President Joe Biden has said the US will make another push with regional powers for a ceasefire in Gaza, involving the release of hostages and the removal of Hamas from power.

His remarks on X come just hours after a ceasefire came into force in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, ending nearly 14 months of conflict.

Hamas said it hoped for a similar deal in Gaza but continues to reject Israel’s demands, which it perceives as surrender.

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

More than 44,000 people have been killed and more than 104,000 injured in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

“Over the coming days, the United States will make another push with Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Israel, and others to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza with the hostages released and an end to the war without Hamas in power,” Biden said on X.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden had agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu right before the announcement of the Lebanon ceasefire to try again for a Gaza agreement, which negotiators have sought unsuccessfully for months.

The US and its Arab allies used to say that a ceasefire in Gaza would end the conflict with Hezbollah. Now they are hoping for the reverse.

The argument goes that the truce in Lebanon shows compromises are possible and that Hamas may now feel more isolated, putting pressure on it to agree to concessions.

However, the goals of the Israeli government in Lebanon were always more limited than those in Gaza, where it has failed to agree a post-war plan.

Qatar recently suspended its efforts to help mediate a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the Palestinian territory until both sides shifted their positions. Hamas insists on ending the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces, while Israel remains determined to destroy Hamas.

Netanyahu’s political survival is also bound up with Gaza. His far-right coalition partners aspire to rebuild Jewish settlements there and have threatened to collapse the government if Israel makes a “reckless” agreement to stop the fighting.

Netanyahu also worries that a ceasefire could open the way to a commission of inquiry into Israel’s failure to prevent the 7 October attacks, which would be very damaging for him.

Hamas reacted positively to the Lebanon ceasefire, and said it was ready to consider a truce in Gaza.

“We appreciate the steadfastness of the brotherly Lebanese people, and their constant solidarity with the Palestinian people,” Hamas leader Basem Naim told the BBC.

“We express our commitment to cooperate with any efforts to stop the fire in Gaza, and we are concerned with stopping the aggression against our people.”

The organisation has faced significant challenges, including an inability to convene its leadership since the killing of Yahya Sinwar by Israel.

Its leaders are now scattered across Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, and disconnected from those managing the hostages held in Gaza.

These hostages appear to be Hamas’s remaining leverage, as the group’s capacity to fight Israel has been very limited, and its popularity has significantly declined in Gaza.

Despite insisting on three conditions – an Israeli withdrawal, a permanent ceasefire and the reconstruction of Gaza – Hamas has indicated to mediators on many occasions its willingness to make substantial concessions.

For now, Hamas remains unwilling to agree to terms it perceives as surrender, but it has little room for manoeuvre in the negotiations, as the gap between the two sides has become deeper and the sound of the guns will remain louder.

Meanwhile, on Gaza’s streets, the ceasefire has raised some concerns.

“We were overjoyed by the cessation of the war in Lebanon, and we also hope for the same here in the Gaza Strip,” one man in Khan Younis told Gaza Today.

“However, at the same time, we have concerns that the occupation army might once again intensify its raids in Gaza and that its military forces might return from Lebanon to Gaza.”

“We don’t want anyone to experience what we’ve gone through here in Gaza,” another man said.

“We don’t want to see children killed, women trapped under rubble, or the recurring scenes of bloodshed in Lebanon that we have witnessed here.

“On the other hand, I believe the Israeli army will focus its raids on Gaza.”

While the outgoing Biden administration is making a last-ditch effort to work on a Gaza truce deal, it is not clear how much of a priority this will be when President Trump takes office.

Trump did, however, express an interest in ending the fighting in Lebanon, in line with pledges he made to Lebanese-American voters during his election campaign.

Another factor to bear in mind is that ending the war with Hezbollah relieves pressure on Israel’s military, which has been stretched by conflicts raging in the north and south.

Contrary to the idea that the ceasefire in Lebanon could lead to one with Hamas, some defence analysts now argue that it could in fact make it more possible for Israel to continue fighting in Gaza.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) says it has requested an arrest warrant for Myanmar’s military leader Min Aung Hlaing for crimes against humanity committed against the Rohingya Muslims.

Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to believe Min Aung Hlaing bore criminal responsibility for the persecution and deportation of Rohingyas to neighbouring Bangladesh.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled Myanmar in 2017 to escape a campaign of what the UN has described as genocide launched by the Burmese military.

But Myanmar’s government has denied this, saying it was only carrying out a campaign against Rohingya militants.

Attacks on the Rohingya first began in 2017, after Rohingya militants launched deadly attacks on more than 30 police posts in Myanmar.

They said troops responded to this by burning their villages, and attacking and killing civilians.

At least 6,700 Rohingya, including at least 730 children under the age of five, were killed in the month after the violence broke out, according to medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Amnesty International says the Myanmar military also raped and abused Rohingya women and girls.

The shocking violence against the Rohingya prompted an international outcry, and demands for accountability – something which proved difficult, with the-then Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi refusing to prosecute her generals.

Myanmar is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court, so initially bringing a case against the military there seemed impossible.

However, ICC prosecutors later argued that as some of the alleged crimes, mainly deportation, also occurred in Bangladesh – which is a signatory – there were grounds for an indictment.

Now, after five years of investigation, the chief prosecutor says he has enough evidence to request an international arrest warrant against Min Aung Hlaing.

A panel of three ICC judges must now rule on the prosecutor’s request.

There is also an ongoing genocide case against the military at the International Court of Justice.

Human rights organisations welcomed news of Min Aung Hlaing’s arrest warrant, with one calling it a “day of celebration”.

“The ICC prosecutor’s request for this arrest warrant is a strong warning to Myanmar’s abusive military leaders that they’re not beyond the reach of the law,” said Maria Elena Vignoli, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch.

“This is a rare day of celebration for the Rohingya,” Tun Khin, president of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation in the UK, told Reuters news agency. “Today we have finally taken another step towards justice and accountability.”

Myanmar is currently in the midst of a civil war, with Min Aung Hlaing’s army having suffered significant losses.

Min Aung Hlaing first came to power in 2021, after he led a coup against the elected government of Aung Sang Suu Kyi.

He has become an international pariah since launching his disastrous coup, and rarely travels – and it’s unlikely he will ever end up in court at The Hague.

But for the hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas stuck in miserable camps in Bangladesh, this case may at least show that they have not been forgotten.

The arrest of a Hindu monk in Bangladesh has triggered a fresh war of words with neighbour India over the condition of minorities in the country.

Chinmoy Krishna Das, a spokesperson of a Bangladesh-based Hindu organisation, was arrested on sedition charges this week, spurring clashes that led to one death.

India issued a statement expressing “deep concern” over the arrest and asking Bangladesh to ensure the safety “of Hindus and all minorities”.

Bangladesh responded hours later, expressing its “utter dismay” at the arrest being “misconstrued by certain quarters”.

Ties between the neighbours, who have traditionally shared a warm relationship, have been frosty since former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power in August after weeks-long student protests that spiralled into nationwide unrest.

Since then, she has been staying in India, posing a challenge to diplomacy between the countries.

During Hasina’s 15-year tenure, Bangladesh was a strategic partner and ally crucial to India’s border security, particularly in the north-eastern states. The country has also gained financially because of its proximity with India.

• India’s Bangladesh dilemma: What to do about Sheikh Hasina?
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But since her removal from office, India has repeatedly raised concerns about the safety of Hindu minorities in Bangladesh, a claim Bangladesh denies.

Hindus are the largest minority in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, accounting for about 8% of the population.

The arrest of Mr Das from Dhaka airport on Monday has triggered fresh tensions. He is accused of disrespecting Bangladesh’s national flag during a rally in the southern city of Chittagong in October.

His organisation, Iskcon, has denounced the arrest, calling Mr Das a “vocal advocate for minority protection”.

On Tuesday, a court in Chittagong denied bail to Mr Das. Police there said violence erupted after hundreds of his supporters surrounded the van that was taking him back to prison. Security forces used batons and tear gas to disperse the crowd.

According to Bangladeshi officials, a Muslim lawyer, Saiful Islam Alif, was killed in the clash.

Police say they have arrested six people in connection with the killing. More than 20 people have been taken into custody in connection with the violence.

There were concerns that the incident could lead to communal tensions.

Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus has urged people to keep calm, saying that his government is committed to ensuring and upholding communal harmony.

An Egyptian diver involved in the rescue operation of people scouring the wreckage of a tourist boat which sank in the Red Sea has described how he found his own nephew among the passengers trapped but still alive on the boat.

Rescuers on Tuesday found five survivors on the vessel and four bodies. On the third day of the search, seven people remain missing.

“We dived 12m (40ft) under water – the survivors were trapped inside the boat cabins,” Mr Khattab al-Faramawy told the BBC.

They had survived more than 24 hours on the boat since it was sunk by a large wave near Marsa Alam off Egypt’s eastern coast on Monday.

Mr al-Faramawy described the complexities of searching the submerged four-deck boat to find passengers and crew.

“We were using torch lights to try to find our way into the darkness, it was quite a complicated mission,” he said.

Eventually, they were able to open cabin doors to get survivors out.

His own nephew was among them. Youssef, 23, worked as a diving instructor on board the boat.

“He was trying to save the passengers on board but got locked in one of the cabins,” his father Hussam al-Faramawy told the BBC in an emotional phone call.

“I could do nothing but pray to God to help my boy, and thankfully his uncle finally saved him.”

Hussam al-Faramawy said he broke down in tears when he learnt his son had survived.

“I couldn’t tell his mother what happened to the boat, she would have died immediately. I only told her after I realised that he survived,” he said.

Youssef is currently receiving treatment in a local hospital, as are other survivors. A total of 33 of the 44 people on board the Sea Story have been rescued so far.

Officials have not yet disclosed the identities of the victims and missing. The BBC understands two of the missing are British nationals.

The Egyptian navy is in charge of the rescue operation and the military has kept the survivors away from the media.

The local authorities have posted videos of the rescue operation with footage showing survivors wrapped in blankets – including one on a stretcher – being brought to shore.

One unnamed survivor is seen saying he had been “shaking with cold” before being rescued.

The 44m Sea Story had left a port near Marsa Alam on Sunday for a five-day diving trip. It is believed to have been hit by rough winds overnight on Sunday, with Red Sea governor Maj-Gen Amr Hanafi saying it sank within five to seven minutes.

The Egyptian Meteorological Authority warned of high waves on the Red Sea and advised against maritime activity on Sunday and Monday.

Egyptian officials said the vessel had a valid safety certificate and was understood to have no technical problems.

Diving tours and sea cruises are a huge attraction for tourists visiting the Egyptian Red Sea resorts. Marsa Alam, where the boat had departed from, is a popular destination among European visitors, due to its clear waters, sunny weather and magnificent marine life.

According to the local council in Marsa Alam, the tourists on board were from Belgium, the UK, China, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and the US.

Among the missing are two Polish tourists, according to the foreign ministry in Warsaw.

A UK Foreign Office spokesperson said they were providing “support to a number of British nationals and their families following an incident in Egypt”.

The Chinese embassy in Egypt said two of its nationals were “in good health” after being rescued.

Opposition supporters in Pakistan have temporarily called off protests demanding the release of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, a day after marching on central Islamabad.

Protesters had vowed not to leave the capital until Khan’s release. But as they breached barriers and made their way to Democracy Square on Tuesday, they were pushed back by police and were met with volleys of tear gas.

At least six people – four security officers and two civilians – died in clashes during the latest protests, which began on Sunday.

Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), said in a statement on Wednesday that the protests had been “temporarily suspended” due to the “government’s brutality”.

The PTI accused security forces of pushing a man off a stack of cargo containers in central Islamabad, posting images to X which showed the incident.

The party said the man had been praying on the container when “an armed paramilitary officer brutally pushed him off from a height equivalent to three storeys”.

Video footage showed security forces – who were carrying riot shields with markings indicating they were affiliated with the Pakistani Rangers, a paramilitary force – approaching a man kneeling on top of the containers before pushing him over the edge.

BBC Verify has confirmed that the incident took place on Tuesday on Jinnah Avenue in Islamabad, where protesters had gathered. The footage was verified by matching a video of the fall posted on social media with images uploaded by Getty Images on Tuesday of the same scene.

The man’s condition could not be established from the available footage. BBC Verify has approached the Pakistani Rangers for comment.

Although Khan’s supporters managed to reach the city centre on Tuesday, by sunset the authorities had dispersed them.

One government source told local media that the police had arrested more than 500 PTI supporters and the interior minister said that Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi, who had been central to the protest, had left the area.

The PTI have claimed that several of their party workers were killed during the crackdown and appealed for an investigation.

Overnight the BBC spoke to two sources at a nearby hospital who said that they had received four bodies of civilians with gunshot wounds.

The BBC has not yet independently verified the reports. Pakistan’s information minister said the authorities had resisted firing on protesters.

Islamabad had been put under lockdown, with a heavy security presence deployed in anticipation of clashes with convoys of PTI supporters.

The convoys were led by PTI leader Ali Amin Gandapur and Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi, who was released from prison in October and has since taken a more prominent role in trying to mobilise support for Khan.

Reports say Gandapur and Bushra Bibi have left Islamabad and returned to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where their convoy had come from.

Protesters were reported to have responded to a “final” call from Khan, asking them to “fight till the end” until their demands are met.

Their destination was D-Chowk near central government buildings in Islamabad, and the site of political rallies and protests since the 1980s.

But only some of the protesters made it that far.

By Tuesday evening – just hours after protesters first reached the square – security officers had successfully cleared the area. As darkness fell, the lights were switched off – with only police officers and paramilitary soldiers left behind.

Khan has been in prison for more than a year on charges he says are politically motivated.

Even from behind bars, the former cricket star has proved a powerful player in Pakistan politics. During elections in February his party, which had been banned from standing and was forced to run candidates as independents, emerged as the single largest bloc.

However, they fell short of a majority and their rivals united to form a new government.

The PTI has called for election results to be overturned because they say the vote was rigged, a claim disputed by the government.

Seoul has recorded its heaviest November snowfall since records began over a century ago in 1907.

The South Korean capital was covered with at least 16 cm of snow on Wednesday – beating the city’s previous record of 12.4cm from November 1972.

It caused significant disruption across the country, with local media reporting that flights had been grounded, roads closed, and that there were delays to transport services.

At least one person is reported to have died in a weather-related traffic accident near Seoul.

Youn Ki-han, the head of Seoul’s Meteorology Forecast Division, told the AFP news agency that the heavy snowfall was due to strong westerly winds and a “significant temperature difference between the sea surface and the cold air”.

It is expected to continue through Wednesday night and into Thursday morning.

The cold weather comes after the region experienced a period of mild autumn temperatures.

“Just last week, I felt that the November autumn was a bit warm, but in just one week it feels like it’s turned into a winter wonderland, which was quite a contrast,” said businessman Bae Joo-han.

“So I came out onto the streets today to enjoy the first snowfall of this winter.”

Drake has filed a second legal action against record label Universal Music over Kendrick Lamar’s hit Not Like Us, which was released at the height of the pair’s feud earlier this year.

The star has accused Universal of defamation, and his legal papers claim the company could have halted the release of a song “falsely accusing him of being a sex offender”.

Instead, his lawyers claim, Universal “executed a plan” to make the song “a viral mega-hit”, and used Lamar’s incendiary lyrics “to drive consumer hysteria and, of course, massive revenues”.

It comes a day after Drake filed papers in New York, accusing the company of illegally boosting the song’s profile on Spotify. Universal has called the claims “offensive and untrue”.

“We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns,” the company said.

“No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments… can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.”

• Drake takes legal action over Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us
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• Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s feud explained

Like the earlier filing, the latest court document is not a lawsuit.

Instead, it is a “pre-action petition”, under which Drake’s lawyers can ask the court to order Universal to preserve any relevant documents and information ahead of future legal action.

It was filed in Texas and also involves the radio giant iHeartRadio, which operates more than 850 stations across the US.

According to Drake’s lawyers, Not Like Us was “heard more than 25 million times” by listeners to iHeart stations in the four months after its release.

Citing a whistleblower, they claim Universal potentially made “covert payments” to iHeart as part of a “pay-to-play scheme” to promote the song.

Drake’s lawyers admit that they have been “unable to confirm” whether the payments went to iHeart stations, but argue that “as the number one audio company in the country”, it was the most likely recipient.

If approved, the court action would compel the companies to provide any evidence regarding the accusations.

The BBC has contacted iHeartRadio for a response to the petition.

As in his previous filing, Drake goes on to accuse Universal of using “bots” to falsely inflate Lamar’s streaming numbers, and of paying influencers to promote Not Like Us online – all of which the company has denied.

But the latest documents add detail about Drake’s grievances toward Universal, the label where he has spent his entire career.

The documents claim the company knew that Lamar’s song “falsely” accused him of being a “certified paedophile”, a “predator” and someone whose name should “be registered and placed on neighbourhood watch”, but chose to release it anyway.

The song was widely regarded as the decisive blow in a long-running feud between the two rappers, who had been trading barbs in their songs since the early 2010s.

Debuting at number one on the US chart, it has also been nominated for four Grammy Awards, including song of the year.

Drake responded with a track called The Heart Part 6, in which he denied accusations of sexual misconduct and claimed to have fed Lamar “false” information through a double agent. However, the musician later deleted the track from his Instagram feed.

The Canadian star, who is one of the most-streamed musicians of all time, releases music through his own label, OVO Music, but licenses the songs to Universal’s subsidiary label Republic for marketing and distribution.

Lamar has a similar deal, licensing his records through Universal’s Interscope imprint.

A South Korean actor’s revelation that he fathered a child with a woman to whom he is not married has triggered a national debate over celebrity conduct and non-traditional family structures.

Jung Woo-sung, a 51-year-old A-lister in South Korea’s film industry, confirmed via his agency on Sunday that he is the father of 35-year-old model Moon Ga-bi’s newborn son.

While Jung pledged to “fulfil his responsibilities” as the father, his silence on whether he plans to marry Moon drew fierce backlash in the conservative country where births outside marriage are seen as taboo.

But some progressive voices have defended Jung, noting a shift in South Korea’s attitudes towards diverse family structures.

Moon announced her child’s birth via Instagram on Friday, without mentioning the father, describing the pregnancy as “unexpected” and saying she had been “completely unprepared for the sudden news”.

Two days later, Jung’s agency Artist Company released a statement confirming that “the baby Moon revealed on her social media is Jung Woo-sung’s son”.

The statement further noted that Jung and Moon were “discussing the best way to raise the child”.

It triggered outrage that quickly spread across the country, triggering a slate of opinion pieces in tabloids, spurring online debate and eliciting comments from national politicians.

Online, the response was largely critical towards Jung, whose prolific film career has made him a household name in South Korea.

Many commentators seemed to believe the actor had tarnished an otherwise upstanding and squeaky clean image, with some expressing disappointment that the former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ambassador “can’t accept his own child”.

“Jung Woo-sung is pretending to be a good guy saying he will fulfil all his duty… A child does not grow on money alone,” wrote one commenter on Naver News, South Korea’s largest news aggregate website.

“It’s not a problem not marrying after having a child. It’s that he pretended to be such an ethical person so far,” wrote another.

Speaking to conservative news outlet JoongAng, an unnamed lawmaker from the right-wing People Power Party described Jung’s decision to have a child outside marriage as “something unthinkable in this country of social mores”.

“No matter how much the times are changing, Korea’s tradition and public sentiment must be kept (righteous),” the lawmaker said.

A recent social survey by South Korea’s statistics agency found that 37% of people believed it was acceptable to have a child outside marriage – an almost 15% increase since 2012.

Of those who said marriage was necessary, more than 72% were above the age of 60 – with younger respondents increasingly less likely to take that view.

Other lawmakers have defended Jung, with Lee So-young, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, saying that “deciding to live with someone is a deeply personal and existential choice”.

“To assume that simply having a child obligates people to marry and take on the duties of cohabitation and mutual support feels suffocating,” Lee wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.

“Of course, there’s nothing wrong with being ‘normal’… [But] even if society appears to have a standard of ‘normal’, every life is unique in its own way.

“Perhaps a better society is one that accepts and respects such differences without judgment,” she added. “That’s what I believe.”

Kyunghyang, a progressive major newspaper, put out an editorial piece noting that while some voices have pushed for traditional values, “also rising is the voice that our society must think of the diverse shapes families take”.

“It makes one hope that celebrities having babies outside of marriage, like Jung and Moon, will help change the public view which today is against [such] births.”

South Korea has a notoriously high-pressure entertainment industry, with celebrities often held to inordinately high social standards and placed under extreme scrutiny.

Additional reporting by BBC Korean’s Juna Moon in Seoul

CCTV from a school obtained by the BBC shows autistic children being shoved into padded rooms, thrown to the floor, restrained by the neck – or left alone, sitting in vomit.

The footage from Whitefield School in north-east London resembles “torture”, one safeguarding expert told us. It shows for the first time the reality of what pupils faced.

A police investigation into the abuse footage, taken inside the special school’s “calming rooms” between 2014 and 2017, ended earlier this year without any charges. However, parents say they have been left to deal with the trauma.

The school says new leadership found the footage after the rooms had been shut and shared it with the police.

About 40 children with learning disabilities and severe mental disorders were confined for hours in the rooms – typically without food or drink.

Six of the families have agreed for the BBC to show the footage. They wanted us to reveal the scale and severity of the trauma their children had experienced – which they feel they have been misled about.

The videos show pupils, many of whom were non-verbal, clearly in acute distress, and many are seen to injure themselves for prolonged periods.

In the footage seen by the BBC, the only time staff at the school in Walthamstow intervene once children are inside the rooms is when a boy repeatedly throws his shoes at the CCTV cameras. They race in to stop him, with one teaching assistant apparently striking him.

“It broke my heart,” said the mother of one of the abused children after viewing the CCTV for the first time. “You wouldn’t even do that to a dog.”

Even now government guidance says only that removing disruptive pupils from classrooms in England must be for a “limited” duration and facilities must be “suitable”.

The BBC has also found evidence of mistreatment in seclusion rooms at other schools across the UK. One autistic child was kept inside a cage.

Meanwhile, local MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the Whitefield School footage “must lead to profound change” and described it as “jaw-dropping”.

Safeguarding expert Elizabeth Swan said it was “easily the worst footage” she had seen.

“You look at the children and they’re being defeated and responding to that treatment with self-injurious behaviour, it’s torture,” she said.

Whitefield School was rated as outstanding until, in 2017, Ofsted discovered the use of bare, padded rooms without windows to seclude children.

But the existence of the CCTV footage did not become public until 2021, when the BBC learned an investigation had been launched after the discovery of a box of USB memory sticks containing 500 hours of disturbing footage from inside the rooms.

In April, we exposed how safeguarding investigations commissioned by the school had proven that six Whitefield staff had abused pupils – but they were not referred to the government’s Disclosure and Barring Service, which can ban people from working with children, and three of them continued to work at the school.

Since we began investigating, we have obtained leaked school and council documents, and spoken to 17 of the 39 affected families.

Jamie’s mother Deborah watched the calming room footage after police formally invited families to view the abuse, following our report in April.

“You saw them open the door, whack Jamie in his back – he went flying on the floor,” she said, fighting back tears.

Jamie’s coat and bag were placed inside the room with him. Deborah says this shows that it was “calculated” that Jamie he would remain there until the end of the day, even if he calmed down.

She says Jamie suffered his first ever seizure after he began being placed in the calming rooms and believes his treatment directly resulted in his epilepsy.

Stress can contribute to the development of epilepsy or trigger seizures in those with the condition.

Other families told the BBC their children developed PTSD after being placed in the calming rooms. One child’s family said he suffered severe psychological damage and was later detained in a mental hospital because he was at risk of harming himself.

Parents said they complained to the school about unexplained injuries and the use of the rooms – but this did not lead to investigation, even though the evidence from the CCTV cameras was available.

“It’s a cover-up from higher up,” Deborah says. “I don’t see how they could get away with this level of abuse and no-one’s accountable.”

Another family complained after their son repeatedly returned home with injuries to his nose. The CCTV leaked to the BBC shows the boy punching himself in the nose while alone inside the room.

The BBC has spent months trying to find out who knew about concerns around the use of the rooms and why there was no investigation into the harm suffered by children in the calming rooms following Ofsted’s 2017 visit.

After the rooms were shut down, a review by a director of the trust running the school reported that governors and a staff member from the local council, Waltham Forest, had visited the rooms. But it did not record any concerns being raised at the time.

The BBC has learned that the job of reviewing the CCTV was largely left to a single teaching assistant.

Once a week, she downloaded the footage and compared it with written staff observations before sharing any incidents and concerns with bosses.

But she failed to report many of the 20-plus clips showing excessive force – according to a school safeguarding investigation into her conduct, which concluded she turned a “blind eye” to the failings.

It also found that she had abused a child herself by using a pad used for rugby training to push them into the corner of a room. Despite these findings, she was not sacked.

She told the investigation that contacting the school’s leadership was “hard to do as a teaching assistant” and had become “desensitised” to the footage, according to records of her interview obtained by the BBC.

A different teaching assistant told the safeguarding investigator that she had seen footage of a colleague observing a child masturbating for over an hour. Police reported that they were unable to corroborate what she said.

The BBC has also uncovered other failings affecting children with special educational needs placed in seclusion across the UK, with an autistic child being kept in a cage at one school about 10 years ago.

The area below a stairwell was enclosed by a cage and another cage with a mattress inside at a school called Include in Bury St Edmunds, which offers alternative provision for children outside mainstream education and is run by the charity Catch22.

The mother of the autistic child only discovered these cages were in use when she visited the school without an appointment, having grown concerned about the real nature of what was referred to as “The Den”.

She said the stairwell cage would be covered by a blanket when the child was shouting and that her son was sometimes kept inside one of these cages for up to six hours, without water or access to a toilet.

“Even an animal wouldn’t have been left in a cage for that long”, she says.

Council records state that Ofsted were informed about what the mother found but there was no inspection. Ofsted now says it cannot find any record of a complaint.

Catch22 says the spaces were used by previous leadership and a 2018 council report concluded that there was no proof pupils were locked inside.

Regulation of the use and design of calming rooms is now urgently needed – according to Sir Iain Duncan-Smith.

Following our investigation in April, the Children’s Commissioner also called for changes to guidance on the use of seclusion in special schools – which has not happened. The Department for Education says it is “looking” at ways to “strengthen” it.

The Metropolitan Police says it continues to conduct “wider enquiries” about Whitefield, not relating to abuse. The Crown Prosecution Service declined to comment.

The Flourish Trust, which runs Whitefield, says it has learned from the failings in this case.

Ofsted says responsibility for investigating the harm caused to children following its discovery of the rooms lay with the Department for Education, as regulator, and Waltham Forest.

Although it failed to investigate after Ofsted’s inspection, Waltham Forest says it will now commission a local case review, which it says will be “wholly independent”. It says it had not asked to review CCTV at any point because it did not know it existed.

Waltham Forest also says it has offered counselling to families. But the families told the BBC their children need significant and wide-ranging help to address the abuse they faced – and they will be living with its consequences for the rest of their lives.

• If you have more information about this story, you can reach Noel directly and securely through encrypted messaging app Signal on: +44 7809 334720, by email at noel.titheradge@bbc.co.uk or on SecureDrop.

The families of two Australian teenagers killed in a suspected methanol poisoning in Laos have welcomed news that eight people have been detained during a police investigation into the incident.

Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both 19, were among six foreign tourists who died after apparently consuming the toxic substance, which is commonly added to bootleg alcohol.

The bodies of the Australians were flown home to Melbourne late on Tuesday, accompanied by their relatives.

“We miss our daughters desperately. I was happy to hear that there’s been some movement over in Laos – we cannot have our girls passing and this continuing to happen,” Ms Jones’s father Mark told reporters.

The eight people detained for questioning on Tuesday were staff at the Nana Backpackers hostel where all the victims had been staying, according to local media.

The owners of the hostel, which is now closed, have previously denied serving illicit alcohol.

Speaking at Melbourne Airport, Mr Jones urged the government in Laos to “continue to pursue” the case, adding that the families involved would try to “raise awareness of methanol poisoning”.

The other four victims have been named as Simone White, a 28-year-old lawyer from the UK; James Louis Hutson, a 57-year-old American; and Danish citizens Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and Freja Vennervald Sorensen, 21.

Mr Hutson was found dead in his bedroom at the hostel on 13 November with several empty glasses nearby. On the same morning Ms Orkild Coyman and Ms Vennervald Sorensen were also found unconscious in their rooms and rushed to the local hospital.

It is unclear how many other people may have fallen ill from the suspected poisoning and an investigation into the deaths is continuing.

The hostel’s manager was among several people questioned by police last week. Earlier, he told the Associated Press that Ms Jones and Ms Bowles had been the only tourists staying at the venue to have become unwell after drinking free shots there before heading out for the night.

Methanol – which is commonly found in industrial and household products such as paint thinners – is a colourless chemical substance sometimes used in bootleg alcohol.

• What is methanol and how does it affect the body?

Consuming just 25ml – which amounts to roughly half a shot – can be lethal, but it can take up to 24 hours for victims to start showing signs of illness, via symptoms such as vomiting and abdominal pain.

Methanol poisoning has long been an issue across South East Asia, particularly in the poorer countries along the Mekong river, and the broader region has the highest prevalence of incidents worldwide.

The recent spate of deaths has cast a spotlight on Vang Vieng – which is a notorious party town – and prompted renewed warnings from governments around the world about drinking spirits in Laos.

A police officer who Tasered a 95-year-old woman with dementia symptoms at an Australian care home has been found guilty of her manslaughter.

Kristian White, 34, used his weapon on Clare Nowland after the great-grandmother was found wandering with a small kitchen knife in the early hours of 17 May 2023.

Her death a week later caused public outcry, but White – a senior constable – argued at trial that his use of force was reasonable and proportionate to the threat.

Prosecutors, however, said Mrs Nowland – who relied on a walker to get around and weighed under 48kg (105lb) – was not a danger and that the “impatient” officer had neglected his duty of care to her.

Police and paramedics were called to Yallambee Lodge – in the town of Cooma about 114km (71 miles) south of Canberra – around 04:00 on the day of the incident, after Mrs Nowland had been seen roaming the care home with two serrated steak knives.

The trial in the New South Wales (NSW) Supreme Court heard that Mrs Nowland, while not formally diagnosed with dementia, had been displaying signs of cognitive decline in the months leading up to her death and had at times behaved aggressively towards healthcare workers.

At one point that night she had entered the room of another resident holding the knives, though he told the court he did not feel unsafe, and she had also later thrown one of the blades at a staff member.

When emergency services found Mrs Nowland, they repeatedly asked her to drop the knife in her right hand, and – using thick gloves – had tried to disarm her themselves, the court was told.

In the moments before she was hit by the Taser, footage played to the jury showed the elderly woman using her walker to slowly shuffle forward – 1m (3.3ft) over the course of a minute – before stopping and raising the blade.

White warned Mrs Nowland his weapon was aimed at her, before saying “bugger it” and firing it, while she was still 1.5m-2m away. She fell and hit her head, triggering a fatal brain bleed.

“Who could she have injured at that moment? No one,” Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield said, summing up his case for the jury last week.

He said White had used his weapon only three minutes after finding the woman: “He was fed up, impatient, not prepared to wait any longer.”

However in a written incident report, the officer – who had been stood down from duties while facing court – said he deployed his Taser because he felt a “violent confrontation was imminent”.

In court he added that he didn’t think Mrs Nowland would be “significantly injured” and that he was “devastated” by her death.

The defence pointed to evidence from one of the paramedics and White’s police partner, who both said Mrs Nowland had made them feel scared for their safety.

“I thought that I was going to be stabbed,” Jessica Pank, also a senior constable, said.

However, both agreed they could have easily moved to safety, given Mrs Nowland’s limited mobility.

Mrs Nowland’s family, who were in court to hear the jury’s verdict, thanked prosecutors, the judge and the jury.

“The family will take some time to come to terms with the jury’s confirmation that Clare’s death at the hands of a serving NSW police officer was a criminal and unjustified act,” they said in a statement issued by a lawyer, which also asked for privacy.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb on Wednesday said White’s employment was still under legal review.

She added that the force’s Taser policies and training had also been reviewed but found to be appropriate.

“The death of Clare Nowland is a terrible tragedy… this should never have happened,” she said.

White, who remains on bail, will be sentenced at a later date.

US President Joe Biden has announced a ceasefire deal to end 13 months of fighting between Israel and with Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia supported by Iran.

In a joint statement, the US and France said the agreement would cease fighting in Lebanon and “secure Israel from the threat of Hezbollah and other terrorist organisations”.

This is what we know about the ceasefire deal from official briefings and media reports.

• Follow live updates from Israel and Lebanon
• Questions over Hezbollah’s future
• Israeli anger at ‘irresponsible and hasty’ ceasefire
• Watch: People in Israel and Lebanon react

US President Joe Biden told reporters that the agreement was “designed to be a permanent ceasefire”.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, over 60 days Hezbollah will remove its fighters and weapons from the area between the Blue Line – the unofficial border between Lebanon and Israel – and the Litani river, about 30km (20 miles) to the north.

Hezbollah fighters will be replaced by Lebanese army forces in that area, who will ensure that infrastructure or weaponry is removed and that it cannot be rebuilt, according to a senior US official.

Over the same 60 days, Israel will gradually withdraw its remaining forces and civilians, Biden said, adding that it would enable civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes.

The Lebanese army is expected to deploy 5,000 troops to the south under the agreement, according to a US official.

However, questions remain about their role in enforcing the ceasefire, and whether they would confront Hezbollah if needed, which would have the potential to exacerbate tensions in a country where sectarian divisions run deep.

The Lebanese army has also said it does not have the resources – money, manpower and equipment – to fulfil its obligations under the deal, although that could be alleviated by contributions from some of Lebanon’s international allies.

But many Western officials say Hezbollah has been weakened and that this is the moment for the Lebanese government to re-establish control over all the country’s territory.

The agreement largely tracks UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Under resolution 1701, areas south of the Litani should be free of any armed personnel or weapons other than those of the Lebanese state and the UN peacekeeping force (Unifil).

But both sides claimed violations of the resolution.

Israel says Hezbollah was allowed to build extensive infrastructure in the area, while Lebanon says Israel’s violations included military flights over its territory.

This time, the US and France will join the existing tripartite mechanism, which involves Unifil, Lebanon and Israel, which will be charged with monitoring violations, the senior US official said.

“There will be no US combat troops in the area, but there will be military support for the Lebanese Armed Forces, as we’ve done in the past. But in this case, it’ll be typically done with the Lebanese army and in conjunction with the French military as well,” the official said.

Alluding to Israeli concerns, Biden said: “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon will not be allowed to be rebuilt.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu said that Israel would “maintain full freedom of military action” in Lebanon “with the United States’ full understanding”.

“If Hezbollah violates the agreement and tries to arm itself, we will attack. If it tries to rebuild terrorist infrastructure near the border, we will attack. If it launches a rocket, if it digs a tunnel, if it brings in a truck carrying rockets, we will attack,” he asserted.

Biden supported that view, telling reporters: “If Hezbollah or anyone else breaks the deal and poses a direct threat to Israel, then Israel retains the right to self-defence consistent with international law.”

But he also said the deal upholds Lebanon’s sovereignty.

The Israeli demand for the right to strike back is not believed to be part of the ceasefire agreement because it was rejected by Lebanon. To get around the issue, media reports had suggested that the US would issue a letter supporting Israel’s right to act.

A ceasefire has come into effect between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon after a deal was agreed to end 13 months of fighting.

In October 2023, Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel in support of its ally Hamas in Gaza and Israel launched retaliatory air strikes in Lebanon.

The conflict escalated in late September 2024, when Israel launched an intense air campaign and ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

In Lebanon, more than 3,800 people have been killed since October 2023, according to Lebanese authorities, with one million people forced to flee their homes.

On the Israeli side, at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed, while 60,000 people have been displaced, Israeli authorities say.

• Follow live updates on this story
• What we know about Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal
• Questions over Hezbollah’s future after ceasefire
• Israeli anger at ‘irresponsible and hasty’ ceasefire
• Watch: People in Israel and Lebanon react to ceasefire deal

Lebanon is a small country with a population of about 5.5 million people, which borders Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. It is about 170km (105 miles) away from Cyprus.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hezbollah must end its armed presence in the area of southern Lebanon between the Blue Line – the unofficial border between Lebanon and Israel – and the Litani River, about 30km (20 miles) to the north.

Over the next 60 days, Israel will gradually withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon and thousands of Lebanese army troops will move into the vacated positions in parallel, the agreement says.

The Lebanese army will ensure that Hezbollah’s infrastructure or weaponry is removed and that it cannot be rebuilt, according to a senior US official.

Under UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the last war in 2006, the area south of the Litani should be free of any armed personnel or weapons other than those of the Lebanese state and the UN peacekeeping force (Unifil). However, both sides claimed violations of the resolution.

The US and France will join the existing tripartite mechanism, involving Unifil, Lebanon and Israel, which will be charged with monitoring violations, the senior US official said.

The agreement also says that “these commitments do not preclude either Israel or Lebanon from exercising their inherent right of self-defence, consistent with international law”. Israel’s prime minister insisted it would “maintain full freedom of military action” to attack Hezbollah if it violated the agreement.

Tens of thousands of Lebanese civilians displaced by the war have started returning to their homes in the south, despite being warned by the Israeli military that it was not safe to return to areas where its soldiers were still deployed.

Israel launched its ground invasion of southern Lebanon on the night of 30 September 2024, with troops and tanks crossing the border in several locations.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was carrying out “limited, localised, and targeted ground raids” to dismantle what it called Hezbollah’s “terrorist infrastructure”.

Analysis by experts at the Institute for the Study of War suggests Israeli ground operations were limited to areas within a few kilometres of the border, as shown in the map below.

The IDF warned people living in dozens of towns and villages in southern Lebanon to leave their homes and head north of the Awali River, which meets the coast about 50km (30 miles) from the border with Israel.

Lebanese civilians were also told by the IDF not to use vehicles to travel south of the Litani River.

The IDF carried out air strikes in Lebanon throughout the conflict.

But it sharply escalated the air campaign on 23 September 2024, when it launched an operation targeting what it said were Hezbollah infrastructure sites and weapons in all areas of the country where the group has a strong presence.

However, Lebanese authorities say more than 700 women and 200 children have been killed since the start of the conflict, as well as another 200 people working in the country’s health sector.

As the chart below shows, the intensity of the strikes stepped up significantly in the weeks before the Israeli ground invasion in late September and peaked in October.

The majority of Israeli strikes were in southern Lebanon, where about a million people lived before the conflict escalated over a year ago.

The map below – using analysis of satellite data by Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University – shows which areas of Lebanon sustained the most concentrated damage during the conflict.

As the following map shows, Beirut was also heavily targeted by Israeli air strikes.

There were some strikes close to central Beirut but the majority of them hit the southern suburbs of the city – densely populated areas that were home to hundreds of thousands of civilians.

These areas, close to the international airport, have a strong Hezbollah presence and it was a series of strikes on buildings there that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on 27 September.

There were several dozens air strikes in the southern suburbs and central Beirut on 26 November hours before the ceasefire deal was agreed.

Israel has a decades-long history of conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon but it is just one of the fronts that it is currently engaged in hostilities.

The others include armed forces and non-state armed groups in several countries in the Middle East, including Iran, Syria and Iran-backed groups operating in Gaza, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Benjamin Netanyahu presented the ceasefire deal in the context of what he said were Israel’s “unprecedented achievements” over the past year of a seven-front war.

He said Israel had set Hezbollah back “tens of years” and that it was not the same group it had been before.

There was a lot of focus on Israel’s strength in doing what it believed needed to be done – in Gaza, in Lebanon and elsewhere – despite international opposition.

And there was a lot of justification for the ceasefire too – it would allow Israel to “concentrate on the Iranian threat”, Netanyahu said, emphasising that his country would retain full military freedom to counter any new Hezbollah threat.

Israel’s army said on Tuesday it had hit 180 targets in Lebanon in the past 24 hours. Here on the Israeli side of the border, there have been constant warnings of rocket barrages and drone attacks from Lebanon.

Neither side wants this ceasefire deal to be seen as surrender.

• Follow live updates from Israel and Lebanon
• What we know about the ceasefire deal
• Questions over Hezbollah’s future
• Watch: People in Israel and Lebanon react

But surrender is exactly what Netanyahu is being accused of by his political rivals – and some of his political allies too.

One poll yesterday suggested that more than 80% of Netanyahu’s support base opposed a deal, and residents in the north of Israel – large numbers of whom have been evacuated from their homes – are angry too.

Nationally, the picture was more split, however. One poll showed 37% of Israelis in favour of the ceasefire, 32% against and 31% saying they didn’t know.

Shelly, an English teacher in Shlomi, said a ceasefire was an “irresponsible and hasty political decision”.

Rona Valency, evacuated from kibbutz Kfar Giladi on 8 October last year, told me she wanted to go home, and that a ceasefire was needed, but that the idea of Lebanese residents returning to these villages gave her “a real sense of unease and fright”.

From Kfar Giladi there are clear views of the Lebanese village of Odaisseh just across the valley.

“The only thing I can hope for is that Hezbollah will not infiltrate these villages and build a new network,” Rona told me.

“Apart from completely erasing these villages, and having no people there, there is no real physical thing that can make me feel safe. It’s just, you know, hope.”

Her husband, Onn, said the key to security lay, not in the terms of the ceasefire agreement, but in people “understand[ing] again, where we live; understand[ing] some things that a lot of us forgot”.

He said he didn’t trust the Lebanese army, nor the Americans, to restore security along the border.

“I trust only our army,” he said. “I think if the army won’t be there, it will be very, very hard to get the citizens back.”

This war has delivered a lot of military achievements for Israel – Hezbollah is weakened, its arsenals and infrastructure depleted, and its solidarity with Hamas broken.

But Israel’s armed forces are tired, its economy is suffering, and tens of thousands of its residents are displaced.

Still, many here are urging Benjamin Netanyahu to continue the war in Lebanon – asking why the prime minister who has vowed to continue fighting in Gaza until “total victory” is signing a ceasefire in the north?

Scientists in India have reported the “first significant result” from Aditya-L1, the country’s first solar observation mission in space.

The new learnings, they said, could help keep power grids and communication satellites out of harm’s way the next time solar activities threatened infrastructure on Earth and space.

On 16 July, the most important of the seven scientific instruments Aditya-L1 is carrying – Visible Emission Line Coronagraph, or Velc – captured data that helped scientists estimate the precise time a coronal mass ejection (CME) began.

Studying CMEs – massive fireballs that blow out of the Sun’s outermost corona layer – is one of the most important scientific objectives of India’s maiden solar mission.

“Made up of charged particles, a CME could weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km [1,864 miles] per second while travelling. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth,” says Prof R Ramesh of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics that designed Velc.

“Now imagine this huge fireball hurtling towards Earth. At its top speed, it would take just about 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.”

The coronal ejection that Velc captured on 16 July had started at 13:08 GMT. Prof Ramesh, Velc’s Principal Investigator who has published a paper on this CME in the prestigious Astrophysical Journal Letters, said it originated on the side of the Earth.

“But within half an hour of its journey, it got deflected and went in a different direction, going behind the Sun. As it was too far away, it did not impact Earth’s weather.”

But solar storms, solar flares and coronal mass ejections routinely impact Earth’s weather. They also impact the space weather where nearly 7,800 satellites, including more than 50 from India, are stationed.

According to Space.com, they rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they can cause mayhem on Earth by interfering with the Earth’s magnetic field.

Their most benign impact is causing beautiful auroras in places close to the North and South Pole. A stronger coronal mass ejection can cause auroras to show up in skies further away such as in London or France – as it did in May and October.

But the impact is much more serious in space where the charged particles of a coronal mass ejection can make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction. They can knock down power grids and affect weather and communication satellites.

“Today our lives fully depend on communication satellites and CMEs can trip the internet, phone lines and radio communication,” Prof Ramesh says. “That can lead to absolute chaos.”

The most powerful solar storm in recorded history occurred in 1859. Called the Carrington Event, it triggered intense auroral light shows and knocked out telegraph lines across the globe.

Scientists at Nasa say an equally strong storm was headed at Earth in 2012 and we had “a close shave just as perilous”. They say a powerful coronal mass ejection tore through Earth’s orbit on 23 July but that we were “incredibly fortunate” that instead of hitting our planet, the storm cloud hit Nasa’s solar observatory STEREO-A in space.

• Aditya-L1: India’s Sun mission reaches final destination
• Chandrayaan-3: India makes historic landing near Moon’s south pole

In 1989, a coronal mass ejection knocked out part of Quebec’s power grid for nine hours, leaving six million people without power.

And on 4 November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control at Sweden and some other European airports, leading to travel chaos for hours.

Scientists say that if we are able to see what happens on the Sun and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites and keep them out of harm’s way.

US space agency Nasa, the European Space Agency (ESA), Japan and China have been watching the Sun through their space-based solar missions for decades. With Aditya-L1 – named after the Hindu god of Sun – Indian space agency Isro joined that select group earlier this year.

From its vantage point in space, Aditya-L1 is able to watch the Sun constantly, even during eclipses and occultations, and carry out scientific studies.

Prof Ramesh says when we look at the Sun from the Earth, we see an orange ball of fire which is the photosphere – the Sun’s surface or the brightest part of the star.

It’s only during a total eclipse, when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun and covers the photosphere that we are able to see the solar corona, the Sun’s outermost layer.

• How important are India’s Moon mission findings?
• Why it costs India so little to reach the Moon and Mars

India’s coronagraph, Prof Ramesh says, has a slight advantage over the coronagraph in Nasa-ESA’s joint Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.

“Ours is of a size that it’s able to mimic the role of the Moon and artificially hide the Sun’s photosphere, providing Aditya-L1 an uninterrupted view of the corona 24 hours a day 365 days a year.”

The coronagraph on Nasa-ESA’s mission, he says, is bigger which means it hides not only the photosphere but also parts of corona – so it cannot see the genesis of a CME if it originates in the hidden region.

“But with Velc, we can precisely estimate the time a coronal mass ejection begins and in which direction it’s headed.”

India also has three ground based observatories – in Kodaikanal, Gauribidanur in the south and Udaipur in the northwest – to look at the Sun. So if we add up their findings with that of Aditya-L1, we can greatly improve our understanding of the Sun, he adds.

An oil painting of a Māori elder has fetched a record price at an auction on Tuesday, making it the most valuable artwork of its kind in New Zealand history.

The painting by famed local artist Charles Frederick Goldie, shows a portrait of Wharekauri Tahuna, a priest who is believed to be one of the last tattooed men of his generation.

The NZ$3.75m ($2.2m; £1.7m) sale also marks the highest price ever paid for a painting at auction in New Zealand, according to the auction house.

It comes at a point of increased racial tensions in New Zealand, with the government having recently put forth a bill that Māori said would hurt their rights.

Thoughts of a Tohunga was painted nine years before Goldie died in 1947, with art critics believing it was his best work.

It depicts the priest with a moko, or facial tattoo, and wearing a pendant known as a hei-tiki around his neck.

The sale, to an undisclosed buyer, makes it the most valuable Māori portrait in New Zealand art history.

“Goldie was well loved by Māori during his lifetime, [he] lived in Auckland and met his subjects,” Richard Thomson, director at the International Art Centre told the BBC, adding that this was the first time the painting had gone on sale in 33 years.

“New Zealanders have an affinity with their history and portraits by Goldie have always been sought after,” he said, adding that since 2016 his auction house has sold 13 Goldie paintings, with buyers paying more than a million New Zealand dollars each time.

Wharekauri Tahuna was one of Goldie’s favourite subjects and featured in a number of his works.

Māoris make up about 18% of New Zealand’s population, though many remain disadvantaged compared to the general population when assessed through markers such as health outcomes, household income, education levels and incarceration and mortality rates. There remains a seven-year gap in life expectancy.

Last week, political party Act – a minor partner in the coalition government – sought to pass a bill that would reintepret the country’s founding treaty with Māori people, known as the Treaty of Waitangi.

Thousands of people joined a nine-day march against the bill earlier last week.

The bill passed a first reading but is unlikely to pass a second reading, as Act’s coalition partners have indicated they will not support it.

On the day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Anton says the nuclear weapons base he was serving at was put on full combat alert.

“Before that, we had only exercises. But on the day the war started, the weapons were fully in place,” says the former officer in the Russian nuclear forces. “We were ready to launch the forces into the sea and air and, in theory, carry out a nuclear strike.”

I met Anton in a secret location outside Russia. For his own protection, the BBC will not reveal where. We have also changed his name and are not showing his face.

Anton was an officer at a top-secret nuclear weapons facility in Russia.

He has shown us documents confirming his unit, rank and base.

The BBC is unable to independently verify all the events he described, although they do chime with Russian statements at the time.

Three days after troops poured over Ukraine’s borders, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia’s nuclear deterrence forces had been ordered into a “special mode of combat service”.

Anton says that combat alert was in place on day one of the war and claims his unit was “shut inside the base”.

“All we had was Russian state TV,” says the former officer, “I didn’t really know what it all meant. I automatically carried out my duties. We weren’t fighting in the war, we were just guarding the nuclear weapons.”

The state of alert was cancelled, he adds, after two to three weeks.

Anton’s testimony offers an insight into the top-secret inner workings of the nuclear forces in Russia. It is extremely rare for service members to talk to journalists.

“There is a very strict selection process there. Everyone is a professional soldier – no conscripts,” he explains.

“There are constant checks and lie-detector tests for everyone. The pay is much higher, and the troops aren’t sent to war. They’re there to either repel, or carry out, a nuclear strike.”

The former officer says life was tightly controlled.

“It was my responsibility to ensure the soldiers under me didn’t take any phones on to the nuclear base,” he explains.

“It’s a closed society, there are no strangers there. If you want your parents to visit, you need to submit a request to the FSB Security Service three months in advance.”

Anton was part of the base’s security unit – a rapid-reaction force that guarded the nuclear weapons.

“We had constant training exercises. Our reaction time was two minutes,” he says, with a hint of pride.

Russia has around 4,380 operational nuclear warheads, according to the Federation of American Scientists, but only 1,700 are “deployed” or ready for use. All the Nato member states combined possess a similar number.

There are also concerns about whether Putin could choose to deploy “non-strategic”, often called tactical, nuclear weapons. These are smaller missiles that generally don’t cause widespread radioactive fallout.

Their use would nevertheless lead to a dangerous escalation in the war.

The Kremlin has been doing all it can to test the West’s nerves.

Only last week Putin ratified changes to the nuclear doctrine – the official rules dictating how and when Russia can launch nuclear weapons.

The doctrine now says Russia can launch if it comes under “massive attack” from conventional missiles by a non-nuclear state but “with the participation or support of a nuclear state”.

Russian officials say the updated doctrine “effectively eliminates” the possibility of its defeat on the battlefield.

But is Russia’s nuclear arsenal fully functional?

Some Western experts have suggested its weapons mostly date from the Soviet era, and might not even work.

The former nuclear forces officer rejected that opinion as a “very simplified view from so-called experts”.

“There might be some old-fashioned types of weapons in some areas, but the country has an enormous nuclear arsenal, a huge amount of warheads, including constant combat patrol on land, sea and air.”

Russia’s nuclear weapons were fully operational and battle-ready, he maintained. “The work to maintain the nuclear weapons is carried out constantly, it never stops even for one minute.”

Shortly after the full-scale war began, Anton said he was given what he describes as a “criminal order” – to hold lectures with his troops using very specific written guidelines.

“They said that Ukrainian civilians are combatants and should be destroyed!” he exclaims. “That’s a red line for me – it’s a war crime. I said I won’t spread this propaganda.”

Senior officers reprimanded Anton by transferring him to a regular assault brigade in another part of the country. He was told he would be sent to war.

These units are often sent in to battle as the “first wave” and a number of Russian deserters have told the BBC that “troublemakers” who object to the war have been used as “cannon fodder”.

The Russian embassy in London did not respond to a request for comment.

Before he could be sent to the front line, Anton signed a statement refusing to take part in the war and a criminal case was opened against him. He showed us documents confirming his transfer to the assault brigade and details of the criminal case.

He then decided to flee the country with the help of a volunteer organisation for deserters.

“If I had run away from the nuclear forces base, then the local FSB Security Service would’ve reacted decisively and I probably wouldn’t have been able to leave the country,” he said.

But he believes that, because he had been transferred to an ordinary assault brigade, the system of top-level security clearance failed.

Anton said he wanted the world to know that many Russian soldiers were against the war.

The volunteer organisation that helps deserters, “Idite Lesom” [‘Go by the Forest’, in English, or ‘Get Lost’] has told the BBC that the number of deserters seeking help has risen to 350 a month.

The risks to those fleeing are growing, too. At least one deserter has been killed after fleeing abroad, and there have been several cases of men being forcibly returned to Russia and put on trial.

Although Anton has left Russia, he says security services are still looking for him there: “I take precautions here, I work off the books and I don’t show up in any official systems.”

He says he has stopped speaking to his friends at the nuclear base because he could put them in danger: “They must take lie-detector tests, and any contact with me could lead to a criminal case.”

But he is under no illusion about the risk he is himself in by helping other soldiers to flee.

“I understand the more I do that, the higher the chances they could try and kill me.”

“When I stepped out of my house, it felt like I was inhaling smoke,” says Imran Ahmed Ali, a lawyer in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh.

Pollution levels in Chandigarh – India’s first planned city, located about 240km (150 miles) from capital Delhi – have been at more than 15 times the safe limit recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for more than a month.

It is now common for air quality in the city to dip every winter, but Mr Ali says he has never felt so sick before.

A few weeks ago, the 31-year-old began experiencing a dry cough and shortness of breath, which he initially dismissed as symptoms of a seasonal cold. But as the temperature dropped, his chest congestion worsened and he went to a doctor.

“After running several tests, the doctor told me that my symptoms were caused by pollution. I’m now taking medicine twice a day to manage my breathing,” he says.

Mr Ali is among hundreds of millions of people living in northern India who are forced to breathe toxic polluted air for extended periods every winter.

According to Swiss firm IQAir, eight of the 10 most polluted cities in the world last year were located in the Indo-Gangetic plains – a densely populated region which stretches across northern and eastern India, along with parts of Pakistan and Nepal.

A recent report by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago reiterates that the northern plains – home to 540.7 million people across Bihar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal – is the most polluted region in India. When compared with the WHO’s standards, air pollution at current levels could reduce the life expectancy of people here by 5.4 years, it adds.

But as the toxic smog closes in every winter, headlines and attention are mostly focused on Delhi.

Delhi receives significant attention due to its position as the capital of India, says Parthaa Bosu, strategic adviser at the Environmental Defense Fund, a non-profit group focused on delivering climate solutions.

Every year, the Delhi government implements an annual action plan, which includes measures such as driving restrictions and a ban on construction activities during peak pollution periods.

Even though there is criticism that this isn’t enough, most other places in northern India have not seen such proactive steps.

Mr Bosu says that often, people don’t associate other parts of northern India – particularly villages and small towns and cities – with high pollution.

“In [people’s] minds, villages are clean, green and pristine – but that’s far from the reality,” he says.

• Living in Delhi smog is like watching a dystopian film again and again

Pollution in the region is not caused by a single factor, but a combination of elements – such as construction activities, vehicular emissions, industrial pollutants and the seasonal burning of crop residue.

While many of these factors are present throughout the year, the difference in the winter months – from October to January – is the weather conditions.

The air quality worsens each winter because cold stagnant air traps pollutants near the ground, making it harder for them to disperse, says Mahesh Palawat, vice president of meteorology and climate change at weather forecasting company Skymet.

The landlocked geography of the Indo-Gangetic Plain worsens the situation. The region is surrounded by mountains and lacks strong winds, which normally help blow polluted air away.

Doctors and health experts warn of the risks of breathing in these pollutants.

“Patients complain of a burning sensation in their eyes and throat when they step outside. Some face difficulty in breathing,” says Dr Rajesh Gupta, director of the pulmonary department at Fortis Hospital in Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh state.

Dr Gupta says that people who are otherwise healthy also develop respiratory troubles this time of the year, and that children and the elderly are especially vulnerable.

The bleak conditions also exact a mental toll. Aditi Garg, who works in Meerut town – about 100km from Delhi – used to cherish the quiet moments on her balcony each morning.

That routine has been disrupted completely.

Since mid-October, pollution levels in Meerut have remained at levels classified as “poor” or “severe”, making it difficult to breathe.

Ms Garg now spends nearly all her time indoors, next to her air purifier, trying to shield herself from the toxic air outside.

“I don’t have an option but to stay inside, this is the best I can do,” she says.

And not everyone has the privilege of staying indoors.

In Uttar Pradesh alone, more than 83 million people are registered as employees in the unorganised sector. The actual number is likely to be much higher.

This includes daily wage workers, street vendors and agricultural labourers who have no choice but to work outdoors, risking their health.

Standing outside his shanty in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur city, Mohammad Salim Siddiqui gasps for breath as he speaks.

An automobile spare parts vendor and the sole breadwinner of his family, Mr Siddiqui has to brave the pollution every day.

“Two members of my family are struggling with respiratory problems because of the pollution,” says Mr Siddiqui, adding that it’s particularly bad in crowded slums.

“We need help,” he says.

Over the years, governments in some states have made efforts to counter the pollution problem.

In 2019, India launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) with an aim to reduce particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5, tiny particles that can enter the lungs and cause diseases) levels by 20-30% by 2026 as compared to 2017 levels.

The goal was later updated to reduce PM10 levels up to 40% by 2026.

Under this programme, 131 Indian cities – including many in the Indo-Gangetic Plains – were to develop tailored plans to address local pollution sources.

While it has helped raise awareness and set goals, experts say stronger action and better coordination between local and state governments are needed to make a real difference.

Mr Bosu says that the lack of dialogue remains the biggest barrier against meaningful change.

Both Ms Garg and Mr Ali echo this, saying there is barely any conversation about the toxic air quality in their cities.

“People have unfortunately accepted this as a part of their lives,” says Mr. Ali.

“It’s a discussion they have every year when pollution is at its peak, and then conveniently forget about – until next time.”

The field outside the royal palace in the Ghanaian city of Kumasi was filled with an exuberant crowd, celebrating the return 100 years ago of an exiled king.

Prempeh was the Asante king, or “Asantehene”, of the late 19th Century who resisted British demands that his territory be swallowed up into the expanding Gold Coast protectorate.

A British army from the coast marched about 200km (124 miles) to Kumasi in 1896, and took Prempeh as well as about 50 relatives, chiefs and servants as prisoners, and then looted his palace.

The prisoners were taken to the coastal fort at Elmina, before being shipped to Sierra Leone, and, in 1900, on to the distant Indian Ocean islands of Seychelles.

It was not until 1924 that the British allowed Prempeh to return home, by which time he was an elderly man who arrived in Kumasi wearing a European suit and hat.

It is a tragic story, but also one of pride and resistance.

“The British did all they could but they couldn’t break the spirit of Asante,” shouted the master of ceremonies. The current Asantehene, Osei Tutu II, was paraded on his palanquin through the crowd, weighed down by magnificent gold jewellery, amid a glorious cacophony of musket explosions, drum beats and the blare of horns made from elephant tusks.

Asante culture is alive and well.

But Prempeh’s exile did have a lasting impact on both the Asante kingdom and Seychelles, although perhaps not in ways intended by British officials at the time.

The guest of honour at the centenary celebrations, held in Kumasi at the weekend, was Seychelles’ President Wavel Ramkalawan, who said “it was an honour, though sad, for us to receive your great king”.

“He showed respect to our people, and in return received the full love of the Seychelles,” Ramkalawan added.

The proof of that is in family ties cherished to this day.

Princess Mary Prempeh Marimba is Prempeh’s great-grand-daughter. Her grandfather, James, the son of Prempeh, married a Seychellois woman, and initially stayed on the islands after his father left.

Mary is a nursing supervisor in Seychelles’ capital, Victoria, and travelled to Kumasi with her daughter Suzy, to re-unite with dozens of long-lost relatives and discover more about her Asante heritage.

“There are so many mixed emotions, my great-grandfather had so many difficulties, and this is a sad history, but I also come here and celebrate with my family,” she said.

The Asante exiles in Seychelles lived in “Ashanti Town”, on an old sugar plantation, Le Rocher, on the main island Mahé, overlooking the ocean and surrounded by coconut, mango, breadfruit, orange and jackfruit trees.

Prempeh lived in the estate’s villa, and was given “every respect and dignity”, according to Dr Penda Choppy, a Seychellois academic who also travelled to Kumasi for the centenary events.

In 1901, the Asante community grew, as Yaa Asantewaa, a queen who led the final resistance to the British, and some 20 chiefs and attendants, were also sent to Seychelles following their surrender.

The long years of exile changed Prempeh. He learnt to read and write, and urged the Asante children to attend school.

He embraced Christianity, and, in the words of Asante historian and politician Albert Adu Boahen, “rigidly and uncompromisingly imposed that religion on his fellow political prisoners and their children”.

In the Anglican Church of St Paul’s, the Asante were not the only exiles in the congregation, for they often sat with King Mwanga of Buganda and King Kabalega of Bunyoro, both from modern-day Uganda.

Indeed, at various times, the British also sent political prisoners from Egypt, Palestine, Zanzibar, the Maldives, Malaysia and Cyprus to Seychelles, which was known as a “prison without bars”, as its isolation made the perfect location, from the British point of view, to put troublesome opponents.

The years went by, and Prempeh dreamt of home.

In 1918, he wrote to King George V and pleaded to be allowed to return.

“Consider how wretched I am for I was being taken prisoner… for now 22 years, and now how miserable to see that father, mother, brother and nearly three quarters of the chiefs are dead. The remaining quarter, some are blind, some worn out with old age and the rest being attacked of diverse diseases,” Prempeh wrote.

A few years later, the British, perhaps aware that Prempeh’s potential death in exile could bring political problems in Asante, finally relented.

In November 1924 Prempeh travelled by ship back to West Africa with some 50 Asante companions, most of whom had been born in Seychelles.

“We who do not know him are more than anxious to see his face,” wrote a prominent local newspaper, The Gold Coast Leader.

In Kumasi, many slept by the train station to greet him and, according to a British official, “the scene presented by the huge assembly…. with their white head bands signifying rejoicing or victory, some laughing and cheering, while others wept with emotion, was a most moving and never-to-be-forgotten sight”.

In theory “Mr Edward Prempeh” was now a private citizen, but his people treated him as a king, and presented him with royal regalia, including the Golden Stool, said to contain the soul of the Asante nation.

Prempeh died in 1931, and his successor, Prempeh II, was restored to the position of Asantehene in 1935.

Ivor Agyeman-Duah, an Asante scholar and director of the palace museum, helped organise the centenary celebrations.

They were of added personal significance, as his great grandfather, Kwame Boatin, was one of the chiefs exiled alongside Prempeh.

But as Mr Agyeman-Duah acknowledges, exile, for all its pain, also brought opportunities for those who suffered it.

Kwame Boatin’s children went on to be ambassadors and leading civil servants, able to adapt to the dramatic changes that Asante, the Gold Coast and later an independent Ghana, underwent in the 20th Century.

“The exiles had been exposed to the world, and they had something to contribute,” he said. “What they brought back still inspires us, their dedication to scholarship and public service.”

In a village one hour’s drive from Kumasi, I met Princess Molly Prempeh, an animated lady in her 80s, and also a great-granddaughter of Prempeh.

“I’m the only remaining person here who was born in Seychelles,” she told me.

“I’m Seychellois and Ghanaian – I was five years old when I came back.”

In her old age, Molly has reconnected with the beautiful islands of her birth, and visited twice.

The Seychellois are delighted by the “Old Creole”, which includes more French words, she remembers from childhood.

“When I walk down the streets they shout ‘Heh Princess, how are you?’ ‘Princess, ‘vini, vini, tou i byen?’ (come, come here, you good?). They are lovely people. They love the Prempehs in Sesel (Seychelles).”

But Molly’s visits are also tinged with sadness. She goes to the grave of her mother, Hugette, who brought Molly as a young girl to the Gold Coast in 1948.

Hugette later returned to Seychelles, where she eventually died.

Even in her old age, the story goes, she loved to speak the Twi language she had been taught as a little girl by Prempeh herself.

One family’s story of loss, exile and endurance.

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One of the innovations at this year’s Paris Olympics was supposed to be an electric flying taxi service.

Germany’s Volocopter promised its electric-powered, two-seater aircraft, the VoloCity, would be ferrying passengers around the city.

It never happened. Instead the company ran demonstration flights.

While missing that deadline was embarrassing, behind the scenes a more serious issue was playing out – Volocopter was urgently trying to raise fresh investment to keep the firm going.

Talks to borrow €100m (£83m; $106m) from the government failed in April.

Now hopes are pinned on China’s Geely, which is in talks to take an 85% stake in Volocopter in return for $95m of funding, according to a Bloomberg report. The deal could mean that any future manufacturing would be moved to China.

Volocopter is one of dozens of companies around the world developing an electric vertical take-off and landing (EVTOL) aircraft.

Their machines promise the flexibility of a helicopter, but without the cost, noise and emissions.

However, faced with the massive cost of getting such novel aircraft approved by regulators and then building up manufacturing capabilities, some investors are bailing out.

One of the most high-profile casualties is Lilium.

The German company had developed a radical take on the EVTOL theme.

Lilium’s aircraft uses 30 electric jets that can be tilted in unison to swing between vertical lift and forward flight.

The concept proved attractive, with the company claiming to have orders and memoranda of understanding for 780 jets from around the world.

It was able to demonstrate the technology using a remote controlled scale model. Construction had begun on the first full-sized jets, and testing had been due to begin in early 2025.

As recently as the Farnborough Airshow in July, Lilium’s COO Sebastian Borel was sounding confident.

“We are definitely burning through cash,” he told the BBC. “But this is a good sign, because it means we are producing the aircraft. We’re going to have three aircraft in production by the end of the year, and we have also raised €1.5bn”.

But then the money ran out.

Lilium had been attempting to arrange a loan worth €100m from the German development bank, KfW. However, that required guarantees from national and state governments, which never materialised.

In early November, the company put its main operating businesses into insolvency proceedings, and its shares were removed from the Nasdaq stock exchange.

For the moment, work on the new aircraft is continuing, as the company works with restructuring experts to sell the business or bring in new investment. However, getting the new e-jet into production is looking more challenging than ever.

The high-profile British player in the eVTOL market is Vertical Aerospace. The Bristol-based company was founded in 2016 by businessman Stephen Fitzpatrick, who also set up OVO Energy.

Its striking VX4 design uses eight large propellers mounted on slim, aircraft style wings to generate lift. Mr Fitzpatrick has made ambitious claims about the aircraft, suggesting it would be “100 times” safer and quieter than a helicopter, for 20% of the cost.

The company has made progress. After completing a programme of remote-controlled testing, it began carrying out piloted tests earlier this year. Initially, these were carried out with the aircraft tethered to the ground. In early November, it carried out its first untethered take-off and landing.

But there have also been serious setbacks. In August last year, a remotely-piloted prototype was badly damaged when it crashed during testing at Cotswold Airport, after a propeller blade fell off.

In May one of its key partners, the engineering giant Rolls Royce pulled out of a deal to supply electric motors for the aircraft.

Ambitions remain sky high. Vertical Aerospace says it will deliver 150 aircraft to its customers by the end of the decade. By then, it also expects to be capable of producing 200 units a year, and to be breaking even in cash terms.

But the company has been through financial challenges and recently agreed a rescue deal with its biggest creditor, US based Mudrick Capital.

Under the deal, Mudrick will invest up to $50m in Verticial , meanwhile $130m of loans from Mudrick will be converted into shares.

That will leave the US investment firm with a 70% stake in Vertical, while Mr Fitzpatrick’s stake falls from 70% to 20%.

“This comprehensive deal – alongside the recent piloted flight campaign… means Vertical is positioned to be a winner in one of the 21st century’s most exciting technologies,” Mr Fitzpatrick said in a statement accompanying the deal.

Amid the turbulence, one European project is quietly on track, says Bjorn Fehrm who has a background in aeronautical engineering and piloted combat jets for the Swedish Air Force. He now works for aerospace consultancy Leeham.

He says that the EVTOL project underway at Airbus is likely to survive.

Called the CityAirbus NextGen, the four-seater aircraft has eight propellers and a range of 80km.

“This is a technology project for their engineers, and they’ve got the money, and they’ve got the know how,” says Mr Fehrm.

Elsewhere in the world, other well funded start-ups stand a good change of getting their aircraft into production. That would include Joby and Archer in the US.

Once the aircraft are being produced, the next challenge will be to see if there’s a profitable market for them.

The first routes are likely to be between airports and city centres. But will they make money?

“The biggest problem area when it comes to the cost of operation is the pilot and the batteries. You need to change the batteries a couple of times per year,” points out Mr Fehrm.

Given all the uncertainty and expense, you might wonder why investors put money into new electric aircraft in the first place.

“No one wanted to miss out on the next Tesla,” laughs Mr Fehrm.

Ben Morris on BlueSky

Theo Leggett on BlueSky

A 13-year-old has become the youngest player to get a deal in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the world’s richest cricket tournament.

Vaibhav Suryavanshi from the eastern state of Bihar was bought by Rajasthan Royals (RR) for 11m rupees ($130,500; £103,789) in the recently-concluded auctions in Saudi Arabia.

The left-handed batter has represented his state in national championships, such as Ranji and Mushtaq Ali trophies, and India in the Under-19 internationals.

Delhi Capitals and RR bid for him starting from 3m rupees but RR, where he had trained previously, managed to seal the deal.

Indian cricket was traditionally dominated by urban centres such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru but IPL has managed to attract a wider pool of cricketers from far-off villages and small towns of India.

Suryavanshi, who is in Dubai to play India Under-19 Asia Cup, made his Ranji debut at the age of 12 in January with Bihar against Mumbai.

In his five Ranji matches, he has scored a highest of 41. But the highlight of his career has been his 58-ball century as an opener in an Under-19 unofficial Test against Australia a few weeks ago – which also made him the youngest to score a century in youth cricket.

He has also made an unbeaten 332 in an Under-19 tournament in Bihar.

RR saw raw potential in the youngster as he impressed their coaching staff during a training session.

“He’s an incredible talent and, of course, you got to have the confidence so he can step up to the IPL level,” the team’s CEO Jake Lush McCrum told ESPN Cricinfo after the auction ended.

He said that Suryavanshi’s development would require work, but “he is a hell of a talent and we’re really excited to have him as part of the franchise”.

Though Indian laws ban child labour below 14, experts say no such guidelines exist for sports, where players below 14 regularly compete in national and international events.

But to play an international match organised by International Cricket Council (ICC), Suryavanshi may have to wait until he is 15 since that’s the minimum age limit set by cricket’s governing body.

The news of Suryavanshi’s auction and the size of his contract has brought a lot of joy to his family who had to sell their land to finance his cricketing dreams.

His father Sanjiv Suryavanshi told PTI news agency that “he is not just my son now but is Bihar’s son”.

Mr Suryavanshi, a farmer from Bihar who had migrated to Mumbai for employment, worked as a bouncer in a nightclub and at a public toilet, he told Indian Express newspaper.

His biggest concern now is to ensure that his son remains grounded. “I will talk to him and make sure that this IPL auction doesn’t go to his head. He still has a long way to go,” he said.

Radio 4 Today programme co-presenter Mishal Husain is to leave the BBC in the New Year, the corporation has announced.

Husain has been a host on the station’s flagship current affairs morning show for 11 years, and also fronted the broadcaster’s recent UK general election debates.

Husain, who joined the BBC in 1998, has also presented the BBC News at Six and Ten, as well its news channels.

She will join Bloomberg to host a new interview series and be editor-at-large of its Weekend Edition.

The 51-year-old said in a statement that her BBC career had “involved many memorable moments, going to places I would never otherwise have seen, witnessing history and being part of live, national conversation on Radio 4”.

She added: “I will always be grateful for the opportunities the BBC gave me, and wish the organisation and everyone who is part of it the very best.”

Owenna Griffiths, editor of the Today programme, described Husain as “not only a formidable journalist and first-rate presenter” but also “an extremely generous and thoughtful colleague”.

“It has been my great privilege to work alongside her and, along with the Today team, I’ll miss her enormously but wish her all the very best in her new venture,” she said.

Husain is one of five presenters on the Today programme’s current roster, alongside Justin Webb, Nick Robinson, Emma Barnett and Amol Rajan.

She earned between £340,000 and £344,999 in the last financial year for about 140 shifts presenting Today, 20 days reading the news on BBC One, plus Today’s debates and other projects.

In a statement issued by her new employer, she said: “I am delighted to be fronting a new interview show that will reach audiences in different formats as part of the exciting plans for Bloomberg Weekend Edition.

“Ours is an ever more complex world but the desire for thoughtful conversations crosses all borders. I look forward to working with a new team at Bloomberg – the place which gave me my first job in journalism.”

Husain began her journalism career at Bloomberg Television in the 1990s before joining the BBC.

During her career at the corporation, she also reported from countries ranging from the US to Pakistan.

She interviewed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Harry and Meghan, after their engagement in 2017; and was part of the coverage of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, and the King’s coronation.

She also made documentaries about the lives of the late Queen, Mahatma Gandhi and Malala Yousafzai, as well as the Arab Spring in 2011.

Earlier this year, the British presenter’s book, Broken Threads: My Family From Empire to Independence, became a Sunday Times bestseller.

The Guardian said it saw her weave “a tender tapestry with the stories of her four grandparents in the new state of Pakistan”.

The news of Husain’s departure from the BBC comes five months after Martha Kearney left the Today programme.

Awards campaigns have kicked into high gear following the launch of the last remaining films which could form part of this year’s Oscars race.

Voting for the Golden Globes, the first major film ceremony of awards season, is under way ahead of the nominations being announced on 9 December.

Studios have already been campaigning for months, as many of the major movies premiered at the Venice, Telluride, Toronto, Cannes and Sundance festivals.

Ahead of the Baftas on 16 February and Oscars on 2 March, here’s the ABC (Anora, Blitz, Conclave) of all the films you need to know about.

What’s it about? A biopic of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, focusing on his early career as he was making his name in 1960s New York.

Who’s in it? Timothée Chalamet as Dylan, alongside Edward Norton, Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 17 January.

What’s it about? An aspiring actor with a disfiguring facial condition has a radical medical procedure, drastically transforming his appearance. But he gradually starts to regret his decision as he grapples with a sense of lost identity.

Who’s in it? Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve and Adam Pearson.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 4 October.

What’s it about? Two cousins go on a trip across Poland to learn more about their late grandmother.

Who’s in it? Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 10 January.

• Read more: Succession star praised for emotional film role

What’s it about? Three Indian nurses working in the same Mumbai hospital struggle to make ends meet. A trip to a coastal town provides a chance for freedom and reflection.

Who’s in it? Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam and Hridhu Haroon.

Where can I see it? In cinemas from 29 November.

• Read more: An Indian tale of love and sisterhood unfolds at Cannes

What’s it about? A woman working as a stripper in New York falls in love with the son of a Russian billionaire. The pair enjoy a whirlwind romance, but the wheels soon start to come off.

Who’s in it? Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov and Karren Karagulian.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas from 1 November.

• Read more: Mikey Madison leads Oscars race for breakout role as New York stripper

What’s it about? A young Donald Trump tries to make his name as a real estate tycoon in New York in the 1970s and 80s, and finds a mentor in lawyer Roy Cohn.

Who’s in it? Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong and Maria Bakalova.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 18 October.

• Read more: Sebastian Stan says Trump ‘should be grateful’ for controversial film

What’s it about? A high-powered CEO risks her career and family when she begins an affair with a younger intern.

Who’s in it? Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Sophie Wilde and Antonio Banderas.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 10 January.

What’s it about? Set more than three decades after the original Beetlejuice, Lydia Deetz is now a mother struggling to keep her family together when Betelgeuse returns to haunt her.

Who’s in it? Jenna Ortega, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Monica Bellucci and Willem Dafoe.

Where can I see it? It was released in cinemas in the summer and is now available to buy and rent digitally.

Read more: Beetlejuice stars launch sequel in Venice

What’s it about? A 12-year-old girl living on a rough council estate finds a mentor and protector in a man who has returned to the town to try to track down his family.

Who’s in it? Nykiya Adams, Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 8 November.

• Read more: Saltburn star plays chaotic young dad in Bafta-tipped film

What’s it about? A young boy makes his own way back to London after the city is evacuated during World War Two.

Who’s in it? Saoirse Ronan, Stephen Graham and Elliott Heffernan.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 1 November, and is now on Apple TV+.

• Read more: Saoirse Ronan says WW2 film is ‘incredibly relevant’

What’s it about? A Hungarian architect tries to build a new life for himself and his wife in post-war America, but their plans are changed by a wealthy client.

Who’s in it? Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce and Joe Alwyn.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas on 24 January 2025.

What’s it about? A love triangle between a tennis prodigy-turned-coach and two male rivals.

Who’s in it? Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist

Where can I see it? Amazon Prime Video, and available to rent on other digital platforms.

• Read more: How Zendaya she’s perfected the art of method dressing

What’s it about? A group of photographers and journalists venture through the US, which has been torn apart by civil war during the third term of an authoritarian president.

Who’s in it? Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Wagner Moura and Stephen McKinley Henderson

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas in April and is now available to buy on digital platforms.

• Read more: Dunst ‘didn’t even think to ask for equal pay’ early in career

What’s it about? A gossipy and scheming group of cardinals must select the new Pope, but there is backstabbing, wheeling and dealing behind the scenes.

Who’s in it? Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 29 November.

• Read more: Critics praise ‘skin-prickling suspense’ of Oscar-tipped Conclave

What’s it about? Deadpool is recruited to help safeguard the multiverse, and unites with Wolverine to complete the mission.

Who’s in it? Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman.

Where can I see it? On Disney+.

• Read more: Can Deadpool and Wolverine spark Marvel’s revival?

What’s it about? A sequel to 2021’s Dune, Paul Atreides unites with the Fremen people of the desert planet Arrakis to wage war against House Harkonnen.

Who’s in it? Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Austin Butler and Florence Pugh.

Where can I see it? Available to rent or buy on digital platforms.

• Read more: Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya thrill fans at premiere

What’s it about? A musical following a Mexican cartel leader who wants to leave the world of crime and live a new life as a woman.

Who’s in it? Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas from 25 October and is on Netflix from 13 November.

• Read more: Selena Gomez ‘shines’ in new Oscar-tipped musical

What’s it about? A cat fleeing its home after a devastating flood finds refuge on a boat populated by various animals, and must team up with them despite their differences in order to survive.

Who’s in it? There are no big-name actors as the film is dialogue-free (although the animals bark, meow and squawk).

Where can I see it? In cinemas from 1 March.

What’s it about? A sequel to 2000’s Oscar-winning Gladiator, the grandson of Rome’s former emperor is forced into slavery following an invasion.

Who’s in it? Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 15 November.

• Read more: Mescal was cast in Gladiator II after ’30-minute Zoom call’

What’s it about? An irritable woman whose constant misery puts severe strain on those around her grapples with her depression as Mother’s Day approaches. Directed by Mike Leigh.

Who’s in it? Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Michele Austin, David Webber and Tuwaine Barrett.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 31 January.

• Read more: Actress ‘dazzles’ as woman who is always miserable in Mike Leigh film

What’s it about? Two female Mormon missionaries knock on the door of a man who initially appears friendly but is not what he seems, leading to a deadly game of cat and mouse.

Who’s in it? Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas now.

What’s it about? Three sisters with very different personalities come together in New York to care for their sick father.

Who’s in it? Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen and Natasha Lyonne.

Where can I see it? On Netflix now.

What’s it about? A fake hit man who actually works for the police is used to catch potential criminals who try to enlist him as a contract killer.

Who’s in it? Glen Powell, Adria Arjona and Austin Amelio.

Where can I see it? On Netflix now.

What’s it about? Set in 1970s Brazil, a woman and her five children’s lives are turned upside down after the disappearance of her congressman husband.

Who’s in it? Fernanda Torres, Fernanda Montenegro and Selton Mello.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 21 February.

What’s it about? A sequel to 2015’s Inside Out, Riley is now a teenager with a whole heap of new emotions to deal with, including anxiety and embarrassment.

Who’s in it? The voices of Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Tony Hale and Ayo Edebiri.

Where can I see it? On Disney+ now.

Read more: Inside Out 2 becomes biggest animated film ever

What’s it about? Following 2019’s Joker, Arthur Fleck falls in love with Harley Quinn while incarcerated at Arkham Asylum.

Who’s in it? Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Zazie Beetz and Brendan Gleeson.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas now.

Read more: Joker sequel suffers $33m collapse at box office

What’s it about? A man who flees after accidentally killing someone in a road accident finds himself on the jury in a trial that wrongly accuses someone else of the crime.

Who’s in it? Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette and JK Simmons.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 1 November.

What’s it about? A biopic focusing on legendary opera singer Maria Callas’s final years in Paris in the 1970s.

Who’s in it? Angelina Jolie, Haluk Bilginer and Kodi Smit-McPhee.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 10 January.

• Read more: Angelina Jolie ‘spellbinding’ as opera star Callas

What’s it about? A young woman tries to convince her father to let a visionary artist renovate a city into a utopian, idealistic future.

Who’s in it? Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza, Laurence Fishburne and Dustin Hoffman.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 27 September.

What’s it about? In 1970s Australia, a lonely woman dictates her life story to her favourite pet snail.

Who’s in it? The voices of Sarah Snook, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Eric Bana.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 14 February.

What’s it about? Two young men are abused at a reform school called the Nickel Academy in 1960s Florida.

Who’s in it? Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 3 January.

• Read more: Nickel Boys adaptation ‘breaks the rules of cinema’

What’s it about? A woman who quits her job to be at home with her young son fears she is turning into a dog at night.

Who’s in it? Amy Adams and Scoot McNairy.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 6 December.

• Read more: Amy Adams turns into a dog in ‘bizarre and brilliant’ film

What’s it about? An ancient Transylvanian vampire haunts a young woman in 19th Century Germany.

Who’s in it? Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 1 January.

What’s it about? A young woman struggling with addiction to alcohol returns to her home in Orkney.

Who’s in it? Saoirse Ronan and Paapa Essiedu.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 27 September.

• Read more: ‘I was terrified’ – Saoirse Ronan learns lambing for The Outrun

What’s it about? Adapted from August Wilson’s play, a brother and sister disagree over what to do with a family heirloom piano in 1920s Pittsburgh.

Who’s in it? John David Washington, Danielle Deadwyler and Samuel L Jackson.

Where can I see it? It was released in cinemas on 8 November and is now on Netflix.

• Read more: Denzel Washington’s children join forces in ‘fearless’ film

What’s it about? A gay man in 1950s Mexico ventures into the jungle in search of a rare plant, which is said to have telepathic powers.

Who’s in it? Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey and Lesley Manville.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 13 December.

• Read more: Daniel Craig’s new film ‘smug’ but ‘beautiful’

What’s it about? A woman with terminal cancer asks a close friend to be in the room next door when she takes her own life.

Who’s in it? Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 25 October.

• Read more: Tilda Swinton film sparks euthanasia debate

What’s it about? Set in 1975, the cast and crew of US variety show Saturday Night Live gear up for their first episode.

Who’s in it? Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 31 January.

What’s it about? A judge loses his gun amid unrest in Tehran. Suspecting his family, he imposes harsh rules, straining relationships as society destabilises.

Who’s in it? Soheila Golestani, Missagh Zareh and Mahsa Rostami.

Where can I see it? In cinemas from 7 February.

• Read more: Director flees Iran after receiving jail sentence for making film in secret

What’s it about? The 1972 Munich Olympic hostage crisis told from the perspective of an ABC Sports crew, incorporating real-life footage from their coverage.

Who’s in it? Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro and Ben Chaplin.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 24 January.

What’s it about? A group of inmates in a high-security prison sign up for a performing arts programme.

Who’s in it? Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 30 August.

What’s it about? A woman takes a black-market drug in order to create a younger, more beautiful version of herself.

Who’s in it? Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 20 September and is now available on Mubi.

• Read more: Demi Moore is over being perfect in new ‘risky and juicy’ horror role

What’s it about? An elderly woman sets out to get back the $10,000 she lost in a scam.

Who’s in it? June Squibb, Fred Hechinger and Richard Roundtree.

Where can I see it? It’s available to rent or buy on digital platforms.

What’s it about? A young chef is diagnosed with cancer, throwing her plans for the future into doubt.

Who’s in it? Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 1 January.

• Read more: Garfield brings cardboard cut-out of Pugh to red carpet

What’s it about? A film adaptation of the book and stage musical, which tell the origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Who’s in it? Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 22 November.

Read more: Ariana Grande channelled her loss into Wicked role

What’s it about? An animated robot named Roz adapts to its new surroundings after being shipwrecked on a deserted island, and develops a parental bond with an orphaned gosling.

Who’s in it? The voices of Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal and Bill Nighy.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 18 October and is released for digital rental or purchase on 18 November.

The new prime minister of Mauritius has said he has reservations about the deal struck by his predecessor with the UK government last month over the Chagos Islands.

Under the deal, the UK would give up sovereignty over the remote but strategically important archipelago – while leasing Diego Garcia, home to a joint UK-US military base, for at least 99 years.

PM Navinchandra Ramgoolam, elected two weeks ago, did not outline his precise issues with the agreement, but a cabinet minister said there were problems with the lease arrangement.

It could also face opposition from US President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.

The UK Foreign Office said the deal was “in both sides’ shared interests”.

A spokesperson said this included “ensuring the long-term effective operation of the joint UK-US base on Diego Garcia”.

They added that the accord had been welcomed by the US and India, and that the Foreign Office looked forward to working with the new Mauritian government to finalise the deal in a treaty.

Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for secretary of state, has described the deal as a threat to US security.

When the deal was signed, after years of talks, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and his then-Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth called it a “seminal moment in our relationship and a demonstration of our enduring commitment to the peaceful resolution of disputes and the rule of law”.

UK opposition leader Kemi Badenoch accused the government of not knowing “how to defend our national interests” in its handling of the negotiations.

Some groups representing the interests of Chagossians have also expressed disquiet, saying they were excluded from the negotiations.

• The BBC visits the secretive Chagos Islands military base
• UN says UK military island not suitable for stranded migrants
• UK commitment to Falklands ‘unwavering’ despite Chagos deal

Prime Minister Ramgoolam expressed his doubts about the agreement after meeting Jonathan Powell, the UK’s national security adviser, on Monday.

“I informed them that I wished to have more time to study the details with a panel of legal advisers,” he said.

He also voiced surprise that the details were finalised just over a month before Mauritius’s general election.

Mr Powell said that negotiations would continue and both sides agreed to reconvene in Mauritius in two weeks to report their progress.

In the election campaign, Ramgoolam and his allies in the Change coalition accused then-Prime Minister Jugnauth of “high treason”, describing the agreement as a “sell-out” motivated by desperation ahead of the vote.

Arvin Boolell, the newly appointed minister of agro-industry and fisheries, has been more specific about the objections in his comments on Monday.

He criticised the former prime minister for granting the UK a long lease over Diego Garcia – he said it was 200 years, though the publicised timeframe was an initial period of 99 years.

“In other words,” Boolell remarked to a newspaper, “the tenant has become the owner of Diego Garcia for 200 years.”

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

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

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

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

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

• Is this tiny Mauritian island a confidential spy station?
• Chagos islanders in emotional, historic trip home
• British stamps banned from Chagos Islands in Indian Ocean

A £50,000 reward is being offered to try to solve the mystery of what happened to part of Scotland’s oldest collection of coins which was stolen 17 years ago.

The haul of up to 1,000 coins – valued at more than £500,000 – was taken from the home of Lord and Lady Stewartby in Broughton near Peebles in 2007.

It included pieces dating back to 1136 when the first Scottish coins were minted.

Crimestoppers Scotland said it hoped the reward might allow the recovery of the coins to join the rest of the collection at the University of Glasgow’s Hunterian Museum.

The theft took place some time overnight between 6 and 7 June 2007.

Coin dealers were asked to look out for the collection but it has never been traced.

It had been built up by the late Lord Stewartby from childhood.

A reward was offered for the return of the stolen coins in November 2008 and a fresh appeal for information was made nearly five years after the theft.

The case was also featured on Crimewatch in 2012 but despite a good response the coins have not been traced.

Lord Stewartby gave the remainder of his collection to the Hunterian Museum in 2017.

Thanks to a donation from an anonymous donor, Crimestoppers is offering £50,000 for information which leads to the recovery of the stolen coins.

Lady Stewartby said she fully supported the appeal.

“My late husband was five years old when he was given his first Scottish coin,” she said.

“Over the next 50 years, he put together a collection which included some of the earliest Scottish coins.

“Lord Stewartby told me and our children that they represented Scotland’s history at a time when few people had access to books or pictures.

“He emphasised the importance of these rare coins to Scotland’s heritage.”

Jesper Ericsson, curator of coins and medals at the museum, said the collection was very special.

“These coins are incredibly rare and valuable to the Scottish nation,” he said.

“They represent the very earliest examples of an independent Scottish coinage and date from the 12th and 13th Centuries.”

The museum received about 6,000 coins from Lord Stewartby but would love to add the missing 1,000 or so which were stolen.

“To be able to add these missing coins to the collection would be an extraordinary boost, not only to the Hunterian but also to Scottish museums and Scottish history and heritage in general,” said Mr Ericsson.

Angela Parker, national manager for Crimestoppers Scotland, said they hoped to bring the coins back to where they belonged.

“We want to know what happened to them and where they are,” she said.

“Hopefully the information that comes forward to the chairty can help resolve the mystery of the initial theft and, more importantly, they can be restored to their rightful place where Lord Stewartby intended them to be at the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University.”

She said any information would be welcomed.

“We know it was a targeted raid that happened in 2007 at Lord Stewartby’s home in the Borders,” she said.

“Since then, there have been no leads about what happened to these coins.

“This collection was really emotionally important to him and, of course, his family now.

“Hopefully with the reward of £50,000 someone will maybe take a look at what they have – they may have these coins and not realise their significance.”

Mohamed Al Fayed’s daughter has been cleared of robbing her brother of his phone after the prosecution offered no evidence.

Camilla Fayed, 39, previously pleaded not guilty to robbing Omar Fayed of his £1,900 iPhone in the gym of the family’s Grade I listed estate, Barrow Green Court, near Oxted in Surrey, on 18 May, 2020.

She was accused of a single count of robbery alongside her husband Mohamad Esreb, 44, Matthew Littlewood, 35, and Andrew Bott, 52, in relation to the same alleged incident.

Mr Esreb and Mr Bott pleaded not guilty to the charge at a hearing in May, and Mr Littlewood denied the count at the beginning of a hearing at Guildford Crown Court on Wednesday.

A trial was due to start in February next year but the prosecution offered no evidence in respect of all the defendants at a hearing at Guildford Crown Court on Wednesday.

Prosecutor Eloise Marshall KC told the court: “I advised the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) on quite a number of issues and ultimately the decision was made due to a combination of factors.”

She added there were difficulties around “material provided directly from the complainant himself”.

Judge Patricia Lees said: “In those circumstances then the court will enter not guilty verdicts in respect of each defendant.

“As far as they are concerned they are discharged from the court.”

Ms Fayed, of Park Lane, central London, did not attend the hearing on Wednesday but Mr Esreb, also of Park Lane, Mr Littlewood, of Haydock Road, Colburn, North Yorkshire, and Mr Bott, of Coppice Wood, County Durham, appeared via a video link.

Former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed died last year at the age of 94.

After his death, allegations emerged accusing the late businessman of sexually abusing women, many of which had been employees at Harrods.

An oil painting of a Māori elder has fetched a record price at an auction on Tuesday, making it the most valuable artwork of its kind in New Zealand history.

The painting by famed local artist Charles Frederick Goldie, shows a portrait of Wharekauri Tahuna, a priest who is believed to be one of the last tattooed men of his generation.

The NZ$3.75m ($2.2m; £1.7m) sale also marks the highest price ever paid for a painting at auction in New Zealand, according to the auction house.

It comes at a point of increased racial tensions in New Zealand, with the government having recently put forth a bill that Māori said would hurt their rights.

Thoughts of a Tohunga was painted nine years before Goldie died in 1947, with art critics believing it was his best work.

It depicts the priest with a moko, or facial tattoo, and wearing a pendant known as a hei-tiki around his neck.

The sale, to an undisclosed buyer, makes it the most valuable Māori portrait in New Zealand art history.

“Goldie was well loved by Māori during his lifetime, [he] lived in Auckland and met his subjects,” Richard Thomson, director at the International Art Centre told the BBC, adding that this was the first time the painting had gone on sale in 33 years.

“New Zealanders have an affinity with their history and portraits by Goldie have always been sought after,” he said, adding that since 2016 his auction house has sold 13 Goldie paintings, with buyers paying more than a million New Zealand dollars each time.

Wharekauri Tahuna was one of Goldie’s favourite subjects and featured in a number of his works.

Māoris make up about 18% of New Zealand’s population, though many remain disadvantaged compared to the general population when assessed through markers such as health outcomes, household income, education levels and incarceration and mortality rates. There remains a seven-year gap in life expectancy.

Last week, political party Act – a minor partner in the coalition government – sought to pass a bill that would reintepret the country’s founding treaty with Māori people, known as the Treaty of Waitangi.

Thousands of people joined a nine-day march against the bill earlier last week.

The bill passed a first reading but is unlikely to pass a second reading, as Act’s coalition partners have indicated they will not support it.

The incoming regional director of the World Health Organization in Africa, Tanzania’s Dr Faustine Ndugulile, has died, just three months after he was elected to the position.

Ndugulile, a 55-year-old lawmaker and a medical doctor, died on Wednesday morning in India while undergoing treatment, Tanzania’s speaker of parliament said.

He is known for having stood up to President John Magufuli at the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020, when he served as deputy health minister.

In August this year, he was elected as the WHO regional head, to take over from Botswana’s Dr Matshidiso Moeti, who has served two five-year terms.

He was due to assume the role in February next year.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday said he was “shocked and deeply saddened” by Ndugulile’s death.

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu also sent her condolences to the family of the deceased lawmaker.

The reasons he was being treated have not been disclosed.

Before his election to the WHO position, Ndugulile had a distinguished career in both politics and public health.

He represented the Kigamboni constituency in Dar es Salaam as a legislator and held several key governmental positions, including deputy minister for health and communications minister.

He was appointed to the health ministry position in 2017 and stayed there until Magufuli sacked him in May 2020, at the height of the coronavirus epidemic.

No reason was given for his sacking, although media reports suggested that it was related to his stance on the fight against coronavirus in the country, which went against the president’s views.

Magufuli was a vehement coronavirus sceptic and refused to put in place measures that the rest of the world had taken to control the spread of the virus, such as wearing face masks.

In parliament and elsewhere, Ndugulile was often photographed wearing a mask when hardly any Tanzanians were doing this.

A month before his sacking, he had warned against using traditional means of treating patients for Covid, such as inhaling boiled herbs, saying this would block the respiratory system.

Magufuli had openly supported traditional remedies as a way of dealing with Covid.

He asked Tanzanians to be mindful so that they could not be “used for trials of some doubtful vaccinations” and advocated steam inhalation saying that “because the coronavirus is made up of fats, when exposed to such high temperatures above 100°C, it will just disintegrate”.

He also urged Tanzanians to pray. “I don’t expect to announce any lockdown because our God is living and he will continue to protect Tanzanians,” he said.

But at the beginning of his second term in office in December of the same year, President Magufuli appointed Ndugulile as Minister of Communication and Information Communication Technology.

Ndugulile held the position until Magufuli’s death in 2021.

Before joining politics in 2010, Ndugulile had served as a director in the health ministry overseeing diagnostic services.

He played a key role in establishing the National Blood Transfusion Services in 2006, where he served as the founding programme manager.

He had also worked at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in South Africa.

Tanzania proposed him for the WHO post earlier this year, citing his experience and commitment to global health.

After his election in August, he had expressed commitment to advancing health in the continent.

“I promise to work with you and I believe that together we can build a healthier Africa,” he said then.

The outgoing Africa director, Dr Moeti, has described his death as an “immense loss”.

It is the first time a WHO regional director-elect has died before assuming office.

The political process of electing another director is a long and complex one.

• Africa’s long wait for the Covid-19 vaccine
• John Magufuli: The cautionary tale of the president who denied coronavirus
• The man who declared victory over coronavirus

Scientists in India have reported the “first significant result” from Aditya-L1, the country’s first solar observation mission in space.

The new learnings, they said, could help keep power grids and communication satellites out of harm’s way the next time solar activities threatened infrastructure on Earth and space.

On 16 July, the most important of the seven scientific instruments Aditya-L1 is carrying – Visible Emission Line Coronagraph, or Velc – captured data that helped scientists estimate the precise time a coronal mass ejection (CME) began.

Studying CMEs – massive fireballs that blow out of the Sun’s outermost corona layer – is one of the most important scientific objectives of India’s maiden solar mission.

“Made up of charged particles, a CME could weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km [1,864 miles] per second while travelling. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth,” says Prof R Ramesh of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics that designed Velc.

“Now imagine this huge fireball hurtling towards Earth. At its top speed, it would take just about 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.”

The coronal ejection that Velc captured on 16 July had started at 13:08 GMT. Prof Ramesh, Velc’s Principal Investigator who has published a paper on this CME in the prestigious Astrophysical Journal Letters, said it originated on the side of the Earth.

“But within half an hour of its journey, it got deflected and went in a different direction, going behind the Sun. As it was too far away, it did not impact Earth’s weather.”

But solar storms, solar flares and coronal mass ejections routinely impact Earth’s weather. They also impact the space weather where nearly 7,800 satellites, including more than 50 from India, are stationed.

According to Space.com, they rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they can cause mayhem on Earth by interfering with the Earth’s magnetic field.

Their most benign impact is causing beautiful auroras in places close to the North and South Pole. A stronger coronal mass ejection can cause auroras to show up in skies further away such as in London or France – as it did in May and October.

But the impact is much more serious in space where the charged particles of a coronal mass ejection can make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction. They can knock down power grids and affect weather and communication satellites.

“Today our lives fully depend on communication satellites and CMEs can trip the internet, phone lines and radio communication,” Prof Ramesh says. “That can lead to absolute chaos.”

The most powerful solar storm in recorded history occurred in 1859. Called the Carrington Event, it triggered intense auroral light shows and knocked out telegraph lines across the globe.

Scientists at Nasa say an equally strong storm was headed at Earth in 2012 and we had “a close shave just as perilous”. They say a powerful coronal mass ejection tore through Earth’s orbit on 23 July but that we were “incredibly fortunate” that instead of hitting our planet, the storm cloud hit Nasa’s solar observatory STEREO-A in space.

• Aditya-L1: India’s Sun mission reaches final destination
• Chandrayaan-3: India makes historic landing near Moon’s south pole

In 1989, a coronal mass ejection knocked out part of Quebec’s power grid for nine hours, leaving six million people without power.

And on 4 November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control at Sweden and some other European airports, leading to travel chaos for hours.

Scientists say that if we are able to see what happens on the Sun and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites and keep them out of harm’s way.

US space agency Nasa, the European Space Agency (ESA), Japan and China have been watching the Sun through their space-based solar missions for decades. With Aditya-L1 – named after the Hindu god of Sun – Indian space agency Isro joined that select group earlier this year.

From its vantage point in space, Aditya-L1 is able to watch the Sun constantly, even during eclipses and occultations, and carry out scientific studies.

Prof Ramesh says when we look at the Sun from the Earth, we see an orange ball of fire which is the photosphere – the Sun’s surface or the brightest part of the star.

It’s only during a total eclipse, when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun and covers the photosphere that we are able to see the solar corona, the Sun’s outermost layer.

• How important are India’s Moon mission findings?
• Why it costs India so little to reach the Moon and Mars

India’s coronagraph, Prof Ramesh says, has a slight advantage over the coronagraph in Nasa-ESA’s joint Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.

“Ours is of a size that it’s able to mimic the role of the Moon and artificially hide the Sun’s photosphere, providing Aditya-L1 an uninterrupted view of the corona 24 hours a day 365 days a year.”

The coronagraph on Nasa-ESA’s mission, he says, is bigger which means it hides not only the photosphere but also parts of corona – so it cannot see the genesis of a CME if it originates in the hidden region.

“But with Velc, we can precisely estimate the time a coronal mass ejection begins and in which direction it’s headed.”

India also has three ground based observatories – in Kodaikanal, Gauribidanur in the south and Udaipur in the northwest – to look at the Sun. So if we add up their findings with that of Aditya-L1, we can greatly improve our understanding of the Sun, he adds.

US President Joe Biden has announced a ceasefire deal to end 13 months of fighting between Israel and with Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia supported by Iran.

In a joint statement, the US and France said the agreement would cease fighting in Lebanon and “secure Israel from the threat of Hezbollah and other terrorist organisations”.

This is what we know about the ceasefire deal from official briefings and media reports.

• Follow live updates from Israel and Lebanon
• Questions over Hezbollah’s future
• Israeli anger at ‘irresponsible and hasty’ ceasefire
• Watch: People in Israel and Lebanon react

US President Joe Biden told reporters that the agreement was “designed to be a permanent ceasefire”.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, over 60 days Hezbollah will remove its fighters and weapons from the area between the Blue Line – the unofficial border between Lebanon and Israel – and the Litani river, about 30km (20 miles) to the north.

Hezbollah fighters will be replaced by Lebanese army forces in that area, who will ensure that infrastructure or weaponry is removed and that it cannot be rebuilt, according to a senior US official.

Over the same 60 days, Israel will gradually withdraw its remaining forces and civilians, Biden said, adding that it would enable civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes.

The Lebanese army is expected to deploy 5,000 troops to the south under the agreement, according to a US official.

However, questions remain about their role in enforcing the ceasefire, and whether they would confront Hezbollah if needed, which would have the potential to exacerbate tensions in a country where sectarian divisions run deep.

The Lebanese army has also said it does not have the resources – money, manpower and equipment – to fulfil its obligations under the deal, although that could be alleviated by contributions from some of Lebanon’s international allies.

But many Western officials say Hezbollah has been weakened and that this is the moment for the Lebanese government to re-establish control over all the country’s territory.

The agreement largely tracks UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Under resolution 1701, areas south of the Litani should be free of any armed personnel or weapons other than those of the Lebanese state and the UN peacekeeping force (Unifil).

But both sides claimed violations of the resolution.

Israel says Hezbollah was allowed to build extensive infrastructure in the area, while Lebanon says Israel’s violations included military flights over its territory.

This time, the US and France will join the existing tripartite mechanism, which involves Unifil, Lebanon and Israel, which will be charged with monitoring violations, the senior US official said.

“There will be no US combat troops in the area, but there will be military support for the Lebanese Armed Forces, as we’ve done in the past. But in this case, it’ll be typically done with the Lebanese army and in conjunction with the French military as well,” the official said.

Alluding to Israeli concerns, Biden said: “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon will not be allowed to be rebuilt.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu said that Israel would “maintain full freedom of military action” in Lebanon “with the United States’ full understanding”.

“If Hezbollah violates the agreement and tries to arm itself, we will attack. If it tries to rebuild terrorist infrastructure near the border, we will attack. If it launches a rocket, if it digs a tunnel, if it brings in a truck carrying rockets, we will attack,” he asserted.

Biden supported that view, telling reporters: “If Hezbollah or anyone else breaks the deal and poses a direct threat to Israel, then Israel retains the right to self-defence consistent with international law.”

But he also said the deal upholds Lebanon’s sovereignty.

The Israeli demand for the right to strike back is not believed to be part of the ceasefire agreement because it was rejected by Lebanon. To get around the issue, media reports had suggested that the US would issue a letter supporting Israel’s right to act.

Seoul has recorded its heaviest November snowfall since records began over a century ago in 1907.

The South Korean capital was covered with at least 16 cm of snow on Wednesday – beating the city’s previous record of 12.4cm from November 1972.

It caused significant disruption across the country, with local media reporting that flights had been grounded, roads closed, and that there were delays to transport services.

At least one person is reported to have died in a weather-related traffic accident near Seoul.

Youn Ki-han, the head of Seoul’s Meteorology Forecast Division, told the AFP news agency that the heavy snowfall was due to strong westerly winds and a “significant temperature difference between the sea surface and the cold air”.

It is expected to continue through Wednesday night and into Thursday morning.

The cold weather comes after the region experienced a period of mild autumn temperatures.

“Just last week, I felt that the November autumn was a bit warm, but in just one week it feels like it’s turned into a winter wonderland, which was quite a contrast,” said businessman Bae Joo-han.

“So I came out onto the streets today to enjoy the first snowfall of this winter.”

Much of the eastern US could experience a wave of bad weather as travellers hit the roads and airports for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The National Weather Service (NWS) has forecast “a significant arctic outbreak” in the northern Plains, during what have historically been the busiest travel days of the year in the US.

Meanwhile, heavy snow and rain are forecast over the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday – part of a weather system that will intensify and move eastward later on Thanksgiving Day. More than 10in (25cm) of snow could fall in some areas.

Temperatures are also expected to drop to bitter lows across many areas.

The arctic blast could send temperatures as low as -30F to -40F (-34C to -40C) in the northern Plains and Upper Midwest, said BBC Weather forecaster Matt Taylor.

The storm is expected to advance into the Midwest area, where it will also bring with it “lake-effect” snow and severe thunderstorms.

Places that could see a large dump of snow include the interior of New England and the Appalachians.

In the Midwest and Great Lakes region, there is a possibility of snow showers that could bring 4-8in of snow over the northern coastline of Michigan, according to the NWS.

The severe conditions come at a hectic time for travel. The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says passenger volumes during this year’s Thanksgiving have already reached record highs.

The busiest days were expected to be Tuesday and Wednesday, before Thanksgiving, as well as the Sunday after the holiday. The TSA expects to screen nearly nine million people at airports during those three days.

Meanwhile, a record number of nearly 72 million Americans are expected to travel at least 50 miles (80km) by car over the week, according to insurance company AAA. The anticipated increase is due to petrol prices that are lower than they were during the Thanksgiving holiday last year.

Airports have seen minimal disruptions so far, though travel could be disrupted in the coming days as the worst of the weather hits.

The I-90 highway between Cleveland and Buffalo and the I-81 north of Syracuse may see some travel disruptions, as snowfall is expected to mount in places south and east of the Great Lakes.

The Thanksgiving rain and snow over the eastern US come after a winter storm in California, on the west coast. This brought heavy snow for higher elevations earlier this week, as well as wind gusts as strong as 50 mph (81km/h).

Central California was also hit by another “atmospheric river” event on Tuesday after experiencing a similar phenomenon last week.

And in the Pacific north-west , communities are still recovering after last week’s bomb cyclone, an intense weather event that takes place when air pressure quickly drops off the coast.

The storm caused mass flooding and power outages for hundreds of thousands of people.

Those affected areas could face even more wet weather this week, as the NWS is predicting a low pressure system that will cause coastal rain for Washington, Oregon and California.

CCTV from a school obtained by the BBC shows autistic children being shoved into padded rooms, thrown to the floor, restrained by the neck – or left alone, sitting in vomit.

The footage from Whitefield School in north-east London resembles “torture”, one safeguarding expert told us. It shows for the first time the reality of what pupils faced.

A police investigation into the abuse footage, taken inside the special school’s “calming rooms” between 2014 and 2017, ended earlier this year without any charges. However, parents say they have been left to deal with the trauma.

The school says new leadership found the footage after the rooms had been shut and shared it with the police.

About 40 children with learning disabilities and severe mental disorders were confined for hours in the rooms – typically without food or drink.

Six of the families have agreed for the BBC to show the footage. They wanted us to reveal the scale and severity of the trauma their children had experienced – which they feel they have been misled about.

The videos show pupils, many of whom were non-verbal, clearly in acute distress, and many are seen to injure themselves for prolonged periods.

In the footage seen by the BBC, the only time staff at the school in Walthamstow intervene once children are inside the rooms is when a boy repeatedly throws his shoes at the CCTV cameras. They race in to stop him, with one teaching assistant apparently striking him.

“It broke my heart,” said the mother of one of the abused children after viewing the CCTV for the first time. “You wouldn’t even do that to a dog.”

Even now government guidance says only that removing disruptive pupils from classrooms in England must be for a “limited” duration and facilities must be “suitable”.

The BBC has also found evidence of mistreatment in seclusion rooms at other schools across the UK. One autistic child was kept inside a cage.

Meanwhile, local MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the Whitefield School footage “must lead to profound change” and described it as “jaw-dropping”.

Safeguarding expert Elizabeth Swan said it was “easily the worst footage” she had seen.

“You look at the children and they’re being defeated and responding to that treatment with self-injurious behaviour, it’s torture,” she said.

Whitefield School was rated as outstanding until, in 2017, Ofsted discovered the use of bare, padded rooms without windows to seclude children.

But the existence of the CCTV footage did not become public until 2021, when the BBC learned an investigation had been launched after the discovery of a box of USB memory sticks containing 500 hours of disturbing footage from inside the rooms.

In April, we exposed how safeguarding investigations commissioned by the school had proven that six Whitefield staff had abused pupils – but they were not referred to the government’s Disclosure and Barring Service, which can ban people from working with children, and three of them continued to work at the school.

Since we began investigating, we have obtained leaked school and council documents, and spoken to 17 of the 39 affected families.

Jamie’s mother Deborah watched the calming room footage after police formally invited families to view the abuse, following our report in April.

“You saw them open the door, whack Jamie in his back – he went flying on the floor,” she said, fighting back tears.

Jamie’s coat and bag were placed inside the room with him. Deborah says this shows that it was “calculated” that Jamie he would remain there until the end of the day, even if he calmed down.

She says Jamie suffered his first ever seizure after he began being placed in the calming rooms and believes his treatment directly resulted in his epilepsy.

Stress can contribute to the development of epilepsy or trigger seizures in those with the condition.

Other families told the BBC their children developed PTSD after being placed in the calming rooms. One child’s family said he suffered severe psychological damage and was later detained in a mental hospital because he was at risk of harming himself.

Parents said they complained to the school about unexplained injuries and the use of the rooms – but this did not lead to investigation, even though the evidence from the CCTV cameras was available.

“It’s a cover-up from higher up,” Deborah says. “I don’t see how they could get away with this level of abuse and no-one’s accountable.”

Another family complained after their son repeatedly returned home with injuries to his nose. The CCTV leaked to the BBC shows the boy punching himself in the nose while alone inside the room.

The BBC has spent months trying to find out who knew about concerns around the use of the rooms and why there was no investigation into the harm suffered by children in the calming rooms following Ofsted’s 2017 visit.

After the rooms were shut down, a review by a director of the trust running the school reported that governors and a staff member from the local council, Waltham Forest, had visited the rooms. But it did not record any concerns being raised at the time.

The BBC has learned that the job of reviewing the CCTV was largely left to a single teaching assistant.

Once a week, she downloaded the footage and compared it with written staff observations before sharing any incidents and concerns with bosses.

But she failed to report many of the 20-plus clips showing excessive force – according to a school safeguarding investigation into her conduct, which concluded she turned a “blind eye” to the failings.

It also found that she had abused a child herself by using a pad used for rugby training to push them into the corner of a room. Despite these findings, she was not sacked.

She told the investigation that contacting the school’s leadership was “hard to do as a teaching assistant” and had become “desensitised” to the footage, according to records of her interview obtained by the BBC.

A different teaching assistant told the safeguarding investigator that she had seen footage of a colleague observing a child masturbating for over an hour. Police reported that they were unable to corroborate what she said.

The BBC has also uncovered other failings affecting children with special educational needs placed in seclusion across the UK, with an autistic child being kept in a cage at one school about 10 years ago.

The area below a stairwell was enclosed by a cage and another cage with a mattress inside at a school called Include in Bury St Edmunds, which offers alternative provision for children outside mainstream education and is run by the charity Catch22.

The mother of the autistic child only discovered these cages were in use when she visited the school without an appointment, having grown concerned about the real nature of what was referred to as “The Den”.

She said the stairwell cage would be covered by a blanket when the child was shouting and that her son was sometimes kept inside one of these cages for up to six hours, without water or access to a toilet.

“Even an animal wouldn’t have been left in a cage for that long”, she says.

Council records state that Ofsted were informed about what the mother found but there was no inspection. Ofsted now says it cannot find any record of a complaint.

Catch22 says the spaces were used by previous leadership and a 2018 council report concluded that there was no proof pupils were locked inside.

Regulation of the use and design of calming rooms is now urgently needed – according to Sir Iain Duncan-Smith.

Following our investigation in April, the Children’s Commissioner also called for changes to guidance on the use of seclusion in special schools – which has not happened. The Department for Education says it is “looking” at ways to “strengthen” it.

The Metropolitan Police says it continues to conduct “wider enquiries” about Whitefield, not relating to abuse. The Crown Prosecution Service declined to comment.

The Flourish Trust, which runs Whitefield, says it has learned from the failings in this case.

Ofsted says responsibility for investigating the harm caused to children following its discovery of the rooms lay with the Department for Education, as regulator, and Waltham Forest.

Although it failed to investigate after Ofsted’s inspection, Waltham Forest says it will now commission a local case review, which it says will be “wholly independent”. It says it had not asked to review CCTV at any point because it did not know it existed.

Waltham Forest also says it has offered counselling to families. But the families told the BBC their children need significant and wide-ranging help to address the abuse they faced – and they will be living with its consequences for the rest of their lives.

• If you have more information about this story, you can reach Noel directly and securely through encrypted messaging app Signal on: +44 7809 334720, by email at noel.titheradge@bbc.co.uk or on SecureDrop.

Benjamin Netanyahu presented the ceasefire deal in the context of what he said were Israel’s “unprecedented achievements” over the past year of a seven-front war.

He said Israel had set Hezbollah back “tens of years” and that it was not the same group it had been before.

There was a lot of focus on Israel’s strength in doing what it believed needed to be done – in Gaza, in Lebanon and elsewhere – despite international opposition.

And there was a lot of justification for the ceasefire too – it would allow Israel to “concentrate on the Iranian threat”, Netanyahu said, emphasising that his country would retain full military freedom to counter any new Hezbollah threat.

Israel’s army said on Tuesday it had hit 180 targets in Lebanon in the past 24 hours. Here on the Israeli side of the border, there have been constant warnings of rocket barrages and drone attacks from Lebanon.

Neither side wants this ceasefire deal to be seen as surrender.

• Follow live updates from Israel and Lebanon
• What we know about the ceasefire deal
• Questions over Hezbollah’s future
• Watch: People in Israel and Lebanon react

But surrender is exactly what Netanyahu is being accused of by his political rivals – and some of his political allies too.

One poll yesterday suggested that more than 80% of Netanyahu’s support base opposed a deal, and residents in the north of Israel – large numbers of whom have been evacuated from their homes – are angry too.

Nationally, the picture was more split, however. One poll showed 37% of Israelis in favour of the ceasefire, 32% against and 31% saying they didn’t know.

Shelly, an English teacher in Shlomi, said a ceasefire was an “irresponsible and hasty political decision”.

Rona Valency, evacuated from kibbutz Kfar Giladi on 8 October last year, told me she wanted to go home, and that a ceasefire was needed, but that the idea of Lebanese residents returning to these villages gave her “a real sense of unease and fright”.

From Kfar Giladi there are clear views of the Lebanese village of Odaisseh just across the valley.

“The only thing I can hope for is that Hezbollah will not infiltrate these villages and build a new network,” Rona told me.

“Apart from completely erasing these villages, and having no people there, there is no real physical thing that can make me feel safe. It’s just, you know, hope.”

Her husband, Onn, said the key to security lay, not in the terms of the ceasefire agreement, but in people “understand[ing] again, where we live; understand[ing] some things that a lot of us forgot”.

He said he didn’t trust the Lebanese army, nor the Americans, to restore security along the border.

“I trust only our army,” he said. “I think if the army won’t be there, it will be very, very hard to get the citizens back.”

This war has delivered a lot of military achievements for Israel – Hezbollah is weakened, its arsenals and infrastructure depleted, and its solidarity with Hamas broken.

But Israel’s armed forces are tired, its economy is suffering, and tens of thousands of its residents are displaced.

Still, many here are urging Benjamin Netanyahu to continue the war in Lebanon – asking why the prime minister who has vowed to continue fighting in Gaza until “total victory” is signing a ceasefire in the north?

Opposition supporters in Pakistan have temporarily called off protests demanding the release of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, a day after marching on central Islamabad.

Protesters had vowed not to leave the capital until Khan’s release. But as they breached barriers and made their way to Democracy Square on Tuesday, they were pushed back by police and were met with volleys of tear gas.

At least six people – four security officers and two civilians – died in clashes during the latest protests, which began on Sunday.

Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), said in a statement on Wednesday that the protests had been “temporarily suspended” due to the “government’s brutality”.

The PTI accused security forces of pushing a man off a stack of cargo containers in central Islamabad, posting images to X which showed the incident.

The party said the man had been praying on the container when “an armed paramilitary officer brutally pushed him off from a height equivalent to three storeys”.

Video footage showed security forces – who were carrying riot shields with markings indicating they were affiliated with the Pakistani Rangers, a paramilitary force – approaching a man kneeling on top of the containers before pushing him over the edge.

BBC Verify has confirmed that the incident took place on Tuesday on Jinnah Avenue in Islamabad, where protesters had gathered. The footage was verified by matching a video of the fall posted on social media with images uploaded by Getty Images on Tuesday of the same scene.

The man’s condition could not be established from the available footage. BBC Verify has approached the Pakistani Rangers for comment.

Although Khan’s supporters managed to reach the city centre on Tuesday, by sunset the authorities had dispersed them.

One government source told local media that the police had arrested more than 500 PTI supporters and the interior minister said that Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi, who had been central to the protest, had left the area.

The PTI have claimed that several of their party workers were killed during the crackdown and appealed for an investigation.

Overnight the BBC spoke to two sources at a nearby hospital who said that they had received four bodies of civilians with gunshot wounds.

The BBC has not yet independently verified the reports. Pakistan’s information minister said the authorities had resisted firing on protesters.

Islamabad had been put under lockdown, with a heavy security presence deployed in anticipation of clashes with convoys of PTI supporters.

The convoys were led by PTI leader Ali Amin Gandapur and Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi, who was released from prison in October and has since taken a more prominent role in trying to mobilise support for Khan.

Reports say Gandapur and Bushra Bibi have left Islamabad and returned to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where their convoy had come from.

Protesters were reported to have responded to a “final” call from Khan, asking them to “fight till the end” until their demands are met.

Their destination was D-Chowk near central government buildings in Islamabad, and the site of political rallies and protests since the 1980s.

But only some of the protesters made it that far.

By Tuesday evening – just hours after protesters first reached the square – security officers had successfully cleared the area. As darkness fell, the lights were switched off – with only police officers and paramilitary soldiers left behind.

Khan has been in prison for more than a year on charges he says are politically motivated.

Even from behind bars, the former cricket star has proved a powerful player in Pakistan politics. During elections in February his party, which had been banned from standing and was forced to run candidates as independents, emerged as the single largest bloc.

However, they fell short of a majority and their rivals united to form a new government.

The PTI has called for election results to be overturned because they say the vote was rigged, a claim disputed by the government.

President Joe Biden has said the US will make another push with regional powers for a ceasefire in Gaza, involving the release of hostages and the removal of Hamas from power.

His remarks on X come just hours after a ceasefire came into force in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, ending nearly 14 months of conflict.

Hamas said it hoped for a similar deal in Gaza but continues to reject Israel’s demands, which it perceives as surrender.

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

More than 44,000 people have been killed and more than 104,000 injured in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

“Over the coming days, the United States will make another push with Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Israel, and others to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza with the hostages released and an end to the war without Hamas in power,” Biden said on X.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden had agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu right before the announcement of the Lebanon ceasefire to try again for a Gaza agreement, which negotiators have sought unsuccessfully for months.

The US and its Arab allies used to say that a ceasefire in Gaza would end the conflict with Hezbollah. Now they are hoping for the reverse.

The argument goes that the truce in Lebanon shows compromises are possible and that Hamas may now feel more isolated, putting pressure on it to agree to concessions.

However, the goals of the Israeli government in Lebanon were always more limited than those in Gaza, where it has failed to agree a post-war plan.

Qatar recently suspended its efforts to help mediate a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the Palestinian territory until both sides shifted their positions. Hamas insists on ending the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces, while Israel remains determined to destroy Hamas.

Netanyahu’s political survival is also bound up with Gaza. His far-right coalition partners aspire to rebuild Jewish settlements there and have threatened to collapse the government if Israel makes a “reckless” agreement to stop the fighting.

Netanyahu also worries that a ceasefire could open the way to a commission of inquiry into Israel’s failure to prevent the 7 October attacks, which would be very damaging for him.

Hamas reacted positively to the Lebanon ceasefire, and said it was ready to consider a truce in Gaza.

“We appreciate the steadfastness of the brotherly Lebanese people, and their constant solidarity with the Palestinian people,” Hamas leader Basem Naim told the BBC.

“We express our commitment to cooperate with any efforts to stop the fire in Gaza, and we are concerned with stopping the aggression against our people.”

The organisation has faced significant challenges, including an inability to convene its leadership since the killing of Yahya Sinwar by Israel.

Its leaders are now scattered across Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, and disconnected from those managing the hostages held in Gaza.

These hostages appear to be Hamas’s remaining leverage, as the group’s capacity to fight Israel has been very limited, and its popularity has significantly declined in Gaza.

Despite insisting on three conditions – an Israeli withdrawal, a permanent ceasefire and the reconstruction of Gaza – Hamas has indicated to mediators on many occasions its willingness to make substantial concessions.

For now, Hamas remains unwilling to agree to terms it perceives as surrender, but it has little room for manoeuvre in the negotiations, as the gap between the two sides has become deeper and the sound of the guns will remain louder.

Meanwhile, on Gaza’s streets, the ceasefire has raised some concerns.

“We were overjoyed by the cessation of the war in Lebanon, and we also hope for the same here in the Gaza Strip,” one man in Khan Younis told Gaza Today.

“However, at the same time, we have concerns that the occupation army might once again intensify its raids in Gaza and that its military forces might return from Lebanon to Gaza.”

“We don’t want anyone to experience what we’ve gone through here in Gaza,” another man said.

“We don’t want to see children killed, women trapped under rubble, or the recurring scenes of bloodshed in Lebanon that we have witnessed here.

“On the other hand, I believe the Israeli army will focus its raids on Gaza.”

While the outgoing Biden administration is making a last-ditch effort to work on a Gaza truce deal, it is not clear how much of a priority this will be when President Trump takes office.

Trump did, however, express an interest in ending the fighting in Lebanon, in line with pledges he made to Lebanese-American voters during his election campaign.

Another factor to bear in mind is that ending the war with Hezbollah relieves pressure on Israel’s military, which has been stretched by conflicts raging in the north and south.

Contrary to the idea that the ceasefire in Lebanon could lead to one with Hamas, some defence analysts now argue that it could in fact make it more possible for Israel to continue fighting in Gaza.

The arrest of a Hindu monk in Bangladesh has triggered a fresh war of words with neighbour India over the condition of minorities in the country.

Chinmoy Krishna Das, a spokesperson of a Bangladesh-based Hindu organisation, was arrested on sedition charges this week, spurring clashes that led to one death.

India issued a statement expressing “deep concern” over the arrest and asking Bangladesh to ensure the safety “of Hindus and all minorities”.

Bangladesh responded hours later, expressing its “utter dismay” at the arrest being “misconstrued by certain quarters”.

Ties between the neighbours, who have traditionally shared a warm relationship, have been frosty since former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power in August after weeks-long student protests that spiralled into nationwide unrest.

Since then, she has been staying in India, posing a challenge to diplomacy between the countries.

During Hasina’s 15-year tenure, Bangladesh was a strategic partner and ally crucial to India’s border security, particularly in the north-eastern states. The country has also gained financially because of its proximity with India.

• India’s Bangladesh dilemma: What to do about Sheikh Hasina?
• Bangladesh leader’s ‘megaphone diplomacy’ irks India

But since her removal from office, India has repeatedly raised concerns about the safety of Hindu minorities in Bangladesh, a claim Bangladesh denies.

Hindus are the largest minority in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, accounting for about 8% of the population.

The arrest of Mr Das from Dhaka airport on Monday has triggered fresh tensions. He is accused of disrespecting Bangladesh’s national flag during a rally in the southern city of Chittagong in October.

His organisation, Iskcon, has denounced the arrest, calling Mr Das a “vocal advocate for minority protection”.

On Tuesday, a court in Chittagong denied bail to Mr Das. Police there said violence erupted after hundreds of his supporters surrounded the van that was taking him back to prison. Security forces used batons and tear gas to disperse the crowd.

According to Bangladeshi officials, a Muslim lawyer, Saiful Islam Alif, was killed in the clash.

Police say they have arrested six people in connection with the killing. More than 20 people have been taken into custody in connection with the violence.

There were concerns that the incident could lead to communal tensions.

Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus has urged people to keep calm, saying that his government is committed to ensuring and upholding communal harmony.

When handbag designer Sherrill Mosee learned that roughly 2,700 purses and backpacks she had ordered from her Chinese manufacturing partner would not make it onto one ship this autumn, she was initially content to wait.

Then Donald Trump was re-elected as US president.

“I’m like, okay, we’ve got to bring those in,” said Ms Mosee, founder of MinkeeBlue, a small business based in Philadelphia. Her firm is one of the many thousands across the country preparing for the potential impact of Trump’s promises to impose stiff new tariffs on all goods coming into the country.

Those efforts gained urgency this week as Trump said he would take action on his first day in office. He aimed the measures – a kind of border tax – at China, Mexico and Canada, America’s top three trade partners.

Writing on social media, Trump said he planned to impose a 25% levy on goods from Canada and Mexico and “an additional 10% tariff, above any additional tariffs” on imports from China.

The post followed his campaign pledge to impose across-the-board tariffs of at least 10% on all imports coming into the US, and 60% or more on goods from China – many of which already face steep duties left over from actions taken during his first term as president.

Some experts have said that Trump’s policies may ultimately prove less aggressive than promised, and that his statements should be understood as opening salvos in bigger negotiations of migration and drug policy.

But regardless of how policy shakes out, the threats are already having economic consequences, as firms like MinkeeBlue start to stockpile, shift supply chains, re-work contracts and take other steps to guard against the possible impact.

• Trump vows new tariffs on day one
• Canada, Mexico and China respond to Trump tariff threats
• Trump proves he is serious on tariffs – but it’s not about trade
• Could Trump’s tariffs hurt US consumers?

Chris Caton, managing director for global strategy and analytics at warehouse giant Prologis, said his firm had already seen an uptick in activity “on the margin” as businesses respond to possible tariffs by looking for space to stock up.

“There’s economic impact whether it’s bluster or not,” said economist Wendy Edelberg, director of the Hamilton Project and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

In the days after the election, footwear giant Steve Madden told investors that it was moving forward with plans to shift manufacturing outside of China, with the aim of cutting its imports from the country in half over the next year.

Tool and hardware maker Stanley Black & Decker also said it had initiated conversations with its customers about price hikes tied to the tariffs.

Executives at retail giants such as Walmart have discussed similar plans.

Even if Trump’s policies remain just talk, Ms Edelberg said the public could see higher prices, as well as possible shortages of some items, as hoarding left some firms scrambling.

Just the simple fact that firms were unsure about what was going to happen was also likely to reduce economic growth in the months ahead, she added.

“Even if firms don’t think that these tariffs are going to happen with 100% certainty, it’s not zero, so they should be responding,” Ms Edelberg said.

Trump and his advisers have argued that tariffs will help revive US manufacturing and drive a new US jobs boom.

But that can come at a cost, businesses owners and economists warn.

Martin Pochtaruk, chief executive of Canadian solar panel maker Heliene, said his firm was nearly wiped out in 2018 when Trump imposed tariffs on foreign-made solar panels and it had to absorb the fees.

The firm now does all of its manufacturing in the US, where it employs 400 people. Many of its suppliers have also set up shop in the US, lured by government incentives for renewable energy introduced by President Joe Biden.

Mr Pochtaruk’s firm has learned from its experience, changing the design of its contracts so that customers are responsible for unexpected cost changes – whether due to tariffs or the kind of price spikes that hit during the pandemic.

But despite these protections, the possibility of renewed trade tension between countries as closely connected as Canada and the US was worrying, Mr Pochtaruk said.

Some key materials – such as glass – still come from overseas and face likely price hikes. The new administration could also bring other policies that slow growth in the industry.

“We are talking to all of our clients,” Mr Pochtaruk said. “There is a lot of anxiety.”

Economists say the evidence from existing tariffs – which have been present for decades in sectors such as clothing and footwear – suggests that while they can protect some firms, the cost is high and they do little to boost overall employment, while raising prices for US companies and consumers.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) has warned that tariffs along the lines of Trump’s campaign proposals would cost US consumers between $46bn (£36.6bn) and $78bn more annually for apparel, toys, furniture, household appliances, footwear and travel goods.

By NRF estimates, a $40 toaster, for example, would rise in price to $48-$52, while a $50 pair of athletic shoes could jump to $59-$64.

Trump’s move on Monday to target Mexico – a key supplier of grocery staples such as fruits and vegetables and historically protected by a free-trade agreement – underscores the tension between his tariff promises and other pledges on the campaign trail to bring down prices for Americans.

Viktor Shvets of Macquarie Capital said that although Trump’s ideas were in conflict with each other, he believed in the end Trump’s fear of disrupting financial markets would limit his trade actions.

“Risks are high, but we remain convinced that ‘guardrails’ are sufficiently robust to avoid the worst outcomes,” he wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday.

Such bets are little comfort to small business owners like Ms Mosee, who have little extra financial cushion to weather uncertainty.

As a small brand facing significant competition, Ms Mosee said she was not in a strong position to raise prices on her bags, which typically sell for about $180 a piece.

She has been looking in Cambodia and India for a new supplier.

But after a decade on her own, Ms Mosee – a former engineer who has decorated her office with motivational posters promising that “something wonderful is about to happen” – said she probably needed to find a business partner if her business, with its two employees, was to survive the expected changes ahead.

“It’s going to be hard,” she said. “It’s going to be hard all the way around.”

• Who’s joined Trump’s top team?
• What Trump can and can’t do on day one
• How undocumented migrants feel about deportations
• Can RFK Jr make America healthy again?
• The rise and fall of Matt Gaetz, in eight wild days

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