi, one woman aged 41 told the BBC: “I don’t like Georgian Dream, but I hate the [opposition United] National Movement – and at least we’ll be at peace.” Another woman called Lali, 68, said the opposition might bring Europe closer, but they would bring war too.

Hours before polls opened, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy strongly criticised GD’s election campaign.

It highlighted instances of voters having ID cards seized as well as threats and intimidation, and pointed to Russian-sponsored disinformation operations as well as domestic campaigns.

The BBC spoke to one voter, Aleksandre, in a village north-west of the capital who said he had been threatened by a local GD man with losing his job if he did not sign up to vote for Georgian Dream: “I’m a bit scared of his threat but what can I do?”

However, Georgian Dream maintains it has made elections more transparent, with a new electronic system for vote counting.

“For 12 years we have an opposition that questions the legitimacy of Georgia’s government constantly. And that’s absolutely not a normal situation,” says Maka Bochorishvili, who’s GD’s head of the parliament’s EU integration committee.

“All this speculation about forcing people to vote for certain political parties – at the end of the day you’re alone and casting your vote, and electronic machines are counting that vote,” said Bochorishvili.

Critics say the changes have been brought in too hastily and that in some places there is a genuine fear that the vote is not really secret.

Not far from the centre of Tbilisi, Vano Chkhikvadze points to graffiti daubed in red on the walls and ground outside his office at the Civil Society Foundation.

After the “foreign influence” law was passed during the summer, in the face of mass protests in the centre of Tbilisi and other big cities, he says he was personally labelled by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze as a state traitor.

“We were getting phone calls in the middle of the night. Our kids even were getting phone calls. They were threatened.”

Ahead of the vote, the EU warned that Georgian Dream’s actions “signal a shift towards authoritarianism”.

Whoever wins Saturday’s vote, the loser is unlikely to accept defeat easily.

It’s well past the August holiday peak, but anger against over-tourism in Spain is spilling into the off-season, as holiday-makers continue to seek winter sun.

On Sunday locals in the Basque city of San Sebastian plan to take to the streets under the banner: “We are in danger; degrow tourism!”

And in November anti-tourism protesters will gather in Seville.

Thousands turned out last Sunday in the Canary Islands, so the problem is clearly not going away.

This year appears to have marked a watershed for attitudes to tourism in Spain and many other parts of Europe, as the post-Covid travel boom has seen the industry equal and often surpass records set before the pandemic.

Spain is expected to receive more than 90 million foreign visitors by the end of the year. The consultancy firm Braintrust estimates that the number of arrivals will rise to 115 million by 2040, well ahead of the current world leader, France.

This year’s protests began in April, in the Canary Islands, and included a hunger strike by six protesters in Tenerife in an attempt to halt two major tourism projects on the island.

They continued in many of the country’s most popular tourist destinations, such as the Balearic Islands, the Mediterranean city of Alicante, cities on the southern coast and Barcelona, where some protesters squirted foreign visitors with water pistols and shouted: “Tourists go home!”.

The grievances driving the upcoming protests are similar to those in the summer.

“Tourism, which for a few is the golden goose, is an economic model which is choking the rest of us,” said Bizilagunekin (or “with the neighbours”, in the Basque language), the civic association which is organising Sunday’s demonstration in San Sebastian.

The protest is the culmination of a series of debates, talks and other events in the city called “October against touristification”.

“What we’ve been seeing over the last eight or 10 years has been a huge acceleration of the process of ‘touristification’,” said Asier Basurto, a member of the platform. “All our city’s services have been put at the orders of the tourism industry.”

He insists the numbers of arrivals themselves are not the problem, it is the way the city caters to visitors rather than residents.

Public spaces are adapted for short-term visits and the tourism industry creates precarious jobs, he says.

Mr Basurto believes tourists are pushing up rentals, largely because of short-stay accommodation, sending local residents further and further away from San Sebastian’s historic centre.

“We’ve had a way of living for generations and generations – in which people are connected to each other and those who arrive are integrated,” he added.

“If we have a model whereby people just visit for five days and then leave then it becomes a soulless theme park, without culture, without a community.”

The complaint about tourism’s impact on rental rates is a common theme and feeds into a broader housing crisis across Spain. The country’s central bank has reported that nearly half of families who rent at market prices are at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

However, with tourism representing 13% of Spain’s GDP and directly providing around three million jobs, its supporters insist that the industry is essential to the economy and that it drove the country’s recovery in the wake of the pandemic.

They are particularly concerned by scenes such as that on Playa de las Américas in Tenerife on October 20, where one video showed two tourists sunbathing on the beach while protesters chanted just metres away from them.

There have also been reports in the Spanish media of more hostile behaviour, such as the locks of tourist apartments in Seville being covered in faeces.

Such incidents prompted David Morales, head of tourism for the conservative People’s Party (PP) in the Canary Islands, to insist on “the right of tourists to enjoy their holidays without being the target of interruptions or gestural or verbal attacks, and certainly not physical attacks”.

As the protests continue beyond the summer, there are particular concerns in destinations like the Canary Islands, where the climate means they receive large numbers of visitors during the winter months.

The president of the Circle of Impresarios and Professionals in Southern Tenerife (CEST), Javier Cabrera, warned that “under an umbrella of legitimate grievances, tourism-phobia is being cultivated”.

There has been an attempt to defuse the backlash, with a range of measures being implemented.

Barcelona city hall has announced that short-term tourist apartments will be banned from 2028.

Local authorities in Palma de Mallorca have put a cap on the number of cruise liners which can dock in its port.

In Tenerife, a new limit has been introduced on the number of visitors to some natural parks.

And in Seville, a new charge is planned for those entering the city’s popular Plaza de España square.

Yet Asier Basurto is not convinced and says the protests must continue.

“Those who advocate tourism can no longer say that everything is rosy,” he said.

“Either we change this now or it’s going to be too late.”

Erik and Lyle Menendez, two brothers convicted of murdering their parents more than three decades ago, are one step closer to being released from prison.

The brothers are currently serving life in prison without the possibility of parole in California.

The Los Angeles County district attorney formally recommended their resentencing in a court filing on Friday, arguing for a lesser sentence for the pair. If approved, the request would make the brothers eligible for parole.

While it is a significant development in a case that has gripped the nation, it is one step on what could be a long road.

And not everyone is happy at the prospect of them potentially regaining their freedom.

The 57-page court motion filed by the district attorney’s office, obtained by BBC News, includes a timeline of the case, an argument for why the Menendez brothers should be resentenced and details of their time behind bars.

The filing includes glowing recommendations from prison officials and various programmes the brothers launched behind bars that aimed to help other inmates, including those who were victims of childhood trauma and disabled or elderly inmates. It also includes the educational degrees both brothers received while serving their sentences.

All of this was done, the report notes, “without any expectation or hope of ever being released”.

It also includes the 30-year discipline records for both Erik Menendez and Lyle Menendez. Both brothers were cited for possessing a mobile phone in a cell they shared with other inmates.

Erik Menendez had several other violations, including two fights, in 2011 and 1997.

It notes that Lyle Menendez was never cited for any fights and had to be moved from the general population to the “special needs” area of the prison in 1997 because “he wouldn’t fight back when attacked”. He was cited twice for contraband – a lighter in 2013 and a new pair of Adidas sneakers in 1998 that a “female visitor brought him”.

“While incarcerated, Erik and Lyle Menendez have transformed and taken advantage of meaningful opportunities to mature, move beyond criminal thinking, repent, and become a productive community members,” the filing states, adding they are “ready to reenter society”.

Friday’s filing provides the basis for the district attorney office’s argument that will be made before a judge on why the brothers should be resentenced.

The next step is to schedule a resentencing hearing, where a judge will hear arguments for and against the change.

• Top LA prosecutor backs Menendez brothers being released on parole
• Notorious Menendez brothers murder case to be reviewed

The office of George Gascón, the Los Angeles County district attorney, is asking they be sentenced for murder.

Under Californian law – based on the age they were at the time of the crimes – that would make them “eligible for parole immediately,” the district attorney said at a news conference Thursday.

His office says they hope to schedule the hearing sometime in the next 30-45 days and say it is possible Lyle and Erik Menendez may attend the proceeding.

The hearing is likely to be contentious. Mr Gascón noted that this case has divided his office and members of his staff might argue against him in court.

If the hearing results in a judge approving the new sentence, attention will shift to the California parole board.

The board will examine the case and whether the Menendez brothers are a threat to society if they are released.

Even if the board approves their release, Governor Gavin Newsom could decide to halt proceedings.

Earlier this month, more than two dozen members of the Menendez family issued a public plea for Erik and Lyle to be released 35 years after killing their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez.

Those family members alleged the boys endured horrific sexual abuse at the hands of their father and are not a threat to society.

Kitty Menendez’s sister, Joan Anderson VanderMolen, argued “the whole world wasn’t ready to believe that the boys could be raped, or that young men could be victims of sexual violence”.

She said that now “we know better” and “a jury today would never deliver such a harsh sentence”.

But the family isn’t in total agreement.

A lawyer for Kitty Menendez’s brother, Milton Andersen, called the brothers “cold-blooded” and said their “actions shattered their family and left a trail of grief that has persisted for decades.”

“Jose was shot six times, and Kitty was shot ten times, including a shot to her face after Erik reloaded.”

Mr Andersen believes his nephews should stay in prison for their “heinous act”, according to his lawyer, Kathy Cady.

• Family of Menendez brothers call for their release in killing of parents

Neama Rahmani, a criminal defence attorney and former federal prosecutor, told the BBC that a “perfect storm of PR and politics” has led to the Menendez brothers having a real shot at freedom.

He noted the recent attention the case has gotten from celebrities, a Netflix drama and docuseries on the case, and an “embattled” district attorney vying to remain in office.

“You’re never going to see another case like this. It’s a unicorn.”

The Menendez brothers filed a motion in May 2023 detailing new evidence in their case and requesting their convictions be vacated.

Mr Gascón said his office had been reviewing the case for more than a year, but he said he made the decision to recommend their resentencing Thursday, only an hour before holding a highly publicised news conference on the landmark case.

The decision was announced 12 days before election day, in which Mr Gascón is running for re-election as Los Angeles county district attorney and is down by 30 points in some polls. He has denied his announcement was political and said it was a long-time coming.

The decision also came amid renewed attention in the case spurred by a new Netflix drama, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story as well as the release of docudrama, The Menendez Brothers.

The series introduced the case to a new generation and garnered attention from celebrities – including Kim Kardashian and Rosie O’Donnell – who called for the brothers to be released.

• What is the controversy around Netflix’s Menendez drama?

Motive has long been at the heart of this case.

Prosecutors painted the brothers as spoiled rich kids, who killed their wealthy parents in their Beverly Hills mansion so they could access their $14m (£10.7m) fortune.

They argued the duo methodically bought shotguns and fatally shot their parents a total of 13 times as the couple watched TV. They then went gambling, to parties and on shopping sprees, buying things like Rolex watches.

It was ultimately a confession to a psychologist that helped lead to their arrest when the girlfriend of their doctor audiotaped their admission and reported it to authorities.

The brothers ultimately admitted to the killings – but argued they acted out of self-defence after years of emotional, physical and sexual abuse.

They told the court they feared their parents would kill them if they didn’t act first. Lyle and Erik testified they confronted their parents about the sexual abuse and things had become combative in their household and they believed their parents were planning to kill them.

Family members testified about the abuse they witnessed – but none said they saw sexual abuse first-hand.

The twists and turns in the story made it infamous and even 35 years later it continues to be the catalyst for new documentaries and films.

Cuba has endured one of its toughest weeks in years after a nationwide blackout which left around 10 million Cubans without power for several days. Adding to the Caribbean island’s problems, Hurricane Oscar left a trail of destruction along the north-eastern coast, leaving several dead and causing widespread damage. For some communities in Cuba the energy crisis is the new normal.

As Cuba approached its fourth day without power this week, Yusely Perez turned to the only fuel source left available to her: firewood.

Her neighbourhood in Havana hasn’t received its regular deliveries of liquified gas cannisters for two months. So once the island’s entire electrical grid went down, prompting a nationwide blackout, Yusely was forced to take desperate measures.

“Me and my husband went all over the city, but we couldn’t find charcoal anywhere,” she explains.

“We had to collect firewood wherever we found it on the street. Thankfully it was dry enough to cook with.”

Yusely nodded at the yucca chips frying slowly in a pot of lukewarm oil. “We’ve gone two days without eating,” she adds.

Speaking last Sunday, at the height of what was Cuba’s most acute energy crisis in years, the country’s energy and mines minister, Vicente de la O Levy, blamed the problems for the country’s creaking electrical infrastructure on what he called the “brutal” US economic embargo on Cuba.

The embargo, he argued, made it impossible to import new parts to overhaul the grid or bring in enough fuel to run the power stations, even to access credit in the international banking system.

The US State Department retorted that the problems with energy production in Cuba did not lie at Washington’s door – but argued that it was due to the Cuban government’s own mismanagement.

Normal service would be resumed soon, the Cuban minister insisted. But no sooner did he utter those words than there was another total collapse of the grid, the fourth in 48 hours.

At night, the full extent of the blackout became clear.

Havana’s streets were plunged into near total darkness as residents sat on the doorsteps in the stifling heat, their faces lit up by their mobile phones – as long as their batteries lasted.

Some, like restaurant worker Victor, were prepared to openly criticise the authorities.

“The people who run this country are the ones who have all the answers,” he says. “But they’re going to have to explain themselves to the Cuban people.”

Specifically, the state’s decision to invest heavily in tourism, rather than energy infrastructure, frustrated him most during the blackout.

“They’ve built so many hotels in the past few years. Everyone knows that a hotel doesn’t cost a couple of bucks. It costs 300 or 400 million dollars.”

“So why is our energy infrastructure collapsing?” he asks. “Either they’re not investing in it or, if they are, then it’s not been to the benefit of the people.”

Aware of the growing discontentment, President Miguel Diaz-Canel appeared on state TV wearing the traditional olive-green fatigues of the Cuban revolution.

If that message wasn’t clear enough, he directly warned people against protesting over the blackout. The authorities would not “tolerate” vandalism, he said, or any attempt to “disrupt the social order”.

The protests of July 2021, when hundreds were arrested amid widespread demonstrations following a series of blackouts, were fresh in the memory.

On this occasion, there were only a handful of reports of isolated incidents.

Yet the question of where Cuba chooses to direct its scarce resources remains a real point of contention on the island.

“When we talk about energy infrastructure, that refers to both generation and distribution or transmission. In every step, a lot of investment is needed,” says Cuban economist, Ricardo Torres, at the American University in Washington DC.

Electricity generation in Cuba has recently fallen well below what’s required, only supplying some 60-70% of the national demand. The shortfall is a “huge and serious gap” which is now being felt across the island, says Mr Torres.

By the government’s own figures, Cuba’s national electricity generation dropped by around 2.5% in 2023 compared to the previous year, part of a downward trend which has seen a staggering 25% drop in production since 2019.

“It’s important to understand that last week’s problem in the energy grid isn’t something that happens overnight,” says Mr Torres.

Few know that better than Marbeyis Aguilera. The 28-year-old mother-of-three is getting used to living without electricity.

For Marbeyis, even “normal service” being restored still means most of the day without power.

In fact, what the residents of Havana endured for a few days is what daily life is like in her village of Aguacate in the province of Artemisa, outside Havana.

“We’ve had no power for six days”, she says, brewing coffee on a makeshift charcoal stove inside her breeze-block, tin-roofed shack.

“It came on for a couple of hours last night and then went out again. We have no choice but to cook like this or use firewood to provide something warm for the children,” she adds.

Her two gas hobs and one electric ring sit idle on the kitchen top, the room filling with smoke. The community is in dire need of state assistance, she says, listing their most urgent priorities.

“First, electricity. Secondly, we need water. Food is running out. People with dollars, sent from abroad, can buy food. But we don’t have any so we can’t buy anything.”

Marbeyis says some of the main problems in Aguacate – food insecurity and water distribution – have been exacerbated by the power cuts.

Her husband’s manual labour also requires electricity and he’s stuck at home waiting for the instruction to come to work. The Cuban Government was due to recall state workers by Thursday – but to avoid another collapse in the grid, all non-essential work and schools have now been suspended until next week.

“It’s especially hard on the children”, Marbeyis adds, her eyes tearing up, “because when they say I want this or that, we have nothing to give them.”

Living without a reliable energy source is the new normal in places like Aguacate. Many have been struggling with power shortages since around the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, which coincided with a sharp economic downturn on the island.

Perhaps the biggest problem for the Cuban State is that the sight of people cooking with firewood and charcoal in the 21st Century is reminiscent of the poverty under dictator Fulgencio Bastista, who the revolutionaries ousted six-and-half decades ago.

Amid it all, on the north-eastern coast, the situation got even worse. As people were still coping with the blackout, Hurricane Oscar made landfall, bringing high winds, flash flooding and ripping roofs from homes.

The storm may have passed. But Cubans know that such is the precarious state of the island’s energy infrastructure that the next nationwide blackout could come at any time.

It costs €15,000 (£12,500) for the whole “package”, we are told. For that we would be given an inflatable dinghy, with an outboard motor and 60 life jackets, to get across the English Channel.

This is the “good price” offered by two small-boat smugglers to an undercover BBC journalist in Essen – a western German city where many migrants live or pass through.

A five-month-long BBC investigation has exposed the significant German connection to the lethal human smuggling trade across the English Channel.

As the new UK government promises to “smash the gangs”, Germany has become a central location for the storage of boats and engines eventually used in Channel crossings – confirmed to the BBC by Britain’s National Crime Agency.

During covert filming, smugglers revealed to us that they store boats in multiple secret warehouses – as they play cat-and-mouse games with German police.

This year is already the deadliest for migrant Channel crossings, UN figures show, while more than 28,000 people have so far made the journey in small, dangerously packed boats.

__

Our undercover reporter is waiting outside the central station in the city of Essen.

He is wearing a secret camera and posing as a Middle Eastern migrant, eager to cross the Channel to the UK with his family and friends.

He must remain anonymous, for his safety, but we will refer to him as Hamza.

He approaches a man. It is someone Hamza has been in touch with for months, via WhatsApp calls, after getting his number through a contact within the migrant community – but this is the first time they have met.

This man’s name – or at least the name he has given us – is Abu Sahar.

Since Hamza contacted him, they have discussed how Sahar can help provide a dinghy to get to the south coast of England.

Hamza has told him that bad experiences with the smuggling gangs in the Calais region have driven him, his family and friends to try to manage their crossing alone – an unusual step.

Sahar has already sent a video of an inflated dinghy which, he has suggested, is “new”, available and being kept in a warehouse in the Essen area.

He will go on to supply more footage including other, similar looking, boats as well as outboard engines being fired up.

Hamza has said he wants to check the quality of the items on offer himself and that is why he has insisted on an in-person meeting.

A BBC team is nearby, monitoring Hamza’s movements, in case anything goes wrong, or we need to extract him quickly.

As the two men walk through the centre of Essen, Sahar declares it is too “risky” to go to the warehouse to see the boat, even though he says it is less than 15 minutes’ drive away.

When Hamza asks about why the boats are kept in this part of Germany, Sahar talks about “safety” and “logistics”.

Essen is just a four- to five-hour drive from the Calais area – close enough to get boats there fast, but not too close to the more heavily monitored beaches of northern France.

While police raids do happen, including under European Arrest Warrants, the facilitation of people-smuggling is not technically illegal in Germany if it is to a third country outside the EU, which the UK now is after Brexit.

The interior ministry in Berlin argues that, because Germany and the UK aren’t geographical neighbours, “no direct smuggling” actually takes place – but a UK Home Office source told the BBC there is “frustration” about Germany’s legal framework.

Sahar takes Hamza to a cafe where they order coffees and light cigarettes, although they move tables because there are Arabic speakers next to them and Sahar doesn’t want to be overheard.

Just over 35 minutes later, Sahar gets up out of his chair and tells Hamza: “Lower your voice, he’s coming.”

A well-dressed man in a baseball cap approaches. He is referred to as “al-Khal”, which means “the Uncle” – a phrase in Arabic that implies someone who commands significant respect.

Khal is accompanied by another man who will remain largely silent, but appears to be his bodyguard.

There are some handshakes before Khal talks to the waitress in German and then switches back to Arabic, his native tongue.

Hamza is told to hand over his phone, which is placed on a separate table.

The bodyguard sits next to Hamza and will spend much of the next 22 minutes staring intently at him.

During the meeting, because of strict German law, the BBC can only record video, not the audio.

Our reporting of it is therefore partly based on the immediate recollection of our undercover journalist – an established method in German investigative reporting.

It is backed up by messages, call records and voice notes between Hamza and the smugglers.

“Don’t raise your voice,” says Khal as he instructs Hamza to explain who he is and what he wants.

Hamza repeats his cover story, apparently convincingly.

He also suggests the boat purchase they are now discussing may not, in fact, even be illegal because of grey areas in German law.

But Khal dismisses that suggestion.

“Who told you that?” he asks. “It’s not legal.”

Even if there are legal loopholes in Germany around boat-smuggling, it appears these men know they are involved in a wider criminal network.

During their coffee, Khal sometimes prods Hamza in the chest as the smugglers disclose they have about 10 warehouses in the Essen area.

That, it is implied, is a way of dividing up their goods in case of a police raid – which there was a “few days ago”.

Sometimes, it is suggested, they get word the police are coming and give them “bait” – meaning supplies are confiscated but seemingly not enough to seriously disrupt the operation.

The smugglers talk about their ability to get equipment to Calais within “three, four hours”, which indicates they feel bold enough to use motorways, rather than back roads.

Essen’s location means boats can be delivered within a morning or afternoon, should a good weather forecast prompt a surge in crossing attempts and therefore demand.

According to research by the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, boats are typically transported by vans or cars from Germany, Belgium or the Netherlands to the French coast, with Germany a “particularly important transit point”.

Most of the vessels, they found, have been manufactured in China before being sent, by container, to Turkey and then moved into Europe.

One of the report’s authors, Tuesday Reitano, says Germany’s role as a hub has grown for various reasons including robust “anti-smuggling controls” in France, which have driven increasingly organised gangs to operate over longer distances.

She also believes the German authorities are less engaged with the issue of Channel crossings because, “It’s not a problem that’s on their border”.

Back at the cafe, Khal is apparently satisfied that Hamza is legitimate and starts talking money.

His preference is that Hamza takes the “package” deal which will cost €15,000 (£12,500).

That involves collecting the boat near Calais, along with an engine, fuel, pump and 60 lifejackets – more than Hamza has said he needs, but that is the blanket offer, and one that would more likely be made to a fellow smuggler directly organising the crossings in France.

Those smugglers’ profits are potentially “extraordinary” if you assume adults are being charged about €2,000 (£1,660) for a single trip with dozens of people on board – according to Global Initiative.

If a deal is agreed now, Khal claims he could get a boat to a location that is just 200m (655ft) from the French shoreline, by as soon as tomorrow.

Khal and Sahar also refer to a “new crossing point”, suggesting they have found a place less under the eye of the French authorities, though they don’t reveal its location.

There is a second, cheaper option, which Hamza has been pitching for all along.

For about €8,000 (£6,670) Hamza could pick up the boat himself, here at a warehouse in Essen, and drive it to northern France independently.

If you get caught, the smugglers tell him, we are not responsible.

Conversation turns to how Hamza would pay the gang, once he has decided what to do.

Khal wants the cash paid in Turkey, because “all the stuff” comes from there.

The money, he suggests, can be deposited through the Hawala system – a payment method that avoids formal banking and instead relies on a network of agents to deliver cash across borders.

Later, Hamza is sent an account name on WhatsApp.

Other messages and voice notes in Arabic, also sent after the cafe meeting, include Sahar describing brands of outboard motors. He “loves” Mercury ones, he says, although “if there is Yamaha, I prefer Yamaha”.

He talks about how they can “deliver and bury” the gear, implying it can be hidden underground near a crossing point, with Boulogne a better option because, “Calais, it’s hard”.

In what appears to be a sales pressure tactic, Hamza is also told the smugglers have “limited” stocks but plenty of buyers.

Khal is more careful in his communications, but in one voice note, forwarded by Sahar, he expresses unease after meeting Hamza, saying: “Your friend, he seems not OK.”

Nevertheless, he instructs Sahar to get a decision from Hamza about whether he wants to buy a boat or not: “Ask him in the next one or two hours.”

Eventually, Hamza tells them he can no longer go ahead with the deal.

The BBC paid no money to these men, whose real identities we have not been able to establish definitively.

We have shown footage we received of the boats to the Chair of the National Independent Lifeboat Association, Neil Dalton, who says he wouldn’t go in a “duck pond” in such vessels.

Comparing one to a “death trap”, he says it would be “appallingly dangerous” to pack dozens of people onto these boats for a Channel crossing, because of what appears to be a “tremendously flimsy” design.

Meanwhile, diplomats insist that co-operation between Germany and the UK, on tackling these gangs, has improved.

Arrests and warehouse raids have happened in Germany, in partnership with other countries – while so-called “collateral crime”, such as violence or money-laundering, can be prosecuted within Germany.

February saw a major raid where boats, engines, life vests and flotation devices for children were seized in Germany with 19 arrests – but these were made under Belgian and French judicial orders. A separate trial, following a similar operation in 2022, is being prosecuted in France.

• How dangerous are the Channel dinghies?

A UK Home Office spokesperson told the BBC the government is “rapidly accelerating” work with countries, including Germany, to “crack down on the criminal smuggling gangs”, but “there is always more to do together”.

That sentiment is echoed by the French authorities.

“It is important to demonstrate to the Germans that these boats are linked to offences on our coasts, which will allow them to intervene,” Pascal Marconville, a prosecutor in northern France, told the BBC earlier this month.

Berlin’s interior ministry told the BBC that bilateral cooperation was “very good” and that German authorities can take action at the request of the UK.

A spokesperson added that while it isn’t illegal to aid smuggling from Germany to the UK, it is punishable to aid smuggling to Belgium or France, where Channel crossings take place.

The BBC’s investigation highlights “exactly the sort of activity we want to be working to address”, Downing Street said.

Asked whether Germany should be doing more to stop inflatable dinghies being smuggled through the country, Keir Starmer’s official spokesperson said: “It is vital that we continue to step up our approach on enforcement, and that goes to other countries.

“We need to keep pace with the scale of their activity, and it’s something that we’ll be working very closely with the Germans and others on.”

Along the shores of north-eastern France, you can find the remnants of failed crossing attempts on boats that, according to the National Crime Agency, are becoming “ever more dangerous and unseaworthy”.

The deflated dinghies and abandoned life jackets on these beaches may look worthless, but someone will have paid huge sums for what they hoped was a route to a better life.

It is a trade in misery, desperation and, in the worst cases, death – but one that continues to evolve and thrive deep inside Europe.

Following publication, we asked al-Khal for a response but he did not reply.

Activist Leo Igwe is at the forefront of efforts to help people accused of witchcraft in Nigeria, as it can destroy their lives – and even lead to them being lynched.

“I could no longer take it. You know, just staying around and seeing people being killed randomly,” Dr Igwe tells the BBC.

After completing his doctorate in religious studies in 2017 he was restless. He had written extensively about witchcraft and was frustrated that academia did not allow him to challenge the practice head on.

The BBC has seen evidence of Pentecostal pastors in Nigeria holding services targeting alleged witches, a practice Dr Igwe says is not unusual in a country where many people believe in the supernatural.

So Dr Igwe set up Advocacy For Alleged Witches, an organisation focussed on “using compassion, reason, and science to save lives of those affected by superstition”.

Dr Igwe’s prevention work also extends to Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe and beyond.

One of the people the organisation has helped in Nigeria is 33-year-old Jude. In August, it intervened when he was accused and beaten in Benue State.

Jude, a glazier, who also works part-time in a bank, says he was on his way to work one morning, when he met a boy carrying two heavy jars of water which prompted him to comment on the boy’s physical agility.

The boy did not take the comments kindly, but he went on his way.

Later, Jude was followed by a mob of about 15 people throwing stones at him. Among them was the boy he had greeted earlier.

“Young men started fighting me as well, trying to set me ablaze,” Jude says.

He was accused of causing the disappearance of the boy’s penis through witchcraft, an accusation that shocked him and is untrue.

Claims of manhood disappearances are not uncommon in some parts of West Africa.

It is a claim that has been linked to Koro syndrome, a mental illness otherwise known as missing or genital retraction hysteria.

It is a psychiatric disorder characterised by an intense and irrational fear of the genital organs going missing or retracting into the body of the victim.

Dr Igwe says Jude lost his job at the bank because of the stigma surrounding the accusation.

A video of the violent witch-hunting altercation also began to circulate on Facebook, which is when Dr Igwe and his team noticed and began to investigate.

“They brought him [Jude] out naked, you know, brutalised,” Dr Igwe says. “We first of all localise it – where is this taking place?”

On WhatsApp, Dr Igwe is something of an influencer.

Over the last few years he has built and curated WhatsApp groups for different Nigerian states.

These groups are full of dozens of concerned citizens who he dubs “advocates”. They share viral witch-accusation videos and photos and try to intervene when an allegation is being made on their patch.

“We reached out to him [Jude]. We sent him some money to take care of his wounds. We socially rehabilitate him,” Dr Igwe says.

Advocacy for Alleged Witches also wrote to the bank to try to prevent Jude from getting the sack, although they did not hear anything back, he says.

The group has also committed to paying Jude’s university fees, which it hopes can provide him with a fresh start.

Many in Africa’s most-populous country believe in, and live in fear of, witches and the diabolical powers they supposedly wield.

Financial problems, diseases or infertility are often blamed on witchcraft.

Those accused are often vulnerable. Most of the time they are either very young or very old, sometimes they have mental or physical disabilities and often they live in poverty.

• BBC Trending podcast: Meet the ‘anti-witch hunter’

According to Nigeria Watch, a website that monitors violence in the country via media reports, there have been eight deaths directly stemming from witchcraft accusations in 2024.

The BBC has not independently verified these figures, but has previously reported on assaults and murders of people accused of witchcraft in Nigeria and beyond.

“Belief in witchcraft or [the] supernatural in Nigeria is cultural,” says Dr Olaleye Kayode, a senior lecturer in African Indigenous Religions at the University of Ibadan.

“The belief is that witches are one of the supernatural beings created by God to stir the affairs of the Earth,” he adds, while stating that it is ignorance that makes people promote witch-hunting.

He blames witch-hunting in Nigeria primarily on preaching from “foreign religions” such as Christianity and Islam, but acknowledges traditional religions also “wage war” on witches.

Dr Igwe says that some of the country’s many influential Christian Pentecostal pastors reinforce superstitions about witchcraft, and the view that “any alleged witch is dangerous to the society, deserves no mercy and should be killed”.

While some of these church events are marketed as deliverance services, in August one of them was advertised with the theme “That Witch Must Die”.

The church behind the event trailed it extensively to its 20,000 followers on social media.

When Dr Igwe saw a billboard in Imo state advertising it, he wrote several petitions to the local authorities, as well as a number of articles for local media, trying to get it cancelled.

It went ahead anyway – Advocacy For Alleged Witches sent observers and continues to lobby against similar events.

The church responsible has not responded to the BBC’s request for comment.

No-one was killed at the Imo state event, but the “witch-must-die” rhetoric coming from churches can lead to hatred and violence, Dr Igwe says.

And many Nigerian churches are against such attitudes.

“Casting out demons and not killing those that are possessed of demons was what we know Jesus’ ministry for,” says Julius Osimen, a senior pastor at the Global Citizens Church in Lagos.

Mr Osimen describes any preaching encouraging witch-hunting as a misinterpretation of Bible verses.

“When Jesus came, he came with better understanding. You don’t kill people that are possessed or oppressed of demons, you simply cast the demons out,” he says.

Dr Igwe’s work has come with a personal cost. He says he has been beaten up three times for intervening on behalf of those accused of being witches and acknowledges his wife and children have expressed concerns for his safety.

But the activist says nothing will make him refrain or stop him from intervening: “My realisation is that I have to step forward and try to provide leadership.”

In Nigeria, it is an offence to accuse, or threaten to accuse, any person of being a witch or having the power of witchcraft.

It carries a maximum two-year prison sentence. However, prosecutions and convictions are rare.

In 2021 the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution condemning human rights violations associated with witchcraft, yet such allegations continue to persist across much of Africa, as well as further afield including in India and Papua New Guinea.

“Trying to end witch-hunting is a challenge and we should not romanticise it in any way by trying to say: ‘Oh, it’s part of our culture,’” Dr Igwe says.

“It’s not part of our culture to kill our parents. It’s not part of our culture killing innocent people.”

• The hunt for Nigerians who can change into cats
• Dangers of being religious in a religious nation
• How talk of witches stirs emotions in Nigeria
• Accused of witchcraft then murdered for land

• What claims do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

American voters will face a clear choice for president on election day, between Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.

Here’s a look at what they stand for and how their policies compare on different issues.

Harris has said her day-one priority would be trying to reduce food and housing costs for working families.

She promises to ban price-gouging on groceries, help first-time home buyers and provide incentives to increase housing supply.

Inflation soared under the Biden presidency, as it did in many western countries, partly due to post-Covid supply issues and the Ukraine war. It has fallen since.

Trump has promised to “end inflation and make America affordable again” and when asked he says more drilling for oil will lower energy costs.

He has promised to deliver lower interest rates, something the president does not control, and he says deporting undocumented immigrants will ease pressure on housing. Economists warn that his vow to impose higher tax on imports could push up prices.

• US election polls – is Harris or Trump ahead?
• Comparing Biden’s economy to Trump’s

Harris wants to raise taxes on big businesses and Americans making $400,000 (£305,000) a year.

But she has also unveiled a number of measures that would ease the tax burden on families, including an expansion of child tax credits.

She has broken with Biden over capital gains tax, supporting a more moderate rise from 23.6% to 28% compared with his 44.6%.

Trump proposes a number of tax cuts worth trillions, including an extension of his 2017 cuts which mostly helped the wealthy.

He says he will pay for them through higher growth and tariffs on imports. Analysts say both tax plans will add to the ballooning deficit, but Trump’s by more.

• Where Kamala Harris stands on 10 issues
• Where Donald Trump stands on 10 issues

Harris has made abortion rights central to her campaign, and she continues to advocate for legislation that would enshrine reproductive rights nationwide.

Trump has struggled to find a consistent message on abortion.

The three judges he appointed to the Supreme Court while president were pivotal in overturning the constitutional right to an abortion, a 1973 ruling known as Roe v Wade.

Harris was tasked with tackling the root causes of the southern border crisis and helped raise billions of dollars of private money to make regional investments aimed at stemming the flow north.

Record numbers of people crossed from Mexico at the end of 2023 but the numbers have fallen since to a four-year low. In this campaign, she has toughened her stance and emphasised her experience as a prosecutor in California taking on human traffickers.

Trump has vowed to seal the border by completing the construction of a wall and increasing enforcement. But he urged Republicans to ditch a hardline, cross-party immigration bill, backed by Harris. She says she would revive that deal if elected.

He has also promised the biggest mass deportation of undocumented migrants in US history. Experts told the BBC this would face legal challenges.

• What Harris really did about the border crisis
• Could Trump really deport a million migrants?

Harris has vowed to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes”. She has pledged, if elected, to ensure the US and not China wins “the competition for the 21st Century”.

She has been a longtime advocate for a two-state solution between the Israelis and Palestinians, and has called for an end to the war in Gaza.

Trump has an isolationist foreign policy and wants the US to disentangle itself from conflicts elsewhere in the world.

He has said he would end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours through a negotiated settlement with Russia, a move that Democrats say would embolden Vladimir Putin.

Trump has positioned himself as a staunch supporter of Israel but said little on how he would end the war in Gaza.

Harris has criticised Trump’s sweeping plan to impose tariffs on imports, calling it a national tax on working families which will cost each household $4,000 a year.

She is expected to have a more targeted approach to taxing imports, maintaining the tariffs the Biden-Harris administration introduced on some Chinese imports like electric vehicles.

Trump has made tariffs a central pledge in this campaign. He has proposed new 10-20% tariffs on most foreign goods, and much higher ones on those from China.

He has also promised to entice companies to stay in the US to manufacture goods, by giving them a lower rate of corporate tax.

Harris, as vice-president, helped pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which has funnelled hundreds of billions of dollars to renewable energy, and electric vehicle tax credit and rebate programmes.

But she has dropped her opposition to fracking, a technique for recovering gas and oil opposed by environmentalists.

Trump, while in the White House, rolled back hundreds of environmental protections, including limits on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and vehicles.

In this campaign he has vowed to expand Arctic drilling and attacked electric cars.

Harris has been part of a White House administration which has reduced prescription drug costs and capped insulin prices at $35.

Trump, who has often vowed to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, has said that if elected he would only improve it, without offering specifics. The Act has been instrumental in getting health insurance to millions more people.

He has called for taxpayer-funded fertility treatment, but that could be opposed by Republicans in Congress.

Harris has tried to contrast her experience as a prosecutor with the fact Trump has been convicted of a crime.

Trump has vowed to demolish drugs cartels, crush gang violence and rebuild Democratic-run cities that he says are overrun with crime.

He has said he would use the military or the National Guard, a reserve force, to tackle opponents he calls “the enemy within” and “radical left lunatics” if they disrupt the election.

• Trump’s legal cases, explained

Harris has made preventing gun violence a key pledge, and she and Tim Walz – both gun owners – often advocate for tighter laws. But they will find that moves like expanding background checks or banning assault weapons will need the help of Congress.

Trump has positioned himself as a staunch defender of the Second Amendment, the constitutional right to bear arms. Addressing the National Rifle Association in May, he said he was their best friend.

Harris has called for the decriminalisation of marijuana for recreational use. She says too many people have been sent to prison for possession and points to disproportionate arrest numbers for black and Latino men.

Trump has softened his approach and said it’s time to end “needless arrests and incarcerations” of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use.

• SIMPLE GUIDE: How you can get most votes but lose
• EXPLAINER: The seven states that will decide the election
• GLOBAL: A third election outcome on minds of Moscow
• ON THE GROUND: Democrats take fight deep into Trump country
• WWE: Why Trump is courting old friends from the ring

On Wednesday afternoon, Kamala Harris stood in front of the vice-presidential residence in Washington DC, and delivered a short but withering attack on her Republican presidential opponent.

Calling Donald Trump “increasingly unhinged and unstable”, she cited critical comments made by John Kelly, Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff, in a New York Times interview.

The vice-president quoted Kelly describing Trump as someone who “certainly falls into the general definition of fascists” and who had spoken approvingly of Hitler several times.

She said her rival wanted “unchecked power” and later, during a CNN town hall event, was asked point-blank if she believed he was a “fascist”. “Yes, I do,” she replied.

Shortly after the town hall finished, Trump posted on X and Truth Social that Harris’s comments were a sign that she was losing. He said she was “increasingly raising her rhetoric, going so far as to call me Adolf Hitler, and anything else that comes to her warped mind”.

In the home stretch of political campaigns – particularly one as tight and hard-fought as the 2024 presidential race – there is a natural tendency for candidates to turn negative. Attacks tend to be more effective in motivating supporters to head to the polls and disrupting the opposing campaigns.

• Election polls – is Harris or Trump winning?
• Foreign-born voters give their views on electoral system

For Harris, however, the heavier hand toward Trump stands in contrast to the more optimistic, “joyful” messaging of the early days of her campaign.

While she did warn at the Democratic convention of a Trump presidency without the guardrails, Harris largely stepped back from President Joe Biden’s core campaign message that Trump posed an existential threat to American democracy.

According to political strategist Matt Bennett of the centrist Democratic group Third Way, however, it is clear why Harris was quick this time to amplify Kelly’s dark portrait of Trump as a man with authoritarian tendencies.

“Everything she does now is tactical,” he said. “The imperative was to make sure as many voters as possible know about what Kelly said.”

The vice-president’s latest remarks come on the heels of a multi-week strategy by her campaign to appeal to independent voters and moderate Republicans who could be open to supporting the Democratic ticket. Polls suggest the race is extremely tight, with neither candidate having a decisive lead in any of the battleground states.

The suburbs around the biggest cities in key battleground states – Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee and Phoenix, for instance – are populated by college-educated professionals who have traditionally voted for Republicans but who polls indicate have doubts about returning Trump to the White House.

“Her case for how she wins this thing is to create as broad a coalition as possible and bring over disaffected Republicans – people who just don’t feel that they can vote for Trump again,” Mr Bennett said.

Devynn DeVelasco, a 20-year-old independent from Nebraska, is one of those who had already been convinced by the long list of senior Republicans who worked for then-President Trump but now say he is unfit for office.

Although she hopes some Republicans will join her in supporting Harris, she worries there is fatigue around the claims made about the former president.

“When these reports [about Kelly’s comments] came out I wasn’t shocked, it didn’t change much,” Ms DeVelasco told the BBC.

• AMERICAST: Why Trump supporters queue for hours to see him

Republican strategist Denise Grace Gitsham said voters have been hearing similar rhetoric about Trump since 2016, so any new allegations were unlikely to move the dial.

“If you’re voting against Donald Trump because you don’t like his personality, you’re already a decided voter,” she told the BBC. “But if you’re somebody who’s looking at the policies and that matters more to you than a vibe or a personality, then you’re going to go with the person who you felt you did best under while they were in the White House.”

Both Harris and Trump have been sharpening their barbs in recent days. During a swing through Midwest battleground states on Monday, Harris repeatedly warned of the consequences of a Trump presidency – on abortion rights, on healthcare, on the economy and on US foreign policy.

• SIMPLE GUIDE: How you can get most votes but lose
• EXPLAINER: The seven states that will decide the election
• GLOBAL: A third election outcome on minds of Moscow
• ON THE GROUND: Democrats take fight deep into Trump country
• WWE: Why Trump is courting old friends from the ring
• POLLS: Who is winning the race for the White House?

On Friday, she will hold a rally in Texas – the state she has said most dramatically represents the anti-abortion future if Trump is back in power. Next Tuesday, she will shift focus to Washington DC, with a rally reportedly planned by the National Mall, where Trump spoke before some of his supporters attacked the US Capitol.

Trump, meanwhile, has continued his drumbeat of attacks on his Democratic counterpart. At a town hall forum in North Carolina, he said Harris was “lazy” and “stupid” and only became her party nominee because of her ethnicity and gender.

He also issued his own warning, saying that “we may not have a country anymore” if Harris wins.

None of these lines are a particular departure for Trump, however, as he has spent most of his campaign attacking Democrats and sticking to his core message on immigration, trade and the economy.

Harris’s closing pitch, meanwhile, directed toward winning over anti-Trump Republicans and independents, isn’t without its risks, said Democratic strategist Bennett.

“You are always shorting one thing to try to help promote something else,” he said. “The candidate’s time and the time spent on advertising are the two most precious commodities. And how you spend those matters.”

Trump has been a polarising figure in American politics for more than eight years now. Most Americans have strongly held, and deeply ingrained, opinions about the man by now.

If anti-Trump sentiment puts Harris over the top on election day, her latest strategic emphasis will have paid off. If not, the second-guessing will come fast and furious.

Tell us using this form

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.

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 had a small lead over Trump in the national polling averages since she entered the race at the end of July and she remains ahead – as shown in the chart below with the latest figures rounded to the nearest whole number.

Harris saw a bounce in her polling numbers in the first few weeks of her campaign, building a lead of nearly four percentage points towards the end of August.

The numbers were relatively stable through September, even after the only debate between the two candidates on 10 September, which was watched by nearly 70 million people.

In the last few days the gap between them has tightened, as you can see in the poll tracker chart below, with the trend lines showing the averages 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 and neither candidate has a decisive lead in any of them, according to the polling averages.

If you look at the trends since Harris joined the race, it does help highlight some differences between the states – but it’s important to note that there are fewer state polls than national polls 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.

In Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina, the lead has changed hands a few times since the start of August but Trump has a small lead in all of them at the moment.

In the three other states – Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – Harris had led since the start of August, sometimes by two or three points, but in recent days the polls have tightened significantly and Trump now has a very small lead in Pennsylvania.

All three of those states had 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 then she will be on course to win the election.

In a sign of how the race has changed since Harris became the Democratic nominee, on the day that Biden quit the race he was trailing Trump by nearly five percentage points on average in the seven swing states.

In Pennsylvania, Biden was behind by nearly 4.5 percentage points when he dropped out, as the chart below shows. It is a key state for both campaigns as it has the highest number of electoral votes of the seven and therefore winning it makes it easier to reach the 270 votes needed.

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 all of the 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.

• Listen: How do election polls work?

• SIMPLE GUIDE: How you can get most votes but lose
• EXPLAINER: The seven states that will decide the election
• GLOBAL: Harris or Trump? What Chinese people want
• ON THE GROUND: Democrats take fight deep into Trump country
• FACT-CHECK: What the numbers really say about crime
• Read more about: Kamala Harris | Donald Trump | US election

Outrage has erupted on social media after Somalia’s Family Minister Gen Bashir Mohamed Jama shared photos on X of himself and another male delegate representing Somalia at a UN meeting about women’s issues.

“It is tone-deaf for the Somali government to have men on the frontline, representing women at the conference,” Fathiya Absie, a well-known Somali author and human rights activist, told the BBC.

A senior civil servant has told the BBC that two women also made up Somalia’s four-member delegation to the Women, Peace and Security Focal Points Network event in New York, but were not included in the photo.

Out of 197 delegates registered for the event from 57 countries, just 21 were men.

The group photo from the event – held earlier this week – has provoked further ridicule from Somalis online, with many saying the government does not take women’s issues seriously.

• Inside the beauty pageant in one of the world’s worst places to be a woman
• What beauty parlours reveal about Somali women

Several photos were tweeted from the conference, one showing Gen Jama with his adviser, former MP Abdullahi Godah Barre; another showed them in the meeting room with another man, who the BBC was told was an aide.

“He was not the only male minister present – there were a lot of other male ministers, such as Japan and China,” Mohamed Bashir, a senior civil servant at Somalia’s Ministry of Family and Human Development, told the BBC.

The two female Somali delegates were Iman Elman, a prominent military officer, and Sadia Mohammed Nur, a civil servant from the ministry, he said.

The online backlash has reignited criticism of the government’s decision in July to rename what was the Ministry of Women and Human Rights Development to the Ministry of Family and Human Rights Development.

This is when Gen Jama, a senior military officer who has held posts including heading the spy agency and prisons service, was appointed to lead the ministry.

“Removing the word ‘women’ from the ministry’s title is an erasure of the struggles and specific needs of women. It generalises their issues under the broader term ‘family,'” Ms Absie said.

Women’s rights in Somalia have been under scrutiny for many years.

Women in Somalia – which has suffered a long civil war and a more recent Islamist insurgency – have long played a vital role in peacebuilding, often stepping into leadership roles and pushing for greater political participation.

Despite this, there are not many women in positions of political influence.

“Women were always the minority in leadership and now they have given the remaining ministries to men,” Ms Absie said.

Some did defend the government, saying they did not see anything wrong with having a man with experience fronting the family ministry.

But the voices of those calling for a stronger female presence are growing louder – and Mr Bashir said the ministry would be striving to give women a more significant role in future.

• Somalia’s opioid overdose: Young, female and addicted
• WATCH: Somalia’s all-women media team breaking the stereotypes
• Quick guide to Somalia

A Kurdish militant group has said it was responsible for an attack on a state-owned defence manufacturer’s headquarters near the Turkish capital, Ankara, which saw five people killed.

The PKK said it had targeted Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) on Wednesday because the arms it produced had killed “thousands” of Kurds, including women and children.

In a statement, the group said the attack, which also saw 22 people injured, was “planned a long time ago” – apparently rebuffing claims that the attack was an attempt to frustrate rumoured reconciliation efforts between the PKK and Turkish government.

TAI is a key supplier for Turkey’s military, providing its F-16 fighter jets.

The Turkish government had previously implicated the PKK in the attack, identifying the assailants as PKK members Ali Orek and Mine Sevjin Alcicek.

It subsequently launched dozens of air strikes on what it described as PKK sites in Iraq and Syria.

Turkey says it killed 59 “terrorists” in the strikes – though the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said 12 civilians were among the dead, including children.

The Ministry of Defence said Turkish forces had since killed more PKK militants.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is banned as a terrorist organisation in Turkey, the US and UK, and has been fighting against the Turkish state since the 1980s for greater rights for the country’s significant Kurdish minority.

The PKK’s armed wing, the People’s Defense Forces (HPG), described Orek and Alcicek as an “autonomous team” belonging to the “Immortals Battalion”. It described them as “heroes”.

The HPG said TAI was a “military target” it had a “legitimate right” to attack as it was where “weapons of massacre are produced”.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the attack “heinous”.

He said that “no terrorist organisation, no evil focus targeting our security will be able to achieve their goals”.

TAI is a major player in Turkey’s aerospace industry, designing, developing and manufacturing various aircraft for commercial and military use.

As well as being the Nato member’s licensed manufacturer of US-designed F-16 fighter jets, the company also plays a role in modernising older aircraft for the Turkish military.

The HPG said it “does not take actions frequently as a principle”, but occasionally carried out “self-sacrificing” acts that served as “warnings and messages” to the Turkish government.

The victims were named by Turkey’s state-run news agency as TAI employees Cengiz Coskun, Zahide Guclu, Atakan Sahin Erdogan, Huseyin Canbaz, as well as taxi driver Murat Arslan.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the two attackers had been “neutralised”.

The HPG also said Wednesday’s attack was “nothing to do with the political agenda debated in Turkey in the last month”.

Before it occurred, there had been speculation over the possibility of a ceasefire deal between the PKK and the Turkish state – fuelled by some seemingly conciliatory acts.

On Tuesday, a key ally of Erdogan suggested that the PKK’s leader, Abdullah Ocalan, could be released from his life imprisonment in a Turkish prison if he publicly disbanded the organisation – seen by some as a starting point for reconciliation.

The following day, Ocalan was allowed a visit from his nephew – the first family visit in 43 months – according the Reuters news agency.

A man has admitted carrying out an arson attack on a Ukrainian-owned business in east London on behalf of Russia.

Dylan Earl, 20, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to breaching the National Security Act, and aggravated arson in connection with a blaze at a warehouse in Leyton in March which required 60 firefighters to bring under control.

Mr Earl, from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire, pleaded not guilty to a third charge of assisting a foreign intelligence service. The prosecution said it would not proceed with that charge.

Five other men from London charged in relation to the fire either denied the charge or were not asked to enter a plea at this stage.

The prosecution allege Mr Earl burned down a warehouse, owned by a man referred to in court as Mr X.

Aggravated arson is where there is a risk that someone’s life could be endangered.

The second offence he admitted was brought under Section 18 of the National Security Act 2023 and is that he had engaged in conduct preparatory to endangering life for the benefit of a foreign power – in this case Russia.

Three other defendants – Nii Mensah, 22, from Thornton Heath, Paul English, 61, from Roehampton, and Jakeem Rose, 22, from Croydon, all pleaded not guilty to aggravated arson.

Their trial is provisionally set for June next year.

Mr Rose admitted simple arson but the prosecution said it would not accept that plea.

Jake Reeves, 23, from Croydon, and Ugnius Asmena, 19, from Wandsworth, have not yet entered a plea to the aggravated arson charge.

Mr Reeves also faces two charges of accepting money from a foreign intelligence service and engaging in conduct preparatory to endangering life for the benefit of a foreign power.

He has not yet entered pleas to those charges either.

A man who was twice homeless as a teenager before becoming a multimillionaire entrepreneur has topped a list celebrating influential black Britons.

Dean Forbes, who, after failing to make it as a professional footballer, began his career in a call centre, is now the boss of a software company.

He worked his way up from “abject poverty” on an estate in south-east London to become chief executive of Forterro, a Swedish software firm.

Forbes said topping the Powerlist 2025 was a “professional and career high”.

He told the BBC that although he grew up in a single-parent family on a housing estate in Lewisham, his disabled mum always encouraged her children to be positive, and gave them hope.

He said he had a “whale of a time” growing up despite having little money, living in a local community which “looked after each other”.

His said his mum taught him and his two brothers to “raise our expectations”, “never to be victims” and not dwell on misfortunes.

He twice became homeless as a teenager, but said he and his family always saw these as temporary challenges to be overcome.

He managed to get a place at Crystal Palace Academy, but it didn’t work out.

He points to that failure as a key moment in his eventual success, because it made him more determined.

“Thanks to that disappointment and rejection, it put me on this path which is beyond my wildest dreams,” he said.

He had been borrowing money to “keep up appearances” with friends like then-footballer Rio Ferdinand who were being “paid well”, but he was eventually left with an £88,000 debt pile.

To start to clear that, he got a job in a Motorola call centre, and he quickly worked his way up.

He moved to a software firm called Primavera which he helped build up, and made his first millions after it was sold to Oracle: he had taken an equity stake.

Forbes moved from there and was chief executive of two software firms, KDS and CoreHR, each time taking equity stakes, and making millions more.

He also has an equity stake in Forterro, which he said was a firm which makes more than €300m (£250m) in revenue per year and earnings of €130m.

Despite his wealth, he said he never wanted “to lose the value of a pound”.

He was able to buy his mum a home, and his children “have never had to deal with anything I had to deal with” in terms of poverty.

He now describes celebrities like Ferdinand and actor Idris Elba as close friends.

But he told the BBC his roots remained very important to him and he wanted to inspire and give opportunities to others who have not started out with advantages in life.

Forbes and his wife Danielle set up the Forbes Family Group, a philanthropic organisation for people in underserved communities.

They are working to try to break the cycle of poverty and disadvantage, and give people positive role models.

“My experience has made me painfully aware that there is so much talent in these communities – you just need to open the door a crack” to give people a chance, he said.

Forbes said that as he was growing up the only black people he could see who were successful seemed to be in entertainment, sport, or “doing unsavoury things” in criminal gangs.

He said he wanted to make success in business more “relatable” in part through mentoring and networking projects.

He has now been named number one on the Powerlist 2025, after being number two last year.

The annual Powerlist was first published in 2007, with its aim to provide role models for young black people, according to Powerful Media.

Forbes takes the place of British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful at the head of the list.

The top 10 of the Powerlist for 2025 is:

1. Dean Forbes, chief executive at software firm Forterro

2. Bernard Mensah, president of international at Bank of America

3. Afua Kyei, chief financial officer at the Bank of England

4. Emma Grede, chief executive at fashion brand Good American

5. Joshua Siaw, partner at law firm White & Case

6. Tunde Olanrewaju, senior partner at consultancy McKinsey

7. Alexander and Oliver Kent-Braham, founders of insurance firm Marshmallow

8. Adejoke Bakare, chef-owner at Michelin-starred restaurant Chishuru

9. Justin Onuekwusi, fund manager at St. James’s Place

10. Pamela Maynard, chief AI transformation officer at Microsoft

Archaeologists have found the remains of two medieval cities in the grassy mountains of eastern Uzbekistan, a discovery that could shift our understanding of the fabled Silk Road.

Known for the exchange of goods and ideas between the East and West, the trade routes were long believed to have linked lowland cities.

But using remote sensing technology, archeologists have now found at least two highland cities that sat along a key crossroad of the trade routes.

One of the cities – Tugunbulak, a metropolis spanning at least 120 hectares – sat more than 2,000m (6,600 ft) above sea level.

“The history of Central Asia is now changing with this finding,” said archaeologist Farhod Maksudov, who was part of the research team.

The team believes Tugunbulak and the smaller city, Tashbulak, were bustling settlements between the 8th and 11th centuries, during the Middle Ages, when the area was controlled by a powerful Turkic dynasty.

Only 3% of the world’s population live above this altitude today. Lhasa in Tibet and Cusco in Peru are among the rare examples.

The discovery led by Mr Maksudov, director of Uzbekistan’s National Center of Archaeology and Michael Frachetti, an archaeologist at Washington University in St Louis, was made possible with drones and a remote-sensing tool known as lidar, which uses reflected light to create three-dimensional mappings of the environment.

Their research was published in the scientific journal Nature this week, and experts who are not involved in it have hailed its significance in shedding light on the lifestyles of nomadic communities.

The team first discovered Tashbulak, the smaller city, in 2011 while trekking in the mountains. They found burial sites, thousands of pottery shards and other signs that the territory was populated.

Historical records allude to cities in the region, he said, but the team did not expect to find a 12-hectare medieval city some 2,200m above sea level.

“We were kind of blown away,” Mr Frachetti told the BBC.

Even trekking up there was rough, he added, as they encountered strong winds, storms and logistical challenges.

Four years later, a local forestry administrator tipped off the team to study another site close to Tashbulak.

“The official said, ‘I think I have some of those kinds of ceramics in my backyard.’

“So we went to his house… And discovered his house was built on a medieval citadel. He was like living on a huge city,” Mr Frachetti said.

The most challenging part in these discoveries was in convincing the academic community that these cities existed.

“We would say to people that we found this amazing site, and we would get scepticism, that maybe it’s not so big, or it’s just a mound, or a castle… That was the big challenge, how to document this city scientifically to actually illustrate what it was,” Mr Frachetti said.

In 2022, the team returned with a drone equipped with a lidar sensor, which helped peel back the surfaces to unveil walls, guard towers, intricate architectural features and other fortifications in Tugunbulak.

The researchers suggest that communities may have chosen to settle in Tugunbulak and Tashbulak to tap strong winds to fuel fires needed to smelt iron ores – which the region was rich in. Preliminary excavations have also uncovered production kilns.

“Whoever had iron in their hands in medieval time was very powerful,” Mr Maksudov said.

But this could also have led to the communities’ downfall, he said. This area used to be covered by a thick juniper forest, but these could have been cut to facilitate iron production. “The area became environmentally very unstable because of the flash floods, because of the avalanches,” he said.

Typically, scholars have expected to find evidence of settlements lower down in the valley, “so these finds are remarkable”, said Peter Frankopan, a global history professor at Oxford University.

“What an amazing treasure trove… that shows the deep interconnections criss-crossing Asia, as well as the links between exploitation of natural resources more than a millennium ago,” he said.

High-altitude urban sites are “extraordinarily rare” in the archaeological record because communities face unique challenges in settling there, said Zachary Silvia, an archaeologist at Brown University.

The team’s work provides an “immense contribution to the study of medieval urbanism in Central Asia”, he wrote in a commentary on Nature.

Israel’s attack on Iran has been anticipated since the latter launched nearly 200 ballistic missiles on Israel almost a month ago.

In a statement announcing that the operation was under way on Saturday, Israel’s military spokesman said Israel had the “right and duty” to respond and that its defensive and offensive capabilities were fully mobilised.

Iranian state media has confirmed that explosions have been heard in the west of Tehran.

But there’s no clarity as yet in precisely what the targets have been and whether they have been successfully hit by Israel.

News sites close to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards says that some military bases in the west and south-west of the Iranian capital have been targeted.

The Syrian state news agency says that Israeli air strikes have also targeted some military sites in central and southern areas of Syria.

• LIVE: Israel launches air strikes on Iran
• Explosions in Iran as Israel launches air strikes

The office of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has released a picture of him in the operations centre of the military headquarters during the attack.

For now, at least, Iranian media is playing down the impact. The true nature of what has happened is only likely to trickle out bit by bit from the Iranian authorities.

Israel may move more quickly to disclose the details of its attack. But that may depend on whether or not it plans to carry out another wave.

The Pentagon has given a briefing that the US was made aware of Israel’s plans beforehand and that there was no US involvement in the operation.

That’s significant in Washington’s efforts to try to prevent the conflict between Israel and Iran escalating into a confrontation that could move ever closer to all-out war.

The US will also be waiting for the dust to settle to see if Israel’s targets were limited to military targets or went beyond that to include facilities linked to Iran’s nuclear programme – which could trigger another major response from Tehran.

For now – on the scant evidence that is available – Israel may have heeded Washington’s warnings and reined in some of its more ambitious plans to cause maximum pain to the Iranian authorities.

Israel launched multiple air strikes on Iran in the early hours of Saturday, in response to what the Israeli military called “months of continuous attacks” from Tehran and its proxies.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it is carrying out “precise strikes on military targets” in Iran, which it accuses of “relentlessly attacking Israel” since 7 October 2023.

The IDF’s confirmation of strikes on Iran followed earlier reports by Iranian state media of several explosions in and around the capital, Tehran.

It comes after Tehran launched almost 200 ballistic missiles towards Israel on 1 October, in what the country said was a retaliation for the killing of Hamas’s political leader on Iranian soil back in July.

In a statement announcing that the operation in Iran was under way, the Israeli military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said Israel had the “right and duty” to respond and its “defensive and offensive capabilities” were “fully mobilised”.

The US, one of Israel’s closest allies, said Saturday’s strike against Israel was an “exercise of self-defence”.

“We understand that Israel is conducting targeted strikes against military targets in Iran as an exercise of self-defence and in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1,” a National Security Council spokesman told the BBC’s US news partner CBS.

The 1 October attacks were largely thwarted by Israel’s military, but a small number struck central and southern Israel.

Tehran said it had attacked Israel in retaliation for what it called the “violation of Iran’s sovereignty and the martyrdom” of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed by an explosion in Tehran in July that Iranian officials blamed on Israel, but Israeli officials did not claim responsibility.

At the time, Iran said the attack was also in response to the Israeli air strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Brig-Gen Abbas Nilforoushan, the operations commander of the IRGC’s overseas arm, the Quds Force.

That escalation came hours after Israeli troops began an invasion of southern Lebanon to remove what the military said were “Hezbollah terror targets” in border villages that posed a threat to residents of northern Israel.

• Iran’s missile attack on Israel

Speaking after Israel launched its strikes on Saturday, a White House official said President Joe Biden “has been briefed and is closely following the developments”.

However, a US defence official stressed that there had been no US involvement in the Israeli strikes on Saturday.

Iranian state media confirmed that explosions were heard in the west of Tehran. A news agency close to the Revolutionary Guards said some military bases in the west and south-west of the Iranian capital had been targeted.

The extent of the attacks and the precise targets are not yet clear.

Iranian media are denying that these attacks have caused any real damage, as reported by BBC Persian.

But the country’s aviation authority announced that flights had been cancelled on all routes until further notice.

The Syrian state news agency reported that Israeli air strikes have also targeted some military sites in central and southern areas of Syria.

Cimarron Thomas was 12 years old in 2018 when she used her father’s handgun to kill herself.

From West Virginia, USA, she played the violin, she loved elephants and chatting with her friends on Snapchat, and she was looking forward to her 13th birthday.

But she was being sexually abused and blackmailed online by a student from Northern Ireland, described as the UK’s most prolific catfisher.

Alexander McCartney, 26, from outside Newry, County Armagh, has been given a life sentence with a minimum of 20 years in jail for the manslaughter of Cimarron and the extreme sexual exploitation of other young girls.

In a tragic turn of events, Cimarron’s father, Ben, a US army veteran, took his own life 18 months later. He did not know about his daughter’s abuse or why she took her own life.

Cimarron’s grandparents, Peggy and Dale Thomas, detailed their pain in a victim impact statement read out in court.

“Our lives will never be the same again,” they said.

“We didn’t get to see her graduate, walk down the aisle, or have children.

“We have been robbed, and our lives have been changed forever.”

Cimarron Thomas lived with her mum, dad, and siblings.

They were an ordinary American family, but in 2018, a predator was about to bring destruction to their lives.

Using a fake persona, McCartney contacted her online, complimented her on her appearance, and began grooming her before she sent him an intimate photo.

The court heard that during the first abusive interaction, he kept her online for an hour and 45 minutes, demanding sexual and degrading images.

He told her if she didn’t send him more photos, he’d publish the ones he already had on the internet.

Cimarron went back to school and did not tell anyone about the abuse.

McCartney continued to pursue Cimarron and contacted her four days later using another fake account, saying: “I want to play one more time.”

Despite pleading for McCartney to stop and being visibly upset, he told her to “dry your eyes” and involve her younger sister, aged nine, in a sex act.

Cimarron refused and said she would rather kill herself.

McCartney then put up a countdown clock, telling her “goodbye and good luck”.

Three minutes later, Cimarron was found by her nine-year-old sister, who entered the room after she thought she heard a balloon pop.

She had shot herself in the head with the family’s legally-held firearm.

Cimarron was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Police have released the 911 call of the family calling for help.

On that fateful day in May 2018, Cimarron’s nine-year-old sister found her lying on the floor of her parents’ bedroom with a gun by her side.

Her family had no idea why she had taken her life and were unaware of the ordeal she had been subjected to.

Her mother, Stephanie, told investigators that she might have been unsure of her sexuality. Eighteen months later, Cimarron’s father then took his own life.

However, years later, the truth behind what had happened to Cimarron emerged.

Cimarron’s grandparents, Peggy and Dale, have taken part in an upcoming BBC documentary about McCartney, where they remember their granddaughter but speak about their suffering.

They hope that raising awareness of what they went through will prevent other families from suffering the same ordeal.

McCartney first appeared in court in Northern Ireland in late July 2019.

Police believe he targeted as many as 3,500 children on 64 devices between 2013 and 2019.

The court heard the harm McCartney caused was “unquantifiable”, and he “degraded and humiliated” victims for his own sexual gratification.

Many of his child victims have never been identified, but all their lives have been changed forever.

Then in April 2021, just before McCartney was to be arraigned on some of the charges relating to the case, investigators discovered what had happened to Cimarron.

In what is understood to be a legal first, he was charged with the manslaughter of Cimarron, which he pleaded guilty to.

McCartney eventually admitted about 185 charges involving about 70 child victims – aged between 10 and 16.

The Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland brought these forward as sample charges in order to produce an indictment the court could manage.

The court heard of the impact McCartney’s abuse had on his young victims; some said they have suffered flashbacks, shame, alopecia, and trust issues.

Other girls now felt paralysed when touched in any way by any man, that their childhoods had been stolen, and some had suicidal thoughts.

The litany of McCartney’s crimes spanned continents.

BBC News NI has spoken to a man from New Zealand, we’ve called him Stephen (not his real name), about the abuse suffered by his two girls after McCartney struck up a friendship with his eldest daughter, then 12, on Snapchat.

The girl, we’ve called her Rebecca (not her real name), believed that she was talking to another girl.

That Rebecca believed to be a friendship grew over a few months. Then McCartney asked Rebecca for a nude photograph, which she sent.

“He then used that to manipulate and blackmail her into sending more photos, which ended up including our youngest daughter as well as part of the blackmail,” Stephen said.

“And then, in time, through her contact list on Snapchat, he added Rebecca’s cousin as well, who was older at the time, and he then tried to threaten her with getting more photos.

“Thankfully, she was mature enough and smart enough to reach out to my wife, and then we went straight to the police from there.”

He said as soon as the first photo was sent, McCartney had power, adding that Rebecca was “playing by his rules”.

“He preyed on her innocence,” he added.

The father explained that his youngest daughter, who is two years younger, did not know what was happening.

“She just thought it was two sisters playing dress up and taking silly pictures, so she’s actually completely oblivious to it to this day.”

Stephen said McCartney’s offending has had a “profound impact” on his eldest daughter.

At the beginning of the year, she moved away for university but moved home after six weeks.

“I believe she missed out on opportunities because of trust issues. It’s something she’s going to deal with forever,” he said.

“We know she’s on this medication all the time, and the dark places that I’m sure her mind goes when she’s alone.”

Stephen said he and his wife have been devastated by what happened to their children, but there was a silver lining in that they were able to play a “small part in bringing him [McCartney] to justice and preventing further victims”.

The three part series, Teen Predator/ Online Killer, which looks at this case in greater detail will be available on BBC iPlayer, BBC One NI and BBC Three in the coming weeks.

For decades, Canada has cast itself as a country open to newcomers, with immigration policies tailored to boost its population, fill labour gaps and settle refugees fleeing conflict from around the world.

But in recent months, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he intends to significantly cut the number of immigrants allowed in Canada as public concern grows over inaccessible social services, high costs of living and unaffordable housing.

It is a major shift for both the country and Trudeau, who ran in 2015 on a platform of embracing multiculturalism as a key part of Canadian identity.

His government has relied on ambitious immigration targets to fuel economic growth.

In the face of criticism and plummeting approval ratings, the prime minister now says that his government miscalculated, and that Canada needs to “stabilise” its population growth so that public infrastructure can keep up.

On Thursday, Trudeau and Immigration Minister Marc Miller presented their most stringent immigration cutbacks yet – a 21% reduction of permanent residents accepted into the country in 2025.

The announcement follows other cuts to Canada’s temporary resident programmes, which include temporary foreign workers and international students.

Explaining his shift in policy, Trudeau maintained that “Canadians are justifiably proud” of their immigration system.

“It has made our economy the envy of the world,” he said. “It’s how we build strong, diverse communities.”

But Trudeau admitted that his government “didn’t get the balance quite right” when it admitted a record number of temporary residents after the Covid-19 pandemic to ease labour shortages, and that there is now a need to “stabilise” Canada’s immigration system.

His announcement comes at the heels of dwindling public support for immigration in Canada.

• Trudeau announces sharp cuts to Canada’s immigration targets
• Justin Trudeau’s sinking popularity puts him on shaky ground

A September poll by Environics Institute, which has tracked Canadians’ attitudes towards immigration since 1977, revealed that for the first time in a quarter century, a majority now say there is too much immigration.

The institute said these shifting attitudes are primarily driven by concerns over limited housing. But the economy, over-population, and how the immigration system is being managed were also cited as big factors.

In an October newsletter, Abacus Data pollster David Coletto said that the idea that “consensus around immigration is cracking is an understatement”.

“I think that consensus is now broken and expect it to be one of the most salient issues in federal and provincial politics over the next year.”

Canada has been largely welcoming to immigrants. Data shows it is a global leader in refugee resettlement, and the country has built a reputation in the last 50 years as one that values newcomers.

The Canadian Multiculturalism Act, passed in 1988, recognises diversity as an integral part of Canada’s identity. Its multicultural heritage is also protected in the constitution.

“Since the late 1990s or so, Canadian attitudes have been broadly pro-immigration,” Michael Donnelly, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto, told the BBC.

In 2019, a Pew Research report indicated that of 10 top migrant destination countries, Canada had the most positive view of immigration.

Professor Donnelly said that immigrants make up a large part of Canada’s electorate, which deters major political parties from adopting an anti-immigration stance.

Canada has also rarely faced troubles experienced elsewhere with uncontrolled migration – a benefit of its geography, being surrounded by three oceans and the US to the south – and its immigration system was seen by the public as open and well-regulated.

But these positive sentiments have changed in the last few years, Professor Donnelly said.

One reason is the unprecedented spike in temporary residents coming to Canada.

The number of international students grew nearly 30% from 2022 to 2023, according to the Canadian Bureau for International Education. Meanwhile, government data shows that the number of temporary foreign workers in Canada has doubled in the last five years.

Another factor is a growing sense that Canada’s immigration system has lost its integrity, Professor Donnelly said, partly due to miscalculations by the Canadian government.

Asylum claims spiked after Canada removed visa requirements for tourists from Mexico in 2016, forcing Canada to reimpose visa restrictions earlier this year.

Canadian media has also reported that some international students were using their temporary visa to claim permanent asylum in the country – a trend that Minister Miller called “alarming”.

Professor Donnelly said these incidents and others “have made people think that the government has lost control of the flow of immigration”.

All of these concerns, he added, are underlined by a housing crisis that has affected Canadians across the country, where a shortage of available homes has driven both rent and home prices up for many.

“People are going to see large numbers of (newcomers) coming in and housing shortages, and conclude that’s directly causal,” he said.

Professor Donnelly noted that while Canada has seen some racist rhetoric around immigration, Canadians’ changing attitudes are not primarily driven by the sentiments seen in European countries or in the neighbouring United States.

Rather, it is fuelled by people’s desire to reign in Canada’s immigration system.

“The Trudeau government is clearly trying to give an image of ‘we have this under control’,” Prof Donnelly said.

The “most painful aspects of our past continue to resonate”, King Charles III said this week to Commonwealth leaders in Samoa, as arguments about reparations and apologies over the slave trade rumbled once again.

That’s become an occupational hazard for the Royal Family, as it can’t shake off questions about the long shadow of historic links to slavery.

It’s even more pointed in a forum such as the Commonwealth summit, with leaders representing some of the countries most affected by the legacy of colonialism and slavery.

But even if the King had a personal belief that there should be a symbolic apology or a commitment to reparations, he wouldn’t have been able to deliver it.

Monarchs speak on the advice of ministers – and on a question of such political sensitivity, his speeches will have to stay within the boundaries of government policy.

In other words, he has to stick to the script.

A week ago, Downing Street signalled quite clearly that there would not be an apology or a deal on reparations from the UK at the summit in Samoa.

That meant that whatever the King might privately think, anything he said about such historic wrongs would reflect the line set by the government.

“None of us can change the past,” the King said diplomatically, neatly aligning with Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s line that we “can’t change our history”.

That hasn’t stopped the King from going very close to the wire.

In Kenya last year, the King spoke of his “greatest sorrow and regret” at the wrongdoings of the colonial era.

In language stronger than in Samoa, he spoke of the “abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence committed against Kenyans” during their struggle for independence.

But in keeping with government policy, there was nothing that could be pinned down as an explicit apology.

The use of “sorrow” carefully avoids saying sorry. It was also used by the then-Prince Charles at the previous Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Rwanda.

Interestingly, it mirrors the closest a UK prime minister has come, when Tony Blair in 2007 formally voiced his “deep sorrow and regret” over Britain’s part in the slave trade.

At the time, there were calls for Blair to go further, but he later said he had said sorry.

Although expressing it as “sorrow” includes the emotion, it avoids the liability and expectation of compensation that might come with “sorry”.

As head of state, the King is the symbolic focus of calls for such redress, whether that’s financial reparations or some other ways addressing of historic wrongs. That’s not going to go away.

That’s awkward but he’ll take that in his stride, as it’s a political decision that he can’t change and reparations for the past seem unlikely when current UK budgets are under intense stress.

But there’s also the more complicated question of how much the monarchy, as both a family and an institution, might have a closer responsibility.

For example, the Royal African Company, founded in the 17th Century under royal patronage, has been claimed as transporting more enslaved people from Africa across the Atlantic than any other company.

But history, like people, can be full of contradictions.

When it came to Britain’s pioneering efforts to abolish slavery, in the early 19th Century, research by historian Prof Suzanne Schwarz found the Royal Family itself was divided.

The nephew of George III, the Duke of Gloucester, was one of the most important campaigners to abolish slavery – a tireless opponent of the cruel trade and a supporter of the Royal Navy’s efforts to intercept slave ships.

But before the royals feel the clouds lifting, George III’s son, the future William IV, was one of the most enthusiastic defenders of slavery.

There’s a sparkling silver service still in the possession of the Royal Collection Trust, known as the “Jamaica Service”, which was given to the future William IV by those in Jamaica who wanted to thank him for his efforts to protect the slave trade.

Before becoming King, William IV was Duke of Clarence – and Clarence House, a royal residence, is named after him.

There have been attempts in other countries to draw a line under the question of slavery.

The Dutch King delivered a formal apology, in a move co-ordinated with the country’s prime minister.

But for King Charles and other senior royals, it’s a question that continues to hang in the background, particularly when they visit a former colony or a place where the slave trade had an impact.

Prince William and Catherine’s trip to the Caribbean in 2022 was dogged by rows over whether their visit had too much of the look and feel of a colonial visit.

Any trip planners must look at traditional dancers and garlands and start having nightmares about how it might come across.

But the King, who has been walking this political tightrope for many decades, steered a careful path in Samoa.

“None of us can change the past. But we can commit, with all our hearts, to learning its lessons and to finding creative ways to right inequalities that endure,” he said.

And in a speech that was widely seen as being about the legacy of slavery – he never once actually referred to slavery at all.

A former model has alleged in a CNN interview that she was groped by former President Donald Trump in the 1990s.

Stacey Williams says the incident occurred in 1993 after disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who she says she was in a relationship with at the time, brought her to meet Trump at Trump Tower in New York City.

“The second he [Trump] was in front of me, he pulled me into him, and his hands were just on me and didn’t come off,” Ms Williams told the broadcaster.

The Trump campaign has denied the claim, noting that the former model originally shared the story at an event called “Survivors for Kamala”, in support of Trump’s rival, the Democratic White House nominee Kamala Harris.

“These accusations… announced on a Harris Campaign call two weeks before the election, are unequivocally false,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

“It’s obvious this fake story was contrived by the Harris campaign to distract from the deeply concerning and newly unearthed allegations that the Second ‘Gentleman,’ Doug Emhoff, ‘forcefully slapped’ his ex-girlfriend.'”

Doug Emhoff, Harris’s husband, was accused by an ex-girlfriend of slapping her in 2012, reports the Daily Mail.

The BBC has not identified the reported Emhoff ex-girlfriend, who was granted anonymity by the Mail, or the veracity of her claim.

Emhoff has denied the allegation via a spokesperson. The Harris campaign has not responded to BBC requests for comment.

Ms Williams said on CNN that Trump greeted her and his hands touched “the side of my breasts, on my hips, back down to my butt, back up… they were just on me the whole time”, while Epstein and the former president smiled and talked to each other.

She described it as “an out of body experience” and said she “froze”.

Shortly after the alleged incident, Williams said that she broke up with Epstein, who was arrested for sex crimes in 2019 and died by suicide while awaiting trial.

Several women have come forward accusing Trump of sexual assault since he announced his candidacy for president in 2016. He has repeatedly denied these claims.

In 2023, a civil jury found the Republican White House nominee liable for sexually abusing E Jean Carroll, a writer.

US authorities say cybercriminals linked to China may have attempted to tap into the phones or networks used by former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance, a number of sources familiar with the matter confirmed to the BBC’s US news partner, CBS News.

The sources said the Trump-Vance campaign had been alerted to the fact that phones used by Trump and Vance may have been among the targets of a broader cyber attack.

People affiliated with the Harris-Walz campaign were also targeted, a person familiar told BBC News.

It is unclear how much information, if any, may have been compromised.

The Department of Justice and the FBI declined to comment on whether candidates were targeted.

A joint statement from the FBI and the Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said the US government was investigating the “unauthorised access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by actors affiliated with the People’s Republic of China”.

They said after the “malicious activity” was identified, the agencies “immediately notified affected companies, rendered technical assistance, and rapidly shared information to assist other potential victims,” adding that the investigation was ongoing.

“Agencies across the US government are collaborating to aggressively mitigate this threat and are coordinating with our industry partners to strengthen cyber defences across the commercial communications sector,” they added.

The Trump campaign blamed Democrats for the hack, claiming without evidence that it was an attempt “to prevent President Trump from returning to the White House”.

Law enforcement is currently treating the hack as an act of espionage, not as an attempt at campaign influence, one source told CBS.

Earlier this month it emerged that US telecommunications companies had been targeted in a hack.

One of the companies affected is said to be Verizon, through which the hackers are thought to have potentially targeted Trump and Vance’s data, according to the New York Times, who first reported the story.

In a statement, Verizon spokesman Rich Young said the company was “aware that a highly sophisticated nation-state actor has reportedly targeted several US telecommunications providers to gather intelligence.”

He said Verizon is assisting law enforcement agencies in the investigation and working to address any further problems.

The Trump campaign has already been the target of one hack earlier this year.

Three Iranians nationals linked to the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were charged in September with deliberately attempting to undermine a presidential campaign.

US government agencies and officials have long-warned of the threat of foreign interference in the US, including US elections.

“Our adversaries do look at American elections as points to try to influence, to try to undermine confidence in our democracy, to try to put their thumb on the scale,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in the summer. “We are clear eyed about that. And we are doing a lot to push back against it”.

In January, the issue was discussed in Congress, with FBI Director Christopher Wray warning that Chinese hackers were preparing to “wreak havoc and cause real-world harm” to the US.

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 had a small lead over Trump in the national polling averages since she entered the race at the end of July and she remains ahead – as shown in the chart below with the latest figures rounded to the nearest whole number.

Harris saw a bounce in her polling numbers in the first few weeks of her campaign, building a lead of nearly four percentage points towards the end of August.

The numbers were relatively stable through September, even after the only debate between the two candidates on 10 September, which was watched by nearly 70 million people.

In the last few days the gap between them has tightened, as you can see in the poll tracker chart below, with the trend lines showing the averages 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 and neither candidate has a decisive lead in any of them, according to the polling averages.

If you look at the trends since Harris joined the race, it does help highlight some differences between the states – but it’s important to note that there are fewer state polls than national polls 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.

In Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina, the lead has changed hands a few times since the start of August but Trump has a small lead in all of them at the moment.

In the three other states – Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – Harris had led since the start of August, sometimes by two or three points, but in recent days the polls have tightened significantly and Trump now has a very small lead in Pennsylvania.

All three of those states had 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 then she will be on course to win the election.

In a sign of how the race has changed since Harris became the Democratic nominee, on the day that Biden quit the race he was trailing Trump by nearly five percentage points on average in the seven swing states.

In Pennsylvania, Biden was behind by nearly 4.5 percentage points when he dropped out, as the chart below shows. It is a key state for both campaigns as it has the highest number of electoral votes of the seven and therefore winning it makes it easier to reach the 270 votes needed.

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 all of the 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.

• Listen: How do election polls work?

• SIMPLE GUIDE: How you can get most votes but lose
• EXPLAINER: The seven states that will decide the election
• GLOBAL: Harris or Trump? What Chinese people want
• ON THE GROUND: Democrats take fight deep into Trump country
• FACT-CHECK: What the numbers really say about crime
• Read more about: Kamala Harris | Donald Trump | US election

Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected a visit to Ukraine by UN Secretary General António Guterres over his trip to Russia, a source in the presidential office has told the BBC.

After attending a Brics summit in the Russian city of Kazan this week, Guterres had wanted to visit Kyiv, the BBC understands.

“The president did not confirm his visit,” the source told the BBC. “After Kazan and after he shook hands with the war’s instigator and spent UN Day on the territory of the aggressor country, it would be somehow strange to host him here.”

Guterres’ visit to Russia – who launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 – was met with dismay across Ukraine.

During his visit, Guterres called for a “just peace” in Ukraine and reiterated his position to Putin that Russia’s invasion of the country was in “violation of the United Nations Charter and international law”.

In a statement ahead of Guterres’ visit to Kazan, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said: “This is a wrong choice that does not advance the cause of peace. It only damages the UN’s reputation.”

“The UN secretary general declined Ukraine’s invitation to the first Global Peace Summit in Switzerland. He did, however, accept the invitation to Kazan from war criminal Putin,” the statement added.

Held at Ukraine’s initiative, the June summit in Switzerland was attended by more than 90 nations. It condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, offering a peace proposal on how to end the war.

Moscow – who was not invited – dismissed the gathering as meaningless.

In 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

Russia does not recognise the ICC, which co-operates closely with the UN.

During the Brics summit in Kazan, Guterres issued a statement that said: “We need peace in Ukraine. A just peace in line with the UN Charter, international law and General Assembly resolutions.”

Guterres’ office justified his participation in the summit, referring to Brics’ role “in boosting global co-operation”.

Set up in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India and China, Brics was later joined by South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates.

A number of analysts say that some Brics heavyweights, like Russia and China, have been seeking to challenge the G7 group of the world’s seven largest economies.

The current G7 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US.

It was a phone call from a 13-year-old girl in Scotland in 2019 that eventually led to the capture of a social media predator described as one of the world’s most prolific child sex abusers.

Alexander McCartney from Northern Ireland pretended to be a teenage girl to befriend, then abuse and blackmail children around the world, often sharing images with other paedophiles.

Some of the children were as young as four. Some had never told anyone what they had been through – until police knocked on their door.

McCartney gradually admitted 185 charges including manslaughter after a 12-year-old girl he was abusing took her own life.

He has been jailed for a minimum of 20 years.

Following contact from police in Scotland, an urgent investigation by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) swung into operation in March 2019.

Detectives identified the home address of Alexander McCartney, arrested and interviewed him.

Sixty-four of McCartney’s devices were seized at his home in the rural Lissummon Road area outside Newry in four separate raids.

Those devices held hundreds of thousands of indecent photos and videos of underage girls performing sexual acts whilst being blackmailed.

McCartney made and used many fake accounts on online platforms, mainly Snapchat, to entrap and manipulate them.

PSNI Det Ch Supt Eamonn Corrigan said McCartney had been “offending on an industrial scale”.

He groomed victims into thinking they were talking online to a girl of a similar age, before encouraging them to send indecent images or engage in sexual activity via webcam or a mobile phone.

McCartney used the same pattern every time, the detective said, adding: “He threatened to share these images online for the pleasure of other paedophiles and use them to further abuse and harass the already terrified and exploited children.”

In one incident, it took McCartney just nine minutes to groom, sexually abuse and blackmail a girl of only 12 years of age.

As time went on, it became clear that McCartney’s depravity spanned not just across the UK, but across the world. The abuse included involving other people, family pets and objects.

The PSNI worked with colleagues in the United States Department of Homeland Security, the Public Prosecution Service and National Crime Agency, and victims were located in America, New Zealand and at least 28 other countries.

Many of these children were only identified through the evidence detectives located on McCartney’s devices.

According to the police, he “built a paedophile enterprise” and had “stolen childhoods” of his victims.

In the spring of 2019, police called Catherine Kierans, acting head of the Public Prosecution Service’s serious crime unit.

They said something “big was unfolding… it involved catfishing”.

Catfishing is where a person creates a false identity to gain the trust of people and exploit them.

Ms Kierans said little girls “an average age of 10-12 years old [were] being threatened in the most depraved way.”

She said some of the children who had been exploited had previously opened up about their abuse, others had remained silent.

“Some of the children had raised the alarm, which helped police to actually identify him in the first place.

“But some of the children, until police knocked the door, they had never told anyone what they’d been through.”

According to Ms Kierans, McCartney offended “around the clock”.

As the investigation spread across the globe, Ms Kierans said prosecutors realised McCartney had been “very assiduous about saving the images”.

“He would also save the map on Snapchat of where the child was in some cases, and that then enabled police to locate the children.”

His arraignment in 2021 was delayed as police discovered the suicide of a little girl in West Virginia, USA.

“From the beginning, the level of abuse was so horrific that we were fearful that when these children were identified, would they be okay?” Ms Kierans said.

“Unfortunately, our worst fears were realised when we discovered, some way in, that one of the little girls had taken her own life.

“Working closely with the American authorities, we were able to prove that this child took her own life during the abuse, when she was still online with McCartney.

“At that point, the death of the child was so intrinsically linked to the abuse that we felt we had a strong case to say that he killed her.”

That little girl was 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas who, in 2018, shot herself while McCartney was abusing her.

McCartney was charged with her manslaughter.

Ms Kierans said it is believed to be the first time an abuser anywhere in the world has been held accountable for manslaughter where the victim and perpetrator have never met in person.

Such was the magnitude of the case that prosecutors had to be judicious with the charges.

“We couldn’t put 3,000 charges on the indictment,” Ms Kierans said.

“In the end, there were about 200 charges [relating to around 70 victims] which is probably one of the largest indictments that we’ve seen in Northern Ireland.”

McCartney grew up five miles outside of Newry and just off the main road to Armagh city.

It’s about as rural as it gets. Farms, a church and a few businesses.

When he first appeared at Newry Magistrate’s Court in July 2019 he was just 21, with long, fuzzy hair and the wide-eyed look of someone surprised to be sitting where he was.

He has spent more than five years on remand at Maghaberry Prison – leaving only for court appearances and further questioning by the police.

In those hearings, he said little other than to confirm his name and date of birth and to gradually enter softly-spoken guilty pleas.

McCartney attended Newry High School and was into gaming.

One source told BBC News NI: “He was introverted and socially awkward. He didn’t interact with people much outside of his group of friends.

“He was maybe at the edges of things, but he had friends who obviously knew nothing about this.”

He then took a course at the Southern Regional College in Newry where he was described as “quiet and didn’t really get involved with the rest of the class”.

When he was eventually charged in 2019 he was a computer science student at Ulster University.

For those living in and around his home, the case has been harrowing.

“The whole place was stunned,” one resident said.

“It was whispers at the start, then disbelief. I’m sure people talk about it in their own homes but it doesn’t get discussed publicly as people don’t know what to say.”

Another said: “He came across as a pleasant, affable, intelligent young man.

“There is nothing extraordinary about him.”

But what is extraordinary is the enormity of his offending; many of his victims had pleaded for the abuse to stop but prosecutors said he “callously continued, at times forcing the victims to involve younger children, some aged just four”.

According to Catherine Kierans, McCartney’s depravity was such that it was “one of the most distressing and prolific cases of child sexual abuse we have ever seen in the PPS”.

Ms Kierans said some of the victims have still never been identified despite exhaustive efforts by police.

“McCartney’s crimes have harmed thousands of children and left them and their families dealing with the traumatic aftermath,” she said.

“Their courage stands in stark contrast to his cowardice in targeting vulnerable young girls.”