The tone is dark, even angry.

“The situation is getting worse every day.”

“We don’t see the goal. Our land is not here.”

Almost four months after Ukrainian troops launched a lightning offensive into the Russian region of Kursk, text messages from soldiers fighting there paint a dismal picture of a battle they don’t properly understand and fear they might be losing.

We’ve been in contact, via Telegram, with several soldiers serving in Kursk, one of whom has recently left. We’ve agreed not to identify any of them.

None of the names in this article are real.

They speak of dire weather conditions and a chronic lack of sleep caused by Russia’s constant bombardment, which includes the use of terrifying, 3,000kg glide bombs.

They’re also in retreat, with Russian forces gradually retaking territory.

“This trend will continue,” Pavlo wrote on 26 November. “It’s only a matter of time.”

Pavlo spoke of immense fatigue, the lack of rotation and the arrival of units, made up largely of middle-aged men, brought directly from other fronts with little or no time to rest in between.

To hear soldiers complain – about their commanding officers, orders and lack of equipment – is hardly unusual. It’s what soldiers often do in difficult circumstances.

Under immense pressure from the enemy and with winter setting in, it would be surprising to hear much optimism.

But the messages we’ve received are almost uniformly bleak, suggesting that motivation is a problem.

Some questioned whether one of the operation’s initial goals – to divert Russian soldiers from Ukraine’s eastern front – had worked.

The orders now, they said, were to hang onto this small sliver of Russian territory until a new US president, with new policies, arrives in the White House at the end of January.

“The main task facing us is to hold the maximum territory until Trump’s inauguration and the start of negotiations,” Pavlo said. “In order to exchange it for something later. No-one knows what.”

Towards the end of November, President Zelensky indicated that both sides had the change of US administration in mind.

“I am sure that he [Putin] wants to push us out by 20 January,” he said.

“It is very important for him to demonstrate that he controls the situation. But he does not control the situation.”

In an effort to help Ukraine thwart Russian counterattacks in Kursk, the US, UK and France have all permitted Kyiv to use long-range weapons on targets inside Russia.

It doesn’t seem to have done much to lift spirits.

“No-one sits in a cold trench and prays for missiles,” Pavlo said.

“We live and fight here and now. And missiles fly somewhere else.”

Atacms and Storm Shadow missiles may have been used to powerful, even devastating, effect on distant command posts and ammunition dumps, but such successes seem remote to soldiers on the front lines.

“We don’t talk about missiles,” Myroslav said. “In the bunkers we talk about family and rotation. About simple things.”

For Ukraine, Russia’s slow, grinding advance in eastern Ukraine underlines the necessity of clinging on in Kursk.

In October alone, Russia was able to occupy an estimated 500 sq km of Ukrainian territory, the most it’s taken since the early days of the full-scale invasion in 2022.

By contrast, Ukraine has already lost around 40% of the territory it seized in Kursk in August.

“The key is not to capture but to hold,” Vadym said, “and we’re struggling a bit with that.”

Despite the losses, Vadym thinks the Kursk campaign is still vital.

“It did manage to divert some [Russian] forces from the Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions,” he said.

But some of the soldiers we spoke to said they felt they were in the wrong place, that it was more important to be on Ukraine’s eastern front, rather than occupying part of Russia.

“Our place should have been there [in eastern Ukraine], not here in someone else’s land,” Pavlo said. “We don’t need these Kursk forests, in which we left so many comrades.”

And despite weeks of reports suggesting that as many as 10,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Kursk to join the Russian counter-offensive, the soldiers we’ve been in contact have yet to encounter them.

“I haven’t seen or heard anything about Koreans, alive or dead,” Vadym responded when we asked about the reports.

The Ukrainian military has released recordings which it says are intercepts of North Korean radio communications.

Soldiers said they had been told to capture at least one North Korean prisoner, preferably with documents.

They spoke of rewards – drones or extra leave – being offered to anyone who successfully captures a North Korean soldier.

“It’s very difficult to find a Korean in the dark Kursk forest,” Pavlo noted sarcastically. “Especially if he’s not here.”

Veterans of previous doomed operations see parallels in what’s happening in Kursk.

From October 2023 until July this year, Ukrainian forces attempted to hold onto a tiny bridgehead at Krynky, on the left bank of the Dnipro River, some 25 miles (40km) upstream from the liberated city of Kherson.

The bridgehead, initially intended as a possible springboard for advances further into Russian-held territory in southern Ukraine, was eventually lost.

The operation was hugely costly. As many as 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers are thought to have been killed or gone missing.

Some came to see it as a stunt, designed to distract attention from the lack of progress elsewhere.

They fear something similar might be happening in Kursk.

“Good idea but bad implementation,” says Myroslav, a marine officer who served in Krynky and is now in Kursk.

“Media effect, but no military result.”

Military analysts insist that for all the hardship, the Kursk campaign continues to play an important role.

“It’s the only area where we maintain the initiative,” Serhiy Kuzan, of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre, told me.

He acknowledged that Ukrainian forces were experiencing “incredibly difficult conditions” in Kursk, but said Russia was devoting vast resources to ejecting them – resources which it would prefer to be using elsewhere.

“The longer we can hold this Kursk front – with adequate equipment, artillery, Himars and of course long-range weapons to strike their rear – the better,” he said.

In Kyiv, the senior commanders stand by the Kursk operation, arguing that it’s still reaping military and political rewards.

“This situation annoys Putin,” one said recently, on condition of anonymity. “He is suffering heavy losses there.”

As for how long Ukrainian troops would be able to hold out in Kursk, the answer was straightforward.

“As long as it is feasible from the military point of view.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s record-breaking $56bn (£47bn) pay award will not be reinstated, a judge has ruled.

The decision in the Delaware court comes after months of legal wrangling and despite it being approved by shareholders and directors in the summer.

Judge Kathaleen McCormick upheld her previous decision from January, in which she argued that board members were too heavily influenced by Mr Musk.

Reacting to the ruling, Mr Musk wrote on X: “[S]hareholders should control company votes, not judges.”

Tesla vowed to appeal the ruling, saying the decision was “wrong”.

“This ruling, if not overturned, means that judges and plaintiffs’ lawyers run Delaware companies rather than their rightful owners – the shareholders,” the company said in a post on X.

Judge McCormick said the pay package would have been the largest ever for the boss of a listed company.

Tesla failed to prove the pay package, which dates back to 2018, was fair, she said.

A shareholder vote on the payment passed by 75% in June, but the judge did not agree the pay should be so large despite what she called Tesla’s lawyers’ “creative” arguments.

“Even if a stockholder vote could have a ratifying effect, it could not do so here,” she wrote in her opinion.

The judge also ruled the Tesla shareholder who brought the case against Tesla and Mr Musk should receive $345m in fees but not the $5.6bn in Tesla shares they asked for.

Some observers said a ruling in favour of Mr Musk and Tesla would have dealt a blow to conflict of interest laws in Delaware.

“The idea of conflict rules is to protect all investors” not just minority investors, said Charles Elson of the University of Delaware’s Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance.

Mr Elson said Judge McCormick’s opinion was well-reasoned.

“You had a board that wasn’t independent, a process that was dominated by the CEO, and a package that was way out of any sort of reasonable bounds,” he said. “It’s quite a combo.”

Mr Elson said he expects Tesla might try to reconstitute a similar pay package in Texas where the company moved its legal base earlier this year after the pay ruling.

Forty years ago, an Indian city became the site of one of the world’s worst industrial disasters.

On the night of 2 December, 1984, a poisonous gas leaked from Union Carbide India’s pesticide plant in Bhopal, enveloping the central Indian city in a deadly fog which killed thousands and poisoned about half-a-million people.

According to government estimates, around 3,500 people died within days of the gas leak and more than 15,000 in the years since. But activists say that the death toll is much higher, and that victims continue to suffer from the side-effects of being poisoned.

In 2010, an Indian court convicted seven former managers at the plant, handing down minor fines and brief prison sentences. But many victims and campaigners say that justice has still not been served, given the magnitude of the tragedy.

Union Carbide was a US company which Dow Chemicals bought in 1999.

Vietnamese property tycoon Truong My Lan is in a race for her life.

On Tuesday, the 68-year-old will hear the verdict in her appeal against the death sentence handed down on her in April for masterminding the world’s biggest bank fraud.

It was a rare and shocking verdict – she is one of very few women in Vietnam to be sentenced to death for a white collar crime.

However, the law in Vietnam states that if she can pay back 75% of what she took, her sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment.

In April a trial court found she had secretly controlled Saigon Commercial Bank, the country’s fifth biggest lender, and taken out loans and cash over more than 10 years through a web of shell companies, amounting to a total of $44 billion (£34.5 billion).

Of that prosecutors say $27 billion was misappropriated, and $12 billion was judged to have been embezzled, the most serious financial crime for which she was sentenced to death.

Can Truong My Lan return $9bn before she is executed?

During her trial, she was sometimes defiant, but in the recent hearings for her appeal against the sentence she has been more contrite.

She has said she was embarrassed to have been such a drain on the state, and that her only thought was to pay back what she had taken.

Born into a Sino-Vietnamese family in Ho Chi Minh City, Truong My Lan started as a market stall vendor, selling cosmetics with her mother. She began buying land and property after the Communist Party introduced economic reform in 1986. By the 1990s, she owned a large portfolio of hotels and restaurants.

When she was convicted and sentenced in April, she was the chairwoman of a prominent real estate firm, Van Thinh Phat Group. It was a dramatic moment in the “Blazing Furnaces” anti-corruption campaign led by then-Communist Party Secretary-General, Nguyen Phu Trong.

All of the remaining 85 defendants were convicted. Four were sentenced to life in jail, while the rest were given prison terms ranging from 20 years to three years suspended. Truong My Lan’s husband and niece received jail terms of nine and 17 years respectively.

The State Bank of Vietnam is believed to have spent many billions of dollars recapitalising Saigon Commercial Bank to prevent a wider banking panic. The prosecutors argued that her crimes were “huge and without precedent” and did not justify leniency.

Truong My Lan’s lawyers say she is working as fast as she can to find the $9 billion needed. But cashing in her assets is proving difficult.

Some are luxury properties in Ho Chi Minh City which could, in theory, be sold quite quickly. Others are in the form of shares or stakes in other businesses or property projects.

In all the state has identified more than a thousand different assets linked to the fraud. These have been frozen by the authorities for now. The BBC understands the tycoon has also reached out to friends to raise loans for her to help reach the target.

Her lawyers are arguing for leniency from the judges on financial grounds. They say that while she is under sentence of death it will be hard for her to negotiate the best price for selling her assets and investments, and so harder for her to raise $9 billion.

She can do much better if under a life sentence instead, they say.

“The total value of her holdings actually exceeds the required compensation amount,” lawyer Nguyen Huy Thiep told the BBC.

“However, these require time and effort to sell, as many of the assets are real estate and take time to liquidate. Truong My Lan hopes the court can create the most favourable conditions for her to continue making compensation.”

Few expect the judges to be moved by these arguments. If, as expected, they reject her appeal, Truong My Lan will in effect be in a race with the executioner to raise the funds she needs.

Vietnam treats the death penalty as a state secret. The government does not publish how many people are on death row, though human rights groups say there are more than 1,000 and that Vietnam is one of the world’s biggest executioners.

Typically there are long delays, often many years before sentences are carried out, although prisoners are given very little notice.

If Truong My Lan can recover the $9 billion before that happens, her life will most likely be spared.

A man wanted over one of Australia’s most infamous cold cases, dubbed the Easey Street murders, is on his way back to the country after being extradited from Italy.

Suzanne Armstrong, 27, and Susan Bartlett, 28, were stabbed to death in their Melbourne house in 1977, in a case which has gripped the nation ever since.

Police said suspect Perry Kouroumblis, 65, only became the focus of their investigation in recent years after DNA testing breakthroughs.

Mr Kouroumblis – who has not been charged and maintains his innocence – was detained in Italy in September. He is due to arrive in Australia late on Tuesday.

Mr Kouroumblis first came to police attention the week after the murders, when the then 17-year-old said he had found a bloodied knife near the scene in Easey Street, Collingwood, an inner-city suburb.

The bodies of the high school friends were discovered three days after they were last seen alive. Ms Armstrong’s one-year-old son was also found in the home, unharmed in his cot.

Both women had been stabbed more than a dozen times and Ms Armstrong had been sexually assaulted, police say.

The case has long drawn huge interest – becoming the subject of major police appeals, true crime books and a hit podcast. In 2017 Victoria Police offered a A$1m (£511,800, $647,600) reward for information.

Commissioner Shane Patton described the murders as “an absolutely gruesome, horrific, frenzied homicide” when announcing the arrest of Mr Kouroumblis – a dual Greek-Australian citizen – in Rome in September.

“This was a crime that struck at the heart of our community – two women in their own home, where they should have felt their safest,” he said.

Police had issued an Interpol red notice for Mr Kouroumblis on two charges of murder and one of rape, after he left Australia about seven years ago.

But he was not able to be arrested in Greece, where he had been living, as the country’s law requires murder charges to be laid within 20 years of an alleged crime.

At the time of Mr Kouroumblis’s arrest, the women’s families released a statement, saying their lives had been changed “irrevocably” by the murders.

“For two quiet families from country Victoria it has always been impossible to comprehend the needless and violent manner in which Suzanne and Susan died,” the statement read.

Addressing police, they said: “For always giving us hope and never giving up, we simply say, thank you.”

The White House has defended President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter, after repeatedly insisting he had no plans to grant such executive clemency.

The press secretary said Biden had pardoned his son, who was facing sentencing later this month in two federal cases, to shield him from potential persecution by the outgoing president’s political foes.

The sweeping pardon covers any potential federal crimes that 54-year-old Hunter may have committed over the course of a decade.

Republicans have lambasted the move, with President-elect Donald Trump calling it “an abuse and miscarriage of justice”.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday that Biden had “wrestled” over the decision during the family’s Thanksgiving break on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, at the weekend.

The Democratic president issued the pardon on Sunday evening before heading off on an official trip to Africa.

Ms Jean-Pierre told reporters on Air Force One en route to Angola: “He believes in the justice system, but he also believes that the raw politics infected the process and led to a miscarriage of justice.”

• Analysis: Biden’s sweeping pardon for son rewrites the rules
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• Americanswers… on 5 Live! Why has Joe Biden pardoned his son?

Ms Jean-Pierre said Biden believed Hunter was “singled out” because of who he is and that “they [the president’s opponents] would continue to go after his son”.

“This is why the president took this action,” she added. As recently as last month, Ms Jean-Pierre was still telling reporters that Biden would not pardon his son.

In June, Hunter Biden became the first child of a sitting US president to be criminally convicted after a jury in Delaware found him guilty of three charges for lying about his drug use on a form when buying a handgun.

In September, he also pleaded guilty to federal tax charges that included failure to file and pay his taxes, tax evasion and filing a false return.

The pardon – which covers any potential federal crimes that he may have committed between January 2014 and December 2024 – spans a period beyond the tax and gun offences.

It dates back to the year in which he became a board member at Ukrainian energy company Burisma – a time when his father, then US vice-president, had a key role in American policy towards Kyiv.

A congressional inquiry this summer accused Biden of lying when he disavowed any involvement in his son’s business dealings, though the impeachment effort by Republican lawmakers fizzled. Biden denied wrongdoing.

The special counsel overseeing both cases, David Weiss, has flatly rejected claims that the younger Biden was singled out because of his family background.

“There was none and never has been any evidence of vindictive or selective prosecution in this case,” Mr Weiss’ team wrote in a court filing on Monday.

US First Lady Jill Biden said on Monday from the White House: “Of course I support the pardon of my son.”

The president’s decision sparked furious reaction from Trump and other top Republicans, who have long accused the Biden administration of “weaponising” the justice department against their enemies.

House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said that “trust in our justice system has almost been irreparably damaged by the Bidens and abuse of it”.

House oversight committee chairman James Comer said Biden had “lied from start to finish about his family’s corrupt influence peddling activities”.

Criticism from Democrats – who have regularly accused Trump of disregarding the rule of law – was more muted.

“President Biden’s decision put personal interest ahead of duty and further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all,” Colorado Senator Michael Bennet posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Congressman Greg Stanton, an Arizona Democrat, rejected Biden’s claim that the case was unfair.

“This wasn’t a politically motivated prosecution,” he said. “Hunter committed felonies and was convicted by a jury of his peers.”

Others defended the president.

Among them was Texas Democrat – and former defence lawyer – Jasmine Crockett, who told BBC Newshour that she believes that “we would be hard pressed” to find prosecutions similar to the younger Biden’s across the US.

“Let me be clear – this is a father and a president who did not only what was right by his son, but also did right to basically correct what I would consider a wrong,” she said.

Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, told the BBC that he believed Biden had misled the American people.

“President Biden was disingenuous this entire time when he said that he would not pardon his son,” Mr Rahmani said.

“A pardon was the plan from the beginning, but President Biden misled the American people because he, then Kamala Harris, were in the middle of an election.”

When he takes office in January, Trump will not be able to rescind his predecessor’s pardon, said Mr Rahmani.

The president’s power to pardon people is “absolute”, he said.

“There is nothing Donald Trump or the Republicans can do to stop it,” Mr Rahmani added.

Luxury car maker Jaguar has unveiled its new electric concept car, just days after the release of a teaser video that stirred online controversy.

The unveiling of the Type 00 car was met by mixed responses from social media users, with some cheering its design, while others mocked the launch.

Last month, many critics pointed out that the promotional video teasing the new car model’s launch did not feature an actual car – but the firm was also praised by some for being bold and shaking things up.

The car maker, which is embarking on the biggest change in its history, released a new logo and a so-called “social media tease“, ahead of its relaunch as an electric-only brand.

During the Type 00 event in Miami on Monday, the UK-based company’s chief creative officer, Gerry McGovern, said he welcomed the attention Jaguar’s new direction had been getting.

“It has already stirred emotions and it will continue to,” he said.

“Jaguar has no desire to be loved by everybody.”

Replies on Jaguar’s social media posts about the car ranged from “Go back to the drawing board” and “hopefully this doesn’t actually come out” to “Exciting” and “Absolutely stunning”.

Car industry analyst Karl Brauer was sceptical about the rebranding.

The company seems to be “sacrificing Jaguar’s past to the hopes of a better future,” he told the BBC. “I don’t think it’s going to work”.

Last month, the company urged people to “trust and reserve judgement” over the rebrand of the 102-year-old business.

Earlier in November, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) stopped selling new Jaguar cars in the UK ahead of a relaunch as an electric-only brand in 2026.

The firm said it was a deliberate move to “create some breathing space” before launching the new brand this month.

The firm announced the transition to electric vehicles in 2021, keeping all three of its three British plants open as part of the strategy.

Jaguar has been the weakest link within the JLR group, which has been owned by Tata Motors for almost a decade.

The Range Rover and Defender were behind the company’s highest profits since 2015, which were announced earlier this year.

The woman who flew as a stowaway from New York to Paris has been identified as 57-year-old Svetlana Dali.

She remains in France after allegedly causing a disturbance on a return flight to the US.

Ms Dali, whose identity was confirmed by CBS, boarded a Delta Airlines flight last week from New York’s JFK airport to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris without a boarding pass.

She was taken into custody upon arrival in France.

French National Police said the woman is of Russian nationality and was refused entry to France because she had no visa. She has not been charged.

Ms Dali was able to get through an advanced imaging technology body scanner at JFK airport, and dodge document and ID checks during the security process.

In a statement provided to BBC’s news partner CBS, a TSA spokesperson confirmed that “an individual without a boarding pass was physically screened without any prohibited items. The individual bypassed two identity verification and boarding status stations and boarded the aircraft.”

But it remains unclear how she was able to get through and board the plane.

“Nothing is of greater importance than matters of safety and security,” Delta said in a statement. “That’s why Delta is conducting an exhaustive investigation of what may have occurred and will work collaboratively with other aviation stakeholders and law enforcement to that end.”

The Guardian reported that once on board, Ms Dali moved from one bathroom to another and never took a seat – until flight attendants began to notice.

A social media video posted by a passenger shows the moment a captain explained to the plane that officials were coming to remove the woman.

“Folks, this is the captain, we are just waiting for the police to come on board,” he said in the video. “They may be here now and they directed us to keep everyone on the airplane until we sort out the extra passenger that’s on the plane.”

A man on the flight shared mobile phone video with CNN of the woman, who remains in France, allegedly making a disturbance on another flight that was set to return her to New York.

He said she repeated: “I do not want to go back to the USA. Only a judge can make me go back to the USA”.

BBC has not independently verified the videos and it is unclear what the woman meant.

The diplomatic red carpet will be rolled out for a state visit by the Emir of Qatar, with the King and the Prince and Princess of Wales delivering a royal welcome on Tuesday morning.

But Queen Camilla still has a lingering chest infection and will miss the start, while Catherine’s involvement in the visit by the wealthy Gulf state marks another step in her return to official duties.

The state visit’s exercise in soft power will see the visiting Qatari royals given a carriage procession along The Mall, a visit to the Houses of Parliament and a banquet at Buckingham Palace.

But there have been threats of protest during the visit over Qatar’s record on LGBT rights.

Queen Camilla, who is said to have “diminished reserves of energy” after a chest infection, will miss the outdoor parts of the reception on Horse Guards Parade and along the Mall, but will attend events in Buckingham Palace later in the day, including the state banquet.

State visits are a mix of elaborate ceremony and practical politics, offering hospitality on a grand scale to an important international partner.

The visit to the UK by Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Sheikha Jawaher bint Hamad bin Suhaim Al Thani began on Monday in damp weather at Stansted airport.

But over the next two days, there will be a carefully choreographed effort by the UK government to build warm relations with Qatar, from the pageantry of marching bands to a meeting with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

The Qatari visitors are from a Muslim country but it won’t be an alcohol-free banquet at the palace, with both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks being served.

The UK Foreign Office, which advises on which countries are invited for a state visit, says Qatar is a key defence partner and that trade between the UK and the gas-rich Gulf state is worth £6.6bn per year, with £40bn of Qatari investment in the UK economy.

Qatar has been a mediator in talks over the conflict in Gaza, though the role was suspended last month.

And the country’s Emir has been a regular visitor to the UK, coming here at least eight times in the past decade. He studied at school in the UK and attended Sandhurst military academy.

There have been calls for a peaceful protest against the visit by the Peter Tatchell Foundation, which has criticised Qatar’s record on LGBT rights, women’s rights and the treatment of migrant workers.

Human Rights Watch has said the state visit should not ignore Qatar’s “troubling rights record”.

In response, the UK government says it regularly discusses human rights with its Qatari counterparts and is opposed to discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender.

The Qatari royals will receive a ceremonial reception and military inspection, followed by a carriage parade to Buckingham Palace.

The Princess of Wales will be part of the horse-drawn procession, taking part in a state visit for the first time since ending the chemotherapy treatment that followed her cancer diagnosis.

She will join a private lunch at the Palace, along with the King, Queen and other senior royals.

The Qatari visitors will be brought to Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, where the Emir will speak to representatives of the House of Commons and House of Lords.

The centrepiece of such state visits is the state banquet, where the King and Emir will give speeches in front of dignitaries from both countries, in the grand setting of the Buckingham Palace ballroom.

The Princess of Wales won’t be at the banquet but it will be the first time Sir Keir will have been at this diplomatic showcase as prime minister.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “Our strong, historic ties with Qatar are vital to UK prosperity, growth and security. The UK government is committed to continued strong relations with Qatar to deliver partnerships of mutual value.”

A verdict is expected on Tuesday in a murder case that gripped Italy and sparked a heated debate on the issue of violence against women.

Prosecutors have asked that Filippo Turetta, 22, be sentenced to life in jail for stabbing to death his ex-girlfriend Giulia Cecchettin last November.

Over the last year a huge amount of detail about the killing has emerged, forming a picture of an increasingly anguished young woman harassed by her possessive ex-boyfriend who refused to accept the end of their relationship.

The case, which captivated Italians, has thrust the concepts of femicide, patriarchy and male violence into the headlines.

On 11 November 2023 Mr Turetta picked up his ex-girlfriend Ms Cecchettin, a 22-year-old biomedical engineering student from the Venice province, to take her shopping for an outfit for her upcoming graduation.

Later that evening, he stabbed her more than 70 times, and left the student’s body at the bottom of a ditch, wrapped in plastic bags.

Then, he disappeared. For a week, Italians followed the search for the couple with baited breath. The discovery of Ms Cecchettin’s body on 18 November was met with an unprecedented outpouring of grief. The next day, Mr Turetta was arrested in Germany. He readily admitted to killing Ms Cecchettin and was extradited to Italy.

To raise awareness of the signs of controlling relationships, Ms Cecchettin’s family recently shared a list she wrote a few months before her death, titled “15 reasons I had to break up with him”.

In it, Ms Cecchettin said Mr Turetta insisted she had a “duty” to help him study, complained if she sent him fewer emoji hearts than usual, didn’t want her to go out with friends and needed her to text him all the time.

“They were the typical signs of possessiveness,” Giulia’s father Gino Cecchettin told the BBC. “He would deny her her own space, or demand to always be included. He always needed to know everything she said to her friends or even her therapist.”

“We realised later that she thought she was the cause of his pain, that she felt responsible for it,” he said.

In an 80-page statement written from jail in childlike handwriting, Mr Turetta said since Ms Cecchettin broke up with him he spent every day hoping to get back with her. “I didn’t feel like I could accept any other outcome,” he wrote.

In his police interrogation Mr Turetta confirmed that, on the night he killed her, Ms Cecchettin had just told him he was too dependent and needy.

“I shouted that it wasn’t fair, that I needed her,” Mr Turetta said, adding that he killed her after getting “very angry” when she tried to get out of the car.

“I was selfish and it’s only now I realise it,” he wrote. “I didn’t think about how incredibly unfair that was to her and to the promising and wonderful life she had ahead of her.”

Mr Turetta’s lawyer Giovanni Caruso has argued that his client should be spared an “inhuman and degrading” life sentence and pushed back against allegations that the killing had been premeditated.

“He is not Pablo Escobar,” Mr Caruso said – a line of defence Giulia’s father told the BBC made him feel “violated all over again”.

Stories of femicide routinely top the news agenda in Italy, but Giulia Cecchettin’s story attracted an unusual amount of attention from the start. The week-long search for the young couple gripped people; the revelation that Ms Cecchettin had been killed just days before her graduation moved them. More than 10,000 attended her funeral.

But it was the tearful and furious interview given by Giulia’s sister Elena, in which she said that Filippo Turetta was not a “monster” but “the healthy son of a patriarchal society” which sparked a heated debate on male violence and gender roles in modern Italy.

Elena’s words reverberated. Suddenly, the patriarchy – a concept thought by many as arcane or irrelevant – was discussed widely.

“If you’re a man you’re part of a system that teaches you that you are worth more than women,” Mr Cecchettin told the BBC.

“It means that if you’re in a relationship everything needs to go through you… and so a patriarch can’t be told: ‘I don’t love you anymore’, because it goes against his sense of ownership.”

In November, at the launch of a foundation established by Gino Cecchettin in memory of Giulia, Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara argued that the patriarchy no longer existed in Italy and said the rise in sexual violence was instead “linked to the marginalisation and perversion that stems from illegal immigration”.

The comments sparked outrage. “Giulia was killed by a respectable, white Italian man,” Elena Cecchettin hit back. “My father has done something to prevent violence. What is the government doing?”

Since his daughter’s death, Gino Cecchettin has thrown himself headfirst into a battle to teach teenagers how to handle emotions and relationships, touring schools to tell pupils his daughter’s story.

He also hopes that sharing Giulia’s own voice and words could help others – like one voice message she sent friends in which she sounds both exasperated by Mr Turetta’s insistence and riddled with guilt about his suicidal thoughts. “I wish I could disappear,” she says. “But I’m worried he could hurt himself.”

Elisa Ercoli of Differenza Donna, a charity that fights gender-based violence, told the BBC the messages had a tangible impact, with her organisation getting a high number of calls from parents who recognised similar behaviours in their daughters. “We think bruises are the problem but underhand psychological violence is the issue in many situations,” she said.

A government department has also said that the national anti-violence helpline experienced a surge in calls after Ms Cecchettin’s murder, and that the number of calls is now 57% higher than last year.

But NGOs and opposition politicians are all demanding that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government take concrete steps to prevent and punish violence against women, such as “affectivity lessons” in schools.

“What the Cecchettin family is doing is a grain of sand compared to what the government would have the power to achieve,” said Francesca Ghio, a leftwing councillor in Genoa who recently publicly revealed she was raped when she was 12 – she said the decision to speak out was inspired by the “strength” of the Cecchettin family.

“They are turning their pain into love and action. We can’t just stand by.”

As the 10-week trial approached its end, Mr Cecchettin said he felt calm.

Remembering his “perfect daughter” who is now a household name, Mr Cecchettin said he thought there would be a “before” and an “after” Giulia’s murder.

But while Italy has gained a symbol, his loss is incalculable. “I realised I can’t rewind life and time,” he said, “and I realised that nobody can ever give me Giulia back.”

Australian Police have seized 2.3 tonnes of cocaine from a broken-down boat off the coast of Queensland, authorities said on Monday.

Eleven men and two juveniles were arrested, including the vessel’s crew and others waiting on the shore to collect the illegal shipment.

The drugs had an estimated street value of A$760m ($490m; £388m), with the potential to be distributed across 11.7 million separate street deals – making it the largest cocaine bust in Australian history.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) alleged one of the men arrested on Saturday night was vice-president of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle club’s Brisbane chapter.

Biker gangs are notorious in Australia for their drug violence, with more than 1,000 shootings recorded since the 1980s.

This recent cocaine bust came as part of a wider investigation into the Comanchero gang, codenamed Operation Tyrrendor, which began last month.

Authorities said they received intelligence suggesting a criminal syndicate with links to the gang was planning to import illegal drugs into Australia.

This comes after reports last week that the Colombian navy intercepted a semi-submersible carrying cocaine to Australia.

Investigators told reporters in Brisbane the record cocaine shipment had come from an unidentified South American country.

The AFP worked with the Queensland Police Service (QPS) and the Australian Border Force (ABF) to track a fishing boat, recently purchased by a 35-year-old man.

On Saturday night, it was being used to transport the cocaine delivery from a larger mothership to the Queensland coast when it suffered a mechanical fault, police said.

Stranded about 18km from the north-eastern tip of K’gari, it was intercepted by the AFP and QPS, who found 51 bales tied with rope netting.

Each bale contained 40kg of cocaine, totalling 2.34 tonnes.

Two men were arrested on the boat and two others were arrested on the coast while waiting for the shipment.

A further three arrests were made at a nearby fast-food restaurant, with five others at a traffic stop.

The final arrest was made in Brisbane after the AFP and QPS executed a search warrant.

All 11 men and two juveniles were were charged with conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of cocaine, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Israel said it struck targets in Lebanon on Monday evening after vowing to retaliate for an attack by Hezbollah on a military post, with both sides accusing each other of violating last week’s ceasefire.

At least nine people were killed by Israeli strikes on two southern Lebanese villages, according to the country’s public health ministry.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck Hezbollah targets and infrastructure “throughout Lebanon”, while reiterating its commitment to the ceasefire agreement.

Hezbollah said it was responding to Israeli “violations” and said it carried out a “defensive warning” strike, firing mortars at an Israeli army position in an area occupied by Israel.

Israel said there were no injuries in Hezbollah’s strikes on the Mount Dov area – a disputed region on the Israel-Lebanon border known internationally as Shebaa Farms.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the Hezbollah attack as “a severe violation of the ceasefire”, vowing that Israel would “respond forcefully”.

When the ceasefire deal was first announced, Netanyahu said his country would not hesitate to strike if Hezbollah broke the terms.

Monday’s violence is an indication of the fragility of the recently agreed truce, aimed at ending 13 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Last week, the US and France said the agreement would “cease the fighting in Lebanon, and secure Israel from the threat of Hezbollah and other terrorist organisations operating from Lebanon”.

Hezbollah has been given 60 days to end its armed presence in southern Lebanon while Israeli forces must withdraw from the area over the same period.

Migrants stranded for more than three years on the remote Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia have been brought to the UK.

The Sri Lankan Tamils are permitted to remain in the country for six months, with financial support from the Foreign Office, according to documents seen by the BBC.

Their journey to the UK marks the end of years of complex legal battles waged over thousands of miles over their fate, but their long-term future remains uncertain.

Most of the group of around 60 migrants have been living in a makeshift camp on Diego Garcia – the site of a strategic UK-US military base – since October 2021, when they became the first people ever to file asylum claims there.

On Monday, a government spokesperson described the move as a “one-off, due to the exceptional nature of these cases and in the interests of their welfare”.

“This government inherited a deeply troubling situation that remained unresolved under the last administration for years,” the spokesperson said.

Tessa Gregory of UK law firm Leigh Day, which represents some of the migrants, said it was the “only sensible solution to end the humanitarian crisis” on the island.

“This vulnerable group which includes 16 children have spent 38 months detained in the most squalid of conditions on Crown land… we hope our clients will now be able to seek safe haven and begin to rebuild their lives,” she said.

The BBC gained unprecedented access earlier this year to Diego Garcia and the migrant camp there, where the Tamils were housed in groups in military tents, some of which had leaks and rats nesting inside.

During their time on the island, there were multiple hunger strikes and numerous incidents of self-harm and suicide attempts in response to the conditions, after which some people were transferred to Rwanda for medical treatment.

There were also allegations of sexual assaults and harassment within the camp.

Migrants have told the BBC it was like living in “hell”.

Those in Rwanda are also set to arrive in the UK on Tuesday.

One told the BBC: “I hope to turn a new page. I hope my health will improve and I will transform into a new person.”

Two men with criminal convictions and another under investigation remain on the island, the BBC understands.

The Tamils’ arrival in the UK comes amid uncertainty over the future of the territory.

The UK announced in October that it was ceding control of the Chagos Islands, of which Diego Garcia is part, to Mauritius. But the new Mauritian prime minister has said he has reservations over the deal, which was struck by his predecessor and has still to be signed, and has asked for an independent review.

The deal is facing opposition from some politicians in the UK and allies of US President-elect Donald Trump.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has played down the criticism, describing it as a “good deal” for both Mauritius and the UK, and saying it addresses US concerns about the future of the Diego Garcia base.

In recent years, the territory has been costing the UK tens of millions of pounds, with the bulk of this categorised under “migrant costs”.

Communications obtained by the BBC between Foreign Office officials in July warned that “the costs are increasing and the latest forecast is that these will be £50m per annum” if they were to remain there.

In letters sent to the Tamils on Friday from the Home Office, they were told they were being granted temporary entry clearance to the UK “outside of the Immigration Rules” to allow them to consider their “long-term options”.

It stressed that the offer did not “constitute permanent settlement in the UK or recognition of refugee status by the UK government”, and said the group would not be permitted to work.

The government says the Chagos Islands, known as the British Indian Ocean Territory (Biot), are “constitutionally distinct” from the UK, with the unusual status leading to the long legal dispute.

Most of the Tamils have been awaiting final decisions on claims for international protection – which the United Nations says is akin to refugee status – or appealing against rejections.

In total, eight have been granted international protection, meaning they cannot be returned to Sri Lanka, the BBC understands.

Successive governments have previously said that bringing the Tamils to the UK would risk creating a “backdoor migration route”.

But the government said on Monday that arrangements had been made to ensure this did not happen, citing a deal to send future arrivals to St Helena – another UK territory some 5,000 miles away.

“Once a sovereignty agreement with Mauritius is fully in place they would then take responsibility for any future migrants,” the spokesperson said.

An Islamic school teacher, Masud Abdulrasheed, is struggling to come to terms with the killing of his seven-year-old daughter in drone strikes by Nigeria’s military during a religious festival in their large but sparsely populated village exactly a year ago.

The military said the bombing was caused by “a failure of intelligence”, leading the army to mistake the open-air festival in Tudunbiri for a gathering of jihadist fighters.

“The incident of December 3rd, 2023 was a great tragedy that shouldn’t have happened,” military spokesman Maj-Gen Edward Buba told the BBC. “The armed forces regret that incident. And if we could bring the lives lost back, we would.”

About 85 people were killed, including Mr Abdulrasheed’s little daughter Habeebah, when unmanned drones dropped two bombs on the village in northern Kaduna state.

“The first bomb dropped on us at around 10 pm, close to a tree where women and children were seated,” Mr Abdulrasheed recalled. “We ran for safety, but moments later we gathered to help those injured and also called for help, but the second bomb was dropped and it killed more people.”

Mr Abdulrasheed described Habeebah as “the most caring among my children”.

“She would always give me whatever gift she was given, even if I didn’t need it,” he told the BBC.

The 36-year-old was one of the organisers of the annual festival, known as Maulud, held to celebrate the birth of Prophet Muhammad.

Many of his students were killed in the tragedy.

“We saw dead bodies all over the place as if they were sleeping. Body parts were strewn around the tree branches and rooftops. We had to pack them inside sacks and buried all the dead in a mass grave.

“There is nothing more devastating than seeing people you invited for a celebration coming to meet their end. I am so heartbroken,” Mr Abdulrasheed said.

As the father of four spoke to the BBC, he sat his second daughter, Zaharau, beside him on a mat outside their home. He gently pulled up her top to show a wound on her stomach.

Four-year-old Zaharau was hit by shrapnel. It took at least an hour to drive her and the other wounded to the nearest hospital in Kaduna city.

Although she underwent surgery, her wound still hasn’t fully healed.

“When my daughter and the others that got injured were at the hospital, they were well taken care of. We thank the government for that.

“But things changed after they got discharged, months later. The hospital has refused to continue with their [free] treatment. They keep giving us excuses.”

Walking around Tudunbiri, there is hardly a family not affected by the tragedy of that fateful night.

Twenty-year-old Aisha Buhari lost three of her younger brothers. She survived, suffering an injury to her left arm that is yet to heal.

Sitting on a stool, she cried and wiped her tears with her hijab as she recalled the last moments of her brothers.

“That night, I just finished talking with them and stepped away for a moment when the first bomb hit, only for me to see their dead bodies on the ground moments later,” Ms Buhari said.

“When they rushed me to the hospital, I could not think of anything but my brothers. I cried so much.”

As Ms Buhari spoke, she paused to wipe the pus oozing from her wound.

“There was no house or farm task I could not do before the incident, but now I can’t do anything properly. I depend on people to help with something as basic as washing clothes,” she said.

Kaduna state governor Uba Sani told the BBC that he would look into the plight of villagers like Ms Buhari.

“Thank you BBC for this information. I will personally go back to Tudunbiri, and if I find people that still need treatment, I will take care of it,” he promised.

“The instruction I gave was that all the injured should be treated and none of them should be discharged until they are fully recovered,” he added.

Undeterred by last year’s tragedy, the Muslim faithful in Tudunbiri celebrated the festival again this year, but held it two months earlier.

The occasion also marked the inauguration of a mosque the authorities have built for them over the bomb site, as a form of compensation.

Mr Abdulrasheed acts as the mosque’s imam as the previous one was killed in the air strikes.

“We are happy about the new mosque, but we can never forget what happened,” Mr Abdulrasheed told the BBC. “Any time I come here, I always remember that day, and I feel depressed. As we celebrate this year’s Maulud, we also mourn those that we lost.”

For years, Nigeria’s military has been battling armed jihadists and criminals, who raid villages and kidnap people for ransom in parts of the north.

This has led to an upsurge in air strikes aimed at targeting them.

The Nigerian Air Force has obtained “a multitude” of new aircraft, the editor of Defence Web, Guy Martin, told the BBC.

This included Chinese-built unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones.

“Chinese UAVs are cheaper, making them more accessible. Nearly a third of African countries have acquired UAVs, mainly from Turkey and China,” Mr Martin said, pointing out that it was strikes from UAVs that caused the disaster in Tudunbiri.

“Intelligence failure, poor coordination, and inadequate operator training are some of the reasons for erroneous strikes. The rapid deployment of UAV technology often outpaces the development of proper training and engagement protocols for military personnel,” Mr Martin added.

Maj-Gen Buba told the BBC that the military had found itself operating in a “challenging and complex” operational environment.

“But we have grown in our equipment holding and in our deployments of more experienced commanders and troops,” he said.

According to consulting firm SBM Intelligence, the Nigerian Air Force carried out 17 accidental air strikes between January 2017 and September 2024, killing more than 500 people.

“One mistake is enough; when we see hundreds being killed in erroneous attacks, we should be concerned,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) Nigeria researcher Anietie Ewang said.

In response, Maj-Gen Buba said that rights campaigners should “give us more credit for being more transparent, for working with the people, and for being more accountable for our actions, as was revealed particularly during the Tudunbiri incident”.

“We will do everything possible to ensure that this never happens [again],” Maj-Gen Buba added.

He said that two army personnel were being court-martialled over the incident and while the case was still in progress, the military had redeployed them and relieved them of their command.

Both the federal and state government have also unveiled development projects for the village as part of efforts to show remorse for the deaths, with Sani telling the BBC that the construction of a hospital and skills acquisition centre was almost complete.

“We have been supporting the people of Tudunbiri, and we will continue to do that,” he said.

“They are my people,” the governor added.

But in a cruel irony, more than 20 people in the village reported that their farmland had been confiscated for the projects.

They include 50-year-old Hashim Abdullahi, who told the BBC: “I am not happy because this hospital has taken my means of livelihood and I was not compensated. I have been rendered jobless and can’t provide for my family.”

In response, Sani said: “For the people that genuinely have land, the department of land in Kaduna is working with the head of the community to ensure that the right people are given their land back.”

Nigeria’s Vice-President Kashim Shettima also visited the village following the killings, promising – in conjunction with the state government – justice and financial compensation.

People were told they would receive 2.5 million naira ($1,500; £1,180) for each person killed in their family, while those injured were offered about 750,000 naira ($500).

“It is a difference that authorities actually carried out compensation this time around, but there is a sense that it has been very arbitrary,” Ms Ewang said.

“We need to see the authorities take much-needed action towards justice, accountability, and compensation for victims in all of the other incidents of air strikes where they have accepted it was an error,” she added.

Ms Buhari told the BBC that her family had received the 7.5 million naira for her three brothers who were killed, and she got 750,000 naira for her injuries – though this was not enough.

“I usually buy drugs at a pharmacy to dress the wound because that’s all I can afford to do now. The hospital doesn’t attend to us any more. Sometimes the pain would be very severe for weeks,” she said.

“We hope the government will come to our aid again so that I can get proper care for my arm. I can’t wait to use it again,” Ms Buhari added.

Mr Abdulrasheed told the BBC he had not received financial compensation for the injuries suffered by his four-year-old.

“I always feel worried when I look at her condition,” he said.

He said he had received the full financial compensation for the death of his seven-year-old, but no amount of money could replace her.

“Every time I visit the grave site, I remember those we used to live together with but now they are no more. I miss them all. I miss my daughter.”

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Short of another surprise, France will once more be without a government on Wednesday.

That is when Michel Barnier, appointed by President Macron after July’s inconclusive parliamentary election, faces a no-confidence motion over the budget – a vote he will almost certainly lose.

As the left-wing MP Alexis Corbière put it in the National Assembly this afternoon: “That’s it for Barnier. He’s out of here.”

The arithmetic is merciless for the former Brexit negotiator, who now stands to end his career as the shortest-lived prime minister in France’s Fifth Republic.

From the start he has been leading an anomaly: a minority government whose very survival depended on the indulgence of its enemies.

In the National Assembly, Barnier could count on his own conservative group and the Macronites. But this centrist bloc has been easily outnumbered by a left-wing coalition on one side, and on the other the populist right of Marine Le Pen.

And when those two forces combine – as they will in Wednesday’s censure motion – then the numbers are too much, and Barnier must fall.

It is a crisis that has been waiting to happen, but was deferred till now by long procedural haggling over the 2025 budget.

Shortly after taking office in September, he proposed a budget that promised €60bn (£49bn) in deficit reduction – necessary, he said, to satisfy Brussels and get the country’s finances back in shape.

But because he lacked a majority, his budget was then disfigured by opposition amendments – from both left and populist right – which removed taxes and introduced more spending, thus changing its essential nature.

After much parliamentary to-ing and fro-ing with the conservative dominated Senate, Barnier came back with a new text, or technically texts, because there is a social security budget as well as the overall budget.

But that version remains unacceptable to the opposition.

Marine Le Pen, who could save Barnier if she chose to, made a series of new demands, including removing a new tax on electricity, and restoring fully index-linked pensions).

Barnier gave ground – quite a lot in fact. But it wasn’t enough. And now Le Pen plans to pull the plug.

Barnier and his supporters have made much of their one good argument – the chaos scenario.

What responsible party leader, they said, could want to tip France into the uncertainty and instability of yet another government crisis?

Would Marine Le Pen really want to take the blame for the inevitable turbulence on the financial markets, the hike in borrowing costs, the spending cuts that would follow?

Her response has been to say that warnings of doom are exaggerated: there will be no catastrophe. Technically France might not have a budget (which it won’t if Barnier is ousted on Wednesday) but systems will kick in. The constitution allows for matters to be administered for a time by decree.

Up to a point she is right.

If Barnier falls, he will probably stay in power in a caretaker capacity while Macron (who is inconveniently in Saudi Arabia this week) seeks a replacement.

That could take weeks, as it did in the summer after Macron lost his disastrously mismanaged early elections and Gabriel Attal stayed as caretaker until September.

In the meantime a special law could be passed carrying the 2024 budget into 2025, so that civil servants are paid and hospitals meet their heating bills. An eventual new government would then pass a retrospective “corrective” budget to set the books straight.

But the bigger picture is much more serious.

The original political crisis triggered by Macron’s June dissolution of parliament has been exposed as the chronic disaster it always was. There is no “fix” with a “consensus-building” negotiator of the Barnier mould.

Barnier was the best the president could offer. And if Barnier has failed, it shows the situation is truly intractable.

No new elections can be called until July. No stable government is conceivable. Some say the only answer is for Macron himself to go. Until now that’s been regarded as political fantasy.

But how much more of this is France prepared to take?

Rihab Faour fled her home. Then she fled again. Then a third time. Then a fourth. And by the fourth time, a year after the first, she had been fleeing Israeli bombs for so long that nowhere in Lebanon felt safe.

Her journey had begun in October 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel. That prompted Hezbollah, the Lebanese political and militant group, to fire rockets into Israel and Israel to retaliate by bombing southern Lebanon.

The Israeli bombs fell close enough to Rihab’s village that the 33-year-old and her husband Saeed, an employee of the municipal water company, gathered their daughters Tia, eight, and Naya, six, and fled to Rihab’s parents’ house in Dahieh, a suburb of the capital Beirut.

In Dahieh, for a while, life went on almost as normal, with the exception that Naya and Tia missed their friends, their own beds, their toys and all clothes they had had to leave behind.

Most of all they missed going to school, which had been replaced by online learning. They were excited when, back in August, Rihab enrolled them in a new school in Beirut and took them to buy brand new school uniforms.

But before their first day could arrive, Israel expanded its bombing of Lebanon to include parts of Beirut, particularly the Dahieh suburb that the family now called home.

Israel was assassinating senior Hezbollah figures in the suburb, but it was using large, bunker-busting bombs, each capable of destroying a residential building. In some strikes, Israel dropped dozens of these bombs in one go and flattened entire city blocks.

So the Faour family packed up and fled again, this time to a rented house in another Beirut neighbourhood, Jnah. After a powerful air strike in Jnah, they moved to Saeed’s parents’ house in the neighbourhood of Barbour. There, they lived with 17 others in a single house – people piled on people.

For Tia and Naya though, now nine and seven, it was a rare joy to be surrounded by their cousins day and night. So much so that even when Rihab’s father, a retired Lebanese army sergeant, found a rental apartment in the Basta neighbourhood just for the four of them, the girls did not want to go.

“Naya begged us to stay there with all the family,” Rihab recalled. “We told her we just had to go for one sleep in this new house, then we would come straight back to the family and to all the children.”

And she offered the girls a bargain – come to stay at the new apartment and you can choose your dinner. So on the way home they stopped for rotisserie chicken and other treats from the shop, and at about 7.30pm, with the streets still alive with people, the family pulled up to a rundown building in Basta in central Beirut.

Back in 2006, during the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah, the bombing was confined to certain areas of Lebanon – the south, Dahieh, and some infrastructure targets. This time, as senior members of Hezbollah spread out around the country, Israel bombed them where they went.

This brought bombs to places previously thought safe, including parts of central Beirut.

None of that was weighing on Tia and Naya as the family unloaded their belongings into the new apartment. For now, the girls were more concerned with returning to their cousins at the earliest opportunity.

Unlike Saeed’s parents’ house, the new Basta apartment had running water and a generator for electricity. The girls were happy when they saw that the family finally had their own space. Rihab and Saeed relaxed a little. Most likely, there would have been an Israeli drone buzzing overhead, but the sound had become so common over Beirut that it was possible to tune it out.

Rihab put the food and treats on the table. “We sat down to eat and we were talking and laughing,” she said. “And that was it, my last memory of them.”

The bomb was a US-made Jdam. It hit the building on 10 October at about 8pm, half an hour after the family had arrived. It levelled all three storeys and destroyed parts of adjacent buildings and cars, and killed 22 men, women and children, making it the deadliest strike on central Beirut since the beginning of the fighting a year earlier.

The Israeli military issued no warning ahead of the strike, so the building was full of people. Israel was reportedly targeting Wafiq Safa, the head of Hezbollah’s co-ordination and liaison unit, but Safa was never reported to be among the dead. He had either survived, or he wasn’t there to begin with. The IDF declined to comment on the strike or the lack of a warning ahead of it.

Rihab woke up in Beirut’s Zahraa Hospital, unable to move. Her back and arm were badly injured and she needed at least two operations. She drifted in and out of consciousness. Everything in her mind between laughing with her daughters at dinner and waking up in the hospital was blank.

While she lay there that night, her family searched Beirut’s hospitals. By midnight, they knew that Saeed and Tia were dead. DNA tests would be required to confirm that Naya had been killed, as well as another girl her age brought to the same hospital, because their injuries prevented straightforward identification.

Rihab’s doctors advised the family not to tell her any of this. They were worried that, still facing significant surgery, the news would be too much for her. So for two weeks, as she underwent and then recovered from her operations, her mother Basima reassured her that Saeed and the girls were being treated in different hospitals.

But Rihab sensed that something was wrong, and she began to insist on seeing pictures and videos of the girls. “She could feel it in her heart,” Basima said.

Eleven days after the strike, the DNA test confirmed that Tia was dead, and on the 15th day a hospital psychiatrist told Rihab that Saeed and the girls were gone.

Six weeks later, Rihab was sitting in a stiff plastic chair in an apartment in Beirut, her eyes dark and her face drawn. She was still recovering from her surgeries – to install eight screws into her spine and another three into her arm. She had been lying down for a long time, and now she was trying to sit up more and to walk a little, though every movement caused her pain.

Naya’s eighth birthday had been four days earlier. Rihab was passing her time “either crying or sleeping”, she said. But she wanted to talk about her family.

“Naya was very attached to me, she followed me wherever I went. Tia loved her grandparents and she was happy if I left her with them. Both of the girls loved drawing, they loved playing with toys, they missed going to school. They would play teacher and student together for hours.”

Above all they loved to watch videos together on TikTok. Rihab and Saeed thought they were still too young to post their own videos online, so Rihab would film them dancing and playing and tell the girls she was posting them on the app, which seemed to satisfy them, for now.

Saeed had come into Rihab’s life in 2013. Rihab was raised in Beirut but her family would visit the village of Mays El Jabal in the summer, because the air was cooler there and the village was surrounded by countryside, and that summer she met Saeed through mutual friends.

Rihab completed her undergraduate law degree and began studying for a masters, but the couple became engaged and then married, and soon Tia was born, so Rihab put her budding law career on hold.

Now, in the midst of her loss, she has tentatively begun to think of studying again. “I am going to need something to fill my days,” she said.

Saeed and Tia were buried the day after they died, by Rihab’s father and uncles, in temporary wooden caskets in an unmarked grave in Dahieh. Two weeks later, the men of the family dug again in the same spot and buried Naya. Rihab’s uncle placed two sprigs of artificial cherry blossom atop the grave, for the two girls, and later someone else laid a wreath for a stranger buried beside them.

Then an Israeli air strike hit the building directly adjacent to the cemetery and the resultant blast wave and debris smashed gravestones and churned up the earth around them. About the same time, another Israeli air strike hit the family home in Dahieh, destroying several items Rihab had wanted to keep, including two new, unworn school uniforms.

Not long after that, it was all over. A ceasefire announced last week allowed thousands of displaced people to stream back to their villages in the south of Lebanon. Rihab and Saeed’s village was heavily bombed by the Israelis and their family home there destroyed, her uncle said, but Rihab cannot return home anyway, because she will be in a backbrace for several more months and cannot travel.

As joy spread through Lebanon at the news of the ceasefire, new pictures emerged of Wafiq Safa, the reported target of the bomb that killed Saeed, Tia, Naya and 19 others. Safa had not been seen in public since the strike, but he appeared to be alive and well.

Critics of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI have expressed doubts that he is qualified to lead the US government’s principal law enforcement agency.

Some also raised fears that Kash Patel, a marginal figure in Trump’s first administration known for his loyalty, aims to dismantle an apolitical federal security service and refashion it into a means of partisan retribution.

“Look, 99.9% of the bureau is made up of hard working agents who adhere to the principles of fidelity, bravery and integrity,” Jeff Lanza, a former FBI agent, said. “But he’s said that he’s coming in to just decimate the agency. How is that going to go well and how will that play into the morale of the agents who have to work under him?”

The FBI director leads 37,000 employees across 55 US field offices. They also oversee 350 satellite offices and more than 60 other foreign locations expected to cover almost 200 countries.

Former FBI and Department of Justice officials who spoke to BBC said the job is difficult, and it would be nearly impossible for someone like Patel, who has limited management experience, to operate effectively.

Gregory Brower, a former FBI assistant director and deputy general counsel who worked closely with the past two directors, called the job “nonstop”.

“It’s relentless. It’s high stakes. It requires expert judgment, stamina, experience, and a strong ethical and moral compass,” he told the BBC.

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When he announced his pick for FBI director, Trump called Patel “a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People”.

Patel began his career as a federal public defender in Miami before working as a terrorism prosecutor at the Department of Justice between 2014 and 2017. He then spent two years as senior aide to Republicans who led the House Intelligence Committee, reportedly fighting the investigation of Trump and Russian collusion in the 2016 election.

When Democrats took control of the House in 2019, he was hired as a staffer on Trump’s National Security Council. In February 2020, he became principal deputy in the Office of Director of National Intelligence – then led by acting director Richard Grenell.

By November of that year, he had moved to the Pentagon to serve as chief ofstaff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller – a position he held until Trump left office two months later.

“Kash Patel has served in key national security positions throughout the government. He is beyond qualified to lead the FBI and will make a fantastic Director,” Alex Pfeiffer, a Trump transition spokesman, told the BBC.

Those critical of Patel cite past FBI directors, many of whom worked their way up through the justice department or FBI for decades, as a better measure of the qualifications needed to lead the agency.

“It’s certainly not like the backgrounds that we’ve seen other directors of the FBI and those who have overseen other similarly sized and important federal agencies bring to their jobs,” Brower said of Patel’s experience.

Some pointed to former US Attorney General Bill Barr’s recollection in his 2022 memoir of Trump’s attempt to place Patel in a senior FBI position in his first term to stress the point further.

“I categorically opposed making Patel deputy FBI director. I told Mark Meadows it would happen ‘over my dead body,’” he wrote. “Someone with no background as an agent would never be able to command the respect necessary to run the day-to-day operations of the bureau.”

Since leaving office, Patel has promised in interviews that, if Trump returns to office, he and others will use the government to go after political opponents – including politicians and members of the media who he alleges without evidence helped overturn the 2020 US presidential election results.

“We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,” Patel told Steve Bannon, a White House chief strategist in Trump’s first term, on the War Room podcast.

“We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly. We’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice… We’re actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for crimes they said we have always been guilty of but never have.”

Trump said during his reelection campaign that he considers Patel’s book – titled Government Gangsters – to be a “blueprint” for his next administration.

In the memoir, which criticises the so-called deep state, Patel calls for “comprehensive housecleaning” of the FBI by firing “the top ranks”.

On a recent podcast, he said the incoming Trump administration intends to retain about 50 members of the FBI’s Washington staff, and the remaining workforce would be put into the field. They would, in essence, “close that building down”, he said, referring to FBI headquarters.

“Open it up the next day as the museum to the deep state,” he added.

The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr Grenell and other former Trump administration officials who worked with Patel have praised his nomination and characterised him as a hardworking public servant.

“I have no doubt that Kash Patel will inspire our line FBI agents who want to fight crime, destroy the cartels, capture spies, and jail mobsters, thugs, fraudsters and traffickers,” Robert O’Brien, Trump’s last national security adviser, said on X.

Few, however, mentioned current FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was appointed by Trump after the then-president fired the agency’s last leader – James Comey – or that he still has three years remaining on his term.

Ultimately, it remains up to the Senate who will vote on whether Patel’s nomination will be confirmed.

While most senators have remained relatively quiet about Patel and a few Republicans have praised the pick, there is some apparent scepticism.

Senator Mike Rounds, a Republican from South Dakota, seemed to raise some doubt that he would receive the necessary votes.

“I think the president picked a very good man to be the director of the FBI when he did that in his first term,” Rounds told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

“We’ll see what his (Trump’s) process is, and whether he actually makes that nomination,” Rounds commented about Patel. “We still go through a process, and that process includes advice and consent, which, for the Senate, means advice or consent sometimes.”

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, a Democrat who will soon hand his gavel to Republicans, stressed that Trump knows Wray’s term has not yet expired and called for his colleagues to block Patel’s confirmation.

“Now, the President-elect wants to replace his own appointee with an unqualified loyalist,” Durbin said in a statement. “The Senate should reject this unprecedented effort to weaponize the FBI for the campaign of retribution that Donald Trump has promised.”

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

The first snow of winter has fallen in Sansimion, a village in Romania’s eastern Carpathian mountains.

Shepherd József Rácz and his sons keep 500 ewes up on the high pasture here. It’s a hard life: when he’s not worrying about milking his sheep, which he does three times a day, he’s worrying about protecting them from predators.

Each year, József loses five or six of his herd to a wolf, or a bear. It’s why he keeps 17 dogs.

“A good dog is the best tool a shepherd has, to protect his flock at night, and in the daytime too,” the farmer says.

This week, 45 years of strict protection for grey wolves in Europe could come to an end.

A European Commission proposal wants to move wolves from Annex II (strictly protected) to Annex III (protected) of the Bern Convention.

This would remove many of the safeguards which have allowed the animals to flourish in Europe – if wolves lose their current status, each EU country would be able to set an annual quota of wolves to kill.

The Commission argues that the number of wolves in the EU has almost doubled, from 11,000 in 2012 to over 20,000 today, and that they’re causing too much damage to livestock.

But wildlife campaigners say improved protection methods, including trained sheep dogs, would be a better solution than removing safeguards. They say that wolves keep down numbers of deer and wild boar, which damage trees and crops. Wolves also prevent the spread of diseases by eating sick animals.

In the town of Baile Tusnad, in a valley near József’s village, wildlife experts met recently to discuss large carnivores. Most, though not all, oppose the hunting of wolves and bears.

“African swine fever is spreading all over Europe,” said Michal Haring, a biologist from Slovakia, “and the wolf is a very good ‘doctor’ for this, suppressing the disease. Wolves cannot catch it.”

Another argument against shooting wolves is that they hunt in packs of five to eight, usually a pair and their offspring. If the older wolves are shot, the pack fragments, making it harder for them to catch deer and wild boar.

“Individual wolves are more likely to attack sheep and other domesticated animals,” Mr Haring explains.

Campaigners also point to a 2023 EU report, which states that only around 50,000 of Europe’s 68 million sheep and goats are killed by wolves each year – 0.065% of the total number – adding that the overall impact of wolves on EU livestock is “very small”.

Moreover, it says there have been no fatal wolf attacks on humans for 40 years.

“If we expect countries like India or Indonesia to protect their tigers,” says Laurent Schley, head of the Wildlife department in the Luxembourg government, “and Africans to protect lions and elephants, then we as relatively rich Europeans should be willing to tolerate some wolves.” Luxembourg is one of the few western European countries where no wolves have been sighted yet, Mr Schley believes it’s only a matter of time.

“We have very high densities of deer and wild boar, so the conditions for the wolf are there.

“Of course, if individual wolves or packs start killing too much livestock, or were to show aggression towards humans, we would have to draw the line. Human safety always comes first.”

But back on the mountainside, József says wolves are dangerous because “they’re clever animals”. He favours tougher legal measures to cull the predators.

Bears approach through the forest, treading on branches and alerting his dogs, József says: if they break into the wickerwork enclosure where his herd stay at night, they will only grab one animal.

If a pack of wolves get in though, they can kill dozens of sheep at a time.

Last year, József’s favourite dog, Moody, was killed by wolves, in broad daylight, as they moved from one pasture to the next. All they found was his bloodied pelt.

The more wolves there are, József says, the more likely they will take his sheep.

And it takes a long time to train a good dog.

Since Hunter Biden’s conviction on federal felony gun and tax charges over the summer, the White House has insisted that President Joe Biden had no intention of pardoning his son.

But on Sunday, the president issued a controversial sweeping pardon, saying his son had been subject to attacks from his political rivals.

Republicans have been quick to denounce the move – citing Biden’s previous pledges not to intervene on Hunter’s behalf. The move has also cast a renewed spotlight on the role of presidential pardons and the independence of the US justice system.

President-elect Donald Trump called the intervention an “abuse”, while House Oversight Committee chair James Comer accused President Biden of seeking to “avoid accountability”.

Hunter Biden pleaded guilty in two separate trials over the summer – one on federal tax charges and one of lying about his drug use on a form when buying a handgun.

In the aftermath of his conviction, the White House immediately made it clear that he could not expect a presidential pardon from his father.

In an interview with ABC in June, when asked whether he had “ruled out a pardon” for his son, Biden replied: “Yes.”

Biden also told reporters at a G7 summit in June: “I said I’d abide by the jury decision, and I will do that. And I will not pardon him.”

As recently as 7 November – just two days after Donald Trump clinched his return to the White House – Biden administration officials were still insisting that the president had no intention of pardoning his son.

• Follow live reaction to this story
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When asked in a news conference if President Biden would be tempted to help Hunter, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “We’ve been asked that question multiple times, our answer stands, which is no.”

Biden also emphasised in June that he was “satisfied” that his son had received a fair trial – in contrast to his comments on Sunday where he said Hunter had been the subject of “a miscarriage of justice”.

Presidential pardons are not rare and there have been examples of previous presidents pardoning family members.

In January 2001 – just before he left office – Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother for drug distribution convictions dating back to 1985.

And Donald Trump pardoned Charles Kushner – the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner – in December 2020 for making false statements during an investigation, witness tampering and tax evasion.

Over the weekend the president-elect appointed Charles Kushner as his nominee to be US ambassador to France, a move which has raised some eyebrows in Paris.

But Hunter Biden’s pardon differs from the previous examples in several ways – most notably that a president has never pardoned his own son before.

The length of the pardon President Biden has granted has also faced some scrutiny. Hunter Biden’s pardon covers any crimes committed by his son over an almost 11-year period from 1 January 2014 to 1 December 2024.

Jeffrey Crouch, an assistant professor of politics at American University, told the BBC that it “is highly unusual to have a presidential pardon that covers such a broad time span”.

Another distinguishing factor is that Hunter Biden has yet to be sentenced and is due to appear in court later this month. According to the US justice department it is “highly unusual” for a president to pardon someone before they are sentenced for a federal offence.

Jeffrey Crouch told the BBC that officials normally recommend a five-year waiting period before applying a pardon.

The move is not unheard of, however. For example, in 2017 Donald Trump pardoned ex-Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio – convicted of criminal contempt – before he was sentenced.

Biden has been outspoken in attacking some of the pardons his predecessor issued during his first term in office.

In 2019, Biden attacked Trump for pardoning two US army officers – one of whom had been convicted and one who was set to stand trial – for war crimes in Afghanistan.

Biden said the then-president had betrayed “the rule of law, the values that make our country exceptional and the men and women who wear the uniform honourably”.

Later, in 2020, when Trump commuted the sentence of his informal adviser Roger Stone, Biden called his rival “the most corrupt president in modern American history”.

More broadly, during his 2020 campaign, Biden accused Trump of undermining the office of the attorney general and politicising the office.

“The attorney general is not the president’s lawyer. It’s the people’s lawyer,” Biden said. “We never saw anything like the prostitution of that office like we see it today.”

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A woman from Hawaii who was reported missing in Los Angeles by her family last month was last seen by US authorities safely crossing the southern US border into Mexico, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said in an update Monday.

Hannah Kobayashi, 30, was seen on video obtained by US immigration officials crossing on foot into Mexico shortly after she landed in LA from Hawaii and deliberately missed her connecting flight to New York, officials said.

In a news conference, officials said she appeared on the video to be safe and that no foul play is suspected. They described her as a “voluntarily missing person”.

The update comes amid a massive search after her family said she sent them cryptic and bizarre messages about her money and identity being stolen.

“The investigation has not uncovered any evidence that Kobayashi is being trafficked or is the victim of foul play,” said LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell.

“She is also not a suspect in any criminal activity. Additionally, the investigators noted that before departing Maui, Kobayashi expressed the desire to step away from modern connectivity.”

“We’ve basically done everything we can do at this point,” the chief added. “She’s left the country and in another nation now.”

Ms Kobayashi has been missing since 8 November. She was spotted at several spots around LA in the following days, before vanishing on 12 November.

Her family disputes the police’s assertion that she intentionally missed her connecting flight and continue to be concerned for her safety, according to The LA Times.

“The lack of communication surrounding some important details has left us feeling excluded from potentially crucial developments,” her sister, Sydni Kobayashi, said in a statement, according to the Times.

“However, we do remain hopeful and optimistic that the Los Angeles Police Department is doing everything in their power to assist us in locating Hannah.”

On 24 November, Ms Kobayashi’s father, who had travelled to California to aid in the search, was reported by police to have taken his own life near the LA airport.

Ryan Kobayashi, 58, was found dead from multiple blunt force traumatic injuries, according to the LA coroner’s office.

Three people have died and at least 32 were hospitalised in the Philippines after eating an endangered sea turtle cooked in stew.

Dozens of indigenous Teduray people reported symptoms such as diarrhoea, vomiting and abdominal spasms since eating the dish last week in a seaside town in Maguindanao del Norte Province, officials said.

While it is illegal to hunt or consume sea turtles under the Philippines’ environmental protection laws, the marine creatures are still eaten as a traditional delicacy in some communities.

But sea turtles that consume contaminated algae – including those that appear healthy – can be toxic when cooked and eaten.

Some of the dogs, cats and chickens that were fed the same sea turtle also died, Irene Dillo, a local official, told the BBC. She added that authorities were investigating the cause of the deaths.

The sea turtle was cooked as adobo, a popular Filipino dish consisting of meat and vegetables stewed in vinegar and soy sauce.

Residents of Datu Blah Sinsuat, a coastal town known for its white, sandy beaches and clear waters, frequently get their food from the sea. “It was unfortunate because there is so much other seafood in their village – lobsters, fish,” Ms Dillo said.

Most of the residents who were hospitalised have since been discharged, local media reported, while the three who died were buried immediately – in line with local tradition.

Datu Mohamad Sinsuat Jr, a local councillor, said that he has told local officials to strictly enforce the ban on hunting sea turtles in the region, vowing “this food poisoning incident will never happen again”.

Most sea turtle species are classified as endangered, and it is illegal in the Philippines to collect, harm or kill any of them. However sea turtles are hunted in some cultures for their flesh and eggs, which are believed to contain medicinal properties.

In 2013, 68 people in Philippines’ Eastern Samar Province fell ill – and four of them died – after consuming a sea turtle found near their village.

A Belgium court has ordered the government to pay reparations to five mixed-race women who were forcibly removed from their families in the colonial-era Belgian Congo.

The women, now in their 70s, were taken from their mothers when they were young children and placed in orphanages under a state policy.

The court said the government had a “plan to systematically search for and abduct children born to a black mother and a white father”.

On Monday judges called this a crime against humanity and said the kidnappings were “an inhumane act of persecution”.

The Belgium government in 2019 issued a formal apology to an estimated 20,000 victims of forced family separations in DR Congo, as well as Burundi and Rwanda.

DR Congo was governed by Belgium as a colony from 1908 to 1960.

Monique Bitu Bingi, Léa Tavares Mujinga, Noëlle Verbeken, Simone Ngalula and Marie-José Loshi launched a legal case for compensation in 2021.

They were all taken by the state under the age of seven and placed in orphanages mainly managed by the Catholic Church.

Bitu Bingi had previously told AFP news agency: “We were destroyed. Apologies are easy, but when you do something you have to take responsibility for it.”

Their legal fight succeeded on Monday in the Brussels Court of Appeal which overturned an earlier court’s ruling which found too much time had passed for them to be eligible for reparations.

As the court ruled the state’s actions a crime against humanity, this removed any statute of limitations.

“The court orders the Belgian State to compensate the appellants for the moral damage resulting from the loss of their connection to their mother and the damage to their identity and their connection to their original environment,” the judges said.

The women had asked for an initial payment of €50,000 (£41,400).

This is the first case in Belgium to have highlighted the estimated 20,000 children born to white settlers and local black women who were forcibly removed from their families during the 1940s and 1950s.

Most white fathers refused to recognise their mixed-race children or acknowledge paternity, and the children also did not automatically receive Belgian nationality.

As such they were taken into state care and placed in Church-run orphanages, where in many cases they endured further abuse.

In 2017, the Catholic church apologised to the victims for its part in the scandal.

And in 2019, the Belgian government apologised for its involvement as part of a “step towards awareness and recognition of this part of our national history”.

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.

Migrants stranded for more than three years on the remote Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia have been brought to the UK.

The Sri Lankan Tamils are permitted to remain in the country for six months, with financial support from the Foreign Office, according to documents seen by the BBC.

Their journey to the UK marks the end of years of complex legal battles waged over thousands of miles over their fate, but their long-term future remains uncertain.

Most of the group of around 60 migrants have been living in a makeshift camp on Diego Garcia – the site of a strategic UK-US military base – since October 2021, when they became the first people ever to file asylum claims there.

On Monday, a government spokesperson described the move as a “one-off, due to the exceptional nature of these cases and in the interests of their welfare”.

“This government inherited a deeply troubling situation that remained unresolved under the last administration for years,” the spokesperson said.

Tessa Gregory of UK law firm Leigh Day, which represents some of the migrants, said it was the “only sensible solution to end the humanitarian crisis” on the island.

“This vulnerable group which includes 16 children have spent 38 months detained in the most squalid of conditions on Crown land… we hope our clients will now be able to seek safe haven and begin to rebuild their lives,” she said.

The BBC gained unprecedented access earlier this year to Diego Garcia and the migrant camp there, where the Tamils were housed in groups in military tents, some of which had leaks and rats nesting inside.

During their time on the island, there were multiple hunger strikes and numerous incidents of self-harm and suicide attempts in response to the conditions, after which some people were transferred to Rwanda for medical treatment.

There were also allegations of sexual assaults and harassment within the camp.

Migrants have told the BBC it was like living in “hell”.

Those in Rwanda are also set to arrive in the UK on Tuesday.

One told the BBC: “I hope to turn a new page. I hope my health will improve and I will transform into a new person.”

Two men with criminal convictions and another under investigation remain on the island, the BBC understands.

The Tamils’ arrival in the UK comes amid uncertainty over the future of the territory.

The UK announced in October that it was ceding control of the Chagos Islands, of which Diego Garcia is part, to Mauritius. But the new Mauritian prime minister has said he has reservations over the deal, which was struck by his predecessor and has still to be signed, and has asked for an independent review.

The deal is facing opposition from some politicians in the UK and allies of US President-elect Donald Trump.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has played down the criticism, describing it as a “good deal” for both Mauritius and the UK, and saying it addresses US concerns about the future of the Diego Garcia base.

In recent years, the territory has been costing the UK tens of millions of pounds, with the bulk of this categorised under “migrant costs”.

Communications obtained by the BBC between Foreign Office officials in July warned that “the costs are increasing and the latest forecast is that these will be £50m per annum” if they were to remain there.

In letters sent to the Tamils on Friday from the Home Office, they were told they were being granted temporary entry clearance to the UK “outside of the Immigration Rules” to allow them to consider their “long-term options”.

It stressed that the offer did not “constitute permanent settlement in the UK or recognition of refugee status by the UK government”, and said the group would not be permitted to work.

The government says the Chagos Islands, known as the British Indian Ocean Territory (Biot), are “constitutionally distinct” from the UK, with the unusual status leading to the long legal dispute.

Most of the Tamils have been awaiting final decisions on claims for international protection – which the United Nations says is akin to refugee status – or appealing against rejections.

In total, eight have been granted international protection, meaning they cannot be returned to Sri Lanka, the BBC understands.

Successive governments have previously said that bringing the Tamils to the UK would risk creating a “backdoor migration route”.

But the government said on Monday that arrangements had been made to ensure this did not happen, citing a deal to send future arrivals to St Helena – another UK territory some 5,000 miles away.

“Once a sovereignty agreement with Mauritius is fully in place they would then take responsibility for any future migrants,” the spokesperson said.

Fianna Fáil has won the most seats in the Dáil (lower house of parliament) following the Republic of Ireland’s general election.

It won 48 seats while Sinn Féin – the main opposition party in the last Dáil – won 39.

Fine Gael, which has been in coalition with Fianna Fáil since 2020, was third with 38 seats.

Those two parties seem best placed to form a new government, but Sinn Féin insists it will still be involved in the coalition talks.

Candidates fought it out for 174 seats in the Dáil, with 88 needed to secure a majority.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael combined have 86.

First preference percentage share for the largest three parties was: Fianna Fáil 21.9%, Fine Gael 20.8%, Sinn Féin 19.0%.

Turnout for the election was 59.7%, the lowest in more than a century.

Fianna Fáil’s deputy leader Jack Chambers told RTE’s Morning Ireland on Monday that he did not expect a new government to be formed before Christmas.

But he said he did not expect talks to take five months like the last time.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s junior coalition partner, the Green Party, had a disappointing election, dropping from 12 seats to just one.

To return to government, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have a number of options, including doing a deal with Labour or the Social Democrats – who each won 11 seats – or trying to strike an agreement with the right-wing party Independent Ireland, which has four seats.

Another option would be to work with a combination of some of the 16 independent politicians, two Aontú TDs (MPs) or the single TD from the 100% Redress Party.

The frontrunner to be the next taoiseach (Irish prime minister) is Fianna Fáil leader Michéal Martin.

Nothing at this stage can be ruled out as weeks, if not months, of political talks are now likely.

Labour TD Marie Sherlock said her party would not go into government with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael alone without other smaller parties.

“There is no circumstance that I can envisage that the Labour Party will be going into government with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. We can only form a basis for negotiation if we’re with other small parties,” Sherlock told RTÉ.

Eoin Ó Broin, Sinn Féin TD for Dublin Mid West, said his party was keen to talk to other “progressive parties”.

He emphasised that “no deal has been done yet”.

“Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael clearly would prefer to go in with each other, despite the cost that it’ll have for the general population but they haven’t formed a government yet,” he said.

“It’s incumbent on us to meet with other likeminded parties to see how we can ensure that those really urgent pressing issues for people, housing, healthcare, cost of living, remain at the centre of the agenda.”

Chambers, who was re-elected in the Dublin West constituency, said his party was “very clear” on its position with Sinn Féin.

“There is no common ground when it comes to substance in policy,” he added.

Speaking to the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster, he said: “We’re going to significantly increase our representation here in the capital of Dublin and indeed across the country.

“And we will have a greater level of representation in the next Dáil than we did in the last one, and that’s having served in government when we had serious economic challenges.”

Among the new TDs is Fine Gael’s Emer Currie.

The former Irish senator is a daughter of the late Northern Ireland politician Austin Currie, who co-founded the Social Democratic and Labour Party.

“He would have been absolutely delighted,” Currie told Good Morning Ulster, adding that her election was a “very special” moment for her whole family.

With her party in line to return to government, Currie said the result of the election seemed to indicate that the public was content with the status quo.

“It’s a statement that they felt that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil were working well together,” she said.

Meanwhile, Cian O’Callaghan, deputy leader of Social Democrats, said there was a “possibility of a coalition with left parties in it” but due to the results so far, a left only government would not be possible.

Callaghan has been re-elected in Dublin Bay North.

Responding to claims that the left failed to coalesce their argument before the election, O’Callaghan said: “I think every party needs to stand on their own two feet and make the case to the electorate as to why people should vote for them.

“The reason we have different parties is because there is differences and it gives people a different choice as well in the election.”

The Green Party will be “very disappointed” in their results according to Lisa Keenan, assistant professor of political science at Trinity College, Dublin.

“They were going into in this election with 12 seats, they’ve lost all but one,” she said.

“They were perceived to be lucky to hold on to that one – that’s the seat of their leader Roderic O’Gorman.

“And I think for them it’s a little bit tough to take in a sense that in government they achieved many, many important policy wins.”

Vietnamese property tycoon Truong My Lan is in a race for her life.

On Tuesday, the 68-year-old will hear the verdict in her appeal against the death sentence handed down on her in April for masterminding the world’s biggest bank fraud.

It was a rare and shocking verdict – she is one of very few women in Vietnam to be sentenced to death for a white collar crime.

However, the law in Vietnam states that if she can pay back 75% of what she took, her sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment.

In April a trial court found she had secretly controlled Saigon Commercial Bank, the country’s fifth biggest lender, and taken out loans and cash over more than 10 years through a web of shell companies, amounting to a total of $44 billion (£34.5 billion).

Of that prosecutors say $27 billion was misappropriated, and $12 billion was judged to have been embezzled, the most serious financial crime for which she was sentenced to death.

Can Truong My Lan return $9bn before she is executed?

During her trial, she was sometimes defiant, but in the recent hearings for her appeal against the sentence she has been more contrite.

She has said she was embarrassed to have been such a drain on the state, and that her only thought was to pay back what she had taken.

Born into a Sino-Vietnamese family in Ho Chi Minh City, Truong My Lan started as a market stall vendor, selling cosmetics with her mother. She began buying land and property after the Communist Party introduced economic reform in 1986. By the 1990s, she owned a large portfolio of hotels and restaurants.

When she was convicted and sentenced in April, she was the chairwoman of a prominent real estate firm, Van Thinh Phat Group. It was a dramatic moment in the “Blazing Furnaces” anti-corruption campaign led by then-Communist Party Secretary-General, Nguyen Phu Trong.

All of the remaining 85 defendants were convicted. Four were sentenced to life in jail, while the rest were given prison terms ranging from 20 years to three years suspended. Truong My Lan’s husband and niece received jail terms of nine and 17 years respectively.

The State Bank of Vietnam is believed to have spent many billions of dollars recapitalising Saigon Commercial Bank to prevent a wider banking panic. The prosecutors argued that her crimes were “huge and without precedent” and did not justify leniency.

Truong My Lan’s lawyers say she is working as fast as she can to find the $9 billion needed. But cashing in her assets is proving difficult.

Some are luxury properties in Ho Chi Minh City which could, in theory, be sold quite quickly. Others are in the form of shares or stakes in other businesses or property projects.

In all the state has identified more than a thousand different assets linked to the fraud. These have been frozen by the authorities for now. The BBC understands the tycoon has also reached out to friends to raise loans for her to help reach the target.

Her lawyers are arguing for leniency from the judges on financial grounds. They say that while she is under sentence of death it will be hard for her to negotiate the best price for selling her assets and investments, and so harder for her to raise $9 billion.

She can do much better if under a life sentence instead, they say.

“The total value of her holdings actually exceeds the required compensation amount,” lawyer Nguyen Huy Thiep told the BBC.

“However, these require time and effort to sell, as many of the assets are real estate and take time to liquidate. Truong My Lan hopes the court can create the most favourable conditions for her to continue making compensation.”

Few expect the judges to be moved by these arguments. If, as expected, they reject her appeal, Truong My Lan will in effect be in a race with the executioner to raise the funds she needs.

Vietnam treats the death penalty as a state secret. The government does not publish how many people are on death row, though human rights groups say there are more than 1,000 and that Vietnam is one of the world’s biggest executioners.

Typically there are long delays, often many years before sentences are carried out, although prisoners are given very little notice.

If Truong My Lan can recover the $9 billion before that happens, her life will most likely be spared.

The tone is dark, even angry.

“The situation is getting worse every day.”

“We don’t see the goal. Our land is not here.”

Almost four months after Ukrainian troops launched a lightning offensive into the Russian region of Kursk, text messages from soldiers fighting there paint a dismal picture of a battle they don’t properly understand and fear they might be losing.

We’ve been in contact, via Telegram, with several soldiers serving in Kursk, one of whom has recently left. We’ve agreed not to identify any of them.

None of the names in this article are real.

They speak of dire weather conditions and a chronic lack of sleep caused by Russia’s constant bombardment, which includes the use of terrifying, 3,000kg glide bombs.

They’re also in retreat, with Russian forces gradually retaking territory.

“This trend will continue,” Pavlo wrote on 26 November. “It’s only a matter of time.”

Pavlo spoke of immense fatigue, the lack of rotation and the arrival of units, made up largely of middle-aged men, brought directly from other fronts with little or no time to rest in between.

To hear soldiers complain – about their commanding officers, orders and lack of equipment – is hardly unusual. It’s what soldiers often do in difficult circumstances.

Under immense pressure from the enemy and with winter setting in, it would be surprising to hear much optimism.

But the messages we’ve received are almost uniformly bleak, suggesting that motivation is a problem.

Some questioned whether one of the operation’s initial goals – to divert Russian soldiers from Ukraine’s eastern front – had worked.

The orders now, they said, were to hang onto this small sliver of Russian territory until a new US president, with new policies, arrives in the White House at the end of January.

“The main task facing us is to hold the maximum territory until Trump’s inauguration and the start of negotiations,” Pavlo said. “In order to exchange it for something later. No-one knows what.”

Towards the end of November, President Zelensky indicated that both sides had the change of US administration in mind.

“I am sure that he [Putin] wants to push us out by 20 January,” he said.

“It is very important for him to demonstrate that he controls the situation. But he does not control the situation.”

In an effort to help Ukraine thwart Russian counterattacks in Kursk, the US, UK and France have all permitted Kyiv to use long-range weapons on targets inside Russia.

It doesn’t seem to have done much to lift spirits.

“No-one sits in a cold trench and prays for missiles,” Pavlo said.

“We live and fight here and now. And missiles fly somewhere else.”

Atacms and Storm Shadow missiles may have been used to powerful, even devastating, effect on distant command posts and ammunition dumps, but such successes seem remote to soldiers on the front lines.

“We don’t talk about missiles,” Myroslav said. “In the bunkers we talk about family and rotation. About simple things.”

For Ukraine, Russia’s slow, grinding advance in eastern Ukraine underlines the necessity of clinging on in Kursk.

In October alone, Russia was able to occupy an estimated 500 sq km of Ukrainian territory, the most it’s taken since the early days of the full-scale invasion in 2022.

By contrast, Ukraine has already lost around 40% of the territory it seized in Kursk in August.

“The key is not to capture but to hold,” Vadym said, “and we’re struggling a bit with that.”

Despite the losses, Vadym thinks the Kursk campaign is still vital.

“It did manage to divert some [Russian] forces from the Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions,” he said.

But some of the soldiers we spoke to said they felt they were in the wrong place, that it was more important to be on Ukraine’s eastern front, rather than occupying part of Russia.

“Our place should have been there [in eastern Ukraine], not here in someone else’s land,” Pavlo said. “We don’t need these Kursk forests, in which we left so many comrades.”

And despite weeks of reports suggesting that as many as 10,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Kursk to join the Russian counter-offensive, the soldiers we’ve been in contact have yet to encounter them.

“I haven’t seen or heard anything about Koreans, alive or dead,” Vadym responded when we asked about the reports.

The Ukrainian military has released recordings which it says are intercepts of North Korean radio communications.

Soldiers said they had been told to capture at least one North Korean prisoner, preferably with documents.

They spoke of rewards – drones or extra leave – being offered to anyone who successfully captures a North Korean soldier.

“It’s very difficult to find a Korean in the dark Kursk forest,” Pavlo noted sarcastically. “Especially if he’s not here.”

Veterans of previous doomed operations see parallels in what’s happening in Kursk.

From October 2023 until July this year, Ukrainian forces attempted to hold onto a tiny bridgehead at Krynky, on the left bank of the Dnipro River, some 25 miles (40km) upstream from the liberated city of Kherson.

The bridgehead, initially intended as a possible springboard for advances further into Russian-held territory in southern Ukraine, was eventually lost.

The operation was hugely costly. As many as 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers are thought to have been killed or gone missing.

Some came to see it as a stunt, designed to distract attention from the lack of progress elsewhere.

They fear something similar might be happening in Kursk.

“Good idea but bad implementation,” says Myroslav, a marine officer who served in Krynky and is now in Kursk.

“Media effect, but no military result.”

Military analysts insist that for all the hardship, the Kursk campaign continues to play an important role.

“It’s the only area where we maintain the initiative,” Serhiy Kuzan, of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre, told me.

He acknowledged that Ukrainian forces were experiencing “incredibly difficult conditions” in Kursk, but said Russia was devoting vast resources to ejecting them – resources which it would prefer to be using elsewhere.

“The longer we can hold this Kursk front – with adequate equipment, artillery, Himars and of course long-range weapons to strike their rear – the better,” he said.

In Kyiv, the senior commanders stand by the Kursk operation, arguing that it’s still reaping military and political rewards.

“This situation annoys Putin,” one said recently, on condition of anonymity. “He is suffering heavy losses there.”

As for how long Ukrainian troops would be able to hold out in Kursk, the answer was straightforward.

“As long as it is feasible from the military point of view.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s record-breaking $56bn (£47bn) pay award will not be reinstated, a judge has ruled.

The decision in the Delaware court comes after months of legal wrangling and despite it being approved by shareholders and directors in the summer.

Judge Kathaleen McCormick upheld her previous decision from January, in which she argued that board members were too heavily influenced by Mr Musk.

Reacting to the ruling, Mr Musk wrote on X: “[S]hareholders should control company votes, not judges.”

Tesla vowed to appeal the ruling, saying the decision was “wrong”.

“This ruling, if not overturned, means that judges and plaintiffs’ lawyers run Delaware companies rather than their rightful owners – the shareholders,” the company said in a post on X.

Judge McCormick said the pay package would have been the largest ever for the boss of a listed company.

Tesla failed to prove the pay package, which dates back to 2018, was fair, she said.

A shareholder vote on the payment passed by 75% in June, but the judge did not agree the pay should be so large despite what she called Tesla’s lawyers’ “creative” arguments.

“Even if a stockholder vote could have a ratifying effect, it could not do so here,” she wrote in her opinion.

The judge also ruled the Tesla shareholder who brought the case against Tesla and Mr Musk should receive $345m in fees but not the $5.6bn in Tesla shares they asked for.

Some observers said a ruling in favour of Mr Musk and Tesla would have dealt a blow to conflict of interest laws in Delaware.

“The idea of conflict rules is to protect all investors” not just minority investors, said Charles Elson of the University of Delaware’s Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance.

Mr Elson said Judge McCormick’s opinion was well-reasoned.

“You had a board that wasn’t independent, a process that was dominated by the CEO, and a package that was way out of any sort of reasonable bounds,” he said. “It’s quite a combo.”

Mr Elson said he expects Tesla might try to reconstitute a similar pay package in Texas where the company moved its legal base earlier this year after the pay ruling.

Luxury car maker Jaguar has unveiled its new electric concept car, just days after the release of a teaser video that stirred online controversy.

The unveiling of the Type 00 car was met by mixed responses from social media users, with some cheering its design, while others mocked the launch.

Last month, many critics pointed out that the promotional video teasing the new car model’s launch did not feature an actual car – but the firm was also praised by some for being bold and shaking things up.

The car maker, which is embarking on the biggest change in its history, released a new logo and a so-called “social media tease“, ahead of its relaunch as an electric-only brand.

During the Type 00 event in Miami on Monday, the UK-based company’s chief creative officer, Gerry McGovern, said he welcomed the attention Jaguar’s new direction had been getting.

“It has already stirred emotions and it will continue to,” he said.

“Jaguar has no desire to be loved by everybody.”

Replies on Jaguar’s social media posts about the car ranged from “Go back to the drawing board” and “hopefully this doesn’t actually come out” to “Exciting” and “Absolutely stunning”.

Car industry analyst Karl Brauer was sceptical about the rebranding.

The company seems to be “sacrificing Jaguar’s past to the hopes of a better future,” he told the BBC. “I don’t think it’s going to work”.

Last month, the company urged people to “trust and reserve judgement” over the rebrand of the 102-year-old business.

Earlier in November, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) stopped selling new Jaguar cars in the UK ahead of a relaunch as an electric-only brand in 2026.

The firm said it was a deliberate move to “create some breathing space” before launching the new brand this month.

The firm announced the transition to electric vehicles in 2021, keeping all three of its three British plants open as part of the strategy.

Jaguar has been the weakest link within the JLR group, which has been owned by Tata Motors for almost a decade.

The Range Rover and Defender were behind the company’s highest profits since 2015, which were announced earlier this year.

The woman who flew as a stowaway from New York to Paris has been identified as 57-year-old Svetlana Dali.

She remains in France after allegedly causing a disturbance on a return flight to the US.

Ms Dali, whose identity was confirmed by CBS, boarded a Delta Airlines flight last week from New York’s JFK airport to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris without a boarding pass.

She was taken into custody upon arrival in France.

French National Police said the woman is of Russian nationality and was refused entry to France because she had no visa. She has not been charged.

Ms Dali was able to get through an advanced imaging technology body scanner at JFK airport, and dodge document and ID checks during the security process.

In a statement provided to BBC’s news partner CBS, a TSA spokesperson confirmed that “an individual without a boarding pass was physically screened without any prohibited items. The individual bypassed two identity verification and boarding status stations and boarded the aircraft.”

But it remains unclear how she was able to get through and board the plane.

“Nothing is of greater importance than matters of safety and security,” Delta said in a statement. “That’s why Delta is conducting an exhaustive investigation of what may have occurred and will work collaboratively with other aviation stakeholders and law enforcement to that end.”

The Guardian reported that once on board, Ms Dali moved from one bathroom to another and never took a seat – until flight attendants began to notice.

A social media video posted by a passenger shows the moment a captain explained to the plane that officials were coming to remove the woman.

“Folks, this is the captain, we are just waiting for the police to come on board,” he said in the video. “They may be here now and they directed us to keep everyone on the airplane until we sort out the extra passenger that’s on the plane.”

A man on the flight shared mobile phone video with CNN of the woman, who remains in France, allegedly making a disturbance on another flight that was set to return her to New York.

He said she repeated: “I do not want to go back to the USA. Only a judge can make me go back to the USA”.

BBC has not independently verified the videos and it is unclear what the woman meant.

The White House has defended President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter, after repeatedly insisting he had no plans to grant such executive clemency.

The press secretary said Biden had pardoned his son, who was facing sentencing later this month in two federal cases, to shield him from potential persecution by the outgoing president’s political foes.

The sweeping pardon covers any potential federal crimes that 54-year-old Hunter may have committed over the course of a decade.

Republicans have lambasted the move, with President-elect Donald Trump calling it “an abuse and miscarriage of justice”.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday that Biden had “wrestled” over the decision during the family’s Thanksgiving break on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, at the weekend.

The Democratic president issued the pardon on Sunday evening before heading off on an official trip to Africa.

Ms Jean-Pierre told reporters on Air Force One en route to Angola: “He believes in the justice system, but he also believes that the raw politics infected the process and led to a miscarriage of justice.”

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Ms Jean-Pierre said Biden believed Hunter was “singled out” because of who he is and that “they [the president’s opponents] would continue to go after his son”.

“This is why the president took this action,” she added. As recently as last month, Ms Jean-Pierre was still telling reporters that Biden would not pardon his son.

In June, Hunter Biden became the first child of a sitting US president to be criminally convicted after a jury in Delaware found him guilty of three charges for lying about his drug use on a form when buying a handgun.

In September, he also pleaded guilty to federal tax charges that included failure to file and pay his taxes, tax evasion and filing a false return.

The pardon – which covers any potential federal crimes that he may have committed between January 2014 and December 2024 – spans a period beyond the tax and gun offences.

It dates back to the year in which he became a board member at Ukrainian energy company Burisma – a time when his father, then US vice-president, had a key role in American policy towards Kyiv.

A congressional inquiry this summer accused Biden of lying when he disavowed any involvement in his son’s business dealings, though the impeachment effort by Republican lawmakers fizzled. Biden denied wrongdoing.

The special counsel overseeing both cases, David Weiss, has flatly rejected claims that the younger Biden was singled out because of his family background.

“There was none and never has been any evidence of vindictive or selective prosecution in this case,” Mr Weiss’ team wrote in a court filing on Monday.

US First Lady Jill Biden said on Monday from the White House: “Of course I support the pardon of my son.”

The president’s decision sparked furious reaction from Trump and other top Republicans, who have long accused the Biden administration of “weaponising” the justice department against their enemies.

House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said that “trust in our justice system has almost been irreparably damaged by the Bidens and abuse of it”.

House oversight committee chairman James Comer said Biden had “lied from start to finish about his family’s corrupt influence peddling activities”.

Criticism from Democrats – who have regularly accused Trump of disregarding the rule of law – was more muted.

“President Biden’s decision put personal interest ahead of duty and further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all,” Colorado Senator Michael Bennet posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Congressman Greg Stanton, an Arizona Democrat, rejected Biden’s claim that the case was unfair.

“This wasn’t a politically motivated prosecution,” he said. “Hunter committed felonies and was convicted by a jury of his peers.”

Others defended the president.

Among them was Texas Democrat – and former defence lawyer – Jasmine Crockett, who told BBC Newshour that she believes that “we would be hard pressed” to find prosecutions similar to the younger Biden’s across the US.

“Let me be clear – this is a father and a president who did not only what was right by his son, but also did right to basically correct what I would consider a wrong,” she said.

Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, told the BBC that he believed Biden had misled the American people.

“President Biden was disingenuous this entire time when he said that he would not pardon his son,” Mr Rahmani said.

“A pardon was the plan from the beginning, but President Biden misled the American people because he, then Kamala Harris, were in the middle of an election.”

When he takes office in January, Trump will not be able to rescind his predecessor’s pardon, said Mr Rahmani.

The president’s power to pardon people is “absolute”, he said.

“There is nothing Donald Trump or the Republicans can do to stop it,” Mr Rahmani added.

A man wanted over one of Australia’s most infamous cold cases, dubbed the Easey Street murders, is on his way back to the country after being extradited from Italy.

Suzanne Armstrong, 27, and Susan Bartlett, 28, were stabbed to death in their Melbourne house in 1977, in a case which has gripped the nation ever since.

Police said suspect Perry Kouroumblis, 65, only became the focus of their investigation in recent years after DNA testing breakthroughs.

Mr Kouroumblis – who has not been charged and maintains his innocence – was detained in Italy in September. He is due to arrive in Australia late on Tuesday.

Mr Kouroumblis first came to police attention the week after the murders, when the then 17-year-old said he had found a bloodied knife near the scene in Easey Street, Collingwood, an inner-city suburb.

The bodies of the high school friends were discovered three days after they were last seen alive. Ms Armstrong’s one-year-old son was also found in the home, unharmed in his cot.

Both women had been stabbed more than a dozen times and Ms Armstrong had been sexually assaulted, police say.

The case has long drawn huge interest – becoming the subject of major police appeals, true crime books and a hit podcast. In 2017 Victoria Police offered a A$1m (£511,800, $647,600) reward for information.

Commissioner Shane Patton described the murders as “an absolutely gruesome, horrific, frenzied homicide” when announcing the arrest of Mr Kouroumblis – a dual Greek-Australian citizen – in Rome in September.

“This was a crime that struck at the heart of our community – two women in their own home, where they should have felt their safest,” he said.

Police had issued an Interpol red notice for Mr Kouroumblis on two charges of murder and one of rape, after he left Australia about seven years ago.

But he was not able to be arrested in Greece, where he had been living, as the country’s law requires murder charges to be laid within 20 years of an alleged crime.

At the time of Mr Kouroumblis’s arrest, the women’s families released a statement, saying their lives had been changed “irrevocably” by the murders.

“For two quiet families from country Victoria it has always been impossible to comprehend the needless and violent manner in which Suzanne and Susan died,” the statement read.

Addressing police, they said: “For always giving us hope and never giving up, we simply say, thank you.”

Night after night, Georgians have filled the broad central avenue that runs past parliament, in such great numbers there is barely space to move, on the road or the pavement either side.

They come to Rustaveli Avenue draped in flags, the blue and gold of the EU and the red and white of the George Cross, and accuse their increasingly authoritarian government of ditching their European future for a return to the sphere of their Russian neighbour.

The ruling party, Georgian Dream, fervently denies any link to the Kremlin, but its actions in recent days have raised big questions about this country’s future with the West.

Not only has the party presided over a bitter fallout with the EU, it has just seen the US suspend Georgia’s hard-won strategic partnership too.

In a country of only 3.7 million people, these are dangerous as well as momentous times. One Georgian Dream supporter spoke of his country sitting at the edge of an abyss.

Through the night, whistles and the honk of vuvuzelas are occasionally punctuated by the crackle of protesters’ fireworks aimed at the imposing parliament building and the riot police standing guard with water cannon and tear gas.

For the first four nights, police waited until towards dawn before moving in to reclaim the street by force. But on Monday night they advanced far earlier, pushing protesters elsewhere.

Police have counted more than 100 injuries among their own force, while protesters in detention have endured beatings and serious facial and head injuries, according to lawyers, and dozens of TV reporters have come under attack.

“The scale of people being hunted down and beaten individually, so they have to be treated in clinics, has never been seen before here,” says Lasha Dzebisashvili, professor of politics at the University of Georgia.

Georgia’s public rights defender, Levan Ioseliani, says police have engaged in “brutality” and abused their authority with impunity. Government supporters argue police have come under intolerable attack from stones and fireworks.

It is a constitutional crisis with no obvious way out, unless one side blinks first. Will the government back down, or the protests fizzle out under pressure from police?

“No negotiations,” says Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, claiming without foundation that the protests are funded from abroad.

One couple say they will turn out every night in December until Georgian Dream changes tack and calls fresh elections, to erase a vote just over a month ago marred by a string of violations ranging from bribery to multiple voting.

Both sides accuse the other of lacking legitimacy.

The protesters, spurred on by a figurehead pro-Western president and four opposition groups, say the government is illegitimate; the opposition won’t enter parliament because of the “falsified elections”.

The ruling party, Georgian Dream, says it won the vote fair and square and insists it’s the largely ceremonial president, Salome Zourabichvili, who has no legitimacy. Her time in office is almost up, so why is it she is the one who plans to stay on to maintain stability, it asks.

All the while neighbouring Russia trains a close eye, comparing events to Ukraine’s “Maidan”, when its unpopular president was ousted by pro-EU protesters in February 2014 and Russian troops and their proxies moved in to seize parts of the country.

“We’re losing our country,” says Nika Gvaramia, an opposition leader from the alliance Coalition for Change, and Georgians are facing a stark choice between either a European Georgia or Russia.

As he speaks, the protests are in full swing around the corner from his party HQ, and colleagues point to a CCTV video from inside their lobby a few days ago, showing a protester being beaten by police.

“We’re shaking this government. The rallies will go on for as long as needed. We have no other option. It’s a liberation fight. We know who we’re fighting with, and that’s Russia.”

The words “No to Russia” were daubed in big black graffiti on the front of the parliament building over the weekend and you can find the same kind of message on walls all over Tbilisi in varying degrees of bluntness.

It is also a message that carries different meanings here.

Georgian Dream’s highly controversial laws targeting civil society and LGBT groups this year have been branded Russian-style as well as anti-democratic.

The president has spoken of Georgian Dream’s election win as a Russian special operation, and there was an outcry afterwards when it emerged that a Russian called Alexander Malkevich who had set up a propaganda network in occupied eastern Ukraine had been given accreditation to cover the vote.

But none of that proves Russian interference, even if the billionaire driving force behind the party, Bidzina Ivanishvili, made his money in banking and steel in Russia, and critics believe he must still have contacts there.

A high-ranking Georgian Dream figure told the BBC back in October that Georgia had said no to Moscow a long time ago and that the “Russia card” was being used by the opposition to attack her party.

“Knowing a little bit of Georgian history… no government would be that stupid to start thinking about that,” said Maka Bochorishvili. Russia did fight a war with Georgia only 16 years ago.

She has since become Georgia’s foreign minister, the new face of this country’s diplomacy.

The crunch moment for Georgia and its relationship with the West came last Thursday, when the prime minister declared that the government had “decided not to put the issue of opening negotiations with the European Union” on the agenda for the next four years.

Within hours, Russia’s Vladimir Putin had seized on his comments.

“I admired their courage and character, which they showed when defending their point of view,” he said, stressing that Russia had no direct relationship with Tbilisi.

Kobakhidze has even used the same kind of language as the Kremlin, accusing the opposition of planning a Ukraine-style “Maidan” revolution.

However, his point was that Georgian police would ensure it did not happen.

Thomas de Waal, a Caucasus specialist at Carnegie Europe, believes it’s a mistake to see any kind of close friendship with Russia.

“It’s a business relationship – there’s no diplomatic relationship. Things are going on behind the scenes but they’re more afraid of Russia than wanting to join Russia.”

Whatever the extent of contacts, Moscow is bound to prefer Georgian Dream, who have within a short period trashed Georgia’s links with the EU and US, to a passionately pro-Western opposition.

The nightly protests show no sign yet of abating, despite temperatures falling close to freezing, and there is no indication yet of a resolution.

Georgia has seen protests before, but not like this, says Lasha Dzebisashvili. Public servants from all walks of life have signed letters and petitions, and several ambassadors have resigned, including Georgia’s ambassador to the US, a clear blow for the ruling party.

The long stretch of Rustaveli Avenue is where this story will play out in front of parliament in Tbilisi, but the protests are being felt in other towns and cities too, including Batumi and Poti on the Black Sea, Zugdidi in the north-west and Kutaisi.

On Sunday night, a large crowd of protesters formed outside the public broadcaster, demanding that the president be given airtime rather than the usual pro-government fare.

It didn’t happen and gradually the protesters marched towards the centre of the capital, halting the traffic and chanting “Georgia, Georgia”.

Nika Gvaramia and his fellow opposition leaders believe the clear way out is for free and fair elections, not under the existing election commission but under the auspices of the EU and US: “If Georgian Dream is sure they won the elections, let’s go with new ones.”

That seems highly unlikely as it would require an implicit admission that the original vote was unfair.

GD supporter and university lecturer Levan Gigineishvili believes they just need to hold out for a new president in the US: “I think a great way out of this will be [Donald] Trump coming to power and then everything will change.”

But 20 January is a long way ahead and this small state in the Caucasus will not be top of his agenda. And Georgia’s business sector for one will not be happy with a continuing stalemate or with the government doing lasting damage to ties with the West.

Israel said it struck targets in Lebanon on Monday evening after vowing to retaliate for an attack by Hezbollah on a military post, with both sides accusing each other of violating last week’s ceasefire.

At least nine people were killed by Israeli strikes on two southern Lebanese villages, according to the country’s public health ministry.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck Hezbollah targets and infrastructure “throughout Lebanon”, while reiterating its commitment to the ceasefire agreement.

Hezbollah said it was responding to Israeli “violations” and said it carried out a “defensive warning” strike, firing mortars at an Israeli army position in an area occupied by Israel.

Israel said there were no injuries in Hezbollah’s strikes on the Mount Dov area – a disputed region on the Israel-Lebanon border known internationally as Shebaa Farms.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the Hezbollah attack as “a severe violation of the ceasefire”, vowing that Israel would “respond forcefully”.

When the ceasefire deal was first announced, Netanyahu said his country would not hesitate to strike if Hezbollah broke the terms.

Monday’s violence is an indication of the fragility of the recently agreed truce, aimed at ending 13 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Last week, the US and France said the agreement would “cease the fighting in Lebanon, and secure Israel from the threat of Hezbollah and other terrorist organisations operating from Lebanon”.

Hezbollah has been given 60 days to end its armed presence in southern Lebanon while Israeli forces must withdraw from the area over the same period.

Forty years ago, an Indian city became the site of one of the world’s worst industrial disasters.

On the night of 2 December, 1984, a poisonous gas leaked from Union Carbide India’s pesticide plant in Bhopal, enveloping the central Indian city in a deadly fog which killed thousands and poisoned about half-a-million people.

According to government estimates, around 3,500 people died within days of the gas leak and more than 15,000 in the years since. But activists say that the death toll is much higher, and that victims continue to suffer from the side-effects of being poisoned.

In 2010, an Indian court convicted seven former managers at the plant, handing down minor fines and brief prison sentences. But many victims and campaigners say that justice has still not been served, given the magnitude of the tragedy.

Union Carbide was a US company which Dow Chemicals bought in 1999.