President-elect Donald Trump has nominated veteran prosecutor Pam Bondi as his new pick for attorney general, hours after Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration.

Bondi has a long track record in law enforcement and previously served as Florida’s attorney general.

A long-time Trump ally, Bondi was part of his legal team during his first Senate impeachment trial and also publicly supported him by showing up at court during his hush money trial in New York.

“Pam was a prosecutor for nearly 20 years, where she was very tough on Violent Criminals, and made the streets safe for Florida Families,” Trump said in a social media post announcing his choice.

Bondi has been close to Trump since his 2016 campaign, telling voters at a recent Trump rally that she considers him a “friend”.

In 2019, she joined his White House to focus on “proactive impeachment messaging”, serving both as his legal advisor and defence attorney during his first impeachment – during which he was acquitted.

She continued to be part of Trump’s legal team in 2020 as it made false claims that the election had been stolen from Trump due to voter fraud.

She also served on Trump’s Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission, and more recently, has headed the legal arm of the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank founded by former Trump staff members.

If confirmed by the Senate, Bondi will become the country’s chief law enforcement officer, in charge of the justice department’s more than 115,000 employees and roughly $45bn (£35.7bn) budget.

She would also play a key role in attempting to implement Trump’s vow to punish his political enemies once he takes office.

She has been a vocal critic of the criminal cases brought against Trump, as well as special counsel Jack Smith, who charged Trump in two federal cases.

“For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans – Not anymore,” Trump wrote on Thursday evening.

“Pam will refocus the DOJ [Department of Justice] to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again.”

Trump’s other plans for the department include ending “weaponised government”, protecting US borders, dismantling criminal organisations and restoring Americans’ “badly-shattered faith and confidence” in the department.

Trump’s transition team will be hoping that Bondi’s nomination path will be less tumultuous than Gaetz’s.

Reacting to the announcement, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham predicted that Bondi “will be confirmed quickly,” calling her selection a “grand slam, touchdown, hole in one, ace, hat trick, slam dunk, Olympic gold medal pick.”

The news of Bondi’s nomination came about six hours after Gaetz said he would not seek the high-profile cabinet post, following days of debate over whether to release a congressional report on sexual misconduct allegations against him.

Announcing his withdrawal, the 41-year-old said the controversy over his potential nomination “was unfairly becoming a distraction” to the work of the incoming Trump administration.

The report included the findings of a probe sparked by allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. Gaetz has vehemently denied the claims but said that he hoped to avoid a “needlessly protracted Washington scuffle” by withdrawing.

Later on Thursday, Gaetz offered his congratulations to Bondi, calling her “a stellar selection by President Trump”.

“She’s a proven litigator, an inspiring leader and a champion for all Americans. She will bring the needed reforms to DOJ,” he said.

It is unclear if Gaetz, who resigned his House seat soon after Trump tapped him for attorney general, will now try to retain his seat.

Since his resounding election win earlier this month, Trump has named several close allies to fill high-ranking positions in his administration.

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Eight tumultuous days after US President-elect Donald Trump picked Matt Gaetz to be attorney general, the firebrand congressman has withdrawn from consideration for the post.

It was a nomination that stunned Washington and sent a shiver through the corridors of the justice department.

Trump settled on Gaetz, 42, during a two-hour flight from Washington to Florida last week, according to reports.

Still basking in the glow of his election victory, the president-elect was flying back to West Palm Beach last Wednesday afternoon after a cordial meeting with President Joe Biden.

That morning Gaetz was not even on the shortlist for the position of America’s top law officer, according to Politico, but Trump had felt underwhelmed by his other options.

On so-called Trump Force One that day were Gaetz himself, Elon Musk, Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and his top legal adviser, Boris Epshteyn, reports the New York Times.

Epshteyn reportedly set about convincing Trump that Gaetz should lead the justice department, which had conducted a sex-trafficking investigation into the lawmaker before dropping the matter.

Gaetz, a lawyer, has been one of Trump’s most strident defenders on Capitol Hill.

He helped prepare the Republican nominee for his televised debate against Biden that effectively knocked the Democrat out of the White House race.

One Trump adviser explained why the president-elect – who has himself been criminally investigated by the justice department, and accuses its prosecutors of witch hunts – took a shine to Gaetz as opposed to other contenders.

“Everyone else looked at AG [attorney general] as if they were applying for a judicial appointment,” the unnamed aide told the Bulwark.

“Gaetz was the only one who said, ‘Yeah, I’ll go over there and start cuttin’ [expletive] heads.’”

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While Republicans on Capitol Hill reacted tepidly to the nomination, career lawyers at the justice department told US media they were stunned and outraged.

Speaking at a conservative conference last year, Gaetz had suggested that the justice department and the agencies it oversees, including the FBI, ought to be abolished, as he argued they were being weaponised against conservatives. The current Attorney General, Merrick Garland, has rejected these claims.

Critics said Trump – who has also named three lawyers that defended him in criminal cases for senior positions at the justice department – was more interested in hiring loyalists than appointees who will uphold the rule of law.

Former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton dismissed Gaetz as the “worst cabinet-level appointment in history”.

But the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, said the furore from the Washington establishment showed his father’s unconventional cabinet picks were just the kind of change-makers that American voters had elected him to usher in.

After being nominated last week for attorney general, Gaetz resigned as representative for Florida’s 1st congressional district, a seat he has held since 2017.

His resignation came as the House Ethics Committee was due to decide whether to release a report on its investigation into allegations of misconduct involving drugs, bribes and paying for sex, including with an underage girl.

Gaetz dismissed the claims as a smear. But his resignation triggered a drip feed of leaks in subsequent days as the ethics panel wrangled over what to do about the report.

Few Republicans seemed willing, meanwhile, to circle the wagons round one of the most unpopular lawmakers in the House.

Last year, the combative Gaetz came under fire from his own side of the aisle when he proved instrumental in ousting Republican Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker.

Markwayne Mullin, a former House member turned senator, told CNN at the time there was a reason why none of Gaetz’s colleagues would defend him from allegations of sexual misconduct.

“Because we had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor,” said the Oklahoman last October, accusing Gaetz of bragging about his sexual exploits.

Gaetz said Mullin was lying.

As the backlash to his nomination for attorney general began to build this week, Trump made calls to senators in an effort to shore up support.

Trump seemed to be holding firm on Gaetz as he attended a SpaceX rocket launch in Boca Chica, Texas, on Tuesday with Musk.

Asked if he was reconsidering, the president-elect said: “No.”

There was more encouraging news for Gaetz on Wednesday as House Ethics Committee Republicans voted not to release its investigation into him.

It happened as Vice-President-elect JD Vance ferried the attorney general nominee around the Senate in a charm offensive.

Gaetz said it had been “a great day”. But there were hints of turbulence ahead.

When asked how messy the confirmation process could become, incoming Senate majority leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said the hearings could be “on steroids”.

On Thursday morning, Trump was still calling Republican senators to gauge Gaetz’s chances.

But by lunchtime, the nominee had come to the conclusion he didn’t have the votes and he again shocked Washington with the announcement that he was showing himself the door.

“While the momentum was strong,” he posted on X, “it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition.”

Trump’s post on Truth Social confirming the volte-face – his first political setback since his election 16 days earlier – was unusually muted for the president-elect.

“I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be Attorney General,” he wrote, adding that the nominee did not wish to be a “distraction”.

Hours later, Trump nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi instead for the post.

While Trump predicted a “wonderful future” for Gaetz, a question mark hangs over what he will do next.

He was comfortably re-elected this month, but there are already plans for a special election to fill his vacated seat.

Randy Ross, a Florida-based fundraiser for Trump, told the BBC that America had not heard the last of Matt Gaetz.

“My opinion is there’s still a spot in Trump’s administration, Florida or our country’s future leadership for this patriot,” said Mr Ross. “We all look forward to his next steps.”

Meanwhile, Ginger Gaetz, who wed the congressman in 2021, posted an old photo on X following his withdrawal of them both on the steps on Capitol Hill.

“The end of an era,” she commented.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned as “antisemitic” a decision by the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for war crimes against him and ex-Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

He said the ICC was “falsely” accusing them “of deliberately targeting civilians, this when we do everything in our power to avoid civilian casualties”.

The ICC also issued a warrant for Hamas commander Mohammed Deif. Israel says he was killed in Gaza in July.

ICC judges said there were “reasonable grounds” to believe the three men bore “criminal responsibility” for crimes during the war between Israel and Hamas.

US President Joe Biden called the ICC move against Israeli officials “outrageous”.

“Whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas,” Biden said in a statement. “We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”

Both Israel and Hamas reject the allegations made by the ICC.

In a statement on Thursday, Netanyahu said: “The antisemitic decision of the international court in The Hague is a modern Dreyfus trial, and it will end the same way.”

He was referring to a high-profile case of antisemitism in France just over a century ago.

“The court in The Hague accuses us of a deliberate policy of starvation,” the Israeli PM said.

“This when we have supplied Gaza with 700,000 tons of food to feed the people of Gaza. We issue millions of text messages, phone calls, leaflets to the citizens of Gaza to get them out of harm’s way – while the Hamas terrorists do everything in their power to keep them in harm’s way, including shooting them, using them as human shields.”

Netanyahu said Israel would “not recognise the validity” of the ICC’s decision.

Just this week, the UN warned that Palestinians were “facing diminishing conditions for survival” in parts of northern Gaza under siege by Israeli forces because virtually no aid had been delivered in 40 days.

Gallant said the ICC placed “the state of Israel and the murderous leaders of Hamas in the same row and thus legitimises the murder of babies, the rape of women and the abduction of the elderly from their beds”.

Ehud Olmert, a former Israeli prime minister, told the BBC that while he was critical of Netanyahu’s handling of the conflict with Hamas, he did not agree with the ICC’s decision.

“Israel has not committed genocide or war crimes that deserve these charges against the prime minister and the minister of defence,” Olmert told Radio 4’s World Tonight programme.

Hamas made no mention of the Deif warrant but said the move against Netanyahu and Gallant constituted an “important historical precedent, and a correction to a long path of historical injustice against our people”.

Palestinians in Gaza expressed hope Israeli leaders would now be brought to justice.

Israel denies the allegation that its forces are committing genocide in Gaza, which is the subject of a separate case before the International Court of Justice.

The impact of the warrants announced by the ICC will depend on whether the court’s 124 member states – which do not include Israel or its ally, the US – decide to enforce them or not.

Several European countries have said they respect ICC decisions. Downing Street said the British government respected the independence of the ICC.

The prosecutor’s case against the three men stems from 7 October 2023, when Hamas gunmen attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others back to Gaza as hostages.

Israel responded by launching a military campaign to eliminate Hamas, during which at least 44,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

For Deif, an ICC pre-trial chamber found reasonable grounds to believe he was “responsible for the crimes against humanity of murder; extermination; torture; and rape and other form of sexual violence; as well as the war crimes of murder, cruel treatment, torture; taking hostages; outrages upon personal dignity; and rape and other form of sexual violence”.

It also said there were reasonable grounds to believe the crimes against humanity were “part of a widespread and systematic attack directed by Hamas and other armed groups against the civilian population of Israel”.

For Netanyahu and Gallant, who was replaced as defence minister earlier this month, the chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that they “each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”.

It also found reasonable grounds to believe that “each bear criminal responsibility as civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population”.

Suspected methanol poisoning from tainted drinks has reportedly killed five tourists in a Laos holiday town in the past fortnight.

A British woman, an Australian woman, a US man and two Danish nationals have died, while another Australian woman remains critically ill in hospital. The deaths remain under police investigation, but news reports and testimonies online from other tourists suggest they may have consumed drinks laced with methanol, a deadly substance often found in bootleg alcohol.

Methanol poisoning has long been a well-known issue across South-East Asia, particularly in the poorer countries along the Mekong river.

But despite foreign governments posting warnings about alcohol consumption in these places, there is still little awareness among the backpacker party scene.

Flavourless and colourless, methanol is hard to detect in drinks and victims typically don’t see symptoms of poisoning straight away.

And in countries like Laos – one of the poorest and least developed in Asia – the problem arises from alcohol suppliers exploiting an environment where there is low law enforcement and almost no regulations in the food and hospitality industries.

Methanol is a toxic alcohol used in industrial and household products like paint thinners, antifreeze, varnish and photocopier fluid.

It is colourless and has a similar smell to ethyl alcohol – the chemical substance found in alcoholic drinks.

But methanol is dangerous for humans and drinking just 25ml of it can be lethal.

It can take up to 24 hours for victims to start showing signs of illness which include: nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain which can escalate into hyperventilation and breathing problems.

If not treated, fatality rates are often reported to be 20% to 40%, depending on the concentration of methanol and the amount taken, says international medical charity Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) which tracks the number of global outbreaks.

But if a poisoning is diagnosed quickly enough, ideally within the first 30 hours, treatment can reduce some of the worse effects.

Asia has the highest prevalence of methanol poisoning worldwide, according to MSF’s database.

It is a problem that often affects poorer countries – outbreaks are common in Indonesia, India, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Indonesia is regarded as a hotspot – it has reported the highest number of incidents in the past two decades, according to MSF, largely down to the widespread production and consumption of bootleg liquor.

Towns like Vang Vieng in Laos, where the fatal poisonings took place, are known stops on the backpacking trail through South East Asia. The town’s economy is built on tourism, with streets of bars, restaurants and hostels that cater to visitors.

But in Laos, law enforcement is under-resourced and there are few regulations around food and alcohol standards. There is also an industry of home-brewed alcohol, which can lead to accidental poisonings.

Producers also make counterfeit drinks by making products with methanol instead of ethanol because it is cheaper, say local observers.

“You have the unscrupulous producer adding methanol to their drinks because it’s cheaper – it’s used to create a stronger-seeming drink or make lower-quality alcohol drinks seem more potent,” one Western diplomat in the region told the BBC. They also said methanol poisonings are reported to consulates across the region.

However, a lack of data means it is hard to quantify the scale of the contamination, and where tainted drinks enter the supply chain.

“I don’t think it’s nefarious bar owners going out of their way to poison tourists – that’s not good for them or their industry either,” the diplomat said.

“It’s more about the production side – there being being low education, low regulation, people cutting corners.”

The diplomat also said that the risks of bootleg alcohol are well known among tourism operators and embassies, but a high-profile campaign is needed to inform tourists.

“This horrific event will probably help educate people, but not solve the cause of the problem,” they added.

Several Western governments updated their advice about alcohol dangers in South-East Asia on their consulate and travel pages this week.

Some campaigners have sought to raise attention to the dangers before. Australian man Colin Ahearn runs a Facebook page called ‘Don’t Drink Spirits in Bali‘ where he warns against mixed drinks like cocktails or drinks made from opened bottles of spirits.

He told Australian media earlier this week that his page used to receive a submission a week about methanol poisoning across South East Asia.

Addressing this, the western diplomat told the BBC that it would be hard for people to protect themselves unless they went completely teetotal on holiday, as it is unrealistic for tourists to check the original source of all their alcoholic drinks.

Russia is estimated to have supplied North Korea with more than a million barrels of oil since March this year, according to satellite imagery analysis from the Open Source Centre, a non-profit research group based in the UK.

The oil is payment for the weapons and troops Pyongyang has sent Moscow to fuel its war in Ukraine, leading experts and UK Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, have told the BBC.

These transfers violate UN sanctions, which ban countries from selling oil to North Korea, except in small quantities, in an attempt to stifle its economy to prevent it from further developing nuclear weapons.

The satellite images, shared exclusively with the BBC, show more than a dozen different North Korean oil tankers arriving at an oil terminal in Russia’s Far East a total of 43 times over the past eight months.

Further pictures, taken of the ships at sea, appear to show the tankers arriving empty, and leaving almost full.

North Korea is the only country in the world not allowed to buy oil on the open market. The number of barrels of refined petroleum it can receive is capped by the United Nations at 500,000 annually, well below the amount it needs.

Russia’s foreign ministry did not respond to our request for comment.

The first oil transfer documented by the Open Source Centre in a new report, was on 7 March 2024, seven months after it first emerged Pyongyang was sending Moscow weapons.

The shipments have continued as thousands of North Korean troops are reported to have been sent to Russia to fight, with the last one recorded on 5 November.

“While Kim Jong Un is providing Vladimir Putin with a lifeline to continue his war, Russia is quietly providing North Korea with a lifeline of its own,” says Joe Byrne from the Open Source Centre.

“This steady flow of oil gives North Korea a level of stability it hasn’t had since these sanctions were introduced.”

Four former members of a UN panel responsible for tracking the sanctions on North Korea have told the BBC the transfers are a consequence of increasing ties between Moscow and Pyongyang.

“These transfers are fuelling Putin’s war machine – this is oil for missiles, oil for artillery and now oil for soldiers,” says Hugh Griffiths, who led the panel from 2014 to 2019.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has told the BBC in a statement: “To keep fighting in Ukraine, Russia has become increasingly reliant on North Korea for troops and weapons in exchange for oil.”

He added that this was “having a direct impact on security in the Korean peninsula, Europe and Indo-Pacific”.

While most people in North Korea rely on coal for their daily lives, oil is essential for running the country’s military. Diesel and petrol are used to transport missile launchers and troops around the country, run munitions factories and fuel the cars of Pyongyang’s elite.

The 500,000 barrels North Korea is allowed to receive fall far short of the nine million it consumes – meaning that since the cap was introduced in 2017, the country has been forced to buy oil illicitly from criminal networks to make up this deficit.

This involves transferring the oil between ships out at sea – a risky, expensive and time-consuming business, according to Dr Go Myong-hyun, a senior research fellow at South Korea’s Institute for National Security Strategy, which is linked to the country’s spy agency.

“Now Kim Jong Un is getting oil directly, it’s likely better quality, and chances are he’s getting it for free, as quid pro quo for supplying munitions. What could be better than that?”

“A million barrels is nothing for a large oil producer like Russia to release, but it is a substantial amount for North Korea to receive,” Dr Go adds.

In all 43 of the journeys tracked by the Open Source Centre using satellite images, the North Korean-flagged tankers arrived at Russia’s Vostochny Port with their trackers switched off, concealing their movements.

The images show they then made their way back to one of four ports on North Korea’s east and west coast.

“The vessels appear silently, almost every week,” says Joe Byrne, the researcher from the Open Source Centre. “Since March there’s been a fairly constant flow.”

The team, which has been tracking these tankers since the oil sanctions were first introduced, used their knowledge of each ship’s capacity to calculate how many oil barrels they could carry.

Then they studied images of the ships entering and leaving Vostochny and, in most instances, could see how low they sat in the water and, therefore, how full they were.

The tankers, they assess, were loaded to 90% of their capacity.

“We can see from some of the images that if the ships were any fuller they would sink,” Mr Byrne says.

Based on this, they calculate that, since March, Russia has given North Korea more than a million barrels of oil – more than double the annual cap, and around ten times the amount Moscow officially gave Pyongyang in 2023.

This follows an assessment by the US government in May that Moscow had already supplied more than 500,000 barrels’ worth of oil.

Cloud cover means the researchers cannot get a clear image of the port every day.

“The whole of August was cloudy, so we weren’t able to document a single trip,” Mr Byrne says, leading his team to believe that one million barrels is a “baseline” figure.

Not only do these oil deliveries breach UN sanctions on North Korea, that Russia, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, signed off on – but also, more than half of the journeys tracked by the Open Source Centre were made by vessels that have been individually sanctioned by the UN.

This means they should have been impounded upon entering Russian waters.

But in March 2024, three weeks after the first oil transfer was documented, Russia disbanded the UN panel responsible for monitoring sanctions violations, by using its veto at the UN Security Council.

Ashley Hess, who was working on the panel up until its collapse, says they saw evidence the transfers had started.

“We were tracking some of the ships and companies involved, but our work was stopped, possibly after they had already breached the 500,000-barrel cap”.

Eric Penton-Voak, who led the group from 2021-2023, says the Russian members on the panel tried to censor its work.

“Now the panel is gone, they can simply ignore the rules,” he adds. “The fact that Russia is now encouraging these ships to visit its ports and load up with oil shows a new level of contempt for these sanctions.”

But Mr Penton-Voak, who is on the board of the Open Source Centre, thinks the problem runs much deeper.

“You now have these autocratic regimes increasingly working together to help one another achieve whatever it is they want, and ignoring the wishes of the international community.”

This is an “increasingly dangerous” playbook, he argues.

“The last thing you want is a North Korean tactical nuclear weapon turning up in Iran, for instance.”

As Kim Jong Un steps up his support for Vladimir Putin’s war, concern is growing over what else he will receive in return.

The US and South Korea estimate Pyongyang has now sent Moscow 16,000 shipping containers filled with artillery shells and rockets, while remnants of exploded North Korean ballistic missiles have been recovered on the battlefield in Ukraine.

More recently, Putin and Kim signed a defence pact, leading to thousands of North Korean troops being sent to Russia’s Kursk region, where intelligence reports indicate they are now engaged in battle.

The South Korean government has told the BBC it would “sternly respond to the violation of the UN Security Council resolutions by Russia and North Korea”.

Its biggest worry is that Moscow will provide Pyongyang with technology to improve its spy satellites and ballistic missiles.

Last month, Seoul’s defence minister, Kim Yong-hyun, stated there was a “high chance” North Korea was asking for such help.

“If you’re sending your people to die in a foreign war, a million barrels of oil is just not sufficient reward,” Dr Go says.

Andrei Lankov, an expert in North Korea-Russia relations at Seoul’s Kookmin University, agrees.

“I used to think it was not in Russia’s interest to share military technology, but perhaps its calculus has changed. The Russians need these troops, and this gives the North Koreans more leverage.”

Just weeks ago, Gautam Adani, one of the world’s richest men, celebrated Donald Trump’s election victory and announced plans to invest $10bn (£7.9bn) in energy and infrastructure projects in the US.

Now, the 62-year-old Indian billionaire and a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose sprawling $169bn empire spans ports and renewable energy, faces US fraud charges that could potentially jeopardise his ambitions at home and abroad.

Federal prosecutors have accused him of orchestrating a $250m bribery scheme and concealing it to raise money in the US. They allege Mr Adani and his executives paid bribes to Indian officials to secure contracts worth $2bn in profits over 20 years. Adani Group has denied the allegations, calling them “baseless.”

But this is already hurting the group and the Indian economy.

Adani Group firms lost $34bn in market value on Thursday, reducing the combined market capitalisation of its 10 companies to $147bn. Adani Green Energy, which is the firm at the centre of the allegations, also said it wouldn’t proceed with a $600m bond offering.

Then there are questions about the impact of the charges on India’s business and politics.

India’s economy is deeply intertwined with Mr Adani, the country’s leading infrastructure tycoon. He operates 13 ports (30% market share), seven airports (23% of passenger traffic), and India’s second-largest cement business (20% of the market).

With six coal-fired power plants, Mr Adani is India’s largest private player in power. At the same time, he has pledged to invest $50bn in green hydrogen and runs a 8,000km (4,970 miles)-long natural gas pipeline. He’s also building India’s longest expressway and redeveloping India’s largest slum. He employs over 45,000 people, but his businesses impact millions nationwide.

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Mr Adani’s global ambitions span coal mines in Indonesia and Australia, airport and energy projects in Kenya and Morocco. The group is eyeing more than a billion dollars in infrastructure projects across Tanzania and Kenya.

Mr Adani’s portfolio closely mirrors Modi’s policy priorities, beginning with infrastructure and more recently expanding into clean energy. He has thrived despite critics labeling his business empire as crony capitalism, pointing to his close ties with Modi, both as Gujarat’s chief minister – where they both hail from – and as India’s prime minister. (Like any successful businessman, Mr Adani has also forged ties with many opposition leaders, investing in their states.)

“This [the bribery allegations] is big. Mr Adani and Modi have been inseparable for a long time. This is going to influence the political economy of India,” says Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, an Indian journalist who has written extensively on the business group.

This crisis also comes as Mr Adani has spent nearly two years trying to rebuild his image after US short-seller Hindenburg Research’s 2023 report accused his conglomerate of decades of stock manipulation and fraud. Though Mr Adani denied the claims, the allegations triggered a market sell-off and an ongoing investigation by India’s market regulator, SEBI.

“Mr Adani has been trying to rehabilitate his image, and try to show that those earlier fraud allegations leveled by the Hindenburg group were not true, and his company and his businesses had actually been doing quite well. There’d been a number of new deals and investments made over the last year or so, and so this is just a body blow coming to this billionaire who had done a very good job of shaking off the potential damage of those earlier allegations,” Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center, an American think-tank, told the BBC.

For now, raising capital at home may prove challenging for Mr Adani’s cash-guzzling projects.

“The market reaction shows how serious this is,” Ambareesh Baliga, an independent market analyst, told the BBC. “Adanis will still secure funding for their major projects, but with delays.”

The latest charges could also throw a spanner in Mr Adani’s global expansion plans. He has been already challenged in Kenya and Bangladesh over a planned takeover of an international airport and a controversial energy deal. “This [bribery charges] stops international expansion plans linked to the US,” Nirmalya Kumar, Lee Kong Chian Professor at Singapore Management University, told the BBC.

What’s next? Politically, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has unsurprisingly called for Mr Adani’s arrest and promised to stir up parliament. “Bribing government officials in India is not news, but the amounts mentioned are staggering. I suspect the US has names of some of those who were the intended recipients. This has potential reverberations for the Indian political scene. There is more to come,” Mr Kumar believes.

Mr Adani’s team will undoubtedly assemble a top-tier legal defence. “For now, we have only the indictment, leaving much still to unfold,” says Mr Kugelman.

While the US-India business relationship may face scrutiny, it’s unlikely to be significantly impacted, particularly given the recent $500m US deal with Mr Adani for a port project in Sri Lanka, says Mr Kugelman. Despite the serious allegations, broader US-India business ties remain strong.

“The US-India business relationship is a very large and multifaceted one. Even with these very serious allegations against someone that’s such a major player in the Indian economy, I don’t think we should overstate the impact that this could have on that relationship,” Mr Kugelman says.

Also, it’s unclear if Mr Adani can be targeted, despite the US-India extradition treaty, as it depends on whether the new administration allows the cases to proceed. Mr Baliga believes it is not doom and gloom for the Adanis. “I still do think foreign investors and banks will back them like they did post Hindenburg though, given that they are part of very important, well performing sectors of the Indian economy,” he says.

“The sense in the market is also that this will perhaps blow over and be sorted out, once the [Donald] Trump administration takes over.”

At least 41 people – including women and children – have been killed after unidentified gunmen opened fire on a convoy of 200 passenger vehicles traveling through a remote area of Pakistan.

The vehicles were attacked as they travelled through the tribal district of Kurram in Pakistan, close to the Afghan border, according to the area’s deputy police commissioner.

The gunmen initially targeted the convoy’s police escort, the provincial spokesman said in a statement.

Police were protecting the convoy following months of sectarian violence in the area, which has claimed dozens of lives this year.

Police have told the BBC that 41 people were killed in Thursday’s attack and an additional 16 more were critically injured.

Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, the chief secretary of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told Reuters news agency the attack was “a major tragedy”, with the death toll “likely to rise”.

Saeeda Bano – who was in the middle of the convoy – described to BBC Urdu how she feared she would be killed as she hid under the car seats with her children during the attack.

When the gunfire finally stopped after several minutes, she saw injured people and bodies lying in the road.

Details of exactly what happened are still emerging, but Javed ullah Mehsud, a senior administration official, told AFP “approximately 10 attackers” were involved, “firing indiscriminately from both sides of the road”.

Women and children had hidden in nearby houses, while police hunted for the attackers, he added.

Most the passengers travelling in the convoy through the mountainous area were Shia, he said in an earlier statement.

Sunni and Shia Muslim tribes have clashed repeatedly this year. An earlier series of attacks ended after a tribal council called for a ceasefire, according to Reuters news agency.

Then last month, there was another attack on passenger vehicles along a road in the region which killed 15 people.

The road Thursday’s convoy was travelling along had only reopened in recent days, with travel limited to convoys with police protection.

Sectarian violence is often linked to land disputes in the region.

However, Kurram, in Pakistan’s north-west, also borders several Afghan provinces which are home to anti-Shia militant groups, including the Islamic State group and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Kenya’s President William Ruto has cancelled two major deals involving Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, after the tycoon was indicted for fraud by US prosecutors.

In his state-of-the-nation address on Thursday, Ruto said the deals had been cancelled based on “new information provided by our investigative agencies and partner nations”.

The day before, Mr Adani, India’s second-richest man, was charged with fraud by US prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating a $250m (£198m) bribery scheme and concealing it to raise money in the US.

Representatives from Adani Group have denied the allegations from US prosecutors and called them “baseless”.

“In the face of undisputed evidence or credible information on corruption, I will not hesitate to take decisive action,” said Ruto in a speech met with loud cheers inside parliament.

The Adani Group was set to invest $1.85bn in Kenya’s main airport in exchange for a contract to run it for 30 years, as well as a $736m deal with the energy ministry to construct power lines.

Under the airport proposal, the upgrades would involve a new runway and an improved passenger terminal at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

The deals with the Adani group were hugely unpopular in the country, and there were concerns of corruption.

The airport deal sparked a strike among airport workers in September, as many feared it would lead to job losses.

Energy Minister Opiyo Wandayi told a parliamentary committee on Thursday there was no bribery or corruption involved in the procurement of the power lines.

President Ruto has pledged to take action against corruption, following repeated allegations against his administration.

Ruto said his government would now start to look for alternative partners for the airport and energy deals.

• PODCAST: Kenya airports: Who is Adani group?
• Kenya’s top judge: No-one has ever tried to bribe me
• How Kenya’s judges stood up to President William Ruto
• Historic first as president takes on Kenya’s online army
• Kenyan president’s humbling shows power of African youth

A US man who faked his own death and fled the country, leaving behind his family, has been in contact with police in his home state and sent investigators a video to prove that he is safe.

Ryan Borgwardt, 45, vanished on 12 August while on a solo fishing trip, the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office in Wisconsin said in a news conference on Thursday.

Police initially suspected that he had drowned and searched the lake for 54 days before finding digital evidence that led them to suspect he had fled to Eastern Europe.

“The great news is he’s still alive and well,” said Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podell. “The bad news is that we don’t know where exactly Ryan is, and he has not decided to return home.”

The 24-second video is shot selfie-style, and shows Mr Borgwardt in an apartment with white walls.

“Good evening, it’s Ryan Borgwardt,” he says. “Today is 11 November. It’s approximately 10 am by you guys. I’m in my apartment.

“I am safe, secure, no problem. I hope this works.”

Police have been emailing him, “pulling at his heartstrings” in an effort to coax him back home and “clean up the mess that he has created,” the sheriff said.

Authorities got in touch with him after contacting a woman in the region who speaks Russian. She helped connect him to police. Law enforcement did not detail who the woman was or her connection to Mr Borgwardt

During the near-daily exchanges, he allegedly revealed to police how he orchestrated his getaway.

MORE: Authorities say US man faked kayaking death and fled to Europe

Police say that after sinking his kayak and cell phone in the lake, he paddled a small child-sized boat to shore where he had stashed an E-bike. He cycled overnight to Madison, Wisconsin, then boarded a bus to Detroit and got on a plane in Canada to an unknown location.

“We are continuing to verify this information, trying to put the dots together,” Podoll said. “But we feel that this was Ryan’s way that he could tell the entire country how he did it.”

He is believed to have acted alone, he said. He added that Mr Borgwardt has not had any contact with his family since he left.

He left behind three children and his wife. In the days before his departure, authorities found he had taken out a $375,000 (£297,875) life insurance policy, had transferred funds to a foreign bank account, photographed his new passport, and altered his email address.

Podoll said that there are currently no criminal charges pending against Mr Borgwardt, but that police say he owes them $40,000 (£32,000) for the cost of their search.

At the end of his conference, the sheriff became emotional, saying that his children will be without their father during the holiday season.

“Christmas is coming up,” he said. “And what better a gift to give those kids than to be there for Christmas.”

PDD Holdings, the Chinese owner of online shopping platforms Temu and Pinduoduo, reported disappointing sales and profit, as Chinese consumers continued to hold back amid an economic slowdown.

US-listed shares of the e-commerce giant fell nearly 11% on Thursday following the announcement.

It comes after PDD’s main rivals in its home market, Alibaba and JD.COM, also posted underwhelming results in the September quarter.

Consumer confidence in China has taken a hit from a crisis in the country’s property sector and higher levels of youth unemployment.

In the quarter that ended in September, PDD’s revenue reached 99.35bn yuan ($13.7bn, £10.9bn). That is below analyst forecasts of around 102.8bn yuan.

It is the second quarter in a row that PDD misses analyst estimates, after years of fast growth.

“Our topline growth further moderated quarter-on-quarter amid intensified competition and ongoing external challenges,” said Jun Liu, VP of Finance of PDD Holdings.

While PDD’s Chinese e-commerce platform, Pinduoduo, has become popular because of its focus on low-cost and heavily discounted products, a growing number of rivals have been adopting similar strategies, triggering a price war.

Meanwhile, its thriving global e-commerce platform, Temu, is also facing problems overseas.

“There’s uncertainty on potential tariff change and increasing pushback from more countries related to its ‘cheap’ prices,” said Alicia Yap, an equity research analyst at Citi, before the results were announced.

Last week, Vietnamese authorities said Temu and Shein needed to register with the government before the end of the month or face a ban.

In October, Indonesia ordered Google and Apple to remove Temu from their app stores in a bid to protect the country’s own retailers.

The EU has also launched an investigation into whether the Chinese e-commerce platform facilitated the sale of illegal products that could lead to steep fines.

And, in the US, President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to raise tariffs on imports of Chinese goods, potentially removing Temu’s competitive advantage by driving the prices of its super-cheap products.

How closely have you been paying attention to what’s been going on in the world over the past seven days?

Try last week’s quiz or have a go at something from the archives.

In April, a fan approached American singer Gigi Perez after a show, and proudly showed off their latest tattoo.

“Gigi I 🖤 U,” read the ink. The singer was lost for words.

“In my head, I was like, ‘Please don’t regret that’,'” she laughs.

“It’s hard for me to process that somebody else has my name permanently on their skin.

“But, I mean, it’s just the ultimate honour to know that the music impacted them so greatly that they would do that.”

It was the first time anyone had felt passionately enough to turn her name into a tattoo – and the timing could not have been better.

Six months earlier, Gigi been dropped by her record label, in the middle of a promotional trip to London.

And after having to move back to her parents’ house, in Florida, the 24-year-old singer-songwriter had to reassess her life.

“I was free falling,” she says.

“I had no income, I was back home, and I was starting to doubt myself.

“But I was like, ‘Let me just give myself a year to learn how to record and produce my own records.

“From there, if I need to get a job so I can still make music, I’ll do that.

“And then everything happened…”

Everything, in case you have not been following Gigi’s story, involved scoring a global hit single out of nowhere.

Sailor Song, an aching love ballad about falling for a woman who looks like the actress Anne Hathaway, exploded online in June and quickly became a real-world success.

In the UK, it went to number one, ending Sabrina Carpenter’s nine-week run at the top.

The song also reached the summit in Ireland and Latvia and made the top 10 everywhere from New Zealand to Belgium.

“I knew the song was special to me,” Gigi says.

“I just didn’t know it was going to be special to so many other people.”

When she found out it had reached number one, “I got out of the shower and just started crying,” Gigi told the UK’s Official Charts Company.

The success marks a neat conclusion to a messy origin story.

Born in New Jersey and raised in Florida, Gigi was a drama school nerd who turned to music when she realised she was “never going to be cast in the ingenue role”.

Self-taught on piano and guitar, she went straight to the top of the US streaming charts, in 2021, with her self-released debut single, Sometimes (Backwood).

The song earned her a contract with Interscope Records and Gigi supported Coldplay on their Music of the Spheres tour before she had even played a headline show of her own.

Looking back, she says that initial wave of success created a pressure to expand her career too quickly. For a long time, she felt “stuck and limited” by her lack of progression.

“It was this cognitive dissonance where I’d get an amazing slot [on someone else’s tour] but didn’t know who’d be coming to the show,” Gigi says.

And by the time she played London last November, she knew she had reached breaking point.

“I asked God, or the universe, ‘Open the doors that need to be opened and close the doors that need to be shut,'” she says.

“I knew it had to happen – but I was so terrified of what that meant.”

Interscope released her two days later. But instead of the world ending, Gigi’s energy renewed. She wrote more songs – and taught herself how to produce them, by watching YouTube tutorials.

Sailor Song came to her in a sudden burst of inspiration this February.

“I was on my bed, my door was open and I was just messing around, jamming,” Gigi says.

“My little sister walked by, and she was like, ‘Gigi, what was that?’ And I was like, ‘I have no idea, but I think it’s really cool.'”

“There are times where I spend a lot of time thinking about a song and what I want to say. This was one of those times where it just blew out.”

She teased it on TikTok in April, released it in July – and, as of Wednesday 20 November, it has been streamed 340 million times on Spotify alone.

In some ways, it is an unlikely hit. The production is low-tech and homespun and Gigi’s vocals are androgynous to the point where many listeners were surprised to find it was a song about two women in love.

But the chorus is undeniable.

“Kiss me on the mouth and love me like a sailor,” she sings. “And when you get a taste, can you tell me, what’s my flavour?”

Of course, in our terminally divided culture, no success remains untainted for long.

In the US, evangelical Christians criticised Sailor Song for the line: “I don’t believe in God, but you’re my saviour.”

Gigi’s response, posted to TikTok, was uncompromising.

“My songwriting is not a democracy,” she wrote, “and that applies to every artist’s work.”

The singer’s struggles with faith run deep.

Her parents became born-again Christians when she was in primary school, after which her mother took extra work as a bus driver to pay for Gigi and her sisters to attend a private religious school in Florida.

The experience was not all positive.

“Growing up gay in an environment where you’re not allowed to be that was very taxing on me,” Gigi told the Bringin’ It Backwards podcast, in 2022.

Her faith was really shaken, however, when her big sister Celene died suddenly, aged 22, in the early months of 2020.

The shock and the pain are unimaginable. The foundations of Gigi’s world were destabilised forever.

In her music, she tried to explain the unexplainable.

“The other day, I thought of something funny/ But no-one would’ve laughed but you,” she sang in a song simply called Celene.

“And Mom and Dad are always crying/ And I wish I knew what to do.”

Gigi’s latest release, Fable, is another attempt to confront that grief, lashing out at people who feebly offered “thoughts and prayers” after her sister’s death, and wondering why disconnecting from faith makes her “skin start to burn”.

“One of the hardest parts about my grief is that I didn’t have any music that touched on my life, on my situation, to get me through it,” she says.

“And so I made it for myself.

“I’ve written tons of grief songs but, finally, in Fable, I said it in the way I always felt, from the very day I lost her, and I was so just relieved by the expression of it.”

That catharsis is a sort of self-healing. And, more than anything, the singer wants her music to find its way to others who need it.

“One of my biggest wishes is to not let this experience that is so dark and isolating stay that way,” she says.

“My hope is that there can be some way this [music] can help. And it’s amazing, because I’ve been seeing a lot of that. It’s been very healing for me.”

And with that ability to reach people in their most vulnerable moments, it won’t be long before Gigi sees her name tattooed on many more arms.

As the Russian army slowly advances in eastern Ukraine, it’s driving a tide of human suffering before it.

With two months to go before a change of administration in Washington, Ukraine is wrestling with two problems: how to stem the advance, and how to prepare for Donald Trump.

At a shelter in Pavlohrad, about 60 miles (100km) west of the slowly shifting front line, evacuees are constantly arriving from villages and towns overtaken by the war.

Anastasiia Bolvihina, 31, is there with her two sons, Arseniy and Rostyslav. The family cat lies sleeping among the few belongings the family have managed to bring with them from the village of Uspenivka, just outside the besieged city of Pokrovsk.

The family hung on in their house as long as they could, but with explosions all around, shops closed and roads cut off one by one, they finally bowed to the inevitable. They packed up a few bags, locked the door and left.

“We hoped the war would pass us and end soon,” Anastasiia tells me.

Now, after two months without electricity or the internet, she has her laptop open on the bed and is catching up with the news.

“We hope things will be better and the war will end,” she replies when I ask about political changes far away in the US.

“I hope the new president will be better than the current one.”

In an adjacent auditorium, dimly lit and warmed by a single bar heater, elderly evacuees are being looked after by volunteers.

It’s a theatre of misery, with still, exhausted figures sitting or lying on camp beds, some apparently lost in thought

83-year-old Kateryna Klymko, from Sukhi Yaly near Kurakhove – another town slowly being overrun by the Russians – has just arrived.

She briefly sobs as she describes how her house burned down, with all her possessions.

“They bombed so much,” she says of the advancing Russian army. “It’s like the last judgement!”

Could Ukraine still win, I ask?

“God only knows,” she sighs. “My heart aches from what I hear. We were bombed so much and so many people died there.”

Russia launched an enormous ballistic missile strike on Dnipro overnight too. It was felt across the city and sent everyone including the BBC team to bomb shelters.

The Biden administration’s latest decisions on Atacms and land mines are clearly designed to help Ukraine hold on to territory, both its own and in the Kursk region of Russia.

Both could feature in negotiations next year, if that’s the path Donald Trump intends to pursue.

So far, the US president-elect has given very few clues as to how he intends to end the conflict, beyond a typically vainglorious promise to end the war in 24 hours.

Ukrainian politicians, from President Zelensky on down, seem keen to give Trump the benefit of the doubt.

“I think he has taken a very smart approach,” former foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba told me, “by clearly setting out the goal – ‘I’m going to fix it’ – but without getting into details.”

Despite Trump’s reputation – a zero-sum deal-maker with a curious admiration for Vladimir Putin – Dmytro Kuleba says people tend to oversimplify him.

“He can hold a bigger picture in his head, and I’m sure it will not be simply transactional.”

As the new administration is assembled and minds start to turn to how to realise Trump’s ambition, the former foreign minister believes one overriding factor will drive policy.

“President Trump will undoubtedly be driven by one goal, to project his strength, his leadership,” he said. “And show that he is capable of fixing problems which his predecessor failed to fix.”

Projecting strength, Kuleba believes, will mean leaning on both sides.

Walking away from Ukraine, he says, is not an option.

“As much as the fall of Afghanistan inflicted a severe wound on the foreign policy reputation of the Biden administration, if the scenario you mentioned is to be entertained by President Trump, Ukraine will become his Afghanistan, with equal consequences.

“And I don’t think this is what he’s looking for.”

Last weekend, President Zelensky said Kyiv would like to end the war through “diplomatic means” in 2025.

The war, he said, would end “sooner” with Trump in the White House.

It was classic Zelensky: part flattery, part challenge.

Among many of those who have paid the heaviest price for Russia’s invasion, peace cannot come soon enough, even if that means further sacrifices.

In Dnipro, a steady stream of injured soldiers comes through the doors of one of the country’s many prosthetic centres.

Demian Dudlya, 27, lost a leg when his unit came under missile attack 18 months ago.

He’s already used to his carbon fibre limb and is even training for next year’s Invictus Games. But when it comes to the war, he’s less optimistic.

“I think most likely two regions [Donetsk and Luhansk] will be taken from us, and Crimea,” he says.

“I am not confident we will push them back from those regions. We have neither people nor weapons.”

Opinion polls paint a mixed picture but show that more and more Ukrainians want this war to end, soon. Especially here in the east, where the sirens sound several times a day.

A growing minority say they’re willing to give up territory to secure peace.

“I think that the end of the war will happen, says 28-year-old Andrii Petrenko, when I ask him what he expects when Donald Trump takes office.

Andrii is being fitted with his first prosthetic, after losing a leg three months ago.

“Either they will agree and go to the 1991 borders, or the territories will be surrendered. The main thing is that the war ends and people stop dying.”

William Ruto, who became Kenya’s president two years ago riding on the crest of the Christian vote, has been visibly shaken to find that over the last few months church leaders of all creeds are losing faith in him – seeing him less as a saviour and more as the greedy biblical tax collector.

In the run-up to his victory, some of his most ardent evangelical supporters had dubbed him “David”, after the shepherd boy in the Bible who rose to become king.

The opposition had baptised him “deputy Jesus”, accusing him of using Christianity to gain political capital as he attended church services from Catholic masses to the gatherings of obscure sects.

He would wear the appropriate religious attire for each setting, sometimes knelt in supplication and on occasion was moved to tears by sermons.

Afterwards, he credited God for his electoral success, and continued this practice of criss-crossing the country to attend a different church each Sunday.

But following massive opposition to the tax hikes imposed by his government, the 57-year-old gained a new nickname: “Zakayo” – which is Swahili for Zacchaeus, the wealthy and unpopular Jericho tax collector featured in the Bible.

The president has always maintained that if people want better public services and a reduction in the country’s debt burden, they have to pay up.

Over the last two years, taxes on salaries have gone up, the sales tax on fuel has doubled and people are also paying a new housing levy and a health insurance tax that is yet to benefit many Kenyans.

When momentous anti-tax protests erupted in June, the young people who led them, popularly referred to as Gen Zs, also called out churches for being too close to politicians and allowing them to preach from their pulpits.

Their anger forced the government to retract a controversial finance bill that had included more tax increases – and it woke up the churches, whose clergy began to openly criticise Ruto and his policies.

This too was a momentous development as the faith economy is big business in a country where more than 80% of the population are Christian – and a fundraiser with the right politician can greatly improve the fortunes of a church.

Last month, Teresia Wairimu, founder of Faith Evangelistic Ministries (Fem), a church in the capital, Nairobi, where Ruto and his family have frequently worshipped, suggested their King David was heading back to the field where sheep grazed.

“As a voter, I’m embarrassed,” she said in her sermon.

Another sermon by Rev Tony Kiama of the River of God Church recently went viral after he called out Ruto’s government for “not serving God’s purpose but an evil one”, citing the killings during the recent protests, the rising cost of living and every-day corruption.

The most hard-hitting criticism was last week’s statement from Catholic bishops, who carry more weight because of the respect and influence they command in Kenya.

They accused Ruto’s government of perpetuating a “culture of lies”, citing unfulfilled campaign promises.

“Basically, it seems that truth does not exist, and if it does, it is only what the government says,” the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops said, also hitting out at corruption, greed and over-taxation that was stifling the economy.

One bishop dubbed Kenya an “Orwellian dystopian authoritarian” state, where dissent was met “with intimidation, abduction or even assassination”.

This was a pointed reference to the 60 people who died and the 1,300 others arrested during the anti-tax demonstrations. A further 74 people have been abducted and 26 reported missing in the last five months, according to the state-run Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.

The stinging statement by the bishops was followed by the Church’s rejection of a $40,000 (£32,000) donation make by Ruto when he attended the Soweto Catholic Church in Nairobi last Sunday – with the Archbishop of Nairobi citing “ethical concerns and the need to safeguard the Church from being used for political purposes”.

Many of Kenya’s Christians are Catholic – about 10 million people, or 20% of the population, according to government statistics.

Other Christians belong to a variety of evangelical churches and other denominations, including the Anglican Church of Kenya and the Presbyterian Church.

And the Catholic Church’s influence in Kenya goes beyond its congregation owing to its wide investment in education, healthcare and other social programmes.

It has also been angered by the chaotic transition to a new social health insurance scheme, with the government owing millions of dollars to faith-based hospitals.

The bishops’ outspoken assessment of the state of the nation has reminded Kenyans of the role church leaders played when they pushed for a return to multi-party democracy in the 1990s.

Brave clerics such as Ndingi Mwana a’Nzeki of the Catholic Church, Alexander Muge, Henry Okullu and David Gitari of the Anglican Church and Timothy Njoya of the Presbyterian Church fearlessly challenged the repressive and single-party rule of then-President Daniel arap Moi.

But analysts say under Moi’s successors – Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta, both Catholics – clerics lost their voice.

“Under President William Ruto, things got even worse because important elements of the church were seemingly co-opted into the feeding trough,” veteran journalist and columnist Macharia Gaitho wrote in Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper this week, suggesting “churches were bribed into silence”.

The Catholic bishops’ stance has won support from other denominations, as well as Muslim clerics – despite the widespread faith-based support Ruto enjoyed previously for his tough stand on gay rights and his conservative views on abortion.

A joint statement by some Pentecostal and evangelical leaders hailed the bishops for their bravery and also for “doing the unthinkable” in rejecting Ruto’s money.

Head of the Anglican Church of Kenya Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit, who led national prayers on the day Ruto was declared winner of the presidential race, joined Catholic bishops in condemning what he described as “escalating misrule, impunity, and widespread rights violations”.

“In the circumstances, we should not simply fold our hands and pray for miracles,” Ole Sapit said, adding that the Catholic bishops reflected the feelings of many Kenyans.

Baptist cleric Daniel Wambua added that religious leaders were now determined to end the “transactional relationship” with the state.

Meanwhile Sheikh Abubakar Bini, chair of the North Rift Council of Imams and Preachers of Islam, urged the government to take the bishops’ remarks as advice rather than criticism.

At first, Ruto and his allies hit back – one accusing the bishops of spreading “misinformation”.

But analysts say Ruto, who frequently uses the scriptures to respond to critics, should be wary of a direct confrontation with the churches as even smaller ones can have thousands of followers who could negatively affect his re-election bid.

The president is already facing rebellion in parts of his 2022 political strongholds after the impeachment of former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua last month.

They fell out over the handling of the anti-tax demonstrations, which have rocked Ruto’s administration to its core.

A close ally of the president, MP Oscar Sudi, has taken to X to eat some humble pie, apologising to Catholic bishops on behalf of the government.

Ruto himself has since appeared to soften his response to the growing criticism, saying he has heard the clerics and is ready to engage further.

“We have made undeniable progress in our country. However, there remains much to be done. We must continue working together to hasten the delivery of our commitments and change Kenya,” he tweeted on Thursday.

What Kenya’s first evangelical Christian president is having to accept is that the churches he used so successfully to take state house could well help unseat him in the next election.

“He knows he cannot fight the church,” said Mr Gaitho.

• ‘We are the Church’: Kenyan tax protesters take on Christian leaders
• New faces of protest – Kenya’s Gen Z anti-tax revolutionaries
• Why Kenyan churches are banning politicians from pulpits
• Podcast: Is the church in Kenya too close to the government?
• Kenya’s discreet church set up to welcome LGBT worshippers

Jet engines are one of the most jaw-dropping feats of engineering humans have ever come up with.

But jet engines shouldn’t be possible, says Ben Beake, director of materials research at Micro Materials, an equipment testing company in Wales.

“The air coming in is hotter than the melting point of the metal underneath – which is obviously not a good thing,” he explains, pointing out that this air reaches temperatures well above 1,000C.

Designers of jet engines have got around this problem by applying heat-resistant ceramic coatings to the engine blades. And now, researchers are developing yet stronger coatings that allow the engines to run hotter still.

“If you get it to go hotter, then there’s a massive saving on fuel and CO2,” says Dr Beake. By increasing the temperature by just 30C or so, you might get an 8% fuel saving, he estimates.

This is the power of coatings – they radically transform the functionality and capabilities of an underlying material. Few people realise how important they are, but these overlays and veneers can supercharge high-performance machines, or ensure that expensive equipment survives the harshest of environments.

Dr Beake and his colleagues are tasked with pushing coatings to their limits, in order to see how robust or effective they really are. His clients don’t always get the results they want. He recalls telling a missile manufacturer, “We’ve broken your coating,” some years ago. “They stormed off in a huff,” says Dr Beake.

Besides exposing coatings to high temperatures, Micro Materials also has a “woodpecker” device, a tiny diamond stylus, which repeatedly taps a coating at random locations to test its durability.

Recently, the firm has worked with UK-based Teer Coatings to test a product that could be applied to satellite components including gears and bearings used in various moving parts.

It is a tricky task, says Xiaoling Zhang, from the company, because the coating must protect such components both pre-launch (when they are exposed to atmospheric humidity at ground level) and also in orbit, against dust particles and radiation in space. However, she claims that the firm has achieved the desired results.

But besides protecting spacecraft, coatings could also stop astronauts from getting sick.

Biofilms – gloopy accumulations of bacteria inside pipes – grow faster in low gravity environments, which could be a problem for water supplies or machinery that moves fluid around on space stations or future spacecraft, for example.

“Biofilms are known to cause mechanical failures,” says Kripa Varanasi at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “You don’t want this.”

Prof Varanasi and his colleagues have developed a range of coatings that make surfaces slippery and therefore resistant to the formation of biofilms. Tests of one such coating in an experiment carried out on board the International Space Station found that it worked as intended.

The idea behind the coating is to mix together a solid material and a lubricant. This is then sprayed onto the interior of a pipe or tube, which makes that inner surface extremely slippery.

Prof Varanasi has previously made headlines for developing similar coatings for the insides of toothpaste packets – so you can get every last bit of toothpaste out. He and his colleagues have commercialised the technology through their spin-out company LiquiGlide.

Slipperiness is, perhaps, an underappreciated attribute. Nuria Espallargas at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and colleagues have developed a silicon carbide-based coating for equipment used in aluminium manufacturing or repair.

It is a sort of non-stick frying pan solution, meaning that layers of molten aluminium do not get stuck on this expensive equipment. The precise functioning of this particular coating is currently something of a mystery, though.

“To be honest, we really don’t know how it works, the mechanism is unknown at the moment,” says Prof Espallargas.

Nonetheless, the coating is available commercially through her spin-out company Seram Coatings. Atlas Machine and Supply, a US firm that makes and repairs industrial machinery, has tried it out.

“The real benefit lies in extending the life of the tools and improving the quality of the products being produced,” says Jeremy Rydberg, chief innovation officer.

He says that, without the coating, Atlas must rebuild the roller tools it uses to work aluminium every two days. This costs $4.5m annually. But the new coating means that these tools last for a whole week, not just a couple of days, slashing those rebuild costs to around $1.3m per year.

Coatings can do some amazing things, but they don’t always work as intended, notes Andy Hopkinson, managing director at Safinah Group, a firm that often gets called in to investigate when coatings go wrong.

“We’re seeing a lot of issues at the moment with car parks, where their passive fire protection system is peeling off,” he says, referring to the fire-resistant paint sometimes applied to concrete structures.

And his company has also found that coatings applied to commercial ships do not always prevent barnacles and other sea life from attaching themselves to the hull. This problem, known as biofouling, increases friction, meaning the ship’s engine must work harder – and burn more fuel.

Despite the availability of coatings that promise to help, ship owners do not always choose the correct one for their vessel. That choice should depend on where the ship is sailing, how long it is due to be idle rather than in motion, and so on, says Dr Hopkinson.

The cost of fixing issues like this can run into many thousands, or even millions of pounds. “Typically, paint costs between 1 and 2% of the project. The problem is, when it goes wrong, the costs become exponential,” says Mr Hopkinson.

The researchers working in this field, though, say that there are still many opportunities to improve coatings and develop new ones that could drastically improve the performance of machines or infrastructure in the future.

Just weeks ago, Gautam Adani, one of the world’s richest men, celebrated Donald Trump’s election victory and announced plans to invest $10bn (£7.9bn) in energy and infrastructure projects in the US.

Now, the 62-year-old Indian billionaire and a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose sprawling $169bn empire spans ports and renewable energy, faces US fraud charges that could potentially jeopardise his ambitions at home and abroad.

Federal prosecutors have accused him of orchestrating a $250m bribery scheme and concealing it to raise money in the US. They allege Mr Adani and his executives paid bribes to Indian officials to secure contracts worth $2bn in profits over 20 years. Adani Group has denied the allegations, calling them “baseless.”

But this is already hurting the group and the Indian economy.

Adani Group firms lost $34bn in market value on Thursday, reducing the combined market capitalisation of its 10 companies to $147bn. Adani Green Energy, which is the firm at the centre of the allegations, also said it wouldn’t proceed with a $600m bond offering.

Then there are questions about the impact of the charges on India’s business and politics.

India’s economy is deeply intertwined with Mr Adani, the country’s leading infrastructure tycoon. He operates 13 ports (30% market share), seven airports (23% of passenger traffic), and India’s second-largest cement business (20% of the market).

With six coal-fired power plants, Mr Adani is India’s largest private player in power. At the same time, he has pledged to invest $50bn in green hydrogen and runs a 8,000km (4,970 miles)-long natural gas pipeline. He’s also building India’s longest expressway and redeveloping India’s largest slum. He employs over 45,000 people, but his businesses impact millions nationwide.

• Gautam Adani: Asia’s richest man

Mr Adani’s global ambitions span coal mines in Indonesia and Australia, airport and energy projects in Kenya and Morocco. The group is eyeing more than a billion dollars in infrastructure projects across Tanzania and Kenya.

Mr Adani’s portfolio closely mirrors Modi’s policy priorities, beginning with infrastructure and more recently expanding into clean energy. He has thrived despite critics labeling his business empire as crony capitalism, pointing to his close ties with Modi, both as Gujarat’s chief minister – where they both hail from – and as India’s prime minister. (Like any successful businessman, Mr Adani has also forged ties with many opposition leaders, investing in their states.)

“This [the bribery allegations] is big. Mr Adani and Modi have been inseparable for a long time. This is going to influence the political economy of India,” says Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, an Indian journalist who has written extensively on the business group.

This crisis also comes as Mr Adani has spent nearly two years trying to rebuild his image after US short-seller Hindenburg Research’s 2023 report accused his conglomerate of decades of stock manipulation and fraud. Though Mr Adani denied the claims, the allegations triggered a market sell-off and an ongoing investigation by India’s market regulator, SEBI.

“Mr Adani has been trying to rehabilitate his image, and try to show that those earlier fraud allegations leveled by the Hindenburg group were not true, and his company and his businesses had actually been doing quite well. There’d been a number of new deals and investments made over the last year or so, and so this is just a body blow coming to this billionaire who had done a very good job of shaking off the potential damage of those earlier allegations,” Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center, an American think-tank, told the BBC.

For now, raising capital at home may prove challenging for Mr Adani’s cash-guzzling projects.

“The market reaction shows how serious this is,” Ambareesh Baliga, an independent market analyst, told the BBC. “Adanis will still secure funding for their major projects, but with delays.”

The latest charges could also throw a spanner in Mr Adani’s global expansion plans. He has been already challenged in Kenya and Bangladesh over a planned takeover of an international airport and a controversial energy deal. “This [bribery charges] stops international expansion plans linked to the US,” Nirmalya Kumar, Lee Kong Chian Professor at Singapore Management University, told the BBC.

What’s next? Politically, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has unsurprisingly called for Mr Adani’s arrest and promised to stir up parliament. “Bribing government officials in India is not news, but the amounts mentioned are staggering. I suspect the US has names of some of those who were the intended recipients. This has potential reverberations for the Indian political scene. There is more to come,” Mr Kumar believes.

Mr Adani’s team will undoubtedly assemble a top-tier legal defence. “For now, we have only the indictment, leaving much still to unfold,” says Mr Kugelman.

While the US-India business relationship may face scrutiny, it’s unlikely to be significantly impacted, particularly given the recent $500m US deal with Mr Adani for a port project in Sri Lanka, says Mr Kugelman. Despite the serious allegations, broader US-India business ties remain strong.

“The US-India business relationship is a very large and multifaceted one. Even with these very serious allegations against someone that’s such a major player in the Indian economy, I don’t think we should overstate the impact that this could have on that relationship,” Mr Kugelman says.

Also, it’s unclear if Mr Adani can be targeted, despite the US-India extradition treaty, as it depends on whether the new administration allows the cases to proceed. Mr Baliga believes it is not doom and gloom for the Adanis. “I still do think foreign investors and banks will back them like they did post Hindenburg though, given that they are part of very important, well performing sectors of the Indian economy,” he says.

“The sense in the market is also that this will perhaps blow over and be sorted out, once the [Donald] Trump administration takes over.”

The announcement of arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israel’s current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has triggered a furious response from leading Israelis across the political spectrum.

By contrast it has been welcomed by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and ordinary citizens in Gaza.

Leading Israeli figures across the political spectrum have reacted angrily to the announcement.

President Isaac Herzog called it “a dark day for justice and humanity”, saying the decision had “chosen the side of terror and evil over democracy and freedom”.

The prime minister’s office called it “an antisemitic decision” and said that Israel “utterly rejects the false and absurd charges”, labelling the ICC “a biased and discriminatory political body”.

The chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, Yuli Edelstein, called it “a shameful decision by a political body held captive by Islamist interests”. Israel’s foreign minister said the ICC had lost its legitimacy.

Hamas has welcomed the decision, without commenting on the issuing of a warrant for its own military commander, Mohammed Deif.

In a statement it said: “We call on all countries around the world to cooperate with the court in bringing the Zionist war criminals, Netanyahu and Gallant and to work immediately to stop the crimes of genocide against defenceless civilians in the Gaza Strip”.

Ordinary Palestinians in Gaza have also welcomed the announcement. Muhammad Ali, a 40-year old man displaced from Gaza City and currently in the central area of Deir al-Balah, said:

“We have been terrorised, starved, had our homes destroyed, and lost our children, sons, and loved ones. We welcome this decision, and of course, we hope that the decisions of the ICC will be implemented”.

Munira Al-Shami, whose sister was killed by Israeli forces last month, called the ICC decision “justice for tens of thousands of victims, including my sister Wafa”.

Meanwhile, some Israeli citizens said the arrests went against Israel’s right to defend itself.

“Somehow I’m not surprised,” Ron Ackerman said, adding he thinks the ICC “is purely antisemitic and it doesn’t see what’s going on around Israel, only they look at Israel”.

Helen Kariv from Jerusalem said: “When I first heard it I said, ‘my God, where did they get the idea of arresting the prime minister of the state of Israel and his chief of staff’?… We are fighting for survival.”

A total of 124 countries are signatories to the ICC, including the UK, but not the US, Russia, China, nor Israel itself.

So this means that technically, if either Netanyahu or Gallant sets foot in any of the signatory countries they must be arrested and handed over to the court.

But international lawyers have expressed doubts over whether either man will ever be brought to The Hague for trial.

The last time Netanyahu travelled outside Israel was in July to the US, a country he could still theoretically visit with impunity.

Last year he visited several countries, including the UK in March, many of which are signatories.

It is thought unlikely he would want to risk arrest by doing this again and the countries in question would also be reluctant to find themselves put in that position.

Hamas has little to fear from the ICC warrant for Ibrahim Al-Masri, aka Mohammed Deif. Israel believes he was killed earlier this year, although this was never confirmed by Hamas.

The other two Hamas figures whom the ICC originally planned to prosecute – Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh – are both confirmed as dead.

There is no question that Thursday’s announcement is a major blow to Israel’s international standing, to the two individuals named and most specifically to Israel’s ongoing efforts to present its military campaign in Gaza as a fight between the forces of good and evil.

Israelis are appalled that, in their eyes, the world seems to have already forgotten or overlooked the atrocities committed by Hamas on 7 October last year.

Palestinians, especially Gazans, feel vindicated that their accusations of Israeli war crimes have now been echoed by an international body with some weight.

A town council in Canada is at a standstill after its newly elected members refused to pledge allegiance to King Charles III as required in the swearing-in ceremony.

Stephen Johnson, the mayor-elect of Dawson City in Yukon Territory, and the new council were elected last month. They were to be sworn early this month but that process stalled after they refused to take the oath.

Johnson says the refusal is in solidarity with an indigenous council member who has raised concerns about the Crown’s history with Canada’s indigenous people.

Under Yukon law, a newly elected official must take the oath within 40 days of their election or else their win “shall be considered null”.

This means Johnson and the rest of council have until 9 December to take the Oath of Allegiance, in which elected officials in Canada – a Commonwealth country and former British colony – swear or affirm they “will be faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty King Charles III” and his “heirs and successors according to law”.

In the meantime, the new council is not able to govern or make official decisions until the matter is resolved.

In an interview with the Canadian Press, Mayor-elect Johnson said the situation had left him stuck.

“We can’t do anything legally required of us under the Municipal Act,” he explained, until the council takes the oath. “It’s a bit of a sticky situation.”

Johnson said he and the other councillors refused the oath in solidarity with fellow councillor Darwyn Lynn, a member of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation, who was hesitant to pledge allegiance.

“This is being done with no disrespect to His Majesty King Charles,” Johnson told the Canadian Press. “And also we’re not doing this to go, ‘Rah, rah, look at us,’ to poke everybody across Canada, to get rid of the Crown.

“It was just something we wanted to do together to show solidarity in what we do here in this town.”

As a remedy, the town council has asked Yukon provincial officials if they could take an alternative oath.

A spokesperson for Yukon’s Department of Community Services confirmed to the BBC that they had received this request, but have not commented on whether it will be granted.

Bill Kendrick, the town’s outgoing mayor, told the BBC that he hoped “it gets worked out for the sake of the new council, so they can get down to business”.

He added the town’s response to the standoff had been mixed.

“I’d say it’s the whole gamut,” Mr Kendrick said. Some believe the oath is outdated, while others interpret it as a symbol of support for Canada’s system of governance.

Dawson City is a town of 2,400, known for being the heart of the historic Klondike Gold Rush that began in 1896. It is the second-largest municipality in the Yukon, a Canadian territory that borders Alaska.

The town is located on the former site of Tr’ochëk, a hunting and fishing camp where the Klondike and Yukon rivers meet. Its people, the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, were displaced after the Klondike gold rush brought nearly 17,000 new settlers.

Canada has acknowledged its fraught history with its indigenous peoples in recent years. In 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared before the United Nations that the country’s legacy of colonialism was one of “humiliation, neglect and abuse”.

This is not the first time that elected officials in Canada have refused to take an oath to the King.

In 2022, the French-speaking province of Quebec passed legislation that ended the requirement to have elected officials take an oath to the monarchy. One lawmaker called it “a relic from the past”.

Earlier this year, a member of Canada’s national parliament introduced a similar bill, though it was defeated by a vote of 197-113.

A row has broken out at COP29 climate talks as leading countries said a draft deal risked going back on a historic agreement to reduce the use of planet-warming fossil fuels.

“Standing still is retreat and the world will rightly judge us very harshly if this is the outcome,” said UK energy minister Ed Miliband.

The UK, European Union, New Zealand and Ireland said the proposed agreement was “unacceptable”.

Developing nations said they are unhappy that a pot of money has not been agreed to help them tackle climate change.

Nearly 200 countries are meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan to try to decide on the next steps in tackling climate change.

The row comes as the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned countries that “failure is not an option”.

At the heart of the talks is a trade-off between promises of more money from developed nations and global pledges to reduce the use of fossil fuels.

Some developing nations and oil-rich countries are reluctant to push strong action on cutting fossil fuels because it could jeopardise their economic growth.

In an open meeting of all nations, the EU Commissioner for Climate Action Wopke Hoekstra called the draft deal “unbalanced, unworkable and unsubtle”.

US Climate Envoy John Podesta said: “We are surprised that there is nothing that carries forward…what we agreed last year in Dubai.”

“We will have failed in our duty and the millions of people already feeling the effects of extreme weather,” he added.

• A simple guide to climate change
• How is the world doing on tackling climate change

Samoan minister Cedric Schuster, representing small island nations on the front-line of climate change, said:

“We cannot afford to undermine the progress achieved less than a year ago in Dubai”.

At the COP28 climate talks last year, nations agreed to “transition away from fossil fuels.”

“If we do not get ambition on mitigation, then everything else fails,” said Eamon Ryan, Ireland’s minister for the environment, speaking to journalists.

Diplomats are upset with the COP29 hosts Azerbaijan. They say the draft deal reflects the views of the Arab group of countries and what’s termed the Like-Minded group, which includes Saudi Arabia, China, India and Bolivia.

The Saudis have suggested that the fossil fuels agreement reached was just one option for countries, rather than an specific instruction.

Minister Ryan said the new proposed deal text reflected this view.

“We all know that there has been backsliding. There has been an attempt to interpret what we agreed last year as a menu, and actually taking back the language and taking back the commitment, and that has to stop in the interest of the Arab group too.”

But developing countries have made clear that they think richer countries are also going back on previous promises. In 2015, as part of the landmark Paris Agreement, developed nations promised to provide money to help poorer countries move away from fossil fuels and prepare for extreme weather.

The proposed agreement on new finance for climate – published Thursday morning – currently contains no figure.

Diego Pacheco, Bolivia’s lead negotiator, said: “This is not even a joke. This is an offence to the demands of the global south.

“This is a finance COP and needs political will to provide finance and any thing less is a betrayal to […] the Paris agreement and to millions of people around the world,” he said

The G77+China group, which represents developing countries, want $1.3tn (£1.03tn) by 2030. That could be from governments and private sources like banks or businesses.

But they say no specific number has been mentioned here.

“I have heard figures in the corridors, but nothing official,” said Evans Njewa, chair for the Least Developed Countries Group.

Developing countries also want to get a figure about how money will be from grants, such as in aid budgets, and how much would be private loans.

They fear any more loans will increase their existing debt burdens.

Pamela Hayden, the actress who voices the Simpsons character Milhouse, has announced her retirement from the show.

Hayden has worked on the US animated series since 1989 and appeared in nearly 700 episodes.

In a statement, 70-year-old Hayden said: “The time has come for me to hang up my microphone.”

“It’s been an honour and a joy to have worked on such a funny, witty, and groundbreaking show… I’ll always have a special place in my heart for that blue-haired 10-year-old boy with glasses.”

Producers plan to re-cast the role in the coming months.

Milhouse van Houten has been a popular recurring character on the sitcom for the past 35 years, and is Bart Simpson’s best friend.

He is shy in nature, easily influenced by Bart’s mischievous ideas, and regularly targeted by bullies.

Milhouse is not the only character played by Hayden. She is also the voice behind Ned Flanders’ sons Rod and Todd, school bully Jimbo Jones, Lisa Simpson’s friend Janey, and Chief Wiggum’s wife Sarah.

But Milhouse was her most popular character, Hayden said, recalling in a video announcing her departure that “people would come up to me and they quote Milhouse lines”.

“People are always saying what a nerd he is, but one thing that I love about Milhouse is he’s always getting knocked down, but he keeps getting up,” she continued. “I love the little guy. It’s this wonderful analogy for life.”

The show’s creator Matt Groening said: “Pamela gave us tons of laughs with Milhouse, the hapless kid with the biggest nose in Springfield. She made Milhouse hilarious and real, and we will miss her.”

The blue-haired boy was said to be named after former US president Richard Milhous Nixon.

BBC Radio 1’s Sound of 2025 longlist has been announced, with breakout stars like Chappell Roan and Barry Can’t Swim joined by newcomers including Myles Smith and Good Neighbours.

The award is given to rising artists with “the best chance of mainstream success” in the next 12 months. Past winners include Adele, Sam Smith, Michael Kiwanuka, PinkPantheress and Haim.

Last year’s winners, The Last Dinner Party, went on to score a number one album and a Mercury Prize nomination for their debut release, Prelude To Ecstasy.

This year’s longlist also includes indie band English Teacher and Northern Irish rap act Kneecap. The winner will be announced on BBC Radio 1 and BBC News in January.

The 11 acts in the running are:

• Barry Can’t Swim
• Chappell Roan
• Confidence Man
• Doechii
• English Teacher
• Ezra Collective
• Good Neighbours
• KNEECAP
• mk.gee
• Myles Smith
• Pozer

The nominees were chosen by a panel of more than 180 music industry experts and artists including representatives from Spotify, the Glastonbury Festival and the BBC; as well as musicians such as Sir Elton John, Dua Lipa, Jorja Smith, The Blessed Madonna and Sam Smith.

US pop star Chapell Roan is the clear frontrunner, after an electrifying year that saw her go from Olivia Rodrigo’s backing vocalist to breakout pop star.

Rejecting the trend for whispery bedroom pop, her songs are full of cheerleader chants and exuberant hooks that document her coming of age and the discovery of her sexuality.

Last week, she was nominated for six Grammy Awards, including best new artist and album of the year, for her debut The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess.

• Find out more about this year’s artists
• The pundits who voted in the poll

Also hotly-tipped are London jazz ensemble Ezra Collective, who won the Mercury Prize in 2023 for their soulful and ebullient album Where I’m Meant To Be.

This year’s follow-up – tited Dance, No One’s Watching – is both an invitation and an invocation, with supple funk grooves that propelled the album into the top 10.

Shape-shifting rapper Doechii also makes the list, cementing her rise as one of hip-hop’s brightest new voices.

Born in Florida, she rose to attention with the viral 2021 hit Yucky Blucky Fruitcake, after which she toured with SZA and Doja Cat.

She is also nominated for the best new artist Grammy, and her recent mixtape Alligator Bites Don’t Heal was called “one of the year’s very best albums” by Rolling Stone.

Making a very different brand of hip-hop are Kneecap, who rap in both English and Irish about the aftermath of the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.

The trio, who use the stage names Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí, released their second album earlier this year alongside a “mostly true” movie depicting their origin story.

Representing London’s rap scene is Croydon-born Pozer, whose debut single Kitchen Stove has been streamed more than 30 million times on Spotify since February.

After a period when solo artists were in the ascendance, this year’s longlist has a healthy showing for bands, who occupy five of the 11 spots.

They include UK pop-rock duo Good Neighbours, who tap into a rich vein of feelgood nostalgia on tracks like Home and Daisies; and Australian electro-pop outfit Confidence Man, already known for their theatrically-choreographed (and fantastically fun) stage shows.

There’s a second Mercury Prize winner on the list in the shape of Leeds band English Teacher.

Combining art-rock angularity with biting social satire, their debut album This Could Be Texas was called “one of the finest debuts of the decade” by indie publication The Line Of Best Fit.

Edinburgh producer Barry Can’t Swim also makes the longlist, following a summer of huge festival appearances that saw crowds swoon to his upbeat, elegaic brand of dance music.

The list is completed by rising singer-songwriter Myles Smith, who scored a top 10 hit with the uplifting folk-pop track Stargazing earlier this year; and US guitar prodigy Mk.gee (pronounced “ma-ghee”), whose debut album Two Star & The Dream Police has quietly become a word of mouth success.

The musician, born Michael Gordon, who’s been championed by Frank Ocean, recently made his debut on US comedy institution Saturday Night Live.

Now in its 23rd year, the Sound Of list has tipped everyone from Stormzy and Dua Lipa to Billie Eilish and Lady Gaga for success.

This year’s nominees may be more recognisable than previous acts were at this stage in their careers.

That’s down to a change in the eligibility criteria that recognises the difficulties of achieving crossover success in the streaming era.

To qualify, artists could not have had more than two UK top 10 albums or two UK top 10 singles by 30 September 2024.

The winner will be announced in the New Year, with the top five revealed in reverse order between Monday 6 and Friday 10 January.

Radio 1 will also host a special concert with performances from artists on the longlist on Monday 2 December.

The application for tickets is now open on the BBC Shows and Tours website.

The concert will be hosted by Sian Eleri and Jack Saunders, who said the 2025 longlist was “one of the strongest in a while”.

“It’s a reflection of the freedom artists are feeling creatively at the moment. Can’t wait to see who the top five are!”

Tributes have been paid to Lord John Prescott, a major figure in Labour politics and the former deputy prime minister, following his death at the age of 86.

Known for his blunt, no-nonsense style, Lord Prescott was Sir Tony Blair’s loyal deputy for 10 years after Labour’s 1997 general election landslide.

Sir Tony said he was “devastated” by the death of his friend, telling the BBC there was “no one quite like him in British politics”.

His successor Gordon Brown called Lord Prescott a “working class hero”, while Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hailed a “true giant” of the Labour movement.

The King praised his “decades of public service” and recalled “with great fondness his unique and indomitable character, as well as his infectious sense of humour”.

• John Prescott: Political bruiser who played vital role in Labour comeback
• Seven memorable moments in the life of John Prescott
• Watch: Moment Prescott punched protester who threw egg at him
• ‘You’ve got a voice kid, use it’ – how John Prescott inspired Angela Rayner
• No one was quite like John Prescott, says Blair

In a statement announcing his death, Lord Prescott’s wife and two sons said he had been in a care home recently living with Alzheimer’s.

They said he died “surrounded by the love of his family and the jazz music of Marian Montgomery”.

Sir Tony said the pair would talk via videocall in recent times, and Lord Prescott was “still as lively and punchy as ever”.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the former prime minister said Lord Prescott reached parts of the electorate that he could not, and was “loyal, committed and an enormous help” as his deputy.

However, he said their relationship was not just political and they developed a “genuine admiration, respect and affection for each other”.

Brown described him as a “colossus” and “a titan of the Labour movement”.

Lord Prescott played an invaluable role as peacemaker between Brown and Sir Tony, often being described as their “marriage counsellor”.

Paying tribute in the House of Commons, Sir Keir said Lord Prescott was “a man who fought for working-class ambition because he lived it”, adding: “He truly was a one off.”

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner – who shares a working class and trade union background with Lord Prescott – said he was “not only a Labour legend but an inspiration to me”.

She said he had been “a huge support”, offering the advice to “be authentically yourself and keep thinking about the people you’re there to represent”.

Lord Mandelson, a key architect of New Labour, hailed him as an “all time great” of the party.

The former cabinet minister, who at times clashed with Lord Prescott in government, said he was “the anchor of New Labour” and “the glue that kept us together”.

He told the BBC Lord Prescott was a “fighter for working people” and wanted them “to have all the opportunities that he’d had”, which made him “an essential part of New Labour”.

Born in Prestatyn, Wales, Lord Prescott left school at 15 and worked as a steward in the Merchant Navy. He then studied at Ruskin College in Oxford, before entering politics.

In a career that stretched back over half a century, Lord Prescott was first elected as MP for Hull East in 1970 and went on to hold the seat for almost 40 years.

He joined the shadow cabinet in 1983 as the party’s transport spokesman and would later become Sir Tony’s deputy.

When Labour won power in 1997, he became deputy prime minister, as well as leading a department with responsibilities spanning the environment, transport and the regions.

It was in that role that he helped negotiate the landmark Kyoto climate change treaty.

Despite pushing for a switch from cars to public transport, he was nicknamed “two jags” by the press after it emerged he had two Jaguar cars. But in 2021, he revealed he no longer had a motor vehicle, saying “I am now Zero Jags”.

He also famously punched a man who threw an egg at him while on the general election campaign trail in Rhyl, north Wales in 2001.

After pictures of the incident appeared in press around the world, a new nickname of “two jabs” was coined for him by journalists.

Lord Prescott said he had acted in self-defence and police refused to take any further action. Subsequent newspaper polls suggested most people supported his reaction.

Commenting at the time, Sir Tony said: “John is John”.

Speaking of the incident as he paid tribute on Today, Sir Tony said “that’s what he was like”.

“There were no rules that he really abided by.”

Though a loyal supporter of Sir Tony during his time in office, Lord Prescott was later critical of Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war, telling the BBC that the 2003 invasion of the country “cannot be justified”.

He retired from the Commons in 2010 and to the surprise of many of his supporters accepted a peerage, despite reportedly having once said: “I don’t want to be a member of the House of Lords. I will not accept it.”

He defended the decision because it would give him continued influence over environmental policy.

He ceased to be a member of the House of Lords in July of this year due to non-attendance, having only spoken once in the chamber since suffering a stroke in 2019.

“John spent his life trying to improve the lives of others, fighting for social justice and protecting the environment, doing so from his time as a waiter on the cruise liners to becoming Britain’s longest serving deputy prime minister,” his family said.

“John dearly loved his home of Hull and representing its people in Parliament for 40 years was his greatest honour.”

Lord Prescott married his wife, Pauline, in 1961 and they had two children together – David and Jonathan.

Maurizio Cattelan’s provocative artwork of a banana duct-taped to a wall has fetched $6.2m (£4.9m) at Sotheby’s in New York – four times higher than pre-sale estimates.

The auction house says Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun outbid six other rivals to get the “Comedian” installation of the Italian visual artist on Wednesday.

“In the coming days, I will personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience,” Mr Sun was quoted as saying.

The taped banana – now perhaps one of the most expensive fruits ever sold – was actually bought earlier in the day for a mere $0.35, according to the New York Times.

“Comedian” was first unveiled to the public in 2019, instantly becoming a viral sensation and also provoking heated debates about what art is.

The installation – which has travelled around the world – comes with instructions on how to replace the banana whenever it rots.

In fact, the fruit has been eaten not once, but twice.

In 2023, a South Korean art student helped himself when the installation went on display at Seoul’s Leeum Museum of Art.

The museum later placed a new banana in the same spot, local media reported.

Four years earlier, a performance artist pulled the banana from the wall after the artwork was sold for $120,000 at Art Basel in Miami.

The banana was swiftly replaced, and no further action was taken.

Justin Sun runs the Tron blockchain network, which facilitates some cryptocurrency transactions. Last year the US Securities and Exchange Commission accused him of fraud, saying he had falsely inflated trading volumes of TRX, Tron’s crypto token. Mr Sun denies the charges.

A 43-year-old man was fatally shot by police in Las Vegas after he called 911 for help while fighting off an intruder in his home.

The family of Brandon Durham, including his 15-year-old daughter who was hiding in a nearby room, have asked for the officer to be fired.

Mr Durham’s teenage daughter said she was “disgusted” with Las Vegas police as they treated him like “the suspect” not “the victim”.

A lawyer for Alexander Bookman, the officer who shot Mr Durham, said he committed no crimes.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said Mr Bookman, 26, had been placed on paid administrative leave while they conduct an internal review of the 12 November incident.

Mr Durham had called 911 to report that two people were shooting outside and were trying to break into his home, police said.

Officers responding to the report found cars with broken windows outside.

They also noticed damage to the house and heard shouting from inside, police said, prompting Mr Bookman to kick down the front door to enter.

Body camera footage released by the police shows Mr Bookman walking through the home with his gun drawn, while screaming and banging can be heard out of view.

• Video shows Illinois police fatally shoot woman in her home

Turning the corner of an L-shaped hallway, the officer finds a shirtless Mr Durham wrestling over a knife with a woman wearing a ski mask, later identified as 31-year-old Alejandra Boudreaux.

Mr Bookman yells, “hey, drop the knife, drop the knife”, seconds before firing a shot that hit Mr Durham and sent him and Ms Boudreaux to the ground.

Mr Bookman then fires five more shots at Mr Durham and says “put your hands up”, body-worn camera footage released by police showed.

Mr Durham was pronounced dead at the scene. Ms Boudreaux was arrested and charged with four counts, including home invasion with a deadly weapon.

“I am disgusted in how the Metropolitan Police told my father, after killing him, to stay down,” Mr Durham’s daughter told local news. “I’m disgusted that the Metropolitan Police will allow me to live fatherless for the rest of my life.”

The family’s lawyer has asked for an immediate arrest warrant for Mr Bookman.

“Unlike a civil case, in which an individual’s negligence is at issue, criminal cases require proof of a person’s criminal intent,” David Roger, general counsel for the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, said in a statement to CNN. “While Mr. Durham’s death is tragic, Officer Bookman was doing his job and did not intend to commit a crime.”

Citing a police report, local news outlets said Mr Durham and Ms Boudreaux were previously in a romantic relationship.

Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren said police did not find a gun on the scene, despite multiple reports of shots fired.

The incident brought police shootings back into the spotlight, occurring just days before the justice department opened an investigation into the death of Sonya Massey, who was fatally shot in July by an officer inside her home in Illinois.

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated veteran prosecutor Pam Bondi as his new pick for attorney general, hours after Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration.

Bondi has a long track record in law enforcement and previously served as Florida’s attorney general.

A long-time Trump ally, Bondi was part of his legal team during his first Senate impeachment trial and also publicly supported him by showing up at court during his hush money trial in New York.

“Pam was a prosecutor for nearly 20 years, where she was very tough on Violent Criminals, and made the streets safe for Florida Families,” Trump said in a social media post announcing his choice.

Bondi has been close to Trump since his 2016 campaign, telling voters at a recent Trump rally that she considers him a “friend”.

In 2019, she joined his White House to focus on “proactive impeachment messaging”, serving both as his legal advisor and defence attorney during his first impeachment – during which he was acquitted.

She continued to be part of Trump’s legal team in 2020 as it made false claims that the election had been stolen from Trump due to voter fraud.

She also served on Trump’s Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission, and more recently, has headed the legal arm of the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank founded by former Trump staff members.

If confirmed by the Senate, Bondi will become the country’s chief law enforcement officer, in charge of the justice department’s more than 115,000 employees and roughly $45bn (£35.7bn) budget.

She would also play a key role in attempting to implement Trump’s vow to punish his political enemies once he takes office.

She has been a vocal critic of the criminal cases brought against Trump, as well as special counsel Jack Smith, who charged Trump in two federal cases.

“For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans – Not anymore,” Trump wrote on Thursday evening.

“Pam will refocus the DOJ [Department of Justice] to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again.”

Trump’s other plans for the department include ending “weaponised government”, protecting US borders, dismantling criminal organisations and restoring Americans’ “badly-shattered faith and confidence” in the department.

Trump’s transition team will be hoping that Bondi’s nomination path will be less tumultuous than Gaetz’s.

Reacting to the announcement, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham predicted that Bondi “will be confirmed quickly,” calling her selection a “grand slam, touchdown, hole in one, ace, hat trick, slam dunk, Olympic gold medal pick.”

The news of Bondi’s nomination came about six hours after Gaetz said he would not seek the high-profile cabinet post, following days of debate over whether to release a congressional report on sexual misconduct allegations against him.

Announcing his withdrawal, the 41-year-old said the controversy over his potential nomination “was unfairly becoming a distraction” to the work of the incoming Trump administration.

The report included the findings of a probe sparked by allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. Gaetz has vehemently denied the claims but said that he hoped to avoid a “needlessly protracted Washington scuffle” by withdrawing.

Later on Thursday, Gaetz offered his congratulations to Bondi, calling her “a stellar selection by President Trump”.

“She’s a proven litigator, an inspiring leader and a champion for all Americans. She will bring the needed reforms to DOJ,” he said.

It is unclear if Gaetz, who resigned his House seat soon after Trump tapped him for attorney general, will now try to retain his seat.

Since his resounding election win earlier this month, Trump has named several close allies to fill high-ranking positions in his administration.

• What to know about the Matt Gaetz investigation
• How these new recruits will be vetted
• What Trump can and can’t do on day one
• Fact-checking RFK’s views on health policy
• What Trump picks say about Mid East policy

Just weeks ago, Gautam Adani, one of the world’s richest men, celebrated Donald Trump’s election victory and announced plans to invest $10bn (£7.9bn) in energy and infrastructure projects in the US.

Now, the 62-year-old Indian billionaire and a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose sprawling $169bn empire spans ports and renewable energy, faces US fraud charges that could potentially jeopardise his ambitions at home and abroad.

Federal prosecutors have accused him of orchestrating a $250m bribery scheme and concealing it to raise money in the US. They allege Mr Adani and his executives paid bribes to Indian officials to secure contracts worth $2bn in profits over 20 years. Adani Group has denied the allegations, calling them “baseless.”

But this is already hurting the group and the Indian economy.

Adani Group firms lost $34bn in market value on Thursday, reducing the combined market capitalisation of its 10 companies to $147bn. Adani Green Energy, which is the firm at the centre of the allegations, also said it wouldn’t proceed with a $600m bond offering.

Then there are questions about the impact of the charges on India’s business and politics.

India’s economy is deeply intertwined with Mr Adani, the country’s leading infrastructure tycoon. He operates 13 ports (30% market share), seven airports (23% of passenger traffic), and India’s second-largest cement business (20% of the market).

With six coal-fired power plants, Mr Adani is India’s largest private player in power. At the same time, he has pledged to invest $50bn in green hydrogen and runs a 8,000km (4,970 miles)-long natural gas pipeline. He’s also building India’s longest expressway and redeveloping India’s largest slum. He employs over 45,000 people, but his businesses impact millions nationwide.

• Gautam Adani: Asia’s richest man

Mr Adani’s global ambitions span coal mines in Indonesia and Australia, airport and energy projects in Kenya and Morocco. The group is eyeing more than a billion dollars in infrastructure projects across Tanzania and Kenya.

Mr Adani’s portfolio closely mirrors Modi’s policy priorities, beginning with infrastructure and more recently expanding into clean energy. He has thrived despite critics labeling his business empire as crony capitalism, pointing to his close ties with Modi, both as Gujarat’s chief minister – where they both hail from – and as India’s prime minister. (Like any successful businessman, Mr Adani has also forged ties with many opposition leaders, investing in their states.)

“This [the bribery allegations] is big. Mr Adani and Modi have been inseparable for a long time. This is going to influence the political economy of India,” says Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, an Indian journalist who has written extensively on the business group.

This crisis also comes as Mr Adani has spent nearly two years trying to rebuild his image after US short-seller Hindenburg Research’s 2023 report accused his conglomerate of decades of stock manipulation and fraud. Though Mr Adani denied the claims, the allegations triggered a market sell-off and an ongoing investigation by India’s market regulator, SEBI.

“Mr Adani has been trying to rehabilitate his image, and try to show that those earlier fraud allegations leveled by the Hindenburg group were not true, and his company and his businesses had actually been doing quite well. There’d been a number of new deals and investments made over the last year or so, and so this is just a body blow coming to this billionaire who had done a very good job of shaking off the potential damage of those earlier allegations,” Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center, an American think-tank, told the BBC.

For now, raising capital at home may prove challenging for Mr Adani’s cash-guzzling projects.

“The market reaction shows how serious this is,” Ambareesh Baliga, an independent market analyst, told the BBC. “Adanis will still secure funding for their major projects, but with delays.”

The latest charges could also throw a spanner in Mr Adani’s global expansion plans. He has been already challenged in Kenya and Bangladesh over a planned takeover of an international airport and a controversial energy deal. “This [bribery charges] stops international expansion plans linked to the US,” Nirmalya Kumar, Lee Kong Chian Professor at Singapore Management University, told the BBC.

What’s next? Politically, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has unsurprisingly called for Mr Adani’s arrest and promised to stir up parliament. “Bribing government officials in India is not news, but the amounts mentioned are staggering. I suspect the US has names of some of those who were the intended recipients. This has potential reverberations for the Indian political scene. There is more to come,” Mr Kumar believes.

Mr Adani’s team will undoubtedly assemble a top-tier legal defence. “For now, we have only the indictment, leaving much still to unfold,” says Mr Kugelman.

While the US-India business relationship may face scrutiny, it’s unlikely to be significantly impacted, particularly given the recent $500m US deal with Mr Adani for a port project in Sri Lanka, says Mr Kugelman. Despite the serious allegations, broader US-India business ties remain strong.

“The US-India business relationship is a very large and multifaceted one. Even with these very serious allegations against someone that’s such a major player in the Indian economy, I don’t think we should overstate the impact that this could have on that relationship,” Mr Kugelman says.

Also, it’s unclear if Mr Adani can be targeted, despite the US-India extradition treaty, as it depends on whether the new administration allows the cases to proceed. Mr Baliga believes it is not doom and gloom for the Adanis. “I still do think foreign investors and banks will back them like they did post Hindenburg though, given that they are part of very important, well performing sectors of the Indian economy,” he says.

“The sense in the market is also that this will perhaps blow over and be sorted out, once the [Donald] Trump administration takes over.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that an attack by his forces on the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday morning was carried out using “a new conventional intermediate-range missile”.

He said that the missile, codenamed Oreshnik, was a response to the use by Ukraine of US and UK long-range weaponry to hit targets inside Russia.

Putin added that Russia could attack military facilities of those countries which allowed their weapons to be used for this purpose.

The US and the UK authorised the use of US ATACMS and UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles this week, in a major change of policy.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia’s use of the new missile was “a clear and severe escalation in the scale and brutality of this war.”

“[This] is yet more proof that Russia has no interest in peace,” he wrote on X, adding: “Putin is not only prolonging the war – he is spitting in the face of those in the world who genuinely want peace to be restored.”

Earlier, Zelensky said the missile had the characteristics of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), even as Western officials cast doubt on this theory.

The US National Security Council, meanwhile, said “an experimental medium-range ballistic missile” had been used against Ukraine, adding that Russia probably only possessed a handful of these weapons and that they would not be a game changer in the war.

The Pentagon’s deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said the US had been notified “briefly” before the missile was launched through Nuclear Risk Reduction channels – which are used to exchange information on issues including missile launch notifications.

Putin said a “test” was successfully carried out on a non-nuclear hypersonic version of a ballistic missile and that the “target was reached”.

“In response to the use of American and British long-range weaponry, on 21 November this year, the Russian armed forces carried out a combined strike on one of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex sites,” he said.

There is no way of counteracting this weapon, which attacks targets at a speed of 10 Mach, or 2.5-3km/s, he said.

And he warned the West that Russia was “ready for any developments. If anyone still doubts this, they shouldn’t. There will always be a response”.

Matthew Savill, director of military sciences at Rusi, a think tank, said available information about the Russian missile suggests something with a longer range than the Iskanders used so far in the conflict, which have a range of up to 500km (311 miles).

Intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) – which Putin appears to have been describing – generally have ranges of between 3,000 and 5,500km.

Savill says the use of such a weapon may not have huge military significance but is symbolically important, coming on the back of Russia’s revised nuclear doctrine which many see as a lowering of the threshold for the use of such weapons.

It is, he says, a not so subtle reminder that Russia has a wider arsenal of different and larger missile types and is ready to develop more.

Putin’s announcement comes as the war in Ukraine – which marked its 1,000th day on Tuesday – appears to be entering a new, dangerous phase.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its south-western neighbour in February 2022.

Last Sunday US President Joe Biden gave Ukraine the go-ahead to use long-range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) to strike inside Russia, and two days later they were launched into Russia’s Bryansk region.

On Wednesday, Ukraine was reported to have used UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles against Russian targets. On the same day, Biden also agreed to give Ukraine anti-personnel landmines.

The Western moves were apparently in response to Moscow’s deployment of North Korean troops as it prepares for an offensive aimed at driving Ukrainian troops out of a small area they have occupied in Russia’s Kursk region.

But they also come as Donald Trump prepares to return to the US presidency in two months’ time.

Trump has promised to end the US involvement in wars and instead use taxpayers’ money to improve Americans’ lives. He has said he will bring the Russia-Ukraine war to an end within 24 hours, without saying how.

Also this week Putin – seemingly reacting to these moves – ratcheted up the tension still further by loosening the conditions of use for Russia’s nuclear weapons.

And Russia stepped up air strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure, as its ground forces continue their advance in eastern Ukraine.

Suspected methanol poisoning from tainted drinks has reportedly killed five tourists in a Laos holiday town in the past fortnight.

A British woman, an Australian woman, a US man and two Danish nationals have died, while another Australian woman remains critically ill in hospital. The deaths remain under police investigation, but news reports and testimonies online from other tourists suggest they may have consumed drinks laced with methanol, a deadly substance often found in bootleg alcohol.

Methanol poisoning has long been a well-known issue across South-East Asia, particularly in the poorer countries along the Mekong river.

But despite foreign governments posting warnings about alcohol consumption in these places, there is still little awareness among the backpacker party scene.

Flavourless and colourless, methanol is hard to detect in drinks and victims typically don’t see symptoms of poisoning straight away.

And in countries like Laos – one of the poorest and least developed in Asia – the problem arises from alcohol suppliers exploiting an environment where there is low law enforcement and almost no regulations in the food and hospitality industries.

Methanol is a toxic alcohol used in industrial and household products like paint thinners, antifreeze, varnish and photocopier fluid.

It is colourless and has a similar smell to ethyl alcohol – the chemical substance found in alcoholic drinks.

But methanol is dangerous for humans and drinking just 25ml of it can be lethal.

It can take up to 24 hours for victims to start showing signs of illness which include: nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain which can escalate into hyperventilation and breathing problems.

If not treated, fatality rates are often reported to be 20% to 40%, depending on the concentration of methanol and the amount taken, says international medical charity Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) which tracks the number of global outbreaks.

But if a poisoning is diagnosed quickly enough, ideally within the first 30 hours, treatment can reduce some of the worse effects.

Asia has the highest prevalence of methanol poisoning worldwide, according to MSF’s database.

It is a problem that often affects poorer countries – outbreaks are common in Indonesia, India, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Indonesia is regarded as a hotspot – it has reported the highest number of incidents in the past two decades, according to MSF, largely down to the widespread production and consumption of bootleg liquor.

Towns like Vang Vieng in Laos, where the fatal poisonings took place, are known stops on the backpacking trail through South East Asia. The town’s economy is built on tourism, with streets of bars, restaurants and hostels that cater to visitors.

But in Laos, law enforcement is under-resourced and there are few regulations around food and alcohol standards. There is also an industry of home-brewed alcohol, which can lead to accidental poisonings.

Producers also make counterfeit drinks by making products with methanol instead of ethanol because it is cheaper, say local observers.

“You have the unscrupulous producer adding methanol to their drinks because it’s cheaper – it’s used to create a stronger-seeming drink or make lower-quality alcohol drinks seem more potent,” one Western diplomat in the region told the BBC. They also said methanol poisonings are reported to consulates across the region.

However, a lack of data means it is hard to quantify the scale of the contamination, and where tainted drinks enter the supply chain.

“I don’t think it’s nefarious bar owners going out of their way to poison tourists – that’s not good for them or their industry either,” the diplomat said.

“It’s more about the production side – there being being low education, low regulation, people cutting corners.”

The diplomat also said that the risks of bootleg alcohol are well known among tourism operators and embassies, but a high-profile campaign is needed to inform tourists.

“This horrific event will probably help educate people, but not solve the cause of the problem,” they added.

Several Western governments updated their advice about alcohol dangers in South-East Asia on their consulate and travel pages this week.

Some campaigners have sought to raise attention to the dangers before. Australian man Colin Ahearn runs a Facebook page called ‘Don’t Drink Spirits in Bali‘ where he warns against mixed drinks like cocktails or drinks made from opened bottles of spirits.

He told Australian media earlier this week that his page used to receive a submission a week about methanol poisoning across South East Asia.

Addressing this, the western diplomat told the BBC that it would be hard for people to protect themselves unless they went completely teetotal on holiday, as it is unrealistic for tourists to check the original source of all their alcoholic drinks.

Russia is estimated to have supplied North Korea with more than a million barrels of oil since March this year, according to satellite imagery analysis from the Open Source Centre, a non-profit research group based in the UK.

The oil is payment for the weapons and troops Pyongyang has sent Moscow to fuel its war in Ukraine, leading experts and UK Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, have told the BBC.

These transfers violate UN sanctions, which ban countries from selling oil to North Korea, except in small quantities, in an attempt to stifle its economy to prevent it from further developing nuclear weapons.

The satellite images, shared exclusively with the BBC, show more than a dozen different North Korean oil tankers arriving at an oil terminal in Russia’s Far East a total of 43 times over the past eight months.

Further pictures, taken of the ships at sea, appear to show the tankers arriving empty, and leaving almost full.

North Korea is the only country in the world not allowed to buy oil on the open market. The number of barrels of refined petroleum it can receive is capped by the United Nations at 500,000 annually, well below the amount it needs.

Russia’s foreign ministry did not respond to our request for comment.

The first oil transfer documented by the Open Source Centre in a new report, was on 7 March 2024, seven months after it first emerged Pyongyang was sending Moscow weapons.

The shipments have continued as thousands of North Korean troops are reported to have been sent to Russia to fight, with the last one recorded on 5 November.

“While Kim Jong Un is providing Vladimir Putin with a lifeline to continue his war, Russia is quietly providing North Korea with a lifeline of its own,” says Joe Byrne from the Open Source Centre.

“This steady flow of oil gives North Korea a level of stability it hasn’t had since these sanctions were introduced.”

Four former members of a UN panel responsible for tracking the sanctions on North Korea have told the BBC the transfers are a consequence of increasing ties between Moscow and Pyongyang.

“These transfers are fuelling Putin’s war machine – this is oil for missiles, oil for artillery and now oil for soldiers,” says Hugh Griffiths, who led the panel from 2014 to 2019.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has told the BBC in a statement: “To keep fighting in Ukraine, Russia has become increasingly reliant on North Korea for troops and weapons in exchange for oil.”

He added that this was “having a direct impact on security in the Korean peninsula, Europe and Indo-Pacific”.

While most people in North Korea rely on coal for their daily lives, oil is essential for running the country’s military. Diesel and petrol are used to transport missile launchers and troops around the country, run munitions factories and fuel the cars of Pyongyang’s elite.

The 500,000 barrels North Korea is allowed to receive fall far short of the nine million it consumes – meaning that since the cap was introduced in 2017, the country has been forced to buy oil illicitly from criminal networks to make up this deficit.

This involves transferring the oil between ships out at sea – a risky, expensive and time-consuming business, according to Dr Go Myong-hyun, a senior research fellow at South Korea’s Institute for National Security Strategy, which is linked to the country’s spy agency.

“Now Kim Jong Un is getting oil directly, it’s likely better quality, and chances are he’s getting it for free, as quid pro quo for supplying munitions. What could be better than that?”

“A million barrels is nothing for a large oil producer like Russia to release, but it is a substantial amount for North Korea to receive,” Dr Go adds.

In all 43 of the journeys tracked by the Open Source Centre using satellite images, the North Korean-flagged tankers arrived at Russia’s Vostochny Port with their trackers switched off, concealing their movements.

The images show they then made their way back to one of four ports on North Korea’s east and west coast.

“The vessels appear silently, almost every week,” says Joe Byrne, the researcher from the Open Source Centre. “Since March there’s been a fairly constant flow.”

The team, which has been tracking these tankers since the oil sanctions were first introduced, used their knowledge of each ship’s capacity to calculate how many oil barrels they could carry.

Then they studied images of the ships entering and leaving Vostochny and, in most instances, could see how low they sat in the water and, therefore, how full they were.

The tankers, they assess, were loaded to 90% of their capacity.

“We can see from some of the images that if the ships were any fuller they would sink,” Mr Byrne says.

Based on this, they calculate that, since March, Russia has given North Korea more than a million barrels of oil – more than double the annual cap, and around ten times the amount Moscow officially gave Pyongyang in 2023.

This follows an assessment by the US government in May that Moscow had already supplied more than 500,000 barrels’ worth of oil.

Cloud cover means the researchers cannot get a clear image of the port every day.

“The whole of August was cloudy, so we weren’t able to document a single trip,” Mr Byrne says, leading his team to believe that one million barrels is a “baseline” figure.

Not only do these oil deliveries breach UN sanctions on North Korea, that Russia, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, signed off on – but also, more than half of the journeys tracked by the Open Source Centre were made by vessels that have been individually sanctioned by the UN.

This means they should have been impounded upon entering Russian waters.

But in March 2024, three weeks after the first oil transfer was documented, Russia disbanded the UN panel responsible for monitoring sanctions violations, by using its veto at the UN Security Council.

Ashley Hess, who was working on the panel up until its collapse, says they saw evidence the transfers had started.

“We were tracking some of the ships and companies involved, but our work was stopped, possibly after they had already breached the 500,000-barrel cap”.

Eric Penton-Voak, who led the group from 2021-2023, says the Russian members on the panel tried to censor its work.

“Now the panel is gone, they can simply ignore the rules,” he adds. “The fact that Russia is now encouraging these ships to visit its ports and load up with oil shows a new level of contempt for these sanctions.”

But Mr Penton-Voak, who is on the board of the Open Source Centre, thinks the problem runs much deeper.

“You now have these autocratic regimes increasingly working together to help one another achieve whatever it is they want, and ignoring the wishes of the international community.”

This is an “increasingly dangerous” playbook, he argues.

“The last thing you want is a North Korean tactical nuclear weapon turning up in Iran, for instance.”

As Kim Jong Un steps up his support for Vladimir Putin’s war, concern is growing over what else he will receive in return.

The US and South Korea estimate Pyongyang has now sent Moscow 16,000 shipping containers filled with artillery shells and rockets, while remnants of exploded North Korean ballistic missiles have been recovered on the battlefield in Ukraine.

More recently, Putin and Kim signed a defence pact, leading to thousands of North Korean troops being sent to Russia’s Kursk region, where intelligence reports indicate they are now engaged in battle.

The South Korean government has told the BBC it would “sternly respond to the violation of the UN Security Council resolutions by Russia and North Korea”.

Its biggest worry is that Moscow will provide Pyongyang with technology to improve its spy satellites and ballistic missiles.

Last month, Seoul’s defence minister, Kim Yong-hyun, stated there was a “high chance” North Korea was asking for such help.

“If you’re sending your people to die in a foreign war, a million barrels of oil is just not sufficient reward,” Dr Go says.

Andrei Lankov, an expert in North Korea-Russia relations at Seoul’s Kookmin University, agrees.

“I used to think it was not in Russia’s interest to share military technology, but perhaps its calculus has changed. The Russians need these troops, and this gives the North Koreans more leverage.”

A woman in Thailand has been sentenced to death in the first of a string of cases in which she is accused of murdering 14 friends with cyanide.

The court in Bangkok found Sararat Rangsiwuthaporn, 36, guilty of putting poison in a wealthy friend’s food and drink while they were on a trip last year.

Relatives of the friend refused to accept she died of natural causes and an autopsy found traces of cyanide in her body. Police arrested Sararat and uncovered other similar deaths going back to 2015. One person she allegedly targeted survived.

Police say Sararat, dubbed Am Cyanide by Thai media, had a gambling addiction and targeted friends she owed money to, then stole their jewellery and valuables.

Sararat travelled with her friend Siriporn Khanwong, 32, to Ratchaburi province, west of Bangkok in April 2023, where they took part in a Buddhist protection ritual at a river, police said.

Siriporn collapsed and died after a meal with Sararat, who made no effort to help her, investigators said.

Traces of cyanide were found in Siriporn’s body and her phone, money and bags were missing when she was found, police said.

“You got justice, my child. Today, there is justice in this world,” Siriporn’s mother, Thongpin Kiatchanasiri, said in front of the courtroom, as she held a photo of her daughter.

Thongpin said that out of anger, she could not stand to look at Sararat, who she said was smiling when the sentence was being read. Sararat pleaded not guilty to the charges against her.

Her former husband, an ex-police officer, and her lawyer, were handed prison terms of one year and four months, and two years respectively, for hiding evidence to help her evade prosecution. They had also pleaded not guilty before Wednesday’s sentencing.

The ex-husband, Vitoon Rangsiwuthaporn, gave himself up last year. Police said he most likely helped Sararat poison an ex-boyfriend, Suthisak Poonkwan.

Sararat was also ordered to pay Siriporn’s family two million baht ($57,667; £45,446) in compensation.

Cyanide starves the body’s cells of oxygen, which can induce heart attacks. Early symptoms include dizziness, shortness of breath and vomiting.

It can lead to lung injury, coma and death within seconds when consumed in large amounts, but even small doses can still be very harmful.

Its use in Thailand is heavily regulated and those found to have unauthorised access face up two years in jail.

A US man who faked his own death and fled the country, leaving behind his family, has been in contact with police in his home state and sent investigators a video to prove that he is safe.

Ryan Borgwardt, 45, vanished on 12 August while on a solo fishing trip, the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office in Wisconsin said in a news conference on Thursday.

Police initially suspected that he had drowned and searched the lake for 54 days before finding digital evidence that led them to suspect he had fled to Eastern Europe.

“The great news is he’s still alive and well,” said Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podell. “The bad news is that we don’t know where exactly Ryan is, and he has not decided to return home.”

The 24-second video is shot selfie-style, and shows Mr Borgwardt in an apartment with white walls.

“Good evening, it’s Ryan Borgwardt,” he says. “Today is 11 November. It’s approximately 10 am by you guys. I’m in my apartment.

“I am safe, secure, no problem. I hope this works.”

Police have been emailing him, “pulling at his heartstrings” in an effort to coax him back home and “clean up the mess that he has created,” the sheriff said.

Authorities got in touch with him after contacting a woman in the region who speaks Russian. She helped connect him to police. Law enforcement did not detail who the woman was or her connection to Mr Borgwardt

During the near-daily exchanges, he allegedly revealed to police how he orchestrated his getaway.

MORE: Authorities say US man faked kayaking death and fled to Europe

Police say that after sinking his kayak and cell phone in the lake, he paddled a small child-sized boat to shore where he had stashed an E-bike. He cycled overnight to Madison, Wisconsin, then boarded a bus to Detroit and got on a plane in Canada to an unknown location.

“We are continuing to verify this information, trying to put the dots together,” Podoll said. “But we feel that this was Ryan’s way that he could tell the entire country how he did it.”

He is believed to have acted alone, he said. He added that Mr Borgwardt has not had any contact with his family since he left.

He left behind three children and his wife. In the days before his departure, authorities found he had taken out a $375,000 (£297,875) life insurance policy, had transferred funds to a foreign bank account, photographed his new passport, and altered his email address.

Podoll said that there are currently no criminal charges pending against Mr Borgwardt, but that police say he owes them $40,000 (£32,000) for the cost of their search.

At the end of his conference, the sheriff became emotional, saying that his children will be without their father during the holiday season.

“Christmas is coming up,” he said. “And what better a gift to give those kids than to be there for Christmas.”

British lawyer Simone White has become the fifth tourist to have died in a suspected mass poisoning in Laos, south-east Asia.

The UK’s Foreign Office confirmed the 28-year-old’s death on Thursday, saying: “We are supporting the family of a British woman who has died in Laos, and we are in contact with the local authorities.”

It comes after the family of 19-year-old Australian national Bianca Jones confirmed her death earlier on the same day.

Hours earlier, the US State Department told the media that an American man died in the tourist town of Vang Vieng.

Two Danish women, aged 19 and 20, also died last week in Laos, Danish authorities confirmed, declining to share more due to confidentiality concerns.

The deaths remain under police investigation, but news reports and testimonies online from other tourists suggest they may have consumed drinks laced with methanol, a deadly substance often found in bootleg alcohol.

Vang Vieng is a small, riverside town in central Laos and a hub for young Westerners backpacking across Southeast Asia. It’s home to the Banana Pancake Trail – a popular backpacking route spanning Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

Jones’s friend Holly Bowles is in hospital on life support, while a British woman is also reportedly in hospital.

New Zealand’s foreign ministry told local media on Thursday that one of its citizens was also unwell from suspected methanol poisoning. And the Netherlands’ foreign affairs ministry said that a Dutch tourist was sent to the hospital but is in stable condition. It is unclear how many others have fallen ill.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the department of foreign affairs had confirmed Jones’s death.

“Our first thoughts in this moment are with her family and friends who are grieving a terrible and cruel loss,” Albanese said on Thursday afternoon.

“This is every parent’s very worst fear and a nightmare that no one should have to endure.”

He said he hoped Ms Bowles, who is currently at Bangkok Hospital, would recover well.

The US State Department said it was “closely monitoring” the situation with regards to the American victim, adding that it was up to local authorities to determine the cause of death.

Australian, New Zealand and UK authorities have each warned their citizens to be careful of methanol poisoning when consuming alcohol in Laos.

Nana Backpacker Hostel, where the two Australian women stayed in Vang Vieng, told the BBC that it was closed for police investigation.

The hostel’s manager told the Associated Press that the two women were among more than 100 guests who received free shots of Lao vodka from the hostel. The pair then headed out for the night, he said, adding that no other guests reported health issues.

The manager said he hoped the investigation would clear the hostel’s name, but said they have stopped giving free shots for now.

In a statement to Australian newspaper the Herald Sun, Jones’s family expressed their “deepest gratitude for the overwhelming support, love, and prayers we’ve received from across Australia”.

“We kindly ask for privacy as we navigate through our grief and begin to heal,” the statement said.

Unlike ethanol, the key component of alcoholic beverages, methanol is toxic to humans. Bootleg liquor producers sometimes add it to their drinks, however, as a cheap way to increase alcohol content.

Earlier this year, at least 57 people in India died after consuming methanol-laced liquor. Similar cases of mass poisoning have also been reported across the world, from the Philippines to Peru. It has hospitalised and even killed dozens in Indonesia over the years, but it has rarely affected tourists.

Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have issued arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and former defence minister, as well as the military commander of Hamas.

A statement said a pre-trial chamber had rejected Israel’s challenges to the court’s jurisdiction and issued warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.

A warrant was also issued for Mohammed Deif of Hamas, although Israel has said he was killed in an air strike in Gaza in July.

The judges said there were “reasonable grounds” the three men bore “criminal responsibility” for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war between Israel and Hamas. Both Israel and Hamas have rejected the allegations.

Prime Minister Netanyahu condemned the ICC’s decision as “antisemitic”, while Hamas said the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant had set an “important historical precedent”.

The impact of these warrants will in part depend on whether the ICC’s 124 member states – which do not include Israel or its main ally, the United States – decide to enforce them or not.

The White House said the US rejected the ICC decision.

However, several European countries have said they respect the decisions of the court.

The ICC has the authority to prosecute those accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes on the territory of states party to the Rome Statute, its founding treaty.

Israel rejects the ICC’s jurisdiction, but the court ruled in 2021 that it had jurisdiction over the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza because the UN’s secretary general had accepted the Palestinians were a member.

In May, the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan sought warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant, Deif and two other Hamas leaders who have since been killed, Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar.

Although Israel believes Deif is dead, the chamber said it had been notified by the ICC prosecution that it was not in a position to determine whether he was killed or remained alive.

The prosecutor’s case against them stems from the events of 7 October 2023, when Hamas gunmen attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others back to Gaza as hostages.

Israel responded to the attack by launching a military campaign to eliminate Hamas, during which at least 44,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

For Deif, the chamber found reasonable grounds to believe he was “responsible for the crimes against humanity of murder; extermination; torture; and rape and other form of sexual violence; as well as the war crimes of murder, cruel treatment, torture; taking hostages; outrages upon personal dignity; and rape and other form of sexual violence”.

It also said there were reasonable grounds to believe the crimes against humanity were “part of a widespread and systematic attack directed by Hamas and other armed groups against the civilian population of Israel”.

For Netanyahu and Gallant, who was replaced as defence minister earlier this month, the chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that they “each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”.

It also found reasonable grounds to believe that “each bear criminal responsibility as civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population”.

The chamber also noted that it had rejected two Israeli challenges – one disputing the ICC’s jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories, and Israeli nationals specifically, and the other arguing that the ICC prosecutor had not given Israel the opportunity to investigate the allegations itself before requesting warrants.

The ICC is a court of last resort and is only supposed to act when domestic courts cannot, or will not, genuinely investigate or prosecute serious international crimes.

Despite the warrants, Netanyahu and Gallant do not face any immediate threat of prosecution, although it could make it difficult for them to travel abroad.

Technically, if either of them set foot in any ICC member state they must be arrested and handed over to the court.

Netanyahu’s most recent overseas trip was in July to the US, which is not a member. But last year, he visited several other countries, including the UK, which is.

When asked by journalists if Netanyahu would be arrested if he came to the UK, the government spokesman replied: “We are not getting into hypotheticals.”

It is believed a domestic legal process would be required in the UK to determine whether to endorse the warrant.

Two EU countries – Italy and the Netherlands – have said openly they would arrest any of the men on their territory. Several other European countries promised to comply with the ICC’s rules without specifying this.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the ICC decision was binding on all EU member states.

ICC members do not always choose to enforce warrants.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, wanted over alleged war crimes in Ukraine, received a warm welcome and was not arrested during an official visit to neighbouring Mongolia – an ICC member – in September.

South Africa, another ICC member, also failed to arrest then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir when he visited in 2015 despite him facing a warrant for alleged war crimes in the Darfur region.

In the US, incoming Senate Republican leader John Thune urged the Senate to pass a bill that has already been passed by the House of Representatives, under which the US would impose sanctions on people “engaged in any effort to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute any protected person of the United States and its allies”.

Netanyahu said in a video that it was a “dark day in the history of humanity”, and that the ICC has become “the enemy of humanity.

“It’s an antisemitic step that has one goal – to deter me, to deter us from having our natural right to defend ourselves against enemies who try to destroy us,” he said.

Gallant said the court’s decision “places the State of Israel and the murderous leaders of Hamas in the same row and thus legitimises the murder of babies, the rape of women and the abduction of the elderly from their beds”.

Hamas made no mention of the warrant for Deif but welcomed the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, saying the ICC’s decision “constitutes an important historical precedent, and a correction to a long path of historical injustice against our people”.

Israel has vehemently denied the allegation its forces are committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, which is the subject of a separate case before the International Court of Justice.

The Palestinian Authority – which runs parts of the West Bank – said the decision “represents hope and confidence in international law and its institutions” and urged ICC member states to halt “contact and meetings” with Netanyahu and Gallant.

Palestinians in Gaza expressed hope that it would bring Israeli leaders to justice.

“The court’s decision may ease some of my pain, but my sister’s soul – and those of tens of thousands of Palestinian victims – will not find peace until Netanyahu and his army leaders are behind bars,” Munira al-Shami, whose sister Wafa was killed in an Israeli attack a month ago, told the BBC.

Eight tumultuous days after US President-elect Donald Trump picked Matt Gaetz to be attorney general, the firebrand congressman has withdrawn from consideration for the post.

It was a nomination that stunned Washington and sent a shiver through the corridors of the justice department.

Trump settled on Gaetz, 42, during a two-hour flight from Washington to Florida last week, according to reports.

Still basking in the glow of his election victory, the president-elect was flying back to West Palm Beach last Wednesday afternoon after a cordial meeting with President Joe Biden.

That morning Gaetz was not even on the shortlist for the position of America’s top law officer, according to Politico, but Trump had felt underwhelmed by his other options.

On so-called Trump Force One that day were Gaetz himself, Elon Musk, Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and his top legal adviser, Boris Epshteyn, reports the New York Times.

Epshteyn reportedly set about convincing Trump that Gaetz should lead the justice department, which had conducted a sex-trafficking investigation into the lawmaker before dropping the matter.

Gaetz, a lawyer, has been one of Trump’s most strident defenders on Capitol Hill.

He helped prepare the Republican nominee for his televised debate against Biden that effectively knocked the Democrat out of the White House race.

One Trump adviser explained why the president-elect – who has himself been criminally investigated by the justice department, and accuses its prosecutors of witch hunts – took a shine to Gaetz as opposed to other contenders.

“Everyone else looked at AG [attorney general] as if they were applying for a judicial appointment,” the unnamed aide told the Bulwark.

“Gaetz was the only one who said, ‘Yeah, I’ll go over there and start cuttin’ [expletive] heads.’”

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While Republicans on Capitol Hill reacted tepidly to the nomination, career lawyers at the justice department told US media they were stunned and outraged.

Speaking at a conservative conference last year, Gaetz had suggested that the justice department and the agencies it oversees, including the FBI, ought to be abolished, as he argued they were being weaponised against conservatives. The current Attorney General, Merrick Garland, has rejected these claims.

Critics said Trump – who has also named three lawyers that defended him in criminal cases for senior positions at the justice department – was more interested in hiring loyalists than appointees who will uphold the rule of law.

Former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton dismissed Gaetz as the “worst cabinet-level appointment in history”.

But the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, said the furore from the Washington establishment showed his father’s unconventional cabinet picks were just the kind of change-makers that American voters had elected him to usher in.

After being nominated last week for attorney general, Gaetz resigned as representative for Florida’s 1st congressional district, a seat he has held since 2017.

His resignation came as the House Ethics Committee was due to decide whether to release a report on its investigation into allegations of misconduct involving drugs, bribes and paying for sex, including with an underage girl.

Gaetz dismissed the claims as a smear. But his resignation triggered a drip feed of leaks in subsequent days as the ethics panel wrangled over what to do about the report.

Few Republicans seemed willing, meanwhile, to circle the wagons round one of the most unpopular lawmakers in the House.

Last year, the combative Gaetz came under fire from his own side of the aisle when he proved instrumental in ousting Republican Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker.

Markwayne Mullin, a former House member turned senator, told CNN at the time there was a reason why none of Gaetz’s colleagues would defend him from allegations of sexual misconduct.

“Because we had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor,” said the Oklahoman last October, accusing Gaetz of bragging about his sexual exploits.

Gaetz said Mullin was lying.

As the backlash to his nomination for attorney general began to build this week, Trump made calls to senators in an effort to shore up support.

Trump seemed to be holding firm on Gaetz as he attended a SpaceX rocket launch in Boca Chica, Texas, on Tuesday with Musk.

Asked if he was reconsidering, the president-elect said: “No.”

There was more encouraging news for Gaetz on Wednesday as House Ethics Committee Republicans voted not to release its investigation into him.

It happened as Vice-President-elect JD Vance ferried the attorney general nominee around the Senate in a charm offensive.

Gaetz said it had been “a great day”. But there were hints of turbulence ahead.

When asked how messy the confirmation process could become, incoming Senate majority leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said the hearings could be “on steroids”.

On Thursday morning, Trump was still calling Republican senators to gauge Gaetz’s chances.

But by lunchtime, the nominee had come to the conclusion he didn’t have the votes and he again shocked Washington with the announcement that he was showing himself the door.

“While the momentum was strong,” he posted on X, “it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition.”

Trump’s post on Truth Social confirming the volte-face – his first political setback since his election 16 days earlier – was unusually muted for the president-elect.

“I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be Attorney General,” he wrote, adding that the nominee did not wish to be a “distraction”.

Hours later, Trump nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi instead for the post.

While Trump predicted a “wonderful future” for Gaetz, a question mark hangs over what he will do next.

He was comfortably re-elected this month, but there are already plans for a special election to fill his vacated seat.

Randy Ross, a Florida-based fundraiser for Trump, told the BBC that America had not heard the last of Matt Gaetz.

“My opinion is there’s still a spot in Trump’s administration, Florida or our country’s future leadership for this patriot,” said Mr Ross. “We all look forward to his next steps.”

Meanwhile, Ginger Gaetz, who wed the congressman in 2021, posted an old photo on X following his withdrawal of them both on the steps on Capitol Hill.

“The end of an era,” she commented.