The memories began rushing back as Kenneth strolled through Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, once a focal point for the city’s resistance to China.

As a child, Kenneth would buy calligraphy posters from pro-democracy politicians at the annual Lunar New Year fair.

Then there were the protest marches he joined as a teenager, that would always start here before winding their way through the city. When he was just 12, he began attending the park’s massive vigils for the Tiananmen massacre – a taboo in mainland China, but commemorated openly in Hong Kong.

Those vigils have ended now. The politicians’ stalls at the fair are gone, protests have been silenced and pro-democracy campaigners jailed. Kenneth feels his political coming-of-age – and Hong Kong’s – is being erased.

“People still carry on with life… but you can feel the change bit by bit,” said the former activist, who did not want to reveal his real name when he spoke to us.

“Our city’s character is disappearing.”

On the surface Hong Kong appears to be the same, its packed trams still rumbling down bustling streets, its vibrant neon-lit chaos undimmed.

But look closer and there are signs the city has changed – from the skyscrapers lighting up every night with exultations of China, the motherland, to the chatter of mainland Mandarin increasingly heard alongside Hong Kong’s native Cantonese.

It’s impossible to know how many of Hong Kong’s more than seven million people welcome Beijing’s grip. But hundreds of thousands have taken part in protests in the past decade since a pro-democracy movement erupted in 2014.

Not everyone supported it, but few would argue Beijing crushed it. As a turbulent decade draws to a close, hopes for a freer Hong Kong have withered.

China says it has steadied a volatile city. Hundreds have been jailed under a sweeping national security law (NSL), which also drove thousands of disillusioned and wary Hongkongers abroad, including activists who feared or fled arrest. Others, like Kenneth, have stayed and keep a low profile.

But in many of them lives the memory of a freer Hong Kong – a place they are fighting to remember in defiance of Beijing’s remaking of their city.

When Hong Kong, a former British colony, was returned to China in 1997, it was under the assurance that the city would keep some rights, including free speech, freedom of assembly and rule of law for 50 years. But as Beijing’s power grew, so did the disquiet within the city’s pro-democracy camp.

In September 2014, tens of thousands of protesters began to stage mass sit-ins in downtown Hong Kong, demanding fully democratic elections. It propelled a new generation of pro-democracy campaigners to prominence – such as Joshua Wong, then a 17-year-old student, and Benny Tai, a college professor, who called the movement Occupy Central.

It also seeded the ground for more explosive protests in 2019, which were triggered by Beijing’s proposal to extradite locals to the mainland. The plan was scrapped but the protests intensified over several months as calls grew for more democracy, becoming the most serious challenge to Beijing’s authority in Hong Kong.

“Without Benny Tai, there would have been no Occupy Central,” says Chan Kin-man, who co-founded the campaign with Tai and Reverend Chu Yiu-ming.

“He had the temper of scholars and spoke his mind… that’s why he was bold enough to push for changes and think about big ideas. It is always people [like this] who change history.”

Chan and Rev Chu are both exiles in Taiwan now. Chan moved to Taipei in 2021, after serving 11 months in jail for inciting public nuisance in his role in Occupy Central. He is now a fellow at a local research institute.

Tai is still in Hong Kong, where he will spend the next decade behind bars.

Earlier this month he was sentenced to jail for subversion, along with more than 40 other pro-democracy campaigners including Wong, many of whom have been in jail since their arrest in early 2021. As Wong left the courtroom, he shouted: “I love Hong Kong.”

The following day 76-year-old billionaire Jimmy Lai, a fierce critic of China, testified at his trial for allegedly colluding with foreign forces. Frail but defiant, he told the court his now-defunct newspaper Apple Daily had only espoused the values of Hong Kong’s people: “Pursuit of democracy and freedom of speech”.

The trials have passed quietly, in stark contrast to the events that led to them. Small signs of protest outside the court were quickly shut down – a woman sobbing about her son’s sentence was taken away by police.

Beijing defends the restrictions – including the NSL under which the trials are happening – as essential for stability. It says the West or its allies have no right to question its laws or how it applies them.

But critics accuse China of reneging on the deal it struck in 1997. They say it has weakened the city’s courts and muzzled the once resounding cry for democracy in Hong Kong.

Chan has watched these events unfold from afar with a heavy heart.

After 2014, there had still been the possibility of change, he said. Now, “a lot of things have become impossible… Hong Kong has become no different from other Chinese cities”.

Faced with this reality after campaigning for democracy for more than a decade, “you can say that I have failed in everything I have done in my life”, he said with a wry smile.

But still he perseveres. Besides teaching classes on Chinese society, he is writing a book about Occupy Central, collecting items for an archive of Hong Kong’s protest scene, organising conferences, and giving virtual lectures on democracy and politics.

These efforts “make me feel that I haven’t given up on Hong Kong. I don’t feel like I have abandoned it”.

Yet, there are moments when he grapples with his decision to leave. He is happier in Taiwan, but he also feels “a sense of loss”.

“Am I still together with other Hongkongers, facing the same challenges as them?”

“If you are not breathing the air here, you don’t really know what’s happening… if you don’t feel the pulse here, it means you are truly gone,” said Kenneth, as he continued his walk through Victoria Park.

With friends leaving the city in droves in the last few years, he has lost count of the number of farewell parties he’s attended. Still, he insists on staying: “This is where my roots are.”

What irritates him is the rhetoric from those who leave, that the Hong Kong they knew has died. “Hong Kong continues to exist. Its people are still here! So how can they say that Hong Kong is dead?”

But, he acknowledged, there have been dramatic changes. Hongkongers now have to think twice about what they say out loud, Kenneth said.

Many are now adapting to a “normalised state of surveillance”. There are red lines, “but it is very difficult to ascertain them”.

Instead of campaigning openly, activists now write petition letters. Rallies, marches and protests are definitely off-limits, he added. But many, like Kenneth, are wary of taking part in any activism, because they fear they’ll be arrested.

A t-shirt, social media posts and picture books have fallen foul of the law recently, landing their owners in jail for sedition.

These days Kenneth goes out less frequently. “The contrast is so drastic now. I don’t want to remember what happened in the past.”

Still, as he walked out of the park and headed to the Admiralty district, more memories unspooled.

As he neared the government headquarters, he pointed to the spot where he choked on tear gas for the first time, on 28 September 2014.

That day, the police fired 87 rounds of tear gas on unarmed protesters, an act that enraged demonstrators and galvanised the pro-democracy movement.

As the protests deepened and tear gas became a common sight, many sheltered behind umbrellas, spawning a new moniker – the Umbrella Movement.

The final stop was his alma mater, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, also known as PolyU. It was a key battleground during the 2019 demonstrations that saw protesters battling police on the streets, hurling projectiles against tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets.

Five years on, the PolyU entrance where students fended off the police with bricks and petrol bombs in a fiery showdown has been reconstructed. A fountain which saw the most intense clashes has been demolished.

Like elsewhere in Hong Kong, the campus seemed to have been scrubbed of its disobedient past. Kenneth believed it was because the university “doesn’t want people to remember certain things”.

Then, he darted away to a quiet corner. Hidden beneath the bushes was a low wall pockmarked with holes and gobs of concrete. It was impossible to tell what they were. But Kenneth believes these were traces of the battles which escaped the purge of memories.

“I don’t believe we will forget what happened,” he said. “Forgetting the past is a form of betrayal.”

At a Tesco’s café in Watford in the UK, Kasumi Law remembered what she missed about her old home.

“I never thought I’d love the sea in Hong Kong so much. I only realised this when I arrived in the UK,” she said, as she tucked into a full English breakfast. Unlike the cold and dark ocean surrounding Britain, “in Hong Kong the sea is so shiny, because there are so many buildings… I didn’t realise how beautiful our city is”.

Kasumi’s decision to move to the UK with her husband and young daughter had stemmed from an unease that crept up on her over the previous decade. The Occupy Central protests began just months after her daughter was born in 2014.

In the following years, as Beijing’s grip appeared to tighten – student activists were jailed and booksellers disappeared – Kasumi’s discomfort grew.

“Staying in Hong Kong was, I wouldn’t say, unsafe,” she said. “But every day, little by little, there was a feeling of something not being right.”

Then Hong Kong erupted in protest again in 2019. As Beijing cracked down, the UK offered a visa scheme for Hongkongers born before the 1997 handover, and Kasumi and her husband agreed it was time to go for the sake of their daughter.

They settled in the town of Watford near London, where her husband found a job in IT while Kasumi became a stay-at-home mum.

But she had never lived abroad before, and she struggled with a deep homesickness which she documented in emotional video diaries on YouTube. One of them even went viral last year, striking a chord with some Hongkongers while others criticised her for choosing to emigrate.

Eventually it was too much to bear, and she returned to Hong Kong for a visit last year. Over two months she visited childhood haunts like a theme park and a science museum, scoffed down her mum’s homecooked fuzzy melon with vermicelli and stir fried clams, and treated herself to familiar delights such as egg tarts and melon-flavoured soy milk.

But the Hong Kong she remembered had also changed. Her mum looked older. Her favourite shops in the Ladies Market had closed down.

Sitting by the harbour at Tsim Sha Tsui one night, she was happy to be reunited with the twinkling sea she had missed so much. Then she realised most of the people around her were speaking in Mandarin.

Tears streamed down her face. “When I looked out at the sea it looked familiar, but when I looked around at the people around me, it felt strange.”

Kasumi wonders when she would visit again. With the passing of a new security law this year – Article 23 – her friends have advised her to delete social media posts from past protests before returning.

It is a far cry from the fearlessness she remembers from 2019, when she brought her daughter to the protests and they marched on the streets with thousands of people, united in their defiance.

“It’s too late to turn back,” she said. “I feel if I go back to Hong Kong I might not be used to life there, to be honest.

“My daughter is happy here. When I see her, I think it’s worth it. I want her world to be bigger.”

Kasumi’s world is bigger too – she has found a job and made new friends. But even as she builds a new life in the UK, she remains determined to preserve the Hongkonger in her – and her child.

Kasumi and her husband only speak in Cantonese to their daughter, and the family often watches Cantonese films together. Her daughter doesn’t yet understand the significance of the 2019 protests she marched in, nor the movement that began in 2014, when she was born. But Kasumi plans to explain when she is older.

The seeds Kasumi is planting are already taking root. She is particularly proud of the way her daughter responds to people who call her Chinese. “She gets angry, and she will argue with them,” Kasumi said, with a smile.

“She always tells people, ‘I’m not Chinese, I’m a Hongkonger’.”

Syrian government forces have withdrawn from the city of Aleppo following an offensive by rebels opposed to the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

The army acknowledged that rebels had entered “large parts” of the city, the country’s second largest, but vowed to stage a counterattack.

The offensive marks the most significant fighting in Syria’s civil war in recent years.

More than 300 people, including at least 20 civilians, have been killed since it began on Wednesday, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

Speaking on Saturday, President Assad vowed to “defend [Syria’s] stability and territorial integrity in the face of all terrorists and their backers”.

“[The country] is capable, with the help of its allies and friends, of defeating and eliminating them, no matter how intense their terrorist attacks are,” his office quoted him as saying.

The civil war, which has left around half a million people dead, began in 2011 after the Assad government responded to pro-democracy protests with a brutal crackdown.

The conflict has been largely dormant since a ceasefire agreed in 2020, but opposition forces have maintained control of the north-western city of Idlib and much of the surrounding province.

Idlib sits just 55km (34 miles) from Aleppo, which itself was a rebel stronghold until it fell to government forces in 2016.

The latest offensive has been led by an Islamist militant group known at Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions backed by Turkey.

HTS was regarded as one of the most effective and deadly of the groups fighting the Assad government and was already the dominant force in Idlib.

The rebels have taken control of Aleppo’s airport and dozens of nearby towns, according to the SOHR.

They also announced a curfew which came into force at 17:00 local time (14:00 GMT) and will remain in place until Sunday.

The Syrian army said rebels had launched “a broad attack from multiple axes on the Aleppo and Idlib fronts” and that battles had taken place “over a strip exceeding 100km (60 miles)”.

Dozens of its soldiers have been killed, it said.

The Russian air force, which played a significant role in keeping Assad in power during the peak of the civil war, carried out air strikes in Aleppo on Saturday.

The strikes marked the first it has staged in the city since helping Syrian government forces recapture it in 2016.

Pictures showed the roads leading out of Aleppo jammed with cars on Saturday as people tried to leave.

On the evening of 20 August 1989, brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez walked into the den of their home in Beverly Hills, where their parents were watching a film, The Spy Who Loved Me, and they shot them at close range with a shotgun. They were sentenced to life imprisonment without parole and, for years, their story largely faded from the spotlight.

Then, in September, they returned to the headlines following the release of a Netflix drama series and documentary about what happened. Now their case is under review because of new evidence that was not presented at their trial.

Last Monday, 28 years after their last courtroom appearance, the brothers teleconferenced into a hearing from prison, during which their aunt pleaded for their release. “I think it is time for them to go home,” she said.

Their uncle, meanwhile, has called the brothers “cold-blooded” and believes they belong behind bars for life.

What struck me, as I watched all of this unfold, were the opposing ways that different people, even their own family members, portrayed them. Are the Menendez brothers, to borrow the name of the Netflix drama, really “monsters”? Or is it possible that they have changed, as their aunt claims?

In my 30 years as a forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist working in psychiatric hospitals and prisons across the UK, including Broadmoor, I have spoken to hundreds of criminals who have committed terrible offences in an attempt to help them take responsibility.

Some people assume that this is an impossible task. I’ve been asked: “But surely they can’t be helped? Aren’t they born that way?” The implication being that only an abnormal monster could inflict dreadful damage on another person – or that killers, from Ted Bundy and Rose West to Harold Shipman and the Menendez brothers, are somehow not human.

Certainly, when I first started working in this field, I assumed that people who have committed violent and murderous acts are very different from the rest of us.

But I no longer think this.

What I’ve learnt is that the real causes of violent minds – a subject I examine in The Reith Lectures, which are broadcast in four episodes on Radio 4 – aren’t depicted in true-crime dramas or courtroom transcripts.

The reality is far more complex than labelling someone as simply ‘evil’, as I discovered firsthand.

In 1996, soon after I’d started at Broadmoor while completing my psychotherapy training, I took on a patient called Tony. He had killed three men and decapitated one of them.

I’d read a lot of lurid reports about serial killers but at the time there was little advice available on how to talk to one or offer them therapy, and part of me wondered if there was any point. How would we know if he was “better”?

He was 10 years into his sentence and had recently been stabbed with a sharpened toothbrush by three other prisoners. A suicide attempt had followed.

In our first session, there was silence. He folded his arms and avoided meeting my eyes. When he looked up, his eyes were so dark they appeared almost black. He was suffering from depression and nightmares. “I was thinking that it’s peaceful in here,” he said eventually, breaking the silence. “There’s a man in the room next to mine who keeps shouting in the night.”

It took him months to open up about his recurring nightmare. In it, he was strangling a young man who morphed into his father. It led us to discuss his offences and his family and how, as a child, Tony had suffered violent abuse at the hands of his father; in turn, he began to bully others.

Later I learnt that the man “in the next room” who shouted at night was Tony himself. I suggested that perhaps he was shouting the things that he could not express. He dropped his face in his hands, muffling his voice. “No… I don’t want to,” he admitted. “I can’t be so weak.”

I worked with Tony for 18 months and came to feel compassion and respect for his honesty, even as I still held in mind the terrible trail of destruction he had caused. The fact he’d requested this therapy himself was also a sign that part of him was ready to be vulnerable.

That early experience taught me that no matter their history, if people – including serial killers – are able to be curious about their minds, there’s a chance that we can make meaning out of disorder.

When it comes to serial killers it is generally assumed that they are psychopaths, but I wasn’t convinced that applied to Tony. Psychopaths are unlikely to request help as they don’t want to do anything they’d consider to be demeaning, so on that basis alone Tony wouldn’t have met the criteria, as he had asked for therapy.

The psychopaths I’ve encountered in my career have been neither exceptionally bright nor socially able, nor at all charming. They are usually so lacking in empathy that they cannot see the effect they have on others.

And contrary to common belief, very few killers are in fact psychopaths, especially domestic homicide perpetrators like the Menendez brothers.

Tony’s story also highlighted the role that childhood adversity can play in violent crime. The Menendez brothers argued that they were victims of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of their father, a defence that was challenged in court before they were handed life sentences.

Yet a significant proportion of the population have experienced severe childhood trauma – as many as 10-12% of people in the UK according to some studies – but a far smaller number commit acts of criminal violence.

Which begs the question, what makes some people respond to childhood trauma with violence, while others do not? Could it be that those people are indeed “monsters”? Or, as some of my patients previously put it: “I have done evil things, but does that make me evil?”

There is no scientific evidence that people are born “evil”. And in my experience, there is no such a thing as an evil person – instead, there are evil states of mind.

So, typically, I begin my answer by telling them that it is possible for anyone to get into this state of mind, which is dominated by ordinary emotions of hatred, envy, greed and anger.

Deep down most of us have a capacity for cruelty but the risk factors that make some people act that out with extreme violence are specific. They are a little like the numbers in a bicycle lock. Just as all the numbers have to line up for the bicycle lock to open, multiple risk factors are usually in place before violence erupts.

The most common risk factors are being young and male (with higher rates of aggression and impulsivity); being intoxicated with drugs and alcohol; having a history of family conflict and breakdown; and a history of criminal rule-breaking. Being in a paranoid state of mind caused by mental illness can also be a risk factor, though this is more rare.

The most important risk factor for murder, however, is the nature of the relationship with the victim, especially a history of relationship conflict. It is well known that women are most commonly killed by male partners or family members, and most children are killed by their parents or step-parents. The killing of strangers is rare, and these tend to be cases where perpetrators are severely mentally unwell.

So the first two numbers that align in the bicycle lock could be sociopolitical, and the next two might be specific to the perpetrator.

The final number that causes the lock to spring open can be something that happens between the victim and the perpetrator – whether an offhand comment, an action perceived as a threat, or something as simple as a bad football result. (Domestic abuse soars by 38% when the England team lose, according to research by Lancaster University.)

When the bicycle lock clicks into place, what is unleashed is often a wave of overwhelming emotion that distorts how the person sees everything.

The good news is that over the last 20 years there has been a fall in homicide rates in the UK and elsewhere, which is largely a result of changes in some of these bicycle lock factors.

“The decline of homicide rates since 2004 in the UK – which has also happened in the US, Spain, Italy, and Germany – is partly due to changes in lifestyles such as reductions in binge drinking and cannabis consumption among adolescents,” says Professor Manuel Eisner, director of the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge.

“[It is also] partly the influence of technologies such as mobile phones and CCTV cameras, which add surveillance and opportunities to find help in situations of danger.”

In addition, he attributes the drop to wider shifts including the bolstering of cultural norms opposing bullying, and violence against women, girls and children.

And while there is a minority of people whose minds can’t be changed – who will always be a risk – by paying attention to distorted narratives in the majority of cases, we can find ways to change those violent minds for good.

In 2004 I met a man called Jack who had killed his mother when he was in his 20s. He had been found to be suffering with paranoid schizophrenia at the time, so he was sent to hospital for treatment.

Later, he joined a therapy group that I was running at Broadmoor Hospital. In the hour-long sessions the group members, who had all killed family members while mentally unwell, would talk about how they could avoid violence in future. Jack didn’t always seem engaged but after a year or so, just after another member had talked about past regrets, he spoke abruptly.

“I wish I could say sorry to my mum for what I did,” he said. “I know I was mentally ill, but I wish I could say how sorry I was and that she could forgive me. I hope she understands how much I regret it.”

By seeing themselves in other offenders, some group members were able to learn how it had been possible to delude themselves into thinking that someone had to die; and how waves of anger, shame and fear could lead them to misinterpret actions and words.

Jack seemed more engaged after that day and his mental health improved enough for him to move to a less secure hospital for further rehabilitation.

Group therapy takes time, but afterwards many other men were also considered safe enough to move to less secure treatment facilities, which is a sign of improvement and something we only do if we determine that their risk of reoffending is negligible. Most importantly, they also learnt to take responsibility.

Jack helped me realise that people who kill are not mindless monsters who are born that way. He was an ordinary man who had done an extraordinary thing, as with many others.

None of this is an excuse for violence – and every violent crime is a tragedy for all who are involved – but monstering people is not helpful. It is simply one way to deal with rage and fear. And we miss a chance to reduce and prevent violence if we write off everyone who has murdered or abused in that way.

It takes a radical kind of empathy to sit with a man who has decapitated his partner, or a woman who has stabbed a friend. But trying to comprehend them and gain new insights about ourselves requires going where they walk, and seeing what they see. And that is what ultimately leads to change.

US President-elect Donald Trump has picked a former aide, Kash Patel, to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an agency Patel has often criticised.

A former US defence department chief of staff in the first Trump administration, Patel has been a steadfast supporter of the incoming Republican president.

For Patel to take the job, the current FBI director Christopher Wray would need to resign or be fired – although Trump did not call on him to do so in his post.

Separately, Trump said he plans to nominate Chad Chronister, sheriff of Florida’s Hillsborough County, as head of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Patel and Chronister join Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi in filling out Trump’s law enforcement picks.

Also on Saturday, Trump announced he had has selected Charles Kushner to be ambassador to France.

Mr Kushner is a real-estate developer and the father of Jared Kushner, husband of his daughter Ivanka Trump.

The nomination appears to be the first administration position that Trump has formally offered to a relative since his re-election.

All three choices will have to be confirmed by a majority vote in the US Senate.

Patel is Trump loyalist who shares the president-elect’s suspicion of government institutions.

“Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending justice, and protecting the American people,” Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media platform, adding that Patel was “an advocate for truth, accountability, and the constitution”.

His past proposals have included “dramatically” limiting the FBI’s authority. In his memoir, Government Gangsters, Patel called for an eradication of what he called “government tyranny” within the FBI by firing “the top ranks”.

Patel would replace current FBI director Christopher Wray, who Trump appointed in 2017 for a 10-year term.

But Wray fell out of favour with the president elect when the FBI assisted with a federal probe into Trump’s handling of classified records, a case that has since been dropped.

In a statement following Trump’s announcement, the FBI said: “Every day, the men and women of the FBI continue to work to protect Americans from a growing array of threats.

“Director Wray’s focus remains on the men and women of the FBI, the people we do the work with, and the people we do the work for.”

The son of Indian immigrants, Patel is a former defence lawyer and federal prosecutor who caught Trump’s eye after he became a senior counsel to the House of Representatives intelligence committee in 2017.

He was hired by Trump as a national security aide in 2019 and a year later was appointed chief of staff to the head of the Pentagon.

As well as his 2023 memoir, he has published two pro-Trump children’s books.

One of the titles, The Plot Against the King, features a villain, Hillary Queenton, trying to depose King Donald, who is aided by a wizard called Kash the Distinguished Discoverer.

Another villain is called Keeper Komey – a thinly-veiled reference to former FBI Director James Comey – and his “spying slugs”, according to the book’s blurb.

Patel has often railed against the so-called “deep state”, which some Americans believe is an unelected bureaucratic machine that secretly runs the country for sinister purposes.

Patel has also excoriated the media, which he has called “the most powerful enemy the United States has ever seen”.

He is also on the board of Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns the incoming president’s social media platform Truth Social.

Patel reportedly has had a consulting contract with the company that paid him at least $120,000 a year.

Chronister also comes with a long background in law enforcement.

He has worked in law enforcement in Florida for 32 years, according to his official bio, and he has served as the top law enforcement officer in Hillsborough County, Florida, since 2017.

On social media, Trump praised Chronister’s experience and reiterated his focus on drugs and the US border.

“As DEA Administrator, Chad will work with our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to secure the border, stop the flow of fentanyl, and other illegal drugs, across the southern border, and SAVE LIVES”, Trump wrote.

Writing on social media, Chronister said it was “the honor of a lifetime to be nominated” by Trump.

“I am deeply humbled by this opportunity to serve our nation.”

Rebel forces launched the largest offensive against the Syrian government in years on Wednesday.

By Saturday, they had taken control of “large parts” of the country’s second-biggest city, Aleppo.

The surprise offensive prompted the first Russian strikes on Aleppo since 2016, and saw Syria’s military withdraw its troops from the city.

The attack was led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – which has a long and involved history in the Syrian conflict.

HTS was set up under a different name, Jabhat al-Nusra, in 2011 as a direct affiliate of Al Qaeda.

The leader of the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was also involved in its formation.

It was regarded as one of the most effective and deadly of the groups ranged against President Assad.

But its jihadist ideology appeared to be its driving force rather than revolutionary zeal – and it was seen at the time as at odds with the main rebel coalition under the banner of Free Syria.

But in 2016, the group’s leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, publicly broke ranks with Al Qaeda, dissolved Jabhat al-Nusra and set up a new organisation, which took the name Hayat Tahrir al-Sham when it merged with several other similar groups a year later.

The war in Syria has for the past four years felt as if it were effectively over.

President Bashar al-Assad’s rule is essentially uncontested in the country’s major cities, while some other parts of Syria remain out of his direct control.

These include Kurdish majority areas in the east, which have been more or less separate from Syrian state control since the early years of the conflict.

There has been some continued, though relatively muted unrest, in the south where the revolution against Assad’s rule began in 2011.

In the vast Syrian desert, holdouts from the group calling themselves Islamic State still pose a security threat, particularly during the truffle hunting season when people head to the area to find the highly profitable delicacy.

And in the north-west, the province of Idlib has been held by jihadist and rebel groups driven there at the height of the war.

The dominant force in Idlib is the one that has launched the surprise attack on Aleppo, HTS.

For several years, Idlib remained a battleground as Syrian government forces tried to regain control.

But a ceasefire deal in 2020 brokered by Russia, which has long been Assad’s key ally, and Turkey, which has backed the rebels, has largely held.

About four million people live there – most of them displaced from towns and cities that Assad’s forces won back from rebels in a brutal war of attrition.

Aleppo was one of the bloodiest battlegrounds and represented one of the rebels’ biggest defeats.

To achieve victory, Assad relied on Russian airpower and Iranian military help on the ground – mainly through militias sponsored by Iran.

These included Hezbollah.

There is little doubt that the setback Hezbollah has suffered recently from Israel’s offensive in Lebanon, as well as Israeli strikes on Iranian military commanders in Syria, has played a significant part in the decision by jihadist and rebel groups in Idlib to make their sudden, unexpected move on Aleppo.

For some time now, HTS has established its power base in Idlib where it is the de facto local administration, although its efforts towards legitimacy have been tarnished by alleged human rights abuses.

It has also been involved in some bitter infighting with other groups.

Its ambitions beyond Idlib had become unclear.

Since breaking with Al Qaeda, its goal has been limited to trying to establish fundamentalist Islamic rule in Syria rather than a wider caliphate, as IS tried and failed to do.

It had shown little sign of attempting to reignite the Syrian conflict on a major scale and renew its challenge to Assad’s rule over much of the country – until now.

The family of beauty-salon owner Fathi Hussein are deep in mourning at their home in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, following her horrific death at sea after a deal she struck with migrant smugglers to take her to the French island of Mayotte went wrong.

“We were told by survivors that she died from hunger,” the 26-year-old’s stepsister Samira tells the BBC by phone.

The family learned from them that Fathi died in one of two small boats, adrift in the Indian Ocean for about 14 days, after being abandoned by the smugglers.

“People were eating raw fish and drinking sea water, which she refused. They [the survivors] said she started hallucinating before she died. And after that they threw her body into the ocean,” Samira tells the BBC.

Fathi’s family learned of her death from fellow Somalis who had been rescued by fishermen off the coast of Madagascar about a week ago.

The International Migration Organization (IMO) said that more than 70 people were on the two boats when they capsized, claiming the lives of 24, while 48 survived.

Hundreds of migrants are believed to die each year trying to make it to the tiny French island, located about 300km (186 miles) north-west of Madagascar.

On 1 November, Fathi flew from Mogadishu to the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa, and a few days later left by boat for Mayotte – a perilous journey of more than 1,100 km across the Indian Ocean.

Samira says they are baffled by Fathi’s decision as she had a successful business in Mogadishu, and lived in the middle-class neighbourhood of Yaqshid.

Fathi hid her plan from the family, sharing her secret only with their younger sister, telling her that she had paid the smugglers money she had made running her beauty salon, Samira says.

“She used to hate the ocean. I don’t know why and how she took that decision. I wish I could give her a hug,” she adds.

Survivors told Fathi’s family that the beauty salon owner and all the other passengers were in one big boat when they left Mombasa.

But during the journey, the smugglers said the boat had developed mechanical problems and would have to turn back.

Then before returning to Kenya, the smugglers put all the migrants on two small boats, assuring them: “You will reach Mayotte in three hours.”

But, says Samira, “it turned into 14 days” and led to the death of her sister and others.

Some of the survivors suspect that the smugglers deliberately left them stranded in the sea as they had already been paid, and had no intention of taking them to Mayotte, says Samira.

IMO regional official Frantz Celestin tells the BBC it is increasingly common for migrants to risk their lives trying to reach the French island.

“Just recently 25 people perished doing the same journey, usually transiting through Comoros and Madagascar. Generally this year has been the deadliest year for migrants,” he says.

The BBC has spoken to five Somali migrants who have tried to reach Mayotte.

They told us there are two primary routes from Somalia to the island.

Some travel by boat from Mombasa via the Comoros islands, which are much closer to Mayotte, while those with more money fly to Ethiopia and then to Madagascar because Somali passport-holders qualify for a visa on arrival.

From there, they take a small boat to Mayotte, hoping it will open the door to gaining a French passport and access to Europe.

One of the lucky few who has survived this perilous route is Khadar Mohamed.

He arrived in Mayotte 11 months ago but clearly remembers the harrowing ordeal he went through to reach the island from Madagascar.

“When I came to Madagascar, I was taken to the boat-owner’s house. We stayed there for 14 days. We were a mix of Somali and Madagascans,” he says.

The group of those waiting grew to 70. They were then put on a boat and taken via a river out to the open ocean.

Khadar says he left Somalia because of the threat posed by al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda affiliate fighting to overthrow the government.

“I left my country for my safety. I was a business owner, and I couldn’t do my work because of al-Shabab,” he says.

The families of some of the victims say the smugglers are paid about $6,000 (£4,700) to travel from Mombasa to Mayotte, with half the money given up front.

The BBC has seen accounts on social media platform TikTok, advertising similar journeys to Mayotte and even further to other parts of Europe.

The adverts claim operators can take people to Mayotte using large tourist boats, but victims’ families say the smugglers are using much smaller fishing boats called “kwassa”.

The French government has not commented on the recent tragedy.

Somalia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Moalim Fiqi, says that his government is making efforts to contact the survivors and to bring them back home.

Fathi’s family say they reported to the authorities a smuggler they suspect their daughter had contact with in Mogadishu and he was arrested, but has since been released on bail.

Samira says the pain of not knowing how her sister felt in her final moments will stay with her forever.

“I wish she could talk to me and tell me about her decision. She could have said bye to me… now, I don’t know how to process her death,” she says.

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For nearly 300 years, a family’s ancestral house in India’s southern state of Kerala has been the stage for theyyam, an ancient folk ritual.

Rooted in ancient tribal traditions, theyyam predates Hinduism while weaving in Hindu mythology. Each performance is both a theatrical spectacle and an act of devotion, transforming the performer into a living incarnation of the divine.

The predominantly male performers in Kerala and parts of neighbouring Karnataka embody deities through elaborate costumes, face paint, and trance-like dances, mime and music.

Each year, nearly a thousand theyyam performances take place in family estates and temples across Kerala, traditionally performed by men from marginalised castes and tribal communities.

It is often called ritual theatre for its electrifying drama, featuring daring acts like fire-walking, diving into burning embers, chanting occult verses, and prophesying.

Historian KK Gopalakrishnan has celebrated his family’s legacy in hosting theyyam and the ritual’s vibrant traditions in a new book, Theyyam: An Insider’s Vision.

He explores the deep devotion, rich mythology, and surprising evolutions of the art, including the rise of theyyams performed by Muslims in a tradition rooted in tribal and Hindu practices.

The theyyams are performed in the courtyard of Mr Gopalakrishnan’s ancient joint family house (above) in Kasaragod district. Hundreds of people gather to witness the performances.

The theyyam season in Kerala typically runs from November to April, aligning with the post-monsoon and winter months. During this time, numerous temples and family estates, especially in northern Kerala districts like Kannur and Kasaragod, host performances.

The themes of performances at Mr Gopalakrishnan’s house include honouring a deified ancestor, venerating a warrior-hunter deity, and worshipping tiger spirits symbolising strength and protection.

Before the performance honouring a local goddess, a ritual is conducted in a nearby forest, revered as the deity’s earthly home.

Following an elaborate ceremony (above), the “spirit of the goddess” is then transported to the house.

Mr Gopalakrishnan is a member of the Nambiar community, a matrilineal branch of the Nair caste, where the senior-most maternal uncle oversees the arrangements. If he is unable to fulfil this role due to age or illness, the next senior male member steps in.

Women in the family, especially the senior-most among them, play a crucial role in the rituals.

They ensure traditions are upheld, prepare for the rituals, and oversee arrangements inside the house.

“They enjoy high respect and are integral to maintaining the family’s legacy,” says Mr Gopalakrishnan.

The spectacle is a blend of loud cries, fiery torches, and intense scenes from epics or dances.

Performers sometimes bear the physical toll of these daring feats, with burn marks or even the loss of a limb.

“Fire plays a significant role in certain forms of theyyam, symbolising purification, divine energy, and the transformative power of the ritual. In some performances, the theyyam dancer interacts directly with fire, walking through flames or carrying burning torches, signifying the deity’s invincibility and supernatural abilities,” says Mr Gopalakrishnan.

“The use of fire adds a dramatic and intense visual element, further heightening the spiritual atmosphere of the performance and illustrating the deity’s power over natural forces.”

The deities can be manifestations of gods and goddesses, ancestral spirits, animals, or even forces of nature.

Here, the theyyam performer (above) embodies Raktheswari, a fierce manifestation of Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction.

She is portrayed drenched in blood, a powerful symbol of her raw energy and destructive force.

This intense ritual delves into themes of sorcery, voodoo, and divine wrath.

Through dramatic costume and ritualistic dance, the performance channels Kali’s potent energy, invoking protection, justice, and spiritual cleansing.

During the performance, the artist (or kolam) transforms into these deities, through elaborate costumes and body paint, their striking colours bringing the deities to life.

Here, a performer meticulously adjusts his goddess attire, checking his look in the mirror before stepping into the ritual. The transformation is as much an act of devotion as it is a preparation for the electrifying performance ahead.

Distinct facial markings, intricate designs, and vibrant hues – especially vermillion -define the unique makeup and costumes of theyyam.

Each look is carefully crafted to symbolise the deity being portrayed, showcasing the rich diversity and detail that distinguishes this ritual art. Some theyyams do not require face painting but use only masks.

Theyyam’s animistic roots shine through in its reverence for nature and its creatures.

This crawling crocodile theyyam deity symbolises the power of reptiles and is venerated as a protector against their dangers.

With its detailed costume and lifelike movements, it highlights humanity’s deep-rooted connection to nature.

Sometimes the deity will bless a large congregation of devotees after a performance.

Here, a female devotee unburdens her troubles before Puliyurkali, a powerful manifestation of goddess Kali, seeking solace and divine intervention.

As she offers her prayers, the sacred space becomes a moment of spiritual release, where devotion and vulnerability intertwine.

Huge flooding caused by heavy rain in Malaysia and neighbouring Thailand has killed at least 12 people, officials say.

More than 122,000 people have been forced out of their homes in northern Malaysia, while in southern Thailand, around 13,000 others have also been displaced.

There are fears the number could rise, as heavy rain and storm warnings remain in place.

Emergency services personnel have been deployed to help rescue stranded residents and shelters are being provided.

The flooding, which began earlier in the week, has seen thousands of residents evacuated in both nations.

Videos on social media and local news show cars and houses submerged, and people wading through waist-deep water.

One video, filmed in Thailand’s Sateng Nok district, showed rescuers carrying a baby out from a roof of a flooded home.

Flooding has impacted nearly 534,000 households in southern Thailand, disaster officials said, and two hospitals had to close to prevent floodwaters from damaging medical facilities.

Six provinces have declared a disaster due to the floods.

The government has designated 50 million baht ($1.7m; £1.3m) in flood relief for each province, with Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra saying the goal is to “restore normalcy as quickly as possible”.

In Malaysia, the flooding is mostly concentrated on the north-eastern state of Kelantan, which borders Thailand.

There, the National Disaster Management Agency says the evacuees account for 63% of the total number.

One resident in the town of Pasir Puteh in Kelantan said her area had been flooded since Wednesday.

“The water has already reached my house corridor and is just two inches away from coming inside,” Zamrah Majid told AFP news agency.

Another resident of the same town said he and his family have been isolated by the floods.

“There’s no way in or out of for any vehicles to enter my neighbourhood,” Muhammad Zulkarnain told AFP.

Another eight states in Malaysia have also been affected.

So far, the number of those displaced surpasses that of 2014, which saw one of the worst floods in the country.

Provisions for disaster management have been sent to Terengganu and Kelantan State Governments, according to the prime minister’s office.

On Friday, he barred his cabinet members from going on leave so they can focus on the disaster.

The Malaysian Meteorological Department warned that heavy rains will continue until Sunday in some states, while its Thai counterpart warned that “very heavy rain” could continue through next week.

Both countries experience monsoon rains around this time of the year, and flooding isn’t uncommon.

In 2021, Malaysia faced some of its worse flooding in decades, which killed at least 14 people.

Ten years earlier, in 2011, widespread flooding across Thailand killed at least 500 people and damaged millions of homes.

Tamuna Museridze took a deep breath and made the phone call she had dreamed of since finding out that she might be adopted.

She was calling the woman she believed was her biological mother. She knew it might not lead to a fairy tale reunion – but she didn’t expect the response to be cold and angry.

“She started screaming, shouting – she said she hadn’t given birth to a child. She didn’t want anything to do with me,” Tamuna recalls, explaining she felt more surprised than upset by the response.

“I was ready for anything, but her reaction was beyond anything I could imagine.”

Tamuna wasn’t prepared to walk away just yet. She wanted to know the circumstances of her adoption, and there was something else she wanted that only her mother could give her – the name of her father.

Tamuna’s search had begun in 2016, after the woman who raised her died. Clearing out her house, Tamuna found a birth certificate with her own name on it but the wrong birth date, and she started to suspect she was adopted. After doing some research, she set up a Facebook group called Vedzeb, or I’m Searching, hoping to find her birth parents.

Instead, she uncovered a baby trafficking scandal in Georgia that has affected tens of thousands of lives. Over many decades, parents were lied to and told their newborn babies had died – the infants were then sold.

Tamuna is a journalist and her work has reunited hundreds of families, yet – until now – she couldn’t solve the mystery of her own origins and wondered if she too had been stolen as a child.

“I was a journalist on this story, but it was a personal mission for me as well,” she says.

The breakthrough in her search had come in the summer, when she received a message through her Facebook group. It was from someone who lived in rural Georgia, who said they knew a woman who had concealed a pregnancy and given birth in Tbilisi in September 1984. That’s around the time Tamuna was born – a date she had shared publicly.

The person believed the woman was Tamuna’s birth mother – and crucially they gave a name.

• Georgia’s stolen children: Twins sold at birth reunited by TikTok video

Tamuna immediately searched for her online but when she couldn’t find anything, she decided to post an appeal on Facebook asking if anyone knew her.

A woman soon responded, saying the woman who had concealed the pregnancy was her own aunt. She asked Tamuna to take the post down but she agreed to do a DNA test.

While they were waiting for the results, Tamuna made the phone call to her mother.

A week later, the DNA results arrived, indicating that Tamuna and the woman on Facebook were indeed cousins. Armed with this evidence, Tamuna managed to convince her mother to acknowledge the truth and reveal the name of her father. It was a man called Gurgen Khorava.

“The first two months were shocking, I couldn’t believe these things were happening to me,” she recalls, “I couldn’t believe I had found them.”

Once Tamuna had Gurgen’s name, she quickly tracked him down on Facebook. It turned out that he had been following her story on social media – her work reconnecting families is widely known across Georgia.

Tamuna was amazed to find that he had “been in my friend list for three years”. He just hadn’t realised he was a part of her story.

“He didn’t even know my birth mother had been pregnant,” says Tamuna. “It was a huge surprise for him.”

They soon arranged to meet in his hometown of Zugdidi in western Georgia – about 160 miles (260km) from where she lives in Tbilisi.

Looking back, Tamuna thinks she was in a state of shock, but as she walked up to Gurgen’s garden gate, she felt surprisingly calm.

When the 72-year-old appeared, they hugged, then stopped to take a moment to look at each other, smiling.

“It was strange, the moment he looked at me, he knew that I was his daughter,” she recalls. “I had so many mixed emotions.”

She had a lot of questions and didn’t know where to start. “We just sat together, watching each other and trying to find something in common,” she says.

As the two of them chatted, they realised they shared a lot of interests – Gurgen had once been a renowned dancer at the State Ballet of Georgia, and was delighted to learn that Tamuna’s daughters – his granddaughters – shared his passion.

“They both love dancing, and so does my husband,” she says with a smile.

Gurgen invited his entire family to his home to meet Tamuna, introducing her to a large group of new relatives – half siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles. The family agreed there was a strong resemblance between them. “Out of all his children, I look the most like my father,” she says.

They spent an evening sharing stories, eating traditional Georgian food, and singing while Gurgen played the accordion.

Even though she had now met her father, Tamuna still had a niggling question: had she – like thousands of other Georgians – been stolen from her mother at birth and sold? Her adoptive parents were no longer alive so she couldn’t turn to them for answers.

She finally got a chance to ask her birth mother in October. A Polish TV company was filming a documentary about Tamuna and took her to meet her mother, who agreed to talk to her in private.

Unlike many people Tamuna has helped to reunite, she discovered that she had not been a stolen child herself. Instead, her mother had given her up and kept the secret for 40 years.

Her mother and father were not in a relationship and had only had a brief encounter. Her mother – overwhelmed by shame – chose to hide her pregnancy. In September 1984, she travelled to Tbilisi, telling people she was going for surgery, and instead gave birth to a daughter. She stayed there until arrangements were made for Tamuna’s adoption.

“It was painful to learn that I spent 10 days alone with her before the adoption. I try not to think about that,” Tamuna reflects.

She says that her mother asked her to lie and tell people she had been stolen. “She told me that if I would not say that I was stolen, everything would end between us… and I said that I couldn’t do that.”

Tamuna feels this would be unfair to all the parents whose babies were stolen. “If I lie, nobody’s going to believe those mothers any more,” she explains.

Her mother then asked her to leave the house and they have not spoken since.

“Would I do it all again?” she reflects. “Of course I would, I found out so much about my new family.”

Georgia’s Stolen Children

Twins Amy and Ano were taken from their mother as babies and sold. They found out about each other by chance and soon discovered thousands of others in Georgia who were also stolen from hospitals.

Watch more on this story on the BBC iPlayer (UK only).

You can also watch the documentary on YouTube.

“I had to work while I was nine months pregnant,” says Sophie, a sex worker in Belgium. “I was having sex with clients one week before giving birth.”

She juggles her job with being a mother of five – which is “really hard”.

When Sophie had her fifth child by Caesarean, she was told she needed bed rest for six weeks. But she says that wasn’t an option, and she went back to work immediately.

“I couldn’t afford to stop because I needed the money.”

Her life would have been much easier had she had a right to maternity leave, paid by her employer.

Under a new law in Belgium – the first of its kind in the world – this will now be the case. Sex workers will be entitled to official employment contracts, health insurance, pensions, maternity leave and sick days. Essentially, it will be treated like any other job.

“It’s an opportunity for us to exist as people,” Sophie says.

There are tens of millions of sex workers worldwide. Sex work was decriminalised in Belgium in 2022 and is legal in several countries including Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Turkey. But establishing employment rights and contracts is a global first.

“This is radical, and it’s the best step we have seen anywhere in the world so far,” says Erin Kilbride, a researcher at Human Rights Watch. “We need every country to be moving in that direction.”

Critics say the trade causes trafficking, exploitation and abuse – which this law will not prevent.

“It is dangerous because it normalises a profession that is always violent at its core,” says Julia Crumière, a volunteer with Isala – an NGO that helps sex workers on the streets in Belgium.

For many sex workers, the job is a necessity, and the law could not come soon enough.

Mel was horrified when she was forced to give a client oral sex without a condom, when she knew a sexually transmitted infection (STI) was going round the brothel. But she felt she had no option.

“My choice was either to spread the disease, or make no money.”

She had become an escort when she was 23 – she needed money, and quickly started earning beyond expectations. She thought she had struck gold, but the experience with the STI brought her sharply back to earth.

Mel will now be able to refuse any client or sexual act she feels uncomfortable with – meaning she could have handled that situation differently.

“I could have pointed the finger at my madam [employer] and said: ‘You’re violating these terms and this is how you should treat me.’ I would have been legally protected.”

Belgium’s decision to change the law was the result of months of protests in 2022, prompted by the lack of state support during the Covid pandemic.

One of those at the forefront was Victoria, president of the Belgian Union of Sex Workers (UTSOPI) and previously an escort for 12 years.

For her, it was a personal fight. Victoria regards prostitution as a social service, with sex being only about 10% of what she does.

“It’s giving people attention, listening to their stories, eating cake with them, dancing to waltz music,” she explains. “Ultimately, it’s about loneliness.”

But the illegality of her job before 2022 raised significant challenges. She worked in unsafe conditions, with no choice over her clients and her agency taking a big cut of her earnings.

In fact, Victoria says she was raped by a client who had become obsessed with her.

She went to a police station, where she says the female officer was “so hard” on her.

“She told me sex workers can’t be raped. She made me feel it was my fault, because I did that job.” Victoria left the station crying.

Every sex worker we spoke to told us that at some point they had been pressured to do something against their will.

Because of that, Victoria fiercely believes this new law will improve their lives.

“If there is no law and your job is illegal, there are no protocols to help you. This law gives people the tools to make us safer.”

Pimps who control sex work will be allowed to operate legally under the new law – provided they follow strict rules. Anyone who has been convicted of a serious crime will not be allowed to employ sex workers.

“I think many businesses will have to shut down, because a lot of employers have a criminal record,” says Kris Reekmans. He and his wife Alexandra run a massage parlour on Love Street in the small town of Bekkevoort.

The massages they offer clients include “tantra” and “double pleasure”.

It is fully booked when we visit – not what we were expecting for a Monday morning. We are shown meticulously furnished rooms with massage beds, fresh towels and robes, hot tubs and a swimming pool.

Kris and his wife employ 15 sex workers, and pride themselves on treating them with respect, protecting them and paying them good salaries.

“I hope the bad employers will be shut out and the good people, who want to do this profession honestly, will stay – and the more the better,” he says.

Erin Kilbride from Human Rights Watch is of similar mind – and says, by putting restrictions on employers, the new law will significantly “cut away at the power they have over sex workers”.

But Julia Crumière says the majority of the women she helps just want help to leave the profession and get a “normal job” – not labour rights.

“It’s about not being outside in the freezing weather and having sex with strangers who pay to access your body.”

Under Belgium’s new law, each room where sexual services take place must be equipped with an alarm button that will connect a sex worker with their “reference person”.

But Julia believes there is no way to make sex work safe.

“In what other job would you need a panic button? It’s not the oldest profession in the world, it’s the oldest exploitation in the world.”

How to regulate the sex industry remains a divisive issue globally. But for Mel, bringing it out of the shadows can only help women.

“I am very proud that Belgium is so far ahead,” she says. “I have a future now.”

A former Chinese state media journalist has been sentenced on Friday to seven years in prison for espionage, his family has confirmed to the BBC.

Dong Yuyu, 62, who has been detained since 2022, was active in academic and journalism circles in the US and Japan and met regularly with foreign diplomats.

He was having lunch with a Japanese diplomat in Beijing when he was arrested by police.

At the time of his detention, Dong had been a senior staff member of the Guangming Daily, one of the five major newspapers linked to the Chinese Communist Party.

In February 2022, Dong was arrested while having lunch with a Japanese diplomat the day after the Winter Olympics ended in Beijing, at a restaurant where he had often met foreign friends.

The diplomat was also detained – then released several hours later amid protests from the Japanese government.

Dong met regularly with other journalists and foreign diplomats as part of his job.

His family said in a statement that according to a court judgement, two other Japanese diplomats Dong met with were named as “agents of an espionage organisation”, which is the Japanese embassy.

“We are shocked that the Chinese authorities would blatantly deem a foreign embassy an ‘espionage organization'”, said his family’s statement.

“Today’s verdict is a grave injustice not only to Yuyu and his family but also to every freethinking Chinese journalist and every ordinary Chinese committed to friendly engagement with the world,” they added.

The Beijing court where Dong was sentenced on Friday had a strong security presence, Reuters reported, as journalists were asked to leave and a diplomat said they were not allowed to attend the hearing.

“In the past, the Chinese court system has selected Western holidays to release news as it is a time when the public is focused on other matters,” the US National Press Club said in a statement on Tuesday, ahead of Dong’s sentencing on Thanksgiving night in the US.

While Dong’s trial had been completed in July 2023, he was held with no verdict and barred from seeing his family, the press club said.

Rights groups and advocates have criticised his conviction and called for him to be released.

“Chinese authorities must reverse this unjust verdict, and protect the right of journalists to work freely and safely in China,” Beh Lih Yi, Asia programme manager at the Committe to Protect Journalists told Reuters.

“Dong Yuyu should be reunited with his family immediately.”

Dong joined the Guangming Daily after graduating from Peking University’s law school in 1987.

In 1989, he was one of tens of thousands of students who participated in the Tiananmen Square protests. He was later sentenced to hard labour, but kept his job at the newspaper, according to a family statement.

He eventually rose to become deputy head of the editorial department, and was among the most pro-reform voices at Guangming Daily, the statement added.

A Nieman fellow at Harvard University in 2007, Dong had also written several articles for the New York Times and was previously a visiting fellow and professor at several Japanese universities.

Georgia’s pro-Western president has said she will stay in post until new parliamentary elections are held, as protests continue over the government’s decision to put EU accession negotiations on hold.

Speaking to the BBC, Salome Zourabichvili, who has sided with the opposition, described the current parliament as “illegitimate” after allegations of fraud in last month’s elections.

Zourabichvili said she would retain her role as president, despite the country’s newly elected parliament saying it would choose her replacement on 14 December.

Mass protests in the capital are continuing to erupt for a third consecutive night on Saturday in the capital Tbilisi.

Riot police have been deployed around the country’s parliament, the focal point of three nights of protests.

Officers again used tear gas and water cannon against protesters into the early hours of Sunday, as they tried to push people away from the parliament building.

Demonstrations were also taking place in the cities of Batumi, Kutaisi, Zugdidi, and other Georgian regions.

“I’m offering this stability for the transition, because what these people on the streets are demanding is a call for new elections in order to restore this country and its European path,” said Zourabichvili.

Hundreds of civil servants have signed letters expressing their disapproval of the government’s decision to put negotiations with the EU on hold, saying it went against the national interests of Georgia.

Georgian ambassadors to Bulgaria, Netherlands and Italy have also resigned.

The US said on Saturday that it was suspending its strategic partnership with Georgia, citing the government’s “various anti-democratic actions”.

Since 2012, Georgia has been governed by Georgian Dream, a party which critics say has tried to move the country away from the EU and closer to Russia.

The party claimed victory in last month’s election but opposition MPs are boycotting the new parliament, alleging fraud.

On Thursday, the European Parliament backed a resolution, describing the election as the latest stage in Georgia’s “worsening democratic crisis” and saying that the ruling party was “fully responsible”.

It expressed particular concern about reports of voter intimidation, vote-buying and manipulation, and harassment of observers.

Following the resolution, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said his government had “decided not to bring up the issue of joining the European Union on the agenda until the end of 2028”.

In response, thousands of pro-EU protesters started demonstrating outside Georgian Dream offices in the cities of Tbilisi and Kutaisi on Thursday.

A group of public figures, writers and journalists have also been protesting outside the country’s public broadcaster in the capital Tbilisi, accusing it of being a mouthpiece for the country’s ruling party.

“The public broadcaster must be freed from the influence of the Russians and the pressure of the regime,” said writer and activist Lasha Bugadze.

“The public broadcaster covers the whole of Georgia and they are brainwashing our population with propaganda, people who may not be sure what is going on,” he said.

Four opposition coalitions and parties that won seats in last month’s parliamentary elections but refused to take up their mandates citing widespread vote rigging have issued a joint statement, calling for fresh elections under international supervision.

“Parties with a legitimate mandate of the Georgian people will confront the illegitimate regime of Georgian Dream and the systemic violence against peaceful demonstrators and journalists,” read the statement.

In a statement, the US condemned the “excessive use of force” in Georgia and called on all sides to ensure the protests remain peaceful.

“The Georgian people overwhelmingly support integration with Europe,” a statement from the State Department said.

Some 150 people were detained following the 29 November protests in the capital Tbilisi. Police used water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters.

At dawn on 30 November the police crackdown intensified as they began chasing the demonstrators, with reports of protesters being kicked and beaten with batons.

The prime minister said that 50 police officers were injured at the hands of “violent protesters who threw Molotov cocktails, pyrotechnics, glass, stones at the police”.

Kobakhidze has also lashed out at European politicians for “hurling a cascade of insults” at the Georgian government.

The charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) has said it is pausing its operations in Gaza after a vehicle carrying its staff members was hit by an Israeli air strike.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the target of the strike had taken part in the 7 October attacks on Israel, and was currently employed by the WCK.

WCK said it was “heartbroken to share” that a vehicle carrying staff had been hit and it was seeking more details, though added it had “no knowledge” that anyone in the car had ties to the 7 October attacks.

Palestinian state-run news agency Wafa reported that five people were killed in the strike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Saturday, with three of them WCK employees.

They included the director of WCK’s kitchens in Gaza, the agency added.

Separately, British aid agency Save the Children said one of its staff members was also killed on Saturday afternoon in Khan Younis.

Ahmad Faisal Isleem Al-Qadi, 39, had been returning home to his wife and three-year-old daughter from a mosque when he was killed, the charity added.

“Ahmad, who was deaf, will be remembered for his determination to help others, for his pride in his daughter, and for his ability to brighten others’ days”, Save the Children said in a statement.

It is unclear whether he was killed in the same strike as the WCK employees. Save the Children say there were two strikes in Khan Younis on Saturday, but the BBC has not been able to verify this.

Following reports of the WCK strike, pictures circulating on social media showed a white saloon car by the side of a road, partially burned-out and with its roof caved in.

Video filmed inside a mortuary also showed a number of charred possessions – including a laptop, clothing, and and ID badge – bearing the WCK logo.

In a statement, the IDF said it had “struck a vehicle [carrying] a terrorist that took part in the murderous 7 October massacre”.

It said the man had taken part in an attack on the kibbutz of Nir Oz, though added that it was “not possible to link the terrorist to a specific abduction attempt”.

“The terrorist was monitored for a while by IDF intelligence and was struck following credible information regarding his real time location,” it said.

It said the strike was on a “civilian unmarked vehicle” whose movement had “not been coordinated for transporting aid”.

It went on to demand “clarifications and an urgent investigation” from WCK and the international community “regarding the hiring of workers who took part in… terrorist activity against Israel”.

The statement from WCK said it was “heartbroken to share that a vehicle carrying World Central Kitchen colleagues was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza”.

“At this time, we are working with incomplete information and are urgently seeking more details,” it said.

“World Central Kitchen had no knowledge that any individual in the vehicle had alleged ties to the October 7th Hamas attack”.

It added that it would be pausing its work in Gaza.

“Our hearts are with our colleagues and their families in this unimaginable moment,” it said.

In April, seven WCK workers, including three British security staff, were killed in an Israeli strike on an aid convoy, prompting widespread condemnation and a temporary halt to the charity’s operations.

The IDF later admitted “grave mistakes” had been made and sacked two senior officers.

“It’s not just about brewing a good cup of coffee but connecting with customers on a deeper level.”

It was this one thought that made Harmanpreet Singh leave his family bakery to open a specialty coffee shop in the northern Indian city of Jalandhar.

It was an unexpected decision – coffee has always been popular in southern states, traditionally served strong and frothy in a steel tumbler. But it’s still not the first choice of beverage in the vast swathes of north India, where drinking tea is an intrinsic part of the culture.

For Mr Singh, the journey began in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic when he saw a growing demand for specialty coffee, particularly among the city’s youth and the overseas residents who returned to the country at that time.

Recognising this shift, he moved to the southern city of Bengaluru to learn brewing techniques. “I studied everything – from the way coffee is served to the role things like decor, cutlery, music and even packaging played in the overall experience,” he said.

Three months later, Mr Singh put his learnings to test and opened Buland Café in Jalandhar.

Today, the cafe has 40 outlets across the city and has become a favourite spot for the city’s youth, who come here to relax or work over piping cups of coffee.

The beans, roasted in various blends, are sourced from the famed coffee estates of Karnataka. Mr Singh says he personally trained his staff on how to brew the perfect cuppa and take care of the coffee machine.

“It’s a thriving scene,” he says.

Mr Singh is among a crop of young entrepreneurs that are benefitting from a wave of specialty coffee consumption in small north Indian towns and cities.

India has had a vibrant cafe culture for years – but it has been largely restricted to big cities where homegrown specialty and international coffee chains dominate the market.

However, post-Covid, several tier-two cities are also seeing a boom in demand for such spaces as people embrace practices like remote working and look for new places to meet their friends and families.

Cafe owners say more Indians are now willing to pay more for coffee that’s roasted in smaller batches and customised as per their preferences.

“Clients have become more knowledgeable about the roasts and are interested in the origins of their coffee,” says Bharat Singhal, the founder of Billi Hu roasteries.

In fact, more than 44% of the Indian population now drinks coffee, a 2023 report by CRISIL, a marketing analytical company, shows.

While a lot of it comes from home consumption, the growing demand for specialty coffee in small cities plays a big part, says Bhavi Patel, a coffee consultant and dairy technologist.

Roastery owners say the growth is also evident in numbers. “Subscription based orders have surged by 50% in one year,” says Sharang Sharma, the founder of Bloom Coffee Roasters. “Customers have moved from French presses to pour-over or espresso machines, adopting more sophisticated brewing methods.”

While India is often associated with tea, it also has a long coffee-drinking history.

The culture took shape in the 1900s when Indian Coffee Houses emerged as a hangout spot for the intellectual and elite class. Housed in colonial-styled buildings, these cafes served English breakfasts with steaming hot coffee and offered a space to discuss politics and mobilise support during pivotal periods in history.

A shift occurred in the 1990s when economic reforms opened India to the world, allowing entrepreneurs to open private coffee shops frequented by young peeople, who saw it as a hip experience.

Café Coffee Day (CCD), which opened in 1996, quickly became one of India’s most popular and widespread coffee chains. At its peak, CCD boasted over 1,700 outlets, serving as a popular gathering spot for students and young adults. But mounting debt, management issues and the untimely death of its founder led to a closure of most of its outlets across India.

In 2012, the arrival of international giant Starbucks spurred the rise of homegrown specialty coffee brands like Blue Tokai Roasters, Third Wave Coffee and Subko Coffee.

Mr Singhal says that while big cities like Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai, and Bengaluru still dominate the scene, smaller cities are quickly catching up.

However, it’s not just changing palettes that’s driving consumption. “Often it’s social media,” Mr Singh says. “People want good coffee but they also want to be in a space that’s trendy and which they can post online.”

Nishant Sinha from Lucknow city is among those who understood the trend early on.

His Roastery Coffee House offers trendy ambience, free wi-fi and cosy seating options along with an array of coffee roasts. While the beans are sourced from coffee estates in the south, the food is distinctively north Indian.

Others like Jatin Khurana in the northern city of Ludhiana are experimenting with flavours.

At his Urban Buhkkad cafe, Mr Khurana serves the “Shadi Wali Coffee [the wedding coffee]” – a wedding favourite in the 1990s, which became famous for its blend of instant coffee, milk, sugar, and a sprinkle of chocolate powder.

But instead of coffee powder, Mr Khurana uses freshly grounded beans, available in different roasts and varieties, to enhance its flavours. “The idea is to capture the essence of the beverage that many Indians grew up drinking,” he says.

It’s an exciting time to be in the business – but growth comes with its own set of challenges.

“Demand is growing, but a smaller coffee shop owners tend to cut corners, whether it’s by opting for substandard machines, serving weaker coffee shots, or hiring inexperienced baristas,” Mr Singhal says.

And running the business is not always profitable given the high price of coffee and the infrastructural costs involved in running such spaces.

When Neha Das and Nishant Ashish opened The Eden’s café in Ranchi in 2021, they wanted to create a safe and relaxed space for young students to get together in the city.

Today, their hazelnut coffee and cold brews have become a favourite of many.

“It took some time but longevity requires more than profit,” Ms Das says.

“It’s about dedication, crafting local flavours, and understanding customers, even if it means working with slim profit margins for the long haul.”

Last year, Juliette Sartori decided she wanted to expand her social circle, so she went on a coffee date with three people she had never met before.

“It went really well,” she said.

“We ended up speaking for two hours and I still speak to them today. We all keep in touch.”

Her friendship blind date was part of Dinner with a Stranger, the society Juliette and her flatmates started “on a whim” for fellow Glasgow University students who want to meet new people.

Juliette, 21, had moved to Scotland from the US to study business and management and said it was harder to instantly connect with others as she found people “had a wall up” and were closed off.

With students so plugged in and digital that they spend less time interacting with each other face-to-face, she didn’t have many opportunities to increase her circle of friends.

And so Dinner with a Stranger was born.

“We thought originally only 30 people would join,” Juliette says. “We just didn’t know what to expect.

“It’s an out-there idea and the name throws people off from the start.”

But 200 people – a mixture of undergraduate and postgraduate male, female and non-binary students – signed up in the first month and the society has continued to grow ever since.

Juliette’s friendship lottery is very different to the swipe right culture of the dating apps which dominate the lives of many young people.

Firstly, it is about friendship and not romantic hook-ups. But it is also avoids complicated computer algorithms and relies instead on more traditional personality quizzes shared with members online at the start of every month.

Prospective mate-dates are asked questions on a theme, ranging from their favourite music genre or most-loved Disney movie to their dream holiday destination.

Then Juliette and five others spend hours manually pairing people up and sharing contact details before taking a step back to let the magic happen.

Playing platonic Cupid alongside Juliette, Mary Yiorkadji quickly realised she wasn’t alone in struggling to find friends at university.

Originally from Cyprus, she says: “There are lots of people from different backgrounds and it can be really intimidating feeling like you’re different and people won’t understand you.”

The 22-year-old believes social media has had a negative impact on friendships.

It comes as more and more people nowadays compare their lives to others online.

“It is really easy to get caught up in fake ideas from social media, which can cause loneliness and expectations that are never met,” Mary says.

“People are lonelier now. Our generation is lonelier.”

But Mary says Dinner with a Stranger has introduced her to the beauty of the blind friendship date.

“I think one of the most important parts of university is to meet new people,” says the fourth-year economics and philosophy student.

“In this way you don’t give power to the differences between people, you give power to things that matter in a friendship, which are the similarities you have.”

She describes it as a “unique” way to meet and connect with others from all over the world.

Second-year students Vanya and Hannah, who were paired up by Dinner with a Stranger in December last year, believe they would not have met each other if it wasn’t for the group.

Hannah, 20, from Manchester, says: “Society puts so much emphasis on romance that we forget how important friendships are.”

She says before meeting Vanya she was “miserable” and would spend a lot of time by herself, but now her mental health has improved and she is more confident.

The pair are now best friends and flatmates.

Vanya, 19, says she enjoyed getting to know Hannah without “pre-conceived ideas and expectations”.

“People are talking to so many people online that they’re not properly talking to anyone,” says the economics student, originally from India.

“In this way, you’re going in with a completely open mind and you’re getting to know someone as the conversation moves along.

“You have to show that you’re making a genuine effort.”

For Juliette, going on friendship dates with strangers has helped her to find her “people”.

Confused as to why people think it is not normal to go on friendship dates to meet new people, she believes soon there will be more opportunities to take part in this “fun experiment”.

She said: “It’s more of a modern way of making friends.

“It’s taking the idea of meeting someone online from a dating website and turning it into friendships by seeing how well you mesh with that person.”

Dating apps, such as Bumble, have already started to create similar versions for friendship-making, which Juliette thinks will become more mainstream as the idea expands.

She said: “Now people are working from home and doing uni remotely, it is more common for people to stay at home all the time and you are less likely to go out and meet new people like you would have done five years ago.

“It’s modern but I think it will become more popular in the future.”

The government is facing a backlash from car manufacturers, who claim that current rules designed to promote electric vehicles are too harsh.

They say consumer demand for electric cars has fallen far short of what was expected, meaning they are struggling to sell enough.

Ford insists this was a factor in its recent decision to cut 800 UK jobs.

Vauxhall’s owner Stellantis is to close its van-making plant in Luton – partly, it says, because of the new rules.

So what could be done to encourage more consumers to buy electric?

Electric vehicles (EVs) are generally more expensive to buy than their petrol or diesel equivalents. This is partly because they still represent a relatively small proportion of cars being built, so economies of scale – when the cost comes down the more you build – have not yet properly kicked in.

The government already offers some subsidies to make EVs cheaper. They attract a low rate of company car tax, for example. Salary sacrifice schemes allow workers to lease cars cheaply through their employers, using their untaxed income, which can offer significant savings.

But since the abolition of the plug-in grant for cars in 2022, there has not been a similar incentive for people who cannot get a car through their company. People within the industry believe that should change.

Automotive journalist Quentin Willson, who now fronts the campaign group FairCharge, thinks the government should consider “interest free loans on used electric vehicles for lower income drivers and halve the VAT on new cars”. This, he suggests, could be funded by abandoning the current freeze on fuel duty.

The price of electric cars is coming down, partly due to cheaper battery packs. Despite sharp fluctuations in the value of metals used to make them, such as lithium and cobalt, battery pack prices have fallen by about 70% since 2015.

This has helped reduce the price gap between electric and conventional cars. Earlier this year, Stellantis began offering the electric version of its Frontera model at the same price as the petrol hybrid model.

However, that doesn’t mean it is easy to find a low-budget electric car. There is a shortage of truly cheap options on the market.

That is partly because a number of manufacturers have preferred to focus on more expensive and potentially more profitable models. But as Roger Atkins, founder of the Electric Vehicles Outlook consultancy, puts it, “cars that cost £50,000 to £60,000 are not the kind of cars everyone can buy”.

However, change is around the corner. The Dacia Spring went on sale in the UK a few weeks ago, with a starting price of £14,995. The newly launched Leapmotor T03 costs very little more, while Chinese giant BYD has said it will bring a version of its super-budget Seagull model to the UK next year.

The government says the sale of new petrol and diesel cars will be banned in 2030 – but will it?

Plans to force conventional cars off the market were originally meant to take effect in 2040, under plans introduced by Theresa May’s government. But the target was brought forward to 2030 under Boris Johnson, then delayed to 2035 under Rishi Sunak.

People within the industry claim the changing target has sent out mixed messages and confused consumers, leading some people to delay buying an electric car until the situation becomes clearer.

According to Melanie Shufflebotham, co-founder of electric charging guide Zapmap, many drivers are “confused about dates, concerned on costs and have questions about charging.” She says “a consistent factual communication programme” is needed, supported by government.

Although the cost of using public charging points can vary widely depending on the provider and the charging speed you choose, public chargers are usually more expensive than charging at home.

This is partly due to tax. An EV owner charging a car on their drive will pay 5% VAT on the electricity they consume. But if they use a public charger they will pay 20%. People who are unable to charge at home are left with no choice but to pay the higher rate.

The industry, EV advocates and even a House of Lords committee have called for the public rate to be reduced to 5%

Consultant Roger Atkins claims the current policy is “divisive”, because it “favours better-off people who can charge at home on their driveways”.

Read any survey of potential buyers’ attitudes towards electric cars, and concerns about charging infrastructure will be at or near the top. People worry about whether they will be able to find a charger at a busy service station, or in a rural area.

The number of charging points is growing. According to ZapMap, as of October this year, there were 71,459 charging points across the UK, at 36,060 locations. This was a 38% increase on the year before.

But not everyone is happy. Complaints from existing owners struggling to find a charging point, having to queue for a long time or arriving to find it broken are not hard to find.

As more EVs come onto the roads, many more charging points will be needed. The government wants 300,000 in place by 2030 – but the current rate of expansion is not fast enough to reach it.

Part of the blame appears to lie with local authorities, who are responsible for granting planning permission for new rapid charging hubs. According to Roger Atkins, the process simply takes too long.

Simon Smith, of charging firm Instavolt agrees that red tape is a problem. He thinks that difficulties getting grid connections for rapid charging stations is also a “critical barrier” to expanding the network.

“We need greater support to address planning delays, local council resistance and grid connectivity challenges”, he says.

“Everything is on fire at the moment,” says indie developer Adam Riches.

It’s not a controversial view, and when Adam says it he’s almost casual.

Just a fact of life these days.

Widespread lay-offs and studio closures that rocked the industry last year have continued into 2024, and the rush of investment off the back of the Covid pandemic gaming boom has slowed down.

There’s also evidence people have been spending less money on new games, choosing to stick with long-running online games like Fortnite or yearly franchises including Call of Duty and EA Sports FC.

Despite that, more games than ever are getting released.

The UK’s Digital Entertainment and Retail Association said in July that game sales had dropped sharply when compared with the same period last year.

That’s not only affected premium releases – smaller studios, whose games tend to be more affordable, have also struggled to find an audience.

It’s often difficult to pinpoint why, but quality isn’t a guarantee of success.

“You can have the best marketing, you can have the best game, you can get rave reviews, but you’re still flipping a coin as to whether it’s going to blow up,” Adam says.

He feels “discoverability” – getting players to actually find your game – is one of the biggest challenges for indie developers.

Steam, the main marketplace for PC gamers run by developer Valve, sells everything from games made in someone’s bedroom to big-budget blockbusters made by teams of hundreds.

There’s a lot of competition.

According to tracker SteamDB, more than 14,000 games have been published on the platform this year, with 2024 already overtaking 2023’s tally.

Adam’s just added another to the total. He’s released murder mystery adventure Loco Motive – a game he’s been making with his brother for the last three years.

He jokes that the best time to have put the game out was 2013 – when Steam wasn’t quite so crowded.

There are still ways to stand out – the platform recommends games based on users’ playing habits and regularly runs promotions which push a curated selection of games on to homepages.

But Adam admits it’s tough.

“We’re all competing for those same slots, and now we’re competing with triple-A and other indies,” says Adam.

As well as battling for player’s attention, new games are increasingly battling for their time.

According to analytics firm Newzoo, annual series such as Call of Duty and online titles such as Fortnite took up 92% of gaming time, with just 8% remaining for new releases.

Drawing players away from those established titles is extremely difficult.

The failure of Sony’s online shooter Concord – which the PlayStation maker killed just two weeks after release – has been put down to its similarity to popular titles already on the market.

Rhys Elliott, an analyst from Midia Research, suggests the big success stories of 2024 – Balatro, multiplayer shooter Helldivers II and “Pokémon with guns” Palworld – did something new and interesting.

But he accepts that’s not the only ingredient.

“Factors like a strong IP, strong marketing campaign, community fostering, and timing can help, but the fact is that there is luck involved,” he says.

“Right place, right time is a big part of gaming’s surprise successes.

“But gameplay matters, and innovation, so great games often stand out and find their market.”

Another big issue for developers this year is finding funding.

Investment in new projects has slowed down, leading some studios behind previous indie hits to step in and fill the gap.

Among Us publisher Innersloth, for example, recently launched Outersloth – a fund to give developers a helping hand with getting their projects over the line.

Husban Siddiqi was among the first group selected by the programme for his upcoming game Rogue Eclipse.

He says Innersloth “understand the struggles” developers go through, and their support has been invaluable.

But, even with the backing of an established studio, Husban isn’t taking success for granted.

“It’s unforgiving, the speed at which things change, the technology changes, the platforms change,” he says.

“I always feel like we’re trying to study as quickly as possible before some paradigm shift happens that kind of upends whatever that conventional thinking was.”

Manor Lords – a strategy game that puts players in charge of building a Medieval settlement.

It’s sold 4.5 million copies since its early access release in April.

Snow Rui, co-founder of publisher Hooded Horse, puts the game’s success down to the spin it puts on the genre by allowing players to inhabit and walk around the settlements they create.

Manor Lords generated huge pre-release interest based on early trailers, but Snow admits that Hooded Horse was still surprised by its reception.

“It would almost be arrogant not to be taken aback by how successful it turned out to be,” she says.

Snow says one the best pieces of advice she got was “don’t roll too fast” once you’ve found success.

Some of the wider industry’s problems have been blamed on companies expanding too quickly when gaming profits ballooned during the pandemic.

Snow says it’s more important to her to be sustainable over the long-term, and be realistic with your expectations.

“A breakout hit like this, you cannot count on it to repeat itself year after year,” she says.

“There will be people pushing you to have a different expectation or treating the next year as a failure if the breakout hit doesn’t repeat itself but that’s simply not the case.

“So that’s a matter of setting your expectations and centering who you are.”

Everyone would like to publish the next Manor Lords or the next Balatro, but Adam says “success” doesn’t have to involve blockbuster-level sales for an indie.

“Our game doesn’t cost that much to make, and because it’s mostly been me and my brother and a few freelancers, the cost is not that high,” he says.

And, Adam says, it’s about doing what you can to give your game the best chance – Loco Motive’s big marketing push was launched close to release to keep the momentum going.

It might have paid off, as the game debuted in Steam’s top-seller charts.

The odds of making a breakout hit, or even breaking even at all, are low.

But if there is a silver lining, Snow says development tools are becoming more accessible and opening the door to smaller teams with “ingenious” ideas.

“As a fan of games, this is something I’d love to see,” she says.

“Even in the current environment, there’s still plenty of room for fresh and innovative ideas.

“And that’s something I look forward to for many years to come.”

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

Behind a door deep within the lower floors of the National Library of Scotland lies a forgotten street which gives a glimpse of how Edinburgh looked centuries ago.

Libberton’s Wynd, in the heart of the old city, was demolished to make way for George IV Bridge in the 1830s – but part of the street still remains.

It can be found between the bridge walls and the library building, with access through a hidden door.

The corridor – which has been named The Void by library staff – is not open to the public, but BBC Scotland News has been allowed to see inside.

It was discovered by library officials in the 1990s when they broke down a small hatch on a wall behind filing cabinets, then crawled through it.

They found a passage with arches into chambers and rooms which are thought to have once been storage in the bridge.

Bill Jackson, former director of the library, told BBC Scotland News he found old rotten furniture, ledgers, shoes and a slate urinal that were all more than 100 years old, but were waterlogged and damaged.

“My torch was hardly illuminating anything, it was very dark when I went through and a bit scary and I wanted to get out of there.

“It was fascinating though.”

Since then he has fitted lights and another door at the Cowgate end of The Void.

The library’s rooms were built on top of foundations, which can still be seen, of buildings that were demolished in Libberton’s Wynd to make way for George IV Bridge.

Robbie Mitchell, a reference assistant at the library, said that inside the passageway you could see the brickwork of the library’s lower levels and the bridge’s stonework.

“Although not a preserved street like Mary Stair’s Close, this nevertheless offers us a glimpse of the Edinburgh of centuries ago,” he said.

“There are several maps and accounts of the Old Town in the library’s collections which help us build an atmospheric picture of the neighbourhood on which both George IV Bridge and the library now stand, and what was there before The Void.”

George IV Bridge was built as a route to connect the centre of Edinburgh – the Royal Mile – over the Cowgate, which was in a valley, to the south side of the city.

Its arches had chambers built into them on several floors for storage for the shops at the top of the bridge.

Libberton’s Wynd was the route from the Cowgate to Edinburgh’s gallows in a section of the Royal Mile called The Lawnmarket – before it was demolished to make way for the bridge.

Later, The National Library of Scotland was built on top of the bridge, with floors running all the way down into the Cowgate below.

The bridge was built on Libberton Wynd’s foundations, which can still be seen in The Void.

The corridor runs for several hundred feet at a steep gradient.

Officials have widened the entrance so there is now a full-sized door. Some of the chambers are now used to store huge water tanks for the library’s sprinkler system.

Mr Mitchell said that large crowds, often several thousands strong, attended the executions which took place at the city gallows where Libberton’s Wynd joined the Lawnmarket.

One of the most infamous figures to have been executed there was body-snatcher and murderer William Burke in January 1829.

Libberton’s Wynd was also famed for housing one of the city’s best-known taverns, which was called The Mermaid before it became Johnnie Dowie’s Tavern.

Taverns were key features of Edinburgh’s Old Town communities, and patrons often came from various social classes.

John Dowie was described in accounts as “the sleekest and kindest of landlords”. He always wore “a cocked hat, buckles at the knees and shoes, as well as a cross-handled cane, over which he stooped in his gait”.

Mr Mitchell said the most popular drink had been the Edinburgh Ale brewed and supplied by Archibald Younger.

This was described as “a potent fluid which almost glued the lips of the drinker together, and of which few, therefore, could dispatch more than a bottle”.

Mr Mitchell said descriptions of the tavern, which occupied the ground floor of a tall tenement, gave an impression of the claustrophobic confines of the Old Town.

About 14 people could fit in its principal room, which looked to the Wynd, but the other rooms were said to be so small that no more than six people could fit in each of them.

They were described as being “so dingy and dark that, even in broad day, they had to be lighted up by artificial means”.

The Tavern was described as a house of “much respectability” and was a popular meeting place for “the chief wits and men of letters” in Edinburgh.

It was regularly frequented by writers including poet Robert Fergusson, artists and many members of the judiciary.

The smallest of its windowless chambers was an irregular oblong box which was commonly referred to as “the Coffin”, and was believed to be Robert Burns’ favoured seat in the Tavern.

Libberton’s Wynd was first referred to in the late 15th Century, but had been demolished by 1835.

Local historian Jamie Corstorphine said entering The Void had been one of the most exciting things he had experienced.

“The name of the wynd probably came from Henry Libberton, who had a large property on the wynd – or if not him, then his family, who remained in the house for many years after his death in 1501.

“The street had merchants, barbers, a shoemaker, grocers, custom house, vinters, cork-cutters, silver turners, hosiers and glaziers.

“It was a very busy street that would have been full of life at the time.”

Earlier this week one of America’s most wanted men was finally arrested in rural north Wales having spent the past 21 years on the run.

Daniel Andreas San Diego, 46, was wanted by the FBI for allegedly bombing two office buildings in San Francisco in 2003.

But why would the suspect, who was born Berkeley, California, choose to hide out in Maenan in the remote outskirts of the sleepy market town of Llanrwst in the Conwy valley?

And of all the countries in the world, why Wales?

“It’s beautiful… if you’re trying to evade capture, you might as well be somewhere that’s stunning and beautiful,” said former undercover detective Peter Bleksley.

Peter, who is probably best known for his time capturing make-believe fugitives on Channel 4’s TV show Hunted, said picking somewhere so remote had pros and cons.

“Being remote you can be living in a property where neighbours can’t see you, the public’s prying eyes are a long way away and you’re not going to face uncomfortable questions like you might do if you were living in a terraced house in a city, for example,” he said.

He said there would also be benefits to choosing to hide in a big city.

“You could be anonymous because people don’t talk to each other, they sit cheek by jowl on the bus or on the tube and still don’t speak to each other, if you say hello to people they think you’re a nutter, so cities are sometimes favoured because of the anonymity they can offer,” he said.

“The flip side of that, of course, is CCTV is everywhere in our major cities, which is a concern for fugitives.”

Mr San Diego, who the FBI has previously called an “animal rights extremist”, was held after an operation backed by counter terrorist police and North Wales Police on Monday.

He now faces extradition to the US after being arrested at a property in a remote rural area near woodland in north Wales.

Earlier this week Aled Evans told how he unknowingly sold his home to Mr San Diego.

He said in August 2023, using the name Danny Webb, Mr San Diego had paid £425,000 for the white villa with a balcony offering striking views of rolling hills and a well-manicured garden the house near Llanrwst in August 2023 using the name Danny Webb.

Reflecting on recent events he has realised it was the ideal location “if you wanted to keep your head down”.

Peter believes it was most likely the purchase of this property that marked the start of the end of Mr San Diego’s life on the run.

“Maybe purchasing that property created the electronic footprint opportunity for the FBI to exploit, which therefore led to his capture,” he said.

“Gone are the days when drug dealers could walk into an estate agents with carrier bags full of cash and literally go ‘I’ll buy that flat or I’ll buy that house’ because of course we have money laundering regulations, banks have to ask certain questions of people if they transfer a sizable sum of money.

“If anybody involved in that process, be it estate agent bank, solicitors, had any suspicions as to the money trail and they flagged it up to the authorities, that would start an investigation.”

Although he has spent a career hunting down others, Peter has some experience of what it is like to live a life in hiding.

While working at Scotland Yard’s undercover unit his identity was exposed and he had to go into witness protection.

“Living a life continually looking over your shoulder is very unpleasant,” he said.

“You’re always fearful of that knock on the door… it can be very draining, although the longer you do it, the more you get used to it.”

He said living that way for an extended period of time could lead to sloppy mistakes.

“That’s the danger, and, of course, keeping your guard up all the time requires constant vigilance, which is draining… maybe his guard did drop just a little bit.”

Through his career, Peter has had quite the insight into the behaviour of fugitives.

“I’ve caught real ones when I was a detective and I caught many pretend ones when I was the chief in Hunted,” he said.

So having seen the mistakes that lead to capture, what advice would he give to someone who wants to remain in hiding?

“Be nice to people,” he said.

“If you’re nice, they’ll feed you, they’ll clothe you, they’ll take you where you want to go, they’ll give you cash or other financial means.

“If you’re not, if you’re unpleasant and you upset people, they’ll pick up the phone and grass you up.”

He has this theories but Peter is eager to find out the truth about what led to Mr San Diego’s arrest.

“I do hope we get to find out how it was caught, how it all unravelled because it’ll be great,” he said.

“And I suspect Netflix are all over this story already.”

Maenan sits just off the A470, one of the main roads running through north Wales, about 10 miles (16km) from Conwy.

It is a sprawling community of farms and isolated cottages, many of which are now holiday homes or holiday lets. There is no shop or village pub.

Many of the properties that you pass on the way to Llidiart y Coed appear to be holiday homes.

The FBI has accused Mr San Diego of being “an animal rights extremist” involved in a series of bombings in San Francisco.

The first bombing happened in August 2003, outside the Chiron Life Science Center in Emeryville, California.

A second bomb was found at the site by authorities but exploded before it could be defused.

The agency said that raised the possibility the device was planted specifically to target first responders.

Less than a month later, in September 2003, a nail bomb exploded outside a nutritional products corporation based in Pleasanton, California.

He became the first “domestic terrorist” to be added to the agency’s most wanted terrorist list, created by then-President George W Bush in October 2001 in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

For nearly 300 years, a family’s ancestral house in India’s southern state of Kerala has been the stage for theyyam, an ancient folk ritual.

Rooted in ancient tribal traditions, theyyam predates Hinduism while weaving in Hindu mythology. Each performance is both a theatrical spectacle and an act of devotion, transforming the performer into a living incarnation of the divine.

The predominantly male performers in Kerala and parts of neighbouring Karnataka embody deities through elaborate costumes, face paint, and trance-like dances, mime and music.

Each year, nearly a thousand theyyam performances take place in family estates and temples across Kerala, traditionally performed by men from marginalised castes and tribal communities.

It is often called ritual theatre for its electrifying drama, featuring daring acts like fire-walking, diving into burning embers, chanting occult verses, and prophesying.

Historian KK Gopalakrishnan has celebrated his family’s legacy in hosting theyyam and the ritual’s vibrant traditions in a new book, Theyyam: An Insider’s Vision.

He explores the deep devotion, rich mythology, and surprising evolutions of the art, including the rise of theyyams performed by Muslims in a tradition rooted in tribal and Hindu practices.

The theyyams are performed in the courtyard of Mr Gopalakrishnan’s ancient joint family house (above) in Kasaragod district. Hundreds of people gather to witness the performances.

The theyyam season in Kerala typically runs from November to April, aligning with the post-monsoon and winter months. During this time, numerous temples and family estates, especially in northern Kerala districts like Kannur and Kasaragod, host performances.

The themes of performances at Mr Gopalakrishnan’s house include honouring a deified ancestor, venerating a warrior-hunter deity, and worshipping tiger spirits symbolising strength and protection.

Before the performance honouring a local goddess, a ritual is conducted in a nearby forest, revered as the deity’s earthly home.

Following an elaborate ceremony (above), the “spirit of the goddess” is then transported to the house.

Mr Gopalakrishnan is a member of the Nambiar community, a matrilineal branch of the Nair caste, where the senior-most maternal uncle oversees the arrangements. If he is unable to fulfil this role due to age or illness, the next senior male member steps in.

Women in the family, especially the senior-most among them, play a crucial role in the rituals.

They ensure traditions are upheld, prepare for the rituals, and oversee arrangements inside the house.

“They enjoy high respect and are integral to maintaining the family’s legacy,” says Mr Gopalakrishnan.

The spectacle is a blend of loud cries, fiery torches, and intense scenes from epics or dances.

Performers sometimes bear the physical toll of these daring feats, with burn marks or even the loss of a limb.

“Fire plays a significant role in certain forms of theyyam, symbolising purification, divine energy, and the transformative power of the ritual. In some performances, the theyyam dancer interacts directly with fire, walking through flames or carrying burning torches, signifying the deity’s invincibility and supernatural abilities,” says Mr Gopalakrishnan.

“The use of fire adds a dramatic and intense visual element, further heightening the spiritual atmosphere of the performance and illustrating the deity’s power over natural forces.”

The deities can be manifestations of gods and goddesses, ancestral spirits, animals, or even forces of nature.

Here, the theyyam performer (above) embodies Raktheswari, a fierce manifestation of Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction.

She is portrayed drenched in blood, a powerful symbol of her raw energy and destructive force.

This intense ritual delves into themes of sorcery, voodoo, and divine wrath.

Through dramatic costume and ritualistic dance, the performance channels Kali’s potent energy, invoking protection, justice, and spiritual cleansing.

During the performance, the artist (or kolam) transforms into these deities, through elaborate costumes and body paint, their striking colours bringing the deities to life.

Here, a performer meticulously adjusts his goddess attire, checking his look in the mirror before stepping into the ritual. The transformation is as much an act of devotion as it is a preparation for the electrifying performance ahead.

Distinct facial markings, intricate designs, and vibrant hues – especially vermillion -define the unique makeup and costumes of theyyam.

Each look is carefully crafted to symbolise the deity being portrayed, showcasing the rich diversity and detail that distinguishes this ritual art. Some theyyams do not require face painting but use only masks.

Theyyam’s animistic roots shine through in its reverence for nature and its creatures.

This crawling crocodile theyyam deity symbolises the power of reptiles and is venerated as a protector against their dangers.

With its detailed costume and lifelike movements, it highlights humanity’s deep-rooted connection to nature.

Sometimes the deity will bless a large congregation of devotees after a performance.

Here, a female devotee unburdens her troubles before Puliyurkali, a powerful manifestation of goddess Kali, seeking solace and divine intervention.

As she offers her prayers, the sacred space becomes a moment of spiritual release, where devotion and vulnerability intertwine.

The family of a British couple still missing after a tourist boat sank in the Red Sea have spoken of their “desperation” as they wait for news.

Jenny Cawson, 36, and her husband Tariq Sinada, 49, from Devon, are believed to be among seven people still unaccounted for after the Sea Story went down off the coast of Egypt early on Monday.

Recalling the moment he was told of the incident, Jenny’s father Michael Williams told the BBC: “We were just in disbelief, it’s one of those moments when the world stops.”

The family complain the UK Foreign Office is not giving them enough information about the incident and search operation being conducted by Egyptian authorities.

The Foreign Office said it was providing “support to a number of British nationals and their families following an incident in Egypt”.

The four-deck Sea Story had been carrying 31 passengers and 13 crew when it was reported to have been hit by a large wave near the town of Marsa Alam during storm weather, causing it to capsize.

The resort town is a popular destination for tourists on Egypt’s southern Red Sea coast surrounded by diving spots, including renowned coral reefs.

There were tourists onboard from Belgium, Britain, China, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and the US. Thirty-three people have been rescued and four bodies were recovered.

In a phone call from Devon, Michael revealed how Tariq’s mother broke the news of the sinking to the family.

“Tariq’s mother messaged us that the Sea Story sank in the Red Sea and asked me if I knew the name of the boat,” he recalled.

Jenny’s mother Pamela knew the name and had a picture of the boat as the couple, both experienced scuba divers, had contacted them when they arrived at the Red Sea.

“Your heart sinks. You ask yourself, have I misread the news? Let’s look again,” she said.

Pamela said the family are continuing to receive daily updates from the Foreign Office but complains there is “still no news”.

Because of a lack of solid information, the family said they approached local sources in Egypt for news of their loved ones.

“One of the local sources was kind enough to try and look for them in local hospitals,” Pamela adds.

The family say they were told the boat had not been found, but then came across media reports that it had been located by Egyptian rescuers.

Five of the survivors who were pulled out alive on Tuesday had reportedly been rescued from inside the boat cabins. A diver told the BBC earlier in the week that they had to put a lot of effort to get into the largely submerged Sea Story, open the cabin and get the five survivors, as well as four bodies out.

There is a lot of speculation about how the boat sank and if it was only bad weather that played a part, or if any man-made factors contributed.

The Egyptian Red Sea governor has ruled out the possibility of a technical error behind the sinking. He made it clear the boat was safe and went through all the necessary checks.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian navy has been taking the lead in the rescue operations. It is understood this is still going on, as no official statement has said otherwise.

But the survivors have been kept away from the press. The local authorities say they are in good condition.

“We’re surprised that our Foreign Office can’t pressure anybody in Egypt,” says Jenny’s father Michael.

Sea cruises and diving tours are very popular among European tourists who visit the Red Sea, known for its clear waters and magnificent marine life. The Sea Story sailed off from Marsa Allam on a five-day trip that was supposed to end in Hurghada, another famous resort.

There are now concerns the incident could have serious repercussions on the tourism industry in the area.

Jenny, who works for the Devon Wildlife Trust and Tariq, an IT professional, had visited Egypt a few times before, and also went on diving trips in different countries around the world, the family said.

Pamela says: “Everything Jenny and her husband do is highly considered; they do proper research before travelling anywhere. They are not the type of people who take anything at face value.”

Thousands of people have descended on the site where former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed by an Israeli air strike, after the group allowed access to the area for the first time for a public memorial.

The massive crater left by the Beirut strike was lit up in red and festooned with Hezbollah flags. At its centre, torches projected light beams into the night sky.

Men, women and children wept at the sight of the crater, while the crowd chanted “At your service, Nasrallah” – a common rallying cry among Hezbollah supporters.

Nasrallah led Hezbollah for more than 30 years as it became a formidable force in Lebanon, turning him into one of the most influential figures in the Middle East.

A ceasefire deal agreed between Hezbollah and Israel on Wednesday paved the way for the southern suburb where Nasrallah was killed, on 27 September, to be opened to journalists and the public.

The militant and political group had previously closely guarded access to the suburb, known as the Dahieh, particularly the place where Nasrallah was assassinated, which was entirely closed off.

The Israeli strike that killed the Hezbollah leader was reportedly made up of as many as 80 bunker busting bombs, and it destroyed several residential buildings in Harek Hreik – the neighbourhood that forms the centre of Hezbollah’s operations in Beirut.

When the crowd was granted access to the site for the first time on Saturday night, people surged into the open area left by the destroyed buildings and climbed up around the edges of the crater.

Many held aloft candles and pictures of Nasrallah, who was 64, while a speech by the former leader played from a sound system.

“For these two and half months we have refused to believe that he is really gone,” said Narjis Khshaish, 31, who wept and clutched a candle.

“We have all just been waiting to reach this place to receive his blessings,” she said.

Moussa Dirani, 57, brought his teenage son to the memorial event. “It is very sad and painful to see this site,” he said. “But the resistance does not stop with Nasrallah, his death gives us power to continue along his path.”

The hundreds of Hezbollah flags at the event would “continue to fly high”, said Fida Nasreddine, 34. “We are with Hassan Nasrallah until the last breath,” she said.

Nasrallah’s assassination shocked Lebanon and the wider world when the news broke in September. He had rarely been seen in public since Hezbollah’s 2006 war with Israel, and was protected by tight security at all times.

He was one of a number of senior Hezbollah figures killed by Israel in air strikes between September and the ceasefire agreement struck on Wednesday.

The group had been badly damaged by the assassinations, but the sense of celebration in the Hezbollah-dominated areas of Beirut “cannot be dismissed as insincere”, said David Wood, a Lebanon analyst with Crisis Group.

“The achievements that Hezbollah has promoted – maintaining its ground operations against Israel, ensuring that tens of thousands of Israelis couldn’t return to their homes, and having a severe impact on Israel’s economy, I don’t think those achievements are nothing, and I think lots of its supporters will see an element of victory in that.”

Huge flooding caused by heavy rain in Malaysia and neighbouring Thailand has killed at least 12 people, officials say.

More than 122,000 people have been forced out of their homes in northern Malaysia, while in southern Thailand, around 13,000 others have also been displaced.

There are fears the number could rise, as heavy rain and storm warnings remain in place.

Emergency services personnel have been deployed to help rescue stranded residents and shelters are being provided.

The flooding, which began earlier in the week, has seen thousands of residents evacuated in both nations.

Videos on social media and local news show cars and houses submerged, and people wading through waist-deep water.

One video, filmed in Thailand’s Sateng Nok district, showed rescuers carrying a baby out from a roof of a flooded home.

Flooding has impacted nearly 534,000 households in southern Thailand, disaster officials said, and two hospitals had to close to prevent floodwaters from damaging medical facilities.

Six provinces have declared a disaster due to the floods.

The government has designated 50 million baht ($1.7m; £1.3m) in flood relief for each province, with Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra saying the goal is to “restore normalcy as quickly as possible”.

In Malaysia, the flooding is mostly concentrated on the north-eastern state of Kelantan, which borders Thailand.

There, the National Disaster Management Agency says the evacuees account for 63% of the total number.

One resident in the town of Pasir Puteh in Kelantan said her area had been flooded since Wednesday.

“The water has already reached my house corridor and is just two inches away from coming inside,” Zamrah Majid told AFP news agency.

Another resident of the same town said he and his family have been isolated by the floods.

“There’s no way in or out of for any vehicles to enter my neighbourhood,” Muhammad Zulkarnain told AFP.

Another eight states in Malaysia have also been affected.

So far, the number of those displaced surpasses that of 2014, which saw one of the worst floods in the country.

Provisions for disaster management have been sent to Terengganu and Kelantan State Governments, according to the prime minister’s office.

On Friday, he barred his cabinet members from going on leave so they can focus on the disaster.

The Malaysian Meteorological Department warned that heavy rains will continue until Sunday in some states, while its Thai counterpart warned that “very heavy rain” could continue through next week.

Both countries experience monsoon rains around this time of the year, and flooding isn’t uncommon.

In 2021, Malaysia faced some of its worse flooding in decades, which killed at least 14 people.

Ten years earlier, in 2011, widespread flooding across Thailand killed at least 500 people and damaged millions of homes.

A woman is being taken to court for £1,906 after she took longer than five minutes to pay for parking.

Rosey Hudson said she was unable to pay while standing in the car park in Derby due to poor signal on her phone.

She walked to where she could get connected and paid the full tariff every time she parked there – but despite this, Excel Parking Ltd sent her 10 Parking Charge Notices (PCNs).

The BBC contacted the car park operator, which said Miss Hudson had breached its terms and conditions and was “the author of her own misfortune”.

Two MPs – Lola McEvoy and Abtisam Mohamed – have previously written to Excel Parking with concerns about people being unfairly fined at other car parks it operates.

Miss Hudson believes the five-minute payment rule is “totally unreasonable”.

“I haven’t got children but I can imagine a busy mum trying to sort her kids out, trying to pay for something when there’s no signal here, and the machine being out of order,” she said.

“This has been going on for over a year now, and I’m just really hoping it can be resolved.

“I desperately don’t want this to happen to anybody else, more than anything, because it gives you a lot of stress.”

Miss Hudson started using the Copeland Street car park in February 2023, when she was working in the Derbion centre nearby.

She said the parking machine was “completely out of order”, so she tried to pay using a phone app.

“I was trying to get reception and wasn’t able to, so I got my wi-fi within the store, and paid online through their app,” she said.

Miss Hudson did the same thing each day, paying the full £3.30 daily rate each time, until she received a PCN letter.

It asked her to pay £100 within 28 days, reduced to £60 if she paid within 14 days.

“I rang the company and explained the situation, and they basically said ‘you have to pay it’,” said Miss Hudson.

“So to keep them off my back I did pay the initial parking fine.”

Miss Hudson then received a further nine PCNs.

Although each of the nine outstanding PCNs was for £100, the amount has increased to £1,905.76 because Excel Parking has since added an extra £70 “debt recovery” charge to each one, interest of 8% per annum, a £115 court fee, and £80 costs for a legal representative.

In a statement, a spokesperson said: “The signage at the car park made it clear that it was ‘Pay on Entry’ and that there was a maximum period of five minutes to purchase the parking tariff.

“This is one of the specific terms and conditions for use of the car park. It is the driver’s responsibility to read and understand the terms.

“It seems that Miss Hudson is the author of her own misfortune.”

The BBC asked Excel Parking why it asks drivers to pay within five minutes, and the company said this was “to mitigate against abuse from motorists who simply use the car park to drop off and pick up passengers from adjacent retailers”.

However, Miss Hudson believes the company cannot justify penalising drivers like herself who pay for a full day’s parking, because they are not using the car park as a drop-off point.

Excel Parking also claimed Miss Hudson took “between 14 and 190 minutes to purchase each parking tariff by phone, an average of almost one hour”.

Miss Hudson said this claim was “absolutely ludicrous”, and if the payments took so long to go through, it was because the app did not process them straight away.

Excel also claims Miss Hudson could have paid using cash at the machine, and said “there was at least one working pay machine on site”.

However, Miss Hudson insists the only machine she saw was out of order, and said it had since been replaced.

Excel said Miss Hudson was given the option to appeal to the Independent Appeals Service (IAS) but chose not to do so.

Miss Hudson said she instead contacted Excel directly, and also a debt recovery service in an attempt to appeal, but was not successful.

Jumpin Fun, a business next to the car park, told the BBC hundreds of its customers had received PCN letters from Excel Parking.

Manager Nikola Slovakova has a folder on her computer which stores emails she has received from customers complaining.

In response to her concerns, Excel Parking said: “Some of the initial problems at Jumpin Fun related to customers who did not purchase the parking tariff until after they dropped off their children.

“Appropriate adjustments for customers were agreed with Jumpin Fun and implemented earlier this year through the introduction of touchscreens at the Jumpin Fun reception which provided them with a period of free parking, funded by Jumpin Fun.”

In relation to the touchscreens, Ms Slovakova said one parking tablet was installed in an attempt to stop customers getting PCNs.

However, she said this “caused more harm than it did good”, because some people still received PCNs after entering their details.

“Now they thought we were cooperating with Excel and we didn’t want to help them so it reflected even worse on us,” she said.

She said the tablet had since been removed, and Jumpin Fun instead warns customers about the car park with signs in reception, as well as on its website and in booking confirmation emails.

Derek Millard-Smith, a specialist lawyer in the UK parking sector, says parking on private land is generally governed by contract law.

“By entering that land and seeing the signage and parking there, you are deemed to have agreed to those terms, and if you then fail to adhere to those terms you can be issued with a Parking Charge Notice,” he said.

Mr Millard-Smith said PCNs were “a contractual debt”, which could ultimately be pursued through the civil courts and result in a County Court Judgement, which can affect your credit rating.

He urged anyone who believes they have wrongly received a PCN to appeal against it, either through POPLA or the Independent Appeals Service (IAS).

POPLA is the appeals service for PCNs which have been issued by car park operators, which are members of the British Parking Association (BPA).

The IAS is for PCNs issued by members of the International Parking Community (IPC), which includes Excel Parking.

Car park operators need to be members of either the BPA or IPC in order to obtain drivers’ details from the DVLA, and therefore issue PCNs by post.

Excel Parking has made a claim through the Civil National Business Centre asking Miss Hudson to pay £1,905.76.

The two parties had telephone mediation on 11 November but a settlement was not reached.

Miss Hudson has now been told there will be a court hearing within six months.

She said she was “very worried” but wanted to stand up for herself.

“I believe I have got a good case and I believe that it will help not just me, but potentially other people that have been in this situation,” she said.

“Hopefully the judge will understand my case and see my point of view.”

The World Beekeeping Awards have announced that there will not be any prizes for honey next year because of concerns about fraud in the global supply chain.

It’ll be the first time that the popular cupboard staple has been excluded from the event.

Apimondia – the International Federation of Beekeepers’ Associations – said in a statement that the change was “necessitated by the inability to have honey fully tested for adulteration”.

This decision comes after previous years’ events proved that “adequate testing was impossible” as well as recent investigations which showed the sticky situation that importers have found themselves in.

In March 2023, the European Commission found that 46% of sampled products (including all 10 samples from the UK) were suspected to be fraudulent – meaning they had likely been bulked out with cheaper sugar syrups.

Scientists at Cranfield University then said in August this year that they had found a way to detect fake honey products without opening the jar.

Project leader, Dr Anastasiadi, said: “Our study showed this is a sensitive, reliable and robust way to detect adulteration and confirm the origins of syrups.

“Having this consistent technique in the testing armoury could take the sting out of honey fraud.”

It’s too soon to make any promises for the World Beekeeping Awards at the 2025 Congress, though Apimondia said it still planned to celebrate honey in many ways.

“From Copenhagen forward we will look to celebrate honey by promoting regional honeys via a ‘honey map’”.

This map will supposedly allow beekeepers, scientists and interested parties alike to “discover the unique flavours of Scandinavian honeys. Explore how the (unique) geographical and climatic conditions in Scandinavia influence the taste of honey and get to know the stories behind the honey from [this] region.”

Jeff Pettis, the federation’s president, said that they were “continuing to fight for improvements to the testing” and that he wanted “the public to know that local honey is much less likely to be adulterated.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said: “We take any type of food fraud very seriously. We work closely with enforcement authorities to ensure that honey sold in the UK is not subject to adulteration, meets our high standards, and maintains a level playing field between honey producers.”

Visitors to Spain will face more paperwork from Monday when a new law requiring hotel owners and car hire firms to send personal information about their customers to the government comes into effect.

The rules, which also apply to rental properties and campsites, are being brought in for national security reasons, but tourism experts have raised privacy concerns and warned it could lead to delays at check-in desks.

The data required will include passport details, home addresses and methods of payment for those over the age of 14. It will be submitted to the Ministry of the Interior.

The Confederation of Spanish Hoteliers and Tourist Accommodation (CEHAT) said it was concerned at the impact on its members’ businesses and was considering legal action to challenge the rules.

Spain is the second most-popular destination for tourists in Europe, with more than 82m visitors in 2023, led by 17m from the UK.

The start date of the new rules – officially known as Royal Decree 933/2021 – was pushed back from 1 October to 2 December, to give the industry more time to prepare.

Both tourists and Spanish residents will be required to provide information, which will also include phone numbers, email addresses and the number of travellers.

Businesses will need to be registered with the Ministry of the Interior, report the data collected daily and keep a digital record of the information for three years and face fines of between €100 and €30,000 (£80-£25,000) for breaches.

Meanwhile, Airbnb has told property owners renting out accommodation through its website they will need to be registered with the Spanish government and collect data from their customers.

In a statement, the Ministry of the Interior said the regulations were “justified for the general interest for the security of citizens against the threat of terrorism and other serious offences committed by criminal organisations”.

But the hotel industry body CEHAT said the the change “puts the viability of the sector in serious danger”.

It said both tourists and Spanish citizens will have to deal with “complex and tedious administrative procedures, compromising their accommodation experience”.

It added hoteliers were being are forced to comply with “confusing and disproportionate regulations” that go against other European directives related to data protection and payment systems.

Travel journalist Simon Calder told the BBC the Spanish government was concerned about organised crime and terrorism and “simply want to know… who’s coming and going, where they are staying and what cars they are renting”.

It is expected that many accommodation and car hire providers will automate the collection of data through online registration.

Mr Calder envisaged there would be “quite a lot of standing around at reception” when the rules kick in but said it was “very low season” at the moment and that would give businesses a chance to get used to the system.

Gibraltar-based Penelope Bielckus, travel content creator at The Flyaway Girl blog, said the new rules “add another layer of paperwork that can feel like a chore when all you want is to relax on holiday”.

And she agreed they “might slow things down a bit, especially at check-in, since there’s now more paperwork to handle”.

But she said while Spain’s level of data collection “does feel stricter” than elsewhere, that hotels and car hire companies already collect much of the information required from travellers.

“We’re still waiting to see how this will affect things like last-minute hotel bookings or car hire,” she added. “Hopefully, it won’t cause any major problems, but it’s definitely something to keep an eye on in case of any changes.”

US President-elect Donald Trump has picked a former aide, Kash Patel, to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an agency Patel has often criticised.

A former US defence department chief of staff in the first Trump administration, Patel has been a steadfast supporter of the incoming Republican president.

For Patel to take the job, the current FBI director Christopher Wray would need to resign or be fired – although Trump did not call on him to do so in his post.

Separately, Trump said he plans to nominate Chad Chronister, sheriff of Florida’s Hillsborough County, as head of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Patel and Chronister join Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi in filling out Trump’s law enforcement picks.

Also on Saturday, Trump announced he had has selected Charles Kushner to be ambassador to France.

Mr Kushner is a real-estate developer and the father of Jared Kushner, husband of his daughter Ivanka Trump.

The nomination appears to be the first administration position that Trump has formally offered to a relative since his re-election.

All three choices will have to be confirmed by a majority vote in the US Senate.

Patel is Trump loyalist who shares the president-elect’s suspicion of government institutions.

“Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending justice, and protecting the American people,” Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media platform, adding that Patel was “an advocate for truth, accountability, and the constitution”.

His past proposals have included “dramatically” limiting the FBI’s authority. In his memoir, Government Gangsters, Patel called for an eradication of what he called “government tyranny” within the FBI by firing “the top ranks”.

Patel would replace current FBI director Christopher Wray, who Trump appointed in 2017 for a 10-year term.

But Wray fell out of favour with the president elect when the FBI assisted with a federal probe into Trump’s handling of classified records, a case that has since been dropped.

In a statement following Trump’s announcement, the FBI said: “Every day, the men and women of the FBI continue to work to protect Americans from a growing array of threats.

“Director Wray’s focus remains on the men and women of the FBI, the people we do the work with, and the people we do the work for.”

The son of Indian immigrants, Patel is a former defence lawyer and federal prosecutor who caught Trump’s eye after he became a senior counsel to the House of Representatives intelligence committee in 2017.

He was hired by Trump as a national security aide in 2019 and a year later was appointed chief of staff to the head of the Pentagon.

As well as his 2023 memoir, he has published two pro-Trump children’s books.

One of the titles, The Plot Against the King, features a villain, Hillary Queenton, trying to depose King Donald, who is aided by a wizard called Kash the Distinguished Discoverer.

Another villain is called Keeper Komey – a thinly-veiled reference to former FBI Director James Comey – and his “spying slugs”, according to the book’s blurb.

Patel has often railed against the so-called “deep state”, which some Americans believe is an unelected bureaucratic machine that secretly runs the country for sinister purposes.

Patel has also excoriated the media, which he has called “the most powerful enemy the United States has ever seen”.

He is also on the board of Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns the incoming president’s social media platform Truth Social.

Patel reportedly has had a consulting contract with the company that paid him at least $120,000 a year.

Chronister also comes with a long background in law enforcement.

He has worked in law enforcement in Florida for 32 years, according to his official bio, and he has served as the top law enforcement officer in Hillsborough County, Florida, since 2017.

On social media, Trump praised Chronister’s experience and reiterated his focus on drugs and the US border.

“As DEA Administrator, Chad will work with our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to secure the border, stop the flow of fentanyl, and other illegal drugs, across the southern border, and SAVE LIVES”, Trump wrote.

Writing on social media, Chronister said it was “the honor of a lifetime to be nominated” by Trump.

“I am deeply humbled by this opportunity to serve our nation.”

The memories began rushing back as Kenneth strolled through Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, once a focal point for the city’s resistance to China.

As a child, Kenneth would buy calligraphy posters from pro-democracy politicians at the annual Lunar New Year fair.

Then there were the protest marches he joined as a teenager, that would always start here before winding their way through the city. When he was just 12, he began attending the park’s massive vigils for the Tiananmen massacre – a taboo in mainland China, but commemorated openly in Hong Kong.

Those vigils have ended now. The politicians’ stalls at the fair are gone, protests have been silenced and pro-democracy campaigners jailed. Kenneth feels his political coming-of-age – and Hong Kong’s – is being erased.

“People still carry on with life… but you can feel the change bit by bit,” said the former activist, who did not want to reveal his real name when he spoke to us.

“Our city’s character is disappearing.”

On the surface Hong Kong appears to be the same, its packed trams still rumbling down bustling streets, its vibrant neon-lit chaos undimmed.

But look closer and there are signs the city has changed – from the skyscrapers lighting up every night with exultations of China, the motherland, to the chatter of mainland Mandarin increasingly heard alongside Hong Kong’s native Cantonese.

It’s impossible to know how many of Hong Kong’s more than seven million people welcome Beijing’s grip. But hundreds of thousands have taken part in protests in the past decade since a pro-democracy movement erupted in 2014.

Not everyone supported it, but few would argue Beijing crushed it. As a turbulent decade draws to a close, hopes for a freer Hong Kong have withered.

China says it has steadied a volatile city. Hundreds have been jailed under a sweeping national security law (NSL), which also drove thousands of disillusioned and wary Hongkongers abroad, including activists who feared or fled arrest. Others, like Kenneth, have stayed and keep a low profile.

But in many of them lives the memory of a freer Hong Kong – a place they are fighting to remember in defiance of Beijing’s remaking of their city.

When Hong Kong, a former British colony, was returned to China in 1997, it was under the assurance that the city would keep some rights, including free speech, freedom of assembly and rule of law for 50 years. But as Beijing’s power grew, so did the disquiet within the city’s pro-democracy camp.

In September 2014, tens of thousands of protesters began to stage mass sit-ins in downtown Hong Kong, demanding fully democratic elections. It propelled a new generation of pro-democracy campaigners to prominence – such as Joshua Wong, then a 17-year-old student, and Benny Tai, a college professor, who called the movement Occupy Central.

It also seeded the ground for more explosive protests in 2019, which were triggered by Beijing’s proposal to extradite locals to the mainland. The plan was scrapped but the protests intensified over several months as calls grew for more democracy, becoming the most serious challenge to Beijing’s authority in Hong Kong.

“Without Benny Tai, there would have been no Occupy Central,” says Chan Kin-man, who co-founded the campaign with Tai and Reverend Chu Yiu-ming.

“He had the temper of scholars and spoke his mind… that’s why he was bold enough to push for changes and think about big ideas. It is always people [like this] who change history.”

Chan and Rev Chu are both exiles in Taiwan now. Chan moved to Taipei in 2021, after serving 11 months in jail for inciting public nuisance in his role in Occupy Central. He is now a fellow at a local research institute.

Tai is still in Hong Kong, where he will spend the next decade behind bars.

Earlier this month he was sentenced to jail for subversion, along with more than 40 other pro-democracy campaigners including Wong, many of whom have been in jail since their arrest in early 2021. As Wong left the courtroom, he shouted: “I love Hong Kong.”

The following day 76-year-old billionaire Jimmy Lai, a fierce critic of China, testified at his trial for allegedly colluding with foreign forces. Frail but defiant, he told the court his now-defunct newspaper Apple Daily had only espoused the values of Hong Kong’s people: “Pursuit of democracy and freedom of speech”.

The trials have passed quietly, in stark contrast to the events that led to them. Small signs of protest outside the court were quickly shut down – a woman sobbing about her son’s sentence was taken away by police.

Beijing defends the restrictions – including the NSL under which the trials are happening – as essential for stability. It says the West or its allies have no right to question its laws or how it applies them.

But critics accuse China of reneging on the deal it struck in 1997. They say it has weakened the city’s courts and muzzled the once resounding cry for democracy in Hong Kong.

Chan has watched these events unfold from afar with a heavy heart.

After 2014, there had still been the possibility of change, he said. Now, “a lot of things have become impossible… Hong Kong has become no different from other Chinese cities”.

Faced with this reality after campaigning for democracy for more than a decade, “you can say that I have failed in everything I have done in my life”, he said with a wry smile.

But still he perseveres. Besides teaching classes on Chinese society, he is writing a book about Occupy Central, collecting items for an archive of Hong Kong’s protest scene, organising conferences, and giving virtual lectures on democracy and politics.

These efforts “make me feel that I haven’t given up on Hong Kong. I don’t feel like I have abandoned it”.

Yet, there are moments when he grapples with his decision to leave. He is happier in Taiwan, but he also feels “a sense of loss”.

“Am I still together with other Hongkongers, facing the same challenges as them?”

“If you are not breathing the air here, you don’t really know what’s happening… if you don’t feel the pulse here, it means you are truly gone,” said Kenneth, as he continued his walk through Victoria Park.

With friends leaving the city in droves in the last few years, he has lost count of the number of farewell parties he’s attended. Still, he insists on staying: “This is where my roots are.”

What irritates him is the rhetoric from those who leave, that the Hong Kong they knew has died. “Hong Kong continues to exist. Its people are still here! So how can they say that Hong Kong is dead?”

But, he acknowledged, there have been dramatic changes. Hongkongers now have to think twice about what they say out loud, Kenneth said.

Many are now adapting to a “normalised state of surveillance”. There are red lines, “but it is very difficult to ascertain them”.

Instead of campaigning openly, activists now write petition letters. Rallies, marches and protests are definitely off-limits, he added. But many, like Kenneth, are wary of taking part in any activism, because they fear they’ll be arrested.

A t-shirt, social media posts and picture books have fallen foul of the law recently, landing their owners in jail for sedition.

These days Kenneth goes out less frequently. “The contrast is so drastic now. I don’t want to remember what happened in the past.”

Still, as he walked out of the park and headed to the Admiralty district, more memories unspooled.

As he neared the government headquarters, he pointed to the spot where he choked on tear gas for the first time, on 28 September 2014.

That day, the police fired 87 rounds of tear gas on unarmed protesters, an act that enraged demonstrators and galvanised the pro-democracy movement.

As the protests deepened and tear gas became a common sight, many sheltered behind umbrellas, spawning a new moniker – the Umbrella Movement.

The final stop was his alma mater, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, also known as PolyU. It was a key battleground during the 2019 demonstrations that saw protesters battling police on the streets, hurling projectiles against tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets.

Five years on, the PolyU entrance where students fended off the police with bricks and petrol bombs in a fiery showdown has been reconstructed. A fountain which saw the most intense clashes has been demolished.

Like elsewhere in Hong Kong, the campus seemed to have been scrubbed of its disobedient past. Kenneth believed it was because the university “doesn’t want people to remember certain things”.

Then, he darted away to a quiet corner. Hidden beneath the bushes was a low wall pockmarked with holes and gobs of concrete. It was impossible to tell what they were. But Kenneth believes these were traces of the battles which escaped the purge of memories.

“I don’t believe we will forget what happened,” he said. “Forgetting the past is a form of betrayal.”

At a Tesco’s café in Watford in the UK, Kasumi Law remembered what she missed about her old home.

“I never thought I’d love the sea in Hong Kong so much. I only realised this when I arrived in the UK,” she said, as she tucked into a full English breakfast. Unlike the cold and dark ocean surrounding Britain, “in Hong Kong the sea is so shiny, because there are so many buildings… I didn’t realise how beautiful our city is”.

Kasumi’s decision to move to the UK with her husband and young daughter had stemmed from an unease that crept up on her over the previous decade. The Occupy Central protests began just months after her daughter was born in 2014.

In the following years, as Beijing’s grip appeared to tighten – student activists were jailed and booksellers disappeared – Kasumi’s discomfort grew.

“Staying in Hong Kong was, I wouldn’t say, unsafe,” she said. “But every day, little by little, there was a feeling of something not being right.”

Then Hong Kong erupted in protest again in 2019. As Beijing cracked down, the UK offered a visa scheme for Hongkongers born before the 1997 handover, and Kasumi and her husband agreed it was time to go for the sake of their daughter.

They settled in the town of Watford near London, where her husband found a job in IT while Kasumi became a stay-at-home mum.

But she had never lived abroad before, and she struggled with a deep homesickness which she documented in emotional video diaries on YouTube. One of them even went viral last year, striking a chord with some Hongkongers while others criticised her for choosing to emigrate.

Eventually it was too much to bear, and she returned to Hong Kong for a visit last year. Over two months she visited childhood haunts like a theme park and a science museum, scoffed down her mum’s homecooked fuzzy melon with vermicelli and stir fried clams, and treated herself to familiar delights such as egg tarts and melon-flavoured soy milk.

But the Hong Kong she remembered had also changed. Her mum looked older. Her favourite shops in the Ladies Market had closed down.

Sitting by the harbour at Tsim Sha Tsui one night, she was happy to be reunited with the twinkling sea she had missed so much. Then she realised most of the people around her were speaking in Mandarin.

Tears streamed down her face. “When I looked out at the sea it looked familiar, but when I looked around at the people around me, it felt strange.”

Kasumi wonders when she would visit again. With the passing of a new security law this year – Article 23 – her friends have advised her to delete social media posts from past protests before returning.

It is a far cry from the fearlessness she remembers from 2019, when she brought her daughter to the protests and they marched on the streets with thousands of people, united in their defiance.

“It’s too late to turn back,” she said. “I feel if I go back to Hong Kong I might not be used to life there, to be honest.

“My daughter is happy here. When I see her, I think it’s worth it. I want her world to be bigger.”

Kasumi’s world is bigger too – she has found a job and made new friends. But even as she builds a new life in the UK, she remains determined to preserve the Hongkonger in her – and her child.

Kasumi and her husband only speak in Cantonese to their daughter, and the family often watches Cantonese films together. Her daughter doesn’t yet understand the significance of the 2019 protests she marched in, nor the movement that began in 2014, when she was born. But Kasumi plans to explain when she is older.

The seeds Kasumi is planting are already taking root. She is particularly proud of the way her daughter responds to people who call her Chinese. “She gets angry, and she will argue with them,” Kasumi said, with a smile.

“She always tells people, ‘I’m not Chinese, I’m a Hongkonger’.”

Earlier this week one of America’s most wanted men was finally arrested in rural north Wales having spent the past 21 years on the run.

Daniel Andreas San Diego, 46, was wanted by the FBI for allegedly bombing two office buildings in San Francisco in 2003.

But why would the suspect, who was born Berkeley, California, choose to hide out in Maenan in the remote outskirts of the sleepy market town of Llanrwst in the Conwy valley?

And of all the countries in the world, why Wales?

“It’s beautiful… if you’re trying to evade capture, you might as well be somewhere that’s stunning and beautiful,” said former undercover detective Peter Bleksley.

Peter, who is probably best known for his time capturing make-believe fugitives on Channel 4’s TV show Hunted, said picking somewhere so remote had pros and cons.

“Being remote you can be living in a property where neighbours can’t see you, the public’s prying eyes are a long way away and you’re not going to face uncomfortable questions like you might do if you were living in a terraced house in a city, for example,” he said.

He said there would also be benefits to choosing to hide in a big city.

“You could be anonymous because people don’t talk to each other, they sit cheek by jowl on the bus or on the tube and still don’t speak to each other, if you say hello to people they think you’re a nutter, so cities are sometimes favoured because of the anonymity they can offer,” he said.

“The flip side of that, of course, is CCTV is everywhere in our major cities, which is a concern for fugitives.”

Mr San Diego, who the FBI has previously called an “animal rights extremist”, was held after an operation backed by counter terrorist police and North Wales Police on Monday.

He now faces extradition to the US after being arrested at a property in a remote rural area near woodland in north Wales.

Earlier this week Aled Evans told how he unknowingly sold his home to Mr San Diego.

He said in August 2023, using the name Danny Webb, Mr San Diego had paid £425,000 for the white villa with a balcony offering striking views of rolling hills and a well-manicured garden the house near Llanrwst in August 2023 using the name Danny Webb.

Reflecting on recent events he has realised it was the ideal location “if you wanted to keep your head down”.

Peter believes it was most likely the purchase of this property that marked the start of the end of Mr San Diego’s life on the run.

“Maybe purchasing that property created the electronic footprint opportunity for the FBI to exploit, which therefore led to his capture,” he said.

“Gone are the days when drug dealers could walk into an estate agents with carrier bags full of cash and literally go ‘I’ll buy that flat or I’ll buy that house’ because of course we have money laundering regulations, banks have to ask certain questions of people if they transfer a sizable sum of money.

“If anybody involved in that process, be it estate agent bank, solicitors, had any suspicions as to the money trail and they flagged it up to the authorities, that would start an investigation.”

Although he has spent a career hunting down others, Peter has some experience of what it is like to live a life in hiding.

While working at Scotland Yard’s undercover unit his identity was exposed and he had to go into witness protection.

“Living a life continually looking over your shoulder is very unpleasant,” he said.

“You’re always fearful of that knock on the door… it can be very draining, although the longer you do it, the more you get used to it.”

He said living that way for an extended period of time could lead to sloppy mistakes.

“That’s the danger, and, of course, keeping your guard up all the time requires constant vigilance, which is draining… maybe his guard did drop just a little bit.”

Through his career, Peter has had quite the insight into the behaviour of fugitives.

“I’ve caught real ones when I was a detective and I caught many pretend ones when I was the chief in Hunted,” he said.

So having seen the mistakes that lead to capture, what advice would he give to someone who wants to remain in hiding?

“Be nice to people,” he said.

“If you’re nice, they’ll feed you, they’ll clothe you, they’ll take you where you want to go, they’ll give you cash or other financial means.

“If you’re not, if you’re unpleasant and you upset people, they’ll pick up the phone and grass you up.”

He has this theories but Peter is eager to find out the truth about what led to Mr San Diego’s arrest.

“I do hope we get to find out how it was caught, how it all unravelled because it’ll be great,” he said.

“And I suspect Netflix are all over this story already.”

Maenan sits just off the A470, one of the main roads running through north Wales, about 10 miles (16km) from Conwy.

It is a sprawling community of farms and isolated cottages, many of which are now holiday homes or holiday lets. There is no shop or village pub.

Many of the properties that you pass on the way to Llidiart y Coed appear to be holiday homes.

The FBI has accused Mr San Diego of being “an animal rights extremist” involved in a series of bombings in San Francisco.

The first bombing happened in August 2003, outside the Chiron Life Science Center in Emeryville, California.

A second bomb was found at the site by authorities but exploded before it could be defused.

The agency said that raised the possibility the device was planted specifically to target first responders.

Less than a month later, in September 2003, a nail bomb exploded outside a nutritional products corporation based in Pleasanton, California.

He became the first “domestic terrorist” to be added to the agency’s most wanted terrorist list, created by then-President George W Bush in October 2001 in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

Huge flooding caused by heavy rain in Malaysia and neighbouring Thailand has killed at least 12 people, officials say.

More than 122,000 people have been forced out of their homes in northern Malaysia, while in southern Thailand, around 13,000 others have also been displaced.

There are fears the number could rise, as heavy rain and storm warnings remain in place.

Emergency services personnel have been deployed to help rescue stranded residents and shelters are being provided.

The flooding, which began earlier in the week, has seen thousands of residents evacuated in both nations.

Videos on social media and local news show cars and houses submerged, and people wading through waist-deep water.

One video, filmed in Thailand’s Sateng Nok district, showed rescuers carrying a baby out from a roof of a flooded home.

Flooding has impacted nearly 534,000 households in southern Thailand, disaster officials said, and two hospitals had to close to prevent floodwaters from damaging medical facilities.

Six provinces have declared a disaster due to the floods.

The government has designated 50 million baht ($1.7m; £1.3m) in flood relief for each province, with Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra saying the goal is to “restore normalcy as quickly as possible”.

In Malaysia, the flooding is mostly concentrated on the north-eastern state of Kelantan, which borders Thailand.

There, the National Disaster Management Agency says the evacuees account for 63% of the total number.

One resident in the town of Pasir Puteh in Kelantan said her area had been flooded since Wednesday.

“The water has already reached my house corridor and is just two inches away from coming inside,” Zamrah Majid told AFP news agency.

Another resident of the same town said he and his family have been isolated by the floods.

“There’s no way in or out of for any vehicles to enter my neighbourhood,” Muhammad Zulkarnain told AFP.

Another eight states in Malaysia have also been affected.

So far, the number of those displaced surpasses that of 2014, which saw one of the worst floods in the country.

Provisions for disaster management have been sent to Terengganu and Kelantan State Governments, according to the prime minister’s office.

On Friday, he barred his cabinet members from going on leave so they can focus on the disaster.

The Malaysian Meteorological Department warned that heavy rains will continue until Sunday in some states, while its Thai counterpart warned that “very heavy rain” could continue through next week.

Both countries experience monsoon rains around this time of the year, and flooding isn’t uncommon.

In 2021, Malaysia faced some of its worse flooding in decades, which killed at least 14 people.

Ten years earlier, in 2011, widespread flooding across Thailand killed at least 500 people and damaged millions of homes.

The family of beauty-salon owner Fathi Hussein are deep in mourning at their home in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, following her horrific death at sea after a deal she struck with migrant smugglers to take her to the French island of Mayotte went wrong.

“We were told by survivors that she died from hunger,” the 26-year-old’s stepsister Samira tells the BBC by phone.

The family learned from them that Fathi died in one of two small boats, adrift in the Indian Ocean for about 14 days, after being abandoned by the smugglers.

“People were eating raw fish and drinking sea water, which she refused. They [the survivors] said she started hallucinating before she died. And after that they threw her body into the ocean,” Samira tells the BBC.

Fathi’s family learned of her death from fellow Somalis who had been rescued by fishermen off the coast of Madagascar about a week ago.

The International Migration Organization (IMO) said that more than 70 people were on the two boats when they capsized, claiming the lives of 24, while 48 survived.

Hundreds of migrants are believed to die each year trying to make it to the tiny French island, located about 300km (186 miles) north-west of Madagascar.

On 1 November, Fathi flew from Mogadishu to the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa, and a few days later left by boat for Mayotte – a perilous journey of more than 1,100 km across the Indian Ocean.

Samira says they are baffled by Fathi’s decision as she had a successful business in Mogadishu, and lived in the middle-class neighbourhood of Yaqshid.

Fathi hid her plan from the family, sharing her secret only with their younger sister, telling her that she had paid the smugglers money she had made running her beauty salon, Samira says.

“She used to hate the ocean. I don’t know why and how she took that decision. I wish I could give her a hug,” she adds.

Survivors told Fathi’s family that the beauty salon owner and all the other passengers were in one big boat when they left Mombasa.

But during the journey, the smugglers said the boat had developed mechanical problems and would have to turn back.

Then before returning to Kenya, the smugglers put all the migrants on two small boats, assuring them: “You will reach Mayotte in three hours.”

But, says Samira, “it turned into 14 days” and led to the death of her sister and others.

Some of the survivors suspect that the smugglers deliberately left them stranded in the sea as they had already been paid, and had no intention of taking them to Mayotte, says Samira.

IMO regional official Frantz Celestin tells the BBC it is increasingly common for migrants to risk their lives trying to reach the French island.

“Just recently 25 people perished doing the same journey, usually transiting through Comoros and Madagascar. Generally this year has been the deadliest year for migrants,” he says.

The BBC has spoken to five Somali migrants who have tried to reach Mayotte.

They told us there are two primary routes from Somalia to the island.

Some travel by boat from Mombasa via the Comoros islands, which are much closer to Mayotte, while those with more money fly to Ethiopia and then to Madagascar because Somali passport-holders qualify for a visa on arrival.

From there, they take a small boat to Mayotte, hoping it will open the door to gaining a French passport and access to Europe.

One of the lucky few who has survived this perilous route is Khadar Mohamed.

He arrived in Mayotte 11 months ago but clearly remembers the harrowing ordeal he went through to reach the island from Madagascar.

“When I came to Madagascar, I was taken to the boat-owner’s house. We stayed there for 14 days. We were a mix of Somali and Madagascans,” he says.

The group of those waiting grew to 70. They were then put on a boat and taken via a river out to the open ocean.

Khadar says he left Somalia because of the threat posed by al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda affiliate fighting to overthrow the government.

“I left my country for my safety. I was a business owner, and I couldn’t do my work because of al-Shabab,” he says.

The families of some of the victims say the smugglers are paid about $6,000 (£4,700) to travel from Mombasa to Mayotte, with half the money given up front.

The BBC has seen accounts on social media platform TikTok, advertising similar journeys to Mayotte and even further to other parts of Europe.

The adverts claim operators can take people to Mayotte using large tourist boats, but victims’ families say the smugglers are using much smaller fishing boats called “kwassa”.

The French government has not commented on the recent tragedy.

Somalia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Moalim Fiqi, says that his government is making efforts to contact the survivors and to bring them back home.

Fathi’s family say they reported to the authorities a smuggler they suspect their daughter had contact with in Mogadishu and he was arrested, but has since been released on bail.

Samira says the pain of not knowing how her sister felt in her final moments will stay with her forever.

“I wish she could talk to me and tell me about her decision. She could have said bye to me… now, I don’t know how to process her death,” she says.

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Tamuna Museridze took a deep breath and made the phone call she had dreamed of since finding out that she might be adopted.

She was calling the woman she believed was her biological mother. She knew it might not lead to a fairy tale reunion – but she didn’t expect the response to be cold and angry.

“She started screaming, shouting – she said she hadn’t given birth to a child. She didn’t want anything to do with me,” Tamuna recalls, explaining she felt more surprised than upset by the response.

“I was ready for anything, but her reaction was beyond anything I could imagine.”

Tamuna wasn’t prepared to walk away just yet. She wanted to know the circumstances of her adoption, and there was something else she wanted that only her mother could give her – the name of her father.

Tamuna’s search had begun in 2016, after the woman who raised her died. Clearing out her house, Tamuna found a birth certificate with her own name on it but the wrong birth date, and she started to suspect she was adopted. After doing some research, she set up a Facebook group called Vedzeb, or I’m Searching, hoping to find her birth parents.

Instead, she uncovered a baby trafficking scandal in Georgia that has affected tens of thousands of lives. Over many decades, parents were lied to and told their newborn babies had died – the infants were then sold.

Tamuna is a journalist and her work has reunited hundreds of families, yet – until now – she couldn’t solve the mystery of her own origins and wondered if she too had been stolen as a child.

“I was a journalist on this story, but it was a personal mission for me as well,” she says.

The breakthrough in her search had come in the summer, when she received a message through her Facebook group. It was from someone who lived in rural Georgia, who said they knew a woman who had concealed a pregnancy and given birth in Tbilisi in September 1984. That’s around the time Tamuna was born – a date she had shared publicly.

The person believed the woman was Tamuna’s birth mother – and crucially they gave a name.

• Georgia’s stolen children: Twins sold at birth reunited by TikTok video

Tamuna immediately searched for her online but when she couldn’t find anything, she decided to post an appeal on Facebook asking if anyone knew her.

A woman soon responded, saying the woman who had concealed the pregnancy was her own aunt. She asked Tamuna to take the post down but she agreed to do a DNA test.

While they were waiting for the results, Tamuna made the phone call to her mother.

A week later, the DNA results arrived, indicating that Tamuna and the woman on Facebook were indeed cousins. Armed with this evidence, Tamuna managed to convince her mother to acknowledge the truth and reveal the name of her father. It was a man called Gurgen Khorava.

“The first two months were shocking, I couldn’t believe these things were happening to me,” she recalls, “I couldn’t believe I had found them.”

Once Tamuna had Gurgen’s name, she quickly tracked him down on Facebook. It turned out that he had been following her story on social media – her work reconnecting families is widely known across Georgia.

Tamuna was amazed to find that he had “been in my friend list for three years”. He just hadn’t realised he was a part of her story.

“He didn’t even know my birth mother had been pregnant,” says Tamuna. “It was a huge surprise for him.”

They soon arranged to meet in his hometown of Zugdidi in western Georgia – about 160 miles (260km) from where she lives in Tbilisi.

Looking back, Tamuna thinks she was in a state of shock, but as she walked up to Gurgen’s garden gate, she felt surprisingly calm.

When the 72-year-old appeared, they hugged, then stopped to take a moment to look at each other, smiling.

“It was strange, the moment he looked at me, he knew that I was his daughter,” she recalls. “I had so many mixed emotions.”

She had a lot of questions and didn’t know where to start. “We just sat together, watching each other and trying to find something in common,” she says.

As the two of them chatted, they realised they shared a lot of interests – Gurgen had once been a renowned dancer at the State Ballet of Georgia, and was delighted to learn that Tamuna’s daughters – his granddaughters – shared his passion.

“They both love dancing, and so does my husband,” she says with a smile.

Gurgen invited his entire family to his home to meet Tamuna, introducing her to a large group of new relatives – half siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles. The family agreed there was a strong resemblance between them. “Out of all his children, I look the most like my father,” she says.

They spent an evening sharing stories, eating traditional Georgian food, and singing while Gurgen played the accordion.

Even though she had now met her father, Tamuna still had a niggling question: had she – like thousands of other Georgians – been stolen from her mother at birth and sold? Her adoptive parents were no longer alive so she couldn’t turn to them for answers.

She finally got a chance to ask her birth mother in October. A Polish TV company was filming a documentary about Tamuna and took her to meet her mother, who agreed to talk to her in private.

Unlike many people Tamuna has helped to reunite, she discovered that she had not been a stolen child herself. Instead, her mother had given her up and kept the secret for 40 years.

Her mother and father were not in a relationship and had only had a brief encounter. Her mother – overwhelmed by shame – chose to hide her pregnancy. In September 1984, she travelled to Tbilisi, telling people she was going for surgery, and instead gave birth to a daughter. She stayed there until arrangements were made for Tamuna’s adoption.

“It was painful to learn that I spent 10 days alone with her before the adoption. I try not to think about that,” Tamuna reflects.

She says that her mother asked her to lie and tell people she had been stolen. “She told me that if I would not say that I was stolen, everything would end between us… and I said that I couldn’t do that.”

Tamuna feels this would be unfair to all the parents whose babies were stolen. “If I lie, nobody’s going to believe those mothers any more,” she explains.

Her mother then asked her to leave the house and they have not spoken since.

“Would I do it all again?” she reflects. “Of course I would, I found out so much about my new family.”

Georgia’s Stolen Children

Twins Amy and Ano were taken from their mother as babies and sold. They found out about each other by chance and soon discovered thousands of others in Georgia who were also stolen from hospitals.

Watch more on this story on the BBC iPlayer (UK only).

You can also watch the documentary on YouTube.

“I had to work while I was nine months pregnant,” says Sophie, a sex worker in Belgium. “I was having sex with clients one week before giving birth.”

She juggles her job with being a mother of five – which is “really hard”.

When Sophie had her fifth child by Caesarean, she was told she needed bed rest for six weeks. But she says that wasn’t an option, and she went back to work immediately.

“I couldn’t afford to stop because I needed the money.”

Her life would have been much easier had she had a right to maternity leave, paid by her employer.

Under a new law in Belgium – the first of its kind in the world – this will now be the case. Sex workers will be entitled to official employment contracts, health insurance, pensions, maternity leave and sick days. Essentially, it will be treated like any other job.

“It’s an opportunity for us to exist as people,” Sophie says.

There are tens of millions of sex workers worldwide. Sex work was decriminalised in Belgium in 2022 and is legal in several countries including Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Turkey. But establishing employment rights and contracts is a global first.

“This is radical, and it’s the best step we have seen anywhere in the world so far,” says Erin Kilbride, a researcher at Human Rights Watch. “We need every country to be moving in that direction.”

Critics say the trade causes trafficking, exploitation and abuse – which this law will not prevent.

“It is dangerous because it normalises a profession that is always violent at its core,” says Julia Crumière, a volunteer with Isala – an NGO that helps sex workers on the streets in Belgium.

For many sex workers, the job is a necessity, and the law could not come soon enough.

Mel was horrified when she was forced to give a client oral sex without a condom, when she knew a sexually transmitted infection (STI) was going round the brothel. But she felt she had no option.

“My choice was either to spread the disease, or make no money.”

She had become an escort when she was 23 – she needed money, and quickly started earning beyond expectations. She thought she had struck gold, but the experience with the STI brought her sharply back to earth.

Mel will now be able to refuse any client or sexual act she feels uncomfortable with – meaning she could have handled that situation differently.

“I could have pointed the finger at my madam [employer] and said: ‘You’re violating these terms and this is how you should treat me.’ I would have been legally protected.”

Belgium’s decision to change the law was the result of months of protests in 2022, prompted by the lack of state support during the Covid pandemic.

One of those at the forefront was Victoria, president of the Belgian Union of Sex Workers (UTSOPI) and previously an escort for 12 years.

For her, it was a personal fight. Victoria regards prostitution as a social service, with sex being only about 10% of what she does.

“It’s giving people attention, listening to their stories, eating cake with them, dancing to waltz music,” she explains. “Ultimately, it’s about loneliness.”

But the illegality of her job before 2022 raised significant challenges. She worked in unsafe conditions, with no choice over her clients and her agency taking a big cut of her earnings.

In fact, Victoria says she was raped by a client who had become obsessed with her.

She went to a police station, where she says the female officer was “so hard” on her.

“She told me sex workers can’t be raped. She made me feel it was my fault, because I did that job.” Victoria left the station crying.

Every sex worker we spoke to told us that at some point they had been pressured to do something against their will.

Because of that, Victoria fiercely believes this new law will improve their lives.

“If there is no law and your job is illegal, there are no protocols to help you. This law gives people the tools to make us safer.”

Pimps who control sex work will be allowed to operate legally under the new law – provided they follow strict rules. Anyone who has been convicted of a serious crime will not be allowed to employ sex workers.

“I think many businesses will have to shut down, because a lot of employers have a criminal record,” says Kris Reekmans. He and his wife Alexandra run a massage parlour on Love Street in the small town of Bekkevoort.

The massages they offer clients include “tantra” and “double pleasure”.

It is fully booked when we visit – not what we were expecting for a Monday morning. We are shown meticulously furnished rooms with massage beds, fresh towels and robes, hot tubs and a swimming pool.

Kris and his wife employ 15 sex workers, and pride themselves on treating them with respect, protecting them and paying them good salaries.

“I hope the bad employers will be shut out and the good people, who want to do this profession honestly, will stay – and the more the better,” he says.

Erin Kilbride from Human Rights Watch is of similar mind – and says, by putting restrictions on employers, the new law will significantly “cut away at the power they have over sex workers”.

But Julia Crumière says the majority of the women she helps just want help to leave the profession and get a “normal job” – not labour rights.

“It’s about not being outside in the freezing weather and having sex with strangers who pay to access your body.”

Under Belgium’s new law, each room where sexual services take place must be equipped with an alarm button that will connect a sex worker with their “reference person”.

But Julia believes there is no way to make sex work safe.

“In what other job would you need a panic button? It’s not the oldest profession in the world, it’s the oldest exploitation in the world.”

How to regulate the sex industry remains a divisive issue globally. But for Mel, bringing it out of the shadows can only help women.

“I am very proud that Belgium is so far ahead,” she says. “I have a future now.”

Syrian government forces have withdrawn from the city of Aleppo following an offensive by rebels opposed to the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

The army acknowledged that rebels had entered “large parts” of the city, the country’s second largest, but vowed to stage a counterattack.

The offensive marks the most significant fighting in Syria’s civil war in recent years.

More than 300 people, including at least 20 civilians, have been killed since it began on Wednesday, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

Speaking on Saturday, President Assad vowed to “defend [Syria’s] stability and territorial integrity in the face of all terrorists and their backers”.

“[The country] is capable, with the help of its allies and friends, of defeating and eliminating them, no matter how intense their terrorist attacks are,” his office quoted him as saying.

The civil war, which has left around half a million people dead, began in 2011 after the Assad government responded to pro-democracy protests with a brutal crackdown.

The conflict has been largely dormant since a ceasefire agreed in 2020, but opposition forces have maintained control of the north-western city of Idlib and much of the surrounding province.

Idlib sits just 55km (34 miles) from Aleppo, which itself was a rebel stronghold until it fell to government forces in 2016.

The latest offensive has been led by an Islamist militant group known at Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions backed by Turkey.

HTS was regarded as one of the most effective and deadly of the groups fighting the Assad government and was already the dominant force in Idlib.

The rebels have taken control of Aleppo’s airport and dozens of nearby towns, according to the SOHR.

They also announced a curfew which came into force at 17:00 local time (14:00 GMT) and will remain in place until Sunday.

The Syrian army said rebels had launched “a broad attack from multiple axes on the Aleppo and Idlib fronts” and that battles had taken place “over a strip exceeding 100km (60 miles)”.

Dozens of its soldiers have been killed, it said.

The Russian air force, which played a significant role in keeping Assad in power during the peak of the civil war, carried out air strikes in Aleppo on Saturday.

The strikes marked the first it has staged in the city since helping Syrian government forces recapture it in 2016.

Pictures showed the roads leading out of Aleppo jammed with cars on Saturday as people tried to leave.

Behind a door deep within the lower floors of the National Library of Scotland lies a forgotten street which gives a glimpse of how Edinburgh looked centuries ago.

Libberton’s Wynd, in the heart of the old city, was demolished to make way for George IV Bridge in the 1830s – but part of the street still remains.

It can be found between the bridge walls and the library building, with access through a hidden door.

The corridor – which has been named The Void by library staff – is not open to the public, but BBC Scotland News has been allowed to see inside.

It was discovered by library officials in the 1990s when they broke down a small hatch on a wall behind filing cabinets, then crawled through it.

They found a passage with arches into chambers and rooms which are thought to have once been storage in the bridge.

Bill Jackson, former director of the library, told BBC Scotland News he found old rotten furniture, ledgers, shoes and a slate urinal that were all more than 100 years old, but were waterlogged and damaged.

“My torch was hardly illuminating anything, it was very dark when I went through and a bit scary and I wanted to get out of there.

“It was fascinating though.”

Since then he has fitted lights and another door at the Cowgate end of The Void.

The library’s rooms were built on top of foundations, which can still be seen, of buildings that were demolished in Libberton’s Wynd to make way for George IV Bridge.

Robbie Mitchell, a reference assistant at the library, said that inside the passageway you could see the brickwork of the library’s lower levels and the bridge’s stonework.

“Although not a preserved street like Mary Stair’s Close, this nevertheless offers us a glimpse of the Edinburgh of centuries ago,” he said.

“There are several maps and accounts of the Old Town in the library’s collections which help us build an atmospheric picture of the neighbourhood on which both George IV Bridge and the library now stand, and what was there before The Void.”

George IV Bridge was built as a route to connect the centre of Edinburgh – the Royal Mile – over the Cowgate, which was in a valley, to the south side of the city.

Its arches had chambers built into them on several floors for storage for the shops at the top of the bridge.

Libberton’s Wynd was the route from the Cowgate to Edinburgh’s gallows in a section of the Royal Mile called The Lawnmarket – before it was demolished to make way for the bridge.

Later, The National Library of Scotland was built on top of the bridge, with floors running all the way down into the Cowgate below.

The bridge was built on Libberton Wynd’s foundations, which can still be seen in The Void.

The corridor runs for several hundred feet at a steep gradient.

Officials have widened the entrance so there is now a full-sized door. Some of the chambers are now used to store huge water tanks for the library’s sprinkler system.

Mr Mitchell said that large crowds, often several thousands strong, attended the executions which took place at the city gallows where Libberton’s Wynd joined the Lawnmarket.

One of the most infamous figures to have been executed there was body-snatcher and murderer William Burke in January 1829.

Libberton’s Wynd was also famed for housing one of the city’s best-known taverns, which was called The Mermaid before it became Johnnie Dowie’s Tavern.

Taverns were key features of Edinburgh’s Old Town communities, and patrons often came from various social classes.

John Dowie was described in accounts as “the sleekest and kindest of landlords”. He always wore “a cocked hat, buckles at the knees and shoes, as well as a cross-handled cane, over which he stooped in his gait”.

Mr Mitchell said the most popular drink had been the Edinburgh Ale brewed and supplied by Archibald Younger.

This was described as “a potent fluid which almost glued the lips of the drinker together, and of which few, therefore, could dispatch more than a bottle”.

Mr Mitchell said descriptions of the tavern, which occupied the ground floor of a tall tenement, gave an impression of the claustrophobic confines of the Old Town.

About 14 people could fit in its principal room, which looked to the Wynd, but the other rooms were said to be so small that no more than six people could fit in each of them.

They were described as being “so dingy and dark that, even in broad day, they had to be lighted up by artificial means”.

The Tavern was described as a house of “much respectability” and was a popular meeting place for “the chief wits and men of letters” in Edinburgh.

It was regularly frequented by writers including poet Robert Fergusson, artists and many members of the judiciary.

The smallest of its windowless chambers was an irregular oblong box which was commonly referred to as “the Coffin”, and was believed to be Robert Burns’ favoured seat in the Tavern.

Libberton’s Wynd was first referred to in the late 15th Century, but had been demolished by 1835.

Local historian Jamie Corstorphine said entering The Void had been one of the most exciting things he had experienced.

“The name of the wynd probably came from Henry Libberton, who had a large property on the wynd – or if not him, then his family, who remained in the house for many years after his death in 1501.

“The street had merchants, barbers, a shoemaker, grocers, custom house, vinters, cork-cutters, silver turners, hosiers and glaziers.

“It was a very busy street that would have been full of life at the time.”

Rebel forces launched the largest offensive against the Syrian government in years on Wednesday.

By Saturday, they had taken control of “large parts” of the country’s second-biggest city, Aleppo.

The surprise offensive prompted the first Russian strikes on Aleppo since 2016, and saw Syria’s military withdraw its troops from the city.

The attack was led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – which has a long and involved history in the Syrian conflict.

HTS was set up under a different name, Jabhat al-Nusra, in 2011 as a direct affiliate of Al Qaeda.

The leader of the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was also involved in its formation.

It was regarded as one of the most effective and deadly of the groups ranged against President Assad.

But its jihadist ideology appeared to be its driving force rather than revolutionary zeal – and it was seen at the time as at odds with the main rebel coalition under the banner of Free Syria.

But in 2016, the group’s leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, publicly broke ranks with Al Qaeda, dissolved Jabhat al-Nusra and set up a new organisation, which took the name Hayat Tahrir al-Sham when it merged with several other similar groups a year later.

The war in Syria has for the past four years felt as if it were effectively over.

President Bashar al-Assad’s rule is essentially uncontested in the country’s major cities, while some other parts of Syria remain out of his direct control.

These include Kurdish majority areas in the east, which have been more or less separate from Syrian state control since the early years of the conflict.

There has been some continued, though relatively muted unrest, in the south where the revolution against Assad’s rule began in 2011.

In the vast Syrian desert, holdouts from the group calling themselves Islamic State still pose a security threat, particularly during the truffle hunting season when people head to the area to find the highly profitable delicacy.

And in the north-west, the province of Idlib has been held by jihadist and rebel groups driven there at the height of the war.

The dominant force in Idlib is the one that has launched the surprise attack on Aleppo, HTS.

For several years, Idlib remained a battleground as Syrian government forces tried to regain control.

But a ceasefire deal in 2020 brokered by Russia, which has long been Assad’s key ally, and Turkey, which has backed the rebels, has largely held.

About four million people live there – most of them displaced from towns and cities that Assad’s forces won back from rebels in a brutal war of attrition.

Aleppo was one of the bloodiest battlegrounds and represented one of the rebels’ biggest defeats.

To achieve victory, Assad relied on Russian airpower and Iranian military help on the ground – mainly through militias sponsored by Iran.

These included Hezbollah.

There is little doubt that the setback Hezbollah has suffered recently from Israel’s offensive in Lebanon, as well as Israeli strikes on Iranian military commanders in Syria, has played a significant part in the decision by jihadist and rebel groups in Idlib to make their sudden, unexpected move on Aleppo.

For some time now, HTS has established its power base in Idlib where it is the de facto local administration, although its efforts towards legitimacy have been tarnished by alleged human rights abuses.

It has also been involved in some bitter infighting with other groups.

Its ambitions beyond Idlib had become unclear.

Since breaking with Al Qaeda, its goal has been limited to trying to establish fundamentalist Islamic rule in Syria rather than a wider caliphate, as IS tried and failed to do.

It had shown little sign of attempting to reignite the Syrian conflict on a major scale and renew its challenge to Assad’s rule over much of the country – until now.